Delphine stared at the staked skull in a daze. It seemed literally impossible that she could have missed such grizzly trophies and signs of habitation. Was she insane? Had she been struck blind by some enchantment? It didn’t make sense, especially when she had specifically used a spell to enhance her vision. Was anything real? She reached out and prodded the skull with her finger tip, finding it real enough for all that. She wondered if the bonemeal of invisible skulls might have some strange alchemical properties, perhaps related to some kind of invisibility. Tentatively she reached out for it before pulling her hand back, she could always take it on the way out. Or could she? What if it vanished again?


Shaking her head to clear it she unslung her sword and flexed her fingers on the grip, feeling the enchantment wake to life. They badly needed to be recharged but she had no budget for soul gems and she hadn’t found any at the various wayshrines she had visited. Perhaps with part of the reward she might buy a few. For an insane moment she considered taking out the tome she had stolen and looking through it but she thrust the notion away. It wouldn’t exactly be a grand end to her adventuring career if something cut her throat while she was reading. The thought occurred to her that Amal might have been killed by whatever was squatting in the mine. How long should she wait? Should she go in after him or give it up for a bad bargain and head back towards town. She made a quick prayer to Dibella to watch over her and then mouthed another incantation. The world brightened around her and suddenly she could see much better into the gloom of the mineshaft. She was just about to enter it when a creature staggered out of one of the abandoned sheds. It was greenish and horribly gnarled with a hunched back knotted muscles. In one hand it held a deflated wine skin, evidently the source of it’s current confusion. Delphine laid her sword down and strung her bow, carefully knocking an arrow. The beast turned towards the mine and staggered towards her drooling dark wine stained drool. The arrow flashed the thirty feet that separated them in a blur and buried itself into the creature's chest. It stood looking down dumbly at the shaft, then looked up at her. Dropping the wine skin it took a step towards her then toppled over in a lifeless heap.


Delphine felt a surge of triumph and then nearly wet herself as Amal appeared beside her as silently as he had left her. Her heart made a good faith effort to burst out of her chest but she calmed herself and picked up her sword with a scowl.

“I guess this one was up late and passed out before it could get back into the mine,” she said, “More in there?” She skipped down to the dead goblin and ran it through in the unlikely event that the creature was shaming, then carefully worked her arrow out of its chest. Good arrows were expensive, and she didn’t want to lose one if she didn’t have to. 

Amal didn’t comment on the goblin she had killed, which was a little annoying but she tried to play it cool. It probably wouldn’t have gone over very well with her prospective partner if she explained it was the first greenskin she had ever killed. She followed him back into the mind marveling at how he seemed to vanish into the shadows. She tried to follow in his footsteps attempting to ape the way he moved though she felt clumsy and noisy beside him. They moved deeper underground, the temperature dropping steadily as they moved. It was incredible that all this earth had been moved with pick and shovel and then carried out with wicker panniers. Here and there there were little alcoves which had been carved into the stone to provide storage or simply a place for miners to rest. 


The firelight ahead was very bright in the gloom and was given an odd greenish cast by the spell she had cast. She crumbled it immediately as she realised that there was another spell caster in there, not wanting to give them away. Silently as death the crept to the edge of the chamber and peered in. It appeared to be a natural cave, something the miners had cut into rather than excavated themselves; Delphine could make out tunnels leading off from the far walls.  Four goblins and a feather crested shaman were feasting on a corpse. The shaman gripped the rib cage and pulled it apart before shoveling gobbets of flesh into its mouth. The others were feeding on the scraps with evident relish. The fire gave the place a hellish ambiance and the stink was almost enough to make you gag. Delphine felt her stomach churn as she realised the corpse being devoured was probably one of the men she had known: Jaque, her mind informed her out of some impulse to torment her. Amal put a hand on her shoulder and drew her back down the passageway. When they had gone a sufficient distance she put her lip to his ear.


“I’ll take the shaman if you keep the others occupied,” she said, no more than breathing into his ear canal.