TunnelPunks

The Exploration Department

The Exploration Department wasn't much compared to the other departments. It only had a few rooms and fewer workers than the others. Aleister opened the door to the main office. Inside was a single Halfling going over a map to the charted deep tunnels. He was slightly taller than Aleister, he wore brown boots, tan trousers, and a blue shirt with chainmail over it.

The map was chalked to the back wall directly in the center. The Halfling would occasionally add a marking or tunnel to the map as he consulted the piece of parchment he held.

Aleister coughed and said. "Reporting for duty. I'm Aleister."

The Halfling turned around and said. "Ah perfect, my name's Seamus Quickfoot. A pleasure to meet you. I assume you are the Alchemist they sent me. Have a seat, we are still waiting for our third, the Engineer."

---

Morgan felt amazing. Nothing but a little divine healing to get you out of bed in the morning. The cleric of Sol was a white-robed human. The young man, who looked to be in his early twenties, had come to Morgan's bed laying a hand upon Morgan's chest. Morgan looked into the cleric's singular blue eye, the other was hidden under a black eye patch that wrapped around his head. The man began whispering a prayer, closing his singular eye as the area around his hand began to glow a brilliant yellow. Morgan felt the warmth of the light bathe his entire body and suddenly he had no pain in his broken bones.

" Thank you, sir. May I ask your name?" Morgan asked as he got out of the bed.

"I am simply known as the White Mage," The White Mage replied with a smile and walked towards the rest of the patients waiting in the infirmary.

Morgan thought the White Mage quite odd as he left the infirmary.

I wonder what happened to his eye? Morgan thought to himself as he made his way to the Engineering Department.

Morgan opened the door to his little workshop and began going over his tool belt, he worried he'd dropped something in the tunnels. After double-checking his tools were in order, he strapped on his tool belt and began working on a Mana valve he was supposed to have finished a few days ago.

"Morgan just got orders from the higher-ups. You've been reassigned. Report to the Exploration Department," His captain said as he barged in through the door as he always did. "Bad luck for you I guess, survive an earth elemental attack, end up in the Exploration Department."

Morgan's jaw dropped as he heard the news. It was his worst nightmare. His captain was right, he did have bad luck.

"Sir, Have them assign someone else. Please!" Morgan exclaimed as he dropped his wrench.

" Sorry Morgan, I tried but the higher-ups insisted. Your one of my best guys, but after your little incident with the elemental they think you got what it takes in exploration," The captain explained with a sigh.

" Gods why?" asked Morgan as he looked up at the ceiling expecting a divine answer to drop down from the heavens.

"Well, perhaps they have a plan for you," The captain gently put in as he started walking out the door.

Morgan sat there for a moment pitying himself.

After a few more moments of self-pity, he picked up his wrench from the floor and gathered the few things he kept in his workshop. Looking back as he closed the door, he shook his head and slowly plodded his way towards the Exploration Department.

The door opened to the Exploration Department's main office and Morgan stepped inside. He noticed two people inside, a young gnome wearing a black duster with blue trousers. And a Halfling wearing a blue shirt with brown trousers.

"Morgan, reporting for duty," Morgan dejectedly sighed.

"Finally the Engineer. A pleasure to meet you I'm Seamus, and this here is Aleister,"  Seamus said as he gestured to the gnome who was reading over his personal research notes.

"Alright now we can begin," Seamus said gesturing for Morgan to take a seat next to Aleister.

"As you both well know, this is the Exploration Department. You've both been reassigned to my exploration team. After losing exploration team six, The Tunnel Rats,  down in the tunnels last week. The higher-ups gave me the go-ahead to form team seven," Seamus said and began chalking up each of their names on a board next to the map on the wall.

After chalking each of their names on the exploration team's members board, he wrote team seven above their names and the team's designated name. Then with a cheerful voice, he shouted.

"Gentleman, Welcome to The TunnelPunks."