I would be asking Olaf about this later.
It took a few minutes to sign the mine’s papers but once that was done, we were quickly led to the mine’s entrance. It was large and seemed to have a regular flow of miners coming and going. The entrance itself was framed by large wooden posts, like tree trunks that had been smoothed and fit together to brace the entrance open. I could see several more lining the mine every dozen or so feet until the path turned, and I could no longer see the posts. I was also glad to see there were lamps hanging from each post lighting the path.
“Now, when you get to the first fork, keep going straight on, the problems start not far past that point,” said Digren.
“And what’s the other way at the fork?” I asked.
“The pit,” Digren answered. “It is a hollow, goes down a few hundred feet, keep meaning to build a bridge across but . . . well, the veins have not dried up enough to warrant opening that shaft. Maybe someday. Anyway, best to let you lot get to it. Ash, you can have your pick of carts, just be prepared for it to fall apart on you.”
Gras shrugged before moving over to one of the rail carts with a hand-pump in the center, behind it were three empty ore carts.
“We’re not going in to mine,” I said.
Gras shrugged again.
“Better safe than sorry. If you happen upon a rare mineral vein you had best mine it up, or I will be a might sore with all of you if it vanishes before we can get a miner down there to dig it out,” said Digren.
“We’ll take care of it,” said Olaf, grinning a silly and overly excited smile.
“Right, Jack, you go first,” said Rose grinning.
“Still?” I asked.
“I’ll take over if it gets hairy,” Rose promised.
I would have thought it would be smarter at this point for her to take over tanking duties, but with that caveat I didn’t have much choice.
With my spear in one hand and my tiny round shield in the other, I stepped inside.
“We’ll be safe to the first fork,” said Olaf.
I tried to relax but I wasn’t feeling good about this. I kept moving forward anyway, passing miners working hard, but every now and then I would see five or six of them sharing a few beers from one of the kegs, I couldn’t help but chuckle each time. It was so stereotypical of Dwarves, but I loved it anyway.
“So, Olaf, what’s this I hear about you causing a mine collapse?” I asked, trying to distract myself.
“What mine collapse?” Olaf asked.
“Micaela said you caused a mine collapse in Hurlig Ridge,” I explained.
“I did not, that was all Mic’s fault,” Olaf started to defend himself.
“Ooh, that looks like the fork,” said Micaela loudly from over my left shoulder, distracting me from asking Olaf for more details. The fork was more like a side tunnel cut into the mine shaft that veered away to the left while the main path continued straight ahead. I glanced down the side tunnel, it went on for about a hundred feet before vanishing into blackness.
I also couldn’t help but take note of the sudden absence of miners except for the fading sound of picks striking stone behind us. Eventually, the only sound was our footsteps and Gras pumping the handcart behind us. I also noted that the lamps attached to the posts were often broken. Not broken glass but like they were just taken apart.
“Miner hats,” said Olaf, donning his own hardhat with a candle and mirror on it, an action his wife copied.
We kept moving deeper but found nothing. It was eerie. Suddenly, there was the sound of something breaking.
“What the hell!” Olaf nearly shouted.
I turned swiftly to look at him, the hand-cannon he held in his hand was little more than a handle now, the barrel and any mechanical parts were scattered across the mine floor.
“What the hell?” I asked, mirroring his statement.
Then there was a loud screeching, grinding sound as the mining cart suddenly and forcibly slowed down, a bright yellow sparking erupting from below it. I knelt down to look closer and found three of the wheels were now missing.
“Okay, poltergeist?” Micaela asked.
“I hope so,” said Gras, his voice shaking slightly, sounding like he was afraid.
“My hand-cannon,” Olaf nearly cried, kneeling over the parts and trying to collect them all.
Olaf’s cries drew my attention back to him and away from the underside of the cart. I was standing up, intent on helping Olaf collect all his parts when I caught movement along the undercarriage, I struck fast with my ‘Jab’ attack for -176-HP to whatever I struck. It dropped from the undercarriage dead. The nameplate described it as
I dragged it out from under the cart.
“What is that thing?” Olaf asked, shoving the last bits of his disassembled hand-cannon into his bag. “Some kind of rodent?”
“Oh no,” said Gras. “We need to run,” he said, hopping right off the cart and running as fast as his stubby Dwarven legs would let him.
“Where’s he going?” Rose asked, looking as confused by the action as I felt. Gras had never struck me as the cowardly type.
I would have looked but my eyes were fixed down the tunnel where hundreds of red eyes glowed in the darkness. “Uh oh,” I said feeling very uncomfortable by the sheer volume of
“Oh no,” Olaf, Micaela, Baby, Heath, and Rose said at the same time.
“Rose, I think you should tank now,” I said, already backing away.
“Why? You’re the one that made them mad,” Rose asked.
“Because I can do this,” I said. Focusing on the area with the most enemies, I cast my only area of effect spell (AoE), ‘Boar Charge’.
Boar Charge
Level: 8
Experience: 15.25%
Spell Damage: 200-375 per second
Spell Cast Speed: 5.00 seconds channeled Cooldown: 30 minutes
Spell Mana Cost: 325
Spell Effect (Active): Summon a stampede of spectral boars that will charge a targeted area dealing damage and knocking down anyone in the area of effect.
Charm Earned Bonus (Passive): Blessing of the Boar Spirit - +10-Endurance, +10-Stamina.
The blue spectral swine charged through the
And then my channeled spell ran out. I put my shield away and started attacking with ‘Rapid Striking’ causing a cone of damage to strike at everything in front of me.
“We need to run,” said Olaf, his only remaining gun firing as often as he could make it shoot, but with only one, the damage was limited.
“We’re in trouble here,” said Rose, smacking down one target at a time, but without an AoE ability of her own they were starting to slip past her.
“I said run,” Olaf shouted, throwing something into the mass of monsters.
As one we turned and ran, the horde of little monsters chasing after us. I leaned down to snag that first corpse as I passed it and kept running. It wasn’t much bigger than a rat or maybe a small dog or cat. It had hard skin though not unlike scales. It looked like it ran on all four legs, but the front paws had opposable thumbs. The mouth was filled with sharp little teeth. The head looked like a dog except for the missing fur. The eyes were also kind of funky, no pupils or whites that I could see, just a red film and no discernable eyelids.
“What are these things?” Baby shouted as she tumbled out of the air with one of the little things clamped firmly to her arm.
I stabbed with my spear, killing the one that was attacking Baby while Rose caught her sister and kept running.
As we passed the first fork in the path, I had an idea. “Rose, barrier, funnel them into the forked path.”
Rose turned suddenly, charging bac
k into the mob. I was right next to her, adding my shield and spear.
“Guys, help,” I shouted.
Olaf was suddenly next to me, one of the mining carts held over his head. He slammed it down next to me and against the wall. Micaela was right behind him, adding another cart on top of his. Soon, I was moving out of the way, so they could add another cart and build onto our wall.
Meanwhile, it was working, the little buggers crashed into us and were pushed into the side tunnel, the ones behind them were pushing them as well. Before I knew it, there were no more coming, though the ones we funneled into the side tunnel were starting to come back.
“Now, we push them,” I said loudly, over the sound of the growls and their claws scraping on stone.
Rose led the way. Any that got past her were either stabbed by me, hacked by Micaela, or smashed by Olaf. I had no idea where Heath was, hopefully he followed Gras. I didn’t like that he ran off without us, though I suppose given that we would respawn, and Gras wouldn’t, it was for the best. Eventually we had driven them all the way into the chasm where if they didn’t die by our efforts, then the fall certainly killed them.
“Holy macaroni, what was that?” Micaela asked, sitting down heavily against one of the mine walls.
“I have no idea, but we beat them. We should head outside and see if Foreman Digren can tell us anything about them,” Olaf said, sitting down next to his wife, pulling out a food ration to snack on.
We rested for a bit, each of us eating a little to restore the damage we suffered.
“Time to head back up,” said Rose, tossing the last uneaten bite of her food bar into the chasm behind her. It was a little wasteful considering how expensive the food could be, but it was just a bite.
Rose led us out, all of us on alert for more of those things to show up. I couldn’t help but notice the mine was now completely devoid of life, not a Dwarf in sight.
“Somethings coming,” a voice shouted from near the entrance.
“It’s us,” shouted Olaf, understandably worried that we might be attacked on sight.
“Are you sure it is just you?” Digren shouted back.
“Yes,” Olaf shouted back.
“Did you actually kill them all?” Digren asked.
“Yes,” Olaf replied.
“Okay then lads, sound the all clear,” Digren shouted.
I was beyond happy to return to the surface, though the veritable army of Dwarven miners armed to the teeth with picks, axes and shields and the fact that none of them looked too pleased to see us, did nothing to set me at ease.
“I think we’re missing something,” I whispered to Rose who nodded.
“Can anyone tell me what these are?” I asked, pulling the dead
“God Ivaldi save us,” screamed a Dwarven woman before fainting upon seeing it.
“Hurry, we need to set explosives and seal the mine. If they get out, we are all doomed,” another Dwarf shouted, clearly panicked.
“Calm down, calm down,” said Digren, trying to calm his miners. “The adventurers might well have dealt with the problem.”
“But sir-” another started to protest.
“Stop,” said Digren. “We have to hope the gremlin threat has been contained. I will be leading an inspection team myself.”
“We’ll be going with you,” said Olaf, volunteering us to join him.
“Much appreciated, I do not suppose any of you is a Fire Mage?” Digren asked.
“I’m afraid not,” Olaf said.
“I’ll send a runner,” said Digren. “Righty!”
A young-looking Dwarf ran up quickly.
“You called boss,” said the young Dwarf.
“Grab a ram and go, Righty, fast as you can to Hammerton. Send out a loud call for Fire Mages, as many as you can get to come,” Digren ordered. “We need to burn out this infestation, fast as we can. If even one survived, we’re in real trouble.”
“You got it boss!” Righty shouted, scurrying away as fast as he could a moment later.
“Can someone please explain?” I nearly shouted.
“Gremlin’s lad, gremlins. And you daft fools went and killed one of them!” shouted Digren.
Why did I have a feeling that bad things were about to happen?
“Hopefully, they have not eaten anything, or we really will be in trouble,” said Digren.
My mind instantly went back to the uneaten bit Rose tossed into the chasm before we left. “What happens if they eat?”
“Tell me they did not eat,” said Digren, his voice shaking with fear, as was he.
Chapter 9
Digren’s fear didn’t last long. He shook himself free and started barking orders with a renewed vigor. It didn’t take long for a fire to be lit under the Dwarven miners with Digren in the center of it. Most of the orders from Digren involved collecting explosives and preparing to evacuate.
“Sorry for the wait, lads and lasses,” said Digren, finally coming back to us now that the miners were busying making ready to seal the mine.
“It seems like this is a very big deal to you,” started Olaf. “Mind explaining to us what is going on?”
“Gremlins, that body you brought us was from a gremlin,” Digren said.
“Wait, if these are gremlins then what did we fight last week?” I asked, looking at Olaf.
A shrug was his reply.
“You fought gremlins before?” Digren asked.
“Just one, he was a servant or something of a Dwarf named Cap Alone,” I explained.
“No Dwarf anywhere would ever consort with a gremlin,” Digren stated firmly.
I frowned then dug into my bag, pulling out my journal and flipping to the page with the Cap Alone fight and my drawing of his gremlin. “This, what is this? Cap called this a gremlin,” I said.
“That is no gremlin,” Digren said, sounding relieved. “Well, not all gremlin anyway. Them spindly legs,” he said, pointing at the legs I had drawn. “We call them Crawler Gremlins. They are more of a Goblin offshoot, smaller than a regular Goblin except for the long spider-like limbs. They also have some intelligence unlike a real gremlin.”
That explained that. I guessed there would be more and more offshoots of the different species as we travelled through the World Tree. You only needed to look at the race options available to the players to see that.
“Okay, but why does that matter? What is so important about gremlins?” Olaf asked.
Digren sighed. “They are usually mischievous little blighters. They take things apart completely at random because it amuses them.”
“Is that what’s been happening to your equipment and to my hand-cannon?” Olaf asked.
“I feared that might be the case, but the little buggers are masters of stealth, hard to spot. I honestly would have preferred actual sabotage,” said Digren. “Usually, when it is discovered there are gremlins present, we seal them off, and in a few months, they will get bored and kill each other off until there is only a handful left, at which point we can open the seal, and kill the few that remain. But you daft adventurers went and killed one.”
“And let me guess, I declared war on them when I did,” I guessed.
“War would be fine, no, you caused a blood frenzy. They are vengeful creatures, if you kill one of theirs, they do not stop until they have extinguished all life in an area. Unfortunately, Hammerton falls within that area,” Digren explained.
“And Anvilton doesn’t?” I asked.
“No, they are probably just out of range,” said Digren.
“Could this have been a plot by Anvilton?” I asked.
“I do not think even Anvilton would be so cruel as to toy with gremlins. Stupid though they may be, even the shalies are not that stupid,” said Digren.
I would bet a hundred gold, Anvilton was just that stupid.
“Okay, so, if any of them lived then they will be frenzied now and after my blood and the blood of anyth
ing in the area,” I said, repeating it more for my sake.
“Aye lad, that be exactly correct,” said Digren.
“Okay, so we figured out the cause of the sabotage,” said Olaf, triggering the quest completion notice.
Quest Alert: A Miner Problem (Recommended Level 8-10) – Completed!
Captain Grandmite has tasked you with investigating a matter of sabotage at the Hammerpeak Mine and identifying the cause.
Reward: +2,500-Experience, Increased reputation with Captain Grandmite
“And now we need to take care of the gremlin infestation,” I added.
Quest Alert: Gremlins! (Recommended Level 8-10)
You’ve uncovered the cause of Hammerpeak Mine’s troubles. Now you need to solve the problem. Exterminate the gremlin infestation before it spreads outside the mine.
Reward: Experience, Increased reputation with Captain Grandmite
Do you accept this quest?
Yes
No
“We’ll do it,” said Olaf, accepting the quest.
“Thank you all,” said Digren. “I appreciate you being willing to make a stand with us.”
“We are, but we need more information,” I said. “First, why was the food such a concern?”
“Gremlins mutate when they eat food. They are little blighters now, limited to level 1 or 2. But, when they get even a little food, they become voracious eaters and will consume anything, even other gremlins. If that happens, they could easily grow in levels and strength,” Digren explained.
“So, are we talking mini-bosses, bosses or raid bosses?” Rose asked.
“I do not know what any of that means,” said Digren.
“Think about a dungeon, they usually have a few monsters that are stronger than the other monsters and the last monster is the strongest one of all, right?” Rose prompted him. “Can a gremlin compare to these stronger monsters?”
“Oh, easily,” said Digren.
Naturally, there was a loud earthshaking roar emanating from the mine at just that moment.
“Great God Ivaldi take us now,” said Digren, dropping to his knees in prayers.
The Mountain Valley War Page 15