"Likely fifteen to twenty thousand years old." He murmured. Jarlaxle nodded, finally understanding.
"This is your area of study, isn't it? You are a historian, studying ancient people and their culture."
"I am like a historian; but I don't study written history. I study history that happened before the written word was invented." He paused. "My title is archeologist."
"So this is quite a find for you." He murmured. Jarlaxle knew nothing about this subject, but he could recognize why Judas was enamored with it. Even he could appreciate the work. Although primitive, it was beautiful in its own way. "How do you know how old it is?"
"I know how to look." He grunted; then looked at him out of the corner of his eye, faintly amused. "I'm also a mage; spells help."
"Of course." He smiled. "Will you do us the honor of giving us the grand tour then? To root out any more recent live-ins as we go."
Judas nodded, pulling himself away from the wall and extinguishing his were-light. Entreri followed along, barely giving the paintings a second glance; he had little for them and couldn't care less if the important or beautiful.
Again Jarlaxle was in the lead as the descended, going down the gentle slope of the tunnels. Eventually down one of the paths they came to a dead end instead of circling back to the main cavern. It was clocked off by rubble.
"Cave in." Entreri muttered.
Judas nodded. "Been blocked off long before I came."
Jarlaxle frowned. He looked at the pole with a critical eye; he knew stone and caves; had been born in them and so had his ancestors for hundreds of years. At this point geology was an instinct bred into him. Right now, instinct was telling him that 'cave in' wasn't right.
"The stones are too regular." He said. "And the stone feels to stable to just give way."
Judas gave him a curious look. "What does it feel like?"
"Artificial." He murmured. "These were put here; but a very long time ago. The stones have settled."
He went up to the stones and gently set his hands on the pile, almost sniffing the air like a curious animal. He felt the faint current of stale air trickling between the stones. "It's not very thick; theirs an open space beyond. Likely another room."
Judas leaned forward eagerly. An unexplored cavern had so much potential; it had been sheltered from man and beast alike for thousands of years. Perhaps there were remnants of the people who had lived here; like stone tools or even human remains. He bustled up to him, looking at the seemingly impenetrable stones; astonished that he'd been convince all these years that their was nothing beyond them.
"Could we remove them?" He said.
"Yes. Of course, it would be no easy task, but I believe you could hire a few young me to excavate from the village."
He danced on the spot irritably. "No; not from the village. It would bring the rest of them to gawp and poke about and ruin the caves with their greasy paws fumbling over everything." He shook his head, lip curled in disgust. "I have kept this place safe from the bumbling idiots and I intent to keep it that way."
Entreri scowled. "I have no intent of digging around in rock piles old man. I doubt our troublemakers are behind that wall; it hasn't been disturbed."
They glared at each other; a fearsome task because the assassin was the master of murderous looks. Even so, the mage was formidable; at his age he'd stopped caring about death and the aggression in the man's eyes held no fear for him. It was the mage that broke eye contact, however, but that was only to snap at Jarlaxle.
"Get away from the wall drow." He snarled.
As soon as he moved Judas whipped out a small bag of metallic dust. He threw a pinch at the pile and yelled a few short, guttural words. The rocks gently shifted and moved about, forming neat, low piles against the walls of the tunnel, leaving the middle clear.
"Was that dwarvish?" Jarlaxle asked.
He nodded jerkily. "Learned some spells from dwarves. Good for digging spots without damaging what you're looking for."
They continued on, squeezing past the stones. The path sloped steeply downward, and the air became colder, eddies swirling around their ankles. It was a long twisting corridor before he came to the chamber that Jarlaxle had predicted. Looking in they could see why the tunnel had been sealed off.
Bones. Dozens of them.
Judas recalled the were-light, and the bones gleamed a sickly, dark yellow. They were strewn across the rough pebbly floor, in an uneven circle that ringed a clear space in the floor. The clear spot was free of rubble and bones, except for a single skull; a canine.
"Canis direus." Judas murmured.
"What's that?" Jarlaxle gave the mage a puzzled look.
"Dire wolf." He quickly swept the area for magical influence that might denote a trap, then carefully stepped over the bones towards the center. "Extinct relative of today's canius lupus, or grey wolf. Stubbier legs, more powerful jaws. Built for power, not speed. Went after bigger prey; died out when they did. Gone for 10,000 years."
Jarlaxle picked his way over to the mage and examined the skull. "Their god, I suppose?"
"No. No gods then." He grunted. "No 'merciful goddess Mona or Moness of light wife of Gorny' or what have you. Just...spirits."
Jarlaxle looked at him curiously.
"Gods now have stories. They are born; they marry, are betrayed, seduce mortals, make war amongst themselves." He squatted down next to the skull. "Spirits just...are. They make you sick, they make you lucky on the hunt they push the sun up at dawn and bring down the moon. They don't have names, or defined form."
"Then...do they worship these spirits?"
"No...not worship." He said, trying to explain. "They have rituals and superstitions that are designed to banish bad spirits and lure in good ones; and ones to keep the spirits happy. They do not worship them, like we do gods now."
"What is the significance of the skull then?" He started to rub his hands together to keep them warm in the frigid chill of the room. He was curious about this though, despite the cold.
"Each member has an animal spirit, or 'totem' they draw strength from, but the dire wolf is the totem of the entire clan. It acts as representative for them to the spirit world."
"I'm assuming this totem also carries them to the spirit world when they die; seeing as this place looks like a burial chamber."
"Yes; he is supposed to protect them as they cross over."
Entreri huffed irritably from the entrance. "Fascinating, I'm sure."
Jarlaxle chuckled. He could see the assassin was eager to be gone, back on the trail of the source of the disappearances. "Judas, are there any more places within the cave system that we haven't explored?"
He shook his head, shooting Entreri a dirty look.
"Then perhaps it is time we left then." He smiled. "We have a mystery to solve after all. I'm sure you could examine this later; I wouldn't mind accompanying you."
Stepping lightly over the bones, Judas accidentally managed to dislodge one of the skulls. It rolled a short distance, knocking against Jarlaxle ankle. He bent to gently pick it up, placing it back in its spot. Looking at the myriad of bones more closely, he noticed something.
"A great deal of these bones are children."
"Children only had a small chance of living to adulthood." He explained. "Killed by disease, most of them."
Jarlaxle rolled the skull in his hands and saw the deep cracks in the skull; typical signs of blunt violence. He frowned frowned slightly, and thought; Not all of them.