Valheecius Dig Site.

"Neat! So I take it you're super strong in a fight, right? you should see my friend Raena fight. Girl can punch like a stampeding bull...." Wendy said, rubbing her cheek.

"Fair enough. I'm more of a back-lines kinda girl myself. We should stick together, with Raena in front we'll beat up all the mummies in those ruins no problem!"

"That would be easily accomplished, though I think I can do better. I appreciate a challenge. Well then, it is settled. Now, the midday sun is almost past, and the workers are waiting. Shall we all go forth into the dig site?"

He stood, grinning once again. Rani had shown up, so he gave her a smile and a wink before she talked to Wendy. He was wearing remarkably similar robes to the ones he had worn on Darastrix, the only difference being the weight of the fabrics.

"Walk with me, I will show the way."

"Oh! Right, let's roll!" Wendy cheered. As she stood up she somehow managed to stumble and land face first into the sand before picking herself off and dusting her clothes, pretending that didn't happen.

"What? yeahimfinethatdidnthappenwhyareyoulookingatme?" Wendy said quickly before following the group.

One wouldn't realize one had reached the dig site until moments before you fell into the first of the trenches. Here the sand had been replaced with denser oasis mud: the ground became harder, and you would sink less into it. Hirhan led the party down a ramp into a trench which branched off in a bizarre, spider-like pattern. The trench quickly became rather deep: even the taller members of the party would soon be unable to see over the buttressed walls of the trench.

"Welcome to our dig site. As you can see, the workers have been busy. Or rather, were busy. Their digging has been cut short by a discovery, the very one which warranted us taking on your contract."

The magus would lead from the front, though observant people would notice his hand never strayed far from the holster he carried his blasting rod in. The path he took seemed random: they took left turns, and right turns, sometimes descending deeper into the ground before rising up back to the level they started at. Looking at the walls, one would notice the marks of shovels, as well as the occasional imprint of an artifact which had been removed. In the shade of the trench it was cooler than on the desert floor, though not by much. Eventually Hirhan would signal everyone to stop.

"Here we are, the top of the outer wall."

The dirt and clay of the walls and floor had given way to carved stone: the wall of an emplacement. The stone was cut into even, squared rectangles, and was utterly black, devoid of any shine or color. It was clearly not like the sandstone present in the local geography. It was volcanic. Strangest of all was were the burn marks. While most of the wall was orderly and straight like tile, in others it looked like melted chocolate. At places it would appear as if the wall had melted, liquid stone forming strange, curvaceous patterns in places, and inverted bubble-like holes in others.

At the end of the trench was a breach in the floor: a jagged splinter crack wide enough to accommodate a large man, though it would take a squeeze. Peering through the hole, one would see little more than darkness and the faint outline of a sand covered floor.

"After the first worker went missing my colleagues decided to ward this crack tighter than the drawstring of a merchant's coinpurse. Only my colleagues or I can dispel this barrier... unless it is blocking something more powerful than all of us combined. But if that was the case we would be utterly screwed anyway, so no sense worrying! Now that I have shown you around, perhaps you would like to prepare a bit before checking the place out. Ralf, I notice your armor is missing, for instance. Of course, it would likely be wise to rest a bit from your travels a bit, maybe eat something. Up to you all, frankly. I'm not paying you by the hour, after all."

Despite his smile the man was clearly grasping the handle on his blasting rod tightly. Faintly the smell of "the first worker" could be smelt in the air. It is hard to get blood out of greedy desert soil.

"I'm going to take a stab and say they couldn't handle the heat but didn't stay out of the kitchen." Wendy said as she observed the melted stone more.

Raena nods, her flat expression unaffected. "Indeed, I would like to speak with this man. I believe I will be able to get more from him than you," states Raena, neutrally, "I thank you for the information. I insist that we must speak with the witness before continuing; entering a situation such as this without proper information could result in unnecessary deaths." Her voice is laced with a sense of urgency.
"Magic is not something to be trifled with. Especially daemons," she continues in explanation, "I am sure you agree."

Raena thanks Hirhan with a nod and steps into the tent, moving toward the man and pulling a chair up before him. She sits down upon the chair and stares into the man's eyes, her pale blue eyes scouring his own, finding fear and madness in equal measure. Clearly, this man's psyche was damaged. She has a thought, then. The language of The Void could often be understood best by those who had gone mad -- a good portion of the Cult's priesthood consisted of those who had spent far too much time within The Void's depths. Raena begins to speak, then, in that horrible language that grates and pulls upon one's psyche, scratching at their mind. "Ka uai ifkylzsofk ty?" she asks, her inflection clearly indicative of a question.