Hidden Underground Cache

The hidden underground cache was the expedition's first major find in The Uncharted Lands: a deliberately concealed supply store, discovered inland of the landfall site when a patch of disturbed ground proved to be the lip of a buried chamber.

Description

The cache is a small stone-lined chamber, roughly four blocks square, accessed by a concealed shaft capped with gravel over a wooden hatch. The construction is competent and hurried — the work of someone hiding things well, but quickly. Moss on the hatch timber puts its age at years, not seasons.

Contents

The inventory, as logged on recovery: barrels of preserved food, still good; a quantity of iron ingots and a smaller quantity of gold; rope, lanterns, and tools showing wear but maintained to a standard Drugal MacGruder would grudge respect; and one locked chest, opened with effort, containing charts. The charts are hand-drawn, annotated in an unfamiliar hand, and appear to map sections of the coastline — including anchorages the expedition had not yet found.

Assessment

Whoever stocked this cache expected to return and did not. The competence of the work, the quality of the charts, and the absence of any pillager markings argue for a third party on this frontier: not pirates, not the ancient builders of the headland stone. The expedition is using the supplies, copying the charts, and keeping the original hand in mind.

Field Notes

The food was eaten. The charts changed the expedition's plans entirely — one annotated anchorage is where the tall ship was found. The cache's stocker, wherever they are, is owed a considerable debt.