A lucky find

Jay took off the heavily damaged leather armor first. It had been just a few hour he had worn it but looking at it once again, it had protected him pretty good.

Only three of the splinters from the last explosion had managed to pierce it and Jay decided to keep it at least in his inventory for a while.

Sitting down in the middle of the utterly destroyed woodworking cave, he used a few different healing spells on himself first.

Though all of the wounds had stopped bleeding themselves due to his constructed body, he patched them up completely and not even a scar was left after Jay was done.

He then walked over to the ripped apart and spread Sneed he had just defeated, while putting on a new shirt from his inventory. It was a simple linen one, as his silken one got destroyed with the armor and he had a hunch this one wouldn't come out unscathed as well in these mines.

The only things he found on the Hobgoblin that was still good, was the dagger and the small red pouch on his belt, though both items lay a good bit apart and dearly needed some cleaning. Anything else had been torn apart or damaged beyond repair, like the claw on the left hand.

The small bag was soul-bound but the dagger was good for direct use. It was called Goblin-Screwdriver, but a bit worse that the one Jay already got.

Both items landed in the inventory and Jay took out the armor he had worn before.

Glad he got so much spare items, Jay went towards the remnants of the Shredder and looted them as well, then hurried over to the door.

He didn't want to stay in this gory room any longer and was glad the door opened without further ado.

Stepping into the adjoining passage, Jay walked a few steps forwards as there was nothing to be seen. Just plain cave walls and a few lamps that illuminated the tunnel. Not even sounds were audible except dripping water and the echo of his own steps.

The path turned to the right and passing the turn, it went nearly straight and even a slight bit upwards.

With no one in this passage, Jay carefully proceeded with his eyes always watching the big door at the end of the passage. He could already see it thanks to the bright illumination there, but then he heard clanking sounds when he got closer to something like a crossroad.

Reaching there, Jay noticed the sounds had been coming from his right side but still looked first to the left. A big pile with explosives and barrels had been placed there in an only a few yards deep tunnel.

It had been more of an alcove where tools got stored, so Jay faced the other direction.

What he saw there was a dark passage that lead down a bit into a wide cave. Jay only saw a portion of it from up on the crossing, so he descended down the slight slope.

The cave was even bigger than he had expected, with natural pillars supporting the ceiling and groundwater seeping in in the center.

He didn't need to search at all to find the source of the clanking sounds. It had been slaves again that got made mining and were doing so in different spots.

Suddenly, Jay spotted one man that he recognized. It was Bogus, the Adventurer that had been in a group with Sybill as they met.

"Hey Bogus, long time no see…" J.

"Huh? Who?… Why… uhm…" B.

More than a surprised stuttering didn't come out from the sturdy and muscular young man. He had gotten a lot paler and thinner than when they met last time, but the moment he recognized Jay and processed the situation, the same happy go luck expression from back then appeared on the man's face.

"J-Jay, right? Is that really you?" B.

"Yep, came to free you guys. Anything okay with all of you, according to the circumstances?" J.

All the eight men in the cave that all had gotten a bit closer to the new appearance, carefully nodded to his question. Bogus then explained that only the strongest of the enslaved workers got brought to this cave, though there had been quite a lot more previously.

The damn Goblins had tortured some of them to death and the a few cave in's happened and thinned them out even more over the last week or so.

Latter incidents had a good point though, as the ugly green-skins had kept their distance from the cave starting from then on and only came in if necessary.

After Jay had freed the men of their chains and was opening the lock on Bogus' ones, they talked about how he had ended there. He stated they should have abandoned the quest back then and come with Jay to Sentinel, instead of ending at Alexton's Farm and getting captured.

That reminded Jay of Kolja who had been with Bogus and he told latter of the bad news.

The fellow Adventurer seemed to have anticipated it as his friend had been nowhere to be seen in these mines.

Leaving the big guy to his thoughts for a moment, Jay took out some dried bread and passed it to him and the other seven men when Bogus suddenly started to talk anew.

He began to tell their story, how the two of them had gone towards the farm, but farmer Molgen had nothing else to do for them. The Farmer had been busy after his lands got freed just a day before and his workers were evenly eager.

That was no surprise after what the two of them had found at the tree Jay had hinted them to. They had gone checking there after they left the farm with the sole quest to check for survivors of the Gnoll camp later on. Bogus asked Jay to guess what they found to what he stated he had no idea…

The explanation he got next surprised even Jay:

Three field workers, all past their prime, were doing a small and good looking beastkin girl damn hard. She looked like she had been used like this for a while and as the men noticed the two Adventurers they got invited to join.

Bogus stated that they did with a grin and due to that they left the farm a good bit later than initially planned.

Whoever had caught the Squirrel girl he had no idea, but her treatment was cruel.

As the two of them left, long after the workers had finished, a new batch of field workers walked towards her location.

What ever happened to the poor girl, his bet was she didn't walk away after what got done to her.

The rest of the story was about how they checked on the Gnolls and found a lousy two monsters and then proceeded towards the south. There they got overwhelmed by a bandit patrol in the proximity of the Alexton's Farm and got separated.

Jay was a bit sorry that he couldn't give Bogus some kind of memento from his friend, but got told it was more than enough to have freed him. The Adventurer would live on, remember his friend and care for his family.

Explaining the men how to reach the exit and what to do from then on, Jay accompanied them out of the cave.

He saw them off as they walked towards the Goblin-slaughterhouse he had made out of the last cave, but not before Jay got another warning from Bogus.

"I somehow know you won't listen, but please don't travel on. Only death will await you if you go in deeper from here. We all saw how many bandits had come down here, and they all will be waiting for you behind those doors…" B.

"Good to know, thanks for the warning." J.

With a sad face and hanging head, Bogus lead the group down the slope and a few moments later they got out of sight.

Checking on the crates in front of him after the slaves had disappeared, Jay found dynamite, small bombs and even gunpowder in barrels there.

Taking most of it with him he walked up to the door and pulled on it. Pushing also didn't do anything, so Jay knew it was locked.

Thinking about to test out some of the explosives he had just looted to blast it apart, Jay decided to try picking the lock he had found on the door. The story of cave ins and his last experiences with bombs had been anything but nice, so he gladly spent the resources and time it took to silently open the door.

Sneaking through the slightly opened gap, Jay learned it had been the right decision to take a careful approach.

What he spotted behind the door was a wide passage that had numerous natural pillars to both sides and small caves behind some.

The look was similar to the cave he had just freed the slaves from, only the groundwater was missing. Instead there was a wood planked path starting in some distance that lead a bit winding along the pillars towards another cave.

As the sparse illumination from the torches installed along the way was not enough, Jay had no chance to see what was further back.

He hurried to the side and hid behind a rock when he heard footsteps on the planks further in the back of the passage. Waiting for a moment, he saw no one coming and proceeded at the side of the cave.

Using the cover of the pillars and hiding in the shadow of small caves, he soon found the origin of the steps he had heard. It was a group of three persons, with one being a typical bandit and the other wearing light clothes similar to those Jay had seen sailors wearing in the Harbor of Arathor.

He followed them in hiding and listened to their talks.

It was something about a ship getting finished soon and them then leaving. The bandit told the others about a last batch of gold getting refined but Jay had to duck down as one of the sailors had turned around.

It was that woman that then started to explain the crew will board last as there was a lot to prepare beforehand.

Anything else Jay didn't listen to as he stood still and stared at the cave that had opened up before him. That cave was simply gigantic and even though it was foggy, he still saw the clear water down below and got a general idea of the size, even with only about thirty yards of sight.

From his position he saw a pier leading to the left and connecting to the path on his right that the patrol had traveled along. Those three still kept on chatting as they walked back to his direction, seemingly on patrol only on this short section.

Jay waited for the right moment after he had taken out his weapons and snuck up on the group.

With a back-stab out of hiding he instantly got rid of the first man. The others hadn't even realized what just happened when Jay went with a slash of his dagger to the thin woman's throat.

Only as she grabbed her bleeding neck and dropped her sword did the bandit attack as well.

As it was an attack from the right, Jay simply parried it and thanks to riposte rammed his dagger right into the man's heart.

Shaking his head, he sighed.

Had he concentrated just like this in the battle with Sneed and stopped his playing around, he might still be using the armor from before.

Jay had just killed a group of level 19 bandits and sailors with a single strike each, what proved he really could have done better.

As he was thinking this, something had come flying towards him and Jay concentrated back on the situation at hand.

It was then he noticed he had gotten attacked again, just that it had been a magic attack this time.

A (Shadow Bolt) to be precise had come flying towards him, but was on its way back to the caster thanks to his magical reflection ahead of him even noticing.

On the pier further back, a Cultist had spotted Jay's fight and joined the fray. To his spell getting reflected and taking the hit, the old man tried to flee on the wooden footbridge. But Jay used a (Shadow Step) and appeared behind him, ending the man with a single back-stab.

It took him longer to pull the corpses to the side behind one of the natural pillars where he had been hiding previously, than the whole fighting had taken. But Jay wanted to stay unnoticed for as long as possible if there really were that many opponents in this cave as he got warned of.

After checking on the corpses and plundering anything of worth, Jay slowly went back onto the pier where he had killed the Cultist.

From there he already saw the next patrol of a similar constellation to the last one, only this time it was two bandits and one of those buccaneers. That was the term his system told him the sailors were called.

Jay used a similar procedure again and hid behind one of the wooden stands the pier had been built on. There he waited for the patrol to pass him.

His hide skill should have done the job as well, even more so in the fog, but he still didn't trust his skills completely.

The fight was not really one at all, as again two died before the last reacted and Jay killed them as silent as possible. He had decided to refrain from magic as flashy spells might get seen through the fog.

As he was pulling the corpses back, he looked into the cave part to the other side of the passage where he originally came from. Even through the fog he saw the walls turning in quite some distance and showing the end of the cave at least at this side.

Back on the pier after hiding the dead second group as well, Jay proceeded on. The wooden footbridge went along the cave wall with the open cave to the right. Looking over there, Jay made out a massive body in the basin he was walking over, that looked a bit like a ship.

As he found the next pair of opponents a bit down the pier, his suspicion hardened even more.

Analyzing them as buccaneers from afar and checking on their skills, Jay understood there really might be a ship lying down here, but how it came there and moreover why, he didn't get.

Sneaking up on them with (Hide) active, Jay got pretty close until a loud squeak alarmed the man and woman of an intruder.

It had been a damn parrot that had spotted Jay after a small circle had appeared over it. He had ignored the sign and taken one more step closer as the bird warned the buccaneers.

While the man initiated close combat with his saber, the woman took some distance and yelled for help. Then she took a crossbow from her back and shot at Jay after the first attack from her companion missed.

Jay was a bit disappointed as he had expected something like pirates and buccaneers would use guns, but the crossbow bolt was even more easy to dodge.

Shifting his weight to the left he let the bolt pass him, parried the incoming saber with his dagger and slashed with riposte along the mans torso.

While the female buccaneer was busy reloading the crossbow, Jay got attacked by the small parrot but swatted it away with one strike. She seemingly had ordered it for distraction and didn't even notice Jay coming closer until he stood directly next to her.

Glancing at the average looking woman with a big scar over her cheek, he struck her throat with the dagger and silenced her. Kicking her, she fell from the pier and onto the rock formations at the caves wall, making out the shore of this underground lake.

Jay then walked over to the other dead buccaneer to pull him to the left of the pier as well to toss him down there. He really had to strain his good eyes to spot the corpses in the shadows of the pier, so there was nearly no chance for any other patrol to find them if they weren't absurdly lucky.

Sneaking down the pier a bit further that made a slight turn to the right and was gaining more distance to the caves wall, Jay soon reached its end. A pile of crates had been placed there and he took cover behind them.

This cover was more than welcomed as the pier turned into a wide platform from there on, like Jay found out by peeking over the crates. Had he taken a few more steps forward, he would surely have gotten spotted by the multiple buccaneers on it.