TRILEMMA GAME

The creature is indeed humanoid. It wears a scanty loincloth and has a generally genderless appearance. You notice that it's not carrying any light source.

"Of course, the pigments! … (idiots) …" the creature makes an impatient gesture at you, over its shoulder in the direction you were headed. "Hurry up!"

The strange wizened character does not follow you as you trod further along the tunnel, which gets small in places (your torch flame battering and sooting the ceiling) but is not impassable.

You hear the sound of metal striking stone, first faintly ahead of you and then you step out of the tunnel onto a ledge that overlooks a dark space. Although the cavern is large and unlit, you can see frequent small showers of sparks as mining tools strike rock; and you hear a continuous quiet chanting and grunting as workers, all in darkness, wield the tools.

There is a set of steps carved into the ledge leading down into the pigment mine, as that is what this seems to be. Do you think it odd that there are no lights?

The workers toil in darkness, chanting, still invisible to you aside from the sparks struck by their tools. You are guessing that they resemble the creature who sent you here, but you don't yet know.

Descending the steps from the ledge, it is a long way down to the mine floor. Dozens of feet down. The torch light does not reach the far wall where sparks fly at various levels.

The mine floor is muddy with a faint pastel fluorescence in the mud. Not visible from the ledge, with your feet squishing in the moist and pigmented clay it is apparent that some treasure remains to be had, here.

Crossing the floor toward the working wall, the torchlight shows you the base of wooden scaffolding with a ladder going up into darkness. There are no workers near the … wait, the torch shows a small person reclined on the lowest wooden plank platform, at about your chest level. They are asleep, clutching their chisel and scoop to their chest.