CH 3: Descent into Darkness

[Jenara]

"You can look with me!" She grabs Tanis's hand and pulls him to the door to the left.

[Talyn]

Raistlin glances at his brother and begins to follow Tanis. "This city holds many secrets..." he says quietly as he follows the half elf.

[Breila]

"Yes..." Goldmoon murmurs, her voice trailing off.
Then she pulls herself together. "Should we try the other door, then?" she asks Riverwind, Tas and Flint.

[JadedDM]

Tanis and Laurana head to the double doors on the left of the statue, with Raistlin trailing behind them. Tanis pushes the doors open, revealing a circular fresco, faded and damp with age, covering the walls of a 60' tall room. A domed ceiling vaults overhead. Fungus creeps down the walls.

Meanwhile, Goldmoon, Flint, Tas, and Riverwind head to the opposite room. Riverwind pushes open the doors. They find themselves in a very similar room with a high domed ceiling. Fungus creeps down the walls, covering frescos faded beyond recognition. To the west, five squat figures claw at the wall with stubby fingers, scraping the frescoes into a heap of wet plaster on the floor.

The dwarves are filthy and covered in scars, boils, sores and brown splotches. Their hair is unkempt and dirty, their clothes are mismatched rags in tatters. And their smell is overwhelming even to those with a less than keen sense of smell.

Unaware of the party's presence, they continue scratching and scraping. "Claw mates, claw!" says one of them to the others. "Need get pictures off walls! Me hear that humans used to keep pretty treasure behind walls with pictures. Highbulp might give us special favors if bring a pretty to him."

Flint growls and then spits on the ground. "Peh! Gully dwarves!" he says with utter disgust.

With a start, the gully dwarves all whirl around and realize that the heroes are in the room. "It's the masters, mates!" shouts the leader. All the dwarves drop like sacks to their knees. Faces pressed against the slimy floor, they grovel out, whimpering, "We didn't mean nothin' by it, your lordship! Please don't beat us!"

[Jenara]

"Ohhh." Laurana says with a rather crestfallen frown, "This musy have been very pretty at some point in time. It does rather smell doesn't it?"

[Jerrard]

Standing by the large doors Sturm keeps Brightblade drawn, admiring the statue with awe.

[Kafen]

Tas sniffs the air. "Phew!" He looks at Flint. "They're dwarves! That's like cousins for you. I've got lots of cousins. We could have a family gathering and have a party. A party would be good." He looks at the gully dwarves and blinks realizing that he's being called a master. "I've never been a master, either. The dragon thing was fun. This is fun, too. I bet we get a prize or something." He steps forward kicks aside some of the filth.

[Breila]

Utterly puzzled, Goldmoon looks at the dwarves. "We're not your masters, we've never been here before!

And your masters must be very bad people, if they force you to live in such a state. When did you last see them?"

[JadedDM]

Tanis looks around the room and sighs. "Yes, it was. It must have been a magnificent city back then." He walks up to the moldy fresco and gently wipes away at it. "Mishakal said that it was man who turned their backs on the gods. But can we really be blamed for that? How many thousands were killed, how many cities were wiped out...just to punish a few?"

=================

"Cousins!" Flint shouts. "The Aghar are no cousins of any real dwarf! They're vermin!"

Riverwind's lip curls up in disgust at the creatures before them. "Look at how they cower and whimper. Even goblins compose themselves with more dignity."

The leader gully dwarf stops moaning and squirming long enough to look up at Goldmoon. "Not masters? Not beat poor us?" The other gully dwarves cease their groveling for a moment to hear better, as well. "Masters down in city, deep below. They make us work, they beat us. Saw them two hours ago. No more than two," he says, holding up two fingers.

[Breila]

Goldmoon sighs. "Didn't Mishakal just ask us to unite? And you're squabbling and despising again! she reprimands her companions. Then she turns to the Aghar. "So your masters come here and beat you? Where do they come from? And what do they tell you to do?"

[Jenara]

"It would have been quite lovely." Laurana sighs looking at the fresco's, "Our people turned away too, the Elves curse the gods, curse the Humans, getting The Speaker to work with Humans is all but impossible."

Keeping near Tanis she smiles, his presence made her feel safe, she had come all this way to see him after all.

"I wonder what this shows." She comments, wiping away the Fresco with part of her cloak.

[mltillis]

Caramon follows behind Raistlin, stopping in the doorway where he can watch Tanis, Raistlin, and Lauranna while still keeping sight of Sturm and the other doorway.... " Shouldn't we keep going Raist? I'm sure this paintings were real nice and pretty once. But, it's not like looking at a bunch of old pictures is going to do us any good is it? "

[JadedDM]

"Come from below, down in city," the Aghar says. "Masters make us pull, make us dig, make us move, make us do things."

Flint shakes his head and crosses his arms. His hostility toward these creatures is plainly evident.

===========

Laurana rubs at the fresco, but it's no use. Whatever image was once there has long since faded away to nothing in the past three and a half centuries.

[Jenara]

"Shame." She says with a shrug, throwing her blonde hair about she spins around. "I guess Caramon is right, I wonder what the others have found..?"

[Kafen]

"We can be your friends, instead!" Tas says cheerfully and advances towards the Gully Dwarves without fear. He gets close and tries not be rude to the smelly fellows. "Friends help each other, yes? We could use some help if you do not mind helping us?" He looks at the tiny fellows in idle fashion noting the things left laying around the place. The clutter around the place is rather tempting in itself.