Spheres of Influence:Rhiannon in Jepardy? GAME

Continuing... READYING 5, 232. Water-Day

Rumble, rumble, bump, bump... on an on goes the trail Towards Malta.

After the second day, the farms are basicly gone, the road is a well-used, but much rougher trail now. Sheldon, a man of few words, calls to the four of you at dinner the second night.
"I pay ya, not much, but I pay ya. Can ya hunt some game for the dinners?"
"Make yerselfs useful."

As it is better than sitting on a wagon, Inwe finds heself able to not only catch three or four rabbits daily, but also she finds the roots, herbs, and berries to make a decent field stew each day. [+12 survival]

On the eighth day, the weather turns dark and cold. A rainy sleet falls mercilessly for most of the morning, and, while it stops at lunch, it is still very cold. Earle and Zane beg Sheldon to let them stop early. They know of a cave just to the south of the road that would allow everyone, and the horses, to dry out and warm up. "Alright" he reluctantly agrees.

A bumpy ride about two miles off the road, you come to an opening in the rocky hills you have been skirting to your south. It does indeed look like a cave, but from this distance you can not determine its characteristics yet.

You are at the wagons, about 1000 feet from the cave entrance. The ground becomes too rocky for the wagon to continue.

Airith

Airith drops his saddle and gear out the back of the wagon and jumps down. "Smoke come here, I can't carry all this gear by myself." Smoke comes over and Airith places the saddle on him and begins strapping it down. "There you go." Airith sees the others are tending to the wagons and horses. So, instead of getting in the way, Airith looks around and sees a boulder for him to stand on and get a better view of the area. It looks very cold and lifeless, rocks and snow surround the area.

Inwe

Inwe gathers her things and climbs down from the wagon. Then looks around for what more she can do to prepare to move to the cave for camp.

Airith

After Airith looks the area over he sees that Earle is having some trouble with the horses and heads over to help him. Airith takes the reins and Earle starts unhooking the horses from the wagon.
"I take it we are leaving the wagons here?"
"Yup, should be safe enough, off the beaten track and all. Besides, they'd need a team of horses ta get 'em out of here."
Seeing that Earle has things under control now and the others look ready to go Airith points to the cave to direct Smoke where to go.
"You go on ahead and check things out. I'll be fine walking from here." Smoke begins to make his way to the cave.

Approaching the cave

Smoke goes about 300 feet closer, wandering back and forth in the valley leading to the cave. He stops to smell different boulders and rocks, as dogs do.

At one point, he races about half way up the valley wall and dives two pawed into a hole, scratching and digging wildly for a minute of two. Giving up on whatever he saw, he continues down the ravine toward the cave, and stops at the mouth of the cave, looking inside.
(A chipmunk scurries out of the hole and over the ravine wall when the coast is clear)

Smoke appears content to sit just inside the cave on dry ground watching the party approach.

Earle and Sheldon are the first to arrive, with Airith a half step behind. Relsyn, Inwe, and Wrinkle finish getting their bags and arrive a few seconds later.

The cave entrance

The sun is beginning to get lower on the western horizon, with probably one to two hours before sunset.

The clearing where you left the wagons is on a wider flat area where it appears several ravines come down off a rocky ridge that extends as far as you can see east or west. The ravines are not very large, perhaps a thousand feet deep and mostly straight, perpendicular to the axis of the ridge. [ entrance almost due south of wagons ]

The cave you are heading to is fairly clear from the wagons, and in the ravine leading up to the cave, soggy leaves and tangles of branches cover the ground. Trees have fallen over the ravine in places, but appear to have been cut and cleared some time back for a trail. From the bottom of the trail, all you can see is up to the ridge and the cave in its side. Smoke, the dog, is sitting watching you approach.

...

The party is standing at the mouth of the cave. [See pic on post 131]
There is a small hollow to the left, about eight feet deep and four in diameter. The bottom looks as if it has been flattened a little. The main entrance is an oval about nine feet tall by six feet wide. Looking in, past Smoke who is looking for an ear scratch, the cave goes in about ten feet and then you can't see much.

Wrinkle continues in ... a few seconds later he comes out and smailes, waving everyone in.

Inside the cave is a room, approximately triangular. Entering at one point, the room extends down and out, perhaps seventy feet deep. It appears horses have been previously stabled on the left side [East]. A natural rock pillar in the center hides an old fire pit from the entrance. It is dry in here, and should be acceptable for sleeping, just as Earle and Zane said.

Airith

Airith looks around the cave, "Cozy", and sets his pack down on the ground. "Smoke come here so I can get that stuff off you." Smoke walks over and has his saddle removed. Airith gives him a good scratch of the ears, "Now be a good boy and watch the entrance." Smoke walks to the entrance and finds a dry place to lay down close to the entrance but still inside enough to block the wind. Airith proceeds to get out of his wet winter qear and hangs it up to let it dry out.

Earle and Zane are tending to the horses, while Sheldon takes what little firewood is available to the fire pit. Airith offers, "I'll go see if I can find anything to get a fire started", and heads to the entrance to see if any of the sticks or brush there is dry enough to light a fire.

Inwe

Setting down her pack and the couple other sacks she carried to the cave, Inwe walks around the whole cave looking for any possible hiding places or hidden doorways [search]. Cildar follows, sniffing at the floor and walls. Then they walk to the fire pit to help start a fire and find food for the evening.

Inwe

[search]
Working around the cavern, Inwe discovers a door in the wall of the West wall. It is crudely hidden, with stones and dirt piled against it to make it look like the rest of the cave wall. While crudely hidden, it appears to be strongly built with no hinges or latches obvious.

Wrinkle, who is sitting against the wall next to the door, looks up and smiles at Inwe.
Both spend some time clearing the debries away from the door, which draws the attention of the others.

"I'll be..." gawks Earle, "never saw that before." He moves around trying to get a good view of the progress while rubbing the scars on his arms.

Zane manages a "huh" before returning to brush the horses.

Sheldon only looks that way briefly before returning to the fire pit, striking his flint into the tender and gently blowing on the wood and curl of smoke beginning to unfurl.
"Hey, get wood. Open that later." his voice booms to no one in particular.

With the debries cleared, and no obvious way to open the door, Inwe returns to the fire pit, hands a few twigs to Sheldon, and heads out to find some more. She meets Airith outside and both gather the wood while she informs him of the door.

The others tend to making camp in the shelter.

Airith

Airith ventures out of the cave and begins to look for anything dry and burnable. The sleet and rain wasn't overly heavy but it has made his search very frustrating. After a couple of minutes he manages to find a few branches that are at least somewhat dry and should burn without a whole lot of trouble. He brings in an arm full of branches and sets it down by the fire pit. Sheldon is busy trying to get the fire started and Zane and Earle continue to brush the horses.

Sheldon looks at the small pile of wood that Airith brought in, "That won't last long."
"Sorry but the rain has made it difficult to find anything worth burning. I'll go try the other side of the cave and bring back what I find."

Airith heads out the cave and looks around the other side of the cave entrance. His search produces even less than last time and most he isn't even sure is dry enough for the fire. Airith starts to head back to the cave when he sees a small tree branch under an outcropping of rocks. He takes a good look at it and it appears that it is dry and of good size. It must have broken off a tree up the hill and some how gotten itself wedged in the rock. Airith gives it a good couple of yanks before it comes free and takes it back to the cave entrance.
(branch: 6-inches wide or so and probably 6-8 feet long, not super heavy but draggable.)

Airith enters the cave to see a small fire going.
"Here you are Sheldon, should be able to get a couple logs out of this."
"Yea, that looks better. Zane start chopping that thing into some decent size logs."
Airith takes his wet coat off again and lays it in a dry spot next to his things.