Borimer transports everyone and their equipment to the top of the hole.

You find yourselves in a large underground tunnel.  The tunnel itself is round, as if a lava tube or similar cave, but the floor is also smooth, making it an easy walk.  The rounded ceiling is about 15 feet high, making this a rather spacious tunnel.  Similar glowing pink and purple crystals along the walls create a dim glowing light.

The tunnel goes to your left or your right.

Directly in front of the hole, you see the remains of the rock, which had crumbled and mostly fallen into the hole.  Next to it is what appears to be some sort of lever.  A net extends from a pulley above, along with a ten foot long metal pole that is wedged into what remains of the boulder.  Apparently, the boulder was used to stop up the hole by whatever inhabits these caves.  (The idea is that the rock would be rolled into a net and hoisted so that the hole could be accessed, and then lowered back down.  The net and pulley system are very large and heavy pieces of equipment, but clearly something very strong still had to use them to make them work with such a large boulder.)

Leaning against the wall to one side of the boulder, you see the corpse of what appears to be a human.  He wears a sword at his side, and his head is bowed, one arm across his shirt and jacket.  You see no outward signs of any wounds in the dim light, and the body appears to have been there for only a few days, at most.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:40, Mon 29 July 2013.

Borimer glances down both tunnels one at a time while others with a keener eye for details can check the corpse.

Leo, takes his time examining the body, looking for the tale tell signs of his expiring. First he takes his dagger and places the blade under the victems nose. Just to check and see if there is still any breath coming out. He would hate to have a corpse surprise him while he was looking it over. Once that is complete and he is sure the victem is truely deceased he begins the slow job of trying to determine how he might have died or been killed.

Kahan puts his armor back on as quickly as possible, glad that Borimer had faster reflexes than he. After putting everything back on, the priest assists Leo in looking over the corpse.

With little to do, Tahldar keeps watch with Borimer.  He does however have a thought, "Are any of us decent trackers?  Might be a good idea if we can tell if one of these two tunnel entrances sees more foot traffic than the other."

OOC:  I could cast detect magic on any items the man might have, but I figure to hold off a bit in case we come across any other stuff so I can do it all in one shot.  In any event I will likely cast by the end of the day at the latest.

At the top of the hole, Shae changes shape back into her half-elf form.

"As a mountain druid, I have some skill in tracking in the outdoors and mountains.  Perhaps I can help here as well."

Shae begins looking around for signs of movement and life, scouting a short distance down each side of the tunnel to look for any minute details, icluding any potential hidden doors, moveable rocks, or the like.

"Well my eyes have nothing special to brag about, but I have very tarined ears. Maybe I could try my luck at trying to listen incoming or outgoing movement" says Didit while focussing on the entrance.

You begin searching about.

There are tracks in the dirt, both from what appear to be human and much larger sized boots.  The giant sized ones go in both directions.  The humanoid sized ones appear to be coming from your right, stopping here, and then continuing to your left.  You even see the remains of where it looks like they set up camp and a small fire, which they then buried in the dirt before leaving.  The time of the camp appears to coincide with the timing of the death of the body nearby.

The sounds are really hard to detect.  There is a lot of air movement through the caves that creates eerie wailing, whistling, and blowing sounds.  But there is nothing beyond that which would give a clue as to life.

Inspecting the body, you see that he carries no weapons or valuables.  He wears a warm ermine jacket, a vest, and coarse dungarees.  His boots have been stripped off.  You find no sign of what caused his death, but there is pooling of blood in the tips of his fingers and toes, and swelling around his lips and throat.  You suspect he might have been poisoned somehow.  His face certainly appears to have frozen in a mask of pain.

Inside his vest pocket, you find a folded parchment and a charcoal writing instrument.

Leo smells the man's breath to see if there is any trace scent of what he had consumed in an effort to determine what posion might have been used. Then pulls the parchment out of the man's pocket and opens it to see if there is anything written on it.

"I am well versed in many languages if you find the parchment unintelligible." Tahldar says as Leogold examines the dead man's note.

OOC:  If Leogold is unable to read the note I'll take a crack at it.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:47, Fri 02 Aug 2013.

Malissin nods and gestuers at the paper.

"I've always had a knack for figuring things out as well. Back in my village we lived near some ancient ruins. I don't know the whole history but my father said they dated back thousands of years. Used to be some great trading hub for some great ancient empire. Anyway, adventurers would come through when I was younger to raid the tomes of ancient past and would pull out the most fantastic things, mostly scrolls somehow preserved through the times.

Turns out it wasn't a trading hub but more like a library. Not much value in terms of gold or gems but this ancient empire had found a way to seal scrolls against time itself. Sheets from languages that were long since dead pulled out fresh as if it was penned yesterday.

Anyway, the adventurers would often leave the papers they deemed without value behind and the children would sit around and make up stories about what they thought the scrolls said. It was a fun little game, especially when someone could translate it and we would compete to see who was the closest."