Guardians of Terraria

Episode 3.3 - Secret of the Sands

When the sandstorm let up, it turned out their shelter was right next to the sinkhole.

Fifteen blocks across, the walls made of layered orange sandstone, looking to become harder in substance the further it went down. Robyn could hear squeaks of some sort of creature down below, but she couldn't see anything... yet.

"Hayley's brother must be down there," Sid said.

"So will a boatload of enemies, no doubt," William muttered.

"We'll be careful. We've got a bed."

Sid had discovered at some point that beds could be used to set your 'home point,' which was the spot where you would appear after using a Recall Potion. By default their home point was back in the forest near home, where they'd first woken up, so Robyn, William and Sid had all set their home points to the shelter next to the sinkhole. Therefore, if things went horribly wrong down in the sinkhole, they could just drink a Recall Potion and teleport back up there, then heal up and head back down again.

The sinkhole sloped steeply down, but the three of them were able to slowly traverse downwards by dropping down each ledge. William placed torches, while Sid got out his Flare Gun and shot some flares downwards.

The flares lit up the sinkhole in a cylinder of light as they flew downwards. Robyn thought she saw something spindly, with lots of legs and claws, get illuminated on the way down, but it went even further before hitting a sandy bottom.

Was that a spider? Please don't be a spider.

They carefully climbed down to the bottom of the sinkhole. Once there Sid fired more flares in each direction. Some only hit close-by walls but a few shot down tunnels made from hardened sandstone. One landed next to what looked like a collection of bulging white sacs.

Eggs? Ewww!

She began feeling like she was shaking, worried that something was going to leap out of some dark crevice and gobble them all up for breakfast.

"What are those?" Sid said, placing torches to light up the entire tunnel, oblivious to fear as always. Robyn reminded herself of how Sid thought this entire world was just a videogame. This probably explained why he had a complete lack of fear at that moment.

"It might be best to leave those... things, alone, Sid," William said.

Robyn inwardly agreed with him but said nothing.

Sid ignored him and hit one of the egg sacs with his whip.

A tiny, grub-like creature burst out and leaped an impossibly large distance forward. Sid dodged to the side, seemingly anticipating it, but the grub latched onto William.

"Agh!" he cried, swinging his silver broadsword.

Robyn aimed her bow but was afraid to fire, in case she hit William.

Sid's Flinxes rushed forward, and began biting at the grub, knocking William over but also pinning the grub so it couldn't escape. The two of them easily overpowered it and it soon died, bursting into a couple of silver coins.

"Why did you hit that?" Robyn demanded.

"Hey, we didn't know what they did! What better time to find out than when nothing else is attacking us?" Sid replied.

She groaned. That makes sense, but I don't have to like it.

"Let's just find Hayley's brother and get out of here," William said. Having had that grub biting all over him, he looked as shaken as she felt.

The tunnel had led to a dead end, so Sid elected to blast further downwards with some bombs. There turned out to be another cavern not far beyond, this one similarly tube-shaped, except there was another underground house inside. It was made from the same sandstone as the surrounding walls, making it blend in with the cave more, however its cubic structure still made it stand out. Inside was a sandstone chest containing an ornately-decorated weapon named the Storm Spear. William picked it up, and gave it a swing. It launched some sort of electric pulse forward.