>>5346180--- CRUCIBLE SIDE STORY ---
--- DUG TOO DEEP: A SURVIVOR'S TALE OF A DIVE GONE WRONG ---
>In the Caverns beneath the Earth...All. Turn. Mad.Bitchmurdered was a fortified settlement nestled within the calcite mountains in the northeast. Its unfortunate name was given by the settlement leader who was elected mayor upon discovery of the entrance to a subterranean tunnel network. Initial delves seemed to yield relics and riches, and the news of such discoveries granted the settlement a small economic boom, but as the easy pickings began to dry up and the delvers began to tunnel ever deeper into the earth, the "curse" began to manifest. Delvers began disappearing one by one, never to return or exiting from a delve a changed person, or coming back haggard with a horror story to tell.
For Urist, this became a common sighting as she guarded the entrance to the subterranean tunnel. So when she spotted a daughter hobbling out of the pitch blackness of the tunnel, she followed the standard operating procedure. The settlement was alerted, mugs were filled and a blanket laced with phantasmal calm was handed to the arriving delver.
Except the delver refused, asking only for something to sit on. This was the first warning sign.
Despite the Flesh-Artisan styled corruption having developed into an over grown extent with multiple layers of overlapping skin and wrapped around the girl as a robe, The delver looked emaciated. Borderline starving in appearance, and yet the delver clutched something to her chest with the white-knuckled grip of a human holding for dear life on a life ring.
Urist quietly requested for a report on the delver's hunger status, and to her surprise the resident neuromancer told her the Delver wasn't even close to starving.
Relieved but still cautious, Urist gave a signal as the staff of Bitchmurdered stepped back to a reasonable distance and Urist began her interrogation.
"Can you tell us your name?" asked Urist.
The Delver began to ramble. "Ag..Ag...Agon...no Agony! Not the Agony! No!"
A pause, the Delver suddenly gained clarity. "Agatha. y-ye-yeah. that's right. Agatha. It's Agatha is it?"
A name given, a response garnered. Urist continued her questions. "Alright Agatha, just tell us what happened."
"There were four of us, no-three, there were two, no-nonononono...there were nine quintillion seven-hundred twenty one quadrillion six hundred sixty six trillion five hundred ninety eight billion-"
"Agatha!"
Agatha stopped as if frozen in time, unresponsive. Urist was about to ask again when Agatha resumed talking. "No...there was zero. But there was four. Yes. There was four. Four went down."
"Four went down into the dark. Dark...pitch black...twist..turn...and then..."
"And then?"
cont.
