Into the Healand Mines

The Healand Mines lie near High Oak, a small town in the mountains, and once supplied most of the silver for Meliora's enchanted instruments. Long before the invasion a Rift opened spontaneously in the caverns, the tunnels collapsed, and the townsfolk left the mine for safer trades. No one cared what happened underground afterwards, which is how the invasion caught the realm off guard: it came not across the guarded borders, but from within.

Deep inside, Aurelius finds the Rift already corrupted despite its youth, its caverns heavy with crystals the invaders seem to be harvesting. He suspects that whatever waits in these caves is also corrupting Rifts across the realm. Somewhere ahead, he is certain, lies a portal into the goblins' domain.

The way is barred by a Rift Gate, raised long ago to shield people from the volatile Rift within but now sealed by a new locking enchantment. The stranger hunts down three runic keys through collapsing tunnels and ambushes, and hauls an old cannon on a rail cart to blast through the walls. Mortars, Aurelius remarks drily, hardly seem a safe mining tool.

Behind the last barrier stand orc shamans, creatures Aurelius had always taken for a myth, holding the portal open. Each time one falls the barrier returns and fresh defenders pour in, until the last of them is slain. Without them the portal collapses, and what remains of the invaders is left to Meliora's own army.

"I always thought they were but a myth..." — Aurelius