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Chapter 49
The Deep Roads
9:30 Dragon, 25th Day of Draconis - Spring (early) - Evening
Our Heroes (and Sergeant Jaq) decided to close the dwarven gates and lock them. We took a breather, but we realized we needed some healing. So, we retreated back into the dungeons under Ishal, and found a large door, magically sealed; the designs on the door seemed Elven. Alpheus was able to dispel the seal, and we entered a large, stately Elven chamber. An intact (but inactive) eluvian stood on the floor, and a strange ball, crackling with green energy, stood near the far wall. The remains of another, broken, eluvian were present.
Three other doors had been sealed by means of a stone-shaping spell -- probably fairly recently, within the last few weeks or months. Eornan claimed that there was "something like this under Edgehall" and determined that several people had died here long ago. The bones and dust on the floor had been disturbed by the more recent visitors.
Over an hour of injury treatments took place; near the end of this some heavy jolts were felt, the largest of which was more like an earthquake. "Probably the Tower of Ishal collapsing" was the consensus.
Bran touched the crackling sphere, which gave him quite a shock. There was no way for us to activate the eluvian (that we knew of).
Landon murmured to Eornan,
"Perhaps the recent intruders here were from Arksmonten?
Would two weeks ago be a possible date for the recent dust-disturbers?"
As we left the elven chamber, Alpheus sealed the door; he felt a bit sick afterwards, for some reason.We lured many of the giant spiders out to fight the darkspawn; in the interval after that, we dashed through the open door to the Deep Roads, closed both halves, engaged the locks, and broke off the handwheels. Darkspawn wouldn't be coming through the doors soon ... though of course they were excellent tunnel-builders. We proceeded roughly north, and briefly stopped to heal Alpheus' injured leg.
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the Deep Roads beneath Ferelden
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These roads were built by the dwarves as passages between the various thaigs and mines below Thedas. It's known that the Deep Roads extended all the way to Gwaren.
The network below Ferelden, at least, is hundreds or thousands of feet below the surface. The "Deep Roads" proper are wide underground highways, with slow-burning lamps, magma channels providing heat, and inns at long intervals. Intricate dwarven carvings appear on the walls; persons who know how to read the Dwarven language may gain useful information from these.
Smaller passages branch off from the Deep Roads, to villages, the actual mines and mining camps. These passages are often hardly wide or high enough for a dwarf to swing an axe.
In Ferelden, the Deep Roads far from the Frostbacks, or close to the surface, have often lost their connection to the magma vents, wells, and air ducts which once made travel much easier. An un-heated Deep Road is bitterly cold. The ever-burning lamps have largely been extinguished or stolen.
Fortunately for Our Heroes, some of the cisterns and road-side water basins were still filled from above; or, in other cases, cracks in the ceiling allowed water to enter from the natural aquifers above.
Mushrooms and fungi flourish, but a skilled Herbalist is needed to determine their uses or dangers.
Deepstalkers, nugs, thaig crawlers (aka spiders), brontos, dragonlings, various spirits and undead, and some darkspawn can be encountered in the Deep Roads beneath Ferelden.
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From this point on, several days of subterranean travel went by. We were always able to find water; more often than not, we found an abandoned village or or inn to shelter in during the night. Landon's pendant could tell direction and the time -- very useful. The Servant's Rations box provided 1.5 pounds of fruitcake, and 3 gallons of water, each day; a bronto we met provided several pounds of meat. Landon's Preserving Box could store 115 cubic inches (2 quarts) of food -- usually about 4 pounds.
Every day, we met hostile creatures, activated ancient traps, had to jump over cracks in the floor, and otherwise were worn down by the journey. Within a day or so, our strength and alertness had diminished due to the cold and the meager diet.
9:30 Dragon, 30th Day of Draconis - Spring (technically)
We came across a supply of edible mushrooms to supplement our diet on this day.
Unfortunately, we had to retrace several miles of our travels this day, when we found a dead end. We had been generally going north or east.
In the evening, some of us had strange, ominous dreams. An effect of the mushrooms? Alpheus announced that the Veil was very thin in the area.
9:30 Dragon, 5th Day of Cloudreach - Spring (north of here, really)
Some members of the party awoke with headaches. We heard faint scuttlings or footsteps to the east. A faint breeze led us into a narrow tunnel, which had the look of something carved by monsters.
Soon we encountered seven Big Ugly Bugs, and had a brief combat; Jek, Alpheus and Bran were injured.
Pushing past the bug ambush, we came upon a brass sign, with the word "OUT" written in the Elvish language. It looked very much like the signs we'd seen in the Dearmed settlement, months ago. The possible presence of glory metal ore might have explained the headaches. We eagerly pushed forward.
More of the OUT signs were seen, and we followed them.
Eventually our route brought us to a large intersection, with a cavern finished in the Elven style, and a number of Dearmed workers and guards -- and some of their domesticated Big Ugly Bugs. The way forward seemed to lead us through the chamber. One of the Dearmed was a shaman, possessed by a pride demon (according to Alys).
Our journey so far from Ostagar: 140 miles.
On to A Wanted Man
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