Gainful Employment starts with YOU.

[Bjorn]

Studying the area with Mystic Sight, Cadfael asks, "Died how?"

[Carthrat]

"There were many ways," says Melba, shaking his head. "Some were burned to death. Others emerged, afflicited with poisons and diseases that we could not find a cure for. Some simply entered and never came out."

[Bjorn]

There's a certain lack of possible responses to that.  Lacking a generic Rune of Prevention of Cursed Death, Cadfael pulls out the notepad covered in almost-finished protective runes, and starts heading towards the cavern entrance.

[Carthrat]

OOC: Man, three days. I feel so crap. -_-

Melba follows Cadfael into the tunnel. "This early part we excavated months ago," he says. "The actual traps are a little further in."

The cave quickly opens out, and soon your feet are walking on sculpted stone bricks in the ground. Scaffolding keeps the cave walls up here- there are lightstands placed around to provide vision, as the light from the sun is mostly blocked out by this point. As you progress, more and more of the ground is made of these stone bricks instead of dirt, and you notice that to the sides, there are crumbled remains of stone walls.

"This place used to be a courtyard to to a temple, or some such," says Melba. "A short way from here is a stone arch that leads into the temple chambers proper.

At least, as far as we can tell. The archway is where we're stuck."

[Bjorn]

"History?"

[Carthrat]

"Of this area?" asks Melba, who then continues; "We're not really sure. Some people are saying that as these ruins are so similar to those of ancient Greece and Rome, that this must show that those nations reached America at some point.

But this doesn't check out. The site is too far inland; why have there been no other ruins found elsewhere, anyway? There are many theories, and little proof."

[Bjorn]

Without saying anything else, or even looking at his companion, Cadfael heads toward the arch.

[Carthrat]

When Cadfael reaches the archway, he sees that it is set in stone. It's more simply an open space in the shape of an arch that leads into a large chamber. There are runes on every stone brick of the  timeworn arch, and with a moments inspection, Cadfael realises that some of the runes are strengthening and enforcing runes- likely used to enhance the walls of this place, so that drilling in or destroying them would be nigh-impossible. He notes how similar the rune structure is to his own; while he has never designed this sort of enforcing rune before, it's not something that's beyond him.

The other runes, however, are more difficult to discern. The rune structure isn't anything Cadfael is very familiar with, but the runes are more built off edges, lines, and squares. The system isn't obvious to him- it would require some study.

Mystic Sight, naturally, does not discern the purpose of the runes by itself. However, Cadfael does notice one thing- there is a standard spell on the arch. It appears that if anyone passes through, a message will be automatically sent. To where exactly, however, he can't determine.

[Bjorn]

A vague thought crosses Cadfael's mind that it might be appropriate to share his revelations, but it's hard to give much credence to that theory.  

Instead, he simply stands there and stares at the complicated runes, unblinking.  One of the skills picked up (carefully instilled) over his life is the ability to learn, deduce, and reason without using paper or speaking aloud.  In utter silence, and without movement, he starts working on a theory that would explain the runes.

[Carthrat]

The runes are traps- Cadfael can easily determine that much. He can see that they work with the physical world and not a mystic or a mental one, so if triggered, there will be quite visible effects for him to see.

The inherent problem is that the runes can't power themselves. They need to be activated by some other source, and this implies that someone or something is around and willing to do that. It's not a far stretch of the imagination to look at the messaging spell, and consider that it somehow sets off the runes by itself.

The details of the runes themselves are very strange, Cadfael's existing knowledge aside. These runes are directly geared to harm people, obviously, but Cadfael can't tell exactly how. Poison? Fire? Without activating them, there's no real way to guess.

Also, because Cadfael has been inspecting for some time, he can detect some faint magical residue from this area, as if spells have been cast here repeatedly before. Clearly, the runes have repeatable surges or renew themselves, somehow.

[Bjorn]

This is deeply fascinating to Cadfael.  None of the rune theory he knows has been able to explain why it is that runes fail after being powered once; before him is the counter-example.  Runes that didn't have to be redrawn before each usage... An extension of linear theory?  Shouldn't be stable over distances long enough to interface sufficient power.  How do they compensate for the decay?  Perhaps the repeated wave motif is an amplifier....

The portion of Cadfael's mind devoted to runecraft (a very large chunk) falls into a quiet murmur of non-stop speculation, freeing the rest of his attention for the more immediate problem of contract resolution.  "What do you want?" he asks Melba, without looking away from the arch.

[Carthrat]

"To get our people through without killing them," replies Melba, blinking.