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Multi-day adventures are usually more rewarding than single day ones, but there’s a downside. You have to, at some point, settle down for some rest in whatever inhospitable place you have business in. The Nine Shrines crew have managed to get themselves deep inside of a rather frigid cave network. And they might have gotten a tad lost.
Ashe at first attempted to keep the group moving at a measured pace through the caverns so that she could mark the path they had taken. She had hoped that this would allow them to backtrack and campout in the slightly more hospitable wilderness surrounding the the caves. Gregor, however, being Gregor, preferred that they charge into depths, hoping to find the missing persons that had reportedly wandered into the cave.
So far his hurry has done them little good; there was no sign of anything particularly odd about the caverns, other than their strangely frigid temperature. It has succeeded in leaving them lost in the tunnels, though.
— — — — —
“So, none of these stalactites and stalagmites are looking familiar to me,” Markus says as he moves about the fireball that he holds in one palm to help the others see.
“Yeah, and while I know you guys can keep on trucking forever, but,” Kyr says, interrupted by a yawn, “I am getting worn out with all this getting lost in icy tunnels.”
“Well, I’m sorry, I’m a good cartographer, but I can’t make the best maps when racing through dark caves at breakneck speed,” Ashe states, with a glare pointed at Gregor.
“Alright, let’s just clam down,” Markus says glancing into a nook in the cavern. “We’ll just set up camp here, get some rest, and continue our spelunking adventures in the morning.”
Markus pulls some surprisingly large pieces of firewood from his bag and build a fire.
“How can you carrying those, Markus?” Gregor asks.
“Enchanted bags are wonderful things, Gregor. One should never leave home without one.”
With the fire built, and the smoke from it mysteriously disappearing, they set about cooking a small meal from their rations. Skewers of meat and sweet potatoes and parsnips are cooked over the fire.
Light from the flames causes their section of the cavern to be light up in the eery manner associated with campfires. The side of the nook that opens on the rest of the cavern fades into darkness. In the whole scheme of things, this nook is by far the best place for a camp that they have seen in these caverns. It’s a small, half circle chink in the cavern wall, with a diameter of about four meters.
Ashe eats quickly and, not feeling up for much conversation, decides to turn in for the night. Ashe’s blanket was, of course, as cold as the cavern, which did nothing to help her already sour mood. She pulls it over herself, turns away from the fire and the others, and shivers a little bit.
Markus sighs. Glancing back and forth from the oblivious Gregor, who is talking animatedly with Kyr, and the grumpy, shivering Ashe, Markus pulls out his own blanket. He looks over the blanket to make sure none of the contents of his bag have contaminated it and then shakes it as if to clear dust off it. There’s a hiss, a few trails of steam rise off the blanket. Satisfied with that, Markus fishes around in his bag until he produces a small bottle of Fogapple juice.
He takes one last glance at Gregor and Kyr, who are thoroughly distract, and then wanders over to Ashe.
“I’m not in the mood to talk, Markus”
“I know. I’m not going to make you talk, but I will certainly talk quite a bit, it's my best event. . . If you don’t bite my head off for it.”
“What?” Ashe says tiredly.”
“Gregor didn’t mean to get us lost. He just doesn’t understand how taking a deliberate approach is different from wasting time when he thinks people may be in danger”
“I know, it’s just-he-If he’d just been a little more patient we might have avoided getting lost and . . . How does he expect us to save anyone if we can’t get out of these stupid caves ourselves?!”
“He isn’t thinking about getting out. In his mind that’s step two, which shouldn’t be worried until step one is complete.”
“And step one is find the people, beat up monster.”
“Precisely.”
With that Markus reached over placing the Fogapple juice down in front of Ashe’s face and threw his warmed blanket over her. Ashe was quite surprised by the development. After a moment’s hesitation, Ashe grasps the Fogapple juice with one hand and the blanket with the other.
“Thanks.”
“You’re very welcome.”
Markus settled down leaning against the cave wall, a couple meters away from Ashe’s spot on the floor. A handful of minutes later Kyr and Gregor settle down to sleep near the fire, shouting out numerous ‘goodnights’ to the other members of the party. Unsurprisingly, they get little more than a growl from Ashe.
Fifteen minutes of feigning later, Markus decides that this cave is freakishly cold. As in, insanely, not-of-this-world, center-ring-of-hell cold. He had given up his blanket figuring his tiefling nature would keep him warm enough, but now Markus was realizing that the only reason he had been comfortable earlier was due to the warmth caused by the motion through the caverns. Now, Markus was feeling quite divided on his lack of blanket. Part of him was quite glad he had given it to Ashe, because if he was getting chilled, Ashe would be freezing without the extra blanket. The other part of him really wished he had a blanket.
Markus was jarred from his thoughts by the sound of Gregor and Kyr shifting and murmuring. Clearly they had noticed the unbearable cold, too.
“What you think Gregor, sharing a blanket?” Kyr was asking Gregor.
“I think that is one of your best ideas yet, Kyr.”
“I thought so.”
The two shuffle around the fire, eventually settling down next to each other under their blankets. Markus restrains a shiver and hunches towards the fire, giving up on the charade of sleep. He stares into the flames, and then reaches in and grabs an ember from the base of the fire. Markus cradles the tiny bit of warmth in his palms.
Ashe sits up. Markus, surprised, drops the ember. It skitters across the cave floor quietly, leaving a trail of glowing sparks. Ashe walks over, blankets held on like a cloak with one hand, the bottle of Fogapple juice, now half gone, in the other. She slings the blankets around both of them as she sits down against the wall next to Markus. The bottle sits between them under the blankets. Wordlessly, Markus takes the bottle, carefully swallows only a few drops of the liquid, and returns the bottle to its place. Ashe then does similarly, taking a large swig of the juice instead of a few drops. They repeat this until the bottle stands empty below the blanket, and Markus least dozes off leaning against the wall and Ashe.