Over the next couple of days, Karl and Sapnap helped me gather supplies and I was able to get almost full netherite armor. Now I just needed to start enchanting my items, and Karl, along with Sapnap, was currently leading me to a good place to do so.
At the moment, the two were yelling lyrics to a song and using their weapons to hack at all the bushes and trees in the area. I followed behind them, staying far enough away to avoid the swings from their axes.
As we rounded towards the back end of Punz's castle, a large dome-shaped—more like egg-shaped—structure caught my eye. It was a deep red color, and it reminded me of the weird plants I had seen on my tour with Karl. He hadn't said much about them, other than the fact I should probably stay away from the crawling vines.
"What is this?" I stepped right up to the egg structure and patted it with my hand as I questioned no one in particular.
"What?" Karl asked after stumbling to a stop from Sapnap's shove.
I pointed to the structure with my eyebrows raised. "What's this?"
Sapnap jumped in. "I think that's a meeting house for the Eggpire or something."
"The Eggpire?"
He raised his hands in defense. "Hey, I'm not a part of it, so I don't know."
"It's like a weird egg thing that some people worship." Karl said.
"Yeah, and Bad worships it, so that means he's basically a part of a cult." Sapnap grinned at him.
Karl started laughing. "Bad's a part of a cult!"
Sapnap joined in the laughter and I just shook my head, smiling to myself. I doubted they could hold a conversation without someone laughing at some point.
I walked along the outside of the meeting house and found the entrance. The dark, wooden table in the middle of the building was empty and there was no movement otherwise, so I stepped inside to explore a bit.
There were posters hanging on the red walls, all the text reading some version of 'join the Eggpire'. Small vines crawled up some parts of the structure and curled around the corners of the posters. Besides that, the blood-red room was quite bare.
"You went inside?" Karl stood in the doorway and Sapnap brushed past him to step in.
"Any cool stuff in here?" Sapnap asked, moving around the opposite side of the table and looking under it. "There's a button." He said a second before some mechanical whirring sound emitted from the middle of the table. A large hole had opened up in the wood.
"Wait, what happened?" Karl had now stepped inside and all three of us leaned in to try to see down the hole.
I pulled back. "That's a deep hole. Why is this even here though?"
Sapnap squinted, staring down. "Is that...Sam?"
Karl leaned farther. "Hello? Sam?"
"Sam's down there?" I asked incredulously, leaning a bit in an attempt to see down the hole again. I caught sight of green and gold and Sam's head raised to look at us.
It looked like he tried to stand up, pressing against the wall for support, but staring all the way down at him made me feel like I was going to fall down myself. I pulled my gaze from him.
"What is he doing down there? Did he fall?" I watched Karl and Sapnap look down at Sam. "Please don't fall in as well." I muttered.
"I think I know where he's at." Karl pushed away from the table so that he was standing straight. "But we can't go down there without special suits."
"What do you mean 'special suits'? Is it that dangerous to go down there?" My eyebrows drew together in concern.
"No—Well...I don't know for sure. I just know the Egg is bad."
I had no idea what Karl meant by 'bad'. I didn't think an egg could be bad in the first place, but I didn't want to question him about it. What mattered now though, was making sure Sam was okay.
"So we should probably get Sam out as soon as possible." I moved to the doorway, turning back to Sapnap and Karl in the room. "Where can I get a suit?"
After basically putting on a hazmat jumpsuit stashed in the church—which made me question whether the Egg was more or less dangerous than some sort of radiation—Karl led the way to where we would find Sam.
We had to walk single-file down a long, rock corridor until eventually the familiar red vines were bleeding into the gray.
Karl turned to look at me and Sapnap. "I don't know if anyone else is down here so be quiet." His gaze flickered over me. "You didn't bring your sword?"
"No? I left it at the church. Do I need it?"
Sapnap tapped my shoulder and handed me a pickaxe. "You can get Sam out and me and Karl will handle anyone else."
"Okay..." I took the enchanted, netherite pickaxe and bounced the weight in my hands to get a comfortable hold. I wasn't expecting to actually use swords down here. Was it common for full-on sword fights to break out in the Dream SMP?
I guess that was a dumb thought because I wouldn't be working to get the best armor and weapons if there were no use for them in the first place. I hadn't really realized the proper reason for that until now.
We finally stepped into a huge cavern completely covered in the biggest vines I had seen yet. The crimson vines, sprouting thorns that looked as sharp as knives, snaked along the ground, walls, and ceiling. Scarlett tendrils carrying spiked leaves hung from the ceiling like curtains of rain. Puddles of lava, and cooling magma spotted the floor, making it look even more dangerous to walk on besides already avoiding the vines.
I blew out a breath as I felt the heat of the cavern hit me. It was like I had stepped into the Nether. Did the Nether smell like the fire and sage did here?
Karl stayed in the lead, concentrating on the ground in front of him so as to pick his way around the lava and vines. Sapnap suddenly slipped past me and grabbed Karl's arm to stop him, pointing with his sword ahead of us.
Through the thick, red tendrils coiling above the ground I spotted an incredibly tall figure shrouded in black. Luckily, they weren't facing our direction and they continued to stand still, seemingly occupied. A hood covered their head but what looked like two horns sprouted from the top. Horns? They couldn't be real could they? But then again, I really should stop doubting this place because it was always going to surprise me.
Karl placed a finger to his lips to remind us to be quiet and Sapnap and I nodded before we carried on, moving closer and closer to the figure on the opposite side of the giant cave.
"...Alright let me ask you this question, Sam. Have you started hearing the voices?" The tall figure spoke towards a giant red egg.
I realized he wasn't talking to the egg but rather a large obsidian shape sitting on top of it. That must have been where Sam was. We ducked behind a large vine, and Sapnap turned to me.
"Okay, we'll distract Bad while you get Sam out." He whispered.
Karl and I nodded and we parted ways. The Egg sat close to one of the corners of the cavern, so I took my path near the wall. I watched Karl and Sapnap mirror my movements, creating distance between us. Somehow the horned figure, who I knew now was named Bad, hadn't noticed us yet.
Right as I approached Bad's field of view, Sapnap called out from behind him.
"Hey Bad! We have reason to believe you're holding someone hostage."
Bad started, but quickly regained himself and turned to face them. "Well, well, have you two finally come to accept the Egg?"
Now that his back was towards me, I picked up my pace and reached the base of the egg. It had a strange bumpy texture—one that I had only seen in alien movies.
I shook my head to get rid of all the possibilities of how this could go wrong and started climbing the egg to reach the obsidian case on top. A clash of metal rang out, and I could only imagine what was happening down below.
"Sam." I kept my voice lowered, even though the sounds of the fight could drown it out.
"Taryn?" His head appeared from behind a hole in the obsidian, dark circles rimming his eyes and his gas mask nowhere to be seen. He looked like he hadn't slept in a while.
"Okay, back up. I'm gonna try and break you out of here." He moved away from the hole and I swung the pickaxe towards the obsidian, cringing when it made a loud sound. The sleek, black rock only cracked a bit after the first swing. This was going to take a while.
I pressed on though, and a few good sized chunks started to break free, sliding off the Egg. Only a few more strikes left and the hole had to be big enough for Sam to get through. I swung my pick down again, but something landed beside me, interrupting my pick's course with the blade of a sword. I quickly drew back, holding the handle of the pick tightly in my hand.
A man wearing netherite straightened up, staring right at me with blazing red eyes that were slitted like a cat's. The feline features didn't stop there, though; two cat ears flattened against a head of dark brown hair with frosted tips.
"Thought you could sneak around?" The cat-like man taunted.
Karl and Sapnap definitely did not mention that there would be another person here, but it looked like I would have to deal with this myself.
Knowing I had probably hesitated for too long, I swung the pick towards the man's feet. He hopped back a bit and used his sword to push my pick too far out of its intended arc. In my effort not to drop it, I almost fell off the Egg, instinctively grabbing a hold of the obsidian. The sharp rock cut my palm as I pulled myself back to safety and out of the way of another quick swipe of his sword.
I sucked in a breath, my heart pumping fast. This person was trying to hurt me. He was actually trying to hurt me.
I practically danced around the obsidian as the cat-man attempted to catch me with his sword again. I made a move to aim my pick at him with all I could muster, but he only blocked me once more.
I was definitely not a sword-fighter.
At this point, I had made a full circle to where I had been trying to break Sam out. With desperation, I swung the pickaxe at the hole and a large piece of obsidian fractured off, making the hole big enough for him to finally crawl through.
"Sam, get out!" I yelled, moving fast to avoid the cat-man
I jumped onto a large vine and then stumbled on solid ground, hearing the sound of my attacker's footsteps too close behind me. I tried to glance back at the Egg to see if Sam was getting out, but realized that was a bad idea in a lava filled room. He had looked so out of it I could only hope he was doing his best to escape the obsidian as I drew the cat-man away.
Traversing the ground was a lot harder while running than walking. I dodged spiky vines hanging from the ceiling and immediately leapt over a small pool of lava, feeling the heat creep along my skin. Through it all, the cat-man only seemed to get closer.
I needed a sword, or—or any weapon other than this pick. I needed something to get this guy off my tail.
"Get away from her!" Sapnap's cry nearly startled me, but it was music to my ears. A sound of swords connected followed soon after and I came to a rough stop, my breath rattling through me.
I had no idea where Karl was, so the next best thing was to go back for Sam. When I reached the Egg again, he was already standing on the ground, using the cavern wall for support as he moved.
I looped his arm over my shoulders and headed for the way we came in. Sapnap still had the cat-man occupied, but the distraction probably wouldn't last long. I didn't even know if Bad would come over and try to stab me next—or some other Egg-obsessed person.
After picking up the pace, we were able to reach the exit and start our way back through the long, narrow tunnel. Sam had mumbled a few incoherent sentences along the way, which worried me. By the time we had left the red-infested cavern behind, I tried to process what was even going on as I walked behind him.
"Sam, what happened to you?" I asked.
He sighed heavily, his voice carrying a mix of emotions. "They trapped me."
I stared at him in front of me, his head slightly bowed as he used the walls on either side for support. I had only heard a small part of what Bad had said to him before we intervened, but even then, it didn't make any sense. "Why would they do that?"
"I don't know..." He sounded almost exasperated. "I think they were trying to convert me to the Egg."
My brows furrowed but I stayed quiet, deciding not to push any further. Whatever that Egg did completely drained him. It made me wonder what would happen if I wasn't wearing this suit Karl had us put on. Would I have been affected quickly or does it take time to set in? Is the Egg going to have lasting effects on Sam?
I kept glancing behind me, but the tunnel stayed empty even as we made it to sun-touched grass above ground.
We trudged on, and Sam nearly collapsed on the Prime path, sitting down heavily and putting his head in his hands.
"Don't pass out now," I warned. I was still on edge as I looked around again. I didn't know if we were safe yet. We were just sitting out here in the open.
"Taryn!"
My head whipped in the direction that my name was called, and Sapnap was running towards us from the direction we had come from.
"Hurry, we have to go!" He called as he neared us.
I immediately helped Sam up and started towards a set of stairs. "Are they following you?"
"No, but I don't want them finding us out here after that." He chuckled a bit through his words as he looped Sam's other arm over his neck to help.
"There you are!" Karl skipped down the steps to meet us halfway. "I led Bad out pretty far so we should be good for now."
"Where should we bring Sam?" I asked, looking between Sapnap and Karl.
"My house is the closest thing right now so we can go there." Karl took the lead, keeping an eye out as he ushered us into his bamboo-surrounded home.
"We should be safe here." He shut the door behind him, and all of us seemed to relax at the same time, our adrenaline leaving us.
We were still a little tense, barely moving from where we had frozen inside the house, waiting for any sound of footsteps. Only the birds made themselves known, and it took a while for us all to realize we had gotten away.
We were safe, but I still had so many questions about what the heck even happened. Right now though, I didn't want to pressure Sam about anything and I knew he probably wouldn't want to be questioned either. What really was taking root in my mind was the idea of a nap. That sounded nice.