Hollow Henry

They walked in silence through the empty darkness. The caves had an old path carved into the stone walls. It wrapped around the giant caverns, spiralling down into the void below. From time to time, they would find an offshoot that levelled out into empty corridors and buildings. It had the effect of countless empty windows staring onto the path as if they had an audience of ghostly watchers. Andy used a faint light spell to guide their way once they passed from the first giant chamber into the second. The light of the sky was left behind in a wide tunnel decorated with battered old helmets hanging on the walls. It was an ominous sight that promised them danger if they didn't turn back. Not the types to listen to instruction, the players pressed deeper into the darkness.

Andy was able to track the stoners easily enough. They were carrying something heavy, according to his skill. There was a pretty good bet that the heavy thing was the haul from taking their boat down. That haul included Hamish and a guard presumed to be dead already. No normal human would have been able to survive the fall that man experienced. Everything was running smoothly until they heard the sound of footsteps and gurgling echoing through the tunnels behind them. Andy had nothing to worry about, since he could just turn invisible. Henry had to hide in one of the abandoned buildings though. He hid close to the path so he could get a look at their stalkers. It was another group of stoners. Too busy shoving at each other and struggling to drag their shell cannon, they had no clue about the players hiding right next to them. The creatures were talking to each other in a series of gurgles and grunts. Somehow the noises seemed to communicate something, because they were remarkably organised for a group of monsters.

A few minutes after they passed by, the players continued behind them, this time in darkness. The stoners were noisy, so there was little chance of them being heard by the little guys. Once they reached the third chamber they were faced with a decision. The stoner tracks split into 2 paths. Both paths descended deeper, just in opposite directions. The new group of stoners were making noise down one of the paths. The players were about to follow the creatures, but fate had a different plan in mind. Just as they stepped into the new tunnel, the stone beneath their feet pressed inward. On its own it would have been mildly concerning, but Henry had a chance to notice the incoming log with his high perception. Andy was in front, so Henry tried to pull him out of the way and down to the floor. The rescue turned out to be unsuccessful when the wide log swinging from the ceiling hit him in the back. He was pushed into Andy with a painful jolt. They'd swapped places in Henry's attempted save, so the marksman was spared from the bulk of the trap. Both of them rolled out of the narrow passageway towards the direction they came from. The log kept going, slamming into the ceiling above them. Before they had a chance to recover, the cave had already started rumbling. They tried to scurry out of the way of the falling ceiling, but they never decided on which direction best suited a panicked scramble. That resulted in them being separated by a heavy wall of stone almost immediately. Henry activated his hyper skills and crawled backwards as fast as he could, trying to outrun the closing cave with his best crab walk. His efforts were paying off until he didn't feel the floor meet his hand when he expected. He'd scrambled too far back, and that meant he ran out of floor to scrambled on. His stomach sunk as he fell backwards into the darkness. Without knowing what was below him, he curled into a ball. He thanked himself for it when he bounced off a wall and kissed the edge of a lower part of the path with his toes. He didn't know how deep the cavern would be, but if it was anything like the first 2, he wasn't going to survive the fall. He really missed his armour at that moment. The enchantment never got to see the light of day, and right now would be an ideal test run. With a flash of inspiration, he tried something similar to what he'd done to escape the smoke. Blasting as much air as he could summon from his Temple at once, he braced himself for an impact. The air was working, since he could feel a clear resistance, but he was still falling fast. How deep did this place even go? He started the day on the ground and all he'd been doing all day was falling. The world had a cruel sense of humour, he thought, moments before he slammed into a big rock and spun to the floor just below. He hit a puddle of mud with a hard slap, and rolled groaning onto his back.

Health: 292% / 408%

He coughed. He would have been dead from that fall a few weeks ago. He was glad for however his health worked. The percentage thing didn't make a lot of sense to him, but it was easy enough to understand. It hurt a lot for him to sit up, which suggested something was broken again. He wouldn't be able to fight anything for the next hour or so while he healed. The bottom of the chamber was cold, quiet and empty, so he wasn't too concerned about a fight. Not with a stoner at least. He was really hoping not to meet any new monsters either.

‘Slippery’ Andy:

Are you still alive?

The ‘Fragile’ Henry:

Unfortunately

I think my cuts have their own cuts

‘Slippery’ Andy:

Yeah, I think I broke a leg

I'm gunna level to fix it and keep looking for Hamish

Will you be good?

The ‘Fragile’ Henry:

I'll see you up the top

If I can find a way out that is

Good luck with the big guy

Henry was a little bummed out that Andy wasn't coming to rescue him, but he understood. It wasn't personal, it was a matter of priority. If the worst came to it and Henry died, his respawn timer was still super low. With that, and the fact that Henry still had his wits about him, it was an easy choice to make. They didn't know how much time they had to rescue Hamish, so Andy couldn't waste any of that time with a side quest. It just meant that Henry was off the mission. He needed to find his own way to safety so the people in his Temple wouldn't be stuck in a cave either. He needed supplies and a drink of water. It was a good thing he carried around his home everywhere he went. With a thought, he twisted into his Temple.

He was looking forward to the moment of relaxation before he noticed the princess was up and already giving orders. He knew as soon as she saw him he'd be the next on the list to receive a chore to complete. He dried himself and floated over to the training island where all the guards were staying. It was easier to bite the bullet and talk to her, rather than hide and give her time to think of more work to pile on. The rescue was a good enough excuse to get out of whatever she might have planned. His biggest concern was realised when he landed and she immediately demanded that he take her along to help with the rescue.

“It's up to Andy now,” he said with a shrug. It was best not to beat around the bush with that woman in his opinion.

“You’re just going to leave him alone out there?” She scoffed, looking him up and down.

“It's not like that,” he defended. “I'll be back out there and around if he needs me, but he can handle himself. Besides, we got separated. There's not much I can do out there now.”

“How can you be so confident?” She was growing angry.

“Because the man can turn invisible and the monsters are stupid,” he said bluntly. “I'm doing my part. This is his part.”

“That's reasonable,” she sighed, looking almost annoyed to have missed the argument. “This all really sucks,” she said with a huff.

“It hasn't exactly been my idea of a holiday, that's for sure,” he replied.

“I feel like I could be doing more. But I'm just standing around camp every time something goes wrong,” she complained.

“I don't think a princess is supposed to do much more than stand around camp and give orders,” he offered, receiving a sharp look in response. “Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about,” he chuckled nervously.

She rolled her eyes. “You’re not wrong, in most cases at least,” she admitted. “It doesn't mean I don't want to do more though.”

Henry scratched his chin in contemplation. “Do you want me to convince the guards to fight each other so you can make an example of the winner or something?”

“What? No,” she said in disgust. “How would that help anything?”

“It probably wouldn't,” he sighed. “But it'd be entertaining.”

She squinted at him, and then slumped her shoulders. “Yeah… that's true I suppose,” she admitted.

“I have a real idea,” he offered, deciding to actually help her out. “It depends on how you feel about caves though.”

She looked him over cautiously, making sure to take note of the dried mud all over his clothes. His cuts had already started to heal, so he looked more dishevelled than beaten at that point. “When you said you got separated, what exactly did you mean?”

He walked her through the events since she'd been knocked out. She knew already that they were in the Callister Caves thanks to Hettik. The news of him falling to the bottom of the second chamber however, was an unwelcome piece of information. According to the princess, the chamber bottoms were connected by a network of mostly unexplored caves. The path above made its way all the way to the fourth chamber floor, which is where they could meet it to start the walk back to the surface. She knew a fair amount about the caves, since they were one of the landmarks that helped fuel Therveinia's economy. Adventure is a lucrative business in The Hollows. The most common occupation worldwide was adventurer. The seekers of excitement, power, wealth and knowledge were the ones that moved all of the same things from place to place. Without adventure The Hollows would remain disconnected, which is why the Tavern played such a large role in everyone's lives.

Being royalty, it was important for Lee to understand what exactly about her lands would bring the adventurers. She had no understanding of the layout, but what she did know would be a lot of help. It didn't hurt that she had a personal interest in getting them safely to the surface. There were still people in her care, and now they were all stuck at the bottom of a deep hole, hiding inside Henry. Her magic would be a great help too. He'd been putting off getting a grimoire because of the cost. They were expensive to have custom made. After seeing what a good grimoire looked like, he had no interest in making one out of animal skins. He was kicking himself at that moment for being so picky. Still, the cost of the book was only one part of it. The spells themselves could easily be 10 times as expensive. Princess Leyela undoubtedly had the wealth to fill her fancy grimoire with great spells, and she also knew how to write her own. It was handy to have a proper mage around.

The two of them prepared to make the journey through the cave on their own. She didn't want to risk the guards anymore than they already had been, and Henry agreed. Lee scratched some runes into the armoured parts of his shirt. He watched as she carefully painted different inks into the letters, making sure not to spill a drop. When she was done, his shirt thrummed with the sensation of an enchanted item. She had enchanted it with the usual assortment of hardness and toughness glyphs that most armour got, as well as a little etching of her own creation. It was a rune that gave his shirt a subtle warming effect, as well as give off the scent of cinnamon and honey. The smell wasn't too strong, and she assured him it was only an illusion. He was concerned it'd make him easier for something hungry to sniff out. Apparently he just smelled terrible and she'd put the rune there for her own benefit. He also wore LongJohn's trench coat over everything. It wasn’t a perfect fit, so he had to rip open the back of it a little to let his arms move freely. It wasn't a big loss, he only wanted the coat for the stealth it would offer in the darkness. By the time they twisted back into The Hollows, about 2 hours had passed.

The first thing he did was send Andy a message.

The ‘Fragile’ Henry:

How goes the rescue?

‘Slippery’ Andy:

I swear I'm gunna leave him here

The city is huge and the man is no help

The bastard is taking a nap

The ‘Fragile’ Henry:

Wait

What do you mean by city?

‘Slippery’ Andy:

This isn't just some camp

It's a whole civilisation down here

I'm pretty sure I saw someone get a fine from a cop

Wild stuff man

Andy shared his location with him. It was strange to see the glowing dot appear in his HUD. He was above the stoner city still, but only just. The city was a good distance away from them too. According to Lee, they needed to go down further anyway before they could go up.

She sent out a ball of light to better see their surroundings. It glowed red in a wide radius, showing a quiet and forgotten cave forest. The trees weren't nearly as big as those on the surface. It was more like standing in a rainforest on earth. Just a much darker and colder rainforest. They could hear the critters of the darkness scurry away from the sudden bright light. It was an eerie experience with no discernible tracks to follow in sight. Lee checked a compass, and nodded in the direction she thought they needed to go. Slowly, they made their way through the undergrowth, thanking their fortune that it wasn't too thick. Eventually, they found the chamber wall and followed it instead.

The entrance to the cave tunnels was easy to miss if you didn't know what to look for. The adventurers told stories about the first entrance. They called it Callisters Arse, and he immediately understood why. It was an opening in the chamber floor with a smooth slide going downwards. The name came from the odorous and thick mud that surrounded the hole. When the tunnels flood, the mud spews out. They almost could have found it by scent alone if they closed their eyes. Lee was the first one in, not worrying at all about the stink. Henry followed hesitantly after. It takes a lot to fight your survival instincts enough to throw yourself into a deep and narrow hole at the bottom of the world. Holding his breath, he lowered himself onto the slide. He was hoping to hold the walls to control his descent, but his foot slipped right away. He dropped, smacking his chin on the entrance on the way through. In the next second, he was sliding down the steep tunnel with no control whatsoever. He felt his stomach sink as his direction changed to upwards. After way too many seconds zooming through the tunnel, he was spat out into another chamber. The speed he was going caused him to shoot several metres above the exit hole, yet the fall landing wasn't as hard as he'd expected. With a loud and sloppy slap, he crashed into the disgusting mud on the chamber floor. He rolled onto his back and groaned. Something needed to be done about his tendency to become a projectile. They were below the city now, so they'd picked the right hole to jump in at least.

“I'm starting to think you like to roll in mud,” Lee teased as she helped him up.

“It's good for my skin,” he joked. “Where to now? Fearless leader,” he asked, looking around the much emptier chamber.

“We find where that sound of water is coming from,” she said, pointing upwards at the sound that was quiet all around them. “Then we follow that down to the next chamber.”

“That seems easy enough,” he said with a shrug.

She actually face palmed. “Why the fuck would you say that?” She asked.

“Don't be superstitious,” he laughed. “I'm sure we'll be fine.”

As if to emphasise the stupidity of his statement, a low growl rumbled from the tunnel they'd just exited.

“You were saying?” she sighed.

Feeling motivated, he took the lead in searching for the river. He wasn't about to wait by the tunnel to see what was coming out. Thick mud might be hard to run in, but all things are possible when you don't want to be eaten. It would be a pretty miserable way to be proven wrong. Lee followed behind without much hesitation. She moved with impressive speed for someone stuck in heavy armour. The mud ended eventually, which was a nice relief to the burning in their legs. The problem with running away with wild abandon however, came with their lack of lighting. They hit a downhill slope, giving them a good boost to their escape. The slope kept getting steeper though, until it was too late to stop from sliding again. They could have checked the path ahead properly if their ball of light hadn't been left behind. Hindsight is a vindictive teacher. They slid for some seconds before hitting a ledge below. Henry activated his hyper skills, so he was able to catch his balance easily enough. Lee however, hit the flat ledge and bounced forward. If it wasn't for the world in slow motion, he never would have been able to grab her in time. Holding onto her ankle, he awkwardly pulled her back up. She was panting, and she clutched at the slope behind them.

“Holy shit,” she emphasised through deep breaths. “That was way too close.”

“No worries. It's always my pleasure to save a princess,” he said sarcastically.

“Oh get over yourself, you're not the Silver Swordsman,” she laughed. “Thank you though. I do appreciate not being flattened on a cave floor.”

“That'll do,” he admitted. “I don't know who the Silver Swordsman is, but he wishes he was The Henry instead.”

“Bitch please,” she said in a condescending tone. “I'll be nice and pretend you didn't say that.”

She carefully looked over the edge to see a sheer drop. Sending out a new light showed them what kind of a spot they were in.

The slope they'd come down might as well have been a vertical drop. It got gradually steeper as it went down, and they had no hope of climbing back up the smooth stone. She sent the light outwards and down to see if there was anywhere for them to go, but it was only emptiness.

Henry's attention was fixated on his notifications though. He felt an alert come through on their slide down to the slope, and it had his heart racing the moment he read it.

ALERT:

There is an unraided dungeon in the vicinity.