Morning dawned, and with it came clouds rolling across the sky, grey and overcast. Not a hint of blue could be seen, not a rent in the cloud over to promise relief. Chance sniffed at the air; rain was on its way, and soon. He couldn’t say when exactly, for he hadn’t quite got a handle on how the weathersense worked, only that he felt that by the middle of the day the clouds could have opened up and the rain would be upon them. The plan had been to deal with the gnolls first thing, but the chance in weather meant that their plans would have to change as well.
“We have got rain coming,” he told Yrip and Shags as they stirred from their sleep, ”So we are going to do things a bit differently. For starters, we will have to move everything inside the cave so it doesn’t get wet. We might as well start working on getting a camp set up in there while we are at it.”
Don’t expect me to drag that contraption again,” Shags stated firmly.
Chance grinned at the wolf. “Not this time, no.”
“Yrip will help, master,” Yrip offered, flashing a triumphant grin towards the big wolf. “Yrip is helpful.” The last word came out very pointed.
Shags snorted, then yawned and stretched out before giving his body a shake.
Any more fish left? he asked.
Chance gave him a nod. “Some, yeah.” The evening meal had worked out better than Chance could have hoped for, even if he had largely been making it up as he went along. It had been a fish stew, seasoned with herbs, mushrooms and apples. The last had been an unexpected choice, added on the spur of the moment. The others had been sceptical when he had first added them to the pot. They had come around when they had finally smelt and tasted it. “It is cold though,” he added.
I am sure I can suffer through that, Shags responded.
Chance gave a chuckle. He took the leftover stew and scraped it out of the pot into the bowls, handing one each to Yrip and Shags before taking one for himself. He used the last of the bread they gotten from the goblin camp to eat with it. He would have to bake some more, and soon. There was a lot they could do without, but bread was not really one of those things.
When they had finished, he passed the pot and the bowls to Yrip to wash out before starting to work on moving the stores into the cave. They couldn’t really use the front of the cave near to the pool and the stream, open to the elements as it was with the large hole in the roof.
Instead, he headed past the pool and the greenery growing around it, the trees and bushes and ferns, and headed further back into the gloom beyond, where the scorch marks left by the dragon remained. The smell of ashes still lingered there, and a layer of soot and charcoal was on the ground.
There wasn’t much that they could do about it for the moment, no real time to clean it up. At least it would be dry there though. Chance took one of the sheets of cloth the goblins had used for their shelters, one that was heavy and thick and coarse, and spread it out on the ground. Heavy stones that were laying around in the cave were used to anchor down the corners. It would serve as a place to rest without getting all stained and dirty from the ashes. The furs and hides were laid out on the cloth to use as bedding, while alongside one of the cave walls he stashed the boxes they had collected, containing their tools and utensils and the food they had collected, along with the brazier they had recovered from the vault that had contained the undead. The lengths of wood, ready for building projects when they got around to it, and the other sheets of cloth were stacked along with the boxes.
When at last everything had been ferried inside, he led the others back out into the forest surrounding the cave again. “We need to stock up on firewood before everything gets wet,” he said, “As well as any more food that we can scrounge up. I don’t know how long the rain might last, but we need to be prepared for whatever happens.”
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Back and forwards they made their way during the morning, from forest to cave, carrying in wood to stack for use for their fires; even Shags helped with it, dragging branches behind him until a fair-sized stack had been assembled in the cave. Their store of food increased as well, with more of the wild onions and leeks, mushrooms and apples and berries and herbs found. In addition, they even found a pear tree in season and a region of wild radishes. By the time they were done, their food crate was rather full.
The rain, as Chance had expected, came down just before the middle of the day; it was not a heavy downpour but more a constant drizzle, a veil of it that swept across the forest driven on by a wind that picked up and set the trees to swaying. Chance stood just inside the cave entrance, watching the drizzle sweep over the forest. More rain fell behind him, coming in through the opening in the cave roof but where he stood it was still dry. Lighting flashed across the darkened sky and in the far distance, the rumble of thunder rolled ever onwards.
It is a miserable day to be out and about, Shags noted. The wolf had padded up silently to join Chance. Yrip was still back at the camp, scavenging for food among the supplies. For such a little creature he could sure put it back.
“Yeah, it is,” Chance agreed. “Annoyingly so too. There is a lot to be done if I am to get out of here and we can’t exactly do it from the cave.”
You aren’t afraid of a little damp, are you?
Chance snorted. “I have no other clothes except for the ones I am wearing. If they get wet then it’ll be an uncomfortable night.”
There is an advantage to not needing them, Shags noted, his mindvoice smug about the fact.
Chance shook his head before turning back, and headed towards the rear of the cave. Even if there was much to do out beyond the cave, there was still stuff to do in it. There was a fire to be established to start with. He cleared away a patch of earth and then ringed it with stones that he found in the cave. Twigs and branches were set up in the fireplace, ready to light but he didn’t do so yet. More were placed into the brazier, to give them light later on when it got dark. While the dwarven body could see in the dark, Chance still found the presence of flames and light comforting, a very human reaction. He might look like a dwarf but inside the human still ruled. Shags lay down on the furs and hides to rest as Chance worked, while Yrip wandered off to have an explore around the cave, an apple in hand.
“Master!” he called out excitedly after a while, “Over here!”
Chance grabbed up his spear at the words and scrambled towards where Yrip had called from, even deeper into the cave. His stonesense started to ping away as he neared Yrip, alerting him to the existence of something not natural back there.
He found Yrip standing and staring at part of the cave wall. Scratch marks could be seen across it, giant claw marks where what must have been the dragon, the beast that Yrip had mistaken him for, had clawed away at the wall. One of the days he really had to explain the situation to Yrip; he just hoped the little kobold took it well. Chance raised a hand and rested it on the wall, tracing the line of the claw marks. Each one was as wide as his hand.
The claw marks weren’t the source of his stonesense activating; there was something else there, something worked by hand and not naturally formed. He started to search around as Yrip hovered close at hand, watching, waiting, looking expectant.
Ah, there it was. A door, made to look like a natural part of the wall, its surface left rough. It had been hidden extremely well, with barely a hair width of a gap to mark it out. There was also no obvious way in which to open it, no handle or keyhole. Just the door.
Memories stirred in him of the door, memories not his own; memories of flames licking the wall, of the cave shuddering under heavy impacts. Memories of here to place his hand on the door- just so. Memories of a release of magic into the door - just so.
The door shifted and groaned beneath his hand and slid back into the wall, merging with it so that no trace of its existence remained. It hadn’t been just primal magic that had been released, but stone magic as well, dwarven magic.
“Master had a secret chamber,” Yrip breathed.
Chance went to answer but then stopped himself. Who actually had built it, and for what purpose? There was only one way to find out.
“Shags!” he called out. “We have a mystery to uncover.”
It did not take long for the wolf to come padding over.
Interesting, was all that he said on spotting the doorway.
With a roll of his eyes, Chance walked through the door, to discover what lay beyond.