Ahead of you, you see a band of reddish lizards waiting patiently (and hungrily). It would seem they've learned that this is where the yummy bipedal creatures pass.
From this angle and distance, you can see a series of stepping stones and ledges crossing the lava here. If you went due west, you could cross with minimal damage!
You are approaching a fresh and very active lava crater. Even your magic wouldn't protect you if you went farther. You back away.
You've disturbed a salamander nest.
You search their possessions and find a bag of gold coins. Surface world coins! There is also a sheet of paper, with a list of your names and appearances, written in your tongue. Unfortunately, there is nothing on the Crystal Souls. You keep the gold.
In the ash and dust on the cave floor, you see many sets of recent footprints. Someone has been travelling ahead of you.
As you proceed west, the blistering heat of the cavern to the east slowly fades away. The passage ahead is wide, and slopes steeply upward to the north.
You suddenly hear hissing from all around you. You can't tell where it comes from. Then, you are attacked.
When they see you, one of them quickly casts a spell. They all disappear. You search for them, but by the time you notice their impossibly light footprints in the dust, they're gone.
This is a natural stone bridge, arcing over this enormous chasm. When you are almost to the other side, you hear hissing from the nothingness to your right and left. You look, but see nobody there.
You realize you don't have the gold. You start hearing the whisperers mutter about maybe killing you. You back away.
You set the gold down. It suddenly disappears. "You may passss. Passs quickly! Quickly!" Then you stop feeling the beings near you.
The whispering begins again, this time all around you. "Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!"
How charming! Some of the mushrooms are running to greet you!
You enter the spore tunnels. They are accurately named - tiny airborne bits of fungus and lichen clog your nose and sting your eyes. You don't see many mushrooms, though, the plant life is mainly mold and lichen.
Once, this was a small Vahnatai farming village. Now, it's a jumble of loose stones overgrown by fungus, little of it edible.
This was a flat stone bridge, suspended over the river by thick pillars. To the south, the bridge is gone, but the crumbling pillars remain. No way you can get across here.
This is a just-barely usable ford over the river. The water threatens to tear you off your feet, but you remain standing.
You find the pitiful, crumbled remains of a bridge. The river runs quickly here - no way to cross.
However, far from having a calm, sedate air, there is a very grim aura about the place. You think you see movement among the more distant cairns. It's as if a dark spirit has descended upon this place, and the Vahnatai have been unable to deal with it.
Suddenly, a band of armed Vahnatai barrels around the corner, a horde of hydras on their tail! You try to get out of the way, but only end up being involved...
The road here is still under construction. Stone blocks, tools and cement await the arrival of Vahnatai to use them.
Not all of the dead in this cavern are totally inanimate. This group, for example. And they aren't taking kindly to having their privacy violated.
This is yet another large ruin. Most of it is rubble, but an intact road still runs through the middle of town.
This cavern stretches several miles to the southeast. Dotted all along its length are burial mounds, some in tight clusters, some isolated. The Vahnatai must have been putting their dead here for centuries.
You notice that this alcove has a lot of stalagmites.
With some effort, you force the door open. Doing so disturbs a chitrach nest. You get attacked.
The Vahnatai guards recognize you as you approach and let you pass.
The bridge has a large contingent of Vahnatai guards standing at attention on it. They draw weapons as you approach. It is clear that there is no way they are going to let a group of human strangers pass. You back away.
The guards on the bridge reach for their weapons when they see you approach. However, when you show them the crystal soul, their attitude changes. They back away, heads bowed, and let you pass.
Here, you get your first good view of the land of the Vahnatai. The ceiling is lower, the glowing fungus is dimmer, and the flora is different. It's strange how such subtle differences in the caverns can make you feel so alien.
