Into the Barrier Peaks

Bram
You follow the others into the corridor, and as Merriweather and Etna pass through the doorway it suddenly slides shut, blocking the entryway. Caedwyn and Ilwyn take the front and move into the large room dominated by the mine shaft. The metal grating continues into the various corridors leading out of the chamber, and you can see doors line all of them.

It is extremely dark, and those without some form of light are now effectively blinded. As you take stock, you can hear sounds coming from somewhere within this strange place. Chattering, clangs, creaks and groans all mix into a faint ghostly serenade, but what is most interesting is the underlying humming or vibration that you can just feel in your feet. It is as if some energy is pulsating through the metal of the caverns.

Although the outside temperature was cool, bordering on chilly, inside these strange caves are fairly temperate. Compared to outside, you might even say you feel warm.

Slowly moving around the entry corner, you see a door on the wall. Stopping to examine it, you see that it appears to be solid metal. On the wall to the right of the door is a panel of some kind. There is a small opening, perhaps 2-inches wide and a 1/2 -inch thick. Like the door in the entry, the metal around the slot is a violet color.

Standing before it, Caedwyn sees no means of opening it.

Pace: Slow; Time-In-Caves: 1 minute

Moving down the right hall, you pass doors to both the left and right. In each case, the doors fail to open or provide anything of value with respect to getting them open. Each door in this hallway has a black panel. This branch runs for 60-feet before turning left. While the cave complex is eerie to say the least, until this point it had been rather mundane. Strange sounds, weird vibration, the occasional screech of some unseen animal all serve to keep you on edge, but it is not anything you have not endured before.

At the end of the hall, however, you come to something new. First of all, you see an actual doorway, no door, to the south, and more black doors in the northern turn. At the turn, however, you spot a strange creature. It is squat, bipedal and has two arms sticking stiffly from its sides. It appears to be wearing some suit of armor, as it is encased entirely in metal.

From the looks of it, it must have done battle recently for its breastplate is torn open, revealing strange strings and and wires inside. Scattered around the floor near it are what look to be some sort of tinkerers tools. You get within about 20 feet or so before you realize the creature is not moving. It's 'head' area has a strange tube-like beak protruding, making you think that it must have a weirdly shaped head for sure.


Pace: Slow
Time-in-Caves: 5 minutes

Hraefn
Looking around, you don’t see any signs of a battle. There is a lot of detritus lying about, as if the place was long uninhabited. As I said before, there are what appear to be tinkers tool lying about, but what catches your eye is the glint of something shiny inside the open breastplate.

Lastly, there is an open doorway on the right wall at the end of the corridor.

Hraefn
Carefully reaching your hand into the open breastplate, you move some of the (apparently) damaged metal, wires and ropes to see that there is a panel with 5 gems attached at the very back. Three of them look to be cracked and broken, but you tug on one of the undamaged stones and after a bit of work manage to extract it.

It is a small gem, blue in color, with its edges polished smooth. Your best estimation tells you that you could probably get 20 gold coins for it.