Chapter 15: The Goblins and the Golem
I and Osrie1 walked down the stone path that led out of Lumbridge, heading towards the fishing spots for a light lunch. I sat down by a sparkling area by the water. I could see fish swimming in the water. My stomach grumbled noisily. I got out my net, and I sunk it deep in the sparkly water. After waiting a few moments, nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing happened. I went to try again, but Osrie1 tapped my shoulder.
Then, I heard a loud, grunting sound. Something small and green was walking down the pathway, and passing people were staring at it incredulously. The fishers stopped fishing, and sat up to watch the goblin too. I looked up at the goblin, which was now standing next to me.
It was a head smaller then me, and was extremely smelly. It was a level three goblin. It smelt like it had been rolling in cow manure and hadn't bothered to wash. It wore a few small rags over most of its body, and it was holding a small, bloodied knife. It looked at me with its beady yellow eyes. It examined me, and stepped forwards towards me.
"You give me money, human!!" the goblin grunted, brandishing his knife. I slashed my sword at him. Blood spurted everywhere from his wound. The goblin roared, running towards me with his knife. I kicked him squarely in the stomach, and he went flying a few feet back, landing on his back. I laughed. He was only a goblin, I could kill him easily. At least the men I fought last night had brains. This goblin was so thick he didn't have enough brains to fill an eggcup, I thought savagely. How dare he attempt to steal my money!
The goblin sat up, and bit my ankle. I jumped up and down with pain. My ankle was bleeding! I grabbed him, and slashed my sword at him again. He jumped up again, meaning to scratch at my face, but I sent the sword deep into his gut. His body fell, limp, in my arms, and I thought he was dead.
But then the goblin sat up, roared with anguish, and pounced on me. I struggled with the goblin, who was trying to reach my money pouch. I kicked him in the chest again, sending him tumbling into the murky swamp waters. The water bubbled for a moment, and then stopped bubbling.
I turned around, thinking he had suffocated in the thick, filthy waters, and started walking back to my fishing spot, but then I heard something splash out of the water behind me. The nearby rats squealed with fright. I turned around, and was face-to-face with the furious goblin. His eyes had turned red.
"How dare thee attempt to slaughter an innocent goblin?!" the goblin shouted, sounding intelligent, quite unlike the idiotic goblin I had encountered a few minutes ago. His jaw twitched. "Now, give me the money, human, or I shall be forced to get reinforcements to kill you," he growled, giving me a menacing stare. He had changed. But I thought back to the rats on Tutorial Island. Something strange was happening to these creatures. I shook my head, and refused to give him the money. He laughed. It was a high, cold laugh, that didn't belong to the goblin. He closed his eyes, and a red-like glow came around him, illuminating the dark and murky swamp with red light.
Then, suddenly, the nearby giant rats' eyes were red. They hissed, and stepped towards me. Then, out of the clearing, in the distance, I saw about half a dozen red-eyed goblins coming towards me, cracking their knuckles. They were cornering me. Then, a lot of small rats bustled around my ankles, attempting to jump on my face.
The goblins charged into my legs, buckling them, and making me fall on my back. The rats seized this opportunity, and they jumped on my face, ripping at the flesh. The goblins were hitting or stabbing me with little green fists or knives. I felt myself losing several hit points. I felt myself dying. I was doomed. My first day on RuneScape, and I had to die in it.
But then there was a large blast of light, and the goblins and rats were thrown off their feet. I saw their eyes turn back to normal. The goblins threw the person who cast the ball of light a final terrified look, and then ran, tripping up and bumping into each other on the way. The rats were already scuttling back to their hidey-holes. I saw the figure go up to me. He was wearing long, black priest robes. The person that saved my life was Ilookgood99.
"Thank you," I croaked.
"Don't mention it," Ilookgood99 grumbled. "Ray of Health!!" he then shouted, and a blue ray came out of his hands. The healing prayer hit me in the chest, and I felt all of my wounds heal, and all of my hit points come back. Ilookgoood99 had revived me.
I started thanking him madly, but a look of shock came across his face.
"Mainiac97!! So I saved you!!" he gasped. But then his astonishment turned to curiosity. He tried looking over my shoulder.
"What's the matter?" I asked, looking behind me.
"It's nothing, nothing. But, oh my goodness, it can't be…..that is a bad omen…." Ilookgood99 said, looking scared. I thought he was very secretive, and strange.
"What is the matter?" I asked again impatiently.
"It's just…..oh Mainiac97, there is something on your back!!" he shouted, terrified. I yelped, and reached out to my back. I found there was nothing there.
I turned back around, but Ilookgood99 wasn't there. I stamped my foot in frustration. He was keeping something from me. Or was he just messing around? I didn't know, and frankly, I didn't care. Ilookgood99 was mad to think there was something on my back when there wasn't, and he wasn't telling me much. 'Bad omen', what did he mean by that? But I kept looking over my shoulder at my back, just to check.
I continued fishing. I put the net in, and pulled it out, several times it was empty. But, finally, I pulled the net out of the sparkly water, and there were several shrimps lying there. I put the shrimps on the floor next to me, and I carried on fishing. I had gotten an appetite from the morning's work (running around, giving pleas of help, talking to ghosts). Now, it was afternoon, and I was starving.
I continued fishing, when I managed to get more shrimp. But then, nearby, next to Osrie1, there was a large puff of smoke. When all of the smoke cleared, there stood a lady next to Osrie1.
This lady wore a plain cream skirt and a plain cream shirt. She wore pink, high-heeled shoes, and was holding out a tray of what looked like food.
"Sandwiches Osrie1!" she trilled cheerfully. "Gee, you look starved. Tell you what, have a meat pie on me!" she continued happily, ignoring me. "Anything else you want to buy will have to be paid for, mind." He picked up a pie, looking at it happily. She smiled at him.
"Can I buy something please?" I asked hopefully, stepping forward. She continued to ignore me.
"Anything else?" she asked him kindly. He shook his head. "Hope that fills you up!" she said, before disappearing with another puff of smoke. He beamed at the lukewarm meat pie before him. I laughed feebly as he sniffed his favourite snack eagerly, disappointment filling me like a contagious gas.
"Here, take these," he said, handing me his shrimp. I sighed, watching him jealously eat his pie, before setting off to cut down a nearby tree. I got out my bronze axe, and started chopping at it. When it finally came crashing down, I chopped it up into logs, before setting them on fire with my tinderbox. I pulled out my cooking stick, and then I poked the raw shrimp on the end of the stick, and put them in the fire.
"I see you've just came across random events," I heard a voice say next to me. I yelped, nearly dropped my shrimp in the flames, and turned around to face the person. I saw Phileas the Lumbridge tutor standing there, smiling at me.
"Random Events are happenings that happen randomly, as you saw," he said. "The Sandwich Lady ignored you because you weren't the person she had come to sell to. There are good random events, and bad ones. There are good ones that can turn to bad ones if you ignore it. You can get things attacking you because you did something to anger them (my least favourite one is the rock golem). I have a friend called the mysterious old man, but I never really understand him, and what he is always up to. I just accept his strange little box, and I take the prize. Just go along with them, or you will regret not going along with them (I went into a fight with a drunken dwarf once because I refused to accept his kebab and beer). You can be rewarded for paying attention to what happens. There are two random events you might want to watch out for-Evil Bob, or the evil chicken.
"Evil Bob is a cat. He is an evil cat, as his name suggests. He takes random people away to his island, or his prison, on ScapeRune, the opposite world to RuneScape. The evil chicken, on the other hand, pops up out of nowhere, and kills whoever he is supposed to kill. He never stops unless he has heartlessly slaughtered his victim. And he might look like a normal chicken, but trust me, he has evil powers that humans do not have. These events can turn dangerous if you are not careful. I hope that explains everything." He smiled at me, and he walked away.
Felling reassured that I knew a bit more about Random Events, and I knew what to expect next time, I ate my lunch of fried shrimp. I enjoyed the wonderful taste of heavenly, fat, juicy shrimp. After I finished my lunch, I licked my fingers happily, and put away my net, my axe, my tinderbox, and my cooking stick. I looked at the mine, and the miners.
I decided to raise my mining level, and to get some bronze bars, so I took out my pickaxe, and set off towards the mine. I found some rocks with orange stripes in them and other rocks with silver stripes in them. My olive-green book confirmed that they were copper and tin rocks. I got my pickaxe at the ready, and I swung it with all of my might at a copper rock. It chipped off a large piece of the rock. I sighed, and swung my axe at it again. I knocked off another chunk of rock. I hit it several more times, and then, finally, some small orange rocks fell out. I scooped up my copper ore, and put it in my bag. I hit another copper rock with my pickaxe.
I got about five more sets of copper, and I was tired after all of that hard work. I sat down next to a tin rock, claiming it. A level 34 woman wearing steel armour and holding a mithril pickaxe went up to a tin rock nearby. She waved at me, and smiled. I smiled back at her. But then, suddenly, her smile faltered.
"What is the matter?" I asked.
"Nothing, it's just…." She stammered, and then stopped in mid-sentence.
"What?" I asked impatiently.
"Well….oh my goodness, there is something on your back!!" she screamed, running up the path, her bag askew, her mithril pickaxe lying there abandoned. I tried, and failed, to pick it up. Then, I felt it. I felt movement on my back. I looked at my back, terrified, but saw nothing. I turned back around, but then I heard a quiet, screechy kind of noise on my back, with more movement. I looked at my back, finding nothing. I waited for a few minutes, but nothing else came. I sighed, and sat up to mine some tin.
I hit a tin rock several times until some tin ore fell out of the rock. I got five more tin ore, and I went towards another tin rock, hoping to get six tin and copper to make six bronze bars. I hit the rock several times, sending dirt flying everywhere. But then, the rock crumpled into a dust-like substance. I groaned with disappointment. Then, the rock dust turned itself into the shape of a hand made out of dust, floating in thin air. It collected together, and turned into a proper solid hand-shaped rock.
Then, dust and dirt and rocks flew from the ground to make the hand grow into an arm. Then, it started sucking up rocks from the cliffs, sometimes ripping out great chunks of rock from the cliff. A tornado of dust, dirt and rocks flew from their natural positions, and after some time there was an enormous rock arm floating in thin air. It was gigantic-almost the same size as a yew tree. Then, nearby rocks were uprooted from their positions, much to the annoyance of the other miners. Great chunks of rock flew everywhere, and this tornado of rock nearly blew me off my feet.
After a few minutes of the rock flying towards the arm, the dust cleared, and then there was an enormous, colossal rock golem standing there. He was roughly the same size as Lumbridge Castle, with knuckles as big as boulders. The golem was level 63, and it was glaring at everyone suspiciously. I realised instantly why people hated this random event so much.
"Who dares destroy the rocks of my ancestors? Who has enough cheek to besmirch my fathers' remains?" the huge golem roared thunderously, making the floor rattle. Everyone in the mine pointed at me. The golem raised his hand, and hit me, sending me flying.
Pain like no other kind of pain filled my body. The golem had just punched me with his rock fist, and I landed with a painful crash into a nearby tree, that collapsed on top of me at having something thrown at it with such force. I sat up, groaning, and the next thing I saw was the enormous golem marching at me, making the floor shudder with every step. The golem picked me up, and it threw me on the floor at its feet in a heap.
But I had no time to recover, because the angry golem was reaching down to grab me again. I threw my pickaxe at him as a last-ditch attempt to protect myself from being crushed. It hit the golem squarely in the chest, and a chunk of his chest fell out. My pickaxe fell to the floor, and the golem stepped towards me, grinning evilly.
"SHIT!!" I bellowed, stepping back. His fist was hovering right over me, and he was about to put it down on my head, but I dodged the fist, and scuttled under its legs. It let out a roar of fury, and went towards me, when an arrow collided with its leg. He looked furiously at the large hole in its leg, and turned to see who hit him with the arrow, but another arrow went flying into its arm. It roared again, this time out of pain, and I got out my own bow and arrow. I aimed a bow at its head, and shot.
This arrow didn't have such a strong impact as the other arrows did, but he stepped back, which was a bad mistake. He had stepped into a large swamp lake with its polluted water, and a sickening squelch told me his leg was jammed. I got my pickaxe, I put away my bow and arrow, and I started hitting the golem's leg with it. Large chunks of rock were flying everywhere, and were floating back to its original position in the mines. Some other miners, including Osrie1 came, and started pecking away at the golem's leg with their pickaxes. Another arrow flew over my head and into the golem's leg, making a large hole in there. The arrow-shooter turned out to be a Lumbridge guard, who winked at me, threw me a orange health potion, and stepped back into the graveyard.
The golem was shouting at the miners below him, but he was quite powerless to do anything, since his leg was so tightly wedged into the swamp. His other leg couldn't reach to the gaggle of miners at his leg. His arms were busy waving around, trying to prevent him from falling, and him losing his leg. He was screaming with anger and pain, and we were causing a lot of damage to his leg.
After at least 20 minutes of mining the screaming golem's leg, it fell over, with his foot still tightly stuck in the swamp. With the foot parted from its owner, it turned to dust, and flew back to the mine, turning into a tin rock. The golem stumbled about, and fell into the river with a rumble that shook the town like an earthquake. The golem got very wet, and it started crumbling. It shook a damp fist furiously at me, which then crumbled and turned to dust. The damp rock golem cracked, and fell apart, killing the rock golem once and for all. The remains floated in the air, and went back to its original spot in the mine.
I put my pickaxe back into my bag, and waving at the other miners, I stepped back into town, deciding to do a few chores, and to raise a few levels.