Vol 1 Issue 9: 31 May 2008

We don't know where they're being hauled off to, but chasing them in hot pursuit is just going to get us all captured with them. Elise as the little sneak has a good chance of gathering some intel on her own, and a good chance of escaping on her own with said intel. I believe that the plan is that with Elise healed up as best as the berries can provide she does her thing while Demayo and myself do ours. The chain is a hunch. It goes somewhere; we don't know where.

My observation is that the waterwheel is clearly an ancient structure, its just spinning, and it appears that the wheel turns the chain which should drive something above. But the waterwheel is spinning free right now, suggesting that it has some kind of clutch that is currently disengaged. I'm assuming, Dave, that the "chain" is more like a drive chain (motercycle/bicycle or timing gear) than a simple round link chain (padlock-style). Otherwise I can't fathom a reason why the chain would be there. Basically, the thought is that the chain goes SOMEWHERE and that if the chain is a drive chain and it isn't driving anything upstairs then whatever is upstairs is probably not very interesting for the Orcs and might be a "safe" place to break into the upstairs.

My mental map has the space upstairs of the chain connecting somehow and probably not directly to the "prison guard room" (with the stairs up/down where Matt and I fought Orcs on our own) and the prison platform connecting somehow to the "prison cell platform" (where we fought Trolls). I'm also just guessing, but it makes sense, and I think that at the bottom of the crevass in the prison cavern is probably the very same river we've been floating on. That would be too convenient. In any event, I'm glad to be coming full circle back to the hanging prisons because it is in the webs below them that Winterloin dropped his equipment, that bodies remain to be exhumed/looted/reburied, and if we can get back to this room we have a couple of good tunnel hideout positions from which to formulate a plan or base a rescue. Plus I could ferry back up to the food room for supplies.

Another mental map question I have regards that side room at the top of the stairs with the window overlooking the waterfall. Why is it there? What is it there for? What is it perfectly situated to watch? Maybe that room was for watching the waterfall for foreign objects to raise an alarm or net to catch them below and protect the waterwheel. Maybe there was some water-level control function performed from that room, since seasonal meltoff might be expected to change the water level or flow rate in this underground river. I'm imagining that from this room you can see the waterfall AND see the outflow tunnel and thus divert excess water to the outflow tunnel. Perhaps thats the whole point, in which case some controls should be in that room somewhere, either to control water diverted or engage/disengage the wheel or both, or maybe just to signal to someone in a different room. Its not like we bothered to look for anything. And one of the two outflow tunnels leading away from the waterwheel area likely heads outside. Somehow. Perhaps in a way that cannot be survived by us. But the Dwarfs clearly used this underground river for transportation as well as for work, and if they used it for transportation then there is sure to be a safe waterborne path outside of the mountain. My thought is that the Dwarfs mined ore from where we saw the Orcs, transported it DOWN the tunnel to the waterwheel, and put it on BARGES to go outside. That the worked stone side of the prison level is Dwarf construction and connected to the waterwheel region, and the unworked stone side of the prison level represents Orc tunnelling; that entire undermountain represents a Dwarf mine that was cross-tunnelled by Orcs.

At close of last session:
Elise is "berried up"
Mal cast Light on a small stone or sling bullet (Elise's choice) for Elise
Demayo and Mal heading down to the waterwheel and Elise following/tracking the prisoners

Mal's to-do list:
Inspect chain at waterwheel -
- what kind of chain (drive chain?)
- link wear consistent with use as drive chain
- rust on wheel/chain/etc?
- why do wooden docks not rot away, but wood slats from waterwheel are absent or rotted off?
-- maybe the docks/jetties are stone, not wood, and error of assumption is due to models used not reflecting reality
Light and Flight for Demayo
- Freddie go with Demayo
Mal goto overlook room
- whats the point of the window?
- wear evidence on floor as evidence of past furnishings
- stone, worn consistently, esp by metal shod feet or metal studded sandals, should show wear
Current flow in water
- brisk/sluggish?
- predominantly to the wheel, or to the tunnel?
- where does water go once past the wheel?
- depth of water?
- accessable water exit tunnels, perhaps fly up one
- sluggish water could be swum by a sable and scouted
Minimum 3hr rest to recover PP