Chapter 4: A Cave...Rescue?

We had completed a few more low-reward quests over the past few weeks when one finally caught our eye today.

A request from a witch: 10 cave mushrooms – 20 bronze coin.

That was two whole silver! We were moving up in the world.

As we set out for the nearest cave, I couldn’t help but think of dragons. Their lairs were usually deep beneath volcanoes, and while I knew these caves were nowhere near as frightening, the association stuck.

“Well, here we are,” Talos said as we finally reached the cave entrance.

“I’ll lead the way,” he added. “You never know what might be lurking in here.”

Well, yeah—we do know. A whole lot of nothing. The quest only paid 20 bronze for a reason. Caves this close to the city didn’t have dangerous creatures. But there was no point bringing that up. His heart was in the right place.

As we entered the cave, we immediately realized something: it was dark. Like, really dark. I’d assumed there’d be some kind of light in here, but I was wrong.

“If I can’t see, I can’t shoot,” Alva said, nervously.

Uri stepped forward in front of Talos, offering to lead the way due to his acute senses, but Talos raised a hand to stop him.

“It’s my duty,” he said. “I’ll go first.”

“Velara, can you make torches?” Alva asked.

“I could,” I replied, “but I think we need something better. Alva, you said you can’t shoot—but that’s not true. Give me one of your arrows.”

He handed one over. I tipped the end with a glowing spell, a soft violet light radiating from the fletching.

“Now shoot.”

“Okay… where?”

“Anywhere.”

He loosed it. The glowing arrow sailed into the darkness and struck a wall across from us, casting purple light across the stone.

Without needing another word, he drew several more and shot them in different directions—each one lighting up a new stretch of the path, revealing a glowing trail ahead.

“Good work, guys,” Talos said as we began moving forward.

We knew cave mushrooms tended to grow higher up, so any path that led upward was the right one.

“Yayoo!” Alva shouted again and again, like he’d just learned to use his voice and couldn’t wait to hear it echo through a cave.

Light gave him so much more confidence.

As we climbed, Alva and I added more glowing arrows whenever the path darkened.

Suddenly, the ground in front of us collapsed, revealing a jagged pit filled with stalactites jutting up like teeth.

It looked like a trap. Probably just a weird natural phenomenon. These caves were full of them, which is exactly why nobody liked venturing in too deep.

“Well, looks like we’ll have to find another way,” Talos said, glancing around.

“You guys can swim, right?” I asked, still eyeing the pit.

Everyone nodded.

Without another word, I conjured a mini raincloud over the pit and started filling it with water. I stopped when the water level was just under the other side's surface.

Talos tossed his sword and shield across the gap, then dove in first with a splash.

“Cold!” Alva blurted as he jumped in after him.

A “thank you” would be nice. Or better yet, “Wow, Velara, what would we do without you?” But silence is fine too, I guess.

We continued up the mountain until we finally reached an opening with a high ceiling.

Alva lit the room, revealing what we’d been searching for this whole time.

“Finally—cave mushrooms!” Talos exclaimed.

There they were, growing upside down from the ceiling. Their colors varied, but all of them had white spots.

We took a moment to just stand there and take it all in.

“Should I shoot them down?” Alva suggested.

“No, I’ll get them,” Uri said.

“But how?” Alva asked. “You’re a great climber, but even you can’t climb upside down.”

“Unless…” I said. I conjured a pair of gloves, handed them to him, and enchanted them with a spell of stickiness. Then I did the same for his shoes.

Between you and me, stickiness is one of the most underrated enchantments. It’s seriously slept on.

“...you had some help,” I finished.

After putting them on, Uri nodded at me and began climbing.

“Remember, we need ten. The quest didn’t specify a color, so just grab whatever you can!” Talos called out.

As we watched him ascend, I conjured a bag and handed it to Talos.

“Think you can catch them?” I asked him.

“I can!” Alva answered.

“No, let me be useful. I’ve barely done anything,” Talos said.

Uri finally reached the mushrooms, but as he neared them, they began to let out high-pitched cries.

I’d be lying if I said that didn’t startle us. Spots, sure—but sentience? That wasn’t something I was expecting. I could tell Uri was surprised too, because he hesitated for a moment before reaching out to pluck one from the ceiling.

He held one in his hand and looked down, waiting for Talos to confirm he was ready with the bag.

“I’m ready, Uri,” Talos said, holding the bag wide open.

One by one, Uri picked the mushrooms from the ceiling.

“PICK ME! PICK ME! NO, ME!”

“Freeedooom!”

“So long, boys!”

They probably shouldn’t have been celebrating—they were going to end up at the bottom of a cauldron, or worse. But I didn’t have the heart to steal their moment of joy.

Uri dropped them into the bag one by one as they called out their final goodbyes to their pals. I suggested we grab a few extras just in case, so we ended up with twenty mushrooms in total.

“Good job, Uri,” I said as he made his way back down.

Thankfully, we already had a lit path back—the glowing spell I’d used earlier lasted a few hours. I briefly considered retrieving the arrows, but the effort didn’t seem worth the payoff. So we left them embedded in the stone.

Does this count as littering?

PSA: Littering is not okay... unless you’re trying to escape a perilous and annoying cave to turn in a witch’s quest.

As we left the cave, we made our way to the witch’s hut to turn in the mushrooms. It sat just on the edge of the swamp.

Oh, how I hated the swamp.

“Here are the mushrooms, Miss—with ten extra,” Talos said, handing the witch the bag.

“Very nicely done, kids,” the witch said, clearly pleased as she peeked inside.

“No one’s ever brought me extras. You shall be rewarded accordingly.”

She reached into a wooden drawer and pulled out four silver coin.

“Wow, thanks!” Alva said, eyes wide. “If you ever need anything else, we’d be happy to help!”

The witch rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“Well, actually... there is something I need. But don’t worry—you won’t have to go far. They’re right here in the swamp.”

Great. Next time you hear from us, we’ll be in the swamp. The swamp... that I love so dearly.