“Everybody ready?” said Ash. Harper had looted the fallen spider jockeys, and Po had reclaimed his dispenser.
“Ready,” said Jodi.
“Follow close, everyone,” said Morgan. He took a step deeper into the cavern. “We don’t want to get—”
There was a click.
Morgan had just enough time to think, It’s a trap!
And then the floor opened up beneath their feet, and they went tumbling into the darkness.
Ash couldn’t even find her voice to scream.
She was in complete free fall. She reached out, but there was nothing to hold on to. Nothing to slow her fall at all.
And no way to tell what awaited her below.
“Haaalp!” cried Po.
“Somebody do something!” yelled Jodi.
So it wasn’t just her falling. Her friends were there, too. Ash wasn’t sure whether that made it better or worse.
Then someone accidentally kicked her in the face. It’s worse, she decided. Definitely worse.
She braced herself for impact. There had to be an end to this fall eventually. And it was going to hurt.
But when Ash finally stopped, there wasn’t any pain. She heard a loud slap, and her fall slowed, until she was…drifting.
Water, she thought. Thank goodness. We landed in water!
She was relieved, but the feeling didn’t last. Her momentum had carried her below the water’s surface. It was pitch-black down there, and she’d lost all sense of direction. She could only hold her breath for so long. Which way was up?
She saw a dim light out of the corner of her eye. It was coming from a strange-shaped block, more of a small rectangle than a cube….
A sea pickle!
Po was placing a colony of sea pickles on the stony ground below. They gave off just enough light for Ash to get her bearings. She swam upward, and saw that the others were doing the same.
Po was the last one to burst through the surface. Ash could barely see him, but she heard him gasping for air.
“Po, you mad genius,” she said. “I can’t believe you had sea pickles in your inventory this whole time.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t,” said Po. “Sea pickles are the best.”
“Saved by sea pickles,” said Harper. “I never would have believed it.”
“Where are we?” asked Jodi. Her voice echoed in the dark.
“It must be some kind of underground reservoir,” said Ash. “Very underground. We were falling for a long time….”
“I think I see the shore,” Morgan said. “That way.”
Together they swam to a small stretch of sand. The sand bar was wedged between the water and a sheer stone wall.
“There’s no way we can climb out,” Jodi said.
Harper peered upward. “We could build a staircase, but it would take some time. We may be better off digging through the wall.”
“Tomorrow,” Ash said. “Anything might be waiting for us on the other side of it, and we just had a very close call.”
“You’re right,” Harper agreed. “We should regroup. Eat some food, set up our beds…”
“Ooh,” said Po. “Dungeon camping. It could be a new trend.”
“Anyway, it must be getting late,” said Ash. She turned to Morgan. “And you still have to memorize your lines for the play.”
In the darkness, she heard Morgan chuckle nervously.
* * *
At school the next day, Ash felt like she was in free fall all over again.
There was just so much to do.
As stage manager, she was expected to keep an eye on every aspect of the play. The actors, the sets, the props, light and sound—she was responsible for keeping all of it on track.
To make matters more complicated, this was a play no one had ever staged before. Ms. Minerva had wanted the students to do The Phantom of the Opera, a famous musical based on a famous book, but she hadn’t been able to get permission, so she had written a new play, all by herself. It was called The Phantasm of the Cafetorium, and much like their teacher herself, it was kooky. Ms. Minerva seemed to have combined the story of Phantom of the Opera with her own love for French pastries. “Creative people must look for inspiration everywhere!” she’d said.
In fact, Ms. Minerva had encouraged students to look for inspiration in their own hobbies and interests. Harper, who was in charge of the props, had taken that advice to heart. She’d decided to give her creations a blocky Minecraft twist.
“Remind you of anything?” Harper asked when Ash came by to check on her. She held up a rectangular box about the size of her forearm. She squeezed it, and one end glowed bright red.
Ash gasped. “It looks just like a redstone torch!” she said.
Even Baron Sweetcheeks seemed impressed. The hamster poked his head out of Ash’s shirt pocket to get a closer look at the glowing red prop.
“Looking to Minecraft for inspiration has given my whole team a ton of ideas,” Harper said. “And the Phantasm’s underground lair needed a light source.”
Ash was glad that Harper and her team were letting their imaginations run wild. But there was one rule they had to follow….
“Harper,” Ash said. “That thing isn’t high-tech, is it?”
Harper shook her head. “It’s basically a flashlight. Just a battery and a few wires. No computer parts at all.”
Ash breathed a sigh of relief. Their school’s technology had recently gone haywire and caused all kinds of problems. Only Ash and her friends knew the reason: the school’s tech had been invaded by the Evoker King. He had caused glitches and malfunctions in pretty much anything that was plugged in.
That threat was over, and everything had gone back to normal at Woodsword. But Ms. Minerva refused to take any chances on the show. Low-tech was the order of the day.
“Good work,” Ash said. “But you should start on the fake croissants soon.”
“I don’t get it,” Harper said, rubbing her chin. “Why does the Phantasm like croissants so much?”
“Well, it’s a love/hate thing,” Ash explained. “He blames croissants for the deaths of his parents, so he wants to hate them. But they taste so buttery and delicious, so…”
Harper gave her a blank look.
“It’s a weird script,” Ash admitted. “But we’re going to make the best of it.”
Ash checked on Jodi’s team next. They were in charge of painting backdrops for the set. They’d started with the Phantasm’s lair.
“Looks great, Jodi!” Ash said, taking in the gray stone and ivy-covered columns. “Our recent dungeon crawl has given you some inspiration.”
“It sure has,” Jodi agreed. She scratched her head. “But there’s one thing I don’t get. Why does the Phantasm stash all his stolen croissants underground? Shouldn’t he just eat them?”
“Because I hate them,” said a voice.
Ash and Jodi turned to see their classmate Theo. He was wearing a black cape and speaking with a strange accent.
“I hate them,” he said, his eyes blazing with intensity. “And yet…how can I? They are so buttery and delicious….” He smiled. “So?” The accent was gone. “What do you think?”
“Sounding good, Theo,” said Ash. “And looking good, too!”
Theo had been cast as the Phantasm. He had the most lines of any of the actors, but Ash wasn’t worried about Theo’s ability to memorize them—he seemed to be a natural. Unlike some others in the cast…
“Hey, did I hear you say something about a dungeon delve?” Theo asked. “What game are you playing these days?”
Jodi stepped forward. “Oh…a little bit of this, a little bit of that,” she said. Ash didn’t really get it, but some of her friends didn’t fully trust Theo. He’d had a misunderstanding with Harper a whil
e back, and Morgan had even thought Theo might actually be the Evoker King. But they knew that wasn’t true now, and Ash was ready to let bygones be bygones.
Even so, she knew that the details of their Minecraft adventures needed to be kept secret. What if their teachers learned the truth about what the VR headsets could do? Ash found it hard to imagine they’d let the kids continue to use such amazing technology for gaming. So the fewer people who knew, the better. And unfortunately, that included Theo.
Baron Sweetcheeks squeaked, and Ash remembered she still had a lot to do.
“Keep up the good work, everyone,” she said, and she moved on.
Po wasn’t at the lighting controls, as she expected. Instead, he was backstage, holding a copy of the script while Morgan practiced his lines.
“Unhand that donut!” Morgan said.
“Okay, good emotion that time,” said Po. “But it’s ‘croissant.’ ”
“Right,” said Morgan. “Okay. I’ve got it this time.” He cleared his throat and threw his shoulders back. “Dehand that croissant!”
“Okay, pretty good,” said Po. “Dehand is definitely not a word, but otherwise—”
“Po!” said Ash. “Why aren’t you figuring out the lights?”
Po held up his copy of the script. It was all marked up with handwriting, highlights, and sticky notes. “Already done, Captain. I’ve got it all figured out, and all my cues are written down in my script.” He inclined his head toward Morgan. “So I offered to help Morgan run his lines.”
“I need the help,” Morgan said, rubbing the back of his head. “Remembering all these lines doesn’t comes naturally to me.”
“You’ll get there,” said Po.
Ash gave Po a warm, appreciative smile. She knew he would have liked an acting part, if only his basketball schedule hadn’t made that impossible. But instead of taking out his disappointment on others, he was doing everything he could to help.
And then, over Po’s shoulder, Ash caught a glimpse of the other person who hadn’t been given the role she wanted. It was Doc Culpepper, their science teacher. She was watching all the activity unfold without her. From the slump of her shoulders, Ash knew the teacher felt left out.
But Ms. Minerva hadn’t just banned high-tech equipment. When Doc had approached Ms. Minerva with ideas for upgrading the lights and sound system for the play, Ms. Minerva had said no. She’d forbidden Doc to touch any equipment that would be used in the play.
Ash understood where Ms. Minerva was coming from. Doc’s upgrades often caused as many problems as they solved. And it was her tinkering that had given the Evoker King access to the school’s systems. But Ash hated to see anyone disappointed. She turned in Doc’s direction, determined to find some way to include the teacher. But then Morgan flubbed another line, and Ash realized she had her hands full already.
By the time she thought about it again, Doc was already gone.
As soon as they returned to the game, Harper hefted her pickaxe.
If they were right, the object they wanted would be found deep belowground. So there was no point trying to go back up to the room where they’d fought the spider jockeys. Instead, they would hack their way through the stone wall at the water’s edge.
Harper expected to find more darkness on the other side. Instead, the air radiated with an orange-red tint. She knew what that meant before she’d even stepped through the narrow tunnel they’d cut.
“Lava,” Jodi said breathlessly. “I’ve never seen so much of it.”
Harper hadn’t either. A great expanse of lava stretched out below them, like an ocean of roiling fire. More lava streamed down from high above, forming awe-inspiring lavafalls. The gray stone of the bridge they stood on looked orange in the glow of the cavern. More bridges crisscrossed the space. There were bridges above them, bridges below them, bridges running in every direction. They formed a complex set of walkways—it was hard to imagine where they all led. Harper felt dizzy trying to take it all in. And she knew those bridges were the only surfaces that would be safe to touch. Touching lava, on the other hand, would be a very bad idea.
“We’ll have to be careful,” she warned. “One false step…”
“Please don’t finish that sentence,” said Po.
“We’ll stay on the bridge,” Jodi said. “Right in the middle of the bridge. Honest.”
If even Jodi and Po were taking this seriously, then Harper knew she was right to be worried.
They followed the bridge to a crossroads. They could choose any of three directions.
“How do we know which way?” asked Morgan.
“Without any information to go on, one guess is as good as any other,” said Harper. “Eeny, meeny, let’s go that way.”
They turned right, following the stone walkway until it ended at a wall.
“Should we cut through the wall?” asked Jodi.
“It’s awfully risky,” said Ash. “For all we know, there’s more lava on the other side, just waiting to rush in.”
“I think I see where we need to go,” said Po. He pointed over the edge of the bridge. “Check that out.”
Harper peered over the ledge, taking care not to get too close. Po was right. Below them, at the level of the lava, there was a red door. It was the only door in sight. Surely it would lead them deeper into the dungeon.
Harper tried to trace the path that would lead them to the door. But there were too many bridges and strange intersections. It was impossible to follow the path with her eyes.
“It’s a maze,” she said. “A three-dimensional maze suspended over a vast sea of lava.”
“And I thought memorizing dialogue was tough,” said Morgan.
“Forget the maze,” said Po. “We can build our own bridge from here.”
“Hmm.” Ash tapped her chin. “We didn’t bring enough building material with us.”
“But I suppose we could dismantle this bridge and reassemble it,” Harper said, finishing Ash’s thought.
“I don’t love the idea of moving blocks around when those blocks are the only thing keeping us from, you know…fwoosh!” Morgan said.
“We’ll be careful,” Harper promised.
Jodi grinned. “Why be careful when you can be creative?”
“Spoken like a true rogue,” Po said in his wizard voice. “Tell us, then, young ruffian. What trick do you have in mind?”
“And spoil the surprise?” Jodi said. “Just follow me, Po the Wise, and maybe I’ll teach you something new.”
* * *
They followed Jodi, retracing their steps to the hole they’d cut through the wall.
“We’re back where we started,” Morgan complained.
Jodi didn’t say anything. Instead of returning to the reservoir room, she walked to the edge of the bridge, right where it met the wall. Then she started placing blocks, forming a ledge that would allow her to walk along the wall.
Po peered at the lava below. “I thought this was exactly what we wanted to avoid.”
“Don’t worry,” Jodi said. “This is as close to the lava as I’m going to get.” She’d built her narrow walkway so that she now stood a little bit below the level of the bridge. “Anybody want to guess what’s on the other side of this wall?” She tapped the stone beside her.
“Ah,” said Ash. “I think I understand.”
“What?” said Morgan. “What’s the plan?”
Harper caught on next. She laughed. “The reservoir. There’s an enormous amount of water right in the other room! And what happens when you add water to lava?” she said.
Po stroked his beard. “Steam?”
“Not in Minecraft,” Morgan said, at last understanding Jodi’s plan. “In Minecraft, water and lava make—”
“Cobblestone,” said Jodi. “One sidewalk, coming up!” And with that
, she swung her pickaxe and hacked a hole through the wall.
Water rushed through the hole immediately, forming a small blue waterfall. Harper and the others watched in awe as the water mixed with the lava below. In a matter of minutes, most of the fiery sea had become a cobblestone floor, perfectly safe to walk upon.
“Way to go, Jodi,” said Po. “That’s what I call thinking outside the blocks!”
* * *
But the lava maze was only the beginning of the challenges they faced that day. They encountered more skeletons, bats, zombies, and slimes, and a creeper who almost blasted Morgan right off a narrow walkway. They quaffed potions, forged new weapons to replace the old, and even stopped to collect riches and other materials they found along the way.
Their strategies worked better than Harper had dared to hope. She had a potion for every situation she could think of. Morgan faced their enemies head-on, while Jodi struck from the shadows. Po and Ash attacked from a safe distance, Ash with arrows and Po with his fireball dispenser. The dispenser itself was a simple-looking block that reminded Harper of a furnace. But it was powered with redstone, and when Po filled the item with fire charges, it spat fire at their enemies. (Harper knew it would also launch snowballs, but she decided that wouldn’t be much use to them here.)
Together, the friends traveled through endless levels and still had food and healing potions to spare. And then they came to the bridge of light.
Unlike the stone walkways in the lava room, this bridge was a wide construction made entirely of glowstone. Harper had seen plenty of glowstone in its raw form in the Nether. But she’d never seen it put to use like this. She certainly hadn’t expected such a sight in the middle of a dark dungeon miles underground.
Dungeon Crawl! Page 3
