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a Lucy is born in Geb
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"Cave lizards are pretty perceptive, so I wouldn't count on it working. If there's nothing we can do better with the element of surprise though it's not a bad plan."

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"Would it find water sufficiently alarming to leave?"

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"Depends on how much water. If it's only as much as Dyra makes, probably not."

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"Unfortunate. I don't have anything better than plan rock, then."

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"--Oh, I have an idea," Luzai says. She scoops up a rock, and casts. 

Then she hands it to Lann. 

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Lann's brow furrows as he tries to figure out what she did to the rock. It looks just the same, it...what?

He brings it to his nose and sniffs. 

"What did you do?" 

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"Prestidigitation can do more than just clean things." 

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Lann shrugs and throws the meat-flavored rock at a point across the hall from the lizard. 

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The scent catches the lizard's attention as is clatters past; this is an unusual form factor for food to have, but it's hungry enough to not pass it up. When it bites down on said rock, it is very disappointed.

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Only briefly, though, because she and Camellia can take advantage of the distraction to stab it to death.

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Around the corner past it is another dead end, also devoid of children. It's not very visible in isolation, but with the number of such corridors Luzai has now been down and the subtle differences in appearance it's looking fairly likely that a lot of the branching hallways are newer than the base structure of the maze, which suggests someone came by after it was built and made it even harder to navigate.

 

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"...Architecture isn't really my forte, but some of this construction is a lot newer than the rest." 

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"What do you mean?" 

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Shrug. "I don't know exactly what it implies, but I don't like it." 

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"If I remember my local history right, this is probably one of the underground forts they made in the first crusade, to serve as a redoubt in case the city itself fell. If they've been expanded since then, that means that someone or some group set up here - and not a small one, if they've had the ability to excavate enough rock to meaningfully enlarge the place."

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"The passageways near the entrance have been a maze for as long as I can remember."

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"Then either whoever did it came and left, or someone has been at this for a long time. I'm definitely hoping for the former, but given the way these last two days have been I'm not going to count on it."

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"Baphomet cultists like mazes, right?" 

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"Famous for it," Anevia responds grimly.

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Another passage is lined with cobwebs.

"This one was a dead end before the spiders moved in. It's not worth picking a fight when the kids probably aren't down there."

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"Charming." 

They can skip that one, then. 

Luzai keeps concentrating on detect magic whenever her focus isn't more needed for something else. It's encouraging, at least, that she hasn't found any serious enchantment auras yet. 

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There are a number of bugs and rats that seem to have decided this was a good place to take up living, but Wenduag and Lann can usually spot them from far enough off that nobody is surprised and Seelah's armor makes her largely impervious to most isolated efforts. Both fighting and avoiding fights slow their pace considerably, but about an hour and a half after they made their way into the maze Lann and Camellia will start hearing voices up ahead.

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Lann draws to a halt. "There's someone there," he says, listening intently. 

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"More than one person. They don't sound like kids, though."

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"I'll take a closer look. Try and stay quiet, please." Anevia blends into the shadows surprisingly well, and even with darkvision it's possible to let your eyes slip over her if you're not paying attention.

A few stressful minutes later, Anevia creeps back to rejoin the group.

"Pretty sure these aren't the kids you're looking for, no; I'd bet crowns to sceattas that these people are from the surface. If I'd seen them on the street I'd have said they were normal people, but if this place was open to ordinary citizens I would know about it and they're not nearly nervous enough to be sheltering here from the attack."

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