Clearing The Caves

***Random Quest***

🡸 Back to Quests Page

## Quest Data

* Normal, from level 8
* Hard, from level 12

* Goblin - level 5
* Goblin - level 5
* FULL HEAL
* Bat - level 3
* Lesser Stone Golem - level 6
1 PXP
0.75 GUILD

* Goblin - level 10
* Goblin - level 10
* FULL HEAL
* Bat - level 7
* Stone Golem - level 10
1 PXP
1.25 GUILD

* Branch
* Fabric Scrap
* Stone
* Iron Ore
* Bat Wing

## Story

### ***Location: Croft***

It is a warm, sunny mid-afternoon on the outskirts of Croft. Butterflies flutter, bees buzz, and the whole world seems at blissful ease- all except for you. Having been requested to help clear out the mines due to the ongoing reports of monsters lurking, you find yourself trudging along the lightly-forested path leading from the village to the Croft mines.

This might sound like a fulfilling task, but it means spending days or possibly weeks in the cold, stagnant darkness below the ground, so your spirits are already as downtrodden as the soles of your boots. Come to think of it, you're probably going to need new boots soon. As you pace along in the gentle afternoon sunlight, you notice a thin plume of smoke in the distance. It looks like it could be adjacent to your path, but it's currently too far away to tell.

### ***Location: Croft***

Some time later, you catch the delightfully welcoming smell of campfire cooking, and your pace quickens slightly as your dreary task briefly slips from the forefront of your mind. Who knows, you might catch a raucous conversation and a hearty snack with a fellow adventurer before you descend into the unforgiving mines.

As you approach the gently cackling capfire, it seems to be abandoned... but with freshly prepared food just reaching flame-licked perfection above the heat. Wondering if the crafter of this wonderful scene has stepped out for a bathroom break, you hesitantly move closer, when ***CRACK!*** goes a wallop across the back of your head.

Fight a Goblin!

### ***Location: Croft***

Goblins! It must have been a trap! Hopefully no one comes by and sees you in this predicament, lest they realise that the trap worked...

Fight a Goblin!

### ***Location: Croft***

Rubbing the back of your bruised head, you look around cautiously for signs of further ambush. Embaressment fuels your eyes and you take in every detial of what was, obviously, a trap. The campfire is the only sign of a resting place here, and it is just within a niche of trees so to be concealed from the road.

Looks like your lucky day though, as the food over the fire genuinely looks and smells amazing, and you could really do with a quick sit down after being attacked so abruptly! Still wary, you inspect the meal carefully and decide that whoever these goblins were, they sure knew how to cook!

### ***Location: Croft Mines***

Just as you begin to ponder whether the mines are as bad as you anticipated, a piercing screech startles you from your reverie, setting your heart racing immediately. Adrenaline courses through your system as you frantically try to locate the source of the bone-chilling disturbance. Terrible thoughts of banshees, hags, ghouls, and bog-monsters fill your head as the sense of dread seeps through your entire body.

### ***Location: Croft Mines***

\*fwff fwff fwff fwff fwff\*

Oh no! It's coming closer! It's...!

### ***Location: Croft Mines***

Oh, a bat?

Fight a Bat!

### ***Location: Croft Mines***

Well that wasn't so bad.

You gently chide yourself on allowing your imagination to get away from you so quickly. These are justthe local caves, frequented by miners, surely none of those eldritch horrors will be lurking within, let alone so near to the surface! Besides, most of them are probably just children's stories meant to frighten little kids away from dark places. Emboldened, you look around the cavern, torchlight flickering and warping the shadows.

### ***Location: Croft Mines***

Peering through the encroaching darkness, which way did you have to go next? Your heartbeat is still drumming in your ears, and you can't quite remember what the next turn was. Not to worry! You wrote the instructions down as abackup! Pleased with your forethought, you scrabble through your pockets and pull out the parchment with your brilliantly detailed instructions. Looking through the directions, a realisation comes... You can't remember which of the three tunnels brought you into this cave. In your panic while fighting the bat, you've gotten all turned around, and the dancing shadows make every wall look like the same swirling nightmare.

### ***Location: Croft Mines***

Pausing for a few deep breaths, you steel yourself and reach a decision. There are only three ways you could leave this area, and **one** of them *is* the one which brought you in. The safest option is to choose one, and carefully follow the instructions in reverse order. If it was the way you came in, you'll reach the entrance and have lost only time. If not, you will be able to re-follow the instructions to get back to here, and then you can try again! Sighing and muttering under your breath in resigned frustration, you choose a path and proceed with as much bravery you can muster.

**Choose a path:**

Tunnel 1

### ***Tunnel 1 - Location: Croft Mines***

As you and your trusty torch proceed through the tunnel, you come across an enormous crack in the wall that you definitely haven't encountered before. With a sigh, you turn to retrace your steps, before a flash of reflected torchlight catches your eye from beyond the break in the wall. Pausing with curiousity, you creep forward towards what you now realise is a large niche adjacent to the tunnel. Searching for the reflected gleam that caught your attention, you are puzzled to see a tangled mess on a raised platform, as well as several glints around the room that seem to be... bottles?

### ***Tunnel 1 - Location: Croft Mines***

As your eyes adjust and comprehend the perspective of what you are seeing, you nearly swallow your tongue in fright. Faintly reflecting the flickering torchlight is a long, tangled shock of orange hair, probably attached to the female figure snoring loudly on the riased platform. This is it. It's happened. The stories were true. You've encountered a hag!!!

**Roll a Speed check! (DC20)**

Failed check

#### ***Failed Speed check - Tunnel 1 - Location: Croft Mines***

As you nimbly shift away from the horror that lies before you, your boot catches on... your other boot. Clumsiness aside, you probably should look into getting new boots sometime soon. Why is it always the boots that cause problems? As you clatter to the ground, the snoring before you stops with a grunt. Scrambling to your feet, you desperately look for cover and brandish your torch as a weapon, as with an unnatural grace, the creature within lurches toward you-

Passed check

#### ***Passed Speed check - Tunnel 1 - Location: Croft Mines***

You flee with the grace of a hummingbird, or not, she seemed pretty heavily asleep so maybe it didn't matter. As you're making your way back towards the scene of the bat, it occurs to you that maybe it wasn't a hag, the snoring reminded you a lot of your mother... Maybe it was just a woman with orange hair who decided to live in the caves? Anyway, it's time to try one of the other paths.

Tunnel 2

### ***Tunnel 2 - Location: Croft Mines***

You've been walking for what feels like hours, although based on the state of your torch, it's probably only been ten minutes or so. Oh well, you've reached what should have been the entrance to the cave, and it's not. Luckily you've got these instructions written down so yu can be confident about making it back to the cavern where you fought the bat.

### ***Tunnel 2 - Location: Croft Mines***

Having made it back to the "Cavern of Uncertainty", you find yourself wondering if being underground is already starting to do terrible things to your brain, because you just **named** a random cavern? Anyway, it's time to try one of the other paths.

Tunnel 3

### ***Tunnel 3 - Location: Croft Mines***

Carefully following your written instructions in the reverse order is such a brilliant idea that you have to keep refocusing yourself on the actual task. Just under ten minutes later, you burst into the refreshing afternoon air. You spend a moment to refocus before confidently marching back into the caves, directions at the ready and determined to keep facing forward this time.

### ***Tunnel 3 - Location: Croft Mines***

At last, you round a corner and stumble into a brightly lit cavern, and the first thing that catches your attention is the small painting of a chicken hanging on the wall. You're not quite sure whether or not you should ask someone about that. On that point, you begin to hear clattering down a tunnel, and what sounds like shouting and running. As you press your boots into the ground and break into a sprint, you hear cries of "Help! Golem!"

Rounding yet another corner, you are face-to-face with a creaking and lurching lesser stone golem.

Normal version, up to level 11

Fight a Lesser Stone Golem!

Hard version, from level 12

Fight a Stone Golem!

### ***Tunnel 3 - Location: Croft Mines***

Panting and exhausted, you wipe your brow as the miners rally around you. They fill you in on the plan, which had been to give you a tour and a nice meal before bed, then taking you to the golems in the morning, before this one burst in on them unexpectedly. You swear you hear amongst the chatter a muttering of "wonder what took so long to get here," but you let it go because you know tehy would never believe you!