Securing the Supply Line

Sunday, November 6th

Magnar began his journey back to Pittsburgh through the dwarven tunnels, starting his journey after seeing Georgio and Sanura off into the pit to return to Pittsburgh through more conventional means. In order to travel as lightly and freely as possible, Magnar left any supplies he had with him back in the branch of the tunnel they were using as a base. Sven and Marra were staying behind to ensure their new base of operations remained hidden and any dwarves from Agartha who evacuated from the city would be greeted and protected appropriately. Magnar donned his wolf cloak, which was beginning to accumulate a serious wet dog smell from the repeated trips in and out of the water with only small amounts of time spent in musty dwarven tunnels in between. He slung his axe across his back, leaving his hands free to navigate the tunnels as necessary and feeling fairly confident he wouldn't need a believable mortal disguise for the relic weapon.

Magnar started his journey at a slow trot, hunching his back slightly and bending his knees so that his head would remain below the jagged surface of the top of the tunnel, had anyone been watching the cloaked figured maneuver through the pitch black tunnels he would have looked more like an animal predator than a human. His considerable dexterity and experience navigating through tunnels such as this made his movement smooth and natural, though Magnar mentally noted to himself that the tunnels clearly were not designed for smooth or easy travel. The floor of the tunnel was at least as jagged and rough as the top of the tunnel, no provisions were made to smooth out a path to enhance the footing, a fact that was easy to dismiss when traversing the tunnels at a normal pace, but as Magnar picked up his pace the unstable footing became a focus of his travels. Magnar soon passed the second branch off the main tunnel that he had explored earlier with similar results to the one his companions were now staying in, he did not even pause to consider the tunnel as his purpose was clear and Marra had informed him that dwarven miners would be quite easy to discover even without slowing down. The miners would have very little reason to conceal themselves in tunnels they believe to be secure, furthmore unlike Magnar they would be forced to have some sort of device that gives off light so they can see which should quickly give away their presence while keeping Magnar fairly concealed in the darkness of the tunnel.

Magnar moves through the dark, unstable, tunnels without interruption and the exploratory branches off the main tunnel remained fairly consistent and did not vary enough to catch Magnar's attention. He detected no sign of dwarves or other tunnel dwellers along the first half of his trip, or at least his best guess to the first half. Shortly after halfway, by his estimation, he discovered a large opening unlike the other branches, causing Magnar to pause long enough to look around.

What he found was a much larger excavation, instead of a tunnel system it was more like a single large hall, long, wide, and tall. By his approximation it was similar in size to the market in Agartha, unlike the market however this large expanse was empty. It appeared to be a singular excavation, and perhaps the dwarves had found what they were looking for. Or perhaps it was only designed to be a safe haven for the miners, though it seemed a little large for a temporary settlement.

With nothing else to discover in the excavation Magnar moved on down the main tunnel which started to smooth just slightly as it grew moderately wider and taller making his travel slightly easier. The side tunnels started to become less frequent and Magnar was able to quicken his pace with less to explore and a wider tunnel to navigate leading him the rest of the way to Pittsburgh. The tunnels were as he remembered them, though he did not realize until now how different the tunnels under the city were to the tunnels of the City of Agartha. Agartha's tunnels were old, round, efficient, and jagged while the tunnels under the city were more square and tall enough for a man to walk upright and smooth enough for a mortal to run in. As he passed the entrance to the airport, where the group had entered, he saw no signs that anyone had followed them down the tunnels or discovered in the weeks since their entrance. Finally Magnar found the entrance to the abandoned house where they had met Bomber Stonefoot and his mining crew what seemed like a very long time ago, when he entered he immediately saw that much had changed.

Magnar entered the house carefully through the vault door that entered into the basement, a quick look around wall all he needed to see that they were no longer there. The basement had been wiped clean of any garbage, rubble, or dust and the magical wall that had hidden the mining equipment of the dwarves was gone revealing the full size of the basement. Magnar pulled the axe from his shoulder as he explored further into the house, as he did so he found no sign of Bomber and the other dwarves and the entire house had been wiped clean. With no leads Magnar couldn't do much but wait for Sanura and Georgio to arrive on Monday morning, a cleaned house would serve their purpose just as well. He settled in the basement near the vault door that led back into the tunnels, left alone to his wood carvings in the dark basement until the next morning.