The escapees emerged from the pile of rubble with surprisingly little wear and tear.
“Hmmm…” Balthier mused to himself, “it seems we’ve crashed into a subterranean corridor; I’m not ordinarily one to believe déjà vu, but—”
Unfortunately, the Archadian sky pirate’s monologue was interrupted by Vaan, who let loose a scream as he tackled the now-unshackled Basch fon Ronsenburg.
You’re not going to interfere? Carbuncle asked his master, who was looking on with some concern.
No, Ranma replied. My instincts tell me there’s something bigger going on here, and I don’t want to get too involved until I know exactly what I’m getting involved in.
Balthier, on the other hand, was clearly in no mood for this kind of distraction, particularly when they interrupted his celebrated pithy observations. He strode over to the pair and pulled Vaan off of the erstwhile prisoner, flinging him to the ground to punctuate his rebuke: “Spare us your quiddities.”
Vaan’s vocabulary wasn’t quite developed enough to fully grasp what a “quiddity” was, but the basic message still came through, if his confused defense was any indication. “Yeah, but— but he’s a—”
“A traitor. I know. Stay here and fight if you want.” Balthier turned around to face the most recent addition to the group. “If you can walk, let’s go.”
Vaan seemed flabbergasted at this. “You’re taking him with us?!”
“We’re going to need as much help as we can get if we’re to get out of here. We could use another sword arm.”
The emaciated man finally managed to stand up. “And you have it. However, I can hardly provide a sword to go with it.”
Much to everyone’s surprise, Ranma seemed to be right on top of this problem, as he wrenched a broken length of metal away from the base of the broken cage and handed it to the bearded man. “Will this do?”
Basch gripped the steel bar in his hand—it was slightly shorter than the broadsword he’d wielded for the late Raminas, several kilograms heavier, and had a noticeable bend in the middle as a result of the impact. Still, it would greatly improve his reach—which was likely to be important, since he had no armor at the moment. “Yes… I believe it shall, at least until I can find something better. Though I must say that I’m impressed that you were able to wrench it away so easily.”
“Uh, yeah… well, I’ve picked up a few things over the years.”
This seemed to satisfy the newcomer, though it cuased Balthier to raise his eyebrow in suspicion yet again. Still, the Archadian sky pirate seemed content to let the matter drop, at least until the party found its way out of the dank corridors ahead.
It didn’t take very long for Ranma to notice something rather unusual. “Hey, why is the floor paved?”
“To ease the wanderer’s burden, more than likely,” Fran replied.
“Huh? So, this ain’t no ordinary cave?”
“Hardly,” Basch replied. “This is the Barheim Passage, the main artery of the mines underneath Nalbina. ”
“Yes,” Balthier continued, “the oubliette likely doubles as a ventilation shaft for the miners—which also allows less valuable prisoners to be lowered down to serve as canaries. Very clever design, that—hullo, what’s this?” The sky pirate strode towards a small alcove, where several highly reflective urns stood out.
“Ah, emergency supply chests,” he said as he opened one up and retrieved several small bottles containing a viscous, blue liquid. “And the potions are still in sound condition—that means that this route is still being used, since someone’s gone to the trouble of making sure these are well-stocked.” He pocketed several of the vials. “We may yet be able to pull off this little escape; after all, where there are mines, one tends to find adits.” He strolled over to a wrought-iron sconce on the wall. “Unless I miss my guess, these fixtures are powered by electric magick, rather than oil. Perhaps there’s a switch to be found.”
As it so happened, there was such a switch in the next room, situated on a wooden column and illuminated by a flickering emergency light.
Being the inquisitive type, Ranma stepped up to the switch and pressed it, causing… absolutely nothing to happen. “Huh… I guess it’s not working.”
“Let’s have a look.” Balthier stepped forward to examine the timeworn device more closely. “Hmmm… the fuse is blown. That would explain why there’s no power reaching the switch. If the wiring is any indication, I’d say this is a central power relay of some sort. As it stands, I doubt we’ll find much still running down here.”
Ranma briefly considered using some of the skills he’d learned in a recent Martial Arts Home Improvement match, but the party had already headed down some nearby stairs. Where they found a bangaa sitting by a gate with some supplies.
As it turned out, this particular bangaa was of a more friendly disposition than any of the others Ranma had met; he stood up, smiled (at least, Ranma thought it was a smile—the shape of the reptilian creature’s mouth made it somewhat difficult to tell), and extended a hand in greeting. “Hello, there! Name’s Burrogh. Don’ get many visitors down here. You folks come scavengin’ fer odds and ends, have you?”
“Our business is our own,” Fran replied. “We would, however, know the nearest exit.”
“Oh, the way out? It’s just back up those stairs—”
“Ah, that’s gonna be a problem,” Vaan said. “It’s kinda been blown to smithereens.”
“To smithereens, you say?! Can’t say I’m surprised, what with that crashing noise a few minutes ago. That makes things a sight more complicated, it does.” The bangaa sighed. “There’s nothing left but to find some other way out through the tunnels. You’ll need to get the power working again, though, ’fore that gate’ll budge.”
“We suspected as much,” Balthier replied. “However, the fuse is blown.”
“Oh, that’s not a problem,” Burrogh replied. “I’ve got a spare right here. Wouldn’t make sense to come down here without some sort of backup, right?” The bangaa placed a glass tube in the pirate’s hands. “Made that myself—I’m a tinker, by trade, and these old mines are filled with useful parts. It’s as good as any you’ll find on the market—better than most, in fact.” One quick trip back upstairs proved that the bangaa had more than just talk to back him up: the room brightened within seconds.
“Well, that’s certainly gonna be better than travelin’ in the dark,” Ranma observed. “So, should we be going?”
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(Posted Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:14)
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