One extra update this week, in celebration of multiple art entries from (contact) and Anhk-Morpork Guard. Art means updates!
Infinite thanks to Blackjack and Sialia for
www.piratecat.org. We finally bit the bullet and decided to move everything over from the defunct piratecat.info. Updates and art here will be archived at that site, along with proper attribution to artists.
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Cruciel appears from the shadows an instant before the sharpened bone spear can impale Velendo. Her shield and blade deflect the blow upwards, and the undead throne gurgles as it lurches forward on clawed feet. Its tongue slashes through the air as if questing for warm flesh.
“I don’t think so,” says Stone Bear, and he leaps forward trailing soulfire from his burning fists. Galthia is right behind him, as are Burr-Lipp, Priggle and both paladins. The throne doesn’t even have a chance.
“You may not want to see this,” says Agar to Eve. “It can get pretty nasty.” He winces at a particularly gruesome squelching sound. Eve is transfixed, though, staring at the fight wide-eyed with her fingers to her mouth.
“Is it always like this?” she whispers.
Agar considers. “No. Most chairs don’t try to eat us.” Eve doesn’t seem to hear him.
He’s fighting monsters to keep me safe! she thinks to Nana. The crystal returns warm thoughts of satisfaction and pleasure.
I wonder how long it will be before we marry.
“All right, it’s finished,” says Malachite. He pauses to catch his breath before helping push the remains of the broken throne off the dais. Beneath it is a deep and lightless pit leading even further into the earth. The smell of putrescence is everywhere. Lazy vapors rise out of the darkness, and the emanation of evil is so strong that Mara can sense it without even trying to concentrate.
“I don’t want to go down there!” says Eve. She looks sick.
“You don’t have to,” comforts Velendo. “This is something we have to take care of ourselves.”
“Is it just me,” asks Mara with a disgusted look on her face, “or does it look like that pit was chewed open?”
“It’s not just you.”
Cautiously, they lean out over the abyss and try to see down into the darkness. Behind them, Agar suddenly gives a blood-curdling scream.
“What?” Malachite has spun into a battle stance, Karthos shining in anticipation. “What is it?” He scans the room for hidden dangers.
Agar looks embarrassed. “Sorry. I saw a beetle.” Malachite closes his eyes for a minute, then turns back to the pit.
“A large beetle,” Agar says plaintively. Burr-Lipp glares at him, but Priggle offers the halfling a sympathetic look. Agar doesn’t notice.
“All right, let’s rig up ropes and harnesses,” says Velendo. “One person down first to scout?” Galthia nods. He ties off a rope to his own satisfaction, wraps it around his body, and steps to the edge of the hole. Once protective magic has been cast on him, he simply steps off. The githzerai spins rapidly as he descends, slowing his fall even as he gains a 360 degree view of his surroundings.
“Fifty feet down and no end in sight,” he thinks through the mindlink.
“The bugs are huge down here. I need more rope.” Rope is passed down as Eve tries to understand why Agar is twitching, and Galthia continues downwards.
“All right. The walls aren’t stone down here, or bone either. They’re fibrous and almost fleshy, like a throat. The pit ends underneath me, and there’s a small hole in the wall. I’ll try to see what’s behind it. . .” “Be careful!” Velendo looks at the others. “We really need to be down there.”
Malachite looks grim. “Agreed.”
Eve can feel her heart hammering in her chest. "I. . . I can't go down there."
"As we said, Eve, you don't have to. We'd like you to stay up here and help guard our backs." Privately over the mind link, Malachite adds,
"Not that we'd let her; she's tainted and we have no reason to trust her. We're going to need some of us to stay and watch her." “There’s very little room down here anyways; maybe space for three people, tops. The negative energy is like wading through tar. It’s pitch black, and I can’t see anything even with my darkvision. I can hear something, though.” “I’m coming down.” Malachite slips into a harness so that he can be lowered.
“Be careful!” says Eve, agitated. Malachite nods and disappears into the darkness as Stone Bear and Burr-Lipp pay out rope. Mara and Velendo prepare to follow.
Waiting in the darkness, Galthia watches Malachite swinging down above him. Something seems a little odd about him.
He’s been possessed! Galthia realizes.
Whatever is behind that wall has him dominated, and he’s going to open it and destroy us all. I can’t let him do that. The monk drops off his rope onto the spongy and uneven floor and waits patiently, his mind ticking through strategies.
After an eternity of waiting, Malachite lands next to the githzerai and peers at the hole in the wall. “What we need is li –” His teeth snap down on his tongue as Galthia hits him from behind. The hunter of the dead is knocked into the wall but manages to keep his consciousness. It feels like someone dropped a wall on him.
“Malachite is possessed,” thinks Galthia over the mindlink.
“I’m going to try and knock him out before he can do any harm.”
“What are you doing?” asks Malachite, furious.
“I think Galthia is being mind controlled.” On his chest, Malachite notices the amulet that Claris sent to him back in Akin’s Throat suddenly stop glowing. That means that it just prevented some sort of mental influence.
“Nice try,” says Galthia as he raises his fists. “But no one in this group is gullible.” He unleashes a brutal assault, and beneath his armor Malachite feels a rib snap.
“Stop it, both of you!” shouts Mara from thirty feet above.
“I can’t,” yells Malachite as he takes a step back and brings Karthos to bear. He bumps into the wall behind him, sighs, and with the expertise learned in hundreds of battles he dances his glowing sunblade through Galthia’s defenses. The monk manages to dodge several of the thrusts, but at least one gets through. Dark blood trickles down the githzerai’s arm.
“Be warned,” says Galthia.
“It’s got him, and he’s trying to kill me. I’m going to need help.”
Unnoticed behind them, the small hole in the wall begins to widen.
To be continued. . .
...
- Crothian (and 
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