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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7311616" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 107The trek back to Wildrush was easier than the outbound journey, for the companions could take a more direct route and did not have to worry about remaining concealed from aerial observation.  But even so the sun was past its noonday peak when they crested a rise to see thin wisps of smoke rising over the rooftops of the town.  They still had a good hour or more of walking ahead of them, but just the sight of their destination eased the tension that had lingered even after their defeat of the chimera.Rodan had cleaned the dragon head as best he could, but the thing still stank.  There were times when Bredan felt like the eyes of the dragon were still watching him.  Folly, but perhaps understandable.“Uh oh, what’s that?” Glori said.They all turned to the southeast, where a group of figures was just emerging from the woods a few hundred yards away.  One look was enough to tell that these were locals, not goblins or worse, but they were clearly in some distress.  There were at least two dozen in the uneven line that staggered out from the cover of the trees into the afternoon sunlight, and by the way they were moving it looked like some of them were wounded.“The mines lay in that direction,” Rodan said, already moving toward them.  “Something must have happened.”The others hurried after him.  The miners saw them coming and changed course to meet them.As they got closer Bredan could see that whatever the miners had gone through, it had left them in a ragged state.  They were a mixed group of humans and dwarves, though there was one gnome who had the largest nose that Bredan had ever seen.  Their clothes, mostly consisting of durable leather and canvas, were dirty, but not dirty enough to hide the fresh bloodstains that some of them wore.  He couldn’t see any obvious wounds, but several of them were limping heavily, and one of the humans was being all but carried by two of his men.  Quellan quickly hurried off to help the injured.Rodan approached one of them, a human of middle years who was almost as big as the half-orc cleric.  He was all but bald, though his arms looked thick enough to snap the handle of the battered pick he carried.  “What happened, Darven?” the ranger asked.The muscled miner wiped a hand over his bare pate.  “Bugs,” he said.“Bugs?” Glori asked.“Aye.  Beetles, the size of serving platters they were.  Black as pitch.  Hundreds of them.  Thousands.”“They got big, nasty pincers,” one of the other miners said.  “One of them snapped the big bone in Caro’s leg like it was a twig.”  He pointed back at the stricken man, who was grimacing as Quellan gently tried to align the broken bone for magical healing.“This sort of thing common up here?” Bredan asked.“One occasionally runs into giant beetles in the forest,” Rodan said.  “But not like this.”“Where did they come from?” Kosk asked.“They came pouring out of one of the mine shafts,” Darven said.  “It wasn’t even one of the main ones we were working, though I guess that’s lucky for the rest of us.  There were two men in there at the time… Henk and Elver.  They didn’t make it out.”“Were you doing anything unusual?” Kosk asked.  “Blasting, machine drilling?  Magic?”Darven blinked.  “Nothing like that.  Just picks and hand-drills.”“They’re all over the place,” one of the dwarves said.  “Darven wasn’t exaggerating, there are tons of them.”“That’s going to be difficult to deal with,” Bredan said.“They’re just vermin,” Kosk said.  “We need lamp oil, we can burn them out.”“There’s casks of oil back at the works,” Darven said.  “We didn’t get a chance to use it, we barely got out with our lives.”“No one could expect you to have done more against such odds,” Rodan said.Quellan rejoined them.  Behind him Caro was testing his healed leg while the other miners watched, impressed by the cleric’s magic.  “We should investigate,” ther half-orc said.  “At the very least, make certain that these creatures are not a threat to the town.”“If there’s as many as these men said, we could end up in over our heads,” Glori said.“If this lot were able to outrun them, then we should too,” Kosk said.  He turned to Rodan.  “You take these men back to town, let the Governor know what’s happened, and update them on the success of our mission.”  Even as he spoke some of the miners had noticed the severed head that Rodan was carrying slung across his back, and were commenting on it in excited whispers.The ranger looked intently at the monk for a long moment before he nodded.  “I will return with aid, and supplies.”“Yeah, you do that.”“How far is it to the mine?” Bredan asked.“It’s about two miles,” Darven said.  “The main road cuts further south through the forest, but you can’t miss the path that we took.”“I’m guessing that the affected mine was closer to the road,” Glori said.  At the shift leader’s nod she added, “That could bode ill for Wildrush.”“All the more reason to check it out,” Quellan said.  He clasped Rodan on the shoulder.  “Get them to safety,” he said.  “And warn the town.”“I will.  Watch yourselves,” the ranger said.Glori strummed a martial melody on her lyre and grinned.  “It’s what we do best,” she said.As the two groups parted, the ranger and the miners heading south toward Wildrush, the four adventurers turning east into the forest, none of them spotted the shrouded figure watching them from atop another exposed rise nearby.  The hidden watcher’s cloak blended in with his surroundings, the garment matching the dull colors of the surrounding rocks and dry brush so perfectly that he was almost invisible.  He waited until both groups were out of sight, then he rose and quickly retreated back behind the crest.  By the time he reached the base of the rise he was moving at a sprint, and he continued to accelerate until he was almost a blur, his cloak swirling around him as he vanished under the canopy of the woods.</blockquote>

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