While Carfal keeps watch near the platform, his boot nudges a corroded control box half buried beside the old pumps. Layers of grime conceal a single indicator flickering amber.
Carfal
This still has power. Barely, but enough to drive the lower pump if the motor has not seized.
He wipes the panel with his sleeve. Beneath the dust, a crude diagram shows the flooded passage draining toward a lower reservoir beyond the faded red line.
Carfal
If something is moving past that boundary, the pump may expose it. If the supports fail first, we will be buried with the answer.
Carfal opens the box. Frayed wires spit blue sparks, and the chamber fills with the sharp smell of burnt insulation. The ceiling shudders as the motor gives one heavy cough.
Carfal
Do not touch the casing. I can try the switch, but once it catches, we may have only moments before the supports start coming down.
Above the passage, the pale spider presses flat against the timber and retreats from the red-marked line. Water trembles in the rails as the silent pump waits.
“Anything carfal do we escape before the supports fall”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +1)
Carfal
We leave now. Stay close, Sun shu, and keep left of the rails.
Carfal slams the control box shut without touching the exposed wires, then leads Sun shu toward the service tunnel. The pump coughs awake behind them.
They cross the narrow crack as the mine’s supports begin cracking in sequence. Sun shu braces against the wall, helping Carfal through while water surges around their boots.
Carfal
The platform is gone. Keep moving. Do not look back.
A violent tremor throws grit across the tunnel. Carfal’s shoulder strikes the stone, tearing his coat and leaving a shallow cut, but he stays upright and pulls the passage clear.
They emerge into the wider junction beyond the red-marked line. Behind them, the lower tunnel collapses with a thunderous roar, sealing the pump room and flooding the rails.
Carfal
We are out. The cost is my coat and a little blood, but the mine can keep its secret.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish a new safe camp
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine what frightened the spider