The mouth of the valley where the dwarf camp is located has a large belly and a gourd shape. The mountain walls in the northeast direction of the valley are very steep, but the west side is a gentle slope, full of coniferous forest trees.
In the innermost part of the valley, there is a long and narrow gap that slopes downward. Inside is an underground cave similar to the one where the teleportation circle was set up when Qin Lun and others teleported from Candlekeep to the Northland.
The shield dwarves, intending to retake the outpost of Mithral Hall, are currently stationed in this cavern.
Mithral Hall is the most famous dwarven fortress in the Northland and even in Faerun. It once belonged to the glorious Warhammer family, and now it is the lair of the shadow dragon and the gray dwarf. The main part of this dwarf fortress is located in the mountainside of the Spine of the World, and part of the mining area attached to the city goes deep into the dark region. The stone gate is located on the mountainside of the Spine of the World, and only a long and narrow stone ladder mountain road leads there.
This position is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Without sufficient air power, it is almost impossible to break through the front door of Mithril Hall. Due to this situation, the shield dwarves had to find another way. They plan to enter the Underdark first, and then attack Mithral Hall from the abandoned underground mining area of Mithral Hall.
However, there are certain difficulties in the implementation of this method, that is, almost no shield dwarves today remember the underground mining lines hundreds of years ago.
Hundreds of years ago, when Mithral Hall was occupied by Shadow Dragons, the Dwarf King Bruno Warhammer was still in his infancy, and his parents died in that war.
For the disaster came so suddenly that the Shadow Dragon could not be stopped long, despite the efforts of the elders of the shield dwarves. Except for some old and weak women and children who escaped from the entire Mithral Hall, everyone else was buried in Longkou, so naturally no city map was brought out.
Since he couldn't storm the castle gate on the mountainside, and he didn't have a road map for the underground mining area, the dwarf king had no choice but to patiently search for surface cracks near the foot of Mithril Hall, and slowly explore the underground passages until he found out about this dark area. Then let the main force attack Mithral Hall.
In fact, when Qin Lun first entered the world of Toril and met Lorraine, this work had already begun.
However, after more than four months of exploration, the shield dwarves confirmed three locations that could truly lead to the Underdark from dozens of underground caves, and the other caves were all dead ends.
Of the three locations that have been confirmed, one of them encountered a bottomless ravine at a depth of hundreds of meters underground, and the exploration team could no longer move forward. Along the way of the second passage, there are several dangerous biological lairs. If it were to attack by force, the loss would be too great to bear, so it was also given up.
Only the karst cave where the outpost camp is currently located has the best conditions, and the direction of the passage is also correct. The deep underground is the closest to the original Mithral Hall mining area.
This is not to say that this cave is necessarily connected to an underground mining area, but the dwarves don't care about this. As long as the direction is right, even if the last section of the road is blocked by rock formations, they still have the confidence to open a passage with the pickaxes in their hands.
Of course, this underground cave with the best conditions is only compared to the previous two. In fact, the several dwarven exploration teams that entered the Underdark region all suffered different degrees of personnel losses and had to return to the camp in the end.
There are many kinds of dangers they encounter, some are related to the terrain, some are the poisonous gas associated with the ore, and some are the lairs of underground creatures. In short, all kinds of weird, dangerous dangers that cannot be encountered on the ground are just a norm in the Underdark Region.
"Qin Lun, you haven't received the task reminder yet!" The apostles became impatient the night they entered the camp.
Especially the three of Qin Lun, their stay time is running out, and if they haven't received the mission by tomorrow night at the latest, they will have to return to Broken Starry Sky.
"If this specific area can't trigger the plot mission, I'm afraid we have to take the initiative." Hill said calmly.
There are three main types of alien missions performed by the apostles. The first type is the guide missions arranged in advance by Broken Starry Sky and the preset main missions. The second type is the hidden branch that the apostle passively triggers when performing the main quest. Generally speaking, most of these quests are historical plots that were obtained from the Broken Starry Sky due to the lack of calculation data at the beginning, but later with the apostle's activity.
The last type is the sudden mutation of the apostles when interacting with the characters in the plot, most of which belong to plot tasks that did not exist in the original history.
The epic plot of the Mithral Hall series belongs to the second hidden branch. There are two general ways for the apostle to receive this task, which is to trigger it in a specific area, or to receive it from a specific plot character.
Triggering in a specific area is easy to understand. If Qin Lun and others can encounter shield dwarves fighting with shadow dragons or gray dwarves near Mithril Hall, then they can choose to help one of them, and this epic plot will naturally be triggered.
Qin Lun and the others originally hoped to be able to trigger this task in the outpost camp of the shield dwarves, but now it seems that it has been wiped out. As for going deep into the dark region alone to find the passage to the Mithral Hall, it is extremely difficult and basically impossible.
Excluding this option, Qin Lun and others can only accept this task from specific plot characters. At this time, there are only two plot characters who can issue this task to the apostle, one is the legendary strongman of the shield dwarf Gilliam Wildhammer, and the other is Lorraine, the prince of Xuefeng dwarf.
Gilliam rejected Qin Lun, an elf prince, and probably would not agree with Qin Lun and others to join the Mithral Hall's exploration team. The only hope left was Lorraine.
However, the current Lorraine is no longer the dwarf prince who died in Iron Star Castle. After that adventure, the dwarf boy has also grown a lot. Although he still regards Qin Lun as a friend, he will no longer rely on him unreservedly.
Forcing the young dwarf too much might make him suspicious and doubt Qin Lun's motives.
Of course, this does not mean that Qin Lun and the others have nothing to do.
If they forcibly hijack Lorraine into the Underdark, this epic plot may also be triggered. But in that case, they will have no way out. Unless they manage to find Mithral Hall and prove that they are helping the shield dwarves, the angry dwarves will consider them enemies instead.
This method is not advisable, neither Qin Lun's three nor Weiss' team dare to implement it lightly. The reason is simple. After the shield dwarves set up an outpost camp here, they haven't been able to find a breakthrough for several months. No matter how arrogant Qin Lun and the others were, they would not think that they were more suitable for exploring the Underdark than the shield dwarves.
"You are too impatient, don't you still have a whole natural day?" Weiss' calm words appeared on the team channel.
Their team stayed a few days longer than Qin Lun and the others, but if Qin Lun returned to the starry sky, they would have to leave the dwarf camp on their own initiative. Their ostensible identities are mercenaries protecting the elven prince. If Qin Lun disappeared without reason, it would be no wonder that the shield dwarves didn't suspect them.
"At dusk, I asked the monkeys to investigate the camp, and found some clues." Weiss said in a deep voice. They are now grasshoppers on a rope, so naturally they will not conceal information.
"What kind of clues?" Qin Lun's eyes flashed, showing the importance of the thief profession. Although Qin Lun and Hill's strategy is good, but without the buffer time, their speed of obtaining information is not as fast as that of the thieves.
"Maybe it's different from what we imagined. Although the shield dwarves haven't been able to find the Mithral Hall in the past few months, they should have some clues." Weiss said thoughtfully, "Among the news that the monkey snooped out, the last few batches The returned dwarf explorers all mentioned a piece of mushroom forest! Different batches of explorers all mentioned the same place, you should understand what this means, right?"
"Well, this means that the dwarves have been heading in the same direction, instead of searching aimlessly." Qin Lun stroked his chin thoughtfully, "It seems that the old guy really doesn't trust us, maybe I should send Elistine to ask Lorraine about..."
Compared to Qin Lun, Lorraine was not as wary of Elistine and Idriya. It's just that Idriya doesn't know how to do "private work" for Qin Lun, and Elistine is not very good at rhetoric, so she probably can only try reluctantly.
"Let's try it first. If we really can't get the clues of the mission, we have to forcefully take Lorraine away." Qin Lun shrugged helplessly. Anyway, their stay time is running out. At most, they will return to the starry sky during the exploration process. It doesn't matter whether you offend the dwarves or not if you give up this epic plot.
…
The night slowly faded, and the warm sunlight illuminated an area at the mouth of the cave. Most of the bonfires in the camp had been extinguished, leaving only a few faint wisps of smoke.
In the open space outside the camp, many dwarves were already practicing martial arts and eating.
Qin Lun got out of his tent, stretched himself, and thought about how to coax Elistine. Although the elf druid likes him, the kind-hearted elf beauty is also unwilling to deceive Lorraine for him.
Maybe we can only use the righteousness of the moon elves to persuade her! Qin Lun had a headache for a while, and he was unwilling to force Elisteen unless he had to.
Just as Qin Lun was organizing words in his mind, there was a commotion from the depths of the cave, and several dwarf guards guarding the depths of the cave and the entrance to the Underdark hurriedly carried a wounded person towards the center of the camp.
"It's the previous batch of dwarves who explored the Underdark Region... Maybe this is an opportunity!" Qin Lun's eyes lit up, and he could immediately tell from the wounded man's attire that this was a member of the expedition team.
Qin Lun greeted on the team channel, and rushed towards the dwarven guards without hesitation, and stopped them before they reported to Gilliam.
"He's seriously injured, let me see!" Qin Lun reached out to stop the guard, took out an injection from his bosom, and injected it directly into the wounded man's neck without waiting for the dwarf guard to object.
A blush quickly appeared on the seriously injured dwarf's face, and he slowly opened his eyes. Seeing this scene, the dwarf guards couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and their tense expressions eased.
"What happened to the exploration team, besides you, is there anyone else alive?" Qin Lun asked the guards to put down the wounded, took the water bag they were carrying, and carefully fed him a few sips of water.
The dwarf of the exploration team had a broken arm and a large dent in his chest, and he was already in the dying stage.
However, under the strong stimulation of the potion, he insisted and said: "He...they..."
As soon as the dwarf uttered a few words, his body convulsed violently, his eyes lost their luster, and his pupils slowly dilated. The injection Qin Lun gave him was too irritating, which in disguise hastened the dwarf's death.
"What did you say... um, um!" Qin Lun lowered his body, put his ear to the dwarf's mouth, and nodded slightly from time to time.
"He's passed away..." Qin Lun sighed pretentiously, and said to the guards beside him solemnly, "The place where they were trapped is not far from the entrance, you go and report to Lord Gilliam and Prince Lorraine, I and my A few followers went to rescue the trapped members of the exploration team first."
Just finished speaking, without waiting for the dwarven guards to react, Qin Lun winked at Hill, Weiss and others who had received the news not far away, and led a few apostles to the depths of the cave. , ran to the entrance of the Underdark.