Note: I got some things out of order in the post above; they had searched part of the valley before the wyvern arrived; the shallow cave referred to below was one they found.
Finding the Mine
The day was largely spent combing the northern face of the valley and finding nothing, just a few more shallow caves that led nowhere. They'd spotted some the day before as well, but a quick check indicated that they were little more than hollows in the earth.
As evening fell, the party returned to one of them, hoping it might provide sufficient space to be defensible... and when Greppa poked summoned daylight into the hollow, they noticed a hole once hidden by shadows.
Greppa, the only one who could fit through it, poked his head through carefully, and saw only a narrow waterhole leading down. Shrugging, he summoned more daylight down the hole.
Obscured somewhat by a pair of tiny stalactites at the edge of the hole, and about thirty feet below the cave, a smooth, carved floor was just visible.
"I found the mine!"
Everyone wanted to take a look, but there was no way anyone was getting down the hole. They still had to find the entrance. With the knowledge of where it was, roughly, they began scouring the area until finally, as night deepened, Greppa found a boulder with sun light leaking from its edge. A closer examination revealed that the boulder had been wedged into a door, then left to grow foliage cover. It was an awful big boulder.
So Athan psyched himself up, and Arkos and Kyliados grabbed the edges, then Athan roared in effort as he hauled up on the boulder. Arkos and Kyliados, caught by surprise, were lending no help - they merely watched in surprise as Athan staggered a few steps back with just under a ton of rock in his arms... and then fell backwards on the slope. Athan yelped as the boulder rolled over him, cracking a few ribs and bruising his face, then rolled to his feet and glared at the two Keraunesti.
"What? We were just so impressed, that... well.."
He continued glaring, but Greppa was watching the boulder as it slowly rolled, end over end, down the slope. "We have to stop it. Or get it back up here."
"No way are we getting that back up here."
"But... we've uncovered the mine shaft! Anyone could walk by and find it after we've left!"
"We're not hauling that boulder up here. You want it, you do it."
Greppa tried to do just that, summoning shadow servants for hours until he figured out that their duration was ending before he'd summoned sufficient numbers of them. He came back up the slope - it was the middle of the night, and the others had settled down to wait for him.
"I couldn't get it. So, I guess the question is... all we need to do is go in, make sure it's a mine, then head back and get paid to show someone where it is, right?"
Merideth grinned slyly, "Well... we could do that. But this mine, if you're right, is what, five hundred years old? And it was lost without ever clearing it out? There's got to be some cool stuff in there..."
It was agreed within minutes - greed over speed. Greppa summoned a pair of mud dolls to warn him of movement, one a few tends of feet within the mine shaft, the other in the party's sleeping area, and everyone went to sleep.
Greppa's only warning was the faint sense of connection to the mud doll when it ceased to exist in this realm. Magical energies, unseen by the unaided eye, ripped through the area, tearing magical bonds and cutting off power supplies. Everyone's earth's skin held, but only Greppa's and Arkos' earth's strength held.
Everyone but Arkos woke up immediately, as the earth elemental's strength leaked from them like water. As they stood up, heavy sand seemed to weigh on their minds as several powerful espers extinguished their consciousness.
Greppa and Athan remained awake just long enough for Athan to hurl one spear into the mine, and for Greppa to start looking for targets. Then blackness.
Nightmares
A face looked down at Merideth, eyes bubbling out of its skull in all directions. It had a small mouth, almost an afterthought, and two slits for a nose. One pair of eyes sat where human eyes would be, then, starting where a human's third eye was imagined to be, there was a line of them running back along the ridge of the skull. Another line ran diagonally parallel to them, another pair sat where cheekbones should be, and more seemed a bit more randomly placed about the bottom/back of the skull.
All of the eyes were deep black, and the whites were barely visible at the edges. They stared at Merideth, as long, slender fingers pensively tickled at the lower lip of the tiny mouth.
In her mind, she could hear them speaking, "This one, like us, but an organger." "So it is." "Is it lithung?"
Pain.
"Not lithung. Trained." "Possibly dowagen?"
Pain again.
"Not dowagen. And alone. They have learned." "We could use a friend."
A pause.
"It is awake."
Blackness.
Conversations in the Dark
Faint light. Merideth was in a chair, a bit tall for her, but well padded. She was not tied. Dim lanterns barely provided sufficient light to see by, but she could see that there were three of the eye tyrants seated near her. And in her mind, their voices...
"Forgive our treatment of you."
"Your people have little love for us.
"We were frightened. We did not know."
She wanted to scream. She managed a squeak. More calmly, she mentally sent her thoughts out, hoping they could catch it, "What are you going to do with me... us?"
"It is of no consequence to us where you go."
"Our research. We must remain hidden."
"We wish only to send you away."
Her head was beginning to pulse from their concentration, and it was uncomfortable, "Are you... I mean, I don't understand. Why?"
"We are refugees. We are nothing."
"We will be destroyed if your people find us."
"Why did you come here?"
"Wait... wait. We didn't come looking for you... we just.. wanted to find the mine. It represents wealth to our people."
"We must keep the mine."
"We must keep it hidden."
"We must keep it safe."
Merideth paused. She thought she might be beginning to understand what was going on - these people were refugees from their world (and indeed, their clothing seemed somewhat ragged compared to her own finery), and this mine was the only safe place for them in her world. And damn, telepathy was cool.
"If I... if we promised to keep your place secret, would you let us go?"
"Your promise is good to us. We can feel your mind."
"The others are like stone, they have no capacity for speech, only noises."
"Can we trust you?"
"Yes. You can trust me. I will vouch for my friends. Please, let us go. We can find another way to wealth."
"The words feel true."
"The others may not agree. We can not trust them."
"We could bind them."
"Wait, what, what is binding?"
"We would excise memories of this place."
"You would still remember. They would forget."
"We would trust you with our lives."
"Ah, how much... how much damage will this do to them?"
"We can not remove everything. They will know what has happened."
"Many become confused after."
"There is no permanent harm."
In this fashion, Merideth discussed the issue with them until she was certain it would not actually hurt her friends, then, "I... Okay, I guess we have to do this. I mean, we have to survive right? I promise that I won't tell anyone you are here, or where 'here' is. I'll protect your secret."
"Thank you."
"Our friendship is yours."
"You may go."
They led her to her friends, who were laid out in a coma-like state on slabs of stone. The trio of eye tyrants began working on each one, erasing memories of the mine... then waking them up, held by mind magicks, and compelling them to answer questions. Merideth acted as translator from mindspeech to vocalization, as the eye tyrants methodically discovered how, given what they had erased so far, each person might try to recover the lost information. Then another session of memory removal.
Merideth cried a lot, but it was necessary. She didn't feel like much of an adventurer right now, but she had to get her friends out alive.
Time passed swiftly in the darkness. The process took weeks. The eye tyrants were thorough and careful - they wanted an ally outside, and Merideth was such, but she would not be if they were not careful with her friends.
And in the meantime, they shared with Merideth. Asked her about the outside world, and explained their purpose - to establish (but slowly and oh so carefully) diplomatic ties between their knowledge and her world. They were all teachers, they said, who had been banned for their controversial beliefs. Merideth, they said, was proof of their beliefs, an organger (meat creature) who had trained an ability to mindspeech.
There were many things they did not say, but Merideth failed to notice. There was too much to learn.
Then, release.
They blindfolded her, and led her up through darkened mine shafts. Telekinetic powers carried the others. By cover of night, they travelled overland, until they were near Aglaonis. Here, they parted ways.
"We thank you again."
"Keep us safe."
"Return when you can. We have much to teach."
Consciousness
Greppa was the first to wake up. He looked around and saw everyone lying in states of repose. Merideth was snoring very softly.
He could vaguely remember visions of humanoid creatures with staring, black eyes. He could remember looking for the mine, but he couldn't remember where it was... or even what book he had found the original reference in. It had been a chance footnote he'd noticed - it would take months, possibly years, to scour the books for it again.
Of the fur trapper, he remembered nothing at all.
He woke everyone else, and the story was the same. Merideth seemed to remember more - her description of their appearance was a bit more detailed than his own memories, but she knew nothing more than those details. It made sense - espers had mental training that rivalled that of the arcanists, even if some arcanists failed to take note of that.
He felt violated. Psychically raped. But for the moment, there was nothing he could do about it, so, with typical Theralese practicality, he focused on making sure everyone was okay.
Oddly enough, everyone's equipment was untouched. Even the spear Athan had thrown was returned to him.
After some discussion, they began the march back to Theralis. They couldn't deal with this right now, and Greppa wanted the comfort of his tower around him... and the scraps of paper he'd scribbled for Athan, when they had discussed this prior.
.
In that one, it took two repetitions to get everything right. The same here? Hmm...
