Hello, hello, hello, what's happenin' readers?

I apologise for the slow update. but I've been very busy lately for one reason or another. To make up for it, this chapter will be especially long. Please enjoy!

Chapter 71: Secrets of the Dwarves

I stared at the wanted posters stuck up on the wall of the Falador bank. Some assassin called 'Bone-ripper' was wanted, but that was an old poster that had been up for quite a while. The mystery murderer that was making life in Falador a living hell was still wanted. Gypsy Aris was still wanted for 'treason', although I couldn't exactly see why.

Easter had passed, and the market was gone for another year. I'd gotten two old Easter event rewards, like I usually did at seasonal events. I'd picked some bunny ears and a comical chicken costume as my two rewards this year. All of my rewards now were the Easter cape, the egg ring, the carrot hammer, the bunny ears, the chicken costume, the squirrel ears, the pot of gold, and the leprechaun ring. All of them were safe and sound in my bank.

I walked casually out of the bank. I gave the sky a rather depressed and angry look as it gave me an unwelcoming rumble. Slinky ran up to me, gasping for breath.

"Sir Amik Varze wants to talk to us," she spluttered. I nodded, and followed her into the white knight castle as the first few drops of rain fell.

We climbed the shining white steps, and arrived at the door of Sir Amik Varze's office. Slinky stepped up, and rapped on the door. There was an "Enter!" from inside, and we did so.

The office was full of people. Jamie and Cedric stood behind Sir Amik Varze, who was sitting in his chair, looking very sombre. Osrie1, Amy11 and Capablanca stood in front of the desk nervously. Aaron stood nearby, looking very twitchy. His eyes darted around the room suspiciously, and he had a bit of a ruffled look about him.

"Where's Mark?" I asked. I got a long silence in return.

"Mark left," Osrie1 explained, breaking the silence.

"Why?" I gasped, rather shocked.

"His family called him," Amy11 replied seriously. "His village, Rellekka, was attacked by bandits and pirates who came by sea, and he needed to leave urgently to protect it. He said he may return, but he wasn't sure when, or if he even could." I nodded seriously. I would miss Mark. He was a great member of the team, and I wished him luck in his attempt to protect his village.

I gave Aaron a concerned glance. He looked shaken; I wondered what was wrong with him, and I hoped he was OK. I hoped he realised that he could talk to us any time he wanted.

"People," Sir Amik Varze began. "I called you here because I need your help. Let me explain.

"There is a dwarf called Doric that lives nearby. He is a businessman as well as a miner in the dwarf mines under Falador, and he makes a lot of money by selling ores, metal bars, weapons, and armour. He crafts the finest armour in the whole of RuneScape. The white knights like to help Doric out by mining ore for him, since he is a very busy dwarf and occasionally is unable to do it himself. He is a good friend to the white knights, and in exchange for all the work the white knights do for him, he makes us armour for free. It is useful, and saves me a lot of money.

"Recently, he has been busy, and has asked kindly for our help in getting the ore he needs. I'd be very grateful if you went to him to help him on my behalf."

"Why can't the white knights do it themselves?" Amy11 asked.

"Under the circumstances, I don't think it would be appropriate to take a white knight away from his job. Remember, there are several criminals on the loose at the moment, but we don't want to offend our good friend Doric by refusing to help him. I'll reward you very well if you help us," he replied rather coldly. I thought about this for a moment, and nodded.

We stepped outside. I swore angrily as I was almost washed away by a flurry of raindrops. I ran across the bridge, noticing that the moat was steadily filling.

"Where is Doric's house?" I shouted to the crowd behind me, which consisted of Amy11, Slinky, Osrie1, and Capablanca. I noticed that Aaron wasn't there. I growled; he'd disappeared again! Where did he keep going? My mood wasn't improving at all.

"He's just outside the borders of Taverley," Capablanca replied, being the white knight he is. "Beware; never mention the word 'small' to a dwarf, or you may wake up tomorrow morning with aching shins." I noticed that his slightly eccentric and over-protective personality was being hidden away by a shiny metal white helmet. I was disappointed; the Capablanca I'd grown to know was slowly being drowned by a new, harder personality. He was still protective over noobs, but it wasn't comically exaggerated like it usually was.

We ran through the town square, running down the path on our left. The musician that usually played here was using his lute to protect himself from the rain. We saw a small cottage with a field of grain next to it. Ironically, the grain was being blown away. I ran up to the door and knocked on it. The door flew open, and a small man with a ginger beard stood there, glaring up at me. I assumed he was Doric.

"What do you people want?" He demanded.

"We were sent here by Sir Amik Varze to help you," I replied, startled by this dwarf's rudeness. He sighed.

"It's about time that old man offered me some help," he sighed. "Come on in." I squeezed past him gratefully, and so did everyone else. We were all crammed inside a small house which seemed more like a room. It had a small bed in the corner, two anvils and a whetstone in another, a sink, a cupboard and a stove in another and a trapdoor that obviously led to the mines in the last one.

"This house seems a bit small," Osrie1 moaned. Doric seemed to bristle with fury, but must have thought better of arguing.

"OK, here are lists of some of the ores I need you to mine these for me," Doric barked, fetching some sheets paper with writing on them from his wardrobe and handing them out. "If you can't mine it, don't worry, just try your best and get what you can. I'll reward each of you if you can help me." I read my bit of paper. It read:

35 tin ores

35 copper ores

25 iron ores

15 silver ores

I checked my mining level in my olive-green book. The book told me I was level 15; I was just barely able to mine iron.

"I can't mine silver yet," I told Doric, who chuckled.

"Don't worry about it," he replied. "Mine all the copper, tin and iron on the list, and your level may have raised high enough to mine silver by then." I nodded. I double-checked my bag to see if my pickaxe was there, and I saw it lying at the bottom, along with my tinderbox, my woodcutting axe, my fishing net, and some other things I rarely used. I yanked it out.

"By the way, before you go, watch out for the chaos dwarves," Doric warned. "They're a group of evil dwarves that worship Zamorak. They seemed to have come from practically nowhere, and they hate humans."

"Why do they hate humans? It is because they're…" Osrie1 began, but I elbowed him in the ribs before he could say the dreaded S word. "What?" Osrie1 protested. "They are!" I sighed. I thanked a confused Doric for the warning, and I stepped down the ladder into the sea of darkness.

After my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the mines, I took a good look around me. I was surrounded by rocks, naturally, which people smashing pickaxes against them. Everything about these mines felt gloomy and depressing. Massive scorpions were scattered around, hissing at each other and the miners. Spiky rocks hung from the roof. I shivered as a drop of green fungus fell from the rocky ceiling with an unpleasant plop.

The entire gang scattered throughout the mine, choosing rocks to mine from. I decided to walk deeper into the mine, so I could avoid the scorpions.

The deeper I walked, the more dwarves I passed. They looked up at me curiously, since they probably rarely saw humans in the deep end of the mines.

I eyed a rather big iron rock, and I decided to tackle it. I sent my pickaxe flying into the rock as hard as I could, and a small amount of rock flew from it.

A dwarf passed me, but paused. He had a pretty long brown beard, and was rather chubby.

"Hello," he greeted me cheerfully. At that moment, I saw a large amount of iron ore tumble from the rock. I scooped it up, and turned around to face the dwarf.

"Hello," I replied cordially. "What's your name?"

"I don't know," he grinned. "Everyone calls me Lump, though, for some reason I can't pinpoint. You may as well call me that too." I nodded, giving him a sympathetic smile. "By the way, if I were you, I'd be careful in this area of the mine. For an unknown reason, there have been a lot of tunnels collapsing and landslides here." I thanked him for his advice, and I continued down the mine.

I gathered three tin ores, three copper ores, and another iron ore, which still left me with a fairly large amount of ore to gather. I was pretty deep into the mines now (well, at least far away from Doric's house). It was very dark, and I found it difficult to see, let alone mine safely.

"Fire strike!" I yelled. A small ball of flame came from my palm. I muttered a quick hovering spell, and the crackling ball of flame floated there. I found a good iron rock, and I began mining from it. The cave I was in was sent into deep darkness again as my ball of flame flickered, and disappeared. My eyes flickered around nervously. I stopped mining, and put my pickaxe in my belt for the time being. I pulled Silverlight out from my belt, and went into a defensive stance. The whole earth shook, and I fell to the floor, smashing my shoulder very painfully. I heard what sounded like a drilling sound, a cackle, and then the corridor caved in.

I screamed as I was buried under over ten feet of dust and rock. It was similar to being buried under earth, except more painful. I tried to shift the rock, but I was too crushed to even breathe, let alone move. But, suddenly, I felt the rocks around me shift. I crawled out, gasping for breath. I looked up at my saviour, and saw the grinning face of Lump the dwarf.

"Wow, thanks," I choked, shaking Lump's hand. "You just saved my life." Lump wasn't listening to me, though; he was looking over my shoulder with shock plastering his face. I spun around and faced my attacker.

A man wearing brown leather overalls stood in front of us. He wore a brown leather mask to I couldn't see his face- I could only see mud-brown eyes. There was an insane glint in them. He had no hands; instead, where his hands were meant to be, he had massive silver drills that looked deadly.

"Who are you?" Lump barked. He chuckled mysteriously.

"I am the Brown Beetle," he giggled. "I have been sent here by the Black Fly to kill you, Mainiac97." I backed off, eyeing those silver drills of his.

He literally dived into the ground head-first, and his drills seemed to activate automatically. They drilled into the ground, taking him with them. The whole mine shook again, and I narrowly dodged a drill which appeared under me.

The Brown Beetle kept swinging his drill at me angrily, but he was hit across the head by Lump's pickaxe. He swerved off course, and rammed into a nearby wall. The whole wall collapsed on top of him. Dust rose into the air, and as soon as the dust cleared, I could see a new tunnel which had opened up. I stepped over the rubble which contained the Brown Beetle somewhere in its depths, and into the new tunnel. Lump followed me.

We walked deeper into the tunnel, almost forgetting about the Brown Beetle entirely. I looked over my shoulder nervously to make sure he wasn't there before the thought of him floated out of my head.

At the end of the tunnel, we found a massive cave. It was full of the most valuable rocks that could ever be imagined; gold rocks, silver rocks, adamant rocks and even rune rocks surrounded us. I stared, mouth agape, at the surroundings. Up ahead, there was a huge statue of a dwarf wearing armour.

"I've heard of this cavern from ancient dwarf legends," Lump said. "They said that this cavern contained a stash of the world's most valuable rocks. Apparently, Zamorak created this cavern."

"But why would he?" I pondered. Lump smiled.

"It was a place to hide his chaos dwarves," he replied. "When the time was right, legend says they'd be released. But since the god wars ended before they were released, they were entombed in here for eternity. But, because of this weirdo with drills for hands drilling his way through our mines, an opening must have been created to release them. Maybe that's why people have reported spotting them around the mines. I'd suppose, though, that they're all dead after thousands of years."

"That's where you're wrong, tubby," a sneering voice replied from behind us. I heard a crack, and Lump was lying at the feet of another dwarf, blood leaking from his head.

This dwarf was short, like all dwarves, but he wore small steel armour with the sign of Zamorak on the helmet. Red cloth covered the rest of him. He had ancient, wrinkled skin, and a small red beard.

"You killed Lump!" I gasped as I felt Lump's heartbeat and discovered there wasn't one. The chaos dwarf chuckled.

"I know I did," he replied in a croaky voice. "I am Scum, and I am the commander of the chaos dwarves. You'll be next to go, too. We hold no respect for humans like you, especially when you discover our secret caves." He let of a shrill whistle, and a small armada of chaos dwarves appeared from different hiding places. This included behind rocks, under piles of dust and stone, and there were even a good twenty or so hidden behind the giant chaos dwarf statue.

I ran back down the tunnel, and they followed me. I jumped over the pile of rubble that was the collapsed wall, and a drill flew from the ground as the Brown Beetle dragged himself out of the wreck.

"You're not escaping, kid," he hissed. "The Black Fly wants your head on a platter." I sighed.

"A lot of people want my head on a platter nowadays," I replied. "I've angered quite a few people, but I've gotten used to it now." I rushed off, and the Brown Beetle was about to chase me, but he was crushed by an army of angry chaos dwarves.

I flew down the mine like an arrow, the chaos dwarves still chasing me. I passed Osrie1 and Slinky, who were mining together. They ran after me curiously.

"What are we running from this time, pal?" Osrie1 asked conversationally as he caught up with me. "Is it a three-headed dragon? Is it an army of vampires? Or have you made Madrey1 angry again?"

"None of those," I panted. "It's a small army of chaos dwarves." Slinky groaned.

"It's always something with you, isn't it?" she said. "Silly Mainiac97. I'll never understand how you always seem to make everything evil want to kill you."

"Can I just ask why we're being so casual about it while our lives are at stake?" I shouted as we veered a corner and almost ran into Amy11. She looked like she was about to ask what was wrong, but she saw the crowd of chaos dwarves (led by Scum) and seemed to figure it out by herself. She followed us.

We finally arrived at the main exit of the dwarven mines, and we climbed the stairs desperately. We arrived in a large wooden hut at the top of the bank near Barbarian Village. We ran out the hut, earning ourselves a few odd looks from the dwarf workers.

The rain had cleared, but the clouds were still grey. We ran to the top of the bank, and we saw Falador in the distance. We skidded down the bank. As we turned around, we saw the dwarves at the top, shaking their fists at us. We noticed some dwarf attack cannons nearby, designed to fight off the goblins/barbarians that would attack. They did too.

They swarmed the large grey machines, and I saw what they intended to do. There was a fuse on the top of the cannon, and a tinderbox lying next to it. When the cannon was loaded and lit, it would explode, sending a boiling hot lump of metal flying towards the target. Quite neat when you're trying to attack a village, but not so great when you're the target. I shuddered as I heard a hissing sound behind me, followed by an explosion. A ball of red-hot steel flew right over our heads, and collided with the Falador wall. I had to snort at their bad aiming skills. There was another hiss, another explosion, and another hole in the Falador wall.

They launched one more cannon, but this one narrowly missed us. It collided with the ground nearby, sending dirt flying everywhere. A small troop of Falador guards marched past us, since it looked like the chaos dwarves were attacking Falador. After hesitating for a second, I decided to follow them to help around. I felt better protected with an army there.

"Why are you so scared of them?" Osrie1 asked. "The worst you'd get from a bunch of dwarves would be battered shins and broken kneecaps." I explained the legend Lump the dwarf had told me.

"They must be powerful if Zamorak was using them as warriors," I explained. My point was proven as the angry dwarves rushed forward to greet the guards and crushed several of them in the process. A chaos dwarf stayed behind to control the cannon, and blasted a cannonball into the crowd of guards. I didn't know how the other dwarves inside the wooden hut that housed the main entrance to the mines could ignore this.

I ducked as a dwarf flew over my head, bawling with rage. I ran towards the cannon and knocked the dwarf out. I pushed his body off the operating chair, and sat down on it myself. I picked up the tinderbox, and tried to light the fuse at the top, which seemed to regrow every time it was lit. I lit it after a few minutes (due to my low fire-making level). I turned the cannon to face Scum the dwarf, who was in the centre of the crowd of battling dwarves and guards. I figured that if he was injured, the chaos dwarves would give up.

It blasted, nearly sending me flying backwards. I watched with relief as the cannonball collided with Scum, crushing him. I loaded the cannon again, ready to strike; but to my surprise, Scum stood up, and chuckled softly, but evilly. He was only slightly injured! The fight stopped as everyone turned to stare at us.

"Zamorak didn't pick me to lead the chaos dwarves for nothing," he giggled menacingly. "My inner fury is unleashed only in situations when I am in great peril." I could sense an evil power radiating from his skin. He jumped towards me, and sent me flying to the floor with one tiny fist. I struggled to escape from his vice-like grip, but I couldn't. He grabbed me by the throat, giving me an evil smile.

"Your time on RuneScape ends now, tall man," he hissed. I struggled, but it was no use. I then noticed he was standing right in front of the fully loaded cannon. I just had to light it and I could save myself, but the tinderbox was beyond my reach. I had to think of some way of lighting it!

An idea hit me like a bolt of lighting. I focused an image of flickering flames in my head, and summoned my magical powers.

"Fire strike!" I yelled. A ball of flame flew towards the fuse, and the fuse started hissing. Scum turned his head a second too late. A look of anger and shock flitted across his face, and the cannon blew up before he could do anything about it. The cannonball blasted him back, and he let go of me. He stood up and turned to face me angrily, his nose broken and bruises covering his body. He ran after me, roaring with rage. I skidded down the bank and ran across the path and into the woods, terrified as the furious dwarf chased me.

I ran under the dark covers of the trees, gasping for breath. I heard a chuckle from behind me, and I ran in deeper. I felt something grab my neck.

"Help me!" I choked. Scum cackled. I struggled, and, in desperation, I sent a bind spell flying towards him. He was caught up in the green glowing ropes, and he fell back. The glow from the ropes illuminated the area slightly.

I knew the bind wasn't going to hold him forever. I fished for my hatchet in my bag, and ran towards a nearby tree. After ten or two chops, the tree went tumbling down on top of Scum. He rolled around, winded badly, coughing up blood.

I was relishing in his pain. I wanted him to suffer for what he'd done, so I sent a fire strike flying towards the tree. It set on fire, and I grinned as the flames towered high. I turned around as Scum howled with pain. He was being burned to death.

As I left the forest, guilt flooded my brain like a tap had been left to drizzle up there. Did I really need to stoop to his level to punish him? I could have dragged him back to the guards to be thrown in jail. But, no, I had to lose my temper and burn him to death. What made me better then him in that respect? My heart dropped like a rock as I realised how much of a hypocrite I was. Killing bad people made me as bad as them, if not worse.

I walked back to the cannons, feeling glum. There was no sign of any chaos dwarves there. Osrie1, Slinky and Amy11 stood in a group, Osrie1 ran up to me cheerfully.

"What happened to Scum?" he asked.

"I've dealt with him," I replied flatly. Osrie1 nodded, smiling warmly. "What happened to the chaos dwarves?" I questioned.

"They ran off and the Falador guards have chased them," Amy11 replied, running up to us.

I decided to return to the mines. For the rest of the afternoon, I returned to the mines, slaving over the rocks so I could finish off my chore list. My mining level rose to level 21 after I finished mining all of my copper, tin and iron, so I could then tackle the silver rocks. After another half an hour, I'd completed my whole order, and my mining level was 24. Grunting under the massive weight of all the ore in my bag, I trudged towards Doric's house.

He was sitting on his bed, reading a book about mining and smithing when I climbed up the ladder, dragging my heavy bag behind me. Doric looked at me over his book, and when he recognised me he grinned.

"Did you manage to complete the whole order?" he inquired. I nodded, and I emptied all the ore on the floor. After Doric sifted through it, counting the ores quickly, he smiled at me.

"Perfect!" he exclaimed. You got everything I asked for. Thanks a lot!" He handed me a scroll. The scroll read:

Congratulations! You have completed Doric's quest.

You have earned:

1 quest point

2,000gp

Permission to use Doric's anvils, grain field and whetstone

Access to the Chaos Dwarf mining cave

I grinned at my quest scroll, satisfied with my reward. I'd also be getting a further reward from Sir Amik Varze. My quest diary told me I had quite a few quest points; 25, to be precise. I'd earned this many from completing countless quests, chores, and events. I'd gotten quite a few quest points from completing 'demon slayer', which I presumed was defeating Delrith in Varrock. I needed 40 before I could enter the champion's guild, whatever that was.

I thanked Doric, and I went to Sir Amik Varze to claim my reward, which was a further 3, 000gp and another experience lamp which I planned to add to my massive collection in the bank. The rest of the gang had finished their lists and were accepting their rewards. Sir Amik Varze gave me a grateful pat on the back before I left.

"You've saved me a lot of work," he told me. "Thanks a lot for helping me, especially since I've got enough on my plate already." I still felt very low and guilty about killing Scum.

It was dark on my way out, and the full moon hung in the air. It was full, but my head was filled with even more worried thoughts, despite the stars twinkling merrily above me.

I bumped into Dream Decay in the streets of Falador.

"Hello friend!" he greeted cheerily. "You look a little depressed. Would you like to come to my house for a beer or two?" I nodded. He pulled a stone tablet with an inscription which looked like a house on it. "Touch the stone," he said. I obliged, and I was dragged into darkness. The unpleasant feeling of being compressed to death was definitely present.

We landed on soft, damp grass. I looked around, and I was in a very nice garden. The grass was freshly cut, flowers sprouted around me, and a sparkling fountain lay ahead. Dream stood up, dusted himself off, and gestured for me to follow him. In front of me there was a two-story house which was made from strong grey bricks. I walked through a pair of rather simple wooden doors.

I was in a nice living room. Several large, soft chairs surrounded a stone fireplace. There was a tinderbox and a small pile of logs lying next to the fireplace. A bookshelf stood nearby, along with a small table with a flowerpot full of roses. Dream lit the fire, which crackled merrily.

"This is a nice house you have here," I noted. He chuckled.

"This isn't my house really," he admitted. "It belongs to my girlfriend, but she bought me a teleport tablet too, so I have access to it." I whistled, and he blushed furiously.

"What's her name?" I teased.

"Emily," he replied sourly. At the mention of her name, he looked rather glum. "I'll go and get drinks," he said, walking through another door into a kitchen. I made myself at home, sitting on one of the plump chairs.

I liked Dream's house (or Emily's house), and I wished I had my own. I'd ask Dream about it as soon as he returned. Was it just me, or did the name 'Emily' ring a bell or two?

Dream returned with two glasses filled with beer, and he handed me one. I took a deep sip from it, and we began chatting.

I voiced my worries to him, and he nodded sympathetically. We talked a little bit about houses, and he told me I could get my own house from a shop in Falador.

After I finished my beer, I thanked him, and left. A swirling purple portal stood in front of me. I gulped, and I jumped head-first into it. I was dragged through darkness again. I appeared in Falador's streets.

I reflected on my busy day as I walked back to Capablanca's house. I was still wracked with guilt at the death of Scum, but I couldn't reflect too much on it, or I'd go insane. I wondered where Aaron had disappeared to. I wished he'd at least explain to us. If it was a busy schedule, it would save the worry. But he was being almost as mysterious as Ilookgood99. I stared up at the moon thoughtfully, and a howl echoed across the city, for the second time in a row. My life was truly a puzzle in itself, and I wished I could solve it.

I hope that was to your liking. In your opinion, did Scum deserve to die? Tell me in a review!

A slight note about Bone-ripper at the start of this story; he's in Haseo the Terror of Death's 'The sphere of varrock', but technically I own him, since i created him. So I've decided to put him to use. dream Decay, emily and such are all part of the shared universe between me and Haseo (see a few chapterd back for details).

I apologise to the owner of the character Mark for sending him off, but it was neccecary so I could have more room for the other characters. he'll be back after a while, though.

When I wrote this chapter, I meant no offence to dwarves in real life. I apologise beforehand if I offended anyone.

To anyone who's interested, I have another story in the making called 'History of a Tramp'. please check it out when you have a moment. Also, on the first chapter, I've added a prologue, which is an extract of the last few chapters of this story. I also apologise for the long AN, I have a lot of announcements to make.

Until next time, toodles!