No, I wasn't suggesting that we cease speculating. I just have this incurable need to attach a warning label to our wilder woolgatherings, lest they be confused with attempts on our part to engage in anything as disciplined as
inductive or
deductive reasoning.
No, I didn't imagine dwarves using the spiral staircase to transfer quantities of ore vertically, but you have to admit the spiral staircase is efficient at aiding personnel movement in that direction in close quarters. I don't suppose any evidence exists that Khuzan engineers invented the elevator while allegedly sulking over Sinadarin betrayal after the Battle of Sorrows...
Based upon our meager available evidence, perhaps we can tentatively conclude that the site has not been exploited or used on any medium or large scale in ages. Anything that is going on in there likely involves a small number of persons. We only found the place due to Imarë's perceptiveness, a feat likely beyond most humans, and the application of some logical thinking (diito
). The entrance does not suggest a long habit of human access, but does indicate recent clearing. Of course, any conclusion we might draw from the state of the entrance we found is moot if another unknown entrance exists, but this is all we have to go on for the nonce.
We are pretty sure the girls (at least one) are within, but I for one doubt they both cleared the rubble at the cave entrance and reconnoitered so deep into the complex that they became trapped or lost. I also hesitate to assume one of the girls was the spy who ran away. Just for the record.
Pace my point above about the obscurity of the entrance, however, I am equally reluctant to conclude that nobody in this little village knows it exists. The complex has probably been at Selepan for a millenium, and the village has certainly existed there for hundreds of years if not longer. Many of these people, everyone from Sir Herrill on down, come from families who have lived in the area for generations. While Dave's point is a good one (non-arable land is of little interest to medieval folks), we have already seen that the locals enter this wooded area for the swimming, and I imagine there is some allowable foraging for drop wood in the winter and such as well. Do we have any guess regarding the chances that the locals are
completely ignorant of the complex?
Would the presence of an old Khuzan warren be researchable or discoverable information (paging Kaelyn)? By which I mean to suggest, there are a few oddities about these villages Sir Ewen has come into. These oddities may be entirely coincidental to the Khuzan ruin, or may be not. Like, what's a Deryni named Hodril doing in a place like Selapan? Yeah, impregnating the local beauty, I've heard that before, but Selapan? Or what about those nearby scholars at Inbernel? Any reason they settled
there, of all places? Like Dave says, just speculating (see the top of my post), but if we are going to be exhaustive then I guess we should consider keeping in mind the possibility that these are not all entirely unrelated oddities.
One final thought tonight: we shouldn't be blinded to the possibility of non-human nasties in this place, either. If that door has been ajar for any amount of time, it would almost be odd if nothing has taken up residence, especially in the winter...