“Yeah...” Alyssa said.
“Had I listened to you, I wouldn't have been killed,” Luke said, still laughing. “That crazy fatal blow from the giant would've left me with two hit points if I'd been full at the beginning of the fight.”
Shaking her head, Alyssa replied, “Once again, you put the safety of the entire group at risk because of something stupid. I'm so sick of your bullshit, Luke.”
“He just came back from the dead,” Stephanie said. “Maybe we should give him a break.”
Alyssa continued shaking her head and walked out of the room to cool off. The healer started casting another spell. She laid her hands on Luke once again and restored his hit points to full. Revival spells only bring you back with one hit point. All of his cuts and bruises disappeared, including the one on his arm that he was hoping would scar.
Luke sat up and hopped off the table. He was much taller than the women who revived him and towered over both of them. Putting an arm around each of their waists, Luke pulled them both up against his body.
“Is there anything I can do to thank you two lovely ladies?” Luke asked.
“A thank you is all I require,” Fayette answered, pulling away from him.
“You could buy me a drink down at the TavInn,” Bethaniel said, putting her arm around Luke.
“Why don't we all go down to the tavern,” Mitch said. “We'll get some food and drinks, then get rooms at the inn for the night. Tomorrow morning, we'll resume our quest to find the Orb of Displacement.”
“You've heard of it?” Stephanie asked Fayette, noticing that her eyes lit up when Mitch mentioned The Orb.
“Oh, yes,” she replied. “A group of adventurers came out of the mines with a Displacement Orb not too long ago. You four look an awful lot like them, now that I think about it.”
“Can you tell us anything else about the Displacement Orb?” Stephanie asked.
Fayette paused for a moment and then answered, “No. I'm afraid not.”
“Well, thank you for everything,” Mitch said.
“You're very welcome,” Fayette answered, then showed them all to the door.
The four friends walked back to The TavInn with Bethaniel. Her and Luke walked together, flirting the entire way. Alyssa didn't say a word the whole walk.
When they got to the tavern, all of them ate and drank for hours, having a good old time. Even Alyssa's mood eventually turned around, though it made her sick to see all the attention Luke was getting from the local women. All of them got rooms at the NorthwInn'd and slept soundly through the night after a long and eventful day of traveling.
Chapter 13 - Minecraft
“Thank you for an absolutely amazing night,” Bethaniel said to Luke, kissing him on the cheek. “You'll come see me again when you all return from the mines?”
“Of course, baby!” he replied. “Now run along so my friends and I can get ready to head to the mines.”
Alyssa looked away in disgust as Bethaniel and Luke exchanged a long, drawn-out open-mouth kiss. He slapped Bethaniel's ass as she walked away, making her jump and putting a smile on her face. The four friends stood outside The NorthwInn'd, watching Bethaniel disappear down the street.
“Are you really gonna see her again?” Mitch asked.
“Not if I can help it,” he replied. “But you never know.”
“Let's get going,” Alyssa said, disgust obvious in her voice. “We've got a busy day ahead of us.”
The others nodded and they got on their way. After eating a big meal at The TavInn, the friends stopped by a few shops to stock up on supplies. The last place they stopped was the weapon shop. Mitch and Alyssa both ended up buying something there. As they were paying for their items, Luke noticed something hanging on the wall.
“Guys!” he said, almost yelling, pointing at a massive sword hanging on the wall. “Check out this longsword!” Luke reached up to take it off the wall but the store owner stopped him.
“Unless you have the money to buy that sword,” the dwarven woman said, “no touching.”
“It's cool. I'm an experienced swordsman,” Luke replied, pointing to his own longsword.
“And I'm an experienced salesman.”
“Saleswoman,” Stephanie corrected. The dwarven woman didn't seem to care. She just kept talking.
“And it's not cool. That's not just any longsword. That's the Longsword of Random Awesomeness. It costs twenty-two hundred gold.”
“The Longsword of Random Awesomeness?” Luke asked, practically salivating, eyes glued to the sword. “It even sounds awesome. What does it do?”
“Exactly what you think it does. Random attack and defense bonuses, resistance to magic – stuff like that. But judging by the look of you, you don't have nearly enough gold to purchase it.”
“Maybe not,” Luke replied, still looking at the sword. “But I will. And when I do, I'm coming back for this beautiful piece of metal.”
They left the weapon shop and started walking toward the northeastern part of Northwind. Once they were out of the downtown area, it became mostly farmland. Colorful crops could be seen all around and both Stephanie and Mitch found them to be quite beautiful. The other two didn't seem to care very much.
Spotting a unique flower with brightly-colored petals on the side of the road, Mitch stopped to pick it. He walked up to Stephanie, got down on one knee, and handed it to her.
“For you, milady,” Mitch said.
Both smiling and blushing, Stephanie replied, “Awww, thank you, my good sir!” and put the flower behind her ear.
“So fucking gay,” Luke said, laughing.
Alyssa whacked him in the arm and said, “It is not! I think it's cute.”
They continued to the northeasternmost part of Northwind. It wasn't hard for them to find what they were looking for. Just like the witch described, they came to a large shack next to a hill with the mine entrance. As they got closer, the group noticed a sign next to the mine written in English, Dwarven, and Elven. It had a big red arrow pointing to the shack and it read: You MUST register inside before entering the mine.
Luke opened the door to the shack and they all went inside. Sitting behind a desk and reading a book was an old man. The walls were lined with exorbitantly priced tools to be sold to unprepared miners. When they walked in, the old man put his book down and turned to them.
“You're here to do some mining, I take it,” he said. “If you need any equipment – which it looks like you do – you can buy everything you need right here. But before you go down into the mines, each one of you must sign the book.”
The old man tapped a big book sitting on the desk. It was wide open and had the names of everyone who went down into the mines.
“We're not miners,” Mitch said. “Do we still have to sign the book?”
“If you're going down into the mines, you do,” the old man replied. “That way, if you never come back up, we'll at least know you went down. But if you're looking for adventure, you're better off heading into the woods. Or maybe to the mountains. The only people that usually go down into the mines are, well, miners. Although, I did have a party of four adventurers go down there not too long ago, looking for some rare treasure or something. All they came out with was some kind of crystal ball. Can't imagine where they found it. Didn't look like it was worth a whole lot, but they all seemed excited to have found it. You know, the four of you look a lot like the ones I'm talking about. But my vision's getting so bad that everyone's starting to look alike.”
“I don't suppose you know where in the mines they found the crystal ball, do you?” Mitch asked as he signed the book.
“I don't, no. All I can tell you is that they were down there for a while. Quite a while, actually. To be honest, I thought they'd all perished. I was surprised to see them again after how long they'd been down there.”
All four of them signed the book and thanked the old man for what little information he was able to give the
m. They left the shack and stood outside the entrance to the mine.
“So we're basically just gonna go down there and wander around aimlessly until we find The Orb?” Luke asked.
“Yeah, basically,” Mitch answered. “At least we know The Orb is down there somewhere.”
“We don't know shit,” Luke replied. “We heard that The Orb is down there.”
“What we do know for sure is that we aren't gonna find it standing around out here,” Alyssa said. “Let's get going.”
The friends agreed and walked into the mine. Though the walls were lined with torches, Alyssa cast an illumination spell for some extra light. They traveled down the narrow mine shaft for what felt like an eternity. For hours, they descended down the shaft without seeing anyone else or anything of even the remotest interest. The first people they ran into were a group of five dwarves walking back up to the surface. They were covered in dirt, each one of them carrying a bag full of precious metals.
“Hi there!” Mitch said. “Successful mining trip?”
“Oh yeah!” one of the dwarves said with a smile, opening up his bag of gold. “Very successful.”
“That's great!” Alyssa added. “How much further until we get to the bottom?”
“You're about halfway there,” another dwarf answered. “But when you get down there, you'll find dozens of different tunnels going off in every direction. Most of them are filled with miners, who can be very territorial. But there are a few tunnels with plenty of ore that are open.”
“We're only halfway?” Luke asked. “That sucks.”
“The walk down is easy,” a third dwarf said. “The walk up, especially if you're carrying big bags of metal, sucks. Speaking of which, we need to get going. Safe mining.”
“Thank you,” Mitch replied.
They continued down the mine shaft for several more hours. Finally, the tunnel stopped descending and leveled out. The friends knew that they must be close to where the miners were. They followed a long hallway with several tunnels leading off to the right and left. Each tunnel was marked with a number – all but one, that is.
“There are so many tunnels,” Stephanie said. “Where do we begin?”
“Why don't we start with tunnel number one?” Mitch suggested.
The others nodded. They headed down the first tunnel. It was even more narrow than the shaft leading up to the surface. As they walked down the tunnel, the friends started to hear the sound of pickaxes clanging against rock. After a few minutes, they got to the end where they found a team of two humans mining.
“This tunnel's taken,” one of them said as soon as he saw the four friends.
“Understood,” Mitch said. “Can we ask you a few quick questions?”
The other miner looked Mitch up and down and replied, “Fine. But make it quick.”
“Have you ever heard of anyone finding any orbs down here?” Mitch asked.
“Nope. Next question.”
“One of the tunnels doesn't have a number. What's down there?” Mitch asked next.
“Don't know, don't care. All I do know is that there's no gold, silver, or anything else down there.”
“We've never been down there,” the other miner added. “But I've heard that it leads even further underground. Supposedly, there are monsters down there. But I don't believe it. What kind of monsters could live that far underground?”
“Interesting,” Mitch said. “Thank you. Okay, I think that's it. Safe mining.”
The miners nodded and went right back to work. Walking their way back to the main tunnel, the friends talked about how to proceed.
“I'm thinking the unmarked tunnel is probably our best bet for finding The Orb. What do you guys think?” Mitch asked.
“I think you're probably right,” Alyssa said. “But why don't we go down another numbered tunnel and talk to another group of miners, first. See if we can find out anything else.”
“Okay,” Mitch agreed. “Which number?”
“How about this: I'll throw a copper piece down the main hallway and whatever numbered tunnel it lands closest to, we'll go down that one,” Luke suggested.
The others nodded. Luke took out a copper piece and launched it down the hallway. It clinked and clanked its way down the hall, landing just out of sight. The friends walked down the hallway and found the coin directly in front of tunnel number fourteen.
“Fourteen it is,” Luke said, picking up his copper piece.
They walked down the tunnel marked with the number fourteen. Like the first tunnel, the friends started hearing the sound of metal hitting rock. When they got to the end, they were surprised to find a lone miner. He was a large elf – large by elven standards, anyway – and greeted the friends with a smile.
“Hi there!” he said.
What surprised the friends further was that the elf wasn't a player like the dwarven and human miners they'd encountered earlier. Below the elf read [NPC] Theren, miner.
“Hi!” Alyssa said. “May we ask you a few questions?”
“Sure!” Theren replied with enthusiasm. “I'm always happy to help new miners. I've been mining here longer than anyone else. I can tell you everything you want to know.”
“Great!” Mitch said. “What can you tell us about the unmarked tunnel?”
Theren's smile slowly faded and he answered, “Now why on earth - or should I say why in earth - would you want to know about the one tunnel that doesn't have any precious metals?”
“We're not looking for metals,” Stephanie answered. “We're looking for an orb.”
“Ohhhhhh,” the elf said, his smile partially returning. “You're adventurers. That makes sense. I didn't think you looked like miners, but I didn't want to say anything. The unmarked tunnel, huh? I can tell you all about it. I can tell you about the entire history of these here mines, if you want to hear it.”
“Absolutely,” Mitch replied. “We'd love to hear anything you can tell us.”
Theren put down his pickaxe and said, “Have a seat and I'll tell you everything I know.”
The friends sat down and got comfortable – as comfortable as they could in the narrow tunnel. Theren also had a seat on top of a pile of rock and started talking.
“A couple hundred years ago, give or take a decade, a band of adventurers discovered a tunnel in the northeastern part of what's now Northwind. Most people assume that the tunnel was dug for the purpose of mining, but it was there before anyone knew there was anything to mine down here. To this day, no one knows who originally dug the tunnel. Over the years, it's been expanded and reinforced, but the tunnel is hundreds of years old.
“Naturally, the adventurers that discovered the tunnel were curious as to where it led. Northwind was nothing more than farmland at the time, so they went to Lakewind to gather supplies and recruit others to explore the tunnel. A total of eleven adventurers went. Of the original eleven, only two returned.
“The two that returned spoke of a long descending tunnel that they thought would never end. Eventually, they said it leveled out and there was another tunnel leading off the main one. That's the unmarked tunnel you've asked me about. The eleven adventurers went down it and, according to the two survivors, encountered a creature so powerful and evil that it killed ten of them within minutes. The survivors claimed to have defeated the monster. Most people – myself included – think they just ran back up the tunnel as fast as they could, escaping the fate of the others.
“When the two survivors returned to Lakewind and told their story, other explorers wanted to go down into the tunnel to see it for themselves and to recover the deceased adventurers' possessions. Several parties left for the mysterious tunnel, most of which never returned. The few that did spoke of a fierce monster that could kill even the most seasoned of adventurers with a single blow.
“After the initial interest in the tunnel died down, no one went down there for the next hundred years or so. No one that anyone knows of, anyway.
But then a new group of adventurers rediscovered the tunnel and went down it. They didn't go down the mysterious side tunnel down here, though. One of the adventurers noticed something shiny in the wall of the main tunnel. He used his sword to dig it out – a big, fat nugget of gold.
“As you would expect, once the news got to Lakewind, group after group of prospectors headed north to the tunnel. I was one of the original miners. I've been coming here for just over a hundred years. Over time, the town of Northwind was formed to accommodate the miners and their families. At any given time, there are hundreds of miners down here. But we don't often get many adventurers like you guys. Although, there was a group of four explorers – looked a lot like the four of you, actually – that went down the unmarked tunnel not too long ago. I was surprised when I heard they came out unscathed. We all thought for sure that they'd perished.
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