Forum

[Jon Potter]

"AAARRGGGHHH!!" Noxin roared. "DAMN YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!"

He'd had enough and could feel the fury rising within him. He was beginning to feel hopeless here naked in the dark with this insane little monster stabbing him in every soft place that he had. In some men, that hopelessness would have led to fatalism, but Noxin wasn't other men. In him it brought an animal rage bubbling up from that part of his brain that was most concerned about survival.

Holding his arm snugly across the wriggling creature's midsection, he grabbed its arm with his other hand, slid his fist down it until he felt the pommel of its weapon against his flesh. Then he forced the blade down into the dwarf's torso. It resisted, of course, but its strength was no match for his. He sank the blade in as deep as he could, unmindful of the potential for stabbing himself if the sword went all the way through his tiny adversary. The dwarf squealed and Noxin repeated the action again for good measure.

It twisted its weapon arm away somehow, the blood flowing hotly down its body giving it some lubricant, and brought the blade up toward Noxin's face. He couldn't see it in the dark, but he could feel the flat of the sticky wet sword slide harmlessly across his cheek and part the hair on the side of his head.

The half-giant reached up and grabbed the wrist again, twisting it so savagely that bones splintered in the dwarf's arm as he turned the thing's weapon back on itself. It let out another cry of pain and Noxin cut it off by stabbing the sword into its torso again. He felt its body go slack in his arms.

He stabbed it again just to be sure.

He stood there in the dark, holding his breath, listening for the sound of approaching opponents, but heard nothing. So he let out the breath and with it went the rage, sliding out of him as easily as it entered, and leaving only fatigue in its wake. He dropped to his knees on the cold stone floor, dropped the dwarf in front of him and began patting it down for anything of use. It wore a buckler on its left arm, carried a light crossbow on a strap, and had a shortsword sticking out of its chest. All of the gear felt ridiculously small in Noxin's hands; he used a bigger blade when he ate dinner than the one the dwarf had carried.

Noxin touched the bleeding puncture beneath his left arm and begrudgingly admitted to himself that the sword might have some usefulness. He took it and used it to cut free the creature's belt pouch. There were coins within. Coins were always good...

He moved haltingly down the corridor back in the direction of the snake room where he'd woken up. He shuffled his feet and ran his hand along the left wall as he went, hunched forward, tip-tapping the stone floor in front of him with the dagger-sized shortsword.

After a time, he came upon a closed door. He listened, but heard nothing, so he pushed it open and almost gagged. The stench of filth and rot and sweat was thick within the chamber, but he heard no movement so he crept inside, feeling along the wall as he went. After only a few steps, his hand brushed against something familiar. He curled his fingers around it, recognizing it instantly: his hammer, propped against the wall like a common shovel or a broom.

He hefted the weapon and its enormous steel head flickered immediately with illusory flames, lighting up the chamber like a torch. Noxin had to momentarily shield his eyes from the welcome glow, but nonetheless he'd never before been so thankful to see light in his life. After he got finished grinning at his weapon, he held it out, playing its glow across the foul-smelling interior of the room.

It clearly served as some sort of communal living space for the dwarves. There was a filthy mound of furs heaped along one wall that seemed to serve as a bed. The far corner held a bucket for waste, and the walls around the bucket were streaked with fecal matter like the chaotic scrawls of a child's finger painting. Nearby squatted a low table, atop which were strewn the rotting remains of several large fish; Noxin could see the swarming maggots from where he stood. To the right of the door, lying in a heap was the rest of the half-giant's gear.

He fell on it like a hyena on carrion and in just a few minutes, he had kitted himself back up and quickly made sure that everything was in place. The dwarves had gone through everything, turning out his pack in an effort to find valuables... and then subsequently dumped everything in a disorganized pile.



He stepped back into the hall, looking both ways now that he had benefit of the light. The hall dead-ended to his left, The door to the snake room was across the hall and a bit farther along to his right. He had no strong desire to revisit that just now.

He could see the three bodies he'd left strewn in the hallway in front of another doorway, this one set into the same wall as the door to the dwarves' living quarters. The hallway had seemed much longer when he couldn't see anything and he closed the distance between himself and the bodies in three long strides. He'd already searched one, so he examined the other two, determining two things very quickly: beneath the rough robes they both wore they carried nothing of value, and both were female. One of them - he imagined it was the one who had almost choked him with smoke though he really couldn't be sure - had a bag slung across her torso. In the bag were loose coins carelessly mixed in with water-smoothed stones, yellowed and cracked bones, and bits of shed snakeskin. He picked out the coins and tossed the rest.

The room from which the dwarves had first issued was mostly empty. There was another body within, two other exits, and a lever set into the far corner. One of the doorways opened into a dark shaft that went downward well beyond the reach of his light. The lever set beside it was in the down position, but there was no indication what pulling it up might do.

The door in the other corner was tightly closed and offered no clues to what lay beyond.