Dollano 9, SP~4,909

Rhonda Floam

An Underground Journey

Today was a long day. I’m too tired to write much, but I want to get down a few things before sleep takes me.

We started the day with an early breakfast. Well, at least, it seemed early. It’s hard to tell when you can’t see the sun.

As soon as we’d finished eating, we set out on a trek. It was Begkragk himself and some of his folk — some of his counselors and about a dozen of his “royal” guards, and all of us (the nossring and me). The guards were a tough-looking lot. They didn’t say a word all day, and it was a long day.

We marched many miles, all of it underground of course. The first thing Begkragk did was to take us to a part of his halls that seemed out of the way and gave the appearance of being unimportant — craft dwarves! It was clear he didn’t want others to see where we were all going.

After a few hours we reached a deadend, or at least that’s what it looked like to me. One of Begkragk’s folk walked up to a part of the tunnel just before the dead end and did something with the wall. I think he (she?) mumbled a few words, too. The wall opened up and there was another tunnel. This one, though, was all natural; no paths were carved here.

I’ll admit I was totally lost at this point. I knew I was under a mountain, and we seemed to be heading further down, and that’s about it. They just pointed us in a direction and we all (especially me) scrambled to keep up.

Eventually, we reached some kind of open area. The ceiling was further above us than I could tell. Begkragk gave some instructions to some of his guards and they went off. A minute later, the place was lit up, and I could see just how big it was. Very big, and this was no natural cavern. The floor of the cavern held a pattern made from some marvelous stone. There were gigantic pillars running down its middle, and the walls on all sides had carvings that seemed to tell a story. I didn’t get a chance to look closely, but I’m guessing it was a story of the heroism of Begkragk’s folk.

Donnessling and his folk looked mightily impressed, too. They’d certainly never seen this place before.

Begkragk led us up to a large, circular stone platform at one end of the room. There were dozens of chairs and tables on the platform. We all sat on seats near the center and Begkragk gave a look to Donnessling, who returned a nod of confirmation.

Begkragk reached into one of the tables and pulled out a fist-sized piece of cloth. He quickly pulled away the cloth to reveal a stone, and a beautiful one! It actually must have been a gem and not just a stone because of its beauty. It was a magnificent purple color, and shades of that color as it moved, and, it seemed to my eyes, even when at rest.

One of the nossring came up to Begkragk. Donnessling introduced his kind, Mossessling, to Begkragk as “holder of the knowledge of Drawnwyn’s Eyes”. That meant nothing to me, but it was peculiar enough that I remembered it, and wanted to get that written down. Begkragk, though, knew exactly what Donnessling was talking about and handed the stone, or gem, to Mossessling.

Mossessling spent some time with this thing. She even went into a bit of a trance, or at least got very quiet. When her eyes opened they opened very wide. She turned to speak to Donnessling and Begkragk, but we could all hear her.

“This is the Eye of Zanyr, the stone of Physic Energy from Drawnwyn’s crown.” Begkragk went wide-eyed. Donnessling didn’t move a muscle.

Note to Self: Never play cards with Donnessling, at least not for money.

Mossessling handed the “Eye” back to the dwarf king, who wrapped it back in the cloth it came in and put it carefully back in a hidden place in the table. He then instructed two of his guards to sit at the table — dwarves are not naturally trusting folk!

“We’ll need to sleep on this.” That’s all Begkragk said and Donnessling, again, said nothing. Then we had dinner, a smattering of uninteresting conversation (something about how to tell where the sun is by “reading” the rocks around us), and now we’re about to sleep for the night.

Too tired to speculate, but lots to think about.

I almost forgot. It seems like it was a week ago. Before we headed out for today’s journey, I was able to locate a blink bat station. The dwarf who ran it was surprised to see a human, but got over it quickly enough and managed to overcharge me. But, I got a blink bat off to Bobby. Not sure how he’ll find me, but that’s the least of my worries.