The Valley

The sky is a bright yellow, interspersed with threads of green mist. High in the sky a bright blue ball of fire slowly traverses the sky, drawn in a silver chariot by translucent stags that look like blue glass. Lower in the sky, very near you, the yellow and green merges into brown dirt and stone, where the dome of the sky meets the hilly ground.

A corpse lies on the hillside, empty sockets gazing across the brilliantly-colored landscape.

Down the hill, a brilliant blue river flows from a sparkling waterfall on your right into the stone horizon to your left, gurgling as it moves. In an island in the river, to your left, a small building stands alone.

Across the river, fields of orange and red cover the hills, broken by patches of yellow and blue. Two small groves of trees burst with orange and blue leaves. Between the groves, you can see a statue or marker of some kind standing alone atop a small, red and orange hill.

There is no moon. The ‘stars’ are dim phosphorescent vines hanging from the sky. At night, the darkness is nearly total.

The sky itself during the day is a bright yellow, like fields of flowers (which in fact it is), mixed with bright green vines that appear mist-like from a distance. At night, the vines provide the appearance of thread-like yellow stars.

Strawberry Fields

Fields of strawberries, raspberries, turnips, and carrots spread across the north side of the river. Onions bear bright blue stalks.

Wandering Encounters

In the valley, wandering encounters will usually occur with valley creatures. Occasionally, cavern creatures will brave the skeleton gauntlet, however. Encounters in the valley occur 20% of the time every three hours. Creatures in the valley (and in the caverns) are generally wary about any new, unknown creatures they meet.

Cirkegrad will never be encountered as a wandering encounter when the Blue Sun is in their house. They will be together in the house.

The Guardian (1)

If anyone lands on the ground, the corpse will awaken as a zombie. Lying next to the ‘corpse’ is a battle axe and a small pouch. The pouch has forty Crosspoint shillings in it, from about three hundred years past, and fifteen Crosspoint pennies. It is wearing leather armor and a wooden shield. It is moderately more intelligent than your average zombie.

It is activated when someone touches the axe or when someone enters or exits the portal above it. The axe will jump and strike (at an attack bonus of 2) and fly to the corpse’s hand, whereupon the zombie will attack. This is generally at least a penalty of two on surprise rolls for its opponents.

The zombie will reform every midnight.

Zombie: (Undead 3, Survival 20, Defense 5, damage 1d8)

If the characters leave a rope hanging down from this end to both mark the opening and make it easy to get to it, then whoever was hostile enough to get them here will probably pull the rope up while they’re pre-occupied with the zombie. Otherwise, the rope will be available when the hole is open again from the Valley side.

The Island (2)

Note that from different perspectives, some of these features will be visible and some will not. For example, the statuary and mausoleum will not be visible from the southeast of the house. If it is evening, there may also be smoke coming from the chimney.

The river flows around a small island. A wooden plank bridge with four-foot handrails arcs lazily over the bright blue water of the river. A simple one-story home, painted a pastel pink with white trim, covers most of the island.

A small garden filled with low bushes, flowers, and statuary decorates the west side of the island. A tiny building stands amidst the trees and statues.

The River

Two giant octopuses live in the river and guard the island. The bridges are from 1 to 3 feet above the water. Anyone crossing the bridge is likely to be attacked by the octopuses: while crossing the bridge there is a 10% chance per minute of noise that one of the octopuses will become curious and consider an attack.

When near the river but not making noise, the chance of an encounter becomes a 20% chance per hour of an encounter with the octopuses.

The river drops over a waterfall on the west edge of the map into the Stations of the Sun. Underground in the Station, it drops over a waterfall on the east edge to fall into the “upper” level.

Octopuses: (Animal: 4; Survival: 9, 15; Move: 9/15; Attack: 2 tentacles or bite; Damage: d6/d6 or d8; Defense: 4; Special defenses: ink, camouflage)

Grove of the Statuary

Flowers grow on vines and on bushes, twisting amongst marble statues of men, monsters, and other creatures. Among the statues you see goblins and hobgoblins, men and women, and things you don’t even recognize. The garden also encloses a small, stone building on the east edge of the island. Purple and yellow flowering vines climb the walls of both wood and stone. Lizards and strange lobsters wander about.

These statues are all unfortunates who viewed the beautiful Cirkegrad. Hop snakes bounce and cavort among the statues. There are statues of creatures from many worlds: saurians from Barcelas, goblins, orcs, humans from Highland, from the Haikiutl, from Barcelas and Dead Rome. There is even one gigantic spider. There are xolome, karuat, and any other races you’d like to foreshadow the use of.

Hop Snakes: (Fantastic: 1pt; Move: 8 slither/14 hoop/12 coil; Attack: bite; Damage: 1/2 pt; Defense: 3)

Foyer (1)

On the far wall, above a simple fireplace, an oil painting looks down the side of a mountain to an ancient city on a seashore. You hear scuttling above you. There is a sideboard on the right, beneath a window looking out to a statue-filled garden. On the left, there is a single shelf filled haphazardly with books.

There are 1d4 rainbow lizards roaming this room and every room of the house. Usually they stay in the rafters, though some may come down to play with Cirkegrad.

Cirkegrad will be in the house 70% of the time during the day, and always at night when the Blue Sun is home. When she is not in the house, she will be picking fruit or vegetables in the fields, or visiting Kelelmien.

The books are the journals of the Blue Sun, in his own language.

All of the journals are protected with Unbreakable Object at level 15.

Hop Snakes: (Fantastic: 1pt; Move: 8 slither/14 hoop/12 coil; Attack: bite; Damage: 1/2 pt; Defense: 3)

Kitchen/Hallway (2)

This is an odd kitchen from a medieval mindset. It is designed more like a modern kitchen: for a single person making small meals. The south side of the kitchen is really an open hallway that leads to the dining room and the bedroom.

The fireplace in the north side is the same as the south fireplace in the foyer.

Library (3)

Books of innumerable languages fill the walls. A varnished wooden table next to a short couch holds several upright pens in an arc in one corner, partially surrounding three inkwells.

The walls are filled with books and journals, and the table has ink and pens at it. There are three colors of ink: red, black, and green. The books are extremely varied, including books from Dead Rome, Barcelas, and both forms of Highland, as well as books from the Blue Sun’s world. The books from Dead Rome speak of strange marvels, magical carriages with ghostly horses, automatic scribes, and the criss-crossing of a nation with magical lightning. The books are all protected with Unbreakable Object at levels ranging from 10^th to 20^th.

Storage Room (4)

Hop snakes swarm about this place. After one minute of noise, a shadow is awakened. When the shadow falls across the room, the hop snakes flee. The shadow protects the secret door to the Station of the Sun “below” the house. They also protect the house from anything that might enter from the Station of the Sun.

The secret door is the north wall. It leads to blue-glass stairs that go down ten yards to the Station of the Sun.

Shadow (Demon: 1; Survival: 4; Attacks: 1; Damage: 1d6; Special Attack: suffocation; Defense: +9; Special Defense: Immune to normal weapons; Magic Resistance: 1)

Dining Hall (5)

The plates are made of silver, and engraved with scenes of cities from Barcelas: Barcelas, Hamokera, and the ruins of Carathax. The goblets are also silver, and engraved with almost Celtic circles and whorls. The silver plates are worth 50 shillings each. The cups are worth 30 shillings each. The Blue Sun and Cirkegrad have ten of each, but will only bring out as many as they need. They also have silver knives, forks, and spoons, and varnished wooden bowls for soups.

Bedroom (6)

There is a a large brass canopied bed in the south. Cirkegrad will often be here reading if she is unaware of visitors. If she accidentally turns someone to stone, she will be ever so sorry and hide under the sheets.

Bathroom (7)

The Blue Sun and Cirkegrad have a simple indoor bathroom much like modern American houses do. There is a bath, a sink, and a toilet.

Mausoleum (8)

The inside of the mausoleum is bigger than the outside. Inside, it is two yards wide by ten yards long. The stone coffin is at the far end.

As you open the door, shadows flee from the light. Light shines down a long hallway flanked with urns filled with long-dead flowers. At the far end a long box sparkles many colors, gold and ruby, and emerald green and sapphire blue.

A gold and gem-inlaid wooden coffin worth three thousand shillings is in the center of the mausoleum. The wooden cover of the coffin is inlaid with glass, allowing the viewer to see inside at the dried corpse inside.

A sword lies by its side, clean, reflective steel protruding from a sapphire-blue hilt.

The corpse is “protected” by a barrowman. The sword, which the corpse will wield, is Belereden, the “sword of ice and snow” in Barcelasian. The ice sword is a +2 weapon and can freeze opponents (see appendix).

Barrowman (Undead: 6; Survival: 25; Move: 12; Attack: sword+2; Damage: d8+2; Defense: 5; Special defenses: magic weapon required; Special attacks: voice, chill touch, ice sword)

On leaving this mausoleum, it will be midnight and dark. If some people enter and some do not, and they keep the doors open, they will be able to see each other until those who entered leave: then those who entered will disappear (unless of course they leave at midnight).

The Station of the Sun

Below the house are the stables where the Blue Sun’s steeds replenish after carrying him across the sky. The steeds are deer-like creatures, with bodies of transparent blue glass and long intricate antlers. At night, they’ll be sleeping here. During the day, it will be empty. Just after the sun goes down, the steeds will pull the chariot into the station. Just before the sun comes up, the Blue Sun will climb down into the station, and the steeds will pull the chariot away.

A river runs lengthwise through the stations, running from a waterfall on each end of the underground halls. On the west end a waterfall comes down into the station from the valley. On the east end, a waterfall drops down into the valley.

The Blue Sun is easily distracted, but not too easily, not from this task. This has been his life’s purpose for two thousand, two hundred and sixty-seven years, and he thoroughly enjoys it.

The Orange Jelly (3)

A giant orange slime that resembles a bubbling orange pool when hungry (as it usually is) or a smooth, glassy surface otherwise. The orange jelly is from Dead Rome, before the cataclysm.

A glassy pool of some translucent bright orange undulates in ripples and bubbles.

The bubbles grow above the pool into smooth blobs, and the blobs form into human shapes that remind you of something that happened long ago.

There are things hidden about the orange jelly. It only eats flesh and plant life, not metals. There are metal items scattered in piles around itself to entice potential victims.

Orange Slime: (Fantastic: 8; Survival: 35; Move: 7; Attack: blobs; Damage: 1d6 or 2d6; Defense: 8; Special attacks: telepathic reflection, engulf; Special defense: most attacks do little or no damage)

There are old daggers, swords, and shields, all metal, and stripped clean of any organic matter (such as straps, grips, and handles) at the bottom of, and suspended within, the slime. There are 89 silver coins (shillings), 3 gold coins (pounds), and 298 copper coins (pennies) of various cultures.

The Iron Hill (4)

Atop this ten foot tall rise you can survey the entire azure valley. A metal post is embedded into the ground. There are words on the post.

The hill is three yards tall. A rune-post tells a riddle, which, if answered correctly, transports the riddler into the center of the hill. The riddle-mark will appear to be written in the native language of the reader. If the reader does not read their native language, it will speak.

This you need, to fill a room that is already full.

I take what I cannot return, and if you would turn me away, keep me by your side.

When you lose me they tell you to use me. No matter how big I am, you will not see further by standing upon me, but this you must do to begin this contest.

This tells them what they need to bring (a light and a weapon), and how to enter the hill (stand on your head).

Note that the first two riddles are language-independent for the most part. The third one requires that the viewer have a head and that the head be considered the source of calm and intellect. If not, that riddle will appear as hash marks on the stone.

If any person stands on their head in front of the stone, they will fly up a few feet, land again, and then bounce high into the sky, disappearing through the sky but actually ending up inside the hill.

This second riddle changes within ten minutes of the time it is used. You may have to come up with your own. Riddles must result in something the characters can do. For example:

“Never begin and never end, walk in me, run in me.” (Make a circle around the stone.)

You feel yourself fly up, down again, and then you bounce high into the air. You rise quickly towards the sky, and fall right into the sky, past green and yellow threads, almost like grass, that hang from the roof of the sky.

Then everything is dark. Your feet alight upon a solid surface as your eyes adjust to the flickering light of your torch. In the flickering light a grey lizard rears motionless beside a small, ornate chest. The lizard glints in your torch’s light.

The lizard’s head creaks as it turns toward you and raises a sword and shield.

Inside the hill an onyx mail statue guards a chest that holds a small amphora, Alcalig. The area inside the hill is a cylinder eight yards wide and two and a half yards tall. The onyx statue and the chest are in the northwest of the area.

The onyx statue is in the form of a Barcelasian (saurian) and is made of small interlocking onyx rings. It can attack with its tail or its hands. The lizard has magic resistance 6. Magic will thus sometimes work, and sometimes not work, inside the hill.

Onyx Lizard: (Fantastic: 4; Survival: 20; Move: 10; Attack: tail or sword; Damage: 1d4 or 1d8; Defense: 6, Magic Resistance: 6)

The huge onyx lizard shatters into thousands of rings that roll around you on the stone floor.

A plaque to the northeast blocks the way out. To leave (before or after defeating the onyx lizard), the character must answer the riddle upon it. The words will be heard by any character that cannot read well, and appears in the reader’s native tongue.

I call with no words. In the storm I escape the closed door, but I die when it is opened. If you would escape, make me now.

If they whistle, they will fly out of the hill and be back on top of the hill. Whistling requires an agility roll at a bonus of 4.

Rainbow Lizards (5)

Among brightly-colored berries of green and blue and yellow, brilliantly-striped creatures bounce high into the air and back into the orange and red grasses. Some are bulbous and round, like giant round bladders bouncing across the fields. Others roll about with their tails in their mouths, and others coil and uncoil hopping about the ground with long snouts pointing upwards where their heads ought to be.

While they may be found throughout the valley and the caves, the hop snakes make their nests in this part of the valley. They come in three forms: bouncing lizards, hopping lizards, and hoop-snakes, that roll up into a hoop to move around. They are herbivorous, preferring the bright green and blue strawberries throughout the valley.

The bouncing lizards are bulbous, prickly things. They inflate and deflate, causing them to jump upwards, and when they land they time their muscular inflations so as to bounce even higher.

The hopping lizards look sort of like miniature kangaroos, but with two vertical snouts where their head should be.

They are three genders of the same species. Both the bouncing lizards and the hopping lizards may bear children. Their stripes run all the colors of the rainbow, and perhaps more.

Hop Snakes: (Fantastic: 1pt; Move: 8 slither/14 hoop/12 coil; Attack: bite; Damage: 1/2 pt; Defense: 3)

The Copse of Trees (6)

A sweet fragrance drifts among the shade of the trees. Wide, multi-colored fruit hang amongst the orange and blue leaves. Fat creatures, mottled green, fly amongst the trees. Wild boars with wings furling upon their backs and bright orange horns jutting from their foreheads snuffle about the ground, leap, and fly in to the air.

The pigasi are very territorial and will amass in numbers of 2 to 20 against any who encroach on their territory.

The fruit from the trees are pear-like, sweet, and juicy, like nectar in a skin.

Pigasi (Fantastic: 2; Movement: 12/15; Attacks: horn; Damage: d8; Defense: +3)

The Xolome Caves (7)

These are volcanic caves. The roofs are scattered with organic-looking pock-marks, as of long-erupted bubbles. The rock is hard and shiny. The floors are rippled and striated almost like a beach.

There are four entrances, but only two are guarded. The two unguarded ones are blocked with rocks and dirt. While within the caves, the chance of encountering xolome is 50% every ten minutes. There will be d12 xolome in any group..

Every part of the cavern is riddled with smaller holes, one to two feet wide. The area has been mined for gems by the Xolome. The Xolome can also use the holes to escape and to move throughout the caverns.

There are two tribes of xolome in these caves. Originally, the Black Deer tribe lived in this set of caves, and the Dark Water tribe in the caves at (8). But when the bear took over the Dark Water cave, the Dark Water xolome tried to move into the Black Deer caves. There was a war. Nobody won, and now both tribes share these caves. They have two chieftains, one from each tribe. It is an uneasy truce. While they no longer fight it with spears and knives, they still fight it in their stories over their night fires.

The original xolome come from the realm of the Haikiutl, in the world of Highland, across the Great Mountains from Highland. They carry the story of Black Deer.

Before the world, there was Rock In Darkness, there was Water Dripping Down, there was Sun Always Burning, and there was the Moon Still Whole. Water Dripping Down called out to Moon and to Sun. It told them of three deer jumping out of holes in Rock. The first deer would be both black and white, the second, white, and the third, black.

Whichever deer were killed first would determine whether the xolome or Haikiutl would never need sleep, would sleep during day, or sleep during night. Each, Sun and Moon, carried three arrows.

Sure enough, a black and white dappled deer leapt from the hole in Rock. Moon fired one arrow at the deer, but Sun fired her arrow at Moon. Moon turned sideways to avoid Sun’s arrows, but one of Sun’s arrows hit Moon and made Moon miss. So neither xolome nor Haikiutl could go without sleep.

When the next deer jumped out, Moon saw that it was white. Sun let this deer go. But Moon took Sun’s arrow from his face and fired it at the white deer, and killed it.

“Your people shall have to live in the burning heat,” laughed Moon. “For it was your arrow that killed the white deer!”

Sun slunk away beneath the rock.

When the next deer jumped from the caves, it was the black deer, and Moon took one of his own arrows to kill it. So, the xolome sleep during the day when the sun is hot, and wake during the safety of the night when game is plentiful.

So it is that the Haikiutl work in the burning heat and Sun watches over them. The Xolome work in the cool of the night and Moon watches over us. And Moon sometimes comes out early to scare Sun beneath the rock, and Moon sometimes stays up late to laugh at Sun’s people rising in the heat.

The invading xolome carry the story of Dark Water:

The xolome were the first to leave Mud World and climb into Water In Darkness. Moon Still Whole welcomed us. The Jewels of Moon were ours for taking. When we hungered, we needed only reach out to choose the fish of our desire. Fish was plentiful, and we ate it raw.

Other creatures grew jealous of our bounty. They followed our trail up from Mud World. They ate our fish, and wore our jewels to mock us.

Moon Still Whole became annoyed at their greed. He fled into the sky to escape their demands.

When Moon rose, he left cracks in the sky of Water In Darkness. The cracks were too small for the other creatures, but we followed into Dark Water Scattered, where we live today.

The other creatures grew hungry in the empty world below. They scratched at the walls until they poked a hole in the side of the world. All of the water drained out of their world, and the hot sun poured in. Many died in the world below, and they still scratch at the sides of their empty lands, looking for the bounty that belongs to us.

The xolome are armed with spears, knives, and bows and arrows. Their knives, spear tips, and arrowheads are stone or obsidian. They live off of the fields of berries across the river, fruit from the trees, and the occasional pigasi.

Not including the twin chieftains and their four lieutenants, there are sixteen adult xolome in the Black Deer tribe, and twelve adult xolome in the Dark Water tribe. The chieftains have taken the name of their tribe as their names: Black Deer and Dark Water. Both chieftains have leather armor and a shield with their insignia on it.

Black Deer (xolome: 1-1, warrior: 2; survival: 10; Ordered Evil; Movement: 8; Attack: spear; Damage: 1d6; Defense: 5)

Dark Water (xolome: 1-1, warrior: 2; survival: 11; Ordered Evil; Movement: 8; Attack: spear; Damage: 1d6; Defense: 5)

Each chieftain has two lieutenants who have one level in warrior.

Black Deer Lieutenants (xolome: 1-1, warrior: 1; survival: 10, 5; Ordered Evil; Movement: 8; Attack: spear; Damage: 1d4; Defense: 5)

Dark Water Lieutenants (xolome: 1-1, warrior: 1; survival: 7, 10; Ordered Evil; Movement: 8; Attack: spear; Damage: 1d4; Defense: 5)

The rest of the adult xolome are normal xolome, with spears (50% at any encounter also have obsidian daggers). As for armor, 25% will have leather armor (+2 defense), and 25% a shield (+1 defense). One quarter (25%) also carry bows and arrows. The bows of the xolome are small compared to normal-sized bows. They do d4 damage and have a range of 14.

Xolome (Fantastic: 1-1; Ordered Evil; Movement: 8; Attack: spear; Damage: 1d4; Defense: 2, 3, 4, or 5)

Each xolome will carry 1-6 minor gems worth 1-20 shillings each.

Guard Rooms (1)

[Two, three, etc.] little creatures leap up snarling, pointing spears at you, ready to throw. One of them makes a high-pitched squealing noise; their faces, tiny, misshapen mockeries , almost weasel-like, bob back and forth as they speak.

Two to six (2d3) xolome wielding spears and daggers, and fully armored (both shield and leather) guard the entrance from pigasi, bears, and other strange things that might have fallen through the hole. In general there isn’t ever a problem, so while they are guarding, they aren’t guarding well, and are often pre-occupied with card games, sleeping, and arguing. They play for gems taken from the mountain, stories, and for whatever else they might have of value.

Each xolome guard d6 minor gems (worth d20 shillings each), and may also have any other weird things you choose to give them.

Xolome (Fantastic: 1-1; Ordered Evil; Movement: 8; Attack: spear; Damage: 1d4; Defense: 5)

There will also often (40% of the time) be one lieutenant in a guard room, unless the “on-duty” lieutenant has already been killed.

Home Room (2)

Piles of furs cover the floor. An animal smell fills the cavern, a sweatiness on the air.

There is a 50% chance that 2d4 xolome will be here. This is where all of the stuff they happened to have with them when they came through is kept. There are straw mats, baskets, up to forty-nine gems, and small bone icons throughout the furs.

Gathering Halls (3)

There is a 50% chance that there will be d20 xolome in each of these parts of the cavern.

Temple (4)

The makeshift door creaks open. A tall, thin form stands motionless in your flickering light. Bright colors adorn the walls. You see another door across the way, beyond the tall figure, still motionless and gray in your flickering light.

Belts of leather, embedded with hundreds of tiny colored rocks or gems, hang from every part of the cavern walls. Nets woven around bone and stick hang from the crevasses and cracks.

Their temple contains leather belts of bright colors, bones and sticks bound into nets, and a statue of a tall, lithe man or woman wearing a metal helmet. The statue is oddly deformed, with long, thin arms and legs that seem abnormal even in the flickering of a torchlight.

The statue is Lesertfar, a lesser dragon turned to stone while in its “human” form by Cirkegrad. Lesertfar is from beyond Venethtlas in the world of Barcelas.

The metal helm on the stone statue is a helm of consciousness. The helm keeps Lesertfar conscious as a punishment for her attempted murder of the Blue Sun’s wife. Lesertfar can mentally converse with the xolome. She can read their minds, or the minds of anyone within ten feet, if the target fails a Willpower roll. She can talk to anyone through telepathy.

Lesertfar first toyed with the xolome, but now has come to regard them as useful and is trying to turn them into a competent fighting force.

Anyone attempting to take the helmet off will take 2d6 points damage on touching it, and another 2d6 points damage on pulling it off. An Evasion roll on touching the helmet allows the character to choose not to grab the helmet, and not take any damage.

If Lesertfar were to be turned from stone back to normal, she can become a brood of vipers and breathe a poisonous gas. Her eyes can hypnotize a victim into immobility. She is the offspring of forest and mud dragons and is a level 6 creature. She is Evil.

There is one hidden door in the east, and doors which can be barred to the south and north.

The xolome worship Lesertfar as an oracle.

Lesertfar (lesser dragon: 6; Move: 12/24; Attacks: claw and bite; Defense: +7; Damage: 2d6/2d4; Special Attacks: earthquake breath, telepathy)

Note that Lesertfar can only use her telepathic power; the others would only be usable if she were returned to from stone. Her earthquake breath causes everything in its path to shake and bend violently. It causes 4d6 points damage to any who fail an Evasion roll, 2d6 to those who succeed. It will crack wood and shatter glass, stone, and ceramics. Anything that isn’t secured will likely topple. It affects a spherical area up to thirty yards from Lesertfar and six yards wide.

The Bear Caves (8)

Dust mites and orange leaves dance in shafts of blue sunlight here within the grove. Two large holes in the side of the valley gape open. Inside is dusty rock and darkness.

A brown bear scared away the Dark Water xolome who used to live here. This resulted in a minor war between the Black Deer and Dark Water tribes. The bear will not attack unless someone comes near. First it will try to scare them off. If they move towards it, the bear will leap towards them and fight.

A deep guttural growl echoes around you in the cavern. As that echo dies down you hear scraping on stone all around you. A great growling mass leaps at you, claws extended and biting at you with yellowed teeth in a long snout.

Brown Bear (Animal: 6; Movement: 16; Attacks: 2 claws; Damage: 1d8/1d8; Special Attack: bear hug; Defense: +5)

Entrance to Long Caverns (9)

You see a gaping hole in the valley’s wall up a small hill. Grassland turns to dusty ground as you climb the small stepped hill to the cave’s wide entrance.

Looking out over the valley you see groves of orange and blue trees to your right and left, a round hill red between them. Beyond them runs a sparkling river and more hills. Fields of orange and red, broken by patches of yellow and blue, cover the ground.

Two statues flank a dark cave entrance. On your left a warrior holds a sword tightly above its head, its hands in front of its face in fear. On your right an old man raises a staff and leers obscenely across the valley.

The dark hole is about eight feet wide, and appears to be relatively straight for as far as your light goes.

Both statues, of course, are extremely life-like, having been made by Cirkegrad.

This long cavern leads three hundred yards into the long caverns.