Minecraft: One Last Quest/3CHP

Chapter 14: Gold Ingots + Apple

Several more chicken jockeys emerged from the tree line, charging at the group, and shulkers start spawning around the witch hut. Lam hastily calls for a retreat, and the group take quick shelter in a hole on the side of a hill. Lam is down to one heart left, so Britt decides to give him an enchanted golden apple. Lam declines it at first, knowing about the no enchantment rule that was put in place by The Griefer, but after some pep talk from the rest of the group, he decides to take it for his own good, knowing he really doesn’t have a choice. He leaves to milk a cow, and then returns to Jazz, Elias, and Britt working on a plan. Lam then eats the enchanted golden apple, and the four go after the shulkers and witches. Britt intentionally gets hit with a shulker’s bullet, and uses the bucket of milk from Lam when she gets to the right altitude. Elias equips his crossbow and fires an arrow of Healing at her just as she slams down with a mace, killing the remaining shulkers and witches. Inside the witch hut was a chest which contained another eye of griefer. Just then, The Griefer reappears, knowing that Lam ate the enchanted golden apple, and decides to punish the group by making them find the next coordinates on their own with no hints. The Griefer also mentions that Lam should have everything he needs to know, warning him if he had made it past Act 1, Scene 1 of Macbeth before vanishing once more.

Chapter 15: Nighttime + No Sleep

The following day, at school, Lam talks with Britt, Jazz, and Elias on the soccer bleachers during lunch break to discus their current predicament. Jazz says that they shouldn’t break any more of The Griefer’s rules, and Elias concurs. Lam concurs in part, but adds that what they are currently doing isn’t working. Elias suggests playing Minecraft around the clock, but Lam quickly shuts down that idea, noting that he is falling behind on his schoolwork and has soccer tryouts, Jazz has chess club and violin lessons, and Britt has lacrosse practice. Lam then goes back to an old theory of Gemina probably being The Griefer, and he theorizes that she is because she plays Minecraft more than anyone else in the school, is always in the computer lab, and has a direct line to her dad’s employees, who work as contractors. Lam then admits that he had slipped an invite into Gemina’s backpack earlier, inviting her to the forest behind Elias’ house that night at 8PM.

Chapter 16: Red Mushroom + Brown Mushroom + Flower + Bowl

That evening, Lam, Jazz, and Britt are indeed at the forest behind Elias’ house. As winter approaches, the group are already decked out in winter attire, and each had their own excuse to be at Elias’ on a school night; Lam basically said that he had to help Elias with studying for the upcoming Macbeth quiz. Just then, everyone hides as Gemina appears, wearing a red cap dotted with white spots, white fingerless gloves, a red satchel, and a brown sweater with a mushroom emblem in the middle, cosplaying her Minecraft avatar. Britt tackles her to the ground, but she gets up and dusts herself off as Jazz asks what she is doing. Gemina says that she is cosplaying her Minecraft avatar, The Mooshroom Maiden, wondering as to why the others aren’t dressed up. Britt then exclaims to her that she is The Griefer, much to Gemina’s confusion. As the others circle around her and interrogate her, she believes it to be an initiation of sorts as she runs off, but Lam runs after her, wondering as to what is going on. Gemina stops, and then confesses to the group that she is into Minecraft as well, wondering why the group never thought of asking her to play with them. She adds that she saw the group building the treehouse a few years ago, and believed that when she got that invitation, she thought that she was going to be a member of The Killer Bunnies. The group ultimately decide to have her join, and they all shoot up bunny ears behind their heads. Relieved, Gemina asks the group as to what The Griefer is, believing it to be a hostile boss mob, and Lam says that it appears to be "something like that".

Chapter 17: Paper + Leather

Lam could barely sleep that night, with Gemina not being The Griefer making a major setback. The confrontation had took up an entire day, and Lam begins having second thoughts, believing that he shouldn’t have agreed to play The Griefer’s game in the first place. The next morning, Lam stares straight ahead, unable to process his thoughts as his breakfast remains untouched. His mom believes that he should cut back on the school night hangouts before he excuses himself to head off to school. Later, during lunch, Lam is heading outside to study Macbeth when he bumps into Gemina, who believes she has a lead on The Griefer, believing it to be a student named Issac Caller. Lam waves it off with his Macbeth book, and Gemina excuses herself to let him study. Lam finds a place at the base of a tree to study, before he is interrupted by an oncoming rubber ball, ducking out of the way in the nick of time. Mars then chats with him for a bit before suggesting that he join him for a quick game of gaga ball. Lam accepts it at first, but after Mars mentions that he couldn’t get past Act 1, Scene 1 of Macbeth, Lam politely turns it down, mentioning the studying he has to do. As Mars heads off, Lam skims through Act 1, Scene 1, eventually stumbling upon a passage that mentions three witches. Lam’s eyes grow wide with excitement as he thinks about what location it could mean in the real world, going to the computer lab to look up a map of his hometown, and eventually finding a junkyard known as Wayward Wrecking, which is owned by Lam’s aunt. Going back to the book confirms that the three witches were sisters: the Weyward Sisters. Lam eagerly hopes that his hunch was right all along.

Chapter 18: Iron Ingots + U [sic]

Later that evening, Britt, Jazz, and Elias meet Lam at the old train depot at the edge of town. Of course, the others make their own excuses for needing to be with Lam on a school night, except for Gemina, who was grounded after getting caught sneaking out to Elias’ property, but Lam promised that he would spill the details at school the next day. Britt then considers having Lam call her aunt, who is named Bác Hân, but Lam mentions that he doesn’t have her number, and also says that he found out last year that she was just an old friend of the family and not related by blood. The group then attempt to go in the junkyard by going through a sliding gate, but the junkyard was guarded by two dogs; both being a mix of Rottweiler and German shepherd. Jazz then suggests the train tracks, which lead to a tin storage shed, and Lam recalls that he saw a minecart a bit further down on the tracks, believing that it still works, and says that he has an idea to get the bottle as long as the minecart works.

Chapter 19: Nether Wart + Sugar

Indeed, there is a minecart a bit farther down the tracks, and incredibly, the wheels work perfectly fine. Lam then goes over the plan: Jazz is in the minecart, Elias is by the gate, and Britt is on the roof of the shed. Britt gives Lam a wave to know that she is ready, and Lam acknowledges by waving two fingers at her. Lam then pushes the minecart as it picks up speed, and Elias opens and closes the gate at the right time to allow the minecart to go through the gate, distracting the dogs long enough. Jazz crashes into the stops set inside the structure, and she quickly jumps up to a skylight where Britt helps her up. While the two girls and Elias distract the dogs, Lam heads over to a tower of scrapped cars, eventually finding a bottle beneath the windshield of one of them. Incredibly, the four make it back to the edge of the junkyard safely despite Lam getting injured. Lam then says to the group that they would need to switch up their strategy, asking them to bring their computers to his house tomorrow night for an emergency meeting.

Chapter 20: Chips + Dip

That tomorrow was Friday, and it took Lam most of the afternoon to get the basement ready for his friends. It used to be Lam’s gaming room before he convinced his parents to set up the computer in his bedroom. Lam’s parents also help with clearing out the clutter: reams of Christmas decorations, fishing gear, crafting supplies, workout equipment, and towers of board games. The pool table is moved to the side to make way for some card tables, and Lam sets up his computer down here in no time. He then sets up food for the group: veggies with ranch dip, some bánh mi from the local Viet sandwich shop, and a twelve-pack of soda. Jazz arrives first, followed by Britt and Gemina, with the latter saying to Lam that her parents finally let her off the hook. Britt had her gaming handheld, while Gemina brought her old laptop. Elias is the last to arrive, bringing his own computer tower and some snacks of his own: green square-shaped cookies with chocolate chips resembling creepers. After booting up their computers, everyone logs into the Minecraft server, but Lam quickly excuses himself to retrieve the coordinates and blankets for Elias, Gemina, and Britt. Lam comes back quickly, and the others notice that the coordinates are right where they spawned, so they dig around and eventually find a chest with another eye of griefer for a total of three so far, but The Griefer is nowhere to be found. Jazz then decides to collect some wood as the sun starts to set, and the others follow her lead, collecting enough wood to make a shack to sleep in. Unfortunately, they don’t have enough materials to craft beds, so they are forced to wait out the entire night. Gemina and Jazz then decide to break down a portion of the wall to look for The Griefer, but they are once again nowhere to be seen.