...Probably not? He definitely looks injured by the fall, but there are also a bunch of other injuries.

"What happened to him?"

"Demons, I'm afraid; the fall was the straw that broke the camel's back. I went to heal him, but he was already dead and I'm not strong enough to cast breath of life."

("What the hell kind of illustrati do they throw here anyway.")

("No idea, not the time to dig into it.")

"That's a pity. We're going to keep walking along the crevasse till we find a place where the surface looks clear and then maybe float out with a hot air balloon, if we can get a fire going."

"When I prepare spells tomorrow, I can ask for create flame, but I'm not sure how much good that will do without a fuel source and I'm not strong enough to spontaneously grow plants either; thorn spears doesn't work either, they disappear if they ever leave my hands and they're not terribly big. Hopefully there's just a way out that doesn't require waiting that long - I assume by the fact that you're coming from that direction that there's nothing at that end?"

"Didn't try the other direction, but there was nothing obvious."

"In that case, if you don't mind I'll join you."

She has a pretty fancy rapier, and her clothes are all high quality - judging by the lack of further adornment, she's probably not the wealthiest person in the city by any means, but definitely well to do. Unfortunately, as it turns out, there isn't an easier way up at the end, but there is what looks to be a natural cave.

That has some giant bugs coming out, of course! I hope you're prepared for centipedes that spit venom.

Not really specifically, no!! The guard of the spear flares out to block the venom from hitting Ky and she spears them.

Camellia will stab one of the others, and then the last two die to Anevia's arrows.

"Are there a lot of those? What the fuck do they eat?"

"I'm not sure! You see a few of them in the city sometimes, but not often enough they could be taking it back down or anything."

She pauses, considering.

"Well, it's not the way up we were hoping for, but there's probably a way out through that cave; the bugs do have to get food from somewhere, and in a way their size is encouraging since it means there's better odds we can fit."

"There are some fortresses from the first crusade that extend underground, from back when they were fighting demons in the tunnels. They're mostly abandoned now, but probably one of them is the exit in question."

"What, and go tromping through a cave just to maybe get back to the surface later? I can't say I'm a fan of this plan."

"We could see if the centipedes will burn, if anyone's got a firestarter - Iskander?"

He pulls out his flint and attempts to ignite the dead scorpions.

There's too much water in the insides for that to get a good flame, and the chitin in the exoskeleton doesn't burn. They can get some wispy smoke if they work at it, but it's not really a roaring fire.

"Yeah, I don't think this will catch even if we sacrifice some clothes and paper."

"Spooky cave it is, I guess."

Once they commit to the plan to traverse the cave, Camellia admits that she can cast light as many times as they need. It's not the most amazing buff imaginable, since the light coming from right by their heads ruins their ability to see too far in the distance and alerts anything that somehow failed to hear them, but that beats the heck out of not being able to see anything in the pitch dark. The cave system is pretty sizable, but inside the hour they start to hear echoes from some people talking a corner or two away.

Oh, and what are those people saying?

"I'm telling you, it's got to be around here somewhere. We just need to figure out where it got buried in the quake."

"And I'm telling you, you're wasting your time. Even if you could find it, it's not like an angel's sword would respond to you."

Well, better not to startle them when they come around the bend. "Hello?"

"Hello! Woah, are you guys from the surface?"