The underground merchant made no specific demands. Instead, he extended an invitation to Renato.
"Down?" Renato frowned. "Deeper into the Underdark?"
"That's right." Dain grinned, looking excited. "I stumbled across this little fissure just outside New Rolling Stone City. As its first discoverer, I named it 'Mushroom Putty Cave,' after one of my favorite snacks."
Renato ignored the bizarre name and asked with a frown:
"The stratum below us? What's down there?"
"Who knows? I climbed down, then came straight back up." Dain shrugged. "Maybe there are lost ruins, full of gold and silver..."
"Whatever's there, it can't be worse than a whole pack of brain-eating squidheads."
Hard to say. Remembering the things Balin had told him about, Renato shook his head and said:
"This isn't that far from Rolling Stone City. Why hasn't anyone found the entrance? Or rather, why hasn't anyone thought of exploring the next stratum beforehand?"
"Easy for you to say. You surface folk don't understand at all... never mind. Let me give you an example."
Dain cleared his throat and said:
"We Duergar have traded with the Drow of Samoriel City for a thousand years. You could say we know the trade routes above us very well. But did anyone discover the Mind Flayer nest right over Rolling Stone City's head?"
"Maybe someone really did stumble across it." Dain's voice dropped. "But they must have died. Deaths and disappearances are so common in the Underdark. Who would go looking for where they died?"
The underground merchant gestured as though playing an accordion.
"There's less than a few meters of wall between caves, and you have no idea what monsters are roaming next door. Let alone between strata, where there's tens or hundreds of meters of solid rock."
So that was it. Renato was still thinking