Fan Fiction: - Fluff for the miners guild

Hello Guild Ballers!

Welcome back to my blog!  Last week I've read on the steamforged forums that somebody wanted some fluff for my miners guild...  I promised to oblige.  So here it is.  Hope you like it!

"What's that?" - Yelled Canary as she turned to face the rumbling sound behind them!  "If that's Dynamite playing around with his boomsticks again I'm going to kill him!"

"It's not me lov' " - whispered Dynamite in her ear.  "I'm right here..."

"Sounded like a cave-in..." Burrow chipped in.

"Should we check it out?" - asked Pickaxe, who didn't interrupt his work

"Burrow and Canary, can you go take a look? We'll continue the work here!" Said Shovel, nodding towards Pickaxe and Vole.

Both Burrow and Canary nodded to eachother and set out to investigate.  Not long thereafter Canary returend, out of breath. 

"It's a cave in!  We're cut off, and can't go back to the surface.  I believe all air is cutt off too.  There's no draft coming from the vent-holes!"

All of them stopped mid action and looked at Shovel who turned his shovel to let the dirt slide off.

"Did Burrow try the radio?  He's the one that has it..." Asked Shovel.

Canary nodded "It's broken! We're trapped!" She shrieked.  A panic attack overcame her, which Shovel ended with a smack across her cheeks.

"Get it together woman! You're waisting air.  Where's Burrow?! -He removing rubble already?" continued Shovel.

Canary rubbed her red cheek and nodded again. "Sorry Shov', yeah, Burrow is trying to open up the passageway.

"Allright lads, let's get our stuff and go and give Burrow a hand.  Screw the Masons and the deadline they gave us, our lives matter more than gold..."

All of them set off towards the cave-in, but before reaching it they heard another clattering sound of falling rocks!

Shovel started sprinting towards the sound, followed closely by Vole and Pickaxe.  Dynamite supported Canary, who was doing her best not to sob.

"Burrow!" called Pickaxe, who saw the feet sticking out from a mound of pebbles. And upon arriving at the feet started moving rubble out of the way.

As practiced miners they fell in formation and freed their friend from under the rocks.

“He’s unconscious but breathing” Pickaxe said, examining Burrow quickly. 

“Help me move him out of the way so we can dig ourselves out of here.”

“Vole, Canary, go get some of the wooden beams, we’ll need to support the ceiling as we dig out, we don’t want to have another cave-in while we’re working our way out!”

Both jogged away Vole in front.

“Does he need tending?” Shovel asked Pickaxe.

“Not much I can do, my guess is he took a rock to the head and passed out.  His skull isn’t cracked open, there’s just a slight bump on his forehead.” He answered.

Shovel started shouting his orders “Allright then, you all now what to do.  Dynamite, go fetch the cart, we’ll move the rubble along the path using it.   Hurry back, I’ll want to know if we can blast our way through here.”  They extinguished the torches to save air and set to work.

“Aye Aye!” shouted Dynamite, already running off.  

He was the first to return, announced by the squeaking and scouring sounds of the cart.   A nod from Shovel was enough for him to set him to his next assignment.  – Go look at the state of the mine to see if he could blast a path to freedom.

Shovel and Pickaxe started loading up the cart as fast as they could.  By the time they were finished Dynamite was already helping; seeing it was no good to set off an explosion.  The risk to do more bad than good with another blast was too high.

Canary and Vole also returned with 2 beams. Shovel gave Vole a look and said “right, go back and get more, take Dynamite with you. – Canary?  Can you operate the cart?  Chuck out the dirt along the path.  We’ll start digging again.”

After three hours of work Canary fell to her knees.  “The air is getting to thick.  I can’t breathe.” 

“Save your strength to crawl out of here lass.”  Said Pickaxe. “See if Burrow is awake yet will ya? Give him some water if he is.”  He threw his flask towards her.

“Here’s what we do now” said Shovel. “Seeing as we’re out of wood to support the last few meters we’re going to have to take our chances.  We’ll dig a manhole instead of clearing all the rubble as we’ve been doing.  Vole will get out asap and get help while we widen up the hole once he’s gone.”

All of the miners were wheezing for breath for a while now. Vole up front suddenly shouted! “Fresh air! I smells it!” He took out his ferret and let it breathe through the hole, fastening something on its leg and letting it go.  The small creature ferreted his way through the rubble and set off into the daylight.

Reinvigorated by the light breeze of fresh air seeping in the men set back to work.  Burrow, suffering from a concussion, excluded.  He was awake and moaning was the only sound bar the sound stones rolling and dropping on other stones.

“Have ya, seen it?” Whispered Pickaxe in Shovels ear as he passed yet another stone.

“I have, and I’m not liking it.”  Answered Shovel, with a dire look on his face. 

The sabotage on the beams they had put up when building this tunnel the first time was very clear.  Somebody was responsible for what happened here.  It was no accident.

“Where’s Ferret? He should’ve brought back the guards by now.” Sweared Shovel.  Pickaxe and Shovel gave eachother a look.

The work continued in silence.

“I can worm through I think” said Vole, looking down at Shovel, his eyes seeking permission to go after his Ferret and secure some help for a rescue party.

“Get!” was Shovels answer and Vole’s feet disappeared through the hole, and disappeared as if he’d been magically dissapated. 

Soon thereafter they hit a section of beams that were forming a cross, preventing them from going any further.  The beams clearly supported what was left of the tunnel so cound’t be removed, and they were overlapping only leaving a narrow gap, small enough for Canary maybe, but not for the others.  And Canary had no strength left. 

A small line of blood near the biggest hole suggested that Vole did pass this point.

They sat down, shoulders hanging low, feeling defeated.

“Shovel!” Dynamite shouted from below “Look at this!  This radio’s been tampered with!  I’ve been trying to fix it, but after opening it…  look at these wires!”

Shovel didn’t respond, he looked at the radio whilst pointing at the beams that were clearly sawed in half.

“Who?!” Dynamite looked bewildered and confused.

They talked among themselves coming up with theories of who’d do this to them. When all of the sudden Shovel hissed: “SSHT, I hear something.”  As soon as all of them heard it too they started shouting.  “Over here!!  Get us out!!  We’re trapped!  Over here!!”

“It’s me,” sounded Vole’s voice . “I brought help, but I’m not sure… well…  They found Ferret and the note, and I stumbled into them coming this way...”

“Hello Shovel.  Need a hand?”

“Obulus!” Stop joking around man, get us out already.  “oh, I will, but you’ll have to make a promise first.”

“This is no time to start making demands!”

“Tut tut tut”

A silence fell until Shovel broke it “Allright you weasel, what’ya want?”

“For you to play Guild Ball again, old friend.”

“I’m never playing for the morts again!  I told you that!  I’ve upgraded from digging graves for you!”

“Who said anything about playing for us?   I want you to lead your own team, …”

Shovel looked at his friends, baffled.  They all shrugged.

“I guess, what’s the catch?”

Obulus smiled: "Appart from playing guild ball, you’ll owe me two other favours."

“Two?  What? …”

“…I’ll make you some proposals in the future, can’t really say now…  I’ll give you the opportunity to decline.  At least a couple of times, I don't want you to do anything unreasonable...  Two favours to return within three seasons of guild ball.  What do you say?”

“Get us out!!”

“Casket?!  You heard the man!  Start digging them up! And don't forget to put the dead guards into some caskets, they'll get a propper burial”

Shovel looked at Vole, who moved his thumb across his beard to point out the guards throats had been slit.

And so it was that the miners guild started playing Guild ball.  Poorly at first, without being asked a favour in the first season.  All the while investigating who it was that sabotaged the dig and almost killed the team.But now, more miners are interested in the game, more youngsters want to join the Guild Ball team on the miners side.  And starting off fairly ok this season the dreaded moment happened.  Shovel opened the envelope and read the words out loud to Pickaxe and Canary.  “Tonight, My office at 8. Come alone.”  The seal was clear where this message came from…

That's it for now!!

If you want to read more, drop me a note and I'll come up with more content.  Let me know what you want to read guys! (and girls)

Bob Out!