A turn for the worse?

Suddenly the boat began rocking back and forth in an odd fashion, so violently Fredric came tumbling off the mast and hit the deck with a sound thud. "Fredric - are you allright?" Elashi gasped, running over to him.

"I'm... ow... fine!" he winced.

Chuc came running from the cabin. "What's going on?!"

"We're caught in a whirlpool!" Val shouted from the helm.

The boat was indeed now spinning round and round in fashion consistent with whirlpools. "How did this happen?!" Chuc demanded as he ran to the helm with the others. "Val!"

"It just appeared under us, out of nowhere!" Val cried in disbelief. "I can't get us out of it! Everyone, hold on to something!"

The boat spun faster and faster, and then plunged rudder-first into the water. All four screamed in horror, clinging to each other as they were swallowed by the whirlpool and spun down into dizzying oblivion.

---

Chuc woke up first. He was wet, had a terrible headache, and couldn't see anything in the pitch-darkness. "Sh-shurov thariel!" he exclaimed, and a bright light illuminated an underground cavern. Val, Elashi, Fredric and the remains of the Farseer lay scattered on the shore of an underground lake. On the other side of the cavern, an ominous passageway led downward into further darkness. The low-hanging cavern ceiling reminded Chuc of his persistent claustrophobia, and he shuddered, wondering how he had ever decided to embark on such a venture.

Val was waking up now. "Unh... argh... what the..." He climbed to his knees. "Elashi!" He scampered to her side, took her in his arms. "Elashi! Say something! Oh God, this is all my fault!"

Fredric woke up coughing. "Oh no!" Val, Chuc - is Elashi allright?"

Then Elashi stirred and opened her eyes. "Val... where are we?"

"You're alive!" Val laughed in relief.

She sat up, looking around. "Is everyone okay?"

"I'm fine." Chuc said, and Fredric echoed "I'm good."

---

Shivering with the cold, they sat down to discuss their situation. "The bad news is," Val said, "we've lost our boat and all our supplies and weapons. The good news should be obvious."

"That we're all still alive?" Elashi asked.

"We're underground!" Fredric said. "Maybe this cave will lead us to the Dragon's treasure!"

"Quite possibly!" Chuc said. "I wonder what caused that whirlpool, though. At least we know there's a way back out through this underground lake."

"But even if we find the treasure," Elashi said. "What good will it do us without a boat? We'll be stuck here!"

"Well, we could always try building another boat." Chuc said. "How hard could it be? In any case, we should start moving."

"Right." Val said. "No sense sitting around here. Better start walking and warm up a bit before we catch pneumonia."

They got up and followed Val into the yawning passageway. Every few dozen steps or so Chuc would have to cast another light spell, since his version of this particular magic stayed in place rather than travelling with the caster. The effort seemed to be wearing him a bit thin.

"Stay focused, Chuc." Val said. "When you get really tired we can stop and rest, but until then we've gotta cover as much ground as possible."

"I'm fine." Chuc said. "The thought of counting all the treasure we're gonna find is keeping me going."

"Weird..." Fredric said. "I've got the strangest feeling about this place - almost like I've been here once before - like in a past life or something!"

"Yeah right." Val laughed. "I bet in your past life you were the knight they sent into these caves to stop the Dragon! With a shiny runeblade and a faithful hound at your side, aided by a necromancer's magic, you nonetheless failed in your quest, and untold numbers of people died."

"Val, that's not funny!" Elashi said. "How can you even joke about things like that?"

"Allright, I'm sorry." Val said after a while. "Fred's just such a dreamer sometimes."

Suddenly they came to a fork in the passageway, leading left and right. To the left, the passge led further down into darkness, while to the right it sloped up sharply - and strangely enough, they thought they could see a glimmer of light up there.

"Light!" Chuc said. "There's somebody in these caves! Let's go check it out!"

"No, wait!" Elashi said quickly. "It could be a trap. And it feels to me like the passage to the left is a lot warmer, while on the right it's even colder than where we came from. If there's light but no warmth... well, it just seems fishy to me."

"I'm stumped on this one." Fredric said. "All I know is I have a really bad feeling about this."

Val thought for a moment and said:

1. "I'd go crazy not knowing what's producing that light! Don't worry Elashi, we'll be fine."
2. "You know, it is warmer on the left. And without weapons, we can't risk walking into a trap."

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