Fellowship of the Dice

You test the water and you get the same unhealthy feeling as in the bathhouse. You are quite sure this is the water that flows down from here to the bathhouse. You are definitely on the right track, even if there is a great maze of passages underneath these mountains!

Merisiel pulls her finger out quickly. She carefully wipes her finger as clean as she can and says, "I definitely get a sickly feeling from this water. We must be deep in the mountain, with the water flowing down from here into the bathhouse. If we keep going upstream, we will hopefully find ... well, whatever is going on here."

The alchemist sniffs the water, but has no interest in touching it as well. "It is fascinating if you think about it, isn't it? If it was purposeful poison then that would make sense, to kill the people in the town. Or if it was animal carcasses or feces it would cause belly sickness, not just an itching." He shakes his head. "So strange. Perhaps it wasn't done by design? Chemical runoff from experiments perhaps? I know that I have to bury the leavings of my reagents isolated from the water supply, or it would cause all sorts of problems."

"Evidently, not everyone's as considerate and responsible as you," says Merisiel.

"Animal offal eventually cleans itself, it must be something else." He looks around and wipes his brow. Pausing here he takes out his waterskin and a drink and offers the skin to the others if they want some. "Let's assume its on purpose, that way we are ready. If its not, all the better. I don't know what good I'll be if there is some magical alchemist pollution going on. If its deep gnome terrorists or zombies, I'm your man." He takes back the skin and puts its away, and wipes his brow again. He seems uncomfortable the deeper into the mountain you go. You catch him glancing at the ceiling once and a while -- the weight of all that stone above you weighs heavy on his mind (pun intended).

Weapon draw, he hold sup the light, "Come on...

"Agreed. Some sort of mineral if it is natural, otherwise who knows? Magic is a fickle thing." He double-checks his equipment, adjusting a few of his straps. "Right, I'm ready too. Onward and upwards!"

After another three hours of walking through a maze of tunnels, either right next to an underground stream or following the sounds of water, the group comes to a fork in the passages. One going left, and steeply up, the other going right, with sounds of eerie voices and strange calls coming from that way.

Merisiel gestures towards the voices and whispers to the others, "It could be some harmless group of subterraneans minding their own business. Or it could be the people behind all this." She shrugs. "Who knows? If we're lucky, it could be both--they could be causing the problem without knowing it and be open to fixing the problem." She doubted they would be so lucky. "Either way, I think we should scout them out and see what's going on."

The alchemist is in agreement. "Not liking the eerie voices, but most likely the best path to take to resolve this whole thing." He heads along the path to the right.

"Right. Weapons near at hand, but let's not threaten anyone unless we have to." Carver leads the way slowly and carefully moving toward the voices.