Once again there was no quest update when Alan stepped into the dwarven dungeon. He also found himself in the entry tunnel so he made his way to the village. Upon emerging into the large cavern holding the mining camp he found it looked almost the same as when he had left. Had no time passed since his last dive into the dungeon?
As he approached the nearest gate he was waved through by one of the guards. His exploits in helping defend the camp had apparently earned him enough good will that he was an accepted visitor. Still without a quest notification it was important to find out what was going on in the camp at the moment so he decided to look for Thadrick. He was the person he knew the best here and since the miner was not an official member of the guard it would hopefully prevent him from dragging Alan into something right away.
The first place he would look was Thadrick’s house. As he made his way through the streets he was struck by the despair and anger he sensed in the citizens. Many stood in front of ruined homes, either from fire or having the wooden supports broken down in a fight. Others sat on the side of the street openly weeping. Not only had the camp been hit hard physically, but many of their family and friends had been abducted by the kobold raiding parties.
That loss, rather than the destruction of their homes and buildings, was why so many were sad, but it was also the source of their anger. As Alan walked among them he heard threats and curses made at the absent enemy. Many talked of finding the kobolds home and taking back their lost ones and making the enemy pay.
He found his friend’s house the same as he left it, except Thadrick was in the kitchen area heating up a pot of soup. His kitchen included a small fireplace with a swinging arm for holding a pot. The chimney was only a little over a meter high and simply directed the smoke out the side of the hide house.
“You’re back earlier than I expected, it’s only been a couple hours since you left. Did you run into some trouble?” Thadrick asked him when he saw Alan standing in the doorway. This camp was supposed to be in the middle of a mountain, which meant there was nowhere close that Alan could be going to. Something about the dungeon made the dwellers ignore this fact and just accept his absence as normal. He realized that even though several months had passed for him, and even a couple of days in the ‘real’ world, almost no time had passed in the camp.
“Nothings wrong, I just felt bad for what happened to you all and was wondering if there was any way I could help?”
“Oh there’s plenty of ways to help and lots of people who need it, but you have already done so much. Come sit and have some soup with me, you have earned a rest”
He didn’t want to offend his friend's hospitality so he sat down and shared some of his dinner. It was filling, but not very tasty. Though, compared to those horrid goat strips he once made, it could have been fine cuisine.
Over the many minutes it took them to eat their soup Thadrick filled him in on some of the situation. The camp had already known that around forty villagers had been captured before the large assault. The number had not encapsulated the impact it had on people however. There was no one who wasn’t missing someone they cared about, and many were missing more than one. The anger he had felt in the street was not his imagination. Many villagers were already appealing to Kespar, the head guard, who after the attack was almost equal in power to the mayor.
They wanted him to lead a large attack on the kobold village and take back or avenge their fellows. Kespar was trying his best to fend off this advice. The town had already lost a large chunk of its combat power with the missing miners, all of whom had at least one class. Not only would this attack leave the camp vulnerable, but they didn’t know what they were walking into. What if there were thousands of kobolds back at their own village?
The mayor, whether through jealousy of Kespar’s rise in importance, or because he felt he needed to be doing something, was also pushing an assault. Now that he knew about the town menus it could also have to do with losing the population and possibly causing the camp to be downgraded.
Thadrick had lost many of his friends when the miners were captured so he felt a great anger as well, but he also felt an attack would be a bad idea. He probably wasn’t the equal of some of the guards, who had opal classes, but he was one of the best warriors left. He knew his abilities and did not feel confident in their chances if there were more than a hundred kobolds still down there.
“Can you take me to Kespar without anyone else knowing?” Alan asked him after they finished their dinner.
“What fool thing are ye planning?” The dwarf asked grumpily.
“I feel like I am a part of this, and I want to hear what Kespar thinks of the situation. But I don’t want him to end up facing even more pressure because of our conversation. This is something best done in private”
So it was that the two of them ended up making their way down the streets a few hours later after night had fallen. ‘Night’ underground just meant the time they all agreed should be for sleeping, and it was indicated by many of the torches set up around the streets being extinguished. The dwarves would have no trouble seeing even if all of the torches were put out and the few that were left still provided enough light for humans and other races to navigate. It also meant that most of the population would be in their houses trying to sleep.
It had been a long and trying day and many were exhausted, however the memories of what they had seen kept them awake. Families huddled together for comfort, and those who were alone, lay in their beds wanting to sleep but dreading the dreams they might find. What it meant for Alan and Thadrick, though, was that while most of the camp was awake, few people were on the street to see their passage.
Their first stop was the main guard house. They figured he would be there getting ready to deal with any further assaults from the kobolds. Instead they found one of his sergeants holding down the fort. Kespar had decided to take a tour of the walls. The sergeant told them his last reported position and they headed out to catch up with him.
“I’m not so sure we should be bothering him now, it seems like he’s busy,” Thadrick told Alan.
“I want to get this discussion over with before he gets pressured anymore.”
They missed him at the fist gate they stopped at but found him on the way to the next one. This was perfect because it meant there would be even fewer people to hear what they said.
Thadrick took the lead. “Pardon us, sir, but we were wondering if we could talk to you while you walk?”
Kespar looked over at the two, and his eyes lingered on Alan before he grunted in assent. Now that Thadrick had gotten his attention the rest was up to Alan.
“I have heard that people are suggesting there should be some kind of counterattack to free the captured members of the camp. We were wondering what your thoughts were on it?”
“Iron’s Beard! Look, I don’t need any more people telling me what to do. I have a lot of things to take care of and I would appreciate it if you would sod off.”
Thadrick’s cheeks turned bright red but Alan wouldn’t be so easily turned away.
“Sorry about the misunderstanding, we aren’t suggesting anything. We thought it would be a good idea to hear from someone who knows what the best course of action is.”
“Yes, Kespar, what is the best course of action?” A voice called from behind.
Alan looked back and saw an older dwarf puffing to catch up to them. He was tall for a dwarf, almost as tall as Kespar, but his beard was completely gray. Thadrick leaned over and whispered “the mayor.”
“Mithral’s Sack! Who else is going to join us tonight? It seems like everyone is taking an evening stroll.” Kespar roared.
The mayor responded before Alan could. “Everyone in the village is upset about the people who were taken. After our great victory here they just want our people back.”
“I’ve told you before that it’s a bad idea. We don’t have enough people to send a real force to recover our people and keep warriors here to protect the rest. Even if we sent everyone down there, we have no idea how many Kobolds there still are. There could be a thousand of them ready to swarm us.”
“Or there could be fewer than a hundred of them left. Not many ran away from their attack, if that was their whole force then even a quarter of our warriors could crush them. If we don’t try and get our people back then the villagers might try and go down there themselves.”
Alan broke in before Kespar could respond. “Has no one tried to scout the kobold’s village?”
Kespar was the one who answered. “We only have a handful of scouts left and some of them are injured. We really only have three that could be sent and they are rightfully terrified after what happened last time they tried to go down there,”
“What if someone else was willing to go check it out?”
“Who is this and why are we listening to him?” The mayor interrupted. He shot Alan a dark look.
“This man was crucial in fighting off the last of the raiders and was a key figure in killing the kobolds who managed to get over the walls in the big attack. I will listen to what he has to say. Are you offering yourself to go down there?” It was nice to hear Kespar defend him. Apparently his current issues with the mayor were enough to make Alan seem like a comrade.
“I have some limited experience in tracking and could at least make an attempt. If I fail you are no worse off than you are now.” Alan responded.
“Except we’ll have lost time, and that is something our people don’t have,” the mayor argued back.
“The mayor’s not wrong,” Kaspar agreed. “Can you even see in those dark tunnels? I thought humans couldn’t see without a torch and that would make it difficult to scout.”
“It’s true I can’t see in the dark. But I have some items to help me out,” Alan replied as he took out one of his glowing stones.
“That’s a nice bauble, and not as obvious as a torch, but in the dark it will still give you away.” Kespar told him sadly.
“What if I went with someone else, a dwarf who could see in the dark? I could do most of the scouting, but if it seems like we were getting close I could let them lead and follow behind.”
Kespar shook his head. “I already told you the scouts are too scared to go back down there.”
“I wasn’t going to bring one of the scouts, I was thinking of someone else,” Alan replied with a glance at his friend.
“Woah, woah. What’s this now? I’m not going down there in that cursed tunnel.” Thadrick exclaimed as he backed away.
“It would give you some extra power if you ran into a patrol. But there is still the problem of time.” Kespar reminded him.
Alan had an answer ready for that too. “There’s not much we can do other than hurry, but if you decide we have been gone too long you could still send an attack behind us. If things don’t go wrong we could still meet up with them on our way back so they know what they will be facing.”
“Did you all not hear me? I’m not going down there!” Thadrick continued to protest.
“I like this plan. If you set off now I could assemble a strike force and send them after you in about eight hours. That would give you plenty of time to scout ahead and hopefully make your way back to them with a report. If the two of you mark your way as you go they will be able to follow your path so that there is no risk of missing each other.”
The mayor chimed in finally. “I don’t know about trusting this young human, but if it will get you moving to rescue our people then it has my endorsement.”
“Granite’s balls, I feel like I’m being ignored. I do not agree to this plan.” Thadrick harrumphed. Alan was quite enjoying the dwarven version of cursing.
New Quest: Find the lost villagers (100)
[40 villagers and miners were lost to the kobolds. Find them if you can.] [Upgradeable: One week]
Even the Network was ignoring Thadrick’s complaining. He also noticed that the upgrade time had increased dramatically.
“Come on Thadrick, let’s get some stuff from your house and then get going,” Alan said as he guided his friend with a hand on his back. His protests got quieter as they walked until all Alan could make out was mumbling punctuated by the occasional curse. Once they collected some food and tools they set out for the tunnel.
“It’s not that I don’t like you lad, it’s that I like living more. I saw you in the tunnels last time and your navigation sense did not inspire confidence.” Thadrick told him.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
He wasn’t wrong, Alan had let Thadrick do all of the leading when they had gone looking for iron earlier. However, that didn’t mean he was incapable of finding his way. It was also made easier because he only had to follow the tracks of the kobolds who had invaded earlier. He didn’t want to use his whetstone as by now it was a bright beacon in the dark. His chosen stone wasn’t bright enough to turn night into day, but it was enough to provide a dim pool of light to work by.
Alan outlined the plan. “I’ll be able to track these things, but since I don’t want to alert them with bright lights in the tunnel you will have to be my spotter. I’ll be following the tracks close in, you let me know if you see anyone farther away.”
The first hour was easy. The beginning part was still in the dwarven carved tunnels, but the turn into the newer kobold connection was clear due to the many clawed hands and feet of the invaders leaving scrapes along the rocky path. There was also a layer of dust, dirt, and debris on the floor of the tunnel that showed footprints fairly well.
Each time they turned Thadrick carved a rune in the wall using a small rock hammer. Alan had never seen a symbol like it before, but Thadrick told him it was the rune for Kespar’s name in the dwarven language. In this manner they quickly made their way deep into the rock. Alan was surprised that they hadn’t encountered any enemies yet. Maybe the mayor had been correct about their diminished numbers.
The second hour was much more difficult because these tunnels’ floors had been cleaned. The previous section was obviously newly excavated, as evidenced by all of the stone debris. This area must have been in use for far longer. There were also more branching pathways making it even harder to determine the proper path. All of the tunnels were marked by scrapes showing that they were used by the kobolds. The only thing that he had to go by was the quantity of scrapes and how fresh they were.
Older scrapes were almost smooth if you rubbed your hand over them and they were a darker color. The newer scrapes were still rough and often had small pieces of rock dust around them still. The other tunnels sometimes had newer scrapes on them as well, but nowhere near the quantity of the path of the retreating raiding force.
As they went deeper and deeper they both became more worried about the lack of life. Even if the kobolds population had been decimated, they must still have some out scouting, fearful of a reprisal. Finally they entered a long stretch of tunnel without any visible branches. Alan put his stone in his storage pouch and let Thadrick lead the way as he followed with his hand on his friend’s shoulder. Perhaps the light from the stone was giving them away and the enemy had been retreating before them, setting up an ambush.
Instead they both noticed that the tunnel was starting to get brighter ahead of them. It was a strange red glow that Alan thought he was imagining at first. After another thirty meters it was clear that there was a light source somewhere ahead. Alan tapped his friend’s shoulder and used hand signals to indicate that he would scout in front of them a little. Now that there was light he didn’t have to give away his location with the stone.
Hugging the wall he placed his feet silently as he made his way forward in a crouch. The light increased significantly just around a bend. He took off his helmet and knives and stowed them in his pouch, he didn’t want any metal on him to clang off the rock as he lay down on the floor. He then commando crawled up to the turn being careful not to scrape anything along the uneven floor. Finally he could poke his head around and lay eyes on what was causing the light.
There was a crystal in a crude iron wall sconce. It was glowing with a dull red light. Just past the crystal the tunnel opened into a larger area. There was a kind of dilapidated wall made up of rocks of all sizes simply placed next to each other. In places a few smaller rocks were placed on top of the first layer, but it was more of a line of demarcation than a true wall. It looked like he had found the village. From his quick look he didn’t see any signs of movement, but he didn’t want to linger with his head exposed for too long.
Retreating back to Thadrick he quickly whispered what he had found. He told him that he was going to try and check it out more but that Thadrick should wait a little closer. If Alan got into any trouble he would run back past him so that he could ambush any pursuers.
“And if there are a thousand of those mangy lizards following you?”
“In that case the slower one gets eaten,” he suggested with a wink.
Once again Alan crawled his way up to the bend and stuck his head out. Still no signs of movement. He pulled his head back and got up into a crouch. No point crawling slowly while under the light of the crystal in clear view of the village. Speed would be his friend.
“Slow is smooth and smooth is fast” he whispered to himself.
Setting out he purposefully stepped along the edge of the passage, eyes scanning in all directions. He still couldn’t see anyone. Rather than stopping at the end of the tunnel and leaving himself silhouetted for all to see, he quickly moved to the side and hugged the wall of the cavern. A few paces away he found a small depression in the rock that provided a shadow for him to hide in.
The cavern was large, almost as big as the one the mining camp was located in. The rock outline of the kobold village pressed up close to the wall of the cave, with only about a few meters of open ground outside. Every twenty meters or so there was a wooden post with a crystal mounted to the top providing red light.
Inside of the rock wall was chaos. There were more posts with crystals scattered around the interior, but there were scraps of leather, torn tents, and small campfires everywhere. It looked more like a campsite than a village, but one that had been ransacked. His vision was partially blocked by some of the tents but he couldn’t see any kobolds. There was a ring of standing logs on the far side of the camp, each was a couple of meters high. This was probably a corral to store prisoners.
Scanning the area one last time he decided that the Kobolds must have really left. He abandoned his concealment and picked his way through the camp. As he passed by one of the dilapidated tents he noticed a rustle before something burst out of the entrance. He only had a moment to notice scales and teeth before it was on him.
A long gaping mouth full of teeth was coming for his face. He fell on his backside as the jaws closed on where his head had just been. The large lizard collapsed on top of Alan as he got his first chance to really see what he was dealing with.
Beast: Listocampus (Uncommon) lvl 9, threat: medium
The entire thing was covered in scales and it looked like what would happen if a crocodile had evolved to only live on land. It was at least three meters long and had four powerful but short legs. The last meter of the beast was its thick, ridged tail. The head was narrower and longer than a crocodiles, but its teeth were just as deadly looking. Alan reached for his knives, only to remember he had stored them in his pouch which was currently trapped under the beast’s body.
Pushing up with all his might Alan was unable to get the beast off of his chest. Fortunately for him the head of the monster was not in a position where it could bite. Instead it was raking him with its back claws, which was doing a number on both his pants and his legs. Since he couldn’t get his daggers he instead took his beating stick out of his ring storage. It would be easier to use in the cramped quarters he was forced to fight in than the bigger thonking club.
Using all of his strength, and the little leverage he had, he repeatedly whacked the beast’s back leg. Finally he heard a crack and the leg snapped under the creature’s weight. The other leg was still clawing at his left leg so he switched to magic. He realized he probably should have done this earlier, but he was still learning to incorporate it into his fighting style. His trainers at Fort Liberty had never imagined that spells would be part of his repertoire. His mentor Dracon on the other hand would have been disappointed.
Two stone spears shot out from Alan’s left side and pierced the Listocampus’ hide. It also had the added effect of pushing it off of him. He quickly scrambled out from underneath but now he also had to deal with those savage jaws. It had managed to snap the stone spears off so it wasn’t pinned in place, but it was bleeding from the jagged spikes still sticking out from it.
He switched out weapons for his larger club and brought it down on the creature’s head as it lunged forward to try and bite him. It briefly stunned the creature but it soon shrugged the blow off and spun around tripping him up with its tail. It was an awkward attack because of its broken leg so rather than falling over, Alan was simply knocked off balance.
It allowed the beast another chance to bite him but a quick prismatic orb blinded it. Alan brought his club down on its head again, this time willing every ounce of strength in his body into the blow. It must have felt like the mountain had collapsed on it as its skull was smashed open. The head didn’t explode, but the bones were shattered into pieces. He stood there panting for a moment before he regained his composure. That hit had been intense.
Alan had felt energy flood from his pathways into his arms as he had swung. The energy had then flowed down his arms and into the club as it made contact with the large reptile. From there it was transferred into the beast which all led to the skull being shattered. It was an interesting use of his pathways and not something he had consciously done. Perhaps this was partly due to his hammer blow talent.
After searching the tent the listocampus had emerged from, it seemed that it had been searching through some left behind objects, possibly looking for food. It appeared that this camp or small village had been recently abandoned and this creature was the first scavenger on the scene. He tried to toss the body into his pouch but nothing happened. He tried the ring too until Tamee explained it.
“While you can take many things from a dungeon, you can’t take the bodies of people or monsters unless you carry them out by hand. There must have been some kind of abuse in the past and so now you can’t put them in spatial storage items.” With a sigh Alan dropped the body and made his way over to the wooden posts of the prisoners’ pen.
They were not fit tightly together with gaps of a few centimeters between the logs. Peeking through he could tell that the pen was empty. He made his way around until he found a crude entrance. A couple of the logs were shorter than the others and a ramp on the outside allowed him to walk right up to their tops. It was still just over a meter drop from here, anyone trying to exit would have a difficult time getting over the logs quickly which would prevent the prisoners from storming the exit.
Alan crouched down and inspected the interior. It was a rough circle around ten meters across. Forty prisoners could be placed in there but it would be cramped. There were signs of stains on the ground, both blood and bodily fluids. He made his way back out of the cavern and found Thadrick.
“I think I found where the prisoners were kept but the whole place has been abandoned. Let me show you,” he explained as he led the dwarf inside.
Standing, looking over the pen, Thadrick could only shake his head. “Are they dead?”
Alan shook his head before explaining. “I don’t know how many were kept here and I can’t say if any died while in the pen. However, it looks to me like this was a place they stored prisoners as they collected them from the tunnel. Once they raided your camp they packed up and took whoever was in there with them.”
“Then where are they now?”
“Give me a bit to look around some more. Why don’t you check out the camp and see if you can find anything that might help us. Watch out though, I was attacked by something called a listocampus, some kind of scavenger I think.”
They split up with Thadrick checking the debris inside the rock ring and Alan checking the tracks on the outside. After ten minutes he had conclusively determined the tunnel they had passed through. Most of the tunnels exiting the cavern had scratches on the rocks but once again the passage of a large number at one time was obvious. Also there were filthy foot and boot prints on the rocky floor that must be from the prisoners.
“Do we push on or report back to Kespar? We’ve only been gone for a few hours so the attack force probably hasn’t left yet,” Thadrick asked him.
“By the time we get back they will be getting ready to leave anyway. I say we push forward and see what we can find.”
Thadrick agreed and after leaving a large rune on the correct passage they continued following the path of the prisoners. Alan had stuffed a few of the red crystals in his ring and was using one of the smaller ones to light their path. Not only would the kobolds hopefully find it less suspicious to see the red glow rather than the white of his stone, but it also didn’t affect Thadrick’s darkvision as much, allowing him to see farther.
The tunnels went longer without branching the deeper they went. Occasionally they encountered small caverns or grottos on their journey. Some contained pools of water, some were empty other than small plants or moss, and others had actual trees growing in them. Thadrick explained that some trees didn’t need light to grow, they used the ambient energy in the air and rocks to make up for it. These trees were the source of much of their wood. It turned out that the camp was fairly far from the surface and it was difficult to bring supplies from there. And still they never questioned where Alan came from. The dungeons must fiddle with their thinking.
One large clear pool showed signs of the kobolds having camped there. The plants growing near the water’s edge were disturbed and there was even a large patch of blood in one section. Alan felt a calling when he looked at the water. It seemed like his body wanted him to stop for a drink and his brain wanted him to swim down and explore what could be found in the depths. He ignored them both and pressed on with the mission. Maybe there was something good there, or maybe it was some monster with mind powers trying to lure them into a trap. He had a couple of thermoses full of water thanks to Thadrick and he didn’t need to stop.
After six hours Alan was starting to think they had made a mistake by pushing on. There was no telling how far the enemy was going and they had already run into a few wandering beasts. Most were not an issue for the two of them, but there was one rock golem that caused them some trouble.
They had been stopped to check an intersection and Thadrick had sat on a small boulder. They had been walking for quite some time and his feet were killing him. Unfortunately as he sat his plump rump on the mound he found that it was in fact a type of living rock creature.
Golem: Young Rockoid (Uncommon) lvl 7, threat: medium
When it unfurled its height was about halfway between Thadrick’s and Alan’s. Its body was one round rock with limbs extending away from it. The legs and arms were made from smaller rocks linked together. Looking closer Alan could actually make out small gaps in between the different stones. It didn’t seem like they actually were touching, some type of magic force must keep them together. He almost felt like he could see an energy pathway joining them.
Getting hit by one of its stony fists wasn’t pleasant, but the creature wasn’t really that dangerous either. It was on the slower side and Alan could easily dodge its blows. Thadrick had more trouble avoiding its attacks but his armor let him absorb them much better. Their problem was in dealing any damage.
Every time Thadrick hit it with his massive axe, chips would fly but little damage was done. Alan had been using his knives originally but they only made sparks so he switched to his thonking club. Each time he hit it, his hands felt like they would shatter and no damage was left on the golem’s body. He even managed to land a powered up strike against it, but where the listocampus’ skull had broken open, the rocky monster’s had only displayed a small crack.
Alan encouraged Thadrick to take over and he stepped back to try and figure something out. Studying the golem he finally came up with an idea. If the various rocks that made up its body were only attached by energy, then he simply needed to disrupt that energy. He tested out his theory by sending a series of small light bolts at the place where its left arm connected to the body. After three bolts in quick succession the flow must have been broken because the stones in its arm tumbled to the ground.
With a proof of concept it took him only a few seconds to separate the rest of its limbs from its body. The creature didn’t have a head to cut off, but Alan figured that if it wasn’t dead it at least was no longer a problem since it couldn’t move. He bent down closer to the torso and tried to sense if there was any energy left inside.
His eyes and his senses both said it was just a big rock, but when he laid his hand on it he could suddenly see weak flows of energy moving away from a spot on the boulder toward where the limbs would have been. Pressing down on the section the energy was coming from he felt that the rock was a little softer.
He took out his pugio and found that he could press it into the softer rock. Working the blade around the energy zone he was able to separate a palm sized chunk out of the golem’s body. It was filled with energy and as he stared at it he got a message from identify.
Item: Rock Golem Core (Uncommon), this core was the center of a rock golem. Can be used in crafting.
When he showed it to Thadrick he let him know that he had never run across one before. He had heard of golems, but he didn’t know they had a core or how it could be used. Golems were originally created by people, but after reaching a certain level of power they could actually create a kind of child. They shaped the child out of the appropriate materials and somehow gave them life. These ‘naturally’ occurring golems could actually grow in size and strength before creating children of their own. So Alan had killed a child, that didn’t make him feel great.
It was almost a relief as they made their way through the tunnels when they started to see signs of kobolds. Several times they were alerted by the chittering noises they used to communicate, or by their weapons clanging against a wall, that there were enemies ahead. They always managed to backtrack to a different tunnel or hide in an alcove to avoid them.
These small groups of two to four seemed like scouting parties or sentries. This is what Alan would expect to find around an encampment. However, after having avoided the fourth such party he was worried by the numbers. If there were this many scouts out, how many kobolds were in their main group?
