"About the same for me." Hamin agrees with the Dwarf.

Then he adds quietly, "Our best chance to get loose, might well be when someone else is making a distraction, and I am not keen to go up against legions of guards alone.  Nor am I prepared to stay here and rot ...."

"There are chisels in the forge," the young elf tells Hamin, voice still soft, but he sounds more confident with the noise of the chains masking his words, though he still shudders at Brugar's mention of the spider-demon.  "Won't be easy getting one out while they're watching us, though."

"I tried to get my collar off and it almost killed me," he echoes Yetta's caution.

"The cells on the lowest level," Ayas whispers, "where they took your friend. They've got the old abbot down there, the one who used to be in charge of this place and they need him for the escape. Varl said that no magic works down there !"

The cage continues to descend as you take the chance to talk, trusting in the rattles and squeaks to prevent your words from being overheard.

"They check the tools," Karl warns Ayas as the Elf suggests trying to steal one, "but we could put an edge on some flat bar - it'd be crude but might suffice."

"Escape is ... well, they'll kill any who try and fail, and to my knowledge nobody has ever yet succeeded."

Hamin glances across at Brugar, "Where they took out friend?" Hamin presses Ayas to expand on that, "Which one? The old man or the elf woman?  And what do you know of the Abbot?"

The he turns to Karl and there is a very slight smile, but a smile that just makes Hamin look meaner.  "There has always got to be a first time."

"I only heard the Sentinels speak of taking 'the other woman' to the lowest level," Ayas tells Hamin regretfully.

"Varl said that something must have happened to the old Abbot, something bad for them to keep him chained up down there, but he didn't know what."

"Or a last time," Karl replies grimly to Hamin.

"I know about the Abbot ... one of the prisoners attacked him.  Bit him.  Died for it, of course, and not quickly, but a short time later the Abbot transformed into a ... creature.  The Sentinels threw him in the cells below so now he's an inmate in his own prison."

"Magic don't work down in the lowest level, ye say? That sounds like the first wee bit of good news Ah've 'eard since wakin' up with this 'ere collar round me neck," Brugar mutters thoughtfully. "If there be any sort of tools to be 'ad down there then Ah reckon as Ah've got enough skill as weaponsmith to crack these things open, all right. That reminds me though, Ah wants me axes back afore we leave this place, if ever we get the chance."

First ...  last ... two ends of the same circle." Hamin says with a grin, but then the grin gets mean again, "So how do we get to the lowest level?"

He pauses for a moment before continuing quietly, "I have a very long standing score to settle with these guys.  Or at least with their boss."

Yetta resists smiling, but looks thoughtful.  "And if this used to be the Abbott's prison, he'll know his way around and might appreciate a hand.  Karl's right, the right piece of scrap metal will work as well as a chisel and be a lot easier to get away with.  And," she looks at him directly for a moment, adding, "Don't worry.  I'm sure people have escaped.  It's not like they're going to come back and tell you the truth."

Karl shakes his head, not seeming to share your optimism.

"This is the only way up or down," he gestures to the cage.  The cells are on the lowest level, beneath the mine workings, and it only gets hotter the farther down you go.  The cell doors ... I think they only open twice - once when you go in and then the last time when you leave, whether alive or dead."

"The new abbot would have the key.  Used to be second in command.  I do not know how he would have offended you personally ..." Karl looks at Hamin, considering.  "... perhaps you might make him regret it at that, but as like you'll not live long to enjoy your victory."

"We would have to get into the cells anyway," Ayas whispers excitedly. "They're the only place that magic doesn't work.  But we'll need more than a chisel to get through the locks on those doors."

"If'n the ol' abbott changed into summat else after 'e got bit, sounds like 'e be more like one of the 'azards what we gotta overcome to take advantage of there bein' no magic in them lowest cells, rather than someone waitin' for rescue," Brugar muttered.

He didn't look like that thought had deterred him though.

"In ways that you could barely imagine." the one eyed warrior replies grimly, before turning to Brugar  "Collars first.  Then we can worry about the rest ..."

At last the cage comes to a halt, the chains stopping it swinging more than a fraction as it sits over the open shaft that continues down, both Karl and Ayas inform you, to the lowest level of the prison where the former Abbot and presumably Alasha'an are kept.

If it was warm above, here it is uncomfortably so.  Ayas and Karl trudge south down a narrow tunnel with a metal track running down it, the fires of the forge where they will labour glowing in the far distance.

Brugar, Hamin and Yetta, however, are bound for the mines, following the eastern tunnel and struggling to find footing around another metal track, and in the heat the three of you are sweating and all but panting for breath as the tunnel opens out into a larger chamber.

Here the bulk of the prisoners work with simple picks, a pair of them allocated to one shaft, one to dig, the other to haul up the rock using a bucket and a rope, emptying the contents into mine cart that one of your number is occasionally directed to push to the forge when full, so your path crosses with Ayas and Karl but not often.

Three of those prisoners that stood with Karl in the common room above now attach themselves to you upon the strength of that acquaintance and direct you to a shaft near them, one offering to work with Brugar.  There are ladders to get you down into the shaft, but only a few of them, so they must be shared around.

And all under the watchful eye of the Sentinels.

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

Brugar nods a greeting to his new workmate and indicates the shaft.

"After ye," he tells him.

Seeing what work is expected of them, Hamin  looks across to Yetta, "Do you want to dig or haul?" he asks as he wipes the sweat from his forehead.

There is little worse than sweat in the eyes -  especially when you only have one.

"Ooh, they both look like so much fun," Yetta says.  "I'll dig.  You'd keep hitting your head," she grins.

With a fractional bow, Hamin waves his Daughter into the hole before him -  just like a noble ceding right-of-way to a lady .....

And so you begin your first day of labour in the mines.

The heat down here had you sweating already, and the back-breaking labour only makes matters worse, though it is arguable whether wielding the picks and shovels down in the shafts or the strain of hauling and carrying away the buckets of ore is least pleasant.

Either way, the work is hard, exhausting ...

... and dangerous.

A low rumbling is the precursor to the earth around you beginning to shake violently - an earthquake, you think, though those above struggle to keep their feet while those in the shafts cover their heads to protect themselves from falling chunks of rock.

But then the ground in the southern part of the chamber erupts consuming several miners and something emerges from the hole ...

The creature is massive, a cross between a giant slug and a sea turtle with a teardrop-shaped body that glistens with slime, mottled gray, brown and ochre all over.  Two great flippers tipped with blunt claws sprout from the forebody.  The upturned stone seems to melt as it touches the creature, to be shoveled up into its gaping maw along with a couple of miners that are unlucky enough to be caught up, their screams cutting off with a horrible finality.

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

Brugar grips his pickaxe tightly as he stares at the huge subterranean monster.

"By the rock, what in all the 'ells be that?" he wonders aloud.

He glances around at the sentinels to see what they are going to do about it.

The Sentinels are as surprised as any by the sudden appearance of the creature, though it quickly becomes evident that such, while unusual, is not unprecedented.

"Keep away from it !" they urge the inmates, though it seems their concern is not for the men and women themselves, but for the preservation of their workforce.  "Don't let it get to the picks and shovels !"

"Call for Golos to be sent down !" one, possibly the senior of those present, orders another who swiftly runs off down the northernmost of the two east-west tunnels.

For the moment, the huge creature seems content to munch on the debris at the edge of the hole it created.

Brugar will gather up any spare tools lying nearby. If his friends want to move further away from the huge creature he is more than happy to stick with them.

Hamin nods and grabs  whatever tools he can see that are close to him.  Looking around the chamber , it is clear that they should probably head north, away from the creature.  There is the tunnel heading north east, but there was also a lone guardian guardian stationed in the North East  and another directly to the east of them.

Taking a moment to glance around, Hamin looks to what everyone else is doing.  What better time to remove collars and disappear than when there is a damned great monster to 'eat' them ...

Always helpful, Yetta gathers up some tools also, and then passes some over to Hamin.  Under the rattling of tools, she suggests quickly, "It came in from somewhere.  If we can get behind it..."

The other prisoners are of a similar mind you you, backing away from both beast and the large hole it came from, taking with them what tools are in reach, though they do not retreat far, only twenty or thirty feet or so, just enough to keep out of the way.  Even those down the shafts are assisted up the ladders - perhaps whatever each thinks of the other, they know that it could just as easily be them trapped down there.

The Sentinels watch carefully, both beast and their charges, repeating their instructions for everyone to keep back, though that only proves necessary once or twice.  Your warders are obviously prepared to simply maintain their vigil until Golos can be brought down here.

"I've not seen the like before," Brugar's shaft-mate tells the Dwarf. "There's always a risk of Fire-Worms.  Nasty creatures that melt their way through the rock, but they're not as long as a man is tall.  That thing there is bigger than anything I've seen.  Looks like the Sentinels know what to do about it ... not unknown to them, I guess."