Everyone splashed into the waters of the underground lake, rocks also splashing here and there all around them. Some of the miners groaned from the sting of their bellyflops onto the water, but were otherwise unharmed enough to start treading water.

But they couldn't just stay there. Not only might they run out of stamina treading water for too long, but there were other things to worry about. The cavern they were in was dark, the water below them a dark abyss with who knew what down there. If there was anything in this lake, there was no way it was still asleep after having an entire cave-in dropped on its head. They needed to get out of this water as soon as possible.

With a bit of light from his burning hands, Xalmann started to swim, just picking a direction and going. They couldn't see a shore in this darkness. The miners around him saw him and started to follow along. Some of them were better swimmers than others. Xalmann himself wasn't that practiced at swimming, but he could do it well enough. He had a lean, muscular build and his smooth scales were a lot more hydrodynamic than the bushy beards and stocky builds of the Dwarven miners.

His swimming suddenly slowed as he felt a weight holding him back. Some of the miners had grabbed onto his cloak, hoping he'd pull them along with him. Annoying, but he couldn't just kick them off and keep going. Now that they'd survived the fall, he was still hoping to get paid for his troubles.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Save the Miners
Chapter: Two
Description: You have survived the treacherous mountains and located the collapsed mine but now you need to save them. The mine has become very dangerous with jagged stones and heavy rocks scattered everywhere, trapping a group of six miners in the cavern. You need to help get them out to safety without causing further damage to the mine.

Requirements:
- Requires at least two people (you and one other, if the other participant does not qualify they will not gain the reward. )
- You must make at least 7 post to complete the mission with each post being at least 200 words
- Must rescue the six miners
- Must not cause the mine to cave in further
- Once you complete this mission you have completed this quest chain and may turn in the mission.

---

Scorching Touch

                    I'd braced myself to catch someone- not to fall myself. I flailed in the air a while before righting myself and just being able to slow my fall, skipped once across the water like a stone before my foot caught on the water and I face planted. Holy Ginma, please help me, I'm a snow bird, not a water fowl, I thought as I felt the cold water seeping through my feathers. C'mon Snow, you learned how to swim I though to myself as I recalled my mother's teachings. Spread your wings over the water's surface, and kick your legs. Pull the water with your wings and use your arms to keep your head up as you pull your wings up agai- my brain blanked with panic at water brushed my mouth, I sputtered and flapped down. I got more used to being in the water in the next stroke, and started looking around.

The cave was only barely illuminated- even to my eyes- by the tiny light emitting from Xalmann's hands some ten meters away. The pool we were in was huge, some hundred meters in diameter at the narrowest part. It was quiet, with only us, and water from scalatites disturbing the water's otherwise pristine surface at random intervals. I looked up. Judging by where the hole in the cave's roof was, we'd fallen some fifteen meters, and been only ten away from falling on to unforgiving stone. Yiiiiiiiikes. I started doing the flop-stroke towards Xalmann and the little band of miners he'd collected. Judging by the fact he was swimming the pool lengthwise, I assumed he couldn't see. "Xalmann, there's land some 10meters away at your 9 o'clock" I told him before continuing on my way to intercept him. I did a headcount on the miners with Xalmann. There were four of them- two on each shoulder, I could see another one swimming towards him- that made five- where is the sixth guy? "Is everyone okay?" I started flopping towards Xalmann faster, and hoped to get seven replies.

Xalmann was already feeling tired from dragging four miners behind him as he swam. When the fifth came over and grabbed hold of his cloak, he let out an audible growl of annoyance. He couldn't even see where he was going in this dark. This was getting him nowhere and it felt like these Dwarves were trying to drown him.

He glanced toward Shun as she came over and directed him in a different direction. She must have been able to see better in the dark than him. She did look very owl-like, and those could see in the dark. He didn't have anything else to go on, so he just turned as she'd instructed, dragging the miners behind him. Some who had noticed his frustration paddled as well, trying to help and lesson the load they were putting on him as much as they could.

Xalmann didn't notice that one of the miners was unaccounted for. He was just trying to get to land. Xalmann just grunted to Shun's question. The miners with him all sounded off.

"I'm okay."
"Doing fine."
"Bit wet, but alive."
"Hmm."
"Surviving."

When they finished, there was a pause. They started to notice that one of there had only been six responses. One of them was missing. But then from a short ways away, there was a splashing sound. A sudden gasp echoed around the cavern among the splashing and a cut short "Hel-!".

          I whipped my head around to where the faint cry had come from, and was about to change course when I realized that Xalmann was now swimming with 5 people attached to him. He didn't have very far to go, and it seemed at least some of them were able to help swim, but I really didn't want to end up having to try and save seven people when my own swimming skills were subpar and they were probably all built like bricks. But the guy who cried for help seemed to be a matter of seconds away from drowning. But how would I even help them without drowning myself? I glanced at Xalmann and saw how far he'd swam already. He'll be fine, right? "I-I'll go get them," I told Xalmann.

           I paddled my self over to where I'd heard the voice come from. Flap, kick-padle, flap, kick paddle. A little ways away from the others, I could see that the water around him was a little lighter in his and more opaque with blood. He'd probably been able to run a bit before the crumbling earth caught up with him. At this point he was little more than a ripple with the occasional hand breaking the surface, instinctively trying to grab something that wasn't there. Uuuuhhhh how to help, how-to-help howtohelp… Maybe- I threw my bag to him while keeping a hand on the on the strap. The flailing hand grabbed it and very nearly pulled me under. It was a female half-dwarf, who then proceeded to vomit water all over my bag. I didn't really have the mind to care about that now though. Seeing as by bag wasn't buoyant, the only thing that was keeping her afloat was our forwards movement, which was heavily impeded by the fact that I could no longer use one of my hands or my wings. One of my hands was on the bag, and having my wings spread over the surface of the water was the only thing keeping me afloat. I readjusted my grip on the bag strap and pulled it taunt and kept swimming. Her head bobbed in and out of the water despite my best efforts. Seven guys who can't swim and one who can all jump into a pool. Sounds like the start of a bad joke. I would've laughed if I wasn't using all my air to feed my straining muscles.

      I hope Xalmann's doing better.

Xalmann was not doing better.

With the dead weight of five Dwarves dragging behind him, swimming was becoming more and more of an effort. He wasn't exactly made for swimming either. His hands and feet weren't webbed like some other species of Lizardfolk. He was from the marshes, not rivers or sea. His claws sliced through the water more than they helped push him through it. No, his species was terrestrial.

The only saving grace was that he could finally see some land to climb onto from the glow of his hands. It wasn't too far now, he just needed to not be pulled under by the weight of his cargo or give in to the exhaustion of swimming with such a burden on him. His breathing was becoming more heavy and the muscles in his arms and legs burned. He had good endurance, but this was getting to him.

The Dwarves kept kicking and paddling to try and help the group move forward and lessen Xalmann's burden, but it didn't help much. Their arms and legs were far too short and stocky to make up for their weight.

When Xalmann finally reached the rocky edge of the shore, he grabbed on like his life depended on it and just stayed in the water, too tired to climb onto land. The Dwarves didn't wait. They began clamoring up onto the rock as quickly as possible, eager to get out of the water. One took off his boots and dumped out the water inside.

    I kept my eyes on the shore. The strain on my lungs and all six of my limbs, and how close I was to the patch of land in front of me was all I focused on for what felt like an hour, but was probably only about five minutes. I saw Xalmann pull up and the dwarves on his back shakily heave themselves onto the rocky shelf. Thank Ginma Xalmann made it. The thought gave me a little boost of strength to hurry up. I started paddling stronger, and behind me, my rescuee started to recover, taking a deep breath before coughing up more water. She continued to sputter, but I felt the purpose returning to her movements- she was trying to balance herself on the bag to lift herself as high as she could, as opposed to the instinctual tugging and thrashing she’d been doing before. She managed to speak as I pulled up next to Xalmann.

“I think I broke m’foot, an’ maybe m’other knee too”. She grabbed on to the next to me. Dear Ginma, just let me catch my breath first was what I thought. Out loud I said “I’ll take a look” I took a few more gulps of air “once I catch my breath”.

When Xalmann had taken enough of a breather, he pulled himself up onto the rock. Xalmann's cloak was soaking wet and heavy, so he unclasped it and pulled it off to wring out the water. He didn't have any shoes on to worry about and his leather pants didn't absorb any water. That was good, at least. One of the Dwarves Xalmann had carried reached a hand out to help pull Shun and the other miner out of the water. With the light from Xalmann's hands, one of the Dwarves gave her a look over. The miner's injury was bad, but not life threatening yet. She'd need help walking, but she should be okay. Her foot wasn't broken, just badly sprained, and her knee had taken a bad hit from a falling rock. It would bruise and ache, but it would be fine.

With everyone out of the water, the next thing to do was try to find some way out of here, back to the surface. There was no way they'd be able to climb all the way back up the hole they'd fallen down from. The hole was at the top of the cavern, in the middle of the ceiling above the underground lake. They'd have to be able to stick to the ceiling if they wanted to reach it. Maybe Shun could fly back up, but the rest of them would still be stuck. He didn't know if she'd be able to carry anyone while she flew. With the meager light from his glowing hands, he searched around for any tunnels leading out of here.

      I took one more large breath and sighed, before bracing myself. I was about to get myself out of the water when Xalmann beat me to it. He got up and reached for the injured miner. "If you'll excuse us," I murmered politely "we'll lift you out of the water now." She nodded, and then I wrapped my arm around her legs to protect her injured ankle. My thoroughly sodden wings flopped on to the stone, followed by my palms. Then, when I felt Xalmann start to lift, I heaved myself from the water along with the lower half of the patient. Arms now fully extended and my own legs still in the water, I leaned forwards and face planted on to the stone. I heaved a long and weighty sigh. I should have attended more of those neighborhood safety rescue workshops I thought regretfully, it's a good thing Dad made me attend a few times. I then got myself up and went to check on everyone. They seemed frightened but fine. I awkwardly gave them a nod. "I'm Shun," I introduced myself. Then there was a brief round of introductions

      "Y'all 'ready know but I'm Alex"
      "I'm Percy an', well, sorry for landing us in 'is predicament"
      "It ain't yer fault Perc, it happens to the best of us. Oh! An' I'm Alestar"
      "Harriette"
      "Anna"
       "Gerald"

      "And I'm Yvonne" came from the lady lying on the ground beside me. I nodded "that's Xalmann' I gestured to the lizard man who was wringing out his cloak. I got down beside the patient- Yvonne- and murmured "I'll be taking off your boots and taking a look at the damage now." she stiffened and nodded, flinching as I fully undid the laces and pulled the boot off as carefully as I could. Her foot was red and swollen, but it wasn't disfigured. It's either a sprain or a small fracture… I propped her leg on my bag and instructed her, "tell me when it hurts". I started pressing gently, fro her calf going down her leg. "Oww.." she groaned when I had gotten around 10 cm from the ankle. I did the same going up from her toes. Again, the pain started a little way from the ankle itself. "Is there any one point that's particularly painful?" I asked as I pulled out the bandages. She shook her head. I nodded, acknowledging her answer. Next in checked on the knee. It was more purple and a slightly swollen, but less so than her ankle. There didn't seem to be any instability in the joint, so it was just a really bad bruise. "It's probably a sprain, either way, she should get some help walking, but it isn't too severe." I announced, and I could feel how everyone was relieved. A lady dwarf, Anna, if I remembered correctly, helped her up. We looked around. What now?

While Shun looked at the injured Dwarven woman and everyone else introduced themself, Xalmann searched for a way out of the cavern they were stuck in. With his hands up in front of him, glowing slightly to provide a bit of light, he checked the rocky walls for any tunnels or inclines that might lead back to the surface. They'd fallen pretty far down before landing in the water. It was lucky for them this pool was here to break their fall and prevent them from being stains on the ground. He hadn't expected there to be such a massive hollow space beneath the mining tunnel when he suggested breaking the ground to let the wall fall down to free the trapped miners.

Searching the walls, Xalmann finally found something that might be promising. Bones. There were bones scattered across the stone a short distance from the edge of the water. Something must live here. The bones looked like goats, with curled horns attached to their skulls. Mountain goats, most likely. Whatever was eating these had to have access to the surface to be hunting them. There was a way out somewhere around here, they just had to find it before whatever lived down here found them.

            We moved as a group. Xalmann led the group with his light, I lingered behind to make sure we didn’t miss anything with my darkvision, and the miners moved in a crowd between us, with the injured in the very center. The walk was dead silent, save for the drip of water against the rock, and the squelch of wet footwear. Every once in a while, someone would try to start a conversation or whisper a concern, but the murmurs always petered out after a few quick exchanges. Understandable, as the cavernous space seemed to simultaneously swallow and amplify any sound as it bounced off the surfaces of rock and water alike. We shuffled along the flat area by the waterside, which was probably only about four meters wide, as Xalmann took it slow, both in order to investigate and to accommodate Yvonne and Anna, who was helping her. I kept vigil, of the rough rock beneath my feet, the water that some time lapped up to surprise my toes when we got close to the water's edge. The rock was polished from the water's movement, and because of that I could see scratch Mark's on the ground. Like something hard and heavy had been dragged across it. Up ahead, I saw a pile of bones. Some dry and cleans, some still sticky with bits of flesh and blood, maggots and insects writhing in the what little hadn't been picked off the flesh. Xalmann seemed to see it too, and started to look around for where the owner of these bones could have come in here from. "Animal bones, drag marks … looks like some sort of predatory lizard or snake lives here. A huge one too".

Xalmann glanced at Shun as she gave her opinion on the bones. He had some experience hunting animals. This couldn't be a snake if there was meat left on some of the bones. A snake would swallow its prey whole. Whatever did this had ripped the flesh off the bone with its teeth. From the drag marks, it might be something with short legs that made it low to the ground. Some kind of alligator or crocodile, perhaps. He'd seen those in the marshes. But why would there be one in the mountains? This was something strange.

Beyond the bones, the faint light from Xalmann's hands finally caught something on the wall. It looked like there was a cave they could use to escape. It was almost perfectly round, as if it had been burrowed out by something. Maybe it was. There were marks all around the edges that looked like claw marks and gauges. It was like something had dug through the stone as if it was as soft as dirt. Whatever was powerful enough to do that, even the Lizardman warrior wasn't eager to fight it.

Xalmann silently gestured to the others for them to follow him, his hands the most visible thing in the cavern right now, and started walking down the tunnel. The miners didn't have to be told, immediately following along. They were all just as eager to leave after seeing the bones and corpses. A few of them gagged from the putrid smell or seeing the maggots crawling across the rotting flesh. Even if they didn't connect the dots that something dangerous was down here, that wasn't something anyone wanted to hang out near.

            Xalman gestured for us to continue on towards a tunnel a little ways ahead. Wanting to get out of this situation and as far from the pile of carrion, we hurried through the tunnel. It was a bit of a step up from the cave floor, and once I stepped up into it, I could tell it led outside. The air still smelt of dampness and cave lichens, but there was some movement to it, and it wasn’t as stale. The inside of the tunnel itself was vaguely round- rough hewn ceiling coming down and around to meet with the wear-polished floor, with creatures and flora of the damp, dark and stony making their homes in the little clefts and craiggs in the walls. In terms of lizard constructs, it was large, but in terms of tunnels, it was rather small. I could stand comfortably, but there was only about a foot- sometimes less- of space above my head. We continued to follow the light provided by Xalman's spell, though it was more of what of that light managed to bounce around his large frame off the cavern walls and to the eight of us who followed him. Still we continued on, the dwarves following what meager light, and I using my darkvision.

As they travelled, the size of the tunnel changed, growing smaller and larger frequently. Where Shun had hardly any space above her head, Xalmann had none. The much taller Lizardman had to crouch down low to continue making his way up the tunnel, nearly having to crawl at some points. At least the Dwarves seemed to have no problem with the height of the tunnel at all.

As they walked, while at a mercifully larger section of the tunnel, there was suddenly a noise behind them and Xalmann turned back to glance at the source. The walls of the tunnel rumbled as what looked like a wall of stone with teeth was coming toward them, filling the entire tunnel behind them.

The Dwarves let out cries of panic and started to try to rush forward, but the tunnel was far too small for that and they only succeeded in causing a pileup, some of them falling to the ground in their disorganized frenzy.

Xalmann let out an annoyed huff. There was no way they could flee from this thing like this. Maybe he could escape if he left the Dwarves behind, sacrificing them, but the wall of Dwarf in front of him blocked his escape. He had no choice but to attempt to take down whatever the approaching threat was if he wanted to survive.

With his axe held forward, a ball of fire sparked to life at the tip of the blade and then flew down the tunnel toward the creature, exploding into a wave of fire as it made contact. A wave of heat came back up the tunnel, thankfully not enough to harm them, but uncomfortably hot. A screech of pain and anger came from the creature and the rumbling of the tunnel stopped for a moment before the smoke parted and Xalmann could get a better look now that a few lingering bits of flame lit up the creature.

A massive lizard, almost like a crocodile, with scales that resembled the stone around it. Its claws were sharp and large, looking to be the right size to have been the one to dig out this tunnel. Strangely, its eyes looked around in confusion instead of at the group, but Xalmann was struck with an immediate thought.

It couldn't see them anymore. Its vision must be thermal, and with the heat of the fireball still filling the cave, it couldn't tell the difference between them and their surroundings.

Xalmann looked back to the struggling Dwarves and Shun and held a finger to the tip of his snout, trying to signal them to stay quiet. That thing couldn't see them anymore, but it could probably still hear them. They needed to start moving, now.

---

Massive Fireball

         The screech of scale on stone started barely perceivable and quickly filled the narrow tunnel. I whipped around to see the one who was probably our lovely host- a beady eyed, stony scaled croc-like thing that was all teeth and territorial predator. Body rippling with nearly interlocking scales and muscles, truly one of Ginma's masterpieces. Wha- feeling magic and heat building up behind me, I ducked. Feathers sizzled as the massive fireball flew over my head on it's way to hit the lizard square in the muzzle. "Holy Ginma! Warn me!" I near yelled, losing my reign over my tongue as the tranquility in the tension of the situation broke with the silence. The beast's attention snapped to me, unseeing eyes seeming to perceive me. As an intruder. Well, magnificent specimen as it was, this is do or die. It lunged towards me and I barely dodged, pasting myself to the wall and feeling scaly skin brush my wing-shoulders. It shivered at the contact, and it seemed our opponent felt it to, once again whirling to face me with incredible maneuverability for such a large creature in such a large space. "AXE IT" I yelled to Xalmann, no longer worrying about drawing more of it's attention than I already had.

Xalmann clicked his tongue in annoyance as the blind lizard was baring down on Shun. Damnit, why did she get so close to it and make so much noise when he was trying to tell them just to keep moving quietly? Now he had no choice but to fight it if he wanted to get everyone out of here alive.

With his free hand, he quickly motioned to the Dwarves behind him to keep moving, less with concern for their wellbeing and more because he wanted them out of the way. Them being gone wouldn't help all that much though. Not with Shun there, keeping him from being able to use his fire magic without roasting her.

He didn't have time to watch the Dwarves and make sure they were leaving as he had to move into action immediately. With the tunnel so narrow, wide swings with his axe weren't possible, so he had to run forward and keep his swings of his axe as small as possible. His dagger would be far more useful in this situation. He pulled it out and, with a quick jab, he drove his dagger into the the side of beast's snout.

It let out a roar and froze in confusion as the scene before it changed. It couldn't see, but it suddenly sensed as if it was surrounded by fires in a much more open space than the tunnel should have been. It heard screaming and hissing all around it.

The cut wasn't deep, but Xalmann knew his dagger had worked its magic, giving them a chance to run while the beast was distracted. He grabbed Shun by the hand and pulled her out from between the beast and the wall.

---

Dagger of Torment