Diamond Hollow Mine was huge.
The entrance, at least. It reminded Charlie of a wide, gaping mouth. Like some great, toothless beast yawning, the tongue the tracks of the mine carts that curved away into the darkness of the beast’s gullet.
He found himself growing anxious at the mental image of being swallowed up as he walked inside and tried to think of some other way to visualize the mine, but found himself unable to do so.
Finn.
Charlie realized that this was probably something that Finn had personally designed, sculpting it specifically to instill terror into them. And even worse, Finn could just accomplish that effect through a status effect – which meant that this could be a very ordinarily looking mine, and Charlie’s perception of what the mine looked like could, quite literally, be entirely in his head.
Charlie took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and did his best to push that feeling as far down as he could. Exhaling, he opened his eyes back up, feeling slightly more comfortable this time, and began looking around the area.
To his left was were pallets of boards and piles of soil and gravel. To his right, piles of ore and minerals, seemingly ready to be carted away. And everything was a huge mess, with tipped over mine carts and smashed-up buildings and warehouses.
Then there were the same deep tracks from the village, all of which led straight into the mine.
There was no doubt in Charlie’s mind that this was where the townsfolk had gone. You didn’t have to be a Ranger to tell that.
“Alright,” Charlie said as the group mustered in front of the mine, “Who’s doing what?”
“We’ll take six Rangers,” Oswin said, whistling to get his boy’s attention, “Alright! Camden, Zueler, Prentiss, Mash, Nano, Kreel, on me. The rest of you will search the town for more survivors. Move out!”
The rangers hurried away back to town. The remaining Rangers, a bear, a wolf, an otter, and a beaver, stood at attention, ready for more orders. Charlie appreciated their discipline. More importantly, he appreciated the adamantine crossbow bolts they’d been equipped with. And the enchanted swords at their belts were nice too.
They’d found Rodrigo’s hidden armory and had taken what they needed. Gregory had seemed more interested in the treasure than the gear, but Charlie had taken note of Oswin’s increasing concern about Rodrigo’s remaining lifespan and made sure that they got what they needed for the golems and left. Besides, they could always come back later for the valuables.
“We’re ready. Did Rodrigo mention which shaft the Golems were in?”
Charlie shook his head. “He just told us there was something in the mines, he never told us what or where it was.”
“Guess I’ll just have to follow the tracks.” Oswin shrugged. “Not optimal, we could still get lost. I’ll take the lead. Back me up?”
Charlie nodded.
They lit their lamps attached them to their belts, and everyone entered the mine. Oswin led the way, following the rather obvious trail the Golems left behind. The path was mostly straight, leading downwards the entire time. For as much damage as the golems had done to the town, they’d left the thick lumber supports of the mine completely untouched.
Finally, they reached an old lift.
Everyone piled in and pulled a lever. They descended, the walls sliding past them as they went lower and lower, stopping at every level so Oswin could check for traps in the elevator shaft. It was slow going, but they finally reached the bottom.
Oswin made one last search for traps, then signaled for the party to carefully step out while noting the heavy tracks.
The new shaft was much more windy than the ones up above, clearly new. Even the walls still bore the recent marks of pickaxes, dust still in the rock. Up ahead was a torn-down wooden barrier and beyond that, stone transitioned to smooth bricks of some dark mineral.
Interspersed with crudely written common on the walls were glyphs in some language Charlie couldn’t even decipher. He turned to Palseks, curious if they were draconic, but she just shrugged. At least that meant they weren’t going to be dealing with a dragon.
Up ahead, the bricks had crumbled inwards into a chamber where the party could hear clanking sounds deep within.
They slowed, moving cautiously forward. Oswin peeked into the opening in the wall before turning back to them, waving them forward. Everyone crept closer.
“Okay, looks like it opens into a hallway. Goes about a hundred feet before opening into a much larger chamber.” Oswin informed them. “There’s a few Golems in there. It should be safe to talk out here. They seem preoccupied.”
“Preoccupied?” Gregory raised a well-manicured brow.
“You’ll see.” Oswin shivered.
“Rodrigo said the ruins were accidentally broken into during mining, so why does it look like someone intentionally busted in here?”
“Maybe they were curious?”
“Curious? There’s warnings everywhere! Skulls and bones, Exclamation marks. FIVE. Five exclamations marks in a row, and the words all in uppercase.” Veles pointed at one written in Common, “Look, that inscription isn’t even in Old Paranese! It’s in Common and literally says: ‘Danger, Do Not Open, Asshole Inside. We Buried Him Under 400 Feet Of Dirt For A Reason, Bugger Off’.”
“Oh my, that’s a very British sign.” Charlie nodded, rubbing his chin.
“A general rule of thumb: Don’t go digging things up in case they won’t let you bury them again.” Veles said.
“We’re adventurers, it’s what we do.” Charlie replied. “Any real adventurer, when faced with a sign that said something like ‘Don’t open this door, really, I mean it. Opening this door will result in a violent, painful death’ would automatically open the door just to see if it’s full of treasure. Signs are basically useless.”
“Sure, but it does mean that when you hand what’s left of the adventurer to their grieving relative you could say, as they grasped the jar, ‘He was warned not to’.” Veles replied.
“But these guys weren’t adventurers. They were just miners.” Gregory pointed out.
“Look, your grace, people will do anything just to see what happens. It’s basic psychology.” Charlie rolled his eyes. “If you put a lever in some cave somewhere with a sign on it saying: ‘End-of-World Lever. PLEASE DO NOT PULL, the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry before someone pulled it.”
A muffled scream came from inside the ruins.
Everyone looked at each other.
“So, who wants to go into the deadly ruins first?” Charlie asked.