"It's like someone stacked up six layers of sewers and dungeons and just kept covering them up. Who builds cities that way? And then buries them? "

Jon was holding the torch as Cham levered up a stone door in the floor of the chamber. In the jumble of stone tunnels under the new barracks, they'd found a large chamber under one corner of the building. Jorges had given them the OK to build it out and make it livable in their spare time. The first step was finding out where any exits went and sealing them up. Several overly brave people had started exploring the warren of tunnels and run into things you didn't want to find in the dark. Like giant carnivorous crickets and an acidic slime.

Without knowing how far the passageways went down, Jorges was working to seal up any openings into their new home. Jon and Cham had ideas about this large area and were exploring every exit themselves to see where they led. One of the tunnels just seemed to go north forever. They'd followed it for over a mile, noting branches and cave-ins. They sealed it off with large stones but didn't add any mortar, wanting to explore further when they could. Another had gone west, down a staircase, and ended in a small privy room. They shrugged, knowing they'd never find out the story behind it. This stone trap door was the last one they had to explore.

Cham's voice echoed up. "Oh, this is nothing. Have you ever read about the old city of Troy? The guy who was looking for it finally found it, but it was in a stack of nine cities that had been built on top of one another throughout history. Think this might be the same type of thing?"

"Who knows? But if so, it makes me a little nervous. What was so bad about this town that it got destroyed and rebuilt so much?

"Maybe we'll find out!" He kept climbing down the rungs of the metal ladder attached to the wall of the shaft and finally yelled back up. "I hit bottom and there's a tunnel, and it doesn't go too far, but it's pretty strange. Come on down."

The passageway was about six feet square and had a slight slope to it. One end had a brick wall blocking it off. The other direction ran about 100 feet and ended in a circular hole about three feet across in the floor, and another in the ceiling. The walls were brick-lined, and handholds would allow them to go both up and down.

Jon looked at it and shrugged. "Flip you for it? One of us heads up, one heads down?" Jon won, grabbed ahold of the wall, and started climbing up. After maybe 30 feet he came to a piece of wood blocking his way, but he could lift it. Moving it carefully out of the way, he emerged in the basement of the brewery. Thoughts of grabbing a couple of barrels of beer and sneaking back down were interrupted by Cham's voice echoing up. "Uh, Jon? This isn't good....". A small shout was followed by silence.

Jon rapidly climbed down to help his friend. Despite the torches he'd put in the wall above, it was extremely dark. He kept moving down, feeling for the next handhold until he suddenly got a message.

[You have entered The Lair of the Under Rodent sponsored by Blud Dark!]

After a moment of dizziness passed, Jon found himself standing next to Cham."Took you long enough. Want to explore, or just let Suzette know we found the back way into her dungeon?"

Jon immediately started walking forward "We've got no weapons and no supplies other than a couple of crackers - of course, we go explore. Nothing to lose. Might as well see what's here."

Cham agreed. They moved carefully down the hallway until it branched right and left. Taking the right passage led to a massive cavern. There were dozens of rat-kin moving about, and a hundred feet away, a gigantic rat was snoring on a nest of garbage. By unspoken consent, they moved back and explored the leftmost passage.

This one led to a small store room with shelves on all the walls. The shelves held twenty-pound wheels of various types of cheese. Most of the cheese was missing small chunks or had some gnaw marks where a rat-kin had "sampled" a wheel. Jon looked at Cham. Cheese beat groat muffins any day of the week. Jon pointed to some sacks on the top shelf. "Let's grab those sacks, load up, and see if we can get back out."

The sacks turned out to be half-full of odds and ends. Empty potion bottles, a dagger, a feathered hat, a shiny metal breastplate, and many other items. Cham grinned widely. "Bet this is stuff Timmy’s raid group lost and the rats tossed it into their storage area." Jon agreed, "I like this. We get loot and cheese, and don't have to kill anything." Taking the two half-filled sacks, they each grabbed one of the better wheels and retreated to the dungeon entrance. It looked like a doorway leading into darkness. On the count of three, they walked in.

After a half second of darkness, they found themselves outside the regular dungeon entrance. Unfortunately, Suzette was there, arms crossed and tapping her foot impatiently. "Anything you want to tell me about?"

Jon blurted out "Uh, you look adorable when you're mad?" Cham pulled out a wheel of cheese and offered it to her. "Cheddar? Very tasty."

----------------------------------------

"So then, what did you end up doing?" Ozzy was getting the story from Suzette after she had run down to the dungeon to see why she had a notification about a group coming out of it when no one had gone in.

"Oh, we compromised. They didn't do anything wrong and we learned something about the dungeon. They agreed to not let anyone else know about the back entrance, and I'm going to suggest to Jorges that the big room they found would make a great little private tavern for the workers. It works nicely for me, too. We need a bigger area for brewing and that room is nearly a hundred feet on each side. Jon and Cham get their private bar and provide the muscle I need for more brewing. They get free beer for their tavern and all of us have a private place to kick back and drink with no players or bosses around."

Ozzy noted, "And we have a secret way to move goods down that well to their tavern and the new building, as well as access to that tunnel network. If we ever need to hide things from Billy, we have a way to do it."

"That sounds good." Ozzy had defused far too many situations between players and the workers. The tavern got pretty packed on raid nights. "And we have a secret way to move goods down that well to their tavern and the new building, as well as access to that tunnel network. If we ever need to hide things from Billy, we have a way to do it. But, next question: Why are you dragging me out here to the cow pastures and what are we looking for?"

"I went looking for Rolly and came upon a pretty scary situation. He told us that he and Squirmie took a nap. But what I found was a giant cocoon, and that butterfly had just crawled out of Rolly's corpse. I recognized it as that horrible monster caterpillar that killed me and we were about to fight when it found out somehow that Rolly had resurrected. It took off like a bat out of hell to get to him. I wanted to show you the nest or whatever it was. And I'm not going there alone."

Ozzy could see the area she meant. Dense willows were woven into a ball-like shape. Sticking his head in, he saw the interior was a mass of tightly packed, silky, white strands, and Rolly's headstone. He grabbed a handful of the stuff and stepped back to hand it to Suzette. "This the same as the stuff that our local tailor said was rare and worth its weight in gold?"

Suzette handed Ozzy a large sack. "Yep. I've got 4 sacks, let’s see if that's enough to hold it all. And I need to get some of these willow leaves to experiment with. I think they have a dark stain on them that looks familiar."

Ozzy was careful not to touch the darker leaves. "No offense, but I may have Rolly bandage all my wounds from now on. Just safer."

----------------------------------------

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Zephyr stopped her father at the door. Aleister had spent the morning creating a big batch of healing potions, and the afternoon delivering them. Timmy had paid upfront for over 250 of them, paying in gold. He was ready to relax and see what his wife had made for dinner. Zephyr stood her ground and refused him entry. "Don't even go in Dad. Let's head down to the Inn and order supper there."

"Is something wrong?" Aleister peered past Zephyr into the house. Several burlap sacks were stacked against a wall. Zephyr put a finger to her lips and whispered again. "Shh. She'll hear you. Please, Dad, it's chicken and dumpling night at the Inn or unspeakable drudgery here. I vote for dumplings."

"Is that you Aleister? Bring our wayward daughter back here and the two of you can help with the spinning and carding of the shorter fibers. The silk strands are fresh! I want to get it all done tonight. Zephyr, put on some coffee and make sandwiches, it's going to be a long night."

Zephyr gave her father a disgusted look. "See, this is what happens when you don't follow the group leader's orders! We could have had dumplings!"

----------------------------------------

The next morning, Billy broke the news to the workers. They weren't taking it well.

"Right, I know you're upset. Maybe I didn't phrase that well; it's not actually a war. Maybe think of it as a contest." The meeting t wasn't going well at all for Billy, but he hadn't expected it to.

"And the contestants are all armed and trying to kill us, and we can't fight back. That kind of fun contest Billy?" Betty was holding a wooden spoon she'd been using to serve porridge and was waving it at Billy in a very unfriendly manner. "I signed on to cook. Not get beaten up by a bunch of hooligans."

"Ok, let’s start over, and let me give you some information to set your mind at ease." Billy smiled like he was their best friend in the world. He'd spent years perfecting that smile. Sadly, it wasn’t working here. He realized he should have started with more smile and less 'war'; he'd remember for next time. He was saved as Ben vaulted on top of a table and held up his hands.

"Whoa! Let's settle down. You're all upset, and rightly so! I know I'm upset too. But let’s get some information out of Billy and let him talk. He's generally straight with us, and I'm sure this will look better after he explains it."

"Thanks, Ben, I appreciate your understanding."

Ben bowed. "Always willing to let a man explain himself before we go for the tar and feathers. Please, explain this whole 'war' thing to us."

"Uh, right. Ok folks, firstly this is a skirmish between ACME fighters and Famco fighters. Contract workers aren't involved. You don't have weapon skills, so we can't make you fight. In fact, if either side kills a worker, they lose points. Secondly, the rules say neither side can kick you out of your housing. You can sit tight in that lovely fortress that neither side gets to use in the war, as much as I wish I could."

Jorges yelled out, "Next war, Billy, I'll build you a nice star fortress. I'll have plans ready in a week or two."

Billy wasn't sure if Jorges actually meant that, or was just having a laugh, but he'd hold him to it. "Thanks, Jorges, I appreciate the thought. Anyway, you guys stay out of the fighting. The rules are pretty specific. If someone threatens or attacks you, you can fight back in self-defense, or just run away. If they hurt or kill you, they lose points. But if you attack someone from Famco first, they can kill you. And while you will resurrect, it's a longer timer, and longer death penalties, so don't try it.

"The main fighting will all be over within an afternoon, although if they run away, we have to defend for the whole ten-day period."

Betty pointed at the general store. "So then why are all the townsfolk packing up and leaving?" The exodus had begun at dawn, as the townsfolk were notified earlier of the coming confrontation. Some chose to stay, such as the Innkeeper, Gareth. The inn would make money with lots of mercenaries in town. But many other families and businesses were clearing out and planning to ride out the ten days at Rowan Keep or one of the nearby towns. Sedgewick would be nearly empty by nightfall.

Suzette whispered to Rolly. "I'm worried about this war the corporations want to fight. But it does give us an opportunity. No one is in town, and no one is going to be in the dungeon. I say the tavern closes early and we do some adventuring." Rolly liked the idea. "I can't wait to see you blasting rats in your slinky new outfit, and Squirmie is itching for adventure. I'll let Ben and Ozzy know."

Billy was holding up his hands. "Just a precaution, Betty. The shopkeepers and families are worried, despite the penalties a corporation pays in case of their death. It's not so easy for an NPC to come back so they are playing it safe. You guys are old hands at dying. Everyone's done it a few times. No big deal. So just keep working your normal jobs, stay away from the fighting, and we'll all have a big feast when the fighting is over."

"And what happens if you lose?" Suzette had walked up close to Billy. She wasn't flirting or smiling and didn't look very happy. "I'd like to know what happens to all of us if ACME loses."

Billy delayed a few seconds, then spoke in a lower voice. "OK, yes, there's a small chance ACME loses. Don't worry. You have a contract. It means that all of us pack up and head to another town. It would be a pain, but ACME would fight to get Sedgewick back. Meanwhile, we improve another town for a month or two before coming home."

"What about Famco? They can't keep us here working for them, can they?"

Billy gave her his most sincere smile. "Nope, your contracts are with ACME. They might get the town for a bit, but we aren't going to transfer any of our workers, and we aren't taking on any of theirs. We have an agreement on that. In your case, we might have to build a new tavern to get you going in the new town but trust me, that would be project number one on my list. You make us money, and ACME likes money. But this is all a moot point. I've been assured by Uncle Vern, who set up this contest, that we have nothing to worry about."

"I just don't want anything to do with Famco. I'm never working for them again, and I don't want to move. So you had better win this thing." Having gotten an answer, Suzette walked back over to the tavern. She had some new recipes to try out and a lot of Blud Dark to brew up. It was going to be busy the next two weeks.

Ben took aside Jorges, Cham, and Jon. "I think we need to prepare. Billy might think it will be quick, but we could end up in a siege situation. Let's start thinking about how to take care of people if that happens. We need a source of water and barrels of stored water. All the spare food. And I'm sure no one minds if we move all of Suzette's brewing apparatus down to the new bar."

Cham said. "We're calling it 'The Hole,' seems fitting."

Ben agreed. "A fitting name for sure. We'll have to walk the barrels of beer back to the tavern, but this way players can't muck things up in the old brewing area. The tavern and dungeon are probably going to be really important with lots of fighting around it. We should move Betty and Granya's stove and cooking gear over as well. Just strip the kitchen and rebuild it in the barracks. And everyone's gear. Then if we need to, we just stay buttoned up behind the walls while they fight things out for 10 days."

Two days were plenty of time to move everything into the barracks. They also put several wagons loaded with stone and all the extra logs in the courtyard. They could work on finishing the interior for a few days. The mood of the town had changed entirely. Families with loaded wagons headed to the keep and from there to other towns to wait things out. The workers scurried to get everything into their small fortress. Suzette announced the dungeon was closed until after the war and the tavern would close early most nights due to lack of customers.

Billy could be seen running all over the town talking with the mercenaries he'd hired, trying to make plans - too few mercenaries. He cursed Vernon and his secret plans often and with great enthusiasm.