Gem Classification

<some reasonable scene transition stuff that i would use to connect prior entries to this one>

The three skeletons approach a strange man in light clothing, with a slight twitchiness about his movements. He greets them: “Hey! So you’re skeletons, right? The intelligent kind?”
They nod. “Have you ever heard of magic gems?” Again, they nod. “Then, how would you like to make a quick buck? Some gold, for the road? Just help me out with my job.”
They look to one another, and agree to follow along. The group walks up to what looks like a door attached to an overgrown pile of rubble on the side of a mountain. The strange man opens the door to reveal a mossy pit, thriving with flowering vines and insects. As the group descends, the vines are slowly replaced with thick bushes, narrowing the already tight passage. After the skeletons’ ribs have all been thoroughly flossed by outstretched branches, the bushes give way to a large room. The majority of the walls, floor, and ceiling are covered with metal plates, and everywhere else is coated with some form of vegetation. Along the bottoms of the walls are stacks of empty unlabeled vials and buckets. There is a large central bookshelf full of metal boxes. The man pulls one down, and opens it to reveal a thick stack of unused paper. He deals a few sheets to each skeleton, and instructs: “There are vials over there, with unmarked labels stuck on them. Fill a bucket with vials and head on through. Label each vial according to what you put in it, and describe it more specifically on the paper. The walls of these caves are covered in magic stones of all kinds, and it doesn’t really matter what kinds you pick. When you return, I’ll have your money.”
The skeletons equip themselves and venture forth into different tunnels. Senior steps into the farthest tunnel, and feels the walls to navigate more precisely. Upon closer inspection, something is off about the vines on the wall: they feel hollow, almost dead, and they are most especially ice cold. The hawk follows along, resting anywhere stable enough to hold a bird. As Senior’s fingers reach a flower, it crumbles into a sticky gel, chilling everything in its wake.
“Oh, wait! Try not to touch the bulbs. They’re part of the corruption, the decaying emptiness left behind when the soul has been sucked out of life. It doesn’t even help to remove them either, since they grow back so quickly. Only remove what you must to keep moving.”
And so, Senior advances deeper into the tunnel. After what seemed like ages crawling forward, the walls take on a sharper sound- this area has been untouched by the corruption. This area has not been mined yet, and so Senior begins collecting gems, under the watchful gaze of the hawk, one gem after another- pumping magic in, and recording the results. The ones that don’t react simply return to the mine, while the ones that do are captured in vials. Most of the ones that react are fire crystals, which quickly convince the hawk to remain far removed from this experimentation. One fire crystal shot a spiraling beam of fire, striking the wall, scorching it. The next most common crystals made the hawk screech- quite strange. A rare few caused the vines to grow, and by the end of the hour, the whole area was covered in green, soon to be followed by insects. One crystal whispered babbling nonsense, and so was quickly sealed away.
The senior skeleton returns to the central room, and is promptly greeted: “Welcome back. What have you got?” The man inspects the papers- “What is… ‘makes bird screech’? I’ve never seen gems like that before.” So he opens a vial and activates it, only to be blinded with light. “Yeah, that makes sense. So you can’t see? These are all probably light crystals, they make pure light.” He shuffles around in his pockets, and continues “I don’t know if you remember, but light makes it very obvious to living creatures exactly where you are, so be careful with that. Anyways,” He hands over a few silver coins, a real pittance, but enough to compensate for the lost time. Senior nods, and adds the coins to his pelvic purse. “I hope you consider this fair compensation, now we just need to wait for your friends.”