Part 4: The Root of the Problem

Pulling yourself up to your feet, you head towards the door on the right. There had better be something really neat behind this door, like... like candy... or hooch... or hooch candy. Hooch candy... yyyeaaahhh... Do they make that? They should. Wait, are you even old enough to drink? Only some parts of you are. Better think of something more appropriate. Maybe you can find a nice cola.
You turn the right door's knob and give the door a good tug, but it doesn't budge. You tug a few more times, throwing your whole body weight into it.
"Come on! You've got to be kidding me!" you exclaim. Then you realize you need to push the door, not pull. Woops.
The room on the other side of the door is well-lit, that's for sure. In fact, your eyes had adjusted too much to the dark room and you find yourself unable to see. After a few moments of squinting and blinking and "urgh... light..."ing, you're finally able to look directly into the room. The floors, walls and ceiling are all made of dirt, and there's a little wooden table with two stools in the center of the room. There's a bookcase on one wall, and another door opposite you. The room looks both creepy and charming and it reminds you a bit of a children's story book about moles.
Wait, are mole people real? Is that a thing? Are mole people right here, under Menewsha? Are they going to kill you and eat you on this quaint little table? You'd better check for signs of mole people.
Well, the table and stools are pretty low... definitely not a good sign. They're much too small for an average human. You look at the books on the shelves and find that they're written in English, not... molish? Molese? You make a mental note to look up the proper name for the language of the mole people if you ever make it back to the surface. You then make another mental note to first see if mole people are real. You should also look up when that new Batman movie is coming out... you wanna see that.
Finding that the room only half supports the existence of mole people, you decide to press on. You go through the other door in the room and this time find yourself in what looks like a bedroom. There's a fireplace crackling on one side of the room - don't ask me how a fireplace works underground without killing everyone and without a chimney visible at the surface - and a huge, cozy-looking bed right in the middle. You notice a lump under the blankets... it's small, definitely not human.
"MOLE PEOPLE!" you shriek in terror. The figure sits upright in bed.
"WHA? WHA? WHOZZAH?" the figure yells in alarm.
Screaming, you run back to the first room and begin climbing up the rope.
"DON'T EAT ME, DON'T EAT ME! I TASTE HORRIBLE! I ATE ASPARAGUS TODAY! I ATE LOTS OF ASPARAGUS! AND BRUSSEL SPROUTS! I'LL TASTE DISGUSTING!" you yell, tears streaming down your cheeks.
"Now how would a little thing like me eat a big ol' thing like you?" a little voice says from below you. You look down and realize you only managed to climb the rope about three feet before you stopped to talk about vegetables. The light from the open dining room door has filled the cavern with some dim light. Below you stands a little red... person thing. It doesn't look very molish, but you can't be too sure. You've never seen a mole person.
"You gonna come down from there?" the little red possible mole person asks you.
"You gonna eat me?" you ask.
"Nope," the red maybe-mole says. This could be a trick, but your arms are still pretty sore from before, so you lower yourself back down. "I was hopin' that trap would bring someone down, but I didn't expect someone quite so... hysteric," the little red thing says.
"Wait, that tent is yours? You set up that rug-over-the-hole thing? What are you, an old cartoon character?" you ask. You had only made that cartoon reference in your head, so you see no reason not to rehash it for this thing. No sense in wasting a good comparison.
"Yeah, that's mine. I needed some help and figured that would be the fastest way to get it." The little red person goes over to the door on the left and opens it up. "Come on."

You follow the little red person down a long tunnel... a really long tunnel.
"I try to stay out of the way of the people up on the surface, but sometimes their world involves mine, and then what can ya do? See, this tunnel connects to the boiler room. I need to get there, but..." the little red person gestures to a huge thing blocking the tunnel in front of you.
"It looks like... a root," you say, inspecting it.
"Yep, seems to be. Just grew through here overnight. I've never seen anything like it. I mean, look at the size of it! Somethin's going on up there, and I don't think I'm the only person it concerns."
"What does this have to do with me?" you ask, knocking on the root. You start working out a pretty awesome drum riff... okay, another mental note. Pursue drumming as a career.
"I need you to go up there and see what's causing this," your red companion says.
"I can't get up, though! The rope is cursed! There's all sorts of tomfoolery and hibber-nabber!" Is that a phrase? Probably not, but you've had a rough day. "I tried to climb up it, but I just ended back up at the bottom!"
"Yeah, that's part of the trap," the creature replies. "You don't need to go back up that way. You can take the stairs." He or she leads you back through the tunnel. Just before the entrance to the main pit there's a door. The red person opens it and, sure enough, there's a flight of stairs. Without another word, you run up them. Soon you find yourself back on the glorious, glorious surface. The stars are twinkling above you, your fellow Menewshans are running about in costume, there's even a stand selling sodas over there! Oh, beautiful surface.

After enjoying a soda and getting some free candy, you remember you have a duty. Your sense of direction is pretty good, so you'd guess the source of that root to be somewhere in the forests to the north. You could go find the source, but then... you never promised that little red dude you'd help them.

Will you go to the forests and find what weird plant is causing such strange roots? Or would you like to go see that haunted house? Maybe investigate the possibly-ghostly bay? Maybe go for some ice cream?

What will you do?

(That's the last update for tonight! See you all tomorrow!)

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