Jorgan Ladronne loaded up the construct hauler with shovels, hammers, spikes, picks and other tools. The squat, animated bin had the personality of a wall, but was good at starting, stopping and other mundane feats. Jorgan’s eighteen inch metal servant, a scrawny metal humanoid with an oversized, modified pan for a head, gave new meaning to the word, pot head. He climbed up on top of the bin to ride while Kalor and the others watched. Jorgan left his big mech in the tunnel a 1/4 mile back and tried not to think about it. He was sad to leave it behind and noted it could dig open a cave-in faster than ten men. He sighed, but after only a half hour of griping and cursing, he was bag to his big, pleasant self.

Jorgan called his little helper "Bigz", and Bigz called everyone Sir, though he didn’t seem to answer to anyone other than Jorgan, when his large, bearded master was within sight. Out of a party of thirteen, Jorgan only had a handful of men with him, and Kalor even fewer.

“It would have been a lot easier had we been able to follow down the hole the boy fell climbed through," Jorgan said.

"Careful everyone, some of the caverns are unstable and cave-ins are likely here on, Kalor pointed out. He was no small man himself. He wasn’t as big as Jorgan, but seemed more than capable: good with ropes, climbing and navigating underground terrain, yet for all of his skills, only two of his men came through from his even larger team and one of them, Niles, implied Kalor might be cursed, for they had been through three cave-ins and stumbled over two traps thus far. Traps! What were traps doing down here? And unusual ones at that - like nothing he'd ever seen. Certainly not gnomish design. Better, and that's saying something!

With Kalor was Juris, a good man once, perhaps, but struggled in the mines, being out of shape and better with a gun than with a rope. Even so, despite Jorgan’s doubts, and he voiced them, Kalor believed there was much potential in Juris, though the former city guard couldn’t see it. He was too close – too caught up in his troubles to see. But he was trying, and that's more than Kalor could say for some folk. They got along well.

They had plenty of torches and lanterns and extra oil, additional ropes, pulleys and other gear. Kalor preferred to carry most of his own, rather than trust a construct. For some reason, he seemed not to trust the thing, nor Jorgan’s metal friend. Kalor preferred to trust his own hands and experience rather than science or magic.

They had descended well over a mile and as yet found little to suggest an alledged great cavern filled with ruins and great machines as the boy insisted. Had it not been for the strange contraption the boy had brought back with him, none would have believed a word he said. And so they made their way down the narrow sloping tunnel, hoping it would open up soon into something promising or they’d have to turn back a quarter mile and take another tunnel.

“Keep together,” Kalor said.
“Right,” Jorgan agreed, in a mocking tone, “Don’t stray off too far to the left or right in this three foot wide tunnel as you might get lost!” He laughed, and gave Kalor a hard shove on his back.

“I meant that no one should go too far ahead, nor stay too far back or they might get lost,” Kalor said, always hopelessly serious and worried of late. He had lost much after all.

Jorgan, on-the-other-hand, was often jesting and in good spirits, It seemed. “You heard ‘m,” Jorgan said, suddenly serious when crumbling rocks and dust fell upon them as they walked. “Nobody do nothin’ stupid. We don’t want to lose any more of ye! After all, somebody’s got to haul all our treasure out, am I right?” He smiled at Juris, but whether the man noticed or not in the dimly lit tunnel was not his concern.

The group continued forward, mostly in silence, for several more minutes before walking into an open cavern.

"Now this is more like it!" said Jorgan. "Now we have some elbow room to move around!"

Jorgan sighed, muttering to himself, "Oh now there's room for my steam mech, Digger. I'm half tempted to go back and dig my way here!"

Glancing about, Kalor noticed glow grubs on the ceiling, casting a purplish light over the cavern.

"Greetings!!!" a new mysterious voice quickly filling the cavern and echoing off the walls. "It appears i am little late" This shadowy new comer says barely lit by the grubs purple glow.

Kalor eyed the newcomer suspiciously, not recognizing him from the archaeologists' Guild nor in the field, but he'd heard there were many treasure seekers snooping about, and said, "Have you come alone or have you lost men as we have?"

As he was speaking, Jorgan's little metal assistant tripped over a rock and went tumbling toward a deep crack in the ground, but managed to stop himself before going over the edge.

Jorgan glared at his robotic servant, angry that it had tripped, and a little startled at the newcomer's appearance.

"Who are you and how did you find us down here?" he said, eying the new arrival suspiciously. "Were you following us?"

“I am Viridis Invidius, I come from the sea and have seen the world far and wide many times over” the dimly lit figure said, slowly walking closer to the group into the brighter intensity of the glow and taking form with his arms wide and hands open as if to gesture no ill will.

“In my recent travels of this region, I happened upon information having to do with the mystery and wonders of this cave, that is why I am here and like you I seek answers.”

Juris glanced at the newcomer and then at the others. He wasn't here to lead so he simply let the others do the talking, besides, he was pretty near exhausted from all the walking and climbing they'd been doing since descending.

"That's fascinating," Jorgan said, smiling as he slowly drew out a throwing dagger, adding, "Considering from what I've heard, this is a very recent affair. Care to explain how a sailor or pirate or whatever you are happened upon such information?" He said, fixing his gaze upon the stranger, his form seeming to swallow up much of the purplish light from the glow grubs clinging overhead.

Juris, seeing a weapon being drawn, unbuckled the strap covering his pistol on his holster, and switched off the safety just in case things got nasty.

"Let's keep things calm here", he says, a little unsure of himself. How different from his days as a city guard, I guess that's what a decade of living in a bottle can do to you, he thought.

Kalor saw Juris and Jorgan draw their weapons and realized the situation would soon spiral drastically out of control.

"Everyone please stay calm - there's no reason to raise hostilities at this juncture. I'm sure we can talk this out reasonably."

Juris puts his pistol back in the holster, but takes care to leave it unbuckled with the safety off for now.

"So what's your story, then? Why *are* you here? Specifics...", he says, starting to feel a little more sure of himself after having a weapon in his hand.

“You said this incident occurred recently,-Well I arrived in this area just recently, and had heard about a disturbance and certain interesting things regarding this cave” Viridis said promptly, surreptitiously eyeing both men with their hands within close proximity of their weapons.
“From the information I have gathered, this cave is a curiosity and I merely wish to explore its mysteries and whatever rewards that may come from it-….. I mean you no harm or hostility”.

As Viridis finished, the tunnel began trembling, and a sheet of dirt and rock fell, blocking part of the tunnel behind them. He tumbled out of the way, more agilely than he appeared capable, and said nervously, forcing a smile, "I ... I didn't cause that!"

"Maybe we had better move on. To be honest we could probably use the extra help right? I bet there's far more in there than we can carry anyway.", says Juris, bracing himself against the wall.

Jorgan grunted moodily, though whether over the newcomer or the new situation, further distancing himself from his mech, was unclear.

He grabbed his lantern, which had fallen over during the collapse, and turned without a word, heading deeper into the tunnel, not waiting for the others.

Juris buckled his holster again and switched on the safety, then shrugged.

Saying to the newcomer, he commented, "I think you better walk ahead of us for now, so we can see you, at least until we're sure you can be trusted.", looking to Kalor for support.

Viridis chuckled at Juris's request, saying, "Ha! Fair enough good sir, fair enough.

"Shall we be moving on then, before the rest of the tunnel collapses on us?" he asked pointedly, gesturing to the recent rubble.

"Oh my! Out of the way, little man," Jorgun said, pushing aside Viridis and bolting down the tunnel after his animated bin. "I forgot to tell it to stop! Who knows where it's gotten off to, blast it all!"

Saying nothing and with what looked like a joyous crooked grin on his face, Viridis quickly grabs his satchel, cutlass and pistols he stashed behind rock out of view in case things got intense. After retrieving his things, he stopped to look at the group, smiled widely and then proceeded to shuffle ahead of the group as Juris requested.