Part 4: Wave Echo Cave

The following morning, you leave early and find the cave about fifteen miles to the east, well-hidden among the hills. It is going on evening now, and you have perhaps two hours of sunlight left in the day as you stare at the entrance to the cave, a five-foot wide opening in the stone.

The entrance (from the southwest) tunnel leads into a large cavern supported by a natural pillar of rock and containing three stalagmites. In the western part of the cave, behind the column of rock, are three bedrolls and a heap of ordinary supplies - sacks of flour, bags of salt, casks of salted meat, lanterns, flasks of lamp oil, pickaxes, shovels, and other gear. Amid the supplies, you see the body of a dwarf miner, dead for at least a week.

The northeastern section of the cave has collapsed, forming a ten-foot-wide, twenty-foot-deep pit. A sturdy hemp rope is tied off around a nearby stalagmite and dangles down the side of the pit, at the bottom of which is a rough-hewn tunnel heading northwest and east.

The dwarf had his throat slit and no signs of a struggle. It appears that whoever did it was very skilled at that sort of work. During the course of your investigation, you notice that everything about his is dirty, with the exception of his very nice boots, which are pretty much spotless.

There are tracks leading both in and out, but never in great numbers.

Kama can't see anything new with his darkvision. Just the pit in the floor, the sturdy rope, and the paths leading northwest and east from the pit.

The supplies look to be untouched, and Stormsong is able to find a hooded lantern there. He is, however, not familiar enough with Gundren to see a resemblance.

Stormsong also notices that the boots look much cleaner than the rest of his garments.

Xora and Kama descend the rope into the pit with no issues. There is a hallway leading east and one leading northwest.