Case (Sort Of) Closed ((Open))

[iphigenia]

Iphie whistled quietly as they traveled further down the stairway. "How do you think he managed something like this? It's just unbelievable." When they entered the end room Iphie was slightly stunned. What down here would merit the sort of work to build this place? Is it natural?" Iphie glanced at Dusty who had pulled out a green vial. "What is that stuff? Is it valuable or dangerous?"

[Dusty Dawson]

"Our boy didn't do this on his own, that's for sure..." Dusty gave a nod of her head at Iphigenia's assessment of the tunnel. It was a good question and one that complimented when the actual construction was carried out very well.

Dusty looked up from the vial and back towards her partner, "Can't say for certain, but it's probably a little bit o' both." she said, "I think what we're lookin' at here is a way point. Once they get whatever they're sellin' in the city, they leave it here 'fore they go an' move it elsewhere. This whole thing keeps lookin' bigger an' bigger the more I look at it..."

She tucked the vial in her pocket and began to fish around once more. There had to be something else that could provide shed some more light on the operation. While she had a lot to go on, right now, Dusty wanted to be sure she got as much information as she could.

[iphigenia]

Iphie felt rather useless at the time. She couldn't add much to the search since she didn't know what to look for, and of course she had never seen the green stuff before. She decided to do what little she could to help. Iphie stepped over to the wall and began tapping on the walls. The sudden dead end didn't make much sense and she was sure that any hidden doors in something as soft as dirt would quickly make themselves known.

[Dusty Dawson]

Nothing but vials and scrolls. There didn't seem to be much else to learn from the room, other than what she was already able to deduce. Taking the vile she had pilfered out, she uncorked it and took a whiff. No scent. Her gut instinct was telling her it was a poison of some variety.

"Well...looks like we got what we needed from here." she said, "How 'bout we take off?"

[iphigenia]

Iphie had finished her tapping. If there were other tunnels she couldn't tell. Not that she had any experience looking for caved in tunnels but she was fairly certain there weren't any. "That sounds good I suppose." She muttered in reply. "I expect if anyone were to turn up it would be hard to explain this away." She turned toward the entrance. "Lead the way."

[Dusty Dawson]

Dusty walked over to the section of wood that was interrupting the stone wall. The difficult thing about that was, there was no switch on this side to trigger any move. It would have been preferable to leave...if only to find out where the store room was located. But, she could always theorize about that.

"Huh......ya know somethin' that's odd?" she asked as she went back towards the tunnel, "This tunnel's pretty long. Bet ya it stretches across the street. How much ya wanna bet we're right under that potion shop we just left?"

[iphigenia]

"That brings up some unfortunate implications. Who else knows about this, where does it go, what should we do about it? Just to mention a few." Iphie looked up at the ceiling. "It would be a convenient place for burglars who wish to rob a store quickly, not to mention just general sneaking around. If there are other shop owners who are apart of whatever is going on here then there is certainly the added factor of what they could plan. One person can only do so much, but if there are several people with different skills than who knows what they can accomplish."

[Dusty Dawson]

"Well, ya hit it right on the nose." Dusty said with a nod of her head, "An' I ain't too fond o' the implications, neither. This thing runs deeper than I first thought. Only good news is, they don't know that we know somethin's up. Gives us time to figure out a plan..."

Dusty flipped through the book Iphigenia found, one last time, before looking back down the dark tunnel, "We're gonna need ta leave this here." she said, "One vial, they won't be missin' that. This? It'll raise eyebrows. Way I figure it...the longer they don't know 'bout us pokin' 'round their business, the better. Gives the upper hand. An' buddy, we're gonna to hold that hand as long as possible."

[iphigenia]

"You make it sound like we found something worthwhile. As far as I can tell is that we've found a secret tunnel full of purple liquid. Could be a secret brewery for all we know." She glanced toward the boxes with the vials of liquid. "Just trying to point out the flaws to any side of the subject. We might have something useful, we might have nothing at all." She suddenly wondered if opening an unidentified vial and sniffing it was the most intelligent thing for Dusty to have done. Admittedly it wasn't some hyperactive disease, she would have noticed, but it still didn't seem too smart. "Are you feeling ok, not dizzy or anything?"

[Dusty Dawson]

"Well, regardless, somethin's up. If they're goin' to these lengths to hide anythin', the chances are they ain't up to much good." Dusty said, "Either way, I got enough here to make a solid start. With a little more pokin' around, I oughtta have this whole thing figured."

She grinned, quite confident with her assessment. The question as to whether or not her own test of the mystery vial was the appropriate course of action, was an interesting notion.

"Ah, no need ta worry." she brushed the concerns off, regardless of their validity, "Whatever the stuff is, I doubt it's that potent. An operation like this don't strike me as the type to leave that kinda stock just layin' about. Too much a hazard. Kick that there box over and your liable to wind up with a corpse or two. And dead folks can draw a bit o' unwanted attention."

[iphigenia]

"Well normally a corpse would draw attention, unless of course they were already buried where they lay. Wouldn't be hard to hide one in some offshoot of this tunnel. Besides, this man leaves his appointment book where it can be easily found, with a bit of work you found the secret passage, I can't imagine he's the brains behind some big smuggling ring of anything important. Though he just may be inept." She shook her head. She was being negative and she knew it, but so far she had contributed nothing at all of importance to the investigation. Even if she had just sort of joined in, she had hoped to make herself of some use.

[Dusty Dawson]

"Oh, not at all...he ain't the big boss 'round here, that's for sure." Dusty said, with a confirming nod, "Alright, we've stuck 'round here long enough. Let's head on out an' see if we can dig up a stiff drink somewhere!"

Contrary to her companion, Dusty was in high spirits. Sure, there were plenty of questions. A lot of the situation was unknown and it seemed that they had exhausted the supply of information. But, they had found the start of the trail and that was enough to satisfy Dusty, for now.