Stone Men In Water Street

[Brian]

You are in the mine.

It is dark.

You have a lamp, though it is dim, and takes your eyes some time to adjust to the change in light-level.  The floor is hard-packed dirt without any footprints showing in it.  It's worth mentioning that the rails here are much less rusted, and only covered by a very thin layer of dust.  Given that the place looks to have been abandoned decades ago, that's somewhat surprising.

After a few steps in, you find out why, however.  There's a distant (if hushed) groan, and you can feel cold, heavy air flow across the bottom of the mine-shaft, rushing past you and into the darkness.

Behind you, the entrance is a square of welcoming brightness and daylight.  Ahead of you is nothing more than the vanishing tails of tiny indoor dust-devils, and shiny rails leading into the unknown.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn moves cautiously deeper into the depths of the mine, straining all his senses and moving slowly.

[Brian]

Your senses honed into a fine-tuned machine of awareness, you creep cautiously forward, the lamp held to one side, and slightly behind you to avoid blinding you with the glare.  Your eyes adjust to the darkness, and you can see about 10 meters in any direction clearly.

The mine continues, unbranching, until you're a good 50 yards in.  Now the welcoming patch of sunlight looks terribly distant, you can see (though not lit) lanterns hanging on the walls.  It looks like someone recently replaced them, or the glass on them.  They may or may not have fuel in them, but hang every ten yards apart.

At this point, the mineshaft curves sharply to the left, the right being an ancient cave-in and pile of rubble.  You think you can see light ahead somewhere, and hear a distant, sibilant whisper.

[Bjorn]

Not like I can be very sneaking carrying around a latern, anways.  "Victor?"  Bjorn asks, not shouting.  The walls look stable, but....

Without waiting for a response, he heads down the left passage, though still moving cautiously.

[Brian]

As you round the corner, the sound becomes clearer, and you realize that you are seeing light ahead of you.  It's reflecting off of a wall, and allowing you to see that there's an area where the tunnel takes a sharp zig back towards the outside of the mountain before (presumably) zagging back into the depths.

The whispering is more clearly singing, though you can't quite make out the words or the melody yet.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn looks around, trying to determine where the light is coming from -- and, possibly, what sort of light it is.  Sunlight?  Lamplight?

[Brian]

It's dim, and flicktering.  Probably lamplight.  From a fire, at any rate.  It's still only reflected light from ahead of you, though, so hard to be certain.

[Bjorn]

Before continuing further down the mineshaft, Bjorn draws Shinmyouken, holding it in his right hand with the lantern in the left.  Better safe than sorry.  Of course, "safe" is back in the village.  Jesus.

[Brian]

After rounding the corner (slowly, gingerly, carefully) you come into view of:

Victor, reclining on a rock-pile, lookin up at the cieling with unfocused eyes.  A lantern hangs nearby, lit, and shedding light across the area.  Victor is distractedly singing, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine," and looking very bored.

He stops when you approach, and then makes a vague gesture towards you, launching into a new verse.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn squats where he is, waiting patiently for Victor to finish his song.

[Brian]

After the next verse, he sighs.  "Still light out, I imagine?" he asks.  "I don't calculate any convenient eclipses for some time."

[Bjorn]

"Afraid so," Bjorn replies.  "Feel like doing a little exploring to pass the time?  In talking to Lazarus, it turns out the weather has been significantly and disturbingly nicer here than it has been anywhere else around the village, since shortly after they showed up.  Makes me a little suspicious."

[Brian]

"The weather, hmm?" Victor noises, climbing to his feet.  "As long as 'exploring' means 'deeper into the mines', and not 'out into the sun', I've got not problems with that."  He furrows his brow in thought, and extinguishes his lantern, leaving only yours to provide light.  "Well, I had noticed it didn't seem as cold last night.  Being a mountain, deep winter, and ... the other forces playing about, cold would be expected.  I'll have to consult with the others to find out what the initial temperature was when they arrived."

Victor dusts some dirt from his clothes, and squints, peering deeper into the mine.  "I used to be a scientist," he confides.  "Long, long ago.  Hmm.  Will Nathan not be joining us?"

[Bjorn]

"Deeper was the plan," Bjorn says agreeably, rising in turn.  "Since the others wouldn't have explored this place very much, seemed like the best place to start.

"Nathan was busy working on setting up a connection for the Oracle in the village.  Let's see if he's done...."

Bjorn quickly scrawls on Nathan's portion of the mindboard, Hey.  It's Bjorn.  You done with the tech-talk and talking to Lazarus?  Victor and I are going to explore the mine a little.  The weather's not natural, as you might have noticed, and Relm doesn't have a clue.  Figured we might as well look around.

[Rezantis]

The Nathan jumps visibly, not that Bjorn's around for it to be visible . . . er . . . yeah.

"The mine? Sure, I guess. Not that I'd noticed anything weird about the weather, but I don't know what normal is around here . . . I gave them a rough idea of what-to-do, so once Relm manages to ship some stuff out here they'll probably be fine.  I'll be right down.  Anything you want me to bring?"