Down this tunnel, following his senses, Oliver would find a sad scene.
Oka, too--or Mossie--should they find a way to safely follow, would be privy to it too.
The tunnel was a long one, as narrow as the first. A final scratched carving showed two sets of figures: one the Oka-Mossie-Oliver trio heading deeper into the tunnel and then, a few feet farther and facing the other way, several skeletons with shining stones, colored with old pigments. Purple, gold, green.
The tunnel curved down, in. It never reached the magma--wherever that was, it kept the place hot and steaming but was safely (if one could call it that) behind another wall. It was clear now that this whole place was a deliberate set of pitfalls and traps. A hiding place. A sanctuary. The bones littering the floor were those of hapless adventurers, at times... but moreso, those who had tried to hunt and pursue those who hid here. The spike traps, the deep black falls--those were protection against the Masters' puppets, perhaps, or something else entirely. Either way, the story ended here; the creatures had foreseen their own demise, and not only that but the coming of the Gembounds here. They had pointed them to safety, tried to aid their visitors in slipping past the traps. They must have had a Seer among them, then.
And now they offered all they could; sputtering gemstones, dim with magic, lying in a nest of curled-up skeletons where they had at last perished. Trapped, by their enemies, in their own tunnels-? Or had something else taken them? It didn't matter, in the end.
The tunnel ended in a small cave, with alcoves off to every side. The central was brightly-lit, shafts of light streaming down from very high above, reflected and refracted by plates of gleaming gemstone. Vines tangled down through the hole, moisture beaded on them, and more grew upward in the pool of light. Around it lay the skeletons, and in the alcoves, little living areas. Carved stone to create shelves and cups, a depressed pool of water for bathing, a little garden long defunct and overgrown and no doubt intended for waste removal, too.
The skeletons themselves were three.
A large, deer-like beast, like an Irish Elk in appearance and size, was curled around the other two as if to protect them--there was no telling how it had come here with its broad, spiked antlers, through the narrow paths. Pointed teeth, a long and sturdy tail and an extra pair of legs proved it to be alien in nature, and the purple Tanzanite gemstone nestled in the heart of an old, yellowed ribcage was shaped precisely like that organ.
The second creature was longer but much smaller, somewhere like a cross between a dog and a serpent, coiled and large-eyed. It might have once looked like a white-scaled, long-tailed mongoose the size of a wolf, gleaming in its iridescence, and even now some of its scales caught the reflected light in a rainbow shimmer. Small, strong jaws seemed to hold a permanent smile. Its vertebrae held thin spines, pointing backward, and one of these was green and gleaming, an Emerald that still held magic.
The third creature was the smallest, only the size of a coyote or the like, and its skeleton almost looked like that of a very large mouse: slender-limbed, with clawed little fingers, and enormous eyes on a broad but narrow-snouted skull. If Oliver inspected closely, he would find a mixture of omnivorous teeth--but the creature's true features in life were hidden by the bones. This creature had sported white fur tipped with gold at its extremities, like a gilded Siamese cat; its ears and golden eyes had been oversized, and two tiny golden antlers had sprouted from its head. It had sat on longer hind legs, rodent-like, able to scurry on all fours or sit up on two, and its long tail had been furred and prehensile. It had likely been intelligent and agile, and its gemstone--a natural Citrine--had formed a sort of crown between and around the antlers. It remained there still, fixed to the skull, like the lost crown of a king without a kingdom.
Oliver may find several plants here to suit his needs, though he will need to find a light source if he wishes to keep them alive in the larger cave. The three Gembound who have come this far may each choose one stone as a guaranteed revive--or may choose, in-character, to pass these to others if they prefer.
The Catacombs have been discovered. While exceedingly dangerous, these old tunnels--heavily trapped to serve as a refuge for rebels and refugees--still bear the bones, gemstones and even ancient belongings of many hunters and hunted. Characters may GM tag to search these tunnels in personalized dungeon crawls, and will be provided short adventures, encountering randomly rolled dangers and rewards!