Artemis peers around the corner. Ahead, the tunnel opens up into a large cavern, whose walls are gouged with deep marks of pick and hammer. From some of the cuts still gleam the faintest traces of silver. Scattered around the cave, a few lamps, driven into the walls with spikes, burn with golden light - not a flickering flame as you would expect from lamps of like this, but a steady, unwavering illumination. It is this light which reflects off the few remaining seams of silver in the walls.
At the far end of the cavern, thick wooden beams (the same type that support the ceiling) are laid crossways across the passage to form steps to a second level of the cave, 6 feet above the first. Most of Artemis' view of this level is blocked by the curve of the cave walls, but he can just make out the top of another set of steps leading down. From this direction comes the sound of rushing water which fills the cave.
To the left, a pool of oily looking sludge has collected against the cavern wall. To the right, the cavern is bounded by a sheer 12' cliff which drops from a third level. Again, most of the view of this level is blocked, but near the top of the cliff Artemis can see a patch of sickly green mushrooms, flourishing in the light of one of the lamps.
Three hunched, wizened creatures are huddled against the rock face in the bottom level of the cavern, working at the walls with picks. They alternate tapping at the walls, the several hammers making overlapping echoes through the cavern, and then freezing and listening, ears pressed to the stone. They don't seem to be making any effort to mine the rock face, merely tapping and listening. One of them turns to whisper something to its fellows, and Artemis sees the golden lamplight reflected in two huge luminous circles peering out of the darkness. The tommy-knocker turns back to the rock, and he realizes that it hasn't seen him yet.
On top of the cliff, a fourth tommy-knocker is grubbing at the edge of the mushroom patch.
External map link.
[sblock=Map]
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[sblock=Surprise Round]
The tommy-knockers too focused on their knocking to hear your approach! Everybody choose a square to start in, in row 23 or below, and roll initiative. Then you get 1 action (standard, move, or minor) and as many free actions as you want (but no Action Points). During this action, your foes grant combat advantage. After everyone's taken their surprise round, I'll tell you who beat the tommy-knockers' initiative and gets to go again before they do.
The black areas on the map are those where you don't have line of sight from the entrance. As you move further into the cave I'll reveal more of them.
The fallen rocks at the foot of the cliff are difficult terrain. The pool of sludge is also difficult terrain - at least. The DC to scale the cliff is 15 (Athletics roll) - failing by more than 5 means you got near the top before falling, and take 1d10 damage for falling 10'.
[/sblock]
