[sblock=Weel]
"No! Volidar gasps, sounding horrified. "I lost him! I couldn't hold on..."
It takes you a moment to realize what he's talking about, distracted as you are by your surroundings. You are underground, in a small cavern illuminated only by a bank of phosphorescent crystals high overhead. You and Volidar are standing on a flat stone, roughly circular, some two feet above the packed earth of the cave's floor. You and Volidar... and no one else. Karm is not there.
"He could be anywhere! From the tower of fire to an island in the middle of the ocean, or miles underground with no easy road to sunlight... " Volidar takes several deep breaths, composing himself. "But there is nothing we can do for him now, save only pray that Verdante guide his steps better than I have done. He seemed a hardy soul. Perhaps there is some greater plan for him... And we yet have work to do. Come, I will show you the way onward, but I must depart immediately to see if I can find any news of your friend."
Volidar summons a pearly ball of light onto the top of his instrument case where it protrudes from his shoulder. He leads you to the single exit from the cavern, a narrow, natural tunnel that soon widens and smooths into something obviously made by intelligent creatures, and intersecting shortly thereafter into a wider tunnel, also artificial, with a gentle slope. He points in the uphill direction, where you can see a light in the distance.
"That way lies Umraecyl's bazaar, where the adventurers are destined. I do not know what their purpose is there, nor indeed whether they have yet arrived or are still en route. I do know their names, which are these: Octavio, Tankard, William, Jinx, and Phelan."
After wishing you well, Volidar turns and moves quickly downhill into the darkness.
ooc: Feel free to ask Volidar questions; I don't mean to rush you, just wanted to get the general shape of events down.
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