And so, having completed many small endeavors, the slapshod group of adventurers have successfully set up a command center in the town of Bryce's Field. Where the small town once only served as a stopover on the foot journey from Arunum to the north and Riverwatch to the south, it now housed numberless laborers from nearby villages and Arunum itself, hired to excavate the ruins of an ancient civilization which the group had stumbled upon in their very first foray out of the city.
Found buried under a great hill to the west of the town, great progress had now been made, exposing the entire upper once-domed galleries of the ruin. But some of the laborers are growing fearful of rumors of distant howling and noises coming from inside the ruin at night. No confirmed reports have surfaced though, and the noises are dismissed by most as a ghost story hoax.
The stories of the past exploits of the adventuring group are murky at best. Some suggest the current group involved with the excavation isn't the original group at all. The people of Bryce's Field either feign ignorance or are actually ignorant of such a situation if it occurred.
The four seem an unlikely group. The two human rangers seem diametrical opposites; one an accomplished archer with dubious inclinations; the other a stealthy axe wielder claiming to trace his heritage back to an elf three generations past. The dwarven cleric stands out the most, dressed in holy regalia of Maexa, Goddess of Crafting and his beard often littered with gem shavings. The fourth is a non-descript mage of some talent. Most laborers and townsfolk avoid him, his look dour and often mumbling to himself or grinning at nothing at all. Though the five mage guilds are well-known, he doesn't appear to be a member of any of them.
Having previously explored a good portion of the upper galleries and the lower levels of the ruin, the group now stands poised at the entrance of what may be an even deeper level of the complex, once hidden in a grand statue of a winged humanoid with thin and sharp but subtle features. Will they descend deeper into the blackness or will they strike out west, where a group of goblins and hobgoblins are rumored to have taken up with plans of their own for the newly discovered ruins...
