Waking up for the second time in his camp on the top of the tower, Milo made his plans for the day while he heated water for tea and chewed on some slightly stale bread with a thin slice of cheddar. He still had some snail meat stored away that he gave to his watch lizard. Georgie had worked a double shift and deserved a big breakfast. The lizard agreed. Milo took a good look around the large cavern, planning his route. He saw two more large, open pit mines, both filled with buildings. If he explored that way, he'd complete a large loop through the cavern and retrace his steps up the long stairway to the ceiling and the Hollow.

He did one small experiment that morning with the sliver of Duram Argenti that he had enchanted the day before by touching it. Holding it in his open palm, he felt nothing. He closed his hand and tried to infuse mana into the sliver, the way he forced mana into runes to charge them. It was like turning on a faucet; some of his mana poured into the sliver until he felt some resistance. Examining the sliver, it had changed again.

Duram Argenti: small chip

Estimated size: 0.25 ounces.

Infused

Hardness: Tier 3

It had drained 300 mana from him, twice the amount needed for the first step. Curiously, the hardness had decreased. The small sliver glowed beautifully. There had to be a use for this ore, and he was sure that the dwarves would know more. Especially those skilled in magi-tech, like Sledgemonkey. He pondered the problem of the ancient miners. The mining style pointed to some of them being skilled in detecting ore hidden in the ground. He could sense hidden veins, but only if they were close to the surface and he was concentrating on the rock near him. Somehow they had found the veins of Duram Argenti that came close to the top of the layer of Duram Gneiss.

But they had been unable to mine further. Were they lacking levels of mining skill? Or lacking tools made of high-tier materials? Both? He'd found the remains of the miners and their overseers but nothing to tell him why the mines were abandoned. He'd seen outcroppings of other ores that were left untouched. Iron, Dark Iron, Deep Copper, Tin, and coal seams. But it was only Silverite they valued enough to dig out. Perhaps this area was far from civilization at the time when the mining operation had been active. He had lots of questions and too few answers. Maybe today would bring more knowledge.

He quickly descended the tower's stairway and began his travels. To his surprise, when he went to dismiss Georgie, the lizard shook his head and headed for the stairs. Milo didn't know enough about magically summoned watch lizards to know if this was normal behavior or not, but if either of them was a professional at their job, it was the lizard. Milo followed along, and as Georgie began to move from cover to cover, he faded into the shadows and skulked behind his pet. The two soon fell into a pattern of only one of them moving at a time as they moved across the abandoned mining complex. Twice, Georgie changed directions and insisted on a different route. Milo noticed a large cave opening the first time, and the second was near a low hill or mound. Milo wondered if it was possible to learn to speak lizard? He was curious about what lurked in those places but not curious enough to look into them when his lizard, whose only job was to guard him, was anxious to avoid them. Still, maybe the next time he came down here?

They came to the first open pit mine, and immediately Milo saw the differences. The houses were decayed and crumbling, most of them reduced to rubble. The tower in the center of the open area was crumbling, with damage on many floors, and the stairway had fallen, filling the bottom two floors with rubble and taking parts of the upper floors with it. Most curiously, the flat, open expanse of Duram Gneiss was broken up in one part. A thirty-foot wide circle of stone was now a crater filled with rubble, the hard stone broken up. More ominously, Milo saw bones and crushed skulls mixed in with the rubble of the houses, along with broken furniture, pottery, and brightly colored cookware. He explored a little and then left.

Roads were everywhere, winding among piles of mining debris, small pits, stairways to the ceiling, and broken towers. He found the site of another large battle. Behind makeshift stone walls, several ogre-sized creatures had fought to the death against hundreds, maybe thousands, of the small miners. Piles of skeletons were piled against the barricades. The dead had been left where they fell, but nearby he found a rusting pile of slave collars taken from the dead. It had been a rebellion then, and whichever side had won, the mines were abandoned after that. He traveled on, coming to the last open pit he planned to investigate. Beyond it was a spindly staircase that went to the ceiling, and past that, the slag pile at the base of the stairway he had descended and the road that ascended the wall to the mines. He was making good time, helped by Georgie, who kept him moving.

The last open pit was large and, like the first, had a village that ringed the pit and ascended in tiers up the side of the pit. There was no tower here, but there was an anomaly. In the center of the pit was a large mound, over 50 feet across and 20 feet high, made of Duram Gneiss. The sides sloped gently up as if a bubble had formed between layers of stone. Something sparkled on top of the mound. Georgie growled and looked anxious. Milo petted him. "Just a quick look, ok? If something big comes out of it, we run like hell until we can start climbing." He started making his way down through the buildings, stopping to listen and skulking through the shadows of the buildings, never exposing himself to the view of the mound. He carefully examined it but saw no openings.

The sparkle was coming from crystals set in the stone. He carefully walked forward, hearing nothing and sensing nothing in the stone. He stopped at the mound's edge and examined a partially exposed crystal.

Mana Crystal Core

Small

Partial Charge: 550/1000 mana

Milo blinked, surprised. He'd seen these before. Sledgemonkey complained about never having enough of them. They were used in many of the more complex types of dwarven machinery. He'd never heard where they came from but had assumed either a mine or they were grown from smaller crystals in a mineral solution. He saw over fifty small crystals on the mound and larger ones near the top. At the apex was a huge, thin crystal, about two feet tall and a few inches across.

Georgie was pulling on his tail, but Milo knew the Engineers needed these crystals. Carefully, he put a hand on the mound. Nothing happened, but he could feel the mound was hollow. Two feet of stone separated him from an inner cavity. He carefully touched a small crystal, but there was none of the mana drain effects he'd experienced in dealing with the nugget of Duram Argenti. Trying to sense how deep the crystal was embedded in the stone, he could sense that a soft substance separated the crystal from the stone. He wiggled the crystal back and forth, easily removing it. The small socket the crystal was embedded in turned out to be a version of Duram Argenti, highly charged with mana.

Duram Argenti foil

Enlivened

Hardness: Tier 1

He carefully checked the crystal for any bit of the metal foil, but it was clean. He put the crystal in his pouch and began gathering more. After clearing one side, he moved up to the larger crystals. Georgie was growling, a low sound but insistent. Milo hurried, just in case. The four large crystals went into his pouch, and he began gathering the smaller ones, leaving the largest crystal for last. Just a hunch, but if anything bad were going to happen, it would be that one.

He could feel a vibration in the stone beneath him. A crack appeared in the mound. Georgie made a sound halfway between a bark and a hiss, taking matters into his paws. He raced up the mound, grabbed the large crystal with his mouth, and ran down the other side, not waiting for Milo and heading toward home. Taking the hint, Milo leaped down from the mound, only to have it explode behind him. Chunks of hard stone blew up and out, one catching him in the shoulder and knocking him to the ground, stunned. A few seconds later, he regained his feet and heard movement behind him.

Quest Initiated: Diplomatic Relations

You have encountered a breeding hive of an unknown variety of intelligent Stone-Lurkers. Use your new Diplomacy skill to assure them that you and your allies mean no harm.

Success: A lot of experience in Diplomacy and the opening of relations between you and a group of insular, xenophobic monsters that would normally feed you to their young.

Failure: If your attempt to talk to the Lurkers goes bad, you will be pulverized into baby food.

Suggestions: Don't hurt the eggs. Don't let them know you were the hero that killed Uthneragrubban.

In a large crater filled with what looked like stone eggs, creatures were wailing and clutching the eggs to their chests. They looked like small stone lurkers but were the color of the Duram Gneiss they lived in. One screamed and pointed at Milo, the others also screaming.

All around him, the ground was trembling. Huge Black Stone-Lurkers erupted from the ground and began lumbering at him as he sprinted away in the direction Georgie had taken.

Quest Failure: Sorry about that; your Lizard stole the scene. But really, with that Crystal Pick in your hand, there was no way you could claim to be innocent of whacking their queen.

New Quest: Catch that Lizard!

Help Georgie escape from a horde of Elite Homicidal Hive Guards who just watched you kill a nest of their babies. We'll talk about rewards if you make it.

Milo vowed that someday he was going to find out just who was behind the System messages and have a long talk with them. They seemed to be more personal than ever before. But for now, he ran as fast as he could. With an agility of 25, Milo was quite fast when he wasn't trying to skulk. Added to that was a 50% bonus to his speed from Fleet of Foot at Rank 10. He bounded from rooftop to rooftop as he put distance between himself and the lumbering stone monsters. Reaching the top, he raced after Georgie. Watch lizards are great sprinters, very dangerous over the short distances, as anyone who tried to dodge an alligator knows. But they aren't made for longer runs. Georgie had paused and was panting, his long tongue out, the crystal on the ground before him. Milo tossed the crystal and his pick into his pack, picked up Georgie, and started running again. His hopes of outrunning the horde of angry Lurkers were dashed as he saw the monsters emerge from the stone and lurch toward him.

He had the horrifying thought that they might be much faster moving through the stone than above it. A theory that was proved as two emerged in front of him!