Foss opened the door deeper into the
foul Graul house, and a scything blade sprang out of the door frame
and slammed against his armor, knocking him to the side. He grunted
but appeared unhurt, and levered the blade out of the wall.
The larger room on the other side of
the door stank of putrefying flesh. Eight wooden chairs were crowned
with bleached skulls. The monstrous table was covered with a crude
tablecloth of tanned human skin. A rotting human head sat where the
centerpiece would normally be located.
The rest of the group crowded around
the door while Foss searched for more traps, finding scythe blades at
two more doors and disarming them quickly and efficiently. He then
booted open the northern door while the rest of the group edged
around the chairs.
The revealed room was strewn with toys
of carved wood and bone and partial animal carcasses, a hideous
parody of a nursery. The walls were marked with crude paintings
drawn in blood.
Nevis winced. “By Shelyn . . .this
place.” The gnome was turning a delicate shade of chartreuse. Two
smaller ogrekin shrieked. Foss slashed at one with his axe, dropping
it, and turned to the other, while Jori raced up beside him and
attacked with her knife, missing. The melee was brief but intense,
and Melissah tried to help and received a nasty wound from a spear
for her trouble.
“Two fewer nightmares,” Iozua said.
Melissah passed her hand over the wound, channeling protective
energies. The wizard shook his head. “Anything worth spending
further seconds in this room for?”
“I don't think so,” Melissah
replied.
Foss grunted. “I can't imagine
anything valuable enough.”
They moved quickly to the next door, a
closet of sorts filled with dozens of humanoid fetishes crafted from
all kinds of unspeakable junk. Foss looked the room over and found a
jade ring on one of the human fingerbones dangling from the walls.
The next room contained a bearskin rug before a tremendous hearth and
a huge couch haphazardly upholstered in animal hide and human skin
and decorated with animal talons, enormous hairy spider legs, fox
heads, and human hands and feet. There was a dark, foul pit in front
of the couch.
The next door led into what should be
the final room on this floor. Foss glanced over the group, made an
apologetic face, and opened the door. The room was a vile
bedchamber, with three walking corpses standing guard and everything
swimming with blood, rot, and flies. An enormous, blobby female with
stringy black hair and grayish skin shrieked in rage.
“Now you fireball,” Melissah said
to Iozua.
“Ya think?” the wizard demanded.
He retreated slightly and hurled a flaming gem into the room, where
it exploded, setting the undead Grauls on fire and covering Mammy
Graul in a layer of blackened scorch that improved her appearance
tremendously.
Jori ducked into the room and cast a
ray of light at Mammy, scorching her further, and Foss charged.
Mammy took his axe through her arm, but then she levitated toward the
ceiling and cast a spell of vile corruption at Foss, who shook from a
wave of sickness. Weakened, he hacked at her again, cleaving the
grayish flesh.
Mammy Graul fell to the floor and the
boards gave way. She tumbled into darkness and landed with a wet,
crackling thud. Something below growled, then roared.
“Can I please burn this place down
now,” Iozua whined, gulping and trying not to breathe. There was a
slithering noise, and then . . . munching.
Foss edged forward and peeked into the
hole. “Can someone please help with whatever that witch did to me
before we have to deal with that . . .thing?” he said, pointing to
a monstrous heap of plant and fungus life with two immense tentacles
and a gaping maw.
“It's some sort of carnivorous
plant,” Melissah said. She glanced at Jori, and between the two
women they managed to remove most of the affliction, leaving only a
bit of lingering weakness that should heal on its own.
“Thank you,” Foss said. “Both of
you. Let's go down and deal with it. We can't let it live.”
“I can hit it with spells from here,”
Iozua said.
“Who knows what else might be down
there, though,” Melissah cautioned.
“Only one way to find out!” Nevis
announced.
“It's EATING her! You think any
innocents are alive down there?” Iozua demanded.
Melissah shook her head. “I was more
concerned with an explosion of toxic mold or slime spores or
something like that.”
“We haven't found the Black Arrows'
equipment yet,” Jori said to the increasingly hysterical wizard.
“I've already offered to resupply
them. I stand by that offer,” he snapped. He pulled a vial of dust
out of his pouch, rolled it between his hands. “Here, I'll
distract it!”
The fireball boomed under the
floorboards. Two tentacles shot out, grabbed the wizard, and hauled
him through the hole before he could even yell.
“Iozua!” Nevis shouted, and jumped
in after him. Jori followed, hacking at the strange beastie, while
Melissah cast a spell that summoned a crackling sphere of violet
electricity. The tentacles continued to move, sweeping Iozua into
the creature's maw, where he vanished with one gulp.
Foss leapt, burying an axe in the
creature's back—if it had one—and slowing his descent slightly.
A flurry of axe blows followed, and the plant monster flopped to the
ground. Foss continued hacking until he'd opened a hole into the
creature's gullet. Iozua fell out in a gush of slime, choking and
swinging wildly with his daggers.
“What. The. Actual. Hell.” the
wizard gasped out after he'd cleared the slime from his mouth.
“Damn, Iozua, you win the disgusting
award this time. Thanks for coming to work today.”
“It slimed you!” Nevis declared,
fascinated.
“Thank--” Iozua started. He
choked, and hawked up a wad of slime. “Thank you, Foss.”
“I'm a little glad Pavander isn't
here, actually,” Melissah said, surveying the dark pit. He'd be
rolling in everything.” Foss chuckled a bit at her weak humor.
“Let's get out of here. Please.”
The north door led to a tiny cubby with
a chest full of equipment, much of which bore the Black Arrows'
markings. Foss shoveled the rest into a bag and they left quickly
through the southern doors, which led to a dark and foul but
otherwise unremarkable stone hallway, a storage room, and then a room
occupied by another Graul, this one with a tiny conjoined twin stuck
to its back, and two enormous rats, called donkey rats by the locals.
The rats leaped across the room, and
one of them sank its teeth into Foss' leg. He glanced at Melissah,
wondering how she would react to the sight of more animals, but she
shook her head. “Don't hold back!”
The fight was short but brutal, with
Iozua burning one rat to death with a flaming sphere, Melissah
summoning a small pack of stirges that latched on to the other rat
and drained its blood, and Foss dueling the Graul, taking several
blows from its ogre hook but ultimately winning. Jori winced at her
rat bites and summoned a healing aura over the group that removed the
worst of it.
The remainder of the vile house was
foul, but empty of further enemies.
“H'okay,” Foss said, “I need to
lie down for a bit. I think I've seen enough of their faces.”
“I need a bath,” Melissah
concurred.
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