Audience with Trakratos.
Svirfneblin Settlement, Sinkhole.
I will script a little 'summary so far', please remind me if anything I have missed.
You have dined in diverse manners recently. Breakfasting with the Xvart, upon lentil gruel and stewed salamander; scoffed upon raw cave carp that were seasoned with bitter waters and bad memories, dined upon Svirfneblin nutty bread, baked on the premises in a little furnace, thickly spread with fruit conserve and suspicion.
Interesting. And along the way, no doubt chewed over in your minds the encounters and issues, rumours and realisations.
The exterior Chalk Quarry is relatively abandoned, so much so the cabins in situ are derelict though functional. A Giant Bee hive taking over one building. Orb Weaver spiders lurk in the cliff face crevices, there were no sign of Gnolls about but you did meet an Ogre who resided in a small cavern. He was talkative, at least to his unseen companion who you presume to be a dwarven ghost. The other side of the Y-passage was left unexplored, a dark, smelly cave that smelled of rot and decay.
Seeking better fortunes you explored a second cave system which led to a junction of passages. One contained a cave of Centipedes chewing upon mossy covered rocks where the more effects of mental mystery were felt. Another passage led to a cavern of Cockatrices, a petrified miner testament to their frightful touch. Going deeper you followed the northerly passage, descending steps by the Stagnant Pool which according to Meatloaf held ghosts in its murky depth. Beyond that, the Waterfall Cave where Salamanders preyed on the unwary and Cave Fishers preyed upon the lizards. Following a passage behind the waterfall took a narrow and hazardous route to the other side of the Cockatrice den. Choosing then to return to the Waterfall Cave and take the mined passage where two dead bodies lay at the end. It opened into a small cavern. Opposite was another passage guarded by inanimate statues until Xvart Blinky invoked one and ran away. Shattering the stone warden, you came upon the Xvart mining camp. Interesting to remember that the Xvarts, led by Carkden, said that they imbue their artful stone objects with enchantments as a communal skill. They were poorly equipped and happy to trade a few basic mining tools, bags of Salt and any joint cuts of Salamander. In return they crafted your Cave Fisher filament into a length of sticky rope and provided a guide through safe tunnels to their gnome-kins territory.
Their boundary with the Svirfneblin was the Pebble Pillars Cave where the mineral waters tasted brackish and the blind fish gave insight. Lichen filled passages became tunnel visions of nightmares which led to a large cavern where the Svirfneblin had some dug out burial crypts, filled with their dead and their own nightmarish Undead.
Then you are welcomed into the Svirfneblin Settlement, based in the grounds of an ancient sinkhole. Chief Trakratos and foreman Geojimali are at odds. The miner blaming recent death and community woes upon the Chief, who in return suggests the deceased strayed within passages of silver ore that had been ordained as holy and his death was his own fault.
You suspect that the meteorite held by the Chief is the root of the community illnesses. Chief Trakratos informs you 'it was gifted from the heavens' and through it, he was able to summon an Elemental to help increase mining production.
That last statement is contrary to the foreman's confession that certain passages are presently redundant, those in which the Elemental supposedly labours.
On this point, Geojimali only knows the Elemental to be 'a fearsome creature of of earth and stone'. You get the impression few have actually seen it and the Chief does not volunteer how it was summoned. "It just came at his command".
Much to think about. Characters can do that as after the brief audience with Chief Trakratos, he says he will need to convene and discuss your suggestions regarding trade and mining. He invites you to rest a while among the Sinkhole Forest and he will call you back when things are decided.
it is not really much of an 'invitation' as more of an expectation, but is not meant with any offence in mind.
It gives you chance to wander though practically not very far. The forest covers an area about 70 yards across. As described the vertical rocky walls of the Sinkhole tower several hundred feet. Even the trees tower, twice the height of anything in the regional Pine forests. Tall slim ancients struggling to reach the minimal sunlight. A druid might identify an exotic Kapok among the Wild Bamboo, Silver Birch and surprisingly a little copse of Plantain. In season now it sprouts bunches of long green fingered banana shaped fruits. A Svirfneblin gardener tends the copse, happy to chat in his dialect, talking in long words and sentences regarding his responsibility to harvest the bamboo stalks, cultivate extra edibles and keep any wandering critters at bay.
"Bugs mostly, occasionally a large beetle or centipede, sometimes a spider." He points out the crags at the top of the Sinkhole confirming
Fydmar's fear that vulture's nest high up.
"Too high to collect eggs but occasionally we lure a hungry bird down and nab it for a feast." With the forest being a very self contained area, they do not take much wood from it as it takes years to replace. You have seen goats and chickens milling about, thankfully no 'chizzards' (chicken-lizard hybrid Cockatrice).
At ground level to the forest are the dozen passages leading to mining shafts. Above them a ring of habited caves, mostly basic but comfortable hovels judging by your experience as a guest with the Chief.
It is also in wandering the forest that you come upon a strange squat statue. It appears to be a hybrid of some winged creature crossed with a clawed Bactrian humanoid whose head melds into octopus like tentacles. The base is etched in runes, similar to those
Brother Symeon noted in the burial crypt seal. The stone is covered in lichen growths and looks weathered and aged though between its feet, someone has placed an agate geode that is stained with bloody fingerprints. The rock might particularly interest
Fydmar since the geode (a hollow rock lined with crystal formations) are a potential power source for his Construct that he is refurbishing back in Helix.
There doesn't seem to be anything special about this specific area, it is not separated as a sacred grove or shrine and no other statues are around. While not in plain sight, it is not hidden away.
After a few more minutes, your miner companions come calling (I had them as just resting near the mule), saying that Chief Trakratos seeks another audience with you.
actions, prior to this second audience where the Chief will discuss mining and trade, you can ask or action anything else in regard to any of the above information.
basically anything I have missed you need some clarification on, any specific action or skill checks, etc.
