Welcome to "The Diary of a Miner"; a blog detailing the adventures and mysteries that I, Syeonyx, embark upon in my quest to further my mining and survival skills! It'll be tough, there will be good times and bad times, but I'll always be alive to post my adventures... probably...

Climbing up through hell

     We left the strange lab, having to be sprayed with the disinfectant mist again before we were able to leave. Remembering the stairs and gateway from before, we headed right from the door back towards the them, finding a small checkpoint that sat beneath a staircase. Behind it sat another guard, who seemed bored, likely due to the lack of activity, and perked up the moment he saw us approaching. According to the map on the PDA, this would lead to the first of the towers we would need to check, and judging from the guard's reaction, it was seldom explored or entered by others, scientists and guards alike.

"Gentlemen. Anything I can do for you?"

"We're here to take a look at the activity in the structure. See if the results have been replicated yet."

"Fair enough. I just need to see your cell badges, and for you to sign the book. Need to keep a record of everyone that's come through this gate."

The guard passed us a booklet with a pen, whilst we passed him our cell badges. As we entered our fake names, he passed the badges through a scanner, which bleeped once and showed a green light. Passing them back, we reattached them to our coats, and waited for him to open the gate to let us through.

"Ah you're the guys in the Two labs. Some weird stuff you've been doing lately. Messing around with those... things. I'd suggest you be careful around the ghast, but you're already aware of that."

"The ghast? What do you mean?"

"You know? That weird floating squid thingy! Gives me the creeps the way it just bobs around in the air squealing to itself. You should know about those; your lab created the damn things!"

"Oh right. Actually, we didn't, we just brought them across from the Nether..."

"The what...? Never mind, go on through. Just be careful of the pigmen further up top. They've been a bit off apparently. They've attacked a scientist about two days ago. Wasn't even doing anything, just checking on their progression."

"That's unusual?"

"It is when you keep making them to be friendly to us. Or at least ignore us. Don't know how or why, but they won't attack us, although I've heard they can be quite vicious."

"Well, we'll be careful, thanks."

We passed through the gate and began to ascend the stairs, trying to make sense of what the guard had been saying. It seemed that our disguises worked at least, and we would soon be entering the first structure, but the mention of the "weird floating squid thingy" did unnerve me slightly. As did the idea that they might attack us. How had the scientists managed to make them passive to HoN Co. employees? Or was it a more general thing, and they had been altered to be passive to everyone. Well we'd find out soon enough. As we neared the top, we began to hear noises similar to how the guard described, and for the first time since entering the HQ, the fear kicked in! It wasn't just me either; all three of us slowly down reflexively, but we pushed on, knowing that a low of lives depended on us. I just hoped that SERVERE was able to get the other six free to help us.

"Look, up there!"

A few steps from the top, I looked directly up and froze. Above us was a central column that climbed all the way to the ceiling, with lighting on every wall. But it wasn't that which had drawn my attention. It was the odd, creamy white creature that was floating off to the left. It was a Ghast from the Nether!


We remained where we were for a few moments, trying to determine whether it posed a threat to us. It noticed us enter the structure, and seemed to be doing the exact same thing. It floated on the spot for a few moments, before making a lighting squealing sound before bobbing away to the other side of the column. We took this opportunity to rush to the stairs that wound around the column, and up to the top. We couldn't determine whether the Eye of Ender was up there, but we knew from the ceiling way up above us, the Ghast wouldn't be able to follow us. But as we followed the staircase, we eventually met it on the other side, where it turned to meet us again and stared vacantly. It was the single most chilling experience of my life; it was an odd creature from another dimension, floating freely in the air, and we were face to face with it with less than four feet between us and it. It eventually lost interest however, and floated downwards, whilst we continued on up. As we neared the top however, we began to hear more odd sounds, but different to those of the Ghast. Reaching the next level, we saw what was making it.


Much like the Ghast, they spotted us, and seemed intrigued at first, but they too eventually lost interest in us, and went back to wandering around. We noticed however that this level had an exit at opposite ends, which upon investigating, we found led to a small balcony that overlooked the surrounding area. We could now understand why the base had gone undetected for so long. It was covered by overhanging jungle canopy! The only visible sections of it were the dock, which was obscured enough to not be worth investigating. Looking out across the way however, we were able to see four additional structures, which seemed similar to the one we were currently in. It was then that we realised that the structures were actually towers! We had thought they would be heavily guarded buildings quite close to the ground. Instead each tower seemed to stretch a few hundred feet into the air. Heading back, we found the next staircase, leading up to another floor, presumably with some type of creature atop it for defence. So far however we had not found any guards and assumed that these creatures from the Nether were their stand-in guard dogs!

"Let's just hope they don't have those strange fire creatures from the Nether too, otherwise we may well have lost this. I don't think we're prepared for that. Even if we are, we all three can't reconstruct the three rifles quickly enough to defend ourselves."

Cautiously entering up the next set of stairs, we were surprised to see sunlight close to the top. Once there, we emerged into the top platform of a huge open area with no walls, just four supports that held up the roof. Even more odd, the top platform only had more pigmen, which displayed the same traits as the ones on the lower level, with no Eye of Ender in sight, if you pardon the pun. Looking out to the West, we could see the sun begin to set, from a massive height, although not as high as some of the jungle flora around us.

"Now what?"

"We haven't searched this place thoroughly yet. It's likely that if they're going to hide them in these towers, they'll hide it at the top. That's what I would do..."

We began to search the area, hoping to find the location of the Eye, expecting it to be on a plinth, or hung from the roof in some overly elaborate style. But there was nothing, beside a lot of pigmen. However, as we circled the main column, we spotted a chest sitting on the opposite side to the stairway. A lot of pigmen were surrounding the chest, and seemed a little edgy about our presence. Whether than related to the contents of the chest or not, we didn't know, but their behaviour had changed slightly from a few moments before.

"I think we found it!"


UOPETA made his way carefully through the crowd of pigmen, all of which were now watching him intently. THEROS took out the components for his rifle and reassembled them quickly and fluidly, just as UOPETA reached the chest.

"Careful UOPETA. This could turn very ugly indeed..."

UOPETA ignored the warning and reached down to open the chest. With the lid partially ajar, he peered inside, and put his hand deep inside. He remained in that pose for a moment, before his face lit up, and he began pulling his arm back out.

"UOPETA, watch out!!!"

Syeonyx signing off

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