Chapter 23: A Cave-in and a Rescue.

28/6/1 070 After Adan joined us, and we talked, I rested. Adan kept watch as he can sometimes sense unworldly things, and was apprehensive that I'd be very active over the next few days.

29/6/1070 I took the early morning watch and, when enough people of faith were awake, I started a religious ceremony that established a WARDING. This will prevent any magic or similar from the Dragon from entering the circle of its influence, so long as any believer continues singing psalms [the actual parameters are (enhanced) upto 16 ISE/IME/Ki from the Dragon, duration indefinite and radius 30' (the sound of the chanting) centred about the wooden horse].
I thought this very important as it pretty much protects the wooden horse (and the bolt throwing engine concealed within) and a large part of the camp, including some of the other engines. Such a WARDING is not a physical barrier, but it would hinder Dragon flame, mental influence and most of the more subtle approaches; not stop everything, but make it exceedingly difficult.

Later, we went up to the stone. It is the only high spot on the island; a great stone discus, with a cave beneath. Adan and Sir Zacharias went first (and Adan went inside), and the 4 engines, the horse, and some knights in and around the WARDING remained by the Swideur. They fetched me when they had encountered things that they couldn't understand.
There was some sort of magic; several fairly faint presences deep underground, and a huge and complex construct that more or less filled the first cave.
The big spell (or whatever) was powerful and complex (possibly infinitely complex; I believe that the sages call this sort of thing Fractal). It had not done anything when Adan blundered through it, but it reacted to holy incense and I suspect that it was sensitised to Sir Zacharias (well, I guessed, but why take an unneccesary chance).
It conformed to the dimensions of the cave, but could be fooled by moving rocks (from the cave), and clay mixed with debris. I set the peasants shunting the spell to the side, allowing us to bypass it. This worked well enough, but the spell resisted too much squeezing, so that I had to abandon capturing it a clay jar.

Adan has at least one enchanted sword, the most powerful of which is by way of a Heathen artefact (it's on my list of things to attend to). It would not chip the great stone cap, but caused some interesting magical effects.
I suspect that the spell stores power (although this may not be its primary purpose), and that it is somehow associated with the stone. Furthermore, I guess that the Dragon was responsible for the spell, whereas the stone is something to do with Dragonkind.

30/6/1070 Adan explored first, not so much at his own insistence as by simply doing it. He took his safety rope off.
There were several passages, some blocked, some partially blocked, and some open.
.
In one there was a presence that seemed to mask itself with magic, but he didn't investigate too closely.
I should add that Adan has been fairly rash so far: I would not be surprised if the Fractal spell has already learned his capabilities, but that the Dragon is interested in Sir Zacharias and silver; everything else is a means to an end. Obviously the Dragon will become interested in anything standing between it and its objectives (and Gere d'Elon should be careful with his taunting). Obviously letting the Dragon learn about a future foe in advance is... foolish.

I was also aware of a feeling of being watched, from the camp, but none of the engineers had seen anything.

1/7/1 070 We went down the cave to investigate the masked presence, which was, inevitably, a trap.
In a dark cave lay a shallow lake, in the midst of which arose a small island. In this was a post, with what appeared to be the Lady Mercedes tied to it.
Adan (leaving his Heathen Stone-sword behind) waded across, and was attacked by Black River Serpents and Tentacles (I'm not sure if any of this was real).
I started another WARDING, and all the knights joined in. Singing hymns, we marched to the island, the Serpents vanishing before us. This bit was really great!
So did the ILLUSION about the old skeleton that was tied to the post. There was also a rotted boat.

Then the tunnel behind us collapsed.
We kept singing, and conserved our lights.
One of the thinner knights shed his armour and squeezed ahead into another passage with a draught. He eventually fetched help.
The rest of us moved rubble from the collapse.

2/7/1 070 In the evening, our voices hoarse, our armour muddied, but still singing, we emerged. The villagers had dug from the outside.
The fractal spell had changed in subtle ways.

3/7/1 070 Another cave has a more obvious trap (a glowing stone), which I set off with a candle burning down to release a twig.
It caused the twig to vanish.
I am unsure how this works, but suspect that the fractal spell powers several traps; this was a TELEPORT.

A local boy told of other caves, including a bell-shaped chamber bejond a narrow passage. Extreme bribery sent him down, and there was the real Lady Mercedes.
I gave the lad a magical token to take to her, then I SAW MAGIC (well, spiritually significant stuff) to triangulate upon the position. Access required digging from yet another passage.
The lad took her food and water. He also rigged up some pit props as the roof looked unstable.

Sir Zacharias brought up one or several bolt-throwing engines, but he could not continue to cover the swideur (we had discussed sending the swideur away, as she was an obvious target, but had covered her with at least one engine instead). This was not so much of an oversight, as an inevitable consequence of not having enough engines.
We rescued Lady Mercedes, protected by the (first) WARDING and covered by overt (and a concealed) engines, but as we did so, the Dragon swam under the swideur and holed her. The crew (I think that one was taken in the attack) saw a green and silver shape, but could do nothing. Even as Lady Mercedes clung to Sir Zacharias, our transport sank.
.
Actually it may not be too bad; the waters are shallow and the crew claim that repair is possible, given time.
The Dragon is, no doubt, watching us.