Minecraft Monarchies – #19

Dean and Dad entered into the Castle, it’s sign half-broken so they weren’t quite sure what to call it. The Castle of the Dumb Zombies? The Castle of the Tons of Treasure and No Mobs? It seemed doubtful that it was either of those, but it didn’t hurt to hope.

Moving through the darkened antechamber, they place torches and check their halves of the room for secrets or buttons. There was nothing. But ahead a corridor stretched on, shrouded in darkness.

They continued, placing torches as they went. The corridor turned and turned again.

“If this keeps up, I think I’m going to be dizzy!” Dad joked.

Dean shushed him. Who knew if, in this mod, the monsters might not respond to sound.

Deeper into the Castle they went, an empty room here or there to mark the way. How big was this thing? They gradually moved down a step at each turn as well, pushing them just a little deeper into the depths of the place as they moved forward.

Then, finally, from beyond the soft background music of the game, they heard the sound of sparking flames. But not the friendly crackle of a campfire. This was the insidious sound of a spawner.

They were about to have company!

Dean changed to his bow, shook his head, and changed back. “There’s not enough room in here. I’m going to fight them with my sword. And you keep out your pickaxe and kill the spawner right as soon as you can.

Dad nodded, and then they charged.

Running around the corner, screaming like maniacs, Dean slashed and hacked at the three zombies he found standing there. He killed them within moments.

Their bodies faded and Dad realized that, when faced with zombies, he’d automatically changed back to sword again. That was not going to help any if they found more spawners. No more of that he chided himself, switching back to the pickaxe.

He walked forward and destroyed it with his pick.

The room was dark and spooky. When they put up their torches, it was just spooky. The end of it had a narrow corridor that dropped down yet again. But this time it was different. From the passageway echoed the moans of zombies, the clickety-clack of skeletons, and the muttering of witches.

Suddenly both of them wondered if taking this quest had been a bad idea.

Walking down the corridor, and into the open middle of the castle, they realized that it definitely had been.

A spawner occupied its own platform with no noticeable way to get onto it. Other spawners sparked and smoked from the distance, one in the corner of the floor they were on, more down the steps to the next level, and still more at the level after.

It was a spawner boss battle. Skeletons came out, shooting arrows like crazy while witches threw bottles of poison, cackling. And the nearest spawner had a horde of zombies pushing forward to kill them.

Dad and Dean VS The Legion of Mobs. Dean slashed the zombies, driving them back . . . but taking arrows to his side. Meanwhile, Dad saw a skeleton archer spawn at the middle platform.

That platform was going to be big trouble in a short time if he didn’t do something about it. He grabbed some stairs, desperately looking for a spot to place them to use to get to the platform.

And then a brilliant thought lit up his brain. He’s use them like stone blocks to simply make a bridge!

He started putting them down while Dean fought the zombies. One block, two blocks. It was working!

Clipping a block out of the wall, Dad pushed foward and eliminated the spawer. He noticed another platform with a spawner, and did that one in as well.

“Dad, I need a little help over here!” Dean yelled. Dad turned. Dean had most of the zombies dead. But more were spawning and the skeletons were moving up the stairs to shoot more arrows into him.

“Hey, boneheads, deal with this,” Dad bellowed. He pulled out his sword, jump-attacking the first skeleton for a critical hit and kill. Then he swiped, knocking the next skeleton back.

“Zombies are dead!” Dean yelled. Dad switched to his pickaxe and ran past Dean, destroying the spawner.

“Let’s head back to the last room and heal up,” Dad said. Dean nodded and the two moved back out of sight from the way they had come. In the room in which they had wrecked the first spawner, they ate foot while watching the entrance to the room.

“That’s three spawners gone,” Dean said. “We’re doing really well.”

“Yeah, but how many more do you think they have left?” Dad asked.

Dean shrugged. “A lot?” he asked.

Dad sighed. “Alright, I think you sword mobs, and I pickaxe spawners, and whenever we are low on hearts we come back here. Deal?”

“I was going to say the same exact thing. Definitely deal,” Dean said.

The two went back over to the entryway. Dean started to count down.

“3, 2, 1 . . . go!” Dean ran forward and Dad followed behind. Down the stairs they went — right into an ambush of skeletons and witches!

“Now you die, little heroes,” one of the witches cackled. Potions flew, and both Dad and Dean were poisoned.

“Dad, you have to get back!” Dean cried.

Dad looked and saw another witch twirl up and out of the nearest spawned.

He’d get back, but not until the witch spawner was destroyed.

“Hold the line, Dean! kill the witches and stay alive. I’ve gotta do this!”

Dean killed a witch and Dad jumped through, zigging and zagging to avoid being hit. He was hit a bunch of times, but not before he smashed the spawner to a million pieces.

“Come on, Dad. Hurry! Neither of us is going to last much longer!”

Dad ran back, Dean killing more witches and making a hole. Both of them were at just one heart, poison coloring their life blood green.

They ran up the stairs and turned the corner.

They were safe. For a bit at least. Belches and munching filled the room as they ate and ate at the meat in their inventory.

“That was super close!” Dad said.

“Yeah. But now I think we can finish them on the next wave. The witches are gone. It’s just skeletons and maybe a few other things on the bottom floor. Easy enough.”

Just then a skeleton stepped around the corner, followed by another. They shot arrows at Dean and Dad. Their raised shields stopped the blows, but it fueled something else.

“Charge!” yelled Dean. Dad followed. Quickly the two skeletons were just bone loot on the ground, but they continued on, down the stairs, and into the mess of skeletons and zombies that peopled the place.

It was a madhouse of bladed-fury. Dean jumped and slashed in one direction, while Dad did the same in the other. Both of them came upon spawners at the same time and, simultaneously, they destroyed them using the pickaxes in their inventories.

QUEST COMPLETE — SECONDARY QUEST STARTED. FIND THE TREASURE OF THE CASTLE!

Around them, all of the mobs despawned. And Dad, at 2 hearts, and Dean, at 3, ran at each other and jumped, bumping their chests together in victory.

Then they stopped, realization taking over their blocky face. There was a second quest?! That involved a treasure?!!

“First one to find it gets the first pick of the loot!” Dean exclaimed. Dad laughed and immediately ran over to the wall, checking for buttons or secrets.

Dean checked the other wall. Then the both saw a gleam of something out of the corner of their eyes. Turning as one, they saw something that couldn’t be anything other than the treasure. It was a shiny brick of material inside of which was a chest.

It was set into the wall of a cliff-like overhang, and far below bubbled an ocean of lava.

“I feel like us competing to get to that might end up with us both dying,” Dad said, sighing. Dean nodded.

“You can have the first pick,” Dean said.

Dad smiled. “Just because you said that, I think you deserve the first one. Come on, let’s work together and get it.”

They headed over slowly, chopping steps into the stone so that they would fall and die. Finally they got there and Dean opened up the chest.

“Dad,” he said, staring. You are not going to believe this. He let dad look over his shoulder, into a miniature version of his inventory. Dad gasped as well.

Inside the chest was a magical netherite chest plate and a magical trident.

Minecraft Monarchies – Table of Contents