40 Entering the deep

After a quick breakfast, Finn and Jess bought some travel food from the guild and packed their bags. Fully armed and armored they left and headed towards the nearest entrance to the mining district.

Being underground, the mining district was partially under both the factory and harbor districts. Most of it however, was under the nearby mountain range.

The entrance in the harbor district was inside a walled compound. The city guard would check everyone who wanted to enter or exit.

Inside the compound was a small guard house, an outdoors exercise space for the guards, a small pub, and an elevator. The elevator was inside a building and going down would lead one into a branch of the mines.

As Finn and Jess approached, they saw several merchants lead donkeys and other beasts of burden into the compound. On the backs of these animals were various trade goods, preserved food, and other supplies, loaded in baskets and sacks. These were going to be sold underground.

Standing in line, Finn and Jess waited for their turn to enter. The guard waved them through after checking their guild badge. The two didn't waste time and went directly for the elevator.

As they entered it they noticed it was quite spacious. They shared the trip down with several merchants and their animals without feeling cramped. When everyone was ready, the gnome operating the elevator moved a lever to send it down. Finn hadn't seen many gnomes in the harbor district, but he tried not to stare. That would be rude.

Gnomes were extremely passionate about their craft, once a gnome had found their calling in life they could cast everything else aside and pursue it. Many developed a particular fondness for machinery. However, with magical solutions being viewed as superior to technological approaches by elves and many humans, a large majority of the gnome population ended up working with dwarves. Dwarves were not usually trusting of elves and their magic, and found the clanking steel and copper monstrosities, that gnomish machines often resembled, much more to their taste.

Finn got a little nervous when the elevator started slowly descending. There was a clicking and clanking sound, and the elevator eventually passed the counterweight as it descended into the deep.

It got darker, but every now and then Finn spotted some of those glowshrooms he had seen during his escape. Their eerie light didn't stop the animals from getting uncomfortable, and the merchants had to pat them reassuringly.

'Clunk!' The elevator finally lurched to a halt. They had arrived.

What greeted the surface dwellers was a large cavern, lit up with ever burning torches, glowshrooms and magically enchanted gemstones. Doors could be seen all around the edge, they lead to rooms and homes hewn into the solid rock. In the middle of the cavern was a group of buildings that resembled those on the surface. Stone walls, with timber frames and detailing, even shingles on the slanted roofs.

Finn paused when he noticed the roofs, why were they slanted? On the surface a slanted roof was to deal with rain and snow, that problem didn't exist underground.

'It's for you surface dwellers,' the gnome who had controlled the elevator explained, 'you don't usually appreciate the traditional underground architecture, so we tried to be accommodating.'

The gnome must have explained this to every guest so far, his lack of enthusiasm was obvious. As if unable to bear being away from his precious machine, the gnome hurried back to calibrate everything for the elevators next trip.

As Finn and Jess wandered into the central area, they noticed that at the very middle was an open space where merchants had set up a market. Surface goods were marked up or traded for the ores mines by the workers. Finn was happy to notice that haggling and arguments about prices where just a common here as above ground.

The two found an inn and went in to ask for directions. The patronage was mostly dwarves, and the mood was jolly but wild. Behind the bar were huge barrels of the most popular dwarf brew, and a dwarf in partial plate mail. His chest, shoulders and legs were all protected, even his beard had a few small steel scales woven into its braids.

Finn didn't know what to order, so Jess just went ahead and yelled for two mugs of the amber ale. It was famous throughout the city, and only brewed by dwarves. There were rumors that rubies were added during the fermentation in addition to other secret ingredients.

The bartender poured their ruby red drinks from the nearby tap, and when the dwarf passed them their drinks with a perfect head of foam, Jess asked for directions to tunnel 7. She explained that there had been a request for help sent by a dwarf called Malmdal.

'Oh? You two are the help the guild sent? I've heard about the trouble they have been having. Normally a squad of dwarves would patrol that tunnel, but they were moved to guard a gold mine just a few weeks ago. Iron, just isn't as rare or expensive. There are two other iron mines in the district so some don't mind if old Malmdal produces a little less.'

'I see, so there is politics involved then? Others are keeping the guards away?' Jess asked quietly, immediately understanding the situation.

'More or less, but it's no secret. There are laws against open conflict, but underground isn't any safer than up top. Most of the miners that went missing were human, so the other foremen don't think it is serious. The word around here is that it's probably just new miners accidentally running into a nest of rats or bats.'

The bartender turned to serve other customers after pointing them in the direction they should go. Tunnels 6 through 10 all started from this cavern and went deep into the heart of the mountain.

Sipping the red colored drink, Finn found it delicious. Its flavor wasn't overbearing, there was a taste of sweet caramel at first then finishing with a hint of toasted grains. Looking around, he noticed most of the dwarves were drinking it too.

Finishing their drinks the two left the inn and went in the direction of tunnel 7.

As they got closer, Finn realized the bartender must have thought they were dumb for asking where it was. Above the tunnel entrance, written in large script and in all the major languages, was a sign that read 'Tunnel 7'.

'Well that was obvious,' Jess laughed, 'let's get going.'

The tunnel was a lot bigger than they expected, it was as wide as some of the main city streets above ground. Every now and then there would be offshoots, clearly labeled with what mineral could be mined if one went that way. Each offshoot off the main tunnel would have a few doors that lead to the miners' living quarters.

After an hour of walking, The two arrived at another spacious cavern. It was a little smaller than the previous one, but still impressive. Like the other, it functioned as a town square, a place for miners to gather, buy food and supplies, or sell trade in their day's ores. There was also an inn, which Finn and Jess planned to check out later.

Looking around, Finn noticed it seemed like many of the miners seemed upset.

Suddenly a group of miners emerged from one of the three main offshoots connected to the cavern. They were covered in injuries, some were bandaged up, but others were still bleeding from their wounds. They had come in a large minecart, and as they climbed out, some started sobbing.

The resident medics and priest ran to meet them, and immediately started providing first aid and some simple healing spells.

The injured miners consisted of two dwarves, four humans and a halfling. One of the dwarves, and two of the humans were women. All of the miners except the halfling were muscular and strong from all the hard physical labor.

This was a common mining team, a dwarf or two in charge, several humans and a halfling or elf lookout. Elves were however rarely seen underground, they had a cultural connection to the moon, the constellations as well as plants which caused them to prefer the surface.

'Looks like another attack,' Jess observed. 'We should start our investigation.'

Walking over to the injured group, Finn and Jess stood out a little in their appearance. Fully armored and carrying a large sword, Jess looked strong and intimidating. Finn, with his smaller frame and dark leather armor would have probably blended in with the surrounding rock if they hadn't been together.

Approaching the least wounded of the group, Finn introduced himself.

'Hello, I'm Finn and this is Jess. We are from the mercenaries guild and were sent to help deal with the recent attacks on miners.'

The miner looked at them annoyed, it was the dwarf and he was in a bad mood.

'Talk to the halfling if you are looking for information. He's the only one who saw the attackers.'

'What? Then how did you all get injured?' Finn asked.

'The attacker's released a crazed dire rats on us, we lost two good men to them before we got away. Now if you'd just leave me alone, I'd like to go get a drink.'

'Sorry for your loss, we'll not disturb you anymore' Jess said, then pulled Finn away and over to the halfling.

'Hello, we are from the mercenaries guild and have been hired to take care of whatever is behind the attacks. We heard you might have seen something.'

The halfling has only suffered a few cuts, being small had helped him avoid being targeted.

'Sure, that's right! I saw them, right as they summoned the rats.'

'Summoned? You mean the rats were magically brought in to attack you?' Jess had a better understanding of what that meant. This could be difficult.

'How many were there?' Finn asked.

'I counted five, two of them were in charge of summoning, another two were armed with steel. The last one also looked like a wizard of sorts, and he had a staff. There might have been others hidden, but I'm not sure.' The halfling explained as well as he could.

Jess passed him a few coppers and told him to buy himself a drink as thanks. The little man smiled a little and dashed off to do just that.

'It seems like we have a small group to take care of.' Finn commented. 'How hard is it to summon rats?'

'Well, summoning one is what all a beginner would manage. Summoning enough to threaten the miners would require a lot more mana.' Thinking for a while Jess continued, 'I think that group didn't want to be seen. A rat attack would attract a lot less attention than a group of murderers. That explains why there wasn't much of a description, the summoners could summon various creature to do all the attacking.'

'That makes sense, but why are they doing it?' Finn asked.

'No idea. Let's get a room to use as our base of operations while we are here. The attacks are close enough that we can return to rest between each exploration.'

'Sounds good.' Finn agreed. Fighting while encumbered by the weight of their backpacks and supplies would be dangerous.

Only simple unfurnished cave rooms was available so they payed for two days use and dumped their stuff. They only brought a little food and some potions in addition to their combat gear when they left.

Heading down the tunnel that the injured miners had come from, Finn and Jess made their way to the scene of the ambush. The light was dim, but Finn could see just fine. Jess couldn't see as far or clearly in the dark, so she kept her hand on her sword and wore her buckler on he left arm.

Finn had already loaded his hand crossbow and was ready to fire at the first sight of trouble.