[T: 2 Days 1 Hours]
The group had reached a part of the cliffs next to the stream, where the cliffs collapse inward becoming a concave. A small stream diverges from the main stream and flows into this concave. There they see an opening to a cave about twenty feet wide. It is around noon and members of the group are tired once more. And hungry. Although it is still noon with a few hours of traveling left, the location is too good of a place to abandon, and they resolve to stay here for the night. A small group of weapon holders crossed the stream to the other side, towards the forest, in search of a monster so that they could lure it back to camp, tossing rocks here and there, hoping a monster had settled in the nearby vicinity.
They set up camp within the mouth of the cave, since outside the cave, in the concave, the rocks prevented sitting down or lying down. The floor was hard, with compressed dirt, but it was better than sitting on top of a bunch of rocks. The cave went further inward, the floor of the cave gradually declining, with the stream following the decline.
The weapon holders had already eaten some of the meat they had previously cooked at the lake before heading out to lure and now the rest of the group was stopping to eat. Some members had gathered some of the foliage atop some freshly dug up dirt, the dirt dug up and crushed so that it was soft.
The Child and Angela being the only children were told not to go further down into the cave and to stay near the entrance.
[T: 24 Hours]
The Obsidian Skeleton continues to roam around leaving vast swaths of yellow creatures behind in its wake.
[T: 1 Day 2 Hours]
The Obsidian Skeleton continues hunting down anything it comes across. It continues to move from room to room, down hallways and from structure to structure.
[T: 1 Day 2 Hours]
The structures are full of dead monsters. A body is seen being dragged by a heavily armored humanoid wearing ornamental decorated plate armor armed with a great shield and a heavy blade similar to a longsword. It drags the body and throws it onto a wooden cart and another armored humanoid, whose face cannot be seen due to its barbute style helm wheels a full load of bodies away.
[ T: 2 Days 2 Hours]
Johannes is sitting on one of the makeshift beds of dirt and foliage when The Child and Angela, playing tag, trip and fall on him.
Johannes: Woah, kids, careful now
Child: Oaf!
Johannes: How about you guys play somewhere safer? (Johannes helps Child in a Dress get up)
Child in a Dress: This is the safest place. The adults say that out there, there are monsters. And back there (pointing towards further into the cave) no one knows what’s back there, so we can’t go there either.
Johannes: I see. (Johannes thinks for a moment) Well want to go see what’s back there then?
(Johannes turns to La Fonte.)
Johannes: Hey La Fonte, you got like a military flashlight somewhere? Other than on your rifle. I’m going to go exploring with the kids a bit.
La Fonte is also on one of the makeshift beds. He looks bored.
La Fonte: Yeh, I got one. But (he sits up) I’ll come with you.
Johannes: Ok, yeah, sure.
La Fonte: (He yells) Eh, Jose, I’m gonna go see something back here.
Jose looks up from the fire. He gives a thumbs up. La Fonte puts on his military pack and holds his rifle. “Alright, let’s go”, he says.
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[T: 1 Day 6 Hours]
It has become apparent that the armored knights are intentionally avoiding the Obsidian Skeleton. They show visible signs of unease. They make extreme efforts to avoid being detected by the Obsidian Skeleton as they follow the carnage it makes ferrying and carting the bodies left behind by it.
[T: 2 Days 2 Hours]
“It just keeps going doesn’t it”, commented Johannes as they followed La Fonte. They had been walking for about ten minutes now. The children were behind La Fonte and Johannes walked behind the children making sure to keep an eye on them. La Fonte doesn’t say much; he is focused on pointing the light forward and making sure no danger or threats were ahead.
Suddenly Johannes asks La Fonte, “So what’s the deal with Jose?”
La Fonte turns around, looks at Johannes weirdly and asks, “What?”
Johannes: You know. He’s a little weird. He seems to be perfectly cohesive most of the time, but then his mind just disappears for a while.
La Fonte turns around again and continues walking.
La Fonte: That’s just the war. Happens to the best of us. Jose got cleared psychologically, but sometimes he’s still somewhere in a place most of us wouldn’t want to have been in. (La Fonte pauses for a moment to think) You know Jose was actually my superior.
Johannes: Oh, yeah?
La Fonte: Yeah, he was my Sergeant Major. I was just a corporal then. (He pauses once more) But then things happened.
Johannes nods.
La Fonte: Yeah, he got screened to see whether he was fit for duty after the “incident”. Passed it, but ended up being weird about it. They then demoted him and it didn’t seem to bother him. (La Fonte shrugs) I got promoted several times, he got demoted several times. Now we’re the same rank.
La Fonte pauses here, stopping in his tracks. The children and Johannes stop as well.
La Fonte: Hey do you see that light?
Johannes squints through the sharp contrast the light from La Fontes flashlight is making.
Johannes: No?
La Fonte turns off his flashlight. Instantly they can see some kind of bluish faint light, sort of dimming and fluttering in the darkness.
Johannes: What is that?
They walk towards it. The light is emitting from behind a large bump along the wall.
They go around the corner of the bump and stop. The blue light is emitting from a torch. A torch that is attached to a stone block wall, next to a stone block doorway. The stone block wall and doorway is atop a set of stairs also constructed of chiseled stone blocks. The stream runs along the set of stairs.
Johannes: We should go. Let’s go tell the others.
La Fonte: Wait, wait. I want to see.
Johannes: We don’t know what’s in there. Let's get the kids back and then come back with more people.
La Fonte raises his hand towards Johannes indicating that it is alright. He slowly steps forward. The children and Johannes watch.
La Fonte goes to the base of the stairs and starts to walk up it slowly, taking care to make as little noise as possible. He has one arm on his rifle. La Fonte reaches the end of the stairs, goes past the torch to the front of the doorway. He looks, stares and pauses.
La Fonte: Man, there’s nobody here.
Johannes relaxes and goes to stand next to La Fonte. La Fonte has relaxed his hold on his rifle, just looking. The children follow up as well to peek from behind the two men.
Beyond the doorway is a corridor, it’s architecture plain and built of stone blocks. The corridor is lit up with the same blue flames outside, next to the doorway. There are two doorways on the right side of the corridor, indicating that there are two rooms, with another doorway at the end of the corridor.
They enter the corridor, looking up and down, examining the bare walls, ceilings and floors. La Fonte walks into the first room and Johannes and the children follow.
The first room seems to be around 25 square feet, its width similar to its length. It’s almost bare, with dust and cobwebs everywhere. There appears to once have been furniture, but there are only pieces of a table leg here, broken boards there and a wooden stool in pieces. There is only one torch lighting up the room. The second room connected to the corridor is the same, except there are no pieces of debris at all. Just dust and more dust.
Johannes: There’s nothing here. (He scrapes the floor with his shoe, instantly building a pile of dust) And there’s been no one here for a really long time.
They exit the second room and exit the corridor as well entering deeper into the structure. The doorway leads to another corridor, this one splitting into two, one going left, the other right.
La Fonte: Yeah, I don’t want to get lost in here. I think we go back now and bring more people to see the place.
Johannes: (nods) Yeah, ok. Let’s go