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The climb up the mountain is uneventful. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Archivist is in the highest spirits, chatting idly with Elly or Richard. He doesn't seem to understand the danger; though to be fair, your entire group has relaxed quite a bit since the first time you came up the mountain; experience will do that for you. While you are not as scared as you once were, you know that getting treasure from within this place will be harder now; the more times you enter the harder it will be find new valuables as they're stolen away one by one. Plus you have to consider any new threats that may have arrived in response to your intrusion last time...
As you reach the mines again, you have to make your way and retrace your steps. After an entire year out of this place, you have forgotten most of it, but the charcoal marks are still there, smudged only a bit by time. Thankfully, the first level is made up of mostly long tunnels, so it isn't too hard to navigate. You come to the great hole in the ground you found the first year- now equipped to take the plunge.
Suddenly, Nasir interrupts you before you tie off the rope. He speaks;
<span class="mu-g">"Excuse me, Jon of Blackwater, was it? You are the leader of this group, yes?"</span>
<span class="mu-b">"Erm, not exactly but... what is it? I need to get this rope secured so we can repel down deeper."</span>
<span class="mu-g">"Not to put a damper on your plans here but... I think there's something your not considering here. It may be unnecessarily dangerous to go down that pit."</span>
<span class="mu-b">"Hmm? We already found a great pile of gold on this floor, last year, I doubt we'll be lucky enough to find another. Going deeper is our only chance to find a fresh treasure hoard."</span>
<span class="mu-g">"Oh I agree, but it is this pit that concerns me. You see, I studied a bit of natural and supernatural ecology- and dungeons are a bit like ecosystems in the normal world. The top of the dungeon is the least dangerous, where as supernatural effects and monsters become more dangerous the deeper one goes."</span>
<span class="mu-b">"Do you see another choice here, little man?"</span>
<span class="mu-g">"Yes. The miners mentioned digging something up that interrupted them before the mines closed- that's what all the local hearsay of that time period says. This pit was obviously not dug by human hands. That means that there is likely another way down, one both safer and less deep, then this one. Given how deep this pit is according to your notes from last year's delve; it is likely this pit bypasses both the entire mine-tunnel system AND anything immediately under it. In other words, I think this pit could skip an entire safer and potentially lucrative floor of the dungeon. It would be unwise to jump in the middle of an ocean before testing the shallows first, if you catch my meaning..."</span>
>Explore the mines for another way down
>Ignore the Archivist and drop down the pit
