The Chaos Mines

Crouched by the doorway were three humanoid figures. They looked quite serious holding their tools warding the doorway.



The first, Andreas the Rice Farmer, Andreas was the Son of the Shepherd and Alderman. He had a black beard, stout powerful muscles, even after his beatings he was in excellent form. Holding at the low ready an iron rake meant for cleaning, brandishing it as if it were a spear.



Holding a catch pole over Andreas' shoulder was a man so alike him in appearance and build it could have been his twin. However it was the Knacker's Son, Cor the Ditchdigger. He had created the catchpole out of his broken shovel head, and a ten foot pole of hardwood.



Barely visible between the two mighty men was a stunning blonde woman, holding a sharp shard of black diamond, for her tiny hand the crystal shard doubled as a Dagger. She faced the room and held a finger to her lips then began to beckon the others. Kimberly the Weaver directed silently from between them.

Stumbling in shock among the rubble, Wil, once a wheat farming do-gooder, helps up his tiny friend Tim who stands barely 4 feet. They stare in disbelief at their apparent freedom as if a prayer was answered by a god they thought had long forsaken them. They embrace briefly then without speaking grab anything that might serve to protect them. Wil grabs the miners pick he had used for what feels like a year of hard labor. Tim finds a handful of crystal shards that he had been collecting should he one day be reunited with his children.

In shadows cast even darker by the streaking light, another figure prepares to make a quick escape armed with an iron rod that was until recently part of the prison cell that shook loose in the quake. One end was flattened in the wreckage making it almost look like a small sword. Slinking from shadow to shadow, this man waits for no one and heads for the exit pausing only to see if there are any fallen guards to loot.

Clutching the meager tools they were tasked with repairing when not digging in the mines, two men cautiously approach the exit to peek outside for any glimpse, whether it's someone that's come to rescue them or a guard that may be around. One of them, Undor, used to be a merchant before he was captured and put to work in the mines. He carries a small hammer in one hand and in the other, a shard he's hammered to resemble some sort of small handheld blade as the explosion caught him mid-task. The other, Ostarghi, had been weaving two strands of rope together, as before he was kidnapped he used to earn a living as a ropemaker. He too carries a tiny shiv, more useful for working rope than stabbing, but beggars can't be choosers.

In the shadows behind them, a lone woman closes her eyes as she attempts to focus and hear any telling sounds. She is known as Ilva and she is still wrapped in the hide of the very same deer she had been skinning mid-hunt when the cultists attacked her.

As the dust settled, the former beekeeper, Rhaine, struggled to stifle a cough as he approached the door. He was a short man, who stood barely five and a half feet tall when he stretched himself to his full height. He was covered with freckles, and lean, too, but not lean enough to appear emaciated. The little bit of light that spilled into the room reflected off of his short, copper-colored hair.

The other ropemaker in the group, Kieran, was at the back of the room with Zachary. Kieran was both taller and softer than Rhaine. Brown hair framed his butter face and he was desperately trying to keep Zachary calm.

Zachary had blonde hair, a muscular build. and was every bit as tall as Kieran. He had been born into slavery and the sight of the open door without a guard standing on either side of it had upset him. He stood with his back against the far wall of the room and whispered urgently to everyone gathered at the door, "Hey! You can't do that! You'll get us all a whippin'!"

"No, no, Zachary. It's ok," Kieran replied as calmly and quietly as he could. "Why just the other day the guards told me that if an earthquake came we were all supposed to head outside so we don't get crushed. Come on, now. You don't want the place to fall down on top of us, do you?"

Zachary thought about that for a few seconds but decided fairly quickly that the answer was no and shook his head emphatically.

"Well come on then," Kieran urged him. "And keep quiet so we can hear if another one's coming."

Zach nodded in agreement and hurried over to the door without saying another word. Kieran followed behind him. The ropemaker didn't like lying to Zachary, but he wasn't about to let a man who had never known freedom call the guards down on them. If the way out was clear and they managed to escape, he hoped that, someday, Zach would thank him for it.

The unexpected explosion startled three curious folks that slept near each other towards the back wall of the pitiful and barely adequate dormitory. At the sound of the explosion a small halfling with short hair jumps up from his sad, thin, and mostly worn mat. Looking around he sees one of his friends also arising to the commotion, but one was still fast asleep, snoring. "Damn it Orwalsh. Wake up!" With his long skinny shiv in hand, the halfling attempts to shake the stout dwarf awake.

"Huh, what!? Don't touch me!" The stout, although somewhat gaunt, dwarf stands to his feet startled from being awoken. "Oh, it's you Slye. . ." He looks around for a moment, his eyes adjusting to light creeping in. "What in the furnaces of hell is going on?" He inquires quietly as he reaches down and grabs his wooden cudgel fashioned from some old shaft wood. He begins to move slowly toward the opening with the other "slaves" closely followed by the halfling Slye and their female friend.

She awoke almost simultaneously with Slye. She was quiet and was taking in the scene. She is a young, tall woman, that seems to only mutter incoherent words from time to time. . .although, she can carry a conversation if only briefly. As her dwarf and halfling friend begins to join the rest of the dormitory residents, she follows close behind carrying her crude mace, consisting of a piece of old shaft wood with a stone attached to the top.

Frito Bandito the halfling is snoring loudly, dreaming jealous dreams of the other halfling, Slye, owning a mat to sleep on instead of Frito's own bed which consisted of three burlap sacks stitched together, when the earth shakes him awake. He sits up quickly, looking around bleary eyed, and sees his fellow slaves making their way toward the now broken-open exit. "Thank Amun Tor!" Frito makes his way to a nearby midden heap and pulls out a length of wood that was from a wagon axle that snapped a few weeks ago.


Felf the female elf blinks open wide green eyes and sat up. She winces at some bruises still on her ribs from yesterday's punishment for not meeting her quota. Seeing everyone gathering at the entrance, she doesn't want to be left behind. She spies one of the few friends she has here, Frito Bandito, pulling a makeshift weapon out of the trash pile and decides that is a good idea. She finds the handle of a broken broom and joins the rest. "This seems too good to be true. But it has to be better than staying here, right, Frito?"


Will Wheatson, former wheat farmer and not to be confused with the other Wil the wheat farmer, jumps up and alert. "Huh? Whuz happ'n'?" He rubs sleep from his bleary eyes. He sees the beautiful elf Felf and the dark-featured halfling grabbing weapons and making an escape. "Hey wait for me!" He rushes over to the nearby wall where a pitchfork is leaning and snatches it up. He joins the other in their jailbreak.

While the vortex provokes fear and wonder, the food on the table proves a much stronger temptation to half-starved slaves. Frito, Felf, and Will look at each other in clear understanding and push to the front of the group, wolfing down whatever food they can and washing it down with the whiskey. If they had any pockets they would've tried to slip some utensils and some tinned meat into them, but alas they are dressed in little more than rags at the moment.

Wil and Tim walked in step toward the breakroom in hopes of grabbing a couple of tins of food. Their stomachs were guiding them urgently but caution slowed their steps. The taller Wil scanned the room as they entered looking for danger.

The man following shadows stopped a fleeting moment to survey the cosmic scene but turned his gait toward the southern door eager to leave this hellhole. "Slinky" was all his associates had ever called him so he told his captors that was his name. The name his mother called him died with her. He paused for a moment and listened at the door before stepping through….

"Looks like those cultists finally flung this entire place into some chaos vortex" Ostarghi snappily remarks, gazing at the "window", then back at the damaged area that used to be the slaves' quarters.
Ilva places a hand on the shoulder of Undor just as he's about to join the others at the table. "The mouse smells the cheese, but it doesn't see the trap" she says cryptically, before nodding towards the door in the south.
Sheepishly, Undor moves towards the southern door and joins Slinky in trying to perceive what might be on the other side of the door, listening and even peeking through if possible.

"'Battle not with demons, lest ye become one. When you stare into the abyss, the abyss gazes into thee.'"

Cor stares at the rift for some time, bowing his head in prayer before being shaken from his reverie by Andreas.



"Yeah, Cor, we're gonna have to talk later about you saying creepy shit."

Andreas, who wore a backpack as part of his duties began to collect tinned meat and drinks, they would be necessary for the road ahead.



Kimberly was looking at Cor as he prayed, biting her lower lip. She obviously had some feelings for the man. Who was of course oblivious to her.

"Anyone have a bit of rope. Bet this table could make a shield for a couple of you strapping menfolk. And these knives, serviceable weapons for anyone without one." So saying she took two and gave them to Andreas and Cor. She also began collecting ceramic cups. These were deposited in the backpack Andreas carried.



"Alright looks like our guards were killed by this. Whatever this is. It's giving me the creeps."

"That's actually a good idea" Ostarghi remarks and pulls out the coil of rope wrapped around his chest and shoulder as he waits for the others to pick the table clean before he can try to turn it into a shield as suggested.

Kieran, Rhine, and Zachary filed out of the cellwith everyone else and are immediately transfixed by the swirling energy of the vortex. Raine is the first of the three to break its spell and he quickly takes stock of the room.

"If the guards are dead then where are the bodies? My guts are telling me they took off running for the surface. We’d best do the same. I don’t know what that thing is, but it ate up one helluva lot of rock when it showed up here. I don’t want to be anywhere around it when it gets ready to take another bite. If there’s no guards out in the hall, I’m in favor of traveling fast and light," Raine said. Kieran nodded in agreement.

Zachary still hadn’t taken his eyes off of the vortex.

Cor directed Raine to look at the massive bloodstain leading into the rift. "I imagine a force that turns rock to cobblestone, would give flesh far worse. Best not think about forces beyond comprehension, and specifically what they do to fleshly bodies like us."



"Cor, what did I just say about saying creepy shit?" Andreas groaned exasperated.



"That we would talk later, is it later yet?"



Andreas just grunted and took to helping Ostarghi make the shield. "Asshole." He muttered under his breath as he worked.



Cor made himself useful by smashing a few chairs apart and collecting the wooden struts stripping off his ragged shirt and wrapping up some torches.



Kimberly had passed out the remaining knives now distracted by the half naked Cor. She blushed and touched the man's muscles. Which caused him to jump. "Bringing us light and a show? What a good man. Here take my candle if we survive this I'll show you how I trim my wick."



Cor oblivious to Kimberly's obvious innuendo was busy rolling the wax in his hands, melting it into straps with friction. These he gave to Kimberly who wove them into a mesh and wrapped them about the wood. Between the rags, wax, and broken chair they had enough to form several torches.



"What a clever man you are. Next time just ask, I'll be delighted to strip these rags. That's an open offer for you, Big red man." She touched his beard approvingly causing Cor to blush even redder than before. "Anyone have flint? We've iron enough to light these torches if we had means of generating spark."

Orwalsh's stomach gives off a desperate growl at the sight of the food. "Damn this! I'm hungry!" He makes a mad dash for the table and joins a few others in grasping for food, any food, and downs it with a starving ferocity.

At the sight of Orwalsh's dash towards the table Slye gives a warning, although ignored, "Orwalsh! Careful, this seems. . .unnatural." Seeming to be the more cautious one in this curious trio Slye follows behind Orwalsh and observes his unfortunate companions around the room. He moves towards the table and, as others seem to be already gathering what could be potentially useful items, he joins the fray and looks for a few potentially valuable utensils or even something to simply throw as a weapon!

The tall, lithe woman ignores most and approaches the "window wall". Peering into the whirling magical void she just mutters some incoherent words under her breath. Transfixed by the image before her she clutches her makeshift mace tight.

Kimberly was white as a sheet looking at the spectacle.

"Uh, we should run! Right?"

Kimberly didn't wait for reply she was through the door.



"Dammit! Cor protect her I'll get Kieran." Andreas moving quickly grabbed Kieran's waist and pulled him trying to free him from the tentacle. "Kieran, not gonna lie, this will probably hurt a lot. But help me out here and we'll get you free." As he pulled, Kieran fell apart into ash and dust and Andreas fell back choking. He turned quickly scrambling for the doorway ahead. "Just run! Everybody!"



"If you're not going to try to free Kieran follow me!" Cor followed Kimberly through the door his catchpole in hand at the high ready.