The guild hall was chaotic as usual. The sheer number of people made Milo nervous at times when passing through. They all seemed to have something that needed done, running here and there with paperwork, ore samples, and quests. The exceptions were generally groups of armored and robed players, and a few 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 largish 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 for exploring in the dark. 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 Beastslayer. 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 from the archer and 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. "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 dis-respect 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 is 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 miners guild your talking about. He's been mining deep into copperhead territory, so best you keep quiet. Didn't you see fang in his ear? 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."

"Leaving. Apologies. Stupid halfling. Your mouth is going to make us lose some teeth." Frosty grabbed one of the halflings 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."

=*=

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. A group of seven dwarves and two humans were gathered there. All of them were grim faced and wearing earrings or necklaces with copperhead fangs attached

"Those of you who are borrowing fangs from the guild; make sure these are 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 had his own made 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 thick plates.

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 #7 iron mine, 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 saw 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 to do, 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 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.

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 stone lurker liked to ambush miners. It's natural camouflage helped them blend into the rock. 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.

After descending to the mines, the group spread out a bit with Gorbel leading. They had an a half walk to the section the lurker had been spotted in.

=*=

"Damn, but I have so many things I'm going to buy once we find this monster and loot it." Rufo 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 in to sneaking down here to kill this monster the miners are so hot and bothered about, 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 grab a right. We'll parallel their path but go faster and get ahead of them."

The dwarf thought about it and turned at the next corner. The mines were laid out in a grid, so the plan might even make sense. "Ok, we'll try that, but do 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 were-rat 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 a bit 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. The first dozen hits were just two points each. The 13th hit sunk in deeper and took out a walnut sized chunk from the back of a leg.

You have hit Mature Stone Lurker 15 times. Base Damage is increased to 211 points of damage.

This creature has mitigation of 200 points per hit. Damage after that is 50% higher due to Brittle Bones.

You have done 16 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

Every hit after that got easier to land, and did another 15 damage to the monster.

You have done 31 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

You have done 46 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

You have done 61 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

You have done 76 damage to Mature Stone Lurker.

You have done 91 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 easily 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!

You gain 100 EP in Bonemancy and 100 EP in INT

You gain 5 EP in Mining and 5 EP in STR.

Gorbel walked over and patted Milo on the back. "Good job. Ok, crew, new plan. Next time we just all keep it busy and let Milo kill it. 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. I wasn't sure it would work at first on something made of rock, but after more than a dozen hits I was getting through its shell."

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 headwound and had a broken arm. The mage looked back over her shoulder. "They are right behind us. We thought there was only one monster, but more ambushed us. Nothing we could do hurt them."

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