Session 17: The Hole

The group awaken inside the Manzanita train station at the edge of the Tall Trees forest and heading towards the mountains, following the magic trails there on their quest to help the town of Blackwater and to gain passage north towards Strawberry. Aggie drags Elisen out in a search for eggs for breakfast, giving some to the station clerk as well in a gesture of thanks.

They set off up through Tall Trees and slowly making their way up the mountain. On the way, they passed broken and ruined houses that had stood until recently. They each had to climb up a steep rocky ledge, which everyone had different levels of difficulty achieving. One of the houses up the mountain stood in a better state of repair than the others, but it too was abandoned like the rest. Inside, the group found several small items and also a handwritten note. The note was signed as written by one Archie Goodwin, and the note itself warned people to run far away from this place.

The group set up a small camp inside this house as a form of shelter, and various group members set about searching the surrounding areas and within the house. Abe went searching through the closets, looking for clothing that would fit his now-shorter physical stature or anything he could alter to fit. Aggie and Elisen went to search a nearby barn, and inside they found something most curious: a huge hole that led straight down into the earth. When they returned to the house, Aggie joined in Abe's search through the closets for more clothes, especially since the weather was frigid. A storm approached, and so the company spent the night inside the boarded-up cabin to keep their strength and wait out the cold.

In the morning, it was discovered that Pegu had gone missing. Abe, Billy, and Elisen went searching for the horse, but while they were able to recover the horse Abe managed to get lost instead. Eventually they found him, and discovered that he had been ensnared by an old hunting trap.

Reconvening once more, they secured the horses properly near the house and made their way into the barn and prepared to try and go down the hole. At the hole, Terra revealed that she would be able to summon large eagles that could fly the company down the hole, an offer the group took up readily. They reached the bottom of the hole and revealed a large cavern and a tunnel that led into the mountain. The tunnel had a rocky floor that matched the texture of the earth elementals.

The group tied themselves together for safety and carefully made their way through the dark tunnel. Some of the company almost fell into a gap in the floor of the tunnel but were saved by some quick thinking and lucky catches of rope. As they continued down the tunnel and through additional holes in the floor, flowing cracks began to appear on the walls of the hole, and finally providing some light within the deep, dark hole. The temperature also began to rise, and the tunnel went from cold to swelteringly hot.

The tunnel eventually opened up to a large cavern, with glowing cracks still lining the walls and an excessive amount of heat. The walls of the cavern were made of rock, and in the room were large piles of books on every possible topic. The adventurers were able to find another written note, though this one distinctly different from the last. It was scrawled in messy, barely-legible writing, and as far as was possible it seemed to say something about "friends".

While investigating one of the book piles, Elisen accidentally caused a book slide. As the book pile toppled, the whole room began to shake and quiver. Aggie, Elisen, and Billy were knocked over as the whole room began to tilt to the side - *moving*.

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