You leave the brutalized remnants of the gnoll hunting parties behind, heading towards the mist-covered Cliffs where you will find the Wailing Caves. A whistling wind blows out from the Caves and clears the unhealthy mists from the surrounding area, giving you the best visibility that you've had since your awakening. The Caves themselves look like a series of small and large tunnels patched together in a way to resemble a twisted and screaming face if you were to strain your imagination. The lowest cave is also the largest and resembles an open mouth. Two smaller caves rest over a ledge just above the lower cave and below a rock potrusion, making these two caves appear as if nostrils. The final two caves are at the same level as one another and further above the 'nostrils'. Being slightly larger they resemble eyes on a face. At times the wind blows harder and the whistling gathers in pitch until it sounds like an uncontrollable wail of sorrow that chills you to the bone.
The Wailing Caves are undefended and there seems to be no sign of danger, and a series of interlocking trails and outcroppings would make it easy to ascend into them. You will need to go through the Caves if you are to reach the lands on the other side and assault the Life Tree. But you will need better weapons and equipment. After some searching along the base of the Cliffs, you easily find the quartz boulder Tak High-Streams-Skirmish had mentioned to you. But you realize that you do not know how to open the way into hidden cache. After some examination it is Mellisande who notices a strange pattern of straight and snaking lines intersecting into the rock. As she touches the lines some remain glowing in a dull blue light, but when she touches the wrong line all glowing lines disappear. The touching of the lines act as some sort of combination lock, but she can't break the puzzle. She stands frustrated for a moment, unsure of what to do until Arkos watches over series of lines and recognizes a shape. "Congruent helices," Arkos says, the knowledge coming natural to him. He traces his finger along two parrallel snaking lines and some perpendicular straight ones. The blue glowing lines flash together for one instance and there is a clicking noise, followed by the rumbling sound of a quartz door sliding on rollers. The cache has been opened and allows the party entrance to the magically lit rooms beyond, before closing behind the last party member in order to keep the secret safe.
And quite a cache it is, with a series of four large cavernous rooms. The first room is a barracks of sort with two dozen simple bunk beds and empty chests to hold items for inhabitants. The second room is a pantry holding dried fruits and meats in packaging to keep them fresh. A flowing fountain of surprisingly clear water streams a couple of feet off the ground. The third room holds an amazing amount of weapons and defenses. You find twenty water flasks, fifteen backpacks, six bedrolls, ten healer's kits, ten fully-charged wands of cure light wounds, eight reinforced pieces of breast armor that act as masterwork breastplates, twelve masterwork studded leather vests, thirty sunrods, ten thunderstones, fifteen tanglefoot bags, ten smoke sticks, fifteen masterwork swords, twenty masterwork quaterstaffs, fourteen masterwork longbows, six masterwork shortbows, twenty masterwork daggers, 300 arrows, a dozen fully charged belts of shield, thirteen fully charged wands of magic missile (5th), seven fully charged wands of Melf's acid arrow and three staves of fireball (5th) that act as wands, but hold only twenty charges and weighs twenty-five pounds. A number of fully expended and useless wands and staves lay in a pile along the far wall.
The fourth and final room is a firing range of sorts with painted rocks blasted with fire and propped mattresses riddled with piercings from arrows. This is by far the largest and ill-kept room. No personal effects are found by anyone, except by Nerin who discovers an old music box left and forgotten behind a chest next to one of the bunk beds. He winds it up and opens the box, which causes music to start playing and a tiny toy ballerina to pop up and do a twirling circle. It's a lovely, soft melody full of affection and mirth. Behind the ballerina is a portrait of an attractive woman giving a half-smile. At the bottom of the picture is the word 'Melissa', most likely the lady's name. She has a close resemblance to Mellisande, though the woman is obviously human. Nerin looks up and sees Mellisande humming the tune from the music box in perfect synch, her eyes closed in rapture. She says automatically, "It's from Verritti's fourth and best opera. He wrote it for his daughter while spending his nights with her next to her sick bed." A moment later she can't explain where the memory came from.