Lucien: Fascinating! I've never been to a mining town before! It's so small yet so lively!
Lucien zips through the town, cataloging every thing he sees, running far ahead of Redcap and I. While Bjorlam talks with a local about resupplying food, Redcap and I try to catch up to Lucien.
Alexander: Lively yes, but not for the reasons you think. Now stop screwing around and join up with us to the mine, this is important.
Lucien speedwalks back to us with an intrigued look on his face.
Lucien: Important? I don't get it, did you want to stop at this mine Alexander?
Alexander: Not originally, no. True the mine is filled with iron, which I could grab, but it wasn't my intention to stop here.
Lucien: Then why?
I stop immediately, causing Lucien to smack himself right onto my back, as he walks back rubbing the pain away from his nose, he looks to see the guards arguing with the miners, he turns back to me and sees a large grin on my face, his curiosity still piquing as I walk closer between the guards and miners.
Alexander: What seems to be the problem lads?
The leader and blacksmith of the town, Filnjar was the first to walk up, his build was similar to Alvor, and his musk consisted of pure iron and coal, and like any experienced blacksmith he was covered head to toe in ash, soot, and burns.
Filnjar: Our mines had been taken over and these damned guards won't do a thing about it!
A guard with a different uniform walks up, safe to assume he was the chief amongst them.
Chief guard: And I already told you it's not safe! That cave is full of Frostbite spiders and we don't have nearly enough guards to take the risk! We go in there and we just become food for the damned things!
Filnjar: Then send a letter to the Jarl and ask for reinforcements! It's been 3 days already! We already have to struggled enough as is here thanks to the war! Any longer without iron and we won't be able to meet our quota!
Chief Guard: We just sent the courier right now, but it'll be a few days at most! You just need to be patient!
Filnjar: Damn it! We can't afford to wait any longer!
Alexander: Gentlemen! Compose yourselves! This is a simple problem, allow us to enter the mines and we can clear it.
The two looks at me intrigued.
Chief Guard: You?
He looks at me up and down,
Chief Guard: Maybe you have a chance to kill them all before you die from their poison-
He turns to look at Redcap and Lucien.
Chief Guard: But those two? Yeah good luck with that.
Lucien looks offended and marches up to the chief guard. As he walks up he begins to feel intimidated as he realizes the Chief Guard being significantly taller then he is.
Lucien: Uh…oh my, you're much taller up close. *ahem* What do you mean when you said that?
Chief Guard: Exactly what I said, you and the little guy aren't going to make it through the mines, and if I were to put money on it, even the little guy would last longer, but you? I can practically smell the milk off your breath.
Both Lucien and Redcap look infuriated, I could even see Redcap slowly grab his spear, but I grab hold of his shoulder to stop him.
Lucien: How dare you! I can't deny that I'm no warrior, but Redcap is very skilled inspite of his size! And to talk in such a way about my ally! You might as well be talking that way about me to my face!
Chief Guard: Good thing I already did.
The chief laughs along with some of the guards and even a couple of the miners, Lucien's face starts to burn bright red, before he could say anything I cut in.
Alexander: How about a friendly wager then?
The chief looks back to me with an intrigued look.
Alexander: I bet that he can survive inside the mine and clear it, no problem. We can get it done before the day is done.
Chief Guard: Heh! Good luck with that! Do that and I've got 500 gold with your name on it!
Alexander: Sounds good!
I walk to the entrance but the chief places his hand on my shoulder, stopping me.
Chief Guard: Hold on, the little goblin can join him, but you ain't allowed. I can tell you're a seasoned warrior, so you'll have to stay here.
Alexander: That's a tall order, but I have confidence in my student.
I shake the chiefs hand and walk towards the entrance with a scared and concerned Lucien following behind me.
Lucien: Uh…A-Alexander! What are you doing?! You heard them right?? It's a nest full of Frostbite spiders! I don't have arachnophobia but they're still terrifying creatures!
Alexander: Terrifying, but weak, frostbite spiders only take a few hits, and they're really freaking stupid, you'll be fine. But the problem is how many there should be. Chances are they already fully infested the mine. And that means there are egg sacs everywhere. I don't care about the wager, but I do care about the mine being completely cleansed, otherwise they'll be back and our efforts would just be a waste.
Lucien: Then…what do you suggest we do?
Alexander: There is no we, remember Lucien, it's just you and Redcap that needs to solve this, I can't be apart of this.
Lucien starts to look down, dejected after remembering the condition. I move up to him, placing my hand on his shoulder.
Alexander: Listen, I get it it. You only just started training under me, but don't consider this some impossible task you can't solve, your strength maybe limited, but you have another asset, don't forget that.
I point to his head as I say this.
Alexander: Before the muscle, the true greatest weapon we have is the mind.
Lucien raises his head still looking nervous, but he nods. Then along with Redcap walks inside of the mine.
***********
As he walks closer to the entrance, before entering Lucien turns back to view his teacher Alexander standing there with a smile on his face and a thumbs up for reassurance. He returns the gesture before continuing inside the mine with his only other ally Redcap, who appears ready with a spear on hand.
Redcap: We. Kill. Spiders!
Lucien did feel a little bit more confident that his small Riekling friend would be joining him in this mission, but soon that confidence waned at the sight of dozens, no, hundreds of webs intertwined within the mines. Quietly Lucien walks slowly and scans the first floor of the mine, so far there didn't seemed to be any spiders in sight, that is until he looks up to find several of the creatures hanging upside down sleeping up on the ceiling of the mines. It takes a significant amount of willpower within Lucien to resist the urges to faint then and there, as he perseveres, he moves slowly to the ledge leading down to be met with the sight of several more spiders, as well as hundreds of pods within.
Lucien walks slowly back close to the entrance, feeling a weight of anxiety pressuring his shoulders, beginning to breathe heavily as if he almost drowned and finally rose through the surface.
Lucien: I…I can't do this!
He whispers.
Lucien: How could I possibly do this without Alexander? I'm no warrior! I'm a twig! I'm a bookworm! I'm a milk drinker! Each of these spiders are going to kill me! Then proceed to melt my insides and drink me up like some kinda frothy, thick, beverage!
Redcap walks up to the panicking Imperial, looks him dead in the eyes and smacks his face, shocking the young coward.
Redcap: Remember. What. Friend. Say.
Redcap points to Lucien's head.
Lucian: R…right.
Lucien still breathing heavily takes a deep breath and finally calms himself down, then takes a look at the mines ahead of him.
Lucien: It's just me, and you Redcap, up against dozens of spiders. And even if we do manage to kill them all, we still have the eggs to worry about. Which we can't just smash up. At the start frostbite spiders are really small. And hatch thousands upon a small egg. They could wind up hiding in plenty of tight spaces we couldn't reach. That's why they stay in caves. We kill only some as that approach. We need a way to exterminate all of them. But how??
Lucien spends the next few minutes thinking of different solutions but was drawing a blank. The only obvious answer was fire, but the only spell he knew was flames, which not only isn't strong, but he didn't have nearly enough magicka to do any real damage. That's when he saw the lanterns still lighting up the whole mine.
Lucien: That's it! Redcap! I have a plan!
***********
Half an hour goes by as I stand waiting in front of the mine, with the guards behind me laughing and mocking while downing cups of mead.
Chief Guard: 30 minutes gone and that milk drinker and goblin still haven't come out! Guess it's safe to say they're spider food!
Alexander: Shut the hell up ya drunken snowback! How fast do you expect those two to finish off a whole nest?
Chief Guard: It shouldn't take that long to clear them out!
Alexander: Real rich coming from the guard who refused to go in the mine in the first place.
The chief gets up with a large vein popping from his neck, marching towards me with a look of bloodlust, before I could draw my axe however, Lucien runs out of the mines with a proud look on his face.
Lucien: I believe 500 hundred gold is now under my teachers name!
Alexander: Lucien, Ya did it!
Chief Guard: What?! That's impossible! You must've cheated!
Lucien: The only way I could've cheated is if Alexander was in there with me and my companion, as you've witnessed for the past…uh…I wanna say half hour, he was standing out intently.
The Chief appeared taken aback, clearly not knowing what else to say.
Alexander: But what exactly did you do then?
Lucien: Well after analyzing the cave I came to the conclusion, the best answer to clear out a cave of webs, spiders, and eggs…Fire! I couldn't use my Flames spell since it's so weak, but then I saw all the lamps that were inside the cave, since Redcap is so sneaky I tasked him with spreading all the oil on every nook and cranny of the cave! Down to the last spider thread! I couldn't use my magic since the spiders could've heard so I used a torch!
I start to grow a little concerned.
Alexander: And…uh…where's the torch? And more importantly, where's Redcap?
Lucien: He's inside the cave! We needed to be thorough, Redcap offered to burn the bottom part of the mine while I burned the top!
Alexander: Y-you…left Redcap? Alone?…With a torch? A lit torch?!
I grab hold of Lucien's shoulders with genuine concern in my eyes.
Lucien: Uh…yes, sir?
Alexander: Oh God.