[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/7ed60a5b-c81e-4b36-b999-6fbd57fe519a.png[/img][h2][color=olive][u]~Ernald Joyce~[/u][/color][/h2][/center]
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[sub][i]Early Spring of the Year 315 P.F.[/i][/sub]
[sub][i]~The Maw~[/i][/sub]
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Ernald kept silent as they walked along, doing his best to follow the masked man as he wove his way through the twisting passageways, moving far faster than Joyce himself would have expected a normal man could. But then again, what stood before him wasn't your average man, though he would have easily been fooled into believing such had he not been a witness to the events that had transpired within the cavern. In any case, the pair swiftly trudged their way upwards and outwards, though a thought suddenly occurred to the young scholar as they did so. He hadn't questioned it earlier, hell he hadn't so much as noticed, but he quickly realized that the sounds of picks hammering on stone had stopped. As a matter of fact, the entire mine had fallen silent save for the sputtering and spitting of torches they passed, and Joyce began to wonder what could have caused such a thing. His questions were soon answered, for only a few seconds after the thought had formed in his mind one of the workers rounded the corner to the tunnel he and the masked man were in, seemingly in a panic. Joyce himself almost withdrew, some small part of him still not wanting to be caught with someone whose clothing marked them as one knowledgeable of the occult, only halting when the masked man raised his hand.

Watching this interaction curiously Ernald's eyes went wide as the man let his hand fall, a movement which caused the miner standing before them to fall into a fit of insanity, one that drove him to run screaming and raving down the tunnel from which they'd come. It was then that he realized why the Maw was so quiet. Those who had been working within must have noticed the disturbance and, thinking there was something incredibly wrong, left their tools to flee.

[color=#FDF5E6]"They will not get far,"[/color] the man intoned, his voice reverberating off the tunnel walls. [color=#FDF5E6]"I will see to that."[/color]

Joyce blinked. He couldn't have possibly been replying to the inner workings of his mind... could he? But then again he had managed to leave a single word bouncing around the inside of his skull at the start of their ascent... shaking his head, he decided that it was best not to question things for the time being, and continued to follow along instead. Eventually the duo found themselves stand before the arch separating the shriek filled interior of the Maw from the sunlit world beyond and, for the first time in thousands of years, Tarr'kash the Bringer of Madness set foot outside...

[color=#FDF5E6]"Ah, tis good to be free."[/color]