The Wooden Sea #2

Stonebottom
By Kati Davis (Korva Grimdawn)

The Wooden Sea

A Dungeons & Dragons World/Adventure

By Ahmad Williams (DM)

The road to the western capital of Profit was maintained and well traveled. Towns were spider-webbed all across the Wooden Sea and the city was a hub for a lot of the trade goods. The journey from Ofaname to the capital was about a day and a half and Crow and Korva set out with the load of boar that was bound for the Profit, happy to not be walking the whole way. Korva couldn’t help but worry about the possibility of attracting undesirables who would be interested in the hearty meat being transported. She was more afraid of beasts showing up to make a claim than bandits, but she was sure there were some out there stupid enough to attempt to steal from The Guild.

The day after departing from Ofaname, they arrived in Profit. It was midday when the wagon broke the treeline and followed the road up to the gates. Korva felt substantial tension leave her shoulders. She had felt like they were sitting ducks for anything aggressive enough on the road.

There were three yards of grass between the trees and Profit, though if someone looked hard enough, they could see nature actively coming back. No doubt the city had people sweep the perimeter every so often to beat back the wild, just as was done on the outside of the woods. During its eight years of expansion, the forest had showed no signs of slowing down, and folk were dispatched regularly to burn and beat back the Sea. It was a losing battle, as the forest continued to grow. Where one area was stifled, another grew in abundance.

Profit’s brown-gray wall was tall, standing at a proud 30 feet, and the only way past was into a single gate. The sight was imposing, a picture of strength amidst the chaos. Though its perfectly aligned slabs were cuts of wood, they looked like steel beams. They were given no trouble at the gate, ushered in with the meat after a quick glance at passports.

The hustle and bustle of Profit was jarring, even for Korva. She had been to Profit before, having come here first when she’d originally entered the Wooden Sea, and so it wasn’t the first time she had encountered the overpowering aromas and noise of the city. At midday, the height of commerce, one would almost think they were in any other city that existed outside of the forest. Quick stop food stalls and restaurants with seating lined the street ahead and people flocked to them hungrily. Citizens and visitors alike visited the variety of shops. Barefoot children wove in and out of the fray laughing and playing games.

Breaking away from the wagon and their travel companions with a wave, Crow and Korva set off into the busy crowd. The human pulled ahead, obviously with a destination in mind while the dwarf trailed behind, more interested in people-watching. He stopped in front of an armor shop and didn’t hesitate to follow the keeper inside. Korva waited in the outer stall, surveying the crowd. She didn’t have much money, but wasn’t interested in armor or replacing her tools anyway.

Everybody seemed to be going about their business as they walked the street, except for one person. Across the way from the shop at a kebab stall, eating his purchase was a nondescript man. He was a fairly plain half-elf, wearing a brown cloak with the hood down. This was normal enough, except Korva had seen him covertly glance her way multiple times. She made no effort to hide that she had noticed him, and the next time he looked her way, they locked eyes. There was maybe a bit of surprise behind his eyes when he saw her staring back, but after a moment, he simply went back to his kebab and didn’t look her way again.

He could be someone from The Guild keeping an eye on them, though she couldn’t come up with a good reason for it. The man could be city security, keeping an eye on newcomers, but she wasn’t sure why they would attempt to go unnoticed. Thief, her mind supplied. Could be. Cities outside the Sea were overflowing with pickpockets that preyed on visitors and citizens alike. It only made sense that they would be here as well despite the The Guild’s iron grip on civilization in the forest. Besides, she had heard plenty of tales of the other Sea capital, Gevas, which would likely be a haven for thieves.

Crow was reemerged from the shop with nothing but a piece of paper in hand. Korva didn’t ask, and Crow didn’t say.

“Lets get some food,” the human said, charging through the crowd toward the kebab stand. She followed, her eyes still glued to the man at the stall. Korva saw the unassuming man notice that they were headed his direction. He sidled up to the kebabs that were laid out and tried to inconspicuously slide two out from under the firm watch of the seller. Thief. It was a bold, unsuccessful move. The seller shook his head at the cloaked man who was making a sheepish face and saying something in response. Again, the seller shook his head and held up two fingers. Korva watched as the thief fished a handful of coins out of his pocket with a shrug. He traded them for the two kebabs and approached Korva and Crow, holding the sticks out to them.

Crow took his eagerly, obviously a man who was happy to make friends. The dwarf was more hesitant, unsure what to think, though she did eventually take the kebab. She ate the tough, white meat slowly, considering what kind of man would be be stupid enough to try to steal from The Guild’s own pockets. In hindsight, she should have been paying attention to the conversation between the two men, because she was brought back to reality when her brain registered Crow asking the thief to join them. And the thief accepted.

Korva looked back and forth between the two wide-eyed. How had this even happened? Was this thief even a ranking Guild member? The dwarf cursed her own inattention as she trudged after the two men, who had started off in search of a bounty board. Korva kept her eyes on the thief as the group went along, struggling with her dwarven nature that threatened to bring out her temper.

Part of the problem was that she didn’t really know Crow, either. They’d never worked together before Ofaname. She did, however, take assurance from the fact that The Guild had put them together. No matter that the government of the Sea could be manipulative and controlling, they had still brought some semblance of order back to this place, and she had to believe in that and the people they employed. But it was possible Crow was a bit of a loose cannon, and she was a bit doubtful of being partnered with him going further. Plus, she reminded herself, he doesn’t even know this guy is a thief. All Korva could do was keep a better eye on things and not let her mind wander. Again. If the thief tripped up, she’d see it.

They didn’t have far to go, as Guild boards were built to be easy to find. In contrast to the Ofaname board, the Profit board was littered with fliers. People were advertising missions for lost pets and missing equipment, as well as rescue missions, escort missions, and more. Crow seemed to be searching for something in particular, but they were all inevitably drawn to one particular, curious stack. It was a big one, this stack, and it was obvious that many had been taken already. The nail that held it to the board was struggling to keep the stack of paper up.

“Stonebottom,” muttered Korva. “Mining town.”

“What kind of mining?” Crow asked excitedly, glancing at the paper that was still clutched in his hand.

“Just about everything from what I understand.”

His eyes were glinting, though his companions were more unsure.

“Is there anymore information other than it’s a potential rescue in the mine at Stonebottom for ranks 2-5?” the thief inquired of the board attendant, waving one of the fliers in his face.

“Nope,” came the bored response. “More information upon arrival, I think.”

It was a strange one. Why were there so many copies of the flier? Korva was still fairly new to The Guild, but she couldn’t think of another flier that had taken rank 5 all the way up to rank 2. Why was the flier so vague in detail? Why didn’t the attendant know more?

“I want to do this one,” Crow declared, claiming one of the Stonebottom fliers for himself. Though she didn’t share the human’s apparent enthusiasm for this particular mission, the dwarf had to admit she was interested. Cautiously interested.

The trio agreed on going to Stonebottom, and so they walked back toward the city gate. They were getting close, when someone hailed them. He was a squat man, wearing purple robes and sporting a flamboyant goatee.

“Hello adventurers,” he called boisterously. “For adventurers you must be! You look like you’re ready to take on the world! But, before you do, might I, Timothy Yelm, interest you in some goods to aid you on your journey?”

He swept an arm back toward the building behind him that bore a sign advertising “Tim’s”. Crow wasted no time following the man’s direction. He was apparently excited about everything in Profit. Korva begrudgingly entered after Crow and the thief.

If alchemy had one general smell, the shop would have reeked of it. Bottle after bottle lined the walls and counters inside, and there were crates stuffed with ingredients. Korva could see the thief eyeing the back of the shop curiously.

“Have a look, have a look,” encouraged the shopkeeper. “Here at Tim’s, I have potions that will provide health, potions that will make you jump farther and run faster… Ah, but you look like discerning folk. Strong and capable. Maybe you’re interested in some of my… back stock. It’s all above board, of course, all legal here at Tim’s. Would you like to see?”

Timothy gestured toward the shelves behind the counter at the back of the room, which had held the thief’s attention. The men nodded, but Korva began to feel quite uncomfortable.

“Excellent!” exclaimed the man. He moved over behind the counter and tugged a lever that was hidden there. A deadbolt slammed across the shop door, and a sign clearly reading “CLOSED” unfurled over the window. Meanwhile, the shelves on the wall behind Timothy swung forward to reveal his back stock. There was a wide range of products, everything from poisons to what Korva could only assume were drugs. It was all very much not legal.

“Yes, yes, Tim’s has it all! You sir,” Timothy indicated Crow. “I see a trap there in your pouch. Maybe you’d be interested in this toxin. It has a very attractive scent and is just waiting to lure your intended kill.

"Or you," he spoke to Korva next. "We carry wonderfully corrosive acids, easily used against the most formidable of foes.”

“I want no part of this,” the dwarf replied, annoyed, and walked toward the front of the shop. She had every intention of staying in good with The Guild so she could actually try to help people in the Sea. Getting busted with contraband was at the bottom of her priority list.

Korva could hear that Timothy had moved on to the thief, attempting to sell him “consumables” that would give someone a certain edge, which, again, she could only assume were drugs. The dwarf knew certain drugs, like boost and tang, were popular with adventurers in particular, but she couldn’t pick them out of a line-up. It was a relief that the cloaked man seemed to turn him down. In the end, the thief bought a corrosive acid and Crow bought some of the recommended bait for his trap. Timothy called out to Korva again, but she didn’t turn away from the door, merely shaking her head.

“Because you’ve been such good customers,” Timothy said when they were finished conducting business. “If you refer people to me, consider everything in my shop buy one, get one free!”
With that, the shopkeeper flipped the lever under the counter. Shelves swung back into place with a grating noise, the sign over the window went back to its original position, and the lock slid out of its place over the door. The dwarf was out in a flash, not wanting to spend another minute inside the alchemy shop.

Korva’s companions joined her shortly after. She had retreated into her mind a bit, trying to quell her dwarven nature once more. They set off for the gate together. Knowing about the items in the pockets of her group, Korva was concerned about passing through the gate. As it turns out, leaving Profit was even easier than getting in. The guards barely even acknowledged them and certainly didn’t care about stopping them. Korva brought up the rear yet again, which she was fine with. It gave her the opportunity to be in her thoughts and keep an eye on the thief.
It was a four hour walk to Stonebottom, which was pretty quiet after the group broke away from the main trade road. The men ahead of her spoke every so often and Korva fidgeted absently with a tiny silver skull that she carried, rolling it between her palms. Stonebottom had been a prosperous mine many years ago, before the Sea, but had expired at one point. Then, suddenly, a year after the Sea, people discovered the mine was full of ore, and not just what had been there originally. There were many different veins and gems found there now, some never before seen outside of the mine. It was yet another mystery of the Wooden Sea.

They were getting close when they finally came upon other people on the road. There were two people ahead, one tall and skinny, though muscled, and the other shorter, with a hood. Crow jogged up to them, armor clanging jauntily.

“Hey,” he called out. “Are you heading for Stonebottom?”

“Yeah,” the tall man drawled nonchalantly.

“Do you know anything else about the mission? It said it was a rescue.”
“Just what was on the flier,” confirmed the stranger. “I don’t much care about rescuin’ folk, but there’s gold in it, so I’ll get the job done.”

Korva and the thief came up alongside Crow and the other men. The hooded stranger was older, with gray hair and a beard, obviously a seasoned adventurer, and the tall man proudly sported a rank four patch on his chest.

“And what about you,” the thief addressed the older man, watching him closely. “What do you know about the mission?”

“It is strange,” came the slow response. “I’ve never seen such a wide rank spread. Someone I know said they talked to a Guild member who went down in the mine and turned around because he was claustrophobic. Seems some people might not be coming back.”

The other stranger interjected with a snort.

“Look, the way I see it, it don’t matter to ya’ll one way or the other. Not sure what a buncha rank fives who’re green as the Sea’s moss think they’re gonna do in a mission callin’ fer up to rank two.”

By now, they could hear voices filtering through the trees ahead.

“Just hang back and leave it to me,” the tall man finished with a roguish wink as he put his long legs to use and quickened his pace. The older stranger grinned slightly and followed.

They came into the small town, which was partially fenced by boards that came up to the waist of an average human, immediately noting the lack of traps around.  There were also people loitering everywhere. It was quite a contrast to Ofaname. Their garb, dirty hands and tools clearly spelled out “miner”, but they certainly weren’t doing any mining. Instead, the Stonebottom inhabitants were gambling and drinking.

The miners waved the adventurers on through town, and when they moved past the last of the modest huts, a stone clearing was laid out in front of them. A handful of adventurer groups were there, as well as some singles, checking gear and preparing to enter the mine, including the two who the party had met on the road. A doorway into a rocky cliff loomed large, outlined with a wooden frame. Standing near the entrance, directing adventurers, was a man with a meticulously groomed mullet. Crow led them directly to him.

“Ah, more Guild members,” the man nodded. “Good, good. I’m Brad Mullencamp, mayor of Stonebottom.”

“Can we get more information?” Crow asked, pulling out his flier. 

“Sure, yes. Well, this is a rescue, see? Some of our miners haven’t come back up and we can’t send anymore down until that’s taken care of. It’s narrow down there, so we’re sending people in at intervals if you want to wait for a few minutes.”

Vague. Korva’s mind was on red alert.

“Why haven’t they come back? Is there a blockage?”

The man didn’t want to answer their questions. It was written all over his face.

“Well, uh,” he licked his lips nervously. “Seems one of our miners broke through a wall down there. Might be a room of some kind. Anyway, they didn’t come back up after that. It’s been several days and we’re worried about them.”

“And what about the adventurers that have gone down?”

Oh, the mayor did not want to answer that one at all. His eyes darted shiftily toward the rockface, and back to the people questioning him.

“O-one came back up,” he stammered unhappily. The trio looked around him to the cliff base where the man had looked a moment before. A cot sat there, bearing an unconscious man. They approached, seeing that though he was stable, the adventurer was a bloodied mess from slashes across his body. He may have been a half-elf, but the wounds made it hard to tell. Korva saw the thief eyeing strange markings, and under closer examination, she surmised that the man must have been bound somehow. Crow debated out loud about using his laying on of hands to see if he could help the man further, but decided against it, as the wounds had already been pretty well tended. They may need his holy healing later. In unison, they turned back to Mayor Mullencamp. He seemed like he might come completely undone.

“So, will you go?” he asked hesitantly. Crow nodded solemnly.

“Oh good,” he sighed, seeming to come back to his confident self. The man waved his hand at all of them. “You can all see in the dark?”

“I cant,” Crow replied. “Do you have torches?”

“Yes, certainly, and there are sconces on the wall inside you can light. Two silver apiece, the torches.”

“Give me two,” Crow fumbled around in his pocket and pulled out the correct amount of coins, handing them over. “And, I don’t suppose you could tell me what kinds of things are being mined down there?”

This was an easy question for the man.

“Oh, gold, silver...”

Korva stopped listening as he rattled off his list of things potentially in the mine. Her mind was solely on this “rescue”. Korva was 100% sure this was not a rescue. With the way that wounded adventurer looked, it was extremely unlikely they would find survivors down in the mine. It was more likely that anyone who had gone in was walking to their death, and an unknown death at that. What would not only be hacking people up, but binding them as well?

More silver changed hands and Korva held back an exasperated noise when she saw Crow grab a pickaxe from the plethora that were lying around. The thief just seemed amused. Why the human had a sudden fascination with mining, Korva could never guess. He hadn’t mentioned it at all in the time they’d spent together.

“Go on in there, and follow the guideline. It’ll take you down,” the mullet man explained. “It gets real tight in there, so I’ll wait awhile before sending the next group.”

The trio entered into the darkness, grabbing ahold of the line that was fixed to the wall.

“Stay to the side near the rope,” the thief advised. “It gets real slick in the middle. I’ll go first and keep an eye out for traps.”

Crow ignited one of his torches and followed, giving the thief enough space that his darkvision wouldn’t be affected by the torchlight. Korva stayed behind Crow, pausing as he lit a sconce every so often. They were steadily going deeper into the earth. The mine was dank, and the smell and feeling only continued to grow the lower they went. After a while, they came to a large, relatively flat area where the miners had obviously spent quite a bit of time working. Korva could see the guideline continued down further a few feet ahead.

It had been a long time since Korva was underground. Other than some shallow caves back home, the dwarf hadn’t been in one since before her exile. Somehow, though, it still felt incredibly familiar. There was an odd kind of magic to being under so much rock and earth that her subconscious had clearly remembered from time spent underground visiting the vast cities of mountain dwarves. Korva had to wrestle off a sad and bitter feeling that hadn’t plagued her in years.

Crow was making short work of a spot in the cave wall with his rented axe. A moment later, he was holding a hunk of lode aloft, a satisfied look on his face. He stowed the ore in his pack and began searching the rest of the visible rock. Korva ignored him. A blood trail caught the dwarf and thief’s eyes. It was an unwelcome omen to see the streak disappear downwards, alongside the guideline. They met each other’s gaze for the first time since Profit, unhappily acknowledging what they had both seen.

Crow came up and nodded to them, indicating he was ready to go. They began to descend in the same order as before, going through several more plateaus and steep areas following the guide. Then, the rope abruptly ended when they reached a broken section of wall with a small, round tunnel hacked out of it. The trail of blood continued through it.

“I’m going to ask you to extinguish that,” the thief said to Crow, pointing to his torch. When he did, the two party members with darkvision stooped to look through the hole. The tunnel was maybe 15 feet long and extremely narrow, and at the end, clear as day, was a room. There was a bit of light, so hopefully Crow could see okay once they got over there, as the torches were a bit of a nuisance to those with darkvision.

Though she couldn’t see much beyond the opening on the other side, Korva’s mind was flooded with information she didn’t know she knew. Limestone. Stonework. Dwarven architecture.

“Hey,” the thief nudged her. She turned her head to him and saw he was on full alert. “Do you hear that?”

She didn’t.

“Undead,” Crow supplied with a whisper, his eyes wide. “I don’t know where exactly, but I can feel them.”

“We’ll have to go single-file again. Let me look for traps.”

The thief clambered into the tunnel and crawled almost all the way to the opening. Crow got in behind, with the dwarf at the back. Korva was honestly surprised Crow was managing in his bulky armor. He was moving very slowly as he shimmied through the tight space. When they came to a stop behind the thief, Korva craned her neck to see around the human. After a beat, she saw him roll swiftly out of the tunnel. The move was immediately followed by a dark flash over the hole and the sharp clang of metal on stone.

Korva silently thanked anyone who was listening for her small, dwarven frame and lack of armor. She crammed herself between Crow and the tunnel wall, wiggling her way past him. He was going to take way too long to make it through and she was certain that was a sword she’d seen. The dwarf dove out of the tunnel, mimicking the thief’s roll, This turned out to be a good idea, as a sword came down right behind her. Korva ended her roll standing on her feet, and turned back toward the tunnel, staff in hand and ready for whatever was there.

Three skeletons stood near the walls of the room, sort of occupying one corner. Her heart lurched at the sight of them. Their bones were clean of any bodily matter, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt what they were. Dwarves. A dull ache settled in Korva’s chest, but she didn’t let it give her pause. True to her training from the monastery, she pushed through the feeling and went on the offensive. The skeleton that was closest to the hole, which had swung at both herself and the thief, seemed to still be focused on the tunnel. The dwarf swung her staff, but the skeleton shifted just enough that the blow whizzed by. She closed the distance between them and landed a kick in its middle, but the undead creature didn’t seem fazed.

It brought it’s sword down automatically, operating more as machine than anything, and unfortunately, it’s timing was impeccable. This happened right at the time that Crow finally barreled his way out of the tunnel and he got clipped by the blade. The skeleton brought another hit down upon the human, but thankfully it glanced off of his armor. A second skeleton came alongside the first swinging wildly at Korva, but she easily dodged it.

Meanwhile, the thief, who had been in combat with the third skeleton next to a well-worn bookcase, lunged up behind the one that came for Korva and sank a blow with a rapier into its pelvic bone. The dwarf took the advantage against the skeleton and swung her staff again. The strike cleaved the undead in two. Before the thief could turn fully back to his original quarry, he took a shallow hit across his ribs from the skeleton. He didn’t let it stop him though, locking back in with his opponent. Korva turned back to help Crow while the thief slashed the undead from shoulder to hip, its bones collapsing against the bookcase.

Crow was bleeding from a deep gash in his side as he continued to throw sword slashes at the remaining skeleton. The dwarf brought her staff down on the undead’s shoulder, but it didn’t stop it from stabbing at Crow again, lodging it’s blade in his side. The human fell to his knees and then onto his back as the blade slid back out. The thief struck the skeleton from behind, effectively finishing it. 

Korva threw her staff to the ground and dropped next to Crow. He was obviously in pain, but conscious. The dwarf set to work on his wounds, furiously pulling items from her herbalism pack. Finally satisfied with the conditions of the human’s wounds, Korva rocked back on her heels and let out a breath. There had been a lot of blood, but if they waited a bit, she hoped her poultices and the wrap would keep things stable enough that they could finish what they had come to do.

While the trio rested in the middle, Korva observed the skeleton bones littering the ground. They seemed old and fragile. Most interesting, though were the joints. What looked like ropes were wound tightly around the bones, holding them together. Black and sinewy, it looked natural in origin, like plant-matter. It certainly wasn’t dwarven, whatever it was. It made the hair on Korva’s arms stand.

Scuffling filtered through the tunnel hole behind them and voices came next. They were loud, much louder than Crow, Korva and the thief had been. A moment later, the group recognized the voice of the man they’d met on the road earlier. He was speaking in a very one-sided conversation, and continued babbling until he came crawling out of the tunnel.

“Oh, it’s you guys,” the rank four cocked an eyebrow, taking in the people sitting on the floor surrounded by bone and blood. “What happened in here?”

“Skeletons,” responded the thief.

“O-okay, sure,” the tall man said, drawing out the word. “Well, thanks for takin’ care of it fer us.”

He beckoned to his older companion who was standing quietly next to the hole, popped something into his mouth, and started toward the door of the room.

“Wait,” Crow called out. “Careful. There are more undead ahead. A lot more.”

The man turned back to them, his eyes and pupils unnaturally wide. Drugs, Korva thought. It had to be. He just ignored the advice and continued out the door. The older man looked at the trio for a beat, nodded and followed his friend.

Getting to her feet, Korva decided to better inspect the room they were in while her wounded companions rested a bit longer. The thief was rummaging through a pile of bodies in the corner They seemed to be adventurer and miner alike, just a bunch of unfortunate people who had succumbed to the undead. There was old, dusty furniture scattered around the room; a bed, a chair, a small table, the bookcase. The room was simple and felt similar to what Korva's room had been at the monastery. Maybe an inn, she shrugged to herself. 

She avoided looking at the bones on the floor as she moved toward the bookcase, hoping for an answer about the dwarves that lived here and what had happened to them. The books were worn by uncounted years left sitting on the shelf. There only seemed to be one worth thumbing through, though. It was a religious book that didn't give any information on the dwarves that had inhabited this place, but it was full of ample information on gods and summoning, which may come in handy down the road. Korva slipped the worn tome into her pack. The thief, noticing the dwarf's interest in the bookcase, came up alongside her, though he seemed to think she had claimed the only book of interest as well.

Crow was standing as the other two turned back to the rest of the room. He stretched his limbs a bit and adjusted his heavy armor, stooping to look at something. Korva saw it was a small pile of weapons that the thief had sorted out of the victims of the undead. The human was hefting a short sword in his hand, the look on his face showing that it would do. The dwarf approached and selected a dagger. After her recent boar encounter, she’d been thinking it might be nice to have a weapon that was sharp and could do a bit more than the little throwing darts in her pouch. She had yet to use those since entering the Sea.

The thief, meanwhile, had opened the door, which was the only exit the room had other than the tunnel. The other two came up behind him and looked past. They could see the tall man at the end of the corridor laid out in front of them, but he turned the corner and became nothing more than a babbling voice. The trio entered the hallway and started forward. Korva and Crow heard the thief opening and closing doors behind them as they passed several rooms. At the end of the corridor, the dwarf realized she still hadn’t heard the thief reemerge from the room he opened up last, so she decided to check on him. She stepped into the frame of the door and saw him trying to pick his way into a desk drawer.

“Hey, you’re taking a while. Do you need help?”

“I can’t get this lock open. The wood around it seems weak but I tried to pull it and couldn’t get it to budge.”

“Here,” the dwarf sighed as she walked over to the desk, grabbed the lock and yanked. The wood around it splintered and released the mechanism easily, leaving it flat in her palm. Korva pulled the drawer open. It contained some sad looking paper eaten away by time. Sitting on top, however, was a silver pendant encircling a large ruby. The dwarf was not surprised to see a hand shoot over her shoulder and hastily grab the treasure. She rolled her eyes as the thief exited the room before she even had a chance to turn around. As it was, she didn’t hold much value for items like that and she certainly wasn’t interested in getting into it with the man right now anyway.

Back out in the hallway, Korva turned the corner to find the human and half-elf waiting in a very wet corridor. The rank four and his companion were long gone. The ceiling of the corridor seemed to drop down steeply until it met the surface of the water on the floor. The dwarf’s intuition was telling her this was a holy place, maybe a corridor to a temple.

Crow, Korva and the thief proceeded carefully, unsure what could be under the dark surface, which rippled every so often. They stepped into it, but nothing seemed to happen so they continued along the spongy floor. At its shallowest, the water seemed to be shin deep though it looked as if they would have to swim under the sloped ceiling to go further.

“Okay,” the thief turned to them. “The human cant see in the dark, right? I have a length of rope that I will tie around my waist. Dwarf, you hold it while I swim to the other side and then the human can follow the line.”

They all nodded in agreement at this plan, so the thief cinched the rope around his middle and disappeared under the water. After a few moments, Korva felt a tug on the rope.

“I think you can go,” she told Crow. He took a breath and went into the water, hand clenched around the line. The dwarf assumed he made it when she felt the next tug. Dwarves were not known for being swimmers, nor for spending time around bodies of water, unless maybe it was underground, but Korva was not worried. She had long ago conquered the sea and any fear she had about water at the monastery she had lived at for 40 years. The dwarf didn’t hesitate as she dove down. The swim turned out to be a good distance, and the breath she took was very nearly not enough, but she burst through the water on the other side of the ceiling with no issues. Her companions were waiting, the thief coiling his rope.

This corridor was quite unexpected. It was completely covered - floor, walls and ceiling - in a blanket of moss and plant life. Some plants were easier to identify, such as ferns and mushrooms, while others were simply unknown. An ambient blue light covered everything, making even the adventurers look blue.

“For some reason,” Crow muttered. “I’m reminded of the matter holding the skeleton bones together…”

His companions nodded in affirmation. It wasn’t a bad thought, yet it was very bad at the same time. Korva could see all along the walls and floor there were broken bits of stone where the plants had shoved themselves through the original structure. Mixed in with the plants in these spots were bits of metal. Some of it was entirely crushed to dust, while other flakes were as big as the dwarf’s thumbnail.

“That’s gold,” the thief informed them, scooping up some of the bigger pieces. Crow snapped to attention.

“I need gold!” he exclaimed excitedly before explaining. “See, I got this list from the man at the armor shop, and he said if I could bring lode, a ruby and gold that he would give me a deal on buying armor. Do you think I could have this?”

The thief dropped the gold into Crow’s hand. What came next had Korva pinching herself, ensuring she wasn’t having a dream.

“I found this,” the thief said, holding forth the ruby necklace. “You can have it.”

This man didn’t make any sense. Korva had literally witnessed him trying to steal goods. She’d never seen him move so fast as when he’d snatched the pendant. And now he was just giving these riches to Crow?

Shaking her head, Korva moved slowly to the far wall. There was a door there, which she cracked open cautiously and peeked through. It was hard to believe, but what she saw was even more confusing than the thief giving up his collected treasures.

The cavernous room, likened to the corridor they were in, was covered in plants and cast in blue light. The source of the light came from a corner across the room. It was some kind of bold, blue orb, shaped similarly to a cabbage, and it was suspended between floor and ceiling by two thick roots coming out of either end. Thick veins coursed through it and small roots grew out of it.

On the wall opposite the door, three people sat in a line against the moss. One was clearly a miner and the other two were almost definitely adventurers. With legs perfectly straight in front and backs perfectly straight on the wall, they looked very unnaturally posed. They were staring ahead, their eyes glazed as if in a trance. They hadn’t reacted at all when she cracked the door, and they certainly weren’t reacting to the tall man whom Korva’s group had encountered as he writhed and screamed on the floor in front of them. His older partner was nowhere to be seen.

“You should come look at this,” Korva threw over her shoulder to her companions. They approached, following her gaze through the partially-opened door. Both seemed as speechless as she was.

“I’m going to help him,” Crow’s eyes were fixed on the bloodied man on the floor.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Korva responded in an urgent tone. “Look at the others. At that thing. We don’t know what’s going on in that room. We don’t know how those people will act if they… wake up.”

Disregarding her completely, Crow crept across the densely carpeted moss floor and up to the wounded man. The dwarf and the thief followed. The rank four’s midsection was torn up badly. 

“What happened,” he hissed at the man on the ground, as he crouched next to him.

The tall man’s eyes widened at the sight of Crow, not having realized anyone else had come along.

“Traps, there’s a trap,” the man speaking hysterically and very quickly. He gestured inconclusively toward the orb. “Over there, a trap. Maybe more. I stepped on it an’ it shot out at me. A stick. A root. A stick. I don't.. It was a trap. A root. Approximately…”

The barely coherent man began rattling off dimensions of whatever it was that had hit him. The numbers were very specific and he continued to say them over and over again.

“Can you find the trap? I’m going to do some healing on this guy.” Crow started pushing magic into the wounded man.

“Look, you’ve been seeing things even before me,” the thief said, turning to Korva. “And with this moss, I don’t know. I don’t see anything.”

The dwarf nodded and grabbed her staff off of her back to help find the pressure trap. She looked at the moss hard and thought she might have spotted something. Gingerly reaching with the staff, Korva tapped at the suspected area. Thankfully, she had a lot better dexterity than most dwarves. A long, thick root, wrapped tightly in sinew similar to what had been on the skeletons, shot out of a hole in the ground beyond the pad. It’s sharp tip flew at her, but the dwarf was able to jerk away before it could sink into flesh. After a moment, the root shuddered and retracted into its hole.

“Oh boy, let’s hope there are more of those,” the thief commented dryly.

Meanwhile, Crow had the rank four sitting up. All of the injured man’s energy seemed to have been sapped away and he was no longer babbling.

“Hey,” Korva grabbed his attention as she came back over. “Where is your partner?”

“I don’t… I don’t know,” the man’s speaking had slowed and he looked lost. His eyes seemed to be losing focus. “He was… here. But now... he’s not.”

Korva looked around the room. There were no doors aside from the one they had come from.

“Okay, okay,” Crow said, trying to be reassuring. We’re just going to finish up in here. Why don’t you go wait outside the door?”

The man didn’t react.

“Come on, stand up,” Crow hauled him to his feet. “Go wait out there.”

He pointed toward the door. The man nodded lethargically and shuffled out of the room. Is he crashing from the drugs? Or is it related to the wound? To the room? Korva was feeling more alarmed by the minute. Whatever was happening in this place was bad and they needed to be careful.

“Now let's get these other people,” Crow started toward the people sitting against the wall.

“Wait, we don’t know what this is!” Korva tried again with Crow. “There’s something wrong with these people and they could lash out at us if we rouse them.”

Stepping around her, the human approached the miner. He hesitated as he grabbed the woman’s shoulders, studying where she was propped against the wall. The look on his face was troubled. Crow started to pull on the woman and an audible ripping sound came from her body. As soon as her head fell forward, her eyes showed life and she began screaming in pain. He continued to pull despite the noise, and the tearing sound that came with every tug. When he had her fully in his arms, Korva and the thief could see an imprint where she had been touching the wall and floor. Her flesh was mixed in with the plants, her gore lining leaf and stem. The skin had literally been pulled off of her body. The miner howled in pain as Crow set her down gently on the floor away from the spot where she had been.

Despite the noise of the woman, a new sound, like moaning, reached the party’s ears. They turned towards the door and saw something coming out of the wall next to it. Hands came first, followed by the unmistakable body of the rank four’s partner. He had a rotted look about him, which seemed impossible considering that it hadn’t been that long ago that they had seen him in the tunnel room. Yet here he was, coming towards them, somehow a partially decomposed zombie.

Crow ran at the zombie, drawing his new short sword and swinging it down in a hefty blow. The creature lifted it’s arm like a shield and took the entire slice without so much as flinching. Korva grabbed her dwarven hammer from her belt and hurled it at the zombie’s head from her place across the room. It soared past a surprised Crow and hit its intended mark, though only for a glancing hit. The thief had run back into the room and threw himself into the fray. He drew his rapier and drove it deeply into the zombie’s back. Crow, now with his great sword, threw a heavy swing at the creature and missed, but then used his momentum to turn him in a full circle and strike again. The zombie adventurer was cleaved in two by the sword. It collapsed to the ground.

“I’m going to check on the rank four,” the thief’s words were rushed as he dashed out of the door.

Crow turned and stormed up to the orb, nearly being gutted by another trap. When he approached the thing started to pulse steadily. Sword still in hand, the human launched a great swing at the bottom taproot. A screeching whistle filled the cavern at impact. The thief ran back in and joined Crow at the cabbage-like object. The two of them began hacking at the top root and the smaller ones connecting to the walls. Deciding they had that endeavor under control, Korva moved over to the people still attached to the wall. She could see now what Crow had seen when he had removed the miner. All around the edges of the adventurers, the dwarf could see the skin and plant life were woven together. Maybe that’s how the zombie was made? But that was so fast…. At the base of the skull, Korva could see some kind of thorn piercing into the skin. She grabbed the first man, a gnome, and pulled him easily from the wall. Thankfully, most of his skin seemed to still be attached. She noticed when the thorn slipped out of his neck, his eyes seemed to normalize a bit. Korva had the same luck with the second man as well, though as her companions destroyed the roots surrounding the orb, the wall’s hold seemed to lessen. The blue light was dimming as well, and as they severed the last of the roots, normal light and colors were visible again.

The two rescued adventurers, though still slightly dazed were mostly responsive to questions about how they felt. Satisfied that they were okay, Korva helped how she could with the miner. She had been wailing the entire time, but after the dwarf had worked on the injured side of her body, she seemed to quiet down and feel somewhat more comfortable.

Looking around to see what the others were doing, Korva saw to her horror that the men had begun peeling the plant life away from the walls, exposing rows of partially decomposed people. They tore down multiple spots around the room, and each one was the same. Bodies. Not caring to look anymore, the dwarf looked to the strange orb. It was brown and shriveled now, laying in a deflated heap on the ground. Pieces were starting to crumble away from it. Unsure what to do with that information, Korva helped the rescued people to their feet and herded them out the door. The rank four was waiting dutifully, seeming dazed like the others. Crow and the thief joined them shortly.

They used their rope trick to go back through the water, and all the people successfully made it to the other side. The rescues were coaxed past the bodies in the first room and through the tiny tunnel, up the long guideline, and out into the space in front of the mine. When the thief appeared first, fully intact, the miners and adventurers outside began applauding. It was thunderous when the miner and other adventurers appeared. But as Korva brought up the rear and it was clear she was the last, it suddenly died. The dwarf’s heart sank. These folk still had hope for a full rescue. Korva knew they were lucky to even have gotten one miner back.

The mayor came up to them hesitantly.

“Aren’t there more?” He asked.

Crow and the thief took turns stumbling over what they had experienced down in the mine. The man seemed very confused by the deluge of information, but he nodded along with their words trying to comprehend. He offered them their money, but as usual, Crow had his own plan. Between Crow, the thief and Mayor Mullencamp, they worked out a deal for more money. If the adventurers took people down there and showed them what they had found and where the traps were, they could earn extra. Calling up two of his miners, the man directed them down into the mine.

Back at the bottom, they climbed into the dwarven structure through the tunnel and ferried the miners through the water. In the final room, they indicated where the orb had been and pointed out its decaying remains. Korva claimed her hammer, which she had forgotten there, and tossed it from a distance onto the pressure plates. No deadly roots shot out, though one could see the holes where they had been. The miners seemed a bit squeamish at the sight of the people in the walls, but made no comment about them.

A while later, back at the surface, the party claimed their full payment from the mayor. He invited them to stay, assuring them that their food and lodging would be free.

“Let’s celebrate the end of this problem! We can offer good food and ale as thanks.”

Korva snapped to attention.

“Do you happen to have dwarven ale?” she asked casually. The dwarf knew she shouldn’t have, but when it came to dwarven ale, there was no restraint. She vaguely thought of her parents, something Korva rarely did. Maybe it was in her blood.

“Of course!” the man exclaimed. The group excitedly followed Mayor Mullencamp to the inn.