41 The strange miner

The atmosphere was tense as the two continued on in silence down through the dark tunnel.

The tunnel floor was inclined and the steeper sections had steps cut into the rock. On either side of the tunnel, narrow tracks were built for the mine carts. There was a strict system in place, and each side would only allow movement in one direction.

Occasionally, Jess and Finn passed by other mining groups that were heading back to the cavern. One or two strong miners would be working the mechanism propelling the mine carts along. More successful miners could add magical runes on their cart which made moving them much easier and quicker.

The attacks had only happened in the side tunnels. None of the location targeted were considered very important, their location on the fringe making it hard for guards to arrive before the culprits escaped.

As Finn and Jess entered the side tunnel where the most recent attack had been, they noticed how few miners there were. The only group of miners still daring enough to stay had a couple souped up mine carts that they could use to escape at moments notice.

Seeing the two heavily armed mercenaries, the mining group kept working full speed. The group's leader made eye contact and pointed further down the tunnel. They didn't seem to have time to chat.

Finn and Jess continued on for a while longer and eventually arrived at the scene of the crime. Bloodstains and shreds of clothing were all the evidence that remained. The bodies of the two miners that should have been there were gone.

'Why do you think they took the bodies? The rats were summoned and don't need to be fed.' Jess asked the question that had been bothering her.

'Maybe the wizards needed the bodies? Or they wanted some slaves?' Finn suggested.

'Human experimentation is illegal, but I guess it would be hard to stop it from happening underground.' Jess said.

Finn nodded, if only she knew how right she was. He was basically living proof that it was happening right under the noses of the authorities.

If this group was connected to the one he had escaped, this task would be way too difficult. Finn felt that it was unlikely though, that company operated a lot more above ground and had a uniformed private guard. The halfling would definitely have noticed a uniform.

'If only we had a proper tracker,' Jess lamented. 'A skilled ranger would easily be able to follow the traces of that group back to their base.'

'Well, we could try. Do you have any spells that would help?'

'No, mine are more combat related.'

'Ok, well let's search the scene for anything useful then.'

Finn used his excellent eyesight to find several clues, while Jess used logic to put the clues together. After half an hour, they had managed to find where the attackers had stood during the attack.

The two bodies had been dragged by the rats, creating the start of the trail. Later the bodies must have been carried, so that trail ended. Near that point Jess identified semi destroyed materials that were known spell components for summoning.

The attackers had actually been on a concealed ledge in the large side tunnel. They had been above and summoned the rats right in the middle of the miners below.

Climbing up was easy, spotting the ledge was what was hard.

After getting up, the two noticed another tunnel intersected this one right at that hight. The attackers must have used this smaller passage to get to the ledge and later to escape. Their suspicions were confirmed when they noticed a few drops of blood on the ground and some smeared on the wall.

'Let's eat something before we continue,' Jess said, 'it would be better to have strength to fight if we meet any of them.'

The meal was simple, preserved meat, some cheese and crusts of dry bread. Washing it down with water, they were ready to continue.

The passage connected to the two intersecting tunnels, and as they continued downwards Finn and Jess saw more bloodstains. It eventually led to another cave were several other tunnels all connected.

'Argh, this is like a labyrinth! There are so many tunnels everywhere.' Finn complained. 'And the blood trail stops here too.'

The cave was quite dark, it lacked the artificial lighting of the mining tunnels. The only light came from a cluster of glowshrooms on one side of the cave.

It was too dark for Jess to look for clues so she decided to cast a spell. Taking out a glow worm from her pouch, she quickly stroked it along her sword as she spoke the command words.

'Lux lucet emittunt'

The glow worm dissolved into tiny motes of light that entered the blade. Slowly the blade began to glow and produce light. It was a soft light that didn't hurt ones eyes to look at.

Holding her sword up, Jess illuminated the whole cave with its soft glow. The two started looking around for more tracks to follow.

Only a couple minutes into their search, they heard a sound coming from one of the tunnels.

'Uuurrrrrggghhh!'

It was a strange sound, and the two were immediately on their guard. Finn took out his heavy crossbow and loaded it quickly. He chose a bodkin tipped bolt, as he had most of that type.

Taking cover behind a short rock, Finn prepared his ambush. Jess, on the other hand, stood in the middle of the cave with her sword still shining. They wanted to see what was coming.

They didn't need to wait long before a miner stumbled out of the tunnel with his pickaxe. Was he a miner that got lost? He must have seen the light and thought there would be people. The two were eager to find out where the miner had come from and if he had seen anything suspicious. There only a few odd things about this miner that kept Finn from approaching.

The miner looked a bit pale and sickly, he might have a contagious disease. He didn't yell out a greeting, so he might not be friendly. Finally, what kind of miner drags their pickaxe behind them like that?

'Hello there!' Jess yelled out a greeting. 'Which mining team are you from?'

No response, but the miner turned to look in her direction.

'Do you need help getting back to the camp? We can help you if you tell us what's down there.' Jess continued, slightly annoyed at being ignored.

'Uuuurrrrrrgggghh!'

The human miner suddenly made the same weird sound they had heard earlier and started lumbering towards Jess. The pickaxe was still dragging across the rocky floor creating sparks and a horrible grating sound.

'He's attacking!' Finn yelled out a warning, he had just managed to get a better look at the miners face. The eyes were glazed over without any emotion, and the mouth was hanging open. Again they heard the deep sound.

'Uuurrrrrgghhh!'

Finn didn't wait for the miner to reach Jess, he fired a bolt at the maniac's chest, stopping his momentum and sending him reeling. Switching to his hand crossbow, Finn saw the miner start charging again without seeming to feel pain from the bolt embedded in his lungs.

Jess saw this and frowned. Holding her shining bastard sword with two hands, she charged as well. As the distance between them lessened she started her full swing to gain maximum momentum. The miner on the other hand just kept charging as if he hadn't noticed anything.

At the last step before contact, Jess forcefully reduced her body's forward movement, and transferred all that momentum into the swords's horizontal slash.

The miner had just raised started to his pickaxe with one hand, when the gleaming blade split his torso from his legs. The force was so large that both halves were sent tumbling and the pickaxe was dropped.

Jess lowered her sword, point down, and rested her hands on the pommel as she calmed down from the brief clash.

'Uuuurrrrgghh!' A somewhat weaker version of the same sound came from the miner. Finn who was approaching jumped back in alarm. The top half had moved.

Dragging itself along the ground towards the two, the top half of the miner seemed to still be alive.

Jess lifted her sword high and brought it down hard on the miners head. That put an end to its freakish movements.

'What was that? That miner just didn't die!' Finn asked, slightly frustrated that his bolt seemed totally ineffective.

'A zombie,' Jess replied, 'a necromancer must have used the body of a dead miner to create this mindless abomination against life.'

Defiling the bodies of the dead by raising them up as mindless servants, necromancers were shunned and hated by society. To practice the magic so closely linked to death would also desensitize wizards to the point where they felt no remorse for causing the death of countless others. Their tendency to 'turn bad' resulted in the whole school of magic being labeled evil and forbidden.

Jess was taught magic by her mother, and her father was a paladin. It was natural for her to have heard about the foul creatures created by necromancy from them.

'If my guess is correct, a necromancer is preying on the miners and using their bodies to create their undead army.' Jess said to Finn in a serious tone.

'Yikes, that sounds bad. Guess we should stop them before things really get out of hand.'

'Yeah, the longer the necromancer is left alone, the larger army they will have. Therefore, we need to take them out as soon as possible.'

'Uuuurrrrrggh!' Another zombie's deep roar echoed from the same tunnel the other had come from.

'We've got more company!' Finn jumped up and readied his crossbow again. He reused the same bolt he had just shot earlier. He had reclaimed it as they talked.

'Go for their heads this time,' Jess yelled out as she readied her sword, 'the only way to stop them is by destroying their brains or cutting its connection to the body.'

'That's weird, why is it like that?' Finn asked.

'The spell used to raise them creates a node in their brain which can receive simple commands, and is the source of their negative energy. Destroy it and the spell ends, sever the connection and you have an angry head that cant do anything.'

'Got it, here they come!' Finn spotted the zombie miners exiting the tunnel, 'Oh great, there's four of them this time!'