16 - From Endhome to Barakus
The Eastern Path
General Summary
The Delvers departed Endhome for Barakus , wanting to catch up on the latest goings on that couldn't fit in a casting of Sending. The trip over was uneventful, until they got near Barakus when, as before, Chaegathloral flew in with as little fanfare as the first time he surprised them. This time they were better prepared and didn't jump to desperate measures immediately. Chaegathloral greeted them enthusiastically, getting in a few minor pranks until he returned to carry news of their return to Amani.
The Spade stopped above the entrance and let the Delvers off. Dix enthusiasically caught up with Professor Sackbones while Velvet and Marcus waited, occasionally chiming in. Sackbones excitedly told them about the progress the excavation had been making. The guano had been removed, Amani and Chaegathloral had taken it somehwere, some trees had been cut down (with Amani's supervision and approval) and used to construct shelters and temporary furniture.
The western pathway has also seen a lot of work to make it more passable, now even the Ogres can make it all the way to Steve's door. The first shipment of artifacts was nearly ready to go. Lastly, a path to the east had been cleared, the rock tunneled through until a natural series of caves were found.
The Delvers made a quick survey of the eastern path, noting how it narrowed as it went but it wasn't until the next day that they actually explored the path. The work of exposing the path must have been back breaking, but even the exposed path was only barely traversable. If not for Velvet's advanced scouting and ability to climb, the journey may have been impossible. Even so, the path they found was so tight that Marcus had to remove his armor to pass a particularly narrow point. It took the Delvers nearly three hours to get to a major cavern.
The pocket must have been formed as the city fell and the part they first stepped into had a ceiling veiled in shadows, but the cavern was not unlit. A coruscating ribbon of multicolored light cavorted farther into the cavern. It flowed along the edge of an imaginary sphere, hundreds of meters in diameter. This flowing ribbon also gave the first view of the ceiling, far above. It never disappeared into the rock, but flowed right up to it, as though a dome had once been there for the boulders to rest upon but was long gone now, the only remnant being the ribbon of light, dancing on the edge of that long-vanished dome.
Carefully investigating the ruined structures in the cavern, the closest building seemed to have once been a dormatory of some sort, full of small rooms with moldering beds and few corpses. After that building they noticed a patrolling creature, apparently a statue, walking a specific path. It was sculpted in the form of an angel, complete with wings and a stone sword and shield. Seeing such a guardian, the Delvers opted to explore the grounds more carefully before checking out the buildings and found a second patrolling statue. Full of caution, they watched the patrol routes and learned that the creatures walked the same route every time and their routes were straight line and obvious. Going forward, the Delvers decided to avoid fighting the guardians and continue to explore the campus.
The front building was a collection of 4 lecture-hall style classrooms that looked like they hadn't been packed up before they were abandoned, but there was nothing of value left in those rooms.
Next, they explored the two hefty buildings in the central area and both turned out to be heavily reinforced buildings seemingly designed for spells being thrown around inside.
Another building lay on the other side of the practice rooms, similar to the front building with lecture classrooms. This one had only two classrooms, more personal than the lecture halls, but also two intermediate spell-practice rooms.
The building behind the dorm was a ruined library. Unfortunately, the patrolling guardian right in front of the library as a complication, but they managed to sneak in around it and into the building. Many of the books were ruined by time and dampness, but some were still legible and even the ruined books might have undamaged sections. Dix grabbed a selection of the intact books but there were simply too many to carry.
On the other side of the campus were three buildings. The frontmost one was apparently an administration building of some sort. Lots of ruined paperwork but nothing of value they could find.
The middle remaining building was for faculty. Filled with offices, only two corpses were found within, though more offices showed signs of violence.
The last building on that side was a huge and massively reinforced structure seemingly meant for senior mages. Once inside, the Delvers were attacked by a series of animated weapons and armor. Swords, axes, spears, crossbows, and animated suits of armor rushed down on the Delvers. Though bloodied, the Delvers were victorious.
The only remaining unexplored place was a statue garden situated at the rear of the campus with a gazebo. They'd been avoiding it because the statues in the garden, to the last, all resembled the guardian statues patrolling the campus.
Before exploring the Court of Angels, the Delvers decided to head back to base camp and rest. The day had been exciting, but trying and exhausting. So they headed back, with Dix trying to read the library books at every opportunity despite that being impossible on the return journey.
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