Blant chan Chyfrwyster Gweithiwr

[PhaedrusXY]

What do you two make of these "torches"? Any idea how these worked? They don't look like they actually burned.

[veekie]

"Unclear, but an active sample would facilitate investigations. Lorag, signs of magic?" Ferrus reached for one of the torch holders, attempting to retrieve one of the lumps.

[Stratovarius]

The lump lies dead in their hands, but faint traces of evocation magic spin outwards, marking the last remains of the spell once entangled therein.

[Prime32]

Evocation-type magic. Most likely a continual flame spell.

Seeing little point in examining such a mundane use of magic, Lorag proceeds further into the cavern.

[PhaedrusXY]

How long would it take for an effect like that to wear off? Or did the material that was enchanted just grow too old to hold the enchantment anymore?

[Prime32]

Lorag stops and walks to one of the torches, weighing its contents in its hand.
The latter, most likely. A substance in this state would be an odd medium to enchant. Or perhaps this effect is related to the river...

He stares, lost in thought, for a few moments, then continues into the cavern.

[Stratovarius]

Plants grow in wild profusion across the floor, a legacy of the farming that once took place in the furrowed rows. The cavern is vast and deep, and the river cuts through the middle, bridged by stone walkways, some wide enough for carts, others simply for a single person. Here and there, small buildings dot the landscape, likely once storage huts. Along one side of the cavern, there lies a row of doors and what appear to be windows, perhaps the homes of those who once worked the underground fields.

[PhaedrusXY]

So.... how did plants grow underground? Artificial (magical) grow lights? Or does light penetrate down into here from above somehow?

[Stratovarius]

The lights on the ceiling mentioned from here are still working.

The path twists and turns, worn into a shallow trough by the passage of many feet. Water runs freely down this passage, treating the long beaten ground as a channel through which to find a passage of least resistance. As they progress, the dead brackets of once-lit torches begin to dot the sparse walls, but they are no torches that would use burning fire. Rather, little humps of matter sit within a holder, and no evidence of charring exists. Passing onward, the three explorers come to another open cavern, once again united with the rushing river, but here the ground is soft and earthen, not stony and covered in spines. Above, the roof curves across, and more of the mounting brackets can be seen within it.

[veekie]

Ferrus gazed up to gauge how far away was the light source, while he reached for a plant to examine for any oddities. Living samples of modified lifeforms would be valuable, far more so than inanimate ones.

For da plants

Knowledge(nature) (1d20+9=12)

[Stratovarius]

The lights on the ceiling hung down on stalks mounted in the rock wall, as they spread across the domed room. Perhaps 100 feet at the highest, they produced a smooth soft glow across the plants below. The plants appeared to be the basic varieties of grains and wheat, grown for sustenance.

[PhaedrusXY]

Thraxis says "Would one of you mind using this power stone to send half my damage to my fragment?" I'll go search all these buildings, if you could do that.

Please use your own power points, if you don't mind, so I don't lose the stone.

Psicrystal has +8 Search and +12 Spot from buffs (40 minute duration on the shortest. I don't know how long we've been walking around). Thraxis will walk around with it on his shoulder to inspect the buildings, and it takes 10 on Search in each one, starting with the closest ones.

[Prime32]

Ferrus has more pp remaining.

[Stratovarius]

Many of the buildings are little more than storehouses, filled with the remains of dead crops, long since decayed to little more than dust, and tools that are in the same state of repair. Others are bunk houses, filled with tall, rickety beds and many small chests, locked at the head of each bed. This must have been where the labourers slept, yet none lie dead here in their beds, nor is there any sign of violence. The rooms are long dead, though, and a practised eye speaks to a thousand years or more of unrepentant dust gathered about.

[PhaedrusXY]

I'm going to assume Veekie uses the power stone on me. Hell, even if he doesn't, I'll still go around and search.

Thraxis uses the end of his ransuer to break the lock on one of the chests, prying it open.

[Stratovarius]

Within the chest lies little more than rags and oddments, the detritus of a life. Nothing strikes the eye as being of value, or even of note. At best, there are a few silver coins of ancient moulding, valuable more for what they are than the metal they bring.

[PhaedrusXY]

Thraxis takes the coins and places them in his backpack, and pries open another chest or two, out of curiosity, and goes to check out the buildings that looked like they were once houses.

He calls to the others "It looks like decayed rubbish is all that's left, to me. Noticeably, there are no bodies, however."

[Prime32]

Lorag nods slowly. This cavern is large. It would be best split up and search separately.

[PhaedrusXY]

After thinking for a few moments, Thraxis says "Hmm... no bodies. So either the people left before they died, abandoning these caverns while they were still alive, something removed the bodies, or the bodies rose as undead... "

[veekie]

[spoiler=OOC]How much PP would that be? I've plenty to spare right now, but a mite busy IRL[/spoiler]

"They may not have stayed as flesh, given the levels of magic observed. Were there any signs that they departed in a hurry? However long ago it has been. With the chests locked and emptied, it would seem they left of their own will." Ferrus looked around for signs of more than manual laborers, as well as any indication of where they went to, surely there would be quarters of someone in charge, or a mage's place, whether or not it was a farming village, given the amount of magic in use. And no doubt some traces should remain, nothing of size seems to live here.

"Odd, I wonder what lives upon these crops with none harvesting them. Such bounty should attract wildlife, if any. Rodents, at the least, rodents of unusual size."