Cicero nodded toward Dalius and sheathed his dagger. The former pirate made sense in his explanations. He was a fool for loose, attractive woman as Cicero had come to know. Falling for someone like Nylah was an easy thing to perceive.

But before he could make a reply, a rowdy bunch was making their way towards them. Dalius stated he would follow Cicero's lead..But he had no idea how many, who, where, or what he was dealing with. He couldn't simply go out swords slashing now could he?

Cicero acted fast, he grabbed his unconscious friend and tugged him toward the other pile of the sand. he whispered, "Help me bury him." and added quickly, "Alive." Hopefully it would be enough to conceal the warrior, his spear and shield.Dalius dragged Manzur under some sand and concealed him without an issue. Meanwhile, Cicero needed to find his own weapon. His shield was strapped to his back, thankfully, but his sword, where was it?Nowhere that he could see. He then attempted to hide nearby behind a larger rock. A gang of brownskinned native Rohites strolled into their living spaces. The large piles of sand taking up a good measure of it.

An well-defined young man with a pickax spoke harshly to them, "What's all this mess anyway? Did a fool fall for your worthless trap?" The other 7 men circled about their piles and made threatening gestures to Dalius' group. But so far, they did not find anything out of the ordinary.

@Timemaster

She gazed for a time down where the two had fallen...



Suddenly, the air was sharply cold. The fall was towards the water as her mind flashed back to that chasm. If she only had more power she could...

Then she shook herself and came back to the present. "Right," She glanced reluctantly down the hole then followed after Ashe, still looking over her face curiously. What was the point of hiding it behind a mask? Her arms showed a slight tremble as if chilled.

They soon came into a taller room with more hieroglyphs and depictions of demonfolk on and around what could be a door though there was no knob or obvious way to open the stone slab. Directly in front of them on the slab, there was a depiction of what looked to be a demonfolk worshiper, though their arms extended out towards them as a lever with their hands holding a cup.

Gwendolyn immediately started reading. "I entreat you, O traveler. Give me but a cup of...the salty threshold? No more, no less. What you give me will allow you to pass on to where the gods take council. If you don't give what I ask, then the cave will swallow you whole..." She then sighed. "Seems we have another riddle.

Dalious buried the newcomer well, leaving the man room to breathe. He looked dead to the pirate, but Cicero said otherwise. Even though Dalious had known Cicero and Gwyn for a very short time, what they represented to him was a new change of life he desperately needed. Seeing Cicero once again had sparked a fire of freedom to him that he had felt long been diminished.

As the gang entered the area, Dalious finished up covering the newcomer while his group covered for him by standing up together in a line.
"Just some rats," Dalious replied to the gang member. It wasn't the first time one of their traps was set off by them.



One of them faked a punch at Finny's gut, not connecting but enough to make the elder man think it would. Finny fell back on his own, in pain from his old body, and the gang all simply laughed at the outcome. Dalious clenched his fists but did nothing, moving on to his daily work.

@Cyrania

Ashevelen looked behind her as she walked, making sure Gwyn was always behind her. There were traps in these caverns and some might be more dangerous than others. She did notice that Gwyn studied her face a bit and thought she's going to ask about it, yet she didn't.

" In case you're wondering about the mask. Let's just say that some people aren't very friendly to my kind or view me suspiciously from the get-to. " half-lied Ashe behind her back. There was some truth in what she said but not all of it. People were after her and the reach the new brothel owner who now, if the rumours were to be believed, owns more than just the brothel, was big enough to warrant precautions to be taken even in different countries.

Eventually arriving in the other room, Ashe looked around at the hieroglyphs and shook her head.

" Another riddle. Great. Salty threshold..hmm, by best guess is water, sea water. A cup of it. "

"Rats you say? You're full of it, O great captain Dalius Dumdall!" The gang laughed in unison. It seemed the more ruffians you worked around the more they seemed to act the same. The leader, everyone knew as sharpwit, got right in Dalius' face. He gripped his shovel tightly in his right hand and said threateningly, "No rat has triggered this much sand." Before things escalated much further, one of the men called out, "Found something here, boss!" "What is it!?" The group gathered around his findings, right at the bottom of the large pile of sand. It was Cicero's emaculate longsword. Cicero groaned to himself. It could give everything away. It shone in the light from above. "By the council of 6! It appears your trap has caught us a mystical sword! I'm sure nobody was attached to it now?" He picked it up and looked it over with a grin. Then his expression suddenly changed into suspicion, "Nobody says a word about this, sword. Are we clear?!"

Dalius heard the suspicion in his voice. It appeared that he was debating whether he should report the finding, search more for anyone or anything else, or leave it be. How would Dalius respond?

Regardless of the insults, Dalious was pleased to hear that he was called 'captain'. It almost made him appreciate these thugs moreso, however he knew it was a ruse.

Once Sharpwit got into his face, shovel in hand, he listened closely to what the man had to say. "It depends how you define a rat," Dalious replied, though their attention shifted to a sword they had found in the sand... Cicero's.

"You'll not here a word from us," Dalious said in response to the sword. "In fact I'm quite certain one of those demonfolk must of accidentally lost it. Not a peep from me though, all yours..."

Dalious turned away to his duties, muttering under his breath so none could hear, " I'm going to slit your throat with it, fare I get the chance..."

Sharpwit's suspicious gaze turned into a scowl. "That's what I want to hear." Then he quickly changed the subject, "Oh. I've had a change of heart. The lot of you will come with me. We have a "special" project that needs most your attention. Not you Dalius. You will be headed out with old man...The mine is waiting. You get one pickax for the both of you. We need at least a ton of sandstone blocks to smelt in the furnace, by tonight." He paused for a brief moment, "SO GET TO IT!" He exclaimed.

The gang all left with him except for four chosen lackeys to watch Dalius and his compatriot's progress. One was a large dull-witted one with an asymmetrical face. It looked like his skin was being pulled to one side. The other was a conniving looking man who appeared to have never lifted a finger in his life for physical work. But he had an intelligent look about his eyes and a very large nose. The other two were quiet men that carried a shovel each. They looked like they had been sharpened..

The conniving one snarled at the two, "Hop to it now! You heard the boss. A ton of sandstone blocks, at least!" The others began prodding the group toward the mine of sandstone. One pick ax was dropped at their feet. It looked well-used, wrapped in rope to keep from falling apart.

If the group followed, they would find themselves near a large en cropping of sandstone. They had dug here before. It is where they got much of their material for the traps they constructed. however, never with only two of them for such a large order. It was, in fact, impossible to fulfill. Which could be surmised, was the whole point..

@Timemaster

"I see." She responded. That did make sense to an extent. There was definitely a generally hostile attitude towards demonfolk. Even Cicero sometimes showed one, though with how that last arena fight had gone...

After Ashe's comment about the threshold though, she frowned. "There's no salt water here though. It would take quite a trek to get any here as well. Besides, salt water is not at the 'threshold' of the ocean..." Then she stooped down, letting some of the sand run through her slightly trembling fingers. "But sand..."

Dalious knew how to talk to these ruffians, tell them what they want to hear but not enough to be overtaken by them. He'd already seen to many stand up to their kind and get beaten down.

"Come on Finny," Dalious said, walking toward their given destination. He had secretly been plotting an escape plan since he got to this place, but had never quite found the right moment. This might be it, he thought. Cicero was in the shadows with his man and there were only four of these ruffians around. He also took note of the rope tied around the pickaxe given to them, something that could be used to climb up that trap hole.

Dalious gave Finny some signals with his hand as they began working, noticing the group guarding them began to pay less and less attention to them the further they worked on. He motioned his fingers to tell Finny that they would take one each, Cicero would take one...then together they take the last. To Finny it looked like a bunch of finger's dancing and a lot of slit throat references. Finny shrugged, not knowing what he was trying to say.

Dalious huffed. He may need to take them all out by himself, he just hoped Cicero was nearby. Dalious clenched the pickaxe, almost ready to strike one of them. Then...Finny grabbed at his chest and shrieked, he fell to the floor on his own and began shaking as if having a seizure.

"He's... he's having a stroke!" Dalious yelled. "Please....let me help him!"

@Cyrania

" That makes more sense. Maybe a cup of salt then? Hmm. Don't try anything yet. There has to be a mechanism that makes the door move somehow or at least stops the place from getting closed up by sand. Give me a few minutes or better yet, help me out. Look for gears, trap doors or anything of the sorts. " replied Ashe, her eyes already scanning the room.

Cicero followed behind them from a distance. He heard them talking and then the one named Finny collapsed. Dalius sounded distraught. Was it a clever rouse? Cicero continued to sidle forward, slowly and cautiously. Taking his time finding rocks to hide behind. The weaselly man scoffed, "Looks like you'll have to perform the work for yourself, 'captain.' The old fool has finally gone and been worked to death! I can take all the credit for that." The large bruising man snorted in laughter. The other two remained dead silent.

They suddenly turned in unison to spot Bladewalker himself. "There goes the element of surprise. Frontal assault it is..Please do something, Dalious." Cicero thought. Then he began to sprint headlong toward the two silent ones, unsheathing his dagger. They grunted in surprise. The bruiser and the conniving foreman turned in alarm. The foreman cried out, "Uh, Hey! Who goes there!?"

Cicero ignored his question and charged straight at one of the two quiet ones. By this time they had shaken off their fear and wielded their shovels like bats, ready to strike. This could be a tough fight. How would Dalius proceed?

---

---

@Timemaster

"Right." Gwyn got up then started looking around for the exact mechanism on the door as well, examining the out stretched arm with it's cup in particular.



Together, the two found that the lever in the arm ran down the arm to the torso that proved to be hollow. A narrow crack Gwyneria found within the figure showed a weight dangling slightly upward. If it was completed balanced, it would hit another mechanism that would lift the door. If the weight raised or lowered too far, the mechanism seemed to connect to the floor underneath them, mechanisms Ashe found that seemed prepared to flip the floor, which likely wouldn't do well.

Gwyneria summarized her findings then hummed. "This certainly leaves little room for error.

Dalious didn't know if Finny was faking or not, but he took the act as a sign that it was time to attack regardless. Instead of focusing on Finny however, the gang suddenly turned their attention toward Cicero.

Dalious swung his pickaxe toward the foreman's neck, the pick plunged through, just missing the clavicle. Dalious had to use his leg to yank the tool from the man's neck. Red forcefully spurted out. Then the man gurgled, clutched his neck and fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood. "I am Captain Dalious Durendail! Fiercest pirate of the deep blue sea. Prepare to die." As Dalious boasted in triumph over his foe, the bruiser took a swing at him with his own pickax. Dalious ducked underneath the blow.

Meanwhile, Cicero charged into two swings of his quiet opponents. One went wide, but the other met its mark. The impact bashed his gambeson and he winced in pain, but made no sound. He glared at him then plunged his dagger between the striker's ribs, and directly into his heart. Afterward, he turned to the other man and calmly stated, "Drop it."

Dalious nearly fell prone when he narrowly missed the bruiser's swinging attack. He pushed himself back up from the sand and raised his pickaxe to go on the offensive. His weapon cracked and broke apart as he held it, the end falling off the handle. All he could do was let out a disappointed sigh as the bruiser swung again toward him.

Dalious reacted almost to late, but just enough to avoid a fatal blow. The enraged bruiser's heavy swing just grazed across his ribs, cracking one of them as Dalious fell backward to the sand. The pain shot up his side like fire on flesh, causing a wince of discomfort from the pirate. He turned to look at the bruiser, knowing he had just been bested by a graze.

As be the large man came to finish him off all he could think of was, 'I'm about to die and we haven't even had breakfast'. Sure breakfast was just glowing mushroom fungus, but it was breakfast still.

Swift as an arrow, Cicero lunged into the bruiser's back full force with his dagger. After the strike to the man's right lung, Cicero rapidly stabbed the man's back while clutching his neck from behind. He repeatedly brought the weapon above and plunged downward over and over again. Blood drenched their garments. All the man could do was exhale sharply at each blow. Gradually, the exhales became less and less pronounced. Finally, the large muscled man collapsed to the floor motionless.

Cicero turned to the other man covered in blood and spoke calmly, yet authoritatively, "On the ground, now." The man complied almost immediately as Cicero took the piece of rope that had strung Dalious' pickax and began to tie the man's arms behind his back. "Is the wound bad?" Cicero inquired.

Dalious backed a few steps as he watched Cicero kill the man, ending up covered in his blood. "Great job, though I had it covered," he said. "I absolutely did not think I was going to die just now, heh...that would be foolish, heh. What? The wound? A mere scratch. Or...a cracked rib. Oh yeah most assuredly a cracked rib. Still better than those three got."

He chuckled but immediately winced in pain again. He then walked over to Finny's body and knelt down to see if he was faking or not. The old man was dead. He said no words and just rested a hand on him for a moment. Letting out a sigh, followed by a wince, he stood again and turned toward Cicero. "Bloody hell, we're keeping that one alive?"

"Prisoners are a valuable source of intel. No military worth their salt denies the right of unconditional surrender. But as for your friend.." Cicero glanced over at Finny. "I'm..sorry." Then he turned to their prisoner, "We should hide the bodies. Do you know where the gangsters are and how many are left?"

"Yes." Dalious walked over and punched their new prisoner in the stomach, for no real reason. "There's this area, and this....hmmm...this here...". He began using his fingers to draw a map of the place into the sand. He spoke of all the likely places the guards might be. "What do you think? Should we split up or take them down together? We have the element of surprise."

"Maybe you could enlist the aid of some of your fellows. Surely the enemies numbers have been thinned out. I counted about 8 that came earlier. There are at least four remaining. With at few allies we could take them by surprise. That reminds me. Manzur's spear you hid in the sand back there. We could use it. I'll hide these ones if you go fetch it." Cicero began to drag the corpses of the three men into the mine and covered them with sandstone. The process took about 10 minutes.

Afterward, he picked up one of the fallen shovels. Then he turned to the tied gangster. "Now for you.." The man began to sweat profusely. "When the captain returns you're going to lead the way." Cicero said with a sly smile.

"The guards are too close to them all early in the day," Dalious told him. "Rounding them up would work best closer to rest time. However, if they spot us rising up against the guards I've no doubts that they would quickly join us in the fight. They just need a little motivation is all. I'll fetch the spear!"

As Cicero tended to the corpses, Dalious quickly ran back and recovered the spear. No one was around as the others were all still working, but just a matter of time until they came looking for them. Grabbing some mushrooms he hid under his bedding, Dalious stuffed his face with them before digging up the spear. While the spear was right where he'd buried it, he noticed that Cicero's companion was not. Returning to Cicero with spear in hand, the pirate told him what he had discovered. "Your friend is gone. Perhaps we should move quickly."

"Not there? Did he leave on his own or did someone abduct him?" Cicero reasoned. Then the thought occurred to Cicero he should inform the former pirate of his allies above, "Unfortunate. I'm sure he got up, finding some place to lay low...By the way, Gwyn is above, you know. The elf? She is with a rogue-like woman with the gift of luck depending on the day. You'd probably take a liking to her in all honesty, but with your poor taste in women that may not be a good thing." Cicero chuckled playfully.

---

What would the duo do? Would they strike while the iron is hot before they are found out? Or would they wait until the work day was finished to make their move?

"The gift of luck? Not sure what that means exactly but I've had my fair share of luck to know it is no gift. Regardless, we're gonna need all of this luck to help pull off what we're scheming. Let's go kill these f***ers!"

@Cyrania

Ashe looked around and with a bit of help from Gwyn, they found what they were looking for. A machinery that would spell their doom or save them for that matter.

" You said you're not good with levitation magic. What about a wind spell? A mage should be able to control the elements, I'd think so but do correct me if I'm wrong. My magic works quite differently than yours as you've noticed. If not a wind spell, maybe a wooden projectile that would hit the other mechanism to open the door. Worst case scenario, maybe you can summon something? An invisible hand or something that can balance the weight. " said Ashe in one fluent manner, talking more out of stories she heard at the brothel about magic users or from magic users. They would always boast about their skill as if the women working there would've been more interested in made-up stories more than their coin.

" And...if all goes to hell. I'll be able to roll a dice and hope for the best. My magic will be able to save us for sure if things go badly. But, we've got to consider that well. I can use it only twice a day and already wasted a chance earlier on. If I use it now, then if we're in deep later on and we'll have to rely on luck then we'll need it. " added Ashe.

@Fetzen
Fyr Harnann marched with his 5 fellow companions wherever the 4 remaining gangsters took them. They were all armed with pickax's or clubs. Dalious was left alone with old-man Finny to see to the mining operation. An impossible task. The leader most likely wanted to make an example of them.

As for the rest of them, they continued marching down the dark tunnels they helped create. After about 5 minutes of travel, they arrived at the glow-shroom farm. The area was illuminated brightly with the light orange hue of the glow-shrooms. Perhaps the only truly beautiful thing down here in these dark, dusty caverns. He hated being here. He hated how they had tricked him. He hated his naivete for believing them.

But even in these dull circumstances, the group had managed to find some comfort in sticking together. Their various backgrounds and origins made for very colorful tales. Especially "Captain" Dalious. Was he a real Captain? No one knew, but here sure was proficient at spinning a good yarn.

As they arrived, one of the gangsters motioned with his club to the shrooms and said gruffly, "Work." Over the weeks Fyn had been here, he had lost quite a bit of weight. His giant size needing a lot of calories to maintain his mass. How he longed for the hunts from before where he could eat his fill. The shrooms barely gave them enough energy to work, let alone maintain a healthy physique.

Just then, the slave known as Merrick spoke up, "I gotta use the latrine, suh." One of the guards grunted angrily and took him about 20 paces away.

The other men began working, collecting whatever shrooms appeared ripe. Carefully scrutinized to make sure they did not hide them on their person.

@Timemaster

She considered Ashe's words well. "Wind is also not an expertise...But I do have options that could work." She focused around the room, trying to feel the barest hint of moisture. But the air was too arid. Sweat though had built up on her brow as the cave warmed with the rising sun. And with the water in their packs...

"I can summon ice. Likely not enough to balance the weight, but I could follow through on your wood projectile idea...Or if you pressed down on the lever, I could freeze the weight in the proper place."

Mushrooms... Why did those people seem to go after them so eagerly ? They didn't taste good, they didn't seem to have that much of a nutritional value, they didn't even glow brightly enough to be suited as a lamp unless one piled up a quantity of them! Fyr damned himself for having been so foolish to believe those stories of open cities, fresh water in the desert and hospitality, but feeling like not even doing anything actually productive was just the small, but painful pinnacle on top of everything.

But what did he know ? Maybe there were even more things around him he just failed to understand or even notice in the first place. Given the steady deterioration of himself he had not failed to notice, Fyr could only look out onto ultimately wasting away inside here. It didn't seem like their 'employers' would be in any serious lack of a cheap replacement for him, given how many 'co-workers' were around here together with him.

Yet, as Fyr's hands separated one shroom from its rocky soil after the other, he could suddenly hear something. A mere whisper only and distorted by ambient noises, but his ears clearly picked up the word 'intruders' and that it was Merrick's voice. That was invigorating news, because nobody would use the term 'intruder' for somebody who had friendly intentions, and hostile intentions towards the guards effectively were friendly intentions towards himself! So Cicero and the others were on their way here ?

Unfortunately, Fyr could not even dare to briefly stop his work and turn his head in order to facilitate his happy eavesdropping further. That likely would just have earned him some sort of punishment.

Also, giving a second thought to it, there was one thing that nagged at the benigity of what he had just witnessed: Why would Merrick openly tell the guards about intruders ? That didn't really fit into Fyr's mind, unless he also added in some sinister thoughts about no longer being able to trust all of the individuals he was together in this pit with. The fact that that quick trip to the latrine obviously was not so much a matter of poop after all got certainly stuck in his memory.

Cicero and Dalious crept down the tunnels as fast as they could remain quiet. After some minutes they heard the sounds of voices up ahead. "It doesn't seem they know we are here yet." They found the edge of the entrance into the mushroom opening. There were the fellow slaves working on the mushrooms. Picking and taking care to remain vigilant. They seemed nervous. Everyone did in fact. Including the guards. Something seemed amiss.

Dalious was able to make eye contact with his fellow slave Fyr. Cicero eyed Dalious curiously and motioned to him as he leaned in to whisper, "Something's up. We could do a direct attack and hope your allies aid us. We could do something clever, but how much time do we really have? The choice was his.

As for Fyr. He saw the two men at a glance from his work. How would he proceed?

@Cyrania

Ashe considered it for a bit and then nodded to herself.

" By wind I meant elements. I know I've heard something about someone conjuring a massive tornado to fight off invaders. Bah, might've just been a drunken story. Anyways, let's try your freezing idea. I'll press on it gently, you freeze it and then we double-time run the moment that door is open. It's hot in here, the ice won't hold for long. " said Ashe with a smile before going to balance it properly, waiting for Gwy to freeze it.