Tunnel Rat

The guild hall was chaotic as usual. The sheer number of people made Milo nervous when passing through. They all seemed to have something that needed to be done, running here and there with paperwork, ore samples, and quests. The exceptions were generally groups of armored and robed players doing quests and tables of people drinking and ignoring the hubbub around them. It was one of the player groups who waved to Milo as he was going through to the lower levels.

"Hey, buddy. We're looking for a sixth person to do some exploring down below. Interested?" The speaker was a large human wearing plate mail with a great sword on his back. The others included a bowman, a woman in a blue robe with a staff, a halfling without much armor or weapons at all, and a dwarf wearing a leather breastplate and packing an axe. Milo didn't think they looked ready to explore the dark mines. But maybe they had something interesting they were looking for.

He took a step closer, and the big man held out a hand. "I'm Rufo. Rufo Bearslayer, 3rd level Beast Killer. Milo shook the large hand that engulfed his own. "I'm Milo; I’m a miner. What are you exploring to find?"

The halfling spoke up. "Gold. Riches. More gold. We're going to go poke around the mines, go deep, and look for a lost city or dungeon or something." The others nodded.

Milo looked at the group and considered. "How many of you can see in the dark?" There was a bit of foot shuffling between the archer and the mage. Rufo fielded his question. "We're all set. Bingo Frostyone is a dwarf, he can guide us, and we have lanterns with us.”

That settled it for Milo. Going through the caves with people who couldn’t see in the dark and needed to announce their presence with lanterns sounded like a good way to be attacked by a horde of mantis. And plate armor clanked a lot. "I'll pass, but thanks anyway. I should get back to my mining." He turned and walked away.

The group was silent for a moment after he left. The halfling spoke first. "The nerve of that guy! That was disrespect right there. Doesn't he realize he's not getting another chance with a group of this quality?"

"Ah, don't let it get your hairy toes in a twist. That lad was just scared of going into the places we're heading." The dwarf put both thumbs in his belt and struck a pose. "Some folks are just scared of the dark."

Two dwarven miners were drinking beer nearby and scowled as the group talked.

"Best shut your yap, beardling; that’s a full member of the miner’s guild you’re talking about. He's been mining deep into copperhead territory, so best you keep quiet. Didn't you see that fang he’s wearing? He's probably heading down to the expedition that's hunting stone lurkers. "

Frostyone looked chastened and started to apologize. The halfling stepped forward.

"Well, there's five of us that say he's scared. I only see two of you old guys."

The two miners laughed.

"Don't be stupid. The two of us could take you five easy. But we'd be kind and share with the other dozen guild members nearby. The guild looks out for its own. And that includes Miner Milo. He's a strange little human, but he brings in a full bag of ore, pays his dues, and doesn't cause trouble. And he's one of ours now. So shut your yap, or you’ll be eating a table leg."

"Leaving. Apologies. Stupid halfling. Your mouth is going to make us lose some teeth."

Frosty grabbed one of the halfling’s arms and Rufo the other. They lifted him up, and the whole group retreated.

The ranger sighed. "And this is why we should never bring him into a town."

The woman in the blue robe stayed behind and offered her own apology. “I’m sorry for my companion's stupidity. They're new in town and covering up their nervousness about our expedition with bravado.”

The dwarves recognized a true apology when they heard it. And the girl was a healer, someone who was always valued. “It’s fine, lass, apology accepted. But be careful down there. Even the top of the mines have their dangers. It’s a reason miners defend their own. We’ve all experienced what can lurk in the mines. You be careful down there.”

***

Milo, meanwhile, had headed down through the lower layers of the guild, waving at a couple of people that waved at him, and then came to the entrance to the mines. An older dwarf was addressing a group of seven dwarves and two humans. All of them were grim-faced and wearing earrings or necklaces made from copperhead fangs.

"Those of you who are borrowing fangs from the guild, make sure they’re secure and check they don't come loose in the fight if you get hit. They are sheer hell to get, and I never want to have to go snake hunting again. Understood?"

Milo had made his fang into an earring. One of the dwarves noticed it and smiled brightly. "Here's one more! Glad to have you along." Several others nodded and smiled. One, in particular, was looking at him. This dwarf wore very thick plate armor and packed a gigantic shield made of riveted steel. It looked extremely heavy.

Not knowing what they referred to but happy to see smiles, Milo gladly stopped to find out. "I was heading to the mines. My apologies, but what is it you need help with?"

The heavily armored dwarf introduced himself. "Gorbel Ironthaneson, at your service. There’s a rogue stone lurker down in the #7 iron mine, and we’re heading down to kill it. Did you hunt that fang yourself? I only knew of 8 fangs in the guild. I'd be very happy to have a ninth along to help."

As Milo understood it, they had a problem in the mines and were going to fix it. Milo wished he had help like that in section E. "I can help. But tell me what we are doing and what we are fighting. I've never seen a stone lurker before."

"We'll tell you all about them on the way. They're big, made of rock, and hard to kill. But there are a few tricks we can give you to take one down." Gorbel motioned for the others to start down. One dwarf laughed and spoke. "And the first trick is to run and get help unless you have a few years to spare chipping away at the damned things."

As they moved through the mines, the hunting party filled Milo in on the curious monster called a stone lurker. They grew to be quite large and somewhat resembled a cave mantis in shape but with thick heavy limbs made of solid rock. This made them incredibly slow and incredibly tough. They were nearly immune to damage from weapons and spells. A high-tier earth or rock mage could melt one, but otherwise, most spells were useless. Weapons just bounced off of them. They were a terror for miners and heroes Level ten and lower. At the third Tier, warriors picked up armor-piercing skills and did enough damage to slowly break them, but it was hard to entice that level of hero to patrol dark mines for only a small amount of money.

Miners with picks could just barely chip the surface. It took a good mining skill and a hard pick to start doing damage to them. Most miners didn't get past tier 1, and if they did, they moved to better mines. This made stone lurkers here very difficult to kill. And that was where the Copperhead Fangs came to be important. Someone wearing one always did 1 point of damage. A good crew could slowly reduce a stone lurker to rubble if they all had fangs.

One dwarf in heavy armor was needed to keep taunting the monster and blocking its attacks. They hit slow but dreadfully hard. And their attacks often broke bones. A skilled dwarf with a heavy shield could block their attacks at an angle, channeling the force to the side. A direct hit was like getting stuck under an avalanche.

Stone lurkers liked to ambush miners. Their natural camouflage helped them blend into the rock, and they could actually move through rock at a very slow pace. A half-submerged lurker would wait for days for prey to wander by. Their first attack from ambush often broke enough bones to disable a miner and make them easy prey. They'd been lucky this time. The miner had blocked with his arm and been able to run off with only a nasty fracture.

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After descending to the mines, the group spread out a bit with Gorbel leading. They had a half-mile walk to the section the lurker had been spotted in. Milo saw that the group of adventurers was headed in roughly the same direction. Perhaps they were also coming to hunt lurkers? One of the things that made lurker patrols bearable was the high-value gems and ore each one had in the center of their bodies.

***

"Damn, but I have so many things I'm going to buy once we find this monster and loot it."

Rufo sighed and looked down at Jory Glenspirit, the party’s halfling rogue. "Maybe less talk. Aren't rogues supposed to be stealthy?"

Jory kicked a rock that clattered down the corridor. "With you clanking along in plate mail? Doesn't matter."

Frostyone was in the lead. "Keep it down, Jory. You talked us into sneaking down here to kill this monster the miners are so hot and bothered about; the least you can do is be helpful."

Jory rolled his eyes. "I am helping. I got you down here. This is a special monster they were talking about. That means extra treasure. We just have to sniff around in the direction they're going and find it first. Take that next left, then a couple of corridors up, and grab a right. We'll parallel their path but go faster and get ahead of them."

The dwarf thought about it and turned left at the next cross tunnel that led away from the main cavern. The mines were laid out in a grid, so the plan might even make sense. "Ok, we'll try that, but can we also try for some silence, all of you? No sense tipping them off."

***

"That's it! Just keep hitting it in the back legs; once we get it immobile, we can finish it easy."

Gorbel was shouting directions to the team as he kept taunting the stone lurker and making it slowly chase him. The other miners were hitting the monster over and over again, doing one point each hit and slowly chipping away at it. Gorbel's shield was slowly deforming. Milo had seen that two of the other dwarves had been packing the same type of shield, and he now understood why. If that shield lasted until the monster was dead, it would be a miracle. Gorbel would need the spares.

After ten minutes of constant fighting, several of the miners stopped to catch their breath or swig a stamina potion. Milo was still above half. His wererat bonus meant he had a lot more stamina as long as he didn't need to keep changing form. He'd been content to let the dwarves dictate the ebb and flow of the battle, but with some of them dropping out, he experimented with his spells. The monster was rock, not bone, but Brittle Bones did mention things with a hard shell. He yelled out to Gorbel to warn him. "I'm trying a spell to see if I can soften it up." The tired dwarf yelled back. "Can't hurt."

The monster glowed a brilliant green. The next strikes from the miners sounded different, and the chips flying off were bigger. One of them called out. "Woohoo! I'm hitting for 2 points each swing now. Let's take this sucker down."

When the spell was successful, Milo decided to try Shadowblight instead of his mining pick. The first few hits were just two points each. But Shadowblight’s curse was increasing his damage with each hit as it decreased the stone lurkers’ armor. With Gorbel keeping its attention, he could hit it over and over as fast as he could swing. His base damage was 40 points. He added another 25 points because his DEX was up to five and 40 points from his rank 4 in Bonecasting, bringing him to 106 points of damage per hit.

The first nine strikes on the Lurker only did two points each. But the tenth hit knocked off a larger chunk of stone and triggered a game message.

You have hit Mature Stone Lurker 10 times.

This creature has a mitigation of 200 points per hit from its rocky shell. This has been reduced to only 100 from the curses you have laid upon it with your horrible weapon. Damage is doubled due to Brittle Bones.

You have done 12 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

The next two hits increased damage further, as the Lurker’s armor dropped to only 80. A full minute had gone by, and the first curse expired as Milo added another.

You have done 32 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

You have done 52 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

You have done 52 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

You have done 52 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

You have done 52 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

Chips of rock were flying off the lurker as Milo struck again and again. Gorbel couldn't keep its attention against that much damage. The monster turned and slowly swung at Milo, who easily avoided the swing. The dwarves backed off and watched as Milo avoided the creatures’ swings and hit back at it each time, carving huge chunks of rock off of it. Finally, the stone lurker crumbled into a pile of rubble, and there was a cheer from the rest of the group.

Your group has killed a Mature Stone Lurker! Level 7

Each member of your group has gained 100 experience points in mining and 100 experience in STR.

In addition, you have gained 100 experience points in Bonecasting and 100 experience points in INT.

Your reputation with the Shadowport Miner’s Guild has increased.

Gorbel walked over and patted Milo on the back as he sat on the ground, panting. "Good job. Great job, actually. I only went through one shield, and those things are usually a three-shield fight. Ok, crew, new plan. Next time we just all keep it busy and let Milo kill it.” The rest of the miners laughed and agreed. “How the hell did you do that, if you don't mind me asking?"

Milo caught his breath and took a drink out of a bottle passed up to him. He nearly choked on the strong alcohol. It was sort of nice to be appreciated, though. He showed off his weapon to the miners. "It doesn't look like much, but with the spells I know, it hits a bit harder each time as it weakened the Lurker’s armor. I wasn't sure it would work at first on something made of rock, but after almost a dozen hits, I was getting through its shell."

One of the dwarves rooted around in the rubble and came up with a handful of gems and nuggets. “Nice loot! Here’s how I see it: Gorbel gets a gem and an extra nugget to pay for his shield, each of us gets a gem, and I think we give a gold nugget to Milo for saving us two hours of chipping away on the thing. That leaves two gems for the guild.”

Everyone nodded, and gems were passed out. Milo saw that the guild got the smallest and he and Gorbel the largest. All the miners were fine with the split, and Milo appreciated working with a congenial group of people. It was the first time he’d done so since he’d been with his family.

A sudden commotion coming from a nearby cross tunnel caught everyone's attention. Two bobbing lanterns and shouting voices were coming their way. A halfling packing a lantern ran up and nearly collapsed, panting at their feet. "Save us! Please! I'm too short to die!"

He was followed by the female mage and archer Milo had met above. The archer was bleeding from a head wound and had a broken arm. The mage looked back over her shoulder.

"I’m sorry, they’re right behind us. We thought there was only one monster, but more ambushed us. Nothing we could do hurt them." She turned to the archer and cast a healing spell on his head wound.

The halfling said, "No shit. That big one smashed Rufo and Frosty's heads like ripe melons."

Heavy pounding came from the tunnel as no less than three stone lurkers emerged. One significantly bigger than the other. Gorbel grasped the small symbol around his neck and spoke a quick prayer.

"Forefathers preserve us, there was a nest of them, and these idiots led them right to us."

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