The Descent - Part 8

JP with Bandorchu, Lucian, Omin and Winteroak

Underground stronghold - Aquilo mines

Gonyaul noticed Voah was looking at him and thinking something profound. He had no clue what it could be, but it did make him blush inside. He was quick to bring his attention though back to their new surroundings. Would they finally see the origin of these noises?

The south room is small. Its damp and smells of damp earth. In a corner you see a few objects leaning against a wall in a pile.

"I'm.. sorry, Tarmen. It's fine. I'm fine. Let's keep looking. I'm sure these ruins still have your curiosity?" Voah urged.

Surely once they were finished her, she would come to her sense. Voah had pretty good spatial awareness, so heading back would be much quicker than cautiously coming in. She walked over in the direction of the pile and inspected it.

There are discarded clothes and armour pieces in the pile but among it you see a carved wooden staff with gold studs, a lacquered wooden shield brooch set with a red and black stone and a deck of ivory cards inlaid with ornate gold scrollwork.

Tarmen, while concerned, couldn’t help feeling ticked at her response. Wasn’t she the one who wanted to spearhead this part of their journey. ‘Destroy the evil’ and all that?
He kept close to her, but now had an inkling of doubt towards the Arbiter. Was she with the others? He kept his doubts hidden for now, joining Voah in looking over the pile.
“I’m sure this place will have surprises for all of us. Bit beyond curiosity at this point though.”

"Already seems so." she had to agree. "This reminds me, Tarmen. Do you still have that torq from the Allosi ship?"

“Left it in my bunk, sorry. Did you need to see it, I have a sketch in my book?”

"No... Just wanted to catalogue it and study it. Who knows what secrets these old trinkets carry. I say we take these with us." she assumed that with her sword, and a possible Vauxian, they would be free of any ill effects the artifacts may have.

From behind Alexis comes a huge noise, clearly from the west room, like the falling of water from a great height. Its roar and the sudden rush of wind almost knocks her down.

“Damnadh!”

Alexis cursed as she braced herself against the squall.

“If we are still looking for the source of that noise, that would be that direction!”

Gonyaul assumed since he was carrying most additional items, that retrieving the items would be his responsibility. He moved over to the pile, gave it a once over and the double checked again for any signs of things being out of order. Observing none, he gathered the staff, brooch and playing cards. He admired their design as he found a way to incorporate carrying them with what he already was packing.

At the sound of the roar he quickly turned to see Alexis struggling against a squall. Fortunately his hair was pinned up, because the wind would have caused it to whip around his face. What on earth caused that so suddenly?

Without a word, the Arbiter snapped her attention to the rushing cascade. If it was water, surely they would have heard it the entire time.

Staying close to the others, she slowly approached the area from which the sounds were coming.

Tarmen was at his wit’s end with this place, though at least now Alexis and Barrel Boy were hearing the sounds. Of course it had to knock over Alexis for her to notice, something he would for sure bring up later.
He had been wanting to gather some of the items, but found that Barrel Boy had gotten to them first…
He focused on their host for now, keeping close to Voah.

Alexis joined the others in approaching the western room. She held the torch a bit closer to her. If there was another gust to come, she better be ready to shield it, or it might be blown out.

Gonyaul finished getting everything secured on his person again and rejoined the others. He intentionally fell in line in the same order they came in.