much of a market for them. Anything else? Then take a good look at the sun, for it’ll be a goodly number of days before you see it again.”
The entrance into Gradrek Heleth that the Badgers used would be hard to find if someone didn’t know it was there, and not much to look at even if they did. It was a small cave opening buried in a clump of stubby pine trees, a hole so low and narrow that the komad had to crawl on their bellies to get in with their pack saddles. Ten feet into the dank little opening the way angled sharply down into the mountain and expanded to about four feet wide and six tall, still an inconvenience for Janna and the taller men, but much more manageable.
To Bridget the tunnel looked natural, but Kroh assured her that it was a vent which had been widened. The lithe advocate was near the rear of the group as it worked its way along the pitch-black shaft, each Badger keeping a grip on the one in front of them, Durek leading, his Dwarven eyes able to pierce this darkness, at least to some degree.
She knew from previous raids that this lightless entry tunnel was only four hundred yards long, but it still seemed like they spent days creeping along in the darkness, the rock ceiling and walls pressing in with all the weight of the tons of stone the mountain posses sed. The dark-haired priestess crept along, crouching unnecessarily, her left hand gripping Kroh’s blanket roll in front of her, her right clutching the enchanted amber and yellow topaz amulet that hung at her throat over the leather tunic she wore, the talisman encased in a leather pouch so that it would not strike the small metal plates sewn to her tunic and make noise. The amulet was part of a set, the rest being a matching bracelet (on her left wrist) and belt, the set being attuned to her faith and a very potent augmenter of her spellcasting. The Badgers had recovered the items from a temple of the Void the year before.
The f loor beneath her feet was slick, and she realized that the fall rains would drain down this shaft, while a west wind would push fresh air into the underground areas. In the Dwarven-worked areas, she knew, the entire layout of the hold would be centered around ventilation. She took a deep, shuddering breath and told herself that she must be strong, that they were surely past the halfway point and that each step reduced the duration of this experience. The logic did her no good.
T he entrance tunnel terminated in a pile of broken rock that sloped upwards to a narrow crevice that opened into the larger caverns, and the party had to wait until Durek could carefully climb up the rubble to scout the way ahead. Finally the group began to move again, taking a few steps forward and then halting as the next Badger or komad scrambled up the slope. Finally it was Bridget’s turn, and she worked her way up the shifting slope with a glad heart, using the rope Durek had strung to aid her ascent. At the top she slipped through the crevice and stood to one side as the last Badgers climbed in.
She and the rest of the raiders were standing in a cleft in the mountain, a hollow fault that ran roughly north-south for the better part of a mile, averaging ten feet high and four wide, a diamond shape whose lower quarter was sufficiently filled with rubble as to make a fairly easy road. The darkness in the fault was far from complete: here and there dense clumps of peton moss grew, green-black lumps shot through with hollow tubes or veins filled with a faintly luminescent liquid. All underground dwellers cultivated the moss as a cheap and clean source of light, and released quantities of it into the wild areas for the same purposes. While the light put out by the small, random clumps was just enough so that Bridget could discern movement, it was a very welcome improvement over the pitch-darkness of the entry tunnel.
When the last raider had climbed into the fault and the rope was recovered, the Badgers set off, their formation looser
The entrance into Gradrek Heleth that the Badgers used would be hard to find if someone didn’t know it was there, and not much to look at even if they did. It was a small cave opening buried in a clump of stubby pine trees, a hole so low and narrow that the komad had to crawl on their bellies to get in with their pack saddles. Ten feet into the dank little opening the way angled sharply down into the mountain and expanded to about four feet wide and six tall, still an inconvenience for Janna and the taller men, but much more manageable.
To Bridget the tunnel looked natural, but Kroh assured her that it was a vent which had been widened. The lithe advocate was near the rear of the group as it worked its way along the pitch-black shaft, each Badger keeping a grip on the one in front of them, Durek leading, his Dwarven eyes able to pierce this darkness, at least to some degree.
She knew from previous raids that this lightless entry tunnel was only four hundred yards long, but it still seemed like they spent days creeping along in the darkness, the rock ceiling and walls pressing in with all the weight of the tons of stone the mountain posses sed. The dark-haired priestess crept along, crouching unnecessarily, her left hand gripping Kroh’s blanket roll in front of her, her right clutching the enchanted amber and yellow topaz amulet that hung at her throat over the leather tunic she wore, the talisman encased in a leather pouch so that it would not strike the small metal plates sewn to her tunic and make noise. The amulet was part of a set, the rest being a matching bracelet (on her left wrist) and belt, the set being attuned to her faith and a very potent augmenter of her spellcasting. The Badgers had recovered the items from a temple of the Void the year before.
The f loor beneath her feet was slick, and she realized that the fall rains would drain down this shaft, while a west wind would push fresh air into the underground areas. In the Dwarven-worked areas, she knew, the entire layout of the hold would be centered around ventilation. She took a deep, shuddering breath and told herself that she must be strong, that they were surely past the halfway point and that each step reduced the duration of this experience. The logic did her no good.
T he entrance tunnel terminated in a pile of broken rock that sloped upwards to a narrow crevice that opened into the larger caverns, and the party had to wait until Durek could carefully climb up the rubble to scout the way ahead. Finally the group began to move again, taking a few steps forward and then halting as the next Badger or komad scrambled up the slope. Finally it was Bridget’s turn, and she worked her way up the shifting slope with a glad heart, using the rope Durek had strung to aid her ascent. At the top she slipped through the crevice and stood to one side as the last Badgers climbed in.
She and the rest of the raiders were standing in a cleft in the mountain, a hollow fault that ran roughly north-south for the better part of a mile, averaging ten feet high and four wide, a diamond shape whose lower quarter was sufficiently filled with rubble as to make a fairly easy road. The darkness in the fault was far from complete: here and there dense clumps of peton moss grew, green-black lumps shot through with hollow tubes or veins filled with a faintly luminescent liquid. All underground dwellers cultivated the moss as a cheap and clean source of light, and released quantities of it into the wild areas for the same purposes. While the light put out by the small, random clumps was just enough so that Bridget could discern movement, it was a very welcome improvement over the pitch-darkness of the entry tunnel.
When the last raider had climbed into the fault and the rope was recovered, the Badgers set off, their formation looser
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