Tunnel Rat

Chapter 110: Silently Sampling Sumptuous Succulent Shrooms

After his third time telling Larry the story of Hamster Huey, Milo got away by promising to tell it again at the next meal. Larry was in a better mood, still singing the song from the story. The map showed the caverns that made up Limburger Hollow, and showed all the exits. The route he needed looked to be through a cave past something called The Tower of Strife. He could circle around through the market place and maybe do a little shopping.

He was just about to step off the porch of the mess hall when a figure in black clothing swung into view and attacked him. They had been on the roof, holding onto the edge with claws and tail, as they swung at him, upside-down, they yelled "Surprise!".

Milo didn't think much of the plan. They'd have been better to drop to the ground, or drop and catch themselves with their tail. Instead, they had held onto the roof, and swung down in an arc like a pendulum. Milo knew from experience how much longer that would take, starting from a resting position. His acrobatics all over his section had led him to experiment with the best ways of moving through the tunnels and drops. Swinging like that was useful to change your vector of movement, not to gain momentum. Did they not teach Shadow-Walkers any math?

Milo had plenty of time to react. He brought up his left hand, and blocked with the hardened bone that appeared on his forearm. The small knife that was used when playing 'Surprise' snapped. Milo grabbed the assassin by the front of his tunic and used the momentum and direction of their swing to toss him to Larry.

"Quick Larry! Gooie is trying to go Kablooie! Throw him far away from us before he explodes!!

Larry stood up and yelled loudly, holding the poor rat-kin in one hand and winding up for a throw. "NO Kablooie for you! Larry saves Hamster Town!"

Milo watched as Larry threw the hapless assassin far and high. As he hit the ground a hundred feet away a huge cloud of dust went up in the air and Larry yelled: "Kablooie for Gooie!" Then he grabbed Milo, who was forced to do the Happy Hamster Hop with him as everyone in the mess hall came out to watch. Milo started to explain, and then turned to the excited and happy Cheese Fiend: "Larry, can you tell everyone about how you saved Hamster Town?"

Larry stopped bouncing, and looked unsure of things. "Larry tells the story?"

Milo nodded to him, and Bleusnout sat down on the porch. The Cheese-Master smiled encouragingly at Larry: "I would love to have Larry tell the story."

Milo snuck away to do his mushroom hunting as Larry began to tell for the first time what would become an ever-evolving story of how Larry saved Hamster Town.

‘One day, Larry was sitting with his best friend, Hamster Huey. Hamster Huey told Larry a story. Larry saw a sneaky guy trying to surprise Hamster Huey. It was Gooier Kablooie! Larry grabbed Kablooie and yelled at him….’

Finding the Tower of Strife was easy. It was a stone tower going to the roof of the cavern, and showed the signs of many repairs. It was darkened by fire, and some of its stones were actually melted. Milo wondered what occurred inside. Even as he watched, several blue-robed ratkin barreled out the front door just seconds before thunder and lightning shook the tower. A green cloud formed high in the air, which then exploded as more lightning went off. The displaced students decided it was time for dinner and ran to the mess hall, hoping things would calm down soon.

Milo went around the tower, choosing to ignore it for now as everyone else in the market was doing. The open-air flea market was familiar to Milo. It looked like the market in Shadowport, or the swap-meet in the hab. Tables and blankets were covered in goods. Here it was foodstuffs, cloth, weapons, and jewelry. In the hab it was broken machinery, video games, and canned food.

He found two sets of cheap, wooden tongs that were intended for cooking but were instead going mushroom hunting with him, along with a small shovel. He was happy to see that the coins he had looted from the airship were taken by the merchants. Most bit them to check for quality, but so did half the people up top.

He was about to leave, when he saw an older merchant with hides and rolls of leather. He also had a pile of cleaned bones of various sizes. Milo started picking through them.

"Ah, got a carving project in mind, do you? I try to find thicker bones, but most of that is longer thigh bones from horned milk-beasts or red-crested lurkers. I do a little scrimshaw as a hobby now and then. Mostly knives or chopsticks, unless I get some nice claws or ivory tusks. Some of the big spiders have nice mandibles for carving. What are you thinking on?"

Milo let the old ratkin ramble on as he found four suitable thigh bones. "I need something for throwing. These will do. 1 silver?"

The old rat-kin laughed. "Don't make an old rat laugh too much. Those are worth a couple of copper at most, and only because I cleaned them up nice."

Milo handed him the silver piece. "I like old bones. The older the better. Maybe you can keep a look out for them?"

The old merchant stroked his chin and looked thoughtful. "Maybe I can at that. Might be some stuff in an odd corner of the Hollow. If so, I'll find it and let you know. Stop back sometime Tallsqueak, we'll talk. If you don't see me, just ask for Scrap Hunter, someone will send word." They bowed politely to each other and Milo went on his way.

The market wrapped around the tower and Milo continued past it, down a small path towards the waterfall. He stopped, staring at what he saw. A large piece of battered and rusty machinery sat near the pool, with a detached water wheel leaning up against it. It looked like a broken piece of dwarven machinery made by the lesser brothers in their delirium. He took a closer look at it, seeing copper coils to generate power, broken gears, and misaligned linkages. It was a mess and a total wreck. If he understood part of it, it was meant to generate power, but the far end from the water was a mystery. Broken glass globes had wires that wove into a tangle of cracked glass and melted metal. He itched to start fixing it, but he was missing the tools needed without getting into his smugglers stash, and he had a job to do.

Reluctantly, he moved on, finding the path that skirted the waterfall and went through a narrow passage for fifty feet before emerging into a large cavern with fields of mushrooms where rat-kin were working at harvesting the tasty fungus. An ancient and feeble looking old rat stood leaning on a gnarled cane, looking through thick spectacles out into the cave. These caverns must be very safe, as there were no guards around, like there were at the other entrance. As Milo came near, the old rat sniffed the air and turned to look at him. His eyes narrowed a bit and he raised up his head to stare through the lower half of his bifocals. "You aren't one of mine. Tell me what you are doing in the Hollow."

Milo decided to interpret the question as 'What are you doing, now.' vs 'Tell me everything you've done in the Hollow'. "Mushroom hunting for Master Bleusnout. I need to head past these fields, and then go through three more caves." He showed the old rat-kin the map.

The wrinkled old rat eased himself down onto a worn rock that showed signs of being used for a stool many times. "So far? You must be after some special varieties used in cooking and cheese? You should be cautious, some of those may also be poisonous. I should know, I hunted many a shroom in my younger days when my legs were better." He gave a small bow of his head. "Welcome to the Hollow then, Tallsqueak, you can call me Old Healer or Grandfather. Either of those is what the young ones call me now."

Milo sat with the old rat and went over the types of mushrooms he was looking for, double checking his book knowledge with the wisdom this old man had. To his relief, the descriptions matched.

"I'm wondering if you might do me a favor, young Tallsqueak?"

"I need quite a few mushrooms myself, to study and make special medicines from them. Luckily, I need all the ones that our esteemed chef does not. If you don't mind gathering those for me, I'd take it as a personal favor and find a way to reward you."

Milo agreed. It was a small amount of work to repay this teacher for his knowledge. And it was efficient. Between the two lists he could pick the caverns clean of spotted mushrooms. But the old man had a warning for him. He pointed to a small cavern near the end of the cave complex Milo was heading to. "This way is dangerous. It's usually guarded by the spiders. Sadly, the small cave beyond has the rarest varieties of mushrooms growing there: Golden Puffballs and Red Spotted Eye-Rot. One tasty and one deadly. It would take quite a bit of stealth and daring to get in and out of that cave without a fight. So be careful."

With that warning, he waved Milo on his way, and leaned back to take a nap.

Skill Summary:

Sense Danger has improved from Rank 5 to Rank 6

Spine of Volax-Repat has improved from Rank 5 to Rank 6

Combat Block has improved to Rank 3

Acrobatics has improved to Rank 6

Mycology has improved to Rank 3

Dodge has improved to Rank 6

Climbing has improved to rank 6

You have gained the skill: Mastery of Self at Rank 0 this is a WIS based skill.

AGI has improved by +1 to 13

DEX has improved by +1 to 16

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