Where is Tar?

JP with Alexis, Winteroak and Gonyaul:

Tar could no longer hear sounds of battle. He had entered the central crypt a while ago and went to work on the main tombs.

If the Hammer was here it would have been buried or hidden among the forgotten caste nobles of old. He used the time the two strangers were trying to gain to conduct is search.

But time was running out. If the battle was over the Naylmo would come back soon to his nest with his spoils.

Gonyaul and Alexis probably could have fallen asleep in that embrace after the adrenaline spikes were settling back down. As tempting as it would be to rest, they still had much more to do. That Naylmo was just their ticket for acquiring directions; an insanely steep price.

They helped each other up and had to support one another on the way back to their equipment that was staged at the first entry tunnel. Gonyaul picked up the rope sets on the way. When removing it from the ape, he inquired on what happened after he became a projectile.

He was sad the creature had to be slain. If only it was willing to be peaceful they could have avoided this awful mess.

Once they had reached their gear, they both took turns helping each other get bandaged up with the medical supplies they brought. Once finished Gonyaul had bandages taking up a noticeable amount of real estate on his person. He looked like a charred body of dry charcoal-colored mud covered with wrappings. In the dark you could mistake him for a reanimated walking mummy.

He followed Alexis’s instructions to help bandage and clean her up correctly on anything she needed help with or couldn’t reach.

Once able to venture again, Gonyaul suggested they go find their guide. He remembered the direction he saw the man run in at the start of the fight.

Alexis at this point looked quiet reserved with that idea. That bloody coward had completely ditched them during the fight, leaving them to fend on their own.
Not a good base for trust, that.

But, in the end, they had to go back down to the mausoleum anyway. Assuming Tar had at least not lied about that, the entrance into the actual Ypogeos should be somewhere here.

And if they did, in fact, find that little sgumag, maybe he would at least tell them where it was, exactly, and where to go after to find that settlement.

So she agreed, and they moved to find the passage Gonyaul had seen Tar vanish into.

Gonyaul was able to find the side passage that Tar had kept him from falling over in at the first appearance of the Naylmo. From there, he was able to replay in his memory what direction the man had scampered off in.

Alexis took point with the relit torch, Gonyaul close behind. They continued on this way, weaving in and out of the structures on the ground floor. It was not long before they saw what looked to be a crypt, centrally located, in this cavernous space with architectural emphasis.