If not for the fact she woke up eventually, Silandra would have said she had not slept at all. Lying on the hard stone floor was only mildly more uncomfortable than sleeping outside, but even though the room was lit up she kept thinking she saw monsters in the shadows and this affected her sleep. Waking to false light didn't help either. It just seemed so wrong, and it was some time before she felt she was truly awake.
There was no way to tell time down here except to speak to the guards, who were different from the ones who had been posted the night before. They said it was early morning, and the miners were different too, considerably fresher looking than the previous. Silandra hoped that meant the others were getting a good amount of rest somewhere safe.
Her group ate a quick breakfast of rations before moving on. The guards said they would probably have to go deeper before they found anything of note, and that the lower levels were no longer mined. Even if they had the men, it just wasn't safe. With all the kobolds Silandra and her companions had encountered the day before, she was worried about what would be considered more dangerous. The earlier reports of demons and dragons came to mind but she dismissed them quickly.
They had not been walking for long when the kobolds reappeared to harass them. At least it was easy enough to take them down when they could actually reach and see them, and their presence was more an annoyance than a true danger.
They were descending into the next level of the mine when they killed a pair of kobolds who were hovering around a mine cart. Imoen had been going through the pockets of those they killed as they went, finding some gold and even a few gems here and there, but this time she found something more interesting.
"What d'ya think this is?" she asked, waving a vial of green liquid in the air.
Jaheira took it from her quickly. "Be careful! This may be what has been tainting the ore. Perhaps it would be wise to stand back," she said.
Once her advice was heeded, Jaheira lifted the cork carefully, keeping her face well away from the bottle. But nothing happened. There wasn't even any noticeable smell. Jaheira leaned forward and took a careful sniff of the vial's contents.
"This poses no obvious danger, but it is unnatural," she said.
"Let me see," Dynaheir said.
Silandra half-expected Jaheira to deny the request, but she handed the vial over willingly enough.
Dynaheir performed her own smell test, before taking the vial in both hands and murmuring a few words—a divination, Silandra thought.
"A skilled alchemist hath made this," Dynaheir said after a few moments. "As you may expect, it corrodes iron, though the effects are not apparent until it sees sunlight."
"So these poor miners could be thinking some of this ore is fine until they bring it all the way to the surface?" Silandra asked.
"I believe so," Dynaheir said.
"Is this safe to carry with us?" Jaheira asked.
"Yes," Dynaheir said, and handed it back to Jaheira. "We should be doubly wary from here. I doubt the maker of this compound is in the mine but if they are, they will prove a dangerous opponent."
Jaheira carefully stowed the vial in her pack and the group continued on. They were descending again, and Silandra felt a shiver run down her spine. She had never been underground before and never gone so long without seeing the sun, yet she had not expected it to affect her so much. The walls felt like they were pressing in around her but she told herself that was just in her mind and continued on. It began getting even darker and Jaheira finally declared it was time to get out their lanterns.
Imoen was still scouting ahead, making use of another infravision spell. She stopped to peer at something on the ground, though seemed hesitant to get too close. As Silandra approached she saw what it was and gagged.
On the cold stone floor of the mine was likely all that remained of one unfortunate miner. It was a human hand, still in the early stages of decomposition.
"Poor sod," Imoen said. "I hate doin' this but…"
She bent and gingerly removed something from the hand.
"What are you doing?" Jaheira asked, echoing Silandra's own thoughts.
"Thought this looked special," Imoen said, holding out her hand. In it lay a greenstone ring. "It's engraved, see? Think it's a wedding ring."
"Poor guy," Garrick said, his disgusted expression quickly making way for sorrow.
"We should take it with us," said Imoen, putting it into one of her many pockets. "His wife may be looking for him."
"We can ask around Nashkel once we return, though I think we can all agree it would be unwise to tell her how we found her husband… or what's left of him," Jahiera said, eyeing the dead man's hand with pity rather than distaste.
Their venture into the mine had been somber from the beginning, but it felt even more so now. Silandra wondered how many other wives were missing their husbands and would never know for sure what happened. Most were probably dead down here, but she suspected having proof brought a kind of closure which might make it easier to move on.
The cart tracks ended rather abruptly and the torches stopped completely. It seemed the miners had broken into a series of natural caves. They were wider than the twisting tunnels of the mines, and deadly quiet. Silandra wondered if that might be a sign of a demon after all. She glanced at Ajantis beside her, his face lit up by her small magelight, but he did not appear to be concerned. She tried to make herself trust in his ability to sense such creatures should they be present.
Even as she thought that, he paused. "Beware," he said, speaking only loudly enough for Imoen to hear from a few paces ahead. "There is some kind of undead creature ahead… maybe more than one."
Minsc was obviously raring to charge despite not actually being able to see his opponent yet, but Dynaheir had been impressing upon him the importance of caution and he heeded her words now.
They slowed their pace, keeping an eye out for whatever it was Ajantis had sensed. Silandra kept thinking she saw something moving about, but it was likely just shadows caused by the flickering of the lanterns.
Finally, they encountered something more substantial than a shadow. First there was the smell of decay, followed by a groan as a horrible creature made of dead flesh shambled towards them. Imoen was quick to draw her bow and fire before darting behind the stronger fighters. The arrow struck the ghoul in the chest but did nothing to slow it down. It lunged at Minsc with bony claws and the berserker shifted so that they scraped harmlessly against his armor.
The monster barely reacted when it was pierced by swords and more missiles. The trick, it seemed, was to chop off its head, which Khalid did a few moments later. Silandra could feel the tension in the air as the group waited in silence. But it seemed there was only one of them. Silandra was glad; she knew ghouls could cause a horrible sickness with their claws and didn't dare hope her companions would be lucky enough to escape unscathed if they had to face a group of them.
"I think that's it," Ajantis said. "I'm not sensing anything else."
The mood of the group relaxed only slightly. They were still deep underground and ghouls were mindless—there was no way that creature had been in charge of the kobolds, directing them to poison the ore. There had to be something else and it was probably much worse.
Silandra again felt that the caves were too small, that she could barely even breathe. She focused on putting one foot before the other and tried not to let the oppressive darkness get to her. Surely they had to be getting close now. Close to what exactly, she did not know, but she was nearing a point where she'd go through anything just to reach sunlight again.
She could soon make out a faint skittering noise coming from up ahead. She hoped she was imagining it but it was obvious she wasn't. Imoen turned back to face the group, her face drained of color.
"Spiders!" she whispered. "Giant spiders!"
Next to demons and dragons, that had to be one of the last things Silandra wanted to face down here. She was terrified of normal-sized spiders, even the ones that were not venomous. She didn't even want to look at giant ones. And once again, this was something that could not be directing the kobolds. They were just another obstacle, another delay.
Silandra hung back as much as possible while the rest of the group moved forward. Minsc didn't seem to be afraid of anything. Neither did Ajantis, for that matter. But Silandra was coming to suspect Khalid was just excellent at hiding his anxiety when he was fighting. She thought he looked a little on edge now as he moved further down the passage and into a large cavern.
The spiders were even bigger than she had imagined—almost the size of a horse!—and there were a lot of them. Minsc launched himself among them with his usual enthusiasm while Ajantis and Khalid were more cautious. Jaheira elected to stay out of the melee and instead fired at the monsters with her sling. Silandra grit her teeth and made herself look long enough to cast a sleep spell, but to her dismay it only affected a few. Dynaheir was firing magic missiles and let out a torrent of flames when one bypassed Minsc and dove for her. It crumbled into a charred heap at her feet and Dynaheir herself appeared unfazed. Silandra wished she could be as brave.
Garrick and Imoen kept to the back of the group, firing carefully aimed missiles into the spiders. Garrick was humming, something Silandra was beginning to realize he did often while they were fighting. It wasn't an obvious sound, not enough to cause Jaheira to yell at him for distracting them, but the faint melody seemed to inspire courage. Silandra felt brave enough to look at how the swordsmen were managing and contribute some magic missiles.
Minsc was sending spider legs flying, spraying black blood everywhere, though he was looking a little green and he was favoring his left arm. Silandra hoped Jaheira was skilled enough to stop poison for it looked like they would need it.
The spiders seemed to make good use of their many eyes and Silandra winced every time they hit their targets. The moment the last of the arachnids curled up and died, Ajantis stumbled and gripped the wall for support. Khalid seemed to have avoided any serious injury and he was quick to support the paladin. Minsc still looked terrible, but he remained standing.
"Dynaheir, I feel…strange," he said, his voice quiet for once.
"Sit," Dynaheir ordered. "You have been poisoned and must be healed."
Minsc lowered himself to the ground obediently. Boo scuttled out from wherever he'd been hiding and peered at the berserker in what might be worry.
Jaheira was quick to act. She went to Ajantis first, and Silandra looked on nervously as she healed him. When she moved onto Minsc, Silandra moved to sit beside the paladin, who still didn't look good.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"I will be," he replied, offering a strained smile. "I just need to rest."
Another night down here? Silandra didn't like to think about that. But Ajantis clearly wasn't going to be able to move quickly let alone fight any time soon, and Minsc probably wouldn't be doing much better. Khalid was now sitting too. It looked like he had also been poisoned, but not so badly. Hopefully they could at least move away from all the dead spiders before resting. Every now and then, one of their many legs twitched and Silandra's heart skipped a beat as she worried they may be coming back to life. No such thing happened, of course, but it was easy to fear the worst down here.
After the healing was complete, Jaheira looked as exhausted as those she had just healed. There was no avoiding it—they would not go any further without a break. They backtracked to one of the smaller caves they had passed to make their camp. Rations were passed out, and now the question of who would keep watch was brought up.
"Well, most of you need to rest," Silandra said. "I only need a few hours; I still have a few casts left. I can keep watch."
Jaheira sighed, but there was obviously no avoiding it this time. "Very well," she said. "You can take first watch with Imoen. Don't make me regret giving you both this chance."
Imoen's face lit up and she winked at Silandra, who smiled in return. Jaheira's wording rubbed Silandra the wrong way and she wondered if the druid would ever really trust her and Imoen.
"I can go next," said Khalid. He looked tired, but not nearly as bad as Minsc or Ajantis. "I'll be much better after a short rest."
"Very well," said Jaheira. "Garrick, you can join him."
Of course, Garrick was required to tell a story before he could rest. Dynaheir tried to get Minsc to sleep but he said it was impossible for Boo to go to bed without a bedtime story, and if Boo couldn't sleep then neither could Minsc.
Garrick was flattered of course, and he proceeded with his usual gusto. Minsc passed out after only a few moments but the bard continued regardless, probably for Imoen and Boo's sake.
Ajantis also seemed to be intent on remaining awake. He sat propped against the cave wall so that he had a good view of the entrance.
"You really should get some sleep," Silandra said. "It's safe enough here, and Imoen and I will keep watch. It's our first time and we have to show Jaheira we can handle it so you know we'll do a great job."
"I'm sure you will," said Ajantis, smiling. "It's not that I don't trust you, or Imoen. I just don't like letting my guard down in a place like this. At least up above there were guards about, and the room was lit up. What if there are more spiders, or undead?"
"Then we'll wake you," Silandra said. "For now, you need to rest. Who knows what else we'll find down here? You need to be prepared."
"I know you speak sense. I will try."
He did sleep finally, despite stubbornly trying to keep his eyes open for as long as he could.
Silandra found it easy to stay awake, even after everyone except Imoen had fallen asleep. She wasn't sure she could sleep here if she tried. Again, the cave seemed to be pressing in on her, but she knew it was just her nerves. She tried to focus on her breathing. Slow, deep breaths. There was plenty of air down here. No reason to panic.
Imoen came to sit beside her.
"You doin' okay Sil?" she asked. "You look kinda pale."
"I suppose being underground does not agree with me," said Silandra. "Especially for so long. But I'll be fine."
"At least your magic is getting better," said Imoen. "Dynaheir must be a great teacher, huh?"
"She is. Kind of strict though, but I think I need that."
"That's what I was afraid of." Imoen sighed in apparent disappointment.
"Is that why you haven't yet asked her to teach you something? I'm sure she would be a much better mentor than Xzar."
"I wasn't really learning anything from Xzar," Imoen said. "I just liked looking at his spellbook because it's as crazy as he is. Dynaheir kinda scares me."
That was surprising. Imoen very rarely seemed to be afraid of anything, except for the giant spiders of course but that was understandable. If the cold darkness of the mine bothered her, she did not show it.
"Why is that?" Silandra asked, frowning.
"She reminds me of some of the monks back home. Like she'd yell at you and give you extra chores if you fail to answer her questions."
"You know that's not going to happen here though. Dynaheir is strict but I've been learning a lot from her. She's better than the monks. I'm sure she'd be willing to teach you if you asked."
"Will she make me study?" Imoen asked.
Silandra smiled at that. "Well, yes. You kind of have to study if you want to learn magic."
"If we survive this mine then maybe I'll ask her." Despite her words, it didn't seem like Imoen was really afraid they would not escape alive. Silandra tried to share in her optimism.
"Doesn't Garrick know a little magic? I thought you might have tried talking to him about it. You seem to spend a lot of time together."
"Bardic magic is different." Imoen sighed heavily. "I can't carry a tune, you know that. And I don't think I can learn either."
Silandra briefly considered teasing her about Garrick, just a little. But the thought of how uncomfortable it made her feel when Imoen did the same about Ajantis stopped her.
"Maybe I could try to teach you after a while," she said. "I don't know how good a teacher I'd make though."
"I'll keep it in mind if Dynaheir doesn't work out."
Silandra didn't reply; she thought she had seen something moving in the darkness outside their cave.
"Sil, what is it?" Imoen asked, following her gaze.
Silandra remained quiet, still watching. But there was no accompanying sound and all appeared still now that she was focusing. Just an illusion caused by the flickering lantern light.
"It's nothing. I keep thinking I see things but… there's nothing there. I just can't wait until we're out of this place."
"Me too." Imoen finally showed the faintest sign of fear.
Both sat and watched in almost complete silence from that moment on, peering into the darkness at the cave's entrance, but they saw nothing but shadows.