"Are you sure this stuff is safe?"
Balyn's question was not an academic one. He was carrying a fifty-pound keg of the "stuff" in question. There were eight other kegs already stacked in place, and yet another in the arms of his current employer (a point in their favor, as they clearly weren't allergic to doing their fair share of the work) and a full dozen more back in the wagon.
"Of course it is! This came from the workshop of the Powder Kegs themselves!" The Yharnamite set down the keg, then slapped the top of it for emphasis. This caused a puff of powder to rise from the top, which did nothing for Balyn's nerves. It was one thing if a cloud of dust made him sneeze. It was something else if that sneeze ignited unstable gunpowder and sent a plume of fire shooting out of his nostrils.
"Yeah, and from what I understand, the Powder Kegs went out of business right around the time Old Yharnam burned down. Except for that weird guy Djura that still lives down there, but he's got his own stock as far as I know."
"Well, sure. It's only been...how long ago was that now?"
"Search me. I've never been able to figure out the calendar you folks use around here. Half the time history seems more like a series of legends than a recounting of what happened and when."
"But anyway, it couldn't have been that long ago. And even so, I'm pretty sure that explosives only get more stable over time. That's just how alchemy works, right?"
Not for the first time, Balyn asked himself precisely what the still-faced, blonde clerk at the Yharnam Employment Agency had meant when she said, "Oh. This job. Yes, this one had better be yours."
"But even if it's not, well, isn't that just more reason for us to get all the barrels down here so that they're not in the wagon we're going to ride home in?"
"I can't deny that you have a certain logic," Balyn had to admit.
"Then let's get to it. As Master Willem said at Byrgenwerth, demolitions without courage will be the ruin of our race!"
"Seriously, though, packing twenty-two kegs of explosives into this tiny little vault, then setting them off...is this really so important to risk blowing yourself halfway to Cainhurst over?"
"Is it important? Is it important, he asks!?" The Yharnamite seized Balyn by the shoulders. "Dear gods, man, it's been more than six years now that people have been trying to figure out how to unlock that door back there from the Cathedral Ward onto the Great Bridge! Six years! And today, here and now, we are about to solve Yharnam's greatest mystery!"
"Well, the Powder Kegs did say, 'if a key ain't got kick, it just isn't worth it.'"
~X X X~
A/N: Honestly, if Bloodborne ever gets a PC release, I think there'll be mods to open that door before even the inevitable nude mods come along.