Sigurd refused what was offered, he had some travel food to finish later on tonight. Instead, the swede opted to take out his flask and pour it into a nearby empty glass, the clear alcohol welling up in the glass and took a sip, craning his neck from side to side as it went down.

The mechanic settled into a seat next to his foreman. "Got to setup around midnight, get the machines up and running for the rest of them. Don't drink too much."

None of the servants seemed to know much English, though the young woman that James spoke to did her best, giving a bit of a girlish giggle, possibly due to dealing with a handsome young man. She quickly retreated however, only to chatter with another girl in the kitchen in excited German, the gist of which was considering the eligibility of the young men that had come on the expedition.

The elderly man shook doctor Drieburg's hand with a firm grip, though the professor would be able to feel every brittle bone in Lukas's hand,"Thank you, thank you, my family has lived here for quite a while, though I couldn't say how long...I believe there are some records in the library, however." He sat back down heavily with a soft 'whumph' of breath and nodded ever so slightly toward Elaine and Victoria, though he didn't seem quite so concerned with the women. He took a small sip of his beer before continuing,"We believe we found one of the old mines by mistake. You see, my grandson wanted to expand the pantry, so when they removed a few of the stones, the whole floor collapsed. No one was harmed, Gott sei dank." He paused for a moment seeming to try and remember what he was talking about,"Ah, ja, the mine. There is a door down there, though it seems that none of my staff wants to speak about it so much. You may ask them yourselves, but I have not seen this door."

He took a long draw from his mug, considering this information for himself, again seeming to forget what he was talking about,"My family has lived here for a very long time. I was even born within these walls. They built it here on top of the iron mines that used to be all over this mountain. Most of the mines are closed up now, not much need for swords and armor, you see. There were rumors that there was gold and silver here too, but again, no one mines much anymore, so its probably just stories. When I was younger my brother and I would always go sneaking in those mines but we never found much....Did I tell you about the hot springs we have here? They're quite refreshing, the water I mean. Though a bit smelly, like bad eggs."

Lukas started off on a ramble about his childhood again, but it was little more than reminiscing and held little more importance than to go on about all the mines that dotted the mountainside.

Adam walked back into the room in the middle of everyone eating and talking, well after Lukas had finished speaking. "Sorry, everyone. Sorry, I just kind of got, well, sidetracked." Sitting, he turned to the head of the table and addressed specifically their host. "You have a wonderful library. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to learn the language, but I would love to look more at the library later, possibly with you, since it is yours and I'm sure you have some good books you could recommend. I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt anything all of you are talking about." He removed his jacket and lay it on the floor with the book on top. He looked around the table and saw Victoria.

"You know, I've been studying under Dr. Hooton back at Harvard on his studies into Physical Anthropology. He believes that the culture and advancement of a people is partially genetic and depends on race just as much as it does where they are or how they're raised. That's part of why they think..." He paused and remembered his dumb mouth. "Not, of course, that I agree with everything he says or thinks. I mean, science is forever, excuse the terminology, evolving."

James sat mostly in silence for the meal, listening to the old man ramble on and taking note of some of what he was saying. Once he'd reached a lull in his story, James spoke up for the first time since the carriage ride up, addressing Luke.

"So what exactly is this project we're all up here to work on. I've been told something about a door or some such, and possibly a crypt. Excavation of a sort, in any sense, and compared to Tutankhamen's tomb. You've assembled a fine if eclectic group for the task, Mister Waechter, if I do say so myself."

He'd been hired on for his experience, mostly, and hadn't heard much more about the task at hand than what he'd been able to glean from the conversation on the way in, which didn't much suit him. He preferred to know everything about the job he was doing in detail, preferably with numbers and facts, measurements and maps, and as few vague areas as possible.

"Perhaps you could describe the cave-in site and the door itself to us so we know what to expect?"