Ember Wind: Corrupted

Frozen Fate

Frosted. Sheets of ice clung to rocks. The frozen wind whipped around and around, pelting anything and everything with clumps of snow. It was cold and bitter, stealing away traces of heat with each gust. The northern mountains of Ashua brought with them much suffering to those who dared to tread its slopes. It had been almost a week since Creoft left. Tangurple did what he could to stay focused on the original objective despite the various delays.

They were reaching the westernmost edge of the mountains having no luck in finding the shrine to Syna. Once again, the game world threw another blizzard at them, visibility fell to zero. Tangurple called back to the straggling gnoll and mage, "Come on you two, we need to find this shrine soon."

Falcher yelled back, "You're nuts! We need to get out of this storm before we're ambushed!"

"We're close! I can feel it."

Falcher finally caught up with Tangurple and firmly grasped his shoulder. "Hold it, you're wearing us out with all of this hiking. Night needs a rest badly and this storm gives us a chance. Open the map and find us a delve, we can camp there."

Tangurple replied, "We have one last spot to look, Falcher. One last spot."

"It can wait, I'd rather not die today. Open the map and find a delve."

Begrudgingly, Tangurple opened the map and marked a delve. Known as Silver Frost Mines, the delve was only a football field away. They pushed in the doors and settled down inside in the safe zone. In delves, the safe zone is only safe from mobs and serves as the respawn point if a player dies in the delve itself; usually located at the entrance.

Night stood beside a standing torch trying to warm herself up. Tangurple sat at the edge of the safe zone, looking down a steep tunnel into the main delve area. He saw moss and could feel warm steam wafting up from down below. Falcher opened his inventory and searched for food, only to discover it was all gone. "Shit," he cursed. "Hey Tang! We're out of food and drink."

Tangurple looked over his shoulder at Falcher, "That ain't good. Won't last long without those health and stamina buffs. You don't suppose there'd be any down in the delve?"

"There might be but it's highly dependant on who's living down there. If it's not human in nature, there won't be."

"But this place is marked as a mine."

"That doesn't mean anything. It's like people naming their dog, kitty. It's always misleading."

"Well, maybe there's ingredients down there."

"I highly doubt any of us leveled our cooking skills. Hey Night, how high's your cooking?"

Night shivered and thought for a moment, "Single digits. Why?"

"Just asking. Anyways Tang, even if we did find ingredients, we won't be able to put them to use because none of us have the skill appropriately leveled."

"I know, I was just... Just being hopeful." Tangurple pushed off and slid down the slope heading off into the delve below.

The first area was littered in broken boulders, toppled over mining carts, tools, and other miscellaneous items. The whole floor was coated in dirt with patches of moss here and there. On the far side were two tunnels, one with a large wooden door, the other without. Lining one wall was a platform which held barrels and crates. Tangurple climbed up onto the platform and ripped off the lids to the storage items. Inside each barrel and crate was a piece of food many of which were basic ingredients for most food recipes. Naturally, he looted it all and stuffed it away in his inventory.

He looked back towards the slope, it was all quiet up there minus some shuffling and the crackling fire. He turned and headed further into the delve through the open tunnel. Dirt and fragments of rocks continued on throughout the tunnel until it opened up into a very irregularly shaped room. The dirt came to an end as stone replaced it. The walls themselves were spackled with streaks of silver, shimmering from the frosted light that seeped through the cracks in the ceiling. More toppled mining wheelbarrows laid before him, covered in a layer of dust.