The Bravos do a bit of reconnaissance

"Well, if both of you are hearing something, then we should probably go figure out what it is, right?" Emmaline said back up above in the puzzle room. The others nodded their agreement, and Emmaline began to lead the way onward and down, following the sloping passage with bouncy lighthearted steps. Before them, the chanting grew louder and louder, the words entirely undecipherable, even to the apt polylinguist Skye.

"It's not Northern..." Skye murmured, drawing to a stop as the entrance to the cavern. From here, Shaman Berg's words echoed out through the chamber, resonating loudly and clearly. If they were descipherable, she should have been well close enough to figure them out. "Doesn't sound like any of the Minotauran dialects either..."

Skye flipped open her notebook and began quickly scribbling down a rough approximation of the phonetics being spoken in dedicated short hand. "Maybe I'll take a look at it back at the camp"

"Could you hurry up?" Liv asked, staring off into the darkness as she tapped a foot. From the entrance, they could just barely make out the flicker of distant torches in the gloomy depths, and the ranger was just itching to get a better look.

"Sorry, sorry..." Skye blushed and nodded, stuffing the notebook back into her bag and stepping aside for Liv to lead the way forward.

The group soon reached a rather large portcullis entryway, the sort of stony construction that would have been far better suited to the wall of a castle, rather than this underground space. Skye's hand twitched for her notebook, but a glare from Liv saw them pressing onward without a moment's pause. They passed quickly through a short entry hall on the other side, then through a smaller series of doors to finally emerge into a cavernous space, carved with intricate and ancient stonework of indistinct origin. As she glanced around, Skye quickly realized, that many of the marking seemed to come from different places. Their styles varied massively, never quite seeming to use the same symbols or even the same types of shape and font design. Any further study, though was quickly silenced by a glance from Liv that promised violence in exchange for any further interruptions.

Liv's eyes quickly locked on to the group of figures in the distance, most of the huddled together as the chanted, staring up at their leader.

"I think we might have found our danger, guys." Liv said. Emmaline nodded, but neither of them began to retreat, instead leaning in closer to watch the ceremony still underway.

***

This chapter was co-authored by Sixth (https://chyoa.com/user/Sixth) Please check him out!