We didn't freefall for long. Almost instantly we found ourselves on a sort of slide of shoot. The glowing crystals we had set around for light quickly out paced in in our downward course, and so we slid screaming into the dark.

Until we stopped. Screaming that is, we were still falling but after the first minute or so the screaming just started to feel like a waste of breath. I was amazed at how far we fell. After what seemed like half an hour, but was more likely ten minutes, the shoot leveled out and we gradually came to a stop.

We all got to our feet, all of us save Dillweed who had somehow managed to come down on his feet like he was riding a snowboard, and saw the crystals just ahead of us, all piled up against a wall we couldn't see. We went forward and started examining our surroundings. What we found was not good, we were the end of a pipe. It was maybe thirty feet across and made of the same black stone/glass material as the platform had been. It ended in a solid nothing.

There was no definition to it. The pipe stopped and there was nothing beyond it. It was like the void above with the solitary exception that you couldn't put so much as a finger into it. It was as if the world ended at that spot.

“Put out your lights,” I said, “everyone put your crystals away.”

“Why would we do that,” Allyse said.

“Do as he says,” said Dill, “I think I see where he's going with this.”

The lights were stowed and I strained my eyes looking for what I knew had to be there. I pressed myself up to the wall and started examining it inch by inch.

“Found it!” Dill said triumphantly. I turned to see him about three yards away, dimly lit with a blue glow and his arm disappearing into another gap. We all rushed over and followed him through.

We were standing in an alley. It dead ended just to the left of us, and opened onto an empty street about a hundred yards off to the left. The buildings on either side were at least seven or eight stories tall without a window or door to be seen. It is possible we missed something though, because every available space was carved with detailed geometric patterns interspersed with panels depicting everything from monsters to flowers. Not just carved, but inlaid with different colors and textures of sandstone that complimented each section and made it part of the whole.

“Who would spend so much time decorating a back alley?” asked Sarah.

As we reached the end of the alley and saw the inhabitants for the first time. Drune just raised his palm in demonstration and said simply, “Dwarves.”

And dwarves there were, hundreds of them in sight, just going about the business of living. I finally noticed the distant tink tink of mining that I had become inured to in the prison camp. Ahead of us the street opened up to a plaza bustling with dwarves, in the center of the plaza was a huge tower rising at least three hundred feet in the air. The tower was crowned with a glowing sphere that shed that blue white light all around where it reflected off a spider’s web of silvery veins in the roof of the cavern and, beyond that, sparkled off of the crystalline white limestone stalagmites that raced each other down the far wall.

“I wonder how deep we are,” mused the gnome.

“Little over two miles,” Drune said absently. We all just stared at him. “What? Dwarves get a depth gauge.”

“Huh,” I said, “well that might be helpful. What do we do now?”

“Hey, you there!” It seemed the decision was out of our hands. If there is one thing that cons do well, it is spot a cop. The armored dwarf with the spear walking towards us could be nothing else. Everyone but Allyse and T.J. assumed “innocent bystander posture”: arms at our sides, making no eye contact with anyone, and slowly walking in any direction save directly towards or away from the officer.

It might have worked save for two problems. The first was that, with the exception of Drune, we were the only non dwarves anywhere in sight. The second was that Allyse still thought like an upstanding middle-class white woman.

“What seems to be the problem, sir?” she asked as if there couldn't possibly be a problem. You could feel the strain of our collective groan trying to escape as we casually stopped our stillborn flight.

“I haven't heard of any outsiders coming down. I don't think they've even opened the gates since the caravan left last month. How'd you come to be here?” The dwarf squared himself up as if bracing for a fight.

“Funny story, that” Allyse said, “we used a teleportation scroll that was supposed to take us to low level dungeon that wasn't to crowded, and we ended up here. It cost us all our coin, I think we were ripped off. I don't even know where we are?” by the end she even had a little sniffle.

The dwarven watchman seemed to calm at her story, and he almost looked ready to help us out. That lasted until he looked around and noticed Dill and Sarah.

“We don't cotton much with green bloods,” he said, spitting, “nor them as keep their company. It's clear you're not here by your own design so I'll give ya a choice, leave peacefully or we'll solve your green blood problem before we make you leave anyway.”

“We don't want any trouble,” I said, “we’ll go, just lead the way.”

“What were you thinking?” I asked Allyse in a whisper as we followed the guard.

“That if one of us got killed running away from a guard, and respawns back in prison with our decoys, we are all equally fucked.” She said with a sideways glare.

“Fair point,” I conceded, “just give us a sign next time you're calling an audible.”

We rounded a corner and saw an enormous pair of bronze doors. They must have been fifty feet high with equally massive cross bars spanning them in three places. Twin giant aqueducts arched above the broad plaza, passing from the side walls and converging above the door with a riot of watery mist before spilling down to each side over enormous waterwheels. Stretched out before the gates was a huge open air market filling the plaza in the aqueducts’ shadows. Most of the booths were obviously closed but several along the main road were doing a brisk business selling food and oddments.

Drune cleared his throat, “excuse me, sir, but as we said we were not planning on being here. Is there any chance you will give us a moment to purchase some supplies.”

“I thought she said you spent all your money on a scroll?”

“That she did, but we have a few trade items that might get us what we need to survive the wilds.” Drune said with a hopeful lilt.

The watchman sighed, “fine, but just you, and be back before the gate opens.”

Drune turned to us, “give me all the pickaxes and anything else we can spare.”

We handed over the tools, even the broken one, as well as a ¼ full bottle of perfumed oil, a blank book Beldroth had somehow acquired, and a stack of dishes from Sarah. With that, Drune ran off ahead of us, we passed him a minute latter arguing with a junk dealer.

“.... can't tell me a dwarven city is a buyers market for mining tools…”

We soon reached the gate and looked up at the sheer size of it. It was impressive as all hell but, as shown by the creeping pace at which the cross bars were being retracted, it was completely impractical. If a dragon made it into this particular dwarven city, no one was getting out alive. For once I was not the one to make the inappropriate comment.

“Do you think the dwarves are compensating for something?” Dill asked with a smirk.

All the dwarven watchmen reach for their weapons. It looked like we might not be in the clear after all, when J.T. saved the day. He did so by the expedient of walking around in front of Dillweed, facing him, and slapping him in the face like a scorned lover.

Friendly Fire

One party member has injured another. Jager Tinwhistle has dealt Dillweed 9 point of damage

The guards all laughed like it was Laurel and Hardy. Hands came off weapons to clutch guts, and the looks we got from then on were of amusement. I wasn't entirely amused, and neither was Dill; his health was more than half gone. J.T. hadn't pulled his punch and if he had critted we would have been just as screwed as if the guards had killed him.

We were all wound to tight and it was making us act like idiots. The first thing we had to do when we got to a secure location was hash all this shit out. Get everyone working as a team with a goal again and thinking before we acted.

Drune came back before the last bar had even started to move and gave Dill a concerned look. Dill shook his head and that was that. We all just stood in sullen, anxious silence until the gates finally opened with an echoing BOOM. I knew then why our escort had known the last time the gates had opened, everyone for a hundred miles probably knew.

We were ushered outside and the gates boomed shut behind us. A wan light reflected out of the city, filtering up from grates to each side of the door where it flowed out with the water. The dimness illuminated a twilight world of scintillating white. The walls sparkled in the splendor of untouched limestone, casting shadows here and there as stalagmites interposed themselves. The light rippled off of a milk white lake, stretching off away from us before fading into creamy indistinction. The air held chalky metallic smell and the echoes of the great doors were interrupted with a periodic plok of dripping water.

We stood on a leveled square before the gates. Across from us, the eerie white lake swirled and eddied where the water from the city flowed into it through canals cut to either side of the square. There was a simple, by dwarven standards, bridge spanning the right hand canal, wide enough for a wagon and leading to what seemed to be a road following the shore. It was hard to tell with the light fading into the distance. The stalagmites and stalactites gaping like jaws about to close all about us made it hard to get a lay of the place.

An orange gold glow appeared as Drune pulled out a couple of harvesting crystals from his pouch and set them on the ground along with a number of other objects. “OK, not the best haul ever, but these these should help us some.”

“These are for our nascent knight, I tried to get you a shield but it was too much.”

Fine Leather Bracers

Item Level 8

Armor +5

Size: 0/+1

Slot: Arms

Requisites: Level.3

Weight: 0.2 Lbs

A basic piece of adventuring gear, leather armor is where most heroes begin. This particular example has obviously been made with care by a master craftsman.

“This is for you, my little green friend, every wizard needs to have a trump card.the only reason we could afford it is that it is almost out of juice.”

Wand of Lightning

Item Level 25(uncommon) Charges(2/300)

Type: Lesser Wand

Requisites: Arcane caster

Weight: 0.1 Lbs

Effect: Cast spell Lightning Bolt- 20-100 electrical damage to target, 10% chance it will spread to an adjacent target for half damage.

“And this is for me.”

Shoddy Chainmail Vest

Item Level 3

Protection +4

Slot: Chest

Weight: 1.2 LBS

This mail has seen better day, and probably a lot of worse ones. Bent and battered is better than nothing but not by much.

“I also got a three man tent, so we can sleep in shifts tonight.” Drune finished with a smile.

“That’s great Drune, I can’t believe you did so well with so little.” I said, “I just wish we had more weapons”

“Actually,” Allyse said coyly, “I may have a few things we could use.”

She produced a sword and dagger. “Brewer kept his massage oil in a drawer with these as well as his spare unlocking ring. I figured since we were leaving, there was no chance of him finding his property on us later, so I grabbed all of it when I had the chance.”

My face darkened, “I think it is about time we had a talk about that. What were you thinking!? You could have ruined everything, and for what? Nothing. He couldn’t suffer any permanent harm. All he had to do was log out and call the company. Why did you do it?”

“I couldn’t…” she trailed off.

“Couldn’t What!?” I was shouting in her face now, “Couldn’t Think? Couldn’t Trust Us!?”

“Leave her alone!” Dill yelled.

“Stay out of this,” I snapped.

“No, you stay out of this,” he snapped back. “We wouldn’t have gotten this far without her. She got us most of the food, she even got us the ring. And she did all that while being pawed at and worse by that asshole. If I had to go through all that after what she has already been through I would have snapped too. Look at you, you don’t even know who she is, do you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“She’s Allison LePage, you jacktard?”

Allyse went whiter than the lake. Dill for his part looked ready sink into his boots once he realized he had outed her. For my part I think i must have looked confused, because I had no idea who that was, J.T. and Drune both took subtle steps away from her though, so i knew it couldn’t be good.

“Fine,” Allyse said, “now you know. Once we reach civilization I’ll leave, and you won’t have to worry about me until you're done with whatever you have to do.”

“You know what,” I said, “I don’t care, we are all on edge and doing stupid things. You don’t have to leave, we are all criminals, we’ll do what we need to survive and deal with the rest after.”

“Wait, you mean you don’t know what I’ve…” she began.

I held up a hand, “I said I don’t care, and I meant it. All that was in a different world, at this point I only care what happens in this one. Dill was right, we owe you too much to hold one mistake against you.”

“Yeah, but you had a point,” said Beldroth, “with Brewer knowing we are probably just waiting for the paperwork to be done before we’re all back in the same predicament.”

“Actually,” I said with a sense of relief, “the A.I. was able to take care of that. It short circuited Brewers pod and killed him. It wasn’t happy about having to, it let me know right before it dropped us here. It also means it will only be able to give us limited help for the time being for fear of being found out.”

QUEST ALERT: When you assume…

Slap you party leader. He deserves it for calling ‘HER’ an ‘it’.

Reward: 400 XP

I was immediately smacked upside the head by a heavy orcish hand.

“Sorry Allyse,” Sarah said, “I know you wanted to slap him but I needed the XP more. That brought me up to level 8, WOOT!

“Also,” she went on, “who made you party leader, and who knew computer programs had gender?”

“You’re the gamer, you tell me,” I said. “And apparently she is still listening which means others might be too. We should keep the talk about HER and our mission to a minimum I think.”

“Good idea,” said Sarah when she was interrupted by a splashing sound.

We turned and saw a figure coming towards us through the pale gloom. At first he seemed to be gliding along a depression in the lake, but as he got closer we saw he was at the rear of wide glass boat. He poled it along with a long white staff and was lit from below by a guttering stub of a candle. He brought the boat to a small inlet, seemingly made for it, directly across from the gates. Once so docked he came to the nearer side of the boat and addressed us.

“I thought I’d heard the gates,” he said in a creaky voice. “I thought I’d come out on the off chance of finding a customer. You folks wouldn’t be interested in a ride across the lake, only 3 gold a piece for young folks like you?”

“I’m sorry to say, we haven’t got even that much.” Drune said, coming forward. He seemed to have fallen into the role of our default purser.

“Too Bad,” the boatman said. “It’s a good day's walk to reach the exit by the road.”

“Maybe we have something to trade?” asked Drune. “You’ve come all this way and will be making the return trip anyways. I see your candle is almost spent, perhaps we could trade you one of our light stones for our passage?”

The man stared at the glowing crystal before shaking his head, “these were not made for their light, how do I know it will not die a day after you have gone?”

“I have worked with them for weeks and have yet to see one dim,” said Drune, “you have my word, on my honor as a dwarf.”

“The dwarves here have never led me wrong,” the boatman said, “I will take you for seven of those stones, one for each of you.”

“A candle burns for but a quarter of the day and are worth a gold each,” Drune went on, “one stone would more than pay our passage in less than a week. I will give you three of these and keep the forth for ourselves, and by two days hence you will be richer in your gold unspent on candles.”

“Done!” said the man with an avaricious gleam. He put on crystal in the bottom of the boat where the candle had lain and stored the others. “I would have taken just one, but had to try for more.”

“And I would have given you all, but must try to keep what’s mine,” Drune said and the words had the feel of ritual.

I leaned in to talk to him as we boarded the boat, “what was that about? We have plenty of crystals. Why not just give him the seven crystals? And what was that bit at the end?”

“First, I wanted to see if I could get my barter skill to go up again, I am the lowest level person in the party.” He said. “Second was because it is expected, if we had just given him what he asked for he would have assumed we were cheating him. The last bit was part of that too, the barter system here seems to be based on the traditions from Morocco, you are supposed to exaggerate at the end so everyone saves face. Lastly, I recognize what the lake it made of.”

I took a moment to look out at the rippling white surface we crossed. I had never heard of such a thing, how would Drune know what it was with such certainty. And then I got it. My eyes snapped back to Drune.

“It is a mild acid they pumped up to the alchemy lab to process the crystals.” Drune said with a smile, and then louder, “does anyone have an empty bottle, I want to get a sample of this curious lake?”

Sarah had one that was full of stagnant water. It was passed around and we soon had it empty. Drune leaned over the side and depended the neck into the swell of the boats passing.

“Careful there,” called the boatman, “stuff’ll burn you good if’n it hits your skin.”

Drune was careful and soon had the bottle three quarters full. He stashed it in his inventory and spent the rest of the ride with a foxes smile on his bearded face.

We reached the far side of the lake after a little over an hour. The boatman steered his craft into an inlet that matched the one on the other side. He tied it off as we disembarked and, without another word, walked into small house made of undressed stone at the base of a wide ramp. It was obviously his home and we waited a moment for him to return. When he didn't we turned our attention to the ramp.

It wove back and forth along the wall stepping further into the gloom with each switch back. It was like one of the donkey trails at the Grand canyon but made on a scale that would allow two trucks to pass and with the precision the dwarves seem to fetishize.

The Grand canyon analogy seemed even more apt when, after two passes, the limestone of the cavern gave way to wavy layers of ochre and dun sandstone. The beauty of the place was amazing but soon lost to us though, as we pressed upward into the dark. Drune had said that we were two miles deep. Two miles might not be far, but when you are doing it by switch back it is quite the journey. It took us the rest of the day to reach the surface. It let out among a cluster of boulders, and we passed among them into a desert night.

We should have been exhausted, we had just marched ourselves up a mountain without pause. Instead, though there was a mental weariness, our muscles felt as fresh as if we had just taken a light stroll around a park. Though both Allyse and myself gained a point of Endurance at one point during the climb. The only physical discomfort came from the return of the gnawing hunger that had plagued us since we arrived in this world. I was about to suggest we eat a meal when an alert popped up.

QUEST ALERT: A New Path Forward(Pantheon Quest)

You have your freedom, now you much keep it. The account of St. Olga has what you need to truly free yourself from your past. The path to reach it is full of perils, for you are in a wilderness that is beyond your ability to master.

Avoid the many monsters of the desert that are too powerful for you to survive. Travel to sharp point rock, and join a caravan bound for the Human City of Crestridge.(The next caravan arrives at noon two days from now.) In Crestridge, discover the location of St.Olga's ruined temple. Clear the temple of monsters and retrieve the Accounts of St. Ulga.

It seems we had our marching orders, now all we had to do was cross a high level zone with no class abilities and almost no gear, easy.