The Enemy Within
Slyphwhisper spat out mud and blood from his smashed mouth, shards of glass fell out of his hair as he rolled onto his knees. The rain was thrumming his throbbing skull as he tried to get his bearings. He spied the well off to his right and remembered where he was finally, he slowly turned back to trace his flight path through the window behind him. The zombie was using the divan as a club, swinging wildly at anything in front of it. The gnome could see the splashes of eldritch power behind the creature and guessed that Discordia was pummeling the thing from behind. Penelope ducked under a mindless swing as Captain Ettaire took the blow on her right side, instantly crumpling her right arm and cracking a few ribs. The woman went down wheezing and in pain. Tethys leapt off the stairs and began rummaging through the workspace at the back of the large room, looking for anything she could use against the creature. Lord Horatius tossed one of his flaming concoctions at the undead thing, he missed badly and watched as the vial sailed out through the broken window, it skidded across the muck and surfed snuggly up to Slyphwhisper’s feet.
One of Penelope’s guards stepped up and drove his double headed ax into the sofa, trying to deflect the swinging club from sailing into his head. He hit the furniture piece true, however the brute force of the negatively charged creature overwhelmed the guard and as his ax stuck into the sofa, the undead creature continued its follow-through and the back blade of the ax proved to be his downfall. When the guard couldn’t overcome the strength of the undead and his skull was split in two from his own weapon being driven into his own head. Penelope screamed as the body of the guard collapsed next to her, still spasming in his death throws. Helga stepped up to next meet the challenge from the creature; it brought the divan back up towards the eclipse creator trying to backhand the woman away. The blow struck hard but was not powerful enough to push the human loadstone. Helga wrapped her arms around the sofa trying to grapple the weapon away from the creature. Lord Horatius threw another alchemist vial onto the thing and this time the vial erupted the creature in a glory of burning righteousness. Tethys found a secret stash of weapons the homeowner kept in hiding and grasping for the biggest thing she could find, she yanked out a large greataxe. Turning back to the melee, Tethys swung the blade above her and slammed the axe down into the back of the undead man. Discordia wasted no time in finishing off the creature, blasting a hole through the tear in the back Tethys had just created.
Helga wrenched the sofa free from the hands of the undead creature and tossed it aside. Tethys rushed to help Captain Ettaire and mended the broken woman as best she could. Slyphwhisper returned battered and bloodied from the street outside and received help from Tethys as well. As the newly re-deceased body of the man cooked itself in the chemical fire sprung on it by Lord Horatius, Helga pushed and shoved the body into the fireplace where the stench wouldn’t overtake their gag reflex so easily. In the flickering light of the few candles that were lit, Discordia’s senses easily recognized the aura of the greataxe that Tethys held as magical.
“Were did you find that?” Discordia inquired of the nurse
“Back there in a cupboard somewhere, I wasn’t paying too close attention when I was rummaging through his kitchen.” Tethys answers
Dismayed, the tiefling women began going through the ravaged kitchen herself, although Discordia’s senses told her there were no other magics to be found there she searched nonetheless. Penelope curled up into ball against the fireplace wall and rocked silently as she watched the slowly growing puddle of red around the guard’s head.
“What are you looking for?” the arsonist asked Discordia
“A reason, a sense of what’s going on here.” The warlock answered
“Maybe there is none, I think we should collect wheezy and the other guy and get back to the road. Travel all night and deliver Penelope to her dad sooner than staying the night here would put us back. Any more of these attacks and she’s going to snap. She’s already in shock and there’s no cure for that, once she checks out of from reality she becomes a liability and a dangerous one for us at that.” Lord Horatius observes
“Did you get to see what was downstairs yet? Perhaps there’s an answer there, or if not maybe something for our trouble?” Slyphwhisper joins the conversation
“No, we never made it all the way down before you flew through the window. I don’t know if we want to find out what’s down there. Might be worse than what was up here.” Discordia counters
“Well, you said you wanted a reason. It might reside downstairs and my training compels me to seek out and explore strange new living areas and thoroughly devalue them through profiteering.” The gnome replies
“Fine, but someone needs to stay with her, I don’t want her wondering off into the night and end up dead or worse.” Discordia answered referring to Penelope
“Worse? What could be worse than dead?” Captain Ettaire asks
“Undead, slaad implantation, sex with a gibbering mouther, swallowed by a purple worm, an orc bard or a brothel owner in Olympus. All of those would be worse than death.” Tethys offers
“I don’t want to know how you compiled that list.” Discordia responds
“I do.” Lord Horatius speaks up
“I’ll watch her chief. I was thinking about taking a snack break away.” Helga offers
“You ate before we dismounted at the last house.” Slyphwhisper replies in disbelief
“Works for me, let’s see what secrets this guy’s basement holds.” Lord Horatius announces and trudges down the stairs
The basement smelled musty and damp and with the rainstorm outside made the smell almost overwhelming as they reached the last step. The dim light from their candles illuminated several rows of work tables one along each wall of the thirty foot wide room and another row down the middle of the room. Beneath the work tables several barrels were stored. On top of the tables exposed the homeowner’s hobby as dozens of marionettes hung motionless above the tables. None were painted and several looked to be hastily carved just to produce a body.
“Uck. It smells like dead worms in here.” Tethys protests, covering her nose with her hand in a feeble attempt to ward off the stench.
“I smell chemicals, smells like glue.” Discordia proclaimed and slid up to the row of tables on the right.
“I’ve smelled this before; I’m trying to remember where. Tsk, I don’t know, I can’t remember right now. Maybe it’ll come back to me.” Slyphwhisper states and moves through the room staring up at the lifeless faces peering down at him. The gnome gets an unsettling feeling and an oppressive sense of being watched, “I don’t like it here, I’m going to quick check to see what’s in that back room there and then I want to get out of here.”
Slyphwhisper uses the increased distance from the candles to his advantage as his gnomish eyes adapt to the growing darkness. Gazing into the small room at the back of the basement, he finds a sluice drain and the floor very sticky. A strong acrid smell comes up from the floor as well, giving him the impression that something fruity was dumped down the drain here. Stepping into the room, he spies a ladder attached to the side of the sluice drain just wide enough from a child or a gnome to descend into the darkness below. Slyphwhisper looks over the edge of the drain and can see water rippling below, perhaps only ten feet down. Another observation is that the ladder seems to end just above the water level. As the gnome stares across the dark water he notices breaks in the rippling here and there and suspects the man must have dumped more than liquid down this hole and se silently wonders what “treasures” he might find down there. A quick glance back finds the rest of his compatriots messing around with the disgusting dolls. Slyphwhisper quietly scurries down the ladder and stands with his feet on the bottom rung.
Slowly extending his blade, Slyphwhisper inserts the tip into the fluid and then retracts it quickly. Bringing it up to his nose he sniffs it to see if he detects anything odd about it. After smelling nothing and noting how quickly the water ran up his blade, Slyphwhisper concluded that there was nothing to worry about and he dipped his leg into the water. The cold liquid quickly soaked his britches up to his waist and a slight shiver ran up his spine from the sudden coldness on his leg. He felt around for the floor but could not find it with his submerged foot. The gnome then decided to reach for something sticking out of the water a few feet from him, hoping it was resting on the floor of the well. His foot grazed it and the object bobbed and moved a little bit. A sly smile appeared on the gnome’s face as he concluded that the object was floating in the water and attached to the floor of the well via a chain. He imagined a grand chest filled with valuable gems or coins or maybe exotic silks.
His curiosity sufficiently stoked, Slywhisper swung out with both feet in an attempt to draw the floating object closer to him. The thing was long and round like a log and when his feet stomped on its near side it flipped over to reveal the decaying face of a human with its stomach blow out or eaten out from the inside. His revulsion at the sight was quickly washed away by small motes of red lights glowing in the dark water. The lights glided up and around the dead body to surround it as if in a glowing bed of roses. Mesmerized Slyphwhisper watched the spreading morass of red as the whole chamber lightened to a blood red tint. The gnome leaned over to get a good top-down look at the lights; they looked to be dark rubies encased in a pillow of gel. Slyphwhisper touched one with his blade and the clear membrane held up to the point of the blade. He was so intently focused on the one near his blade; he neglected to see an upwelling around his legs.
“HELP!”
The terrified screaming from the room Slyphwhisper was checking out rattled through the marionette room. Lord Horatius, Tethys and Discordia ran to the back of the room to find Slyphwhisper pulling himself out of an opened sewer grate.
“One of them got on my skin! It burns!”
“What? What are you talking about?” Lord Horatius tried to get info from the gnome as Slyphwhisper tried to rip his pant leg off.
“Something in the water.” Slyphwhisper got out as he took his blade and quickly and carelessly cut off his right trouser leg.
Discordia peered over the edge of the sluice and saw blood everywhere, in the color of the water, up the ladder, in the glow of the room below, “What the hell did you find?” Discordia asked as she turned back to the prone gnome as saw a large red blot on his leg.
Lord Horatius tried to pry the gelled mass of the gnome’s leg but it foiled all attempts to remove it manually.
“Cut it off!” Slyphwhisper shouted and then he head flew back in pain as the red blob inside the gel quickly shrink away in size and the gel sloughed off his skin.
“What happen? It’s gone.” Lord Horatius proclaimed. However the shrieks of pain from Slyphwhisper’s mouth led Tethys to believe otherwise.
“It’s not gone, it entered his body.” The cleric realized and hefted her newly found greataxe over her head ready to chop.
“Wh-hh-hhat the hell are you doing? Put that thing down!” Slyphwhisper shouted
“What? You said cut it off, that’s what I’m going to do.” Tethys retorted
“Are you proficient with that thing?” Discordia inquired
“You’re not cutting my leg off!” The gnome whined
“Proficient? Pfft. I prayed for something big and dangerous to kill my foes with. My god provides, it’s as simple as that.” Tethys answers
“What? No!” Slyphwhisper protests
“Maybe that thing has him under its control? Maybe we should knock him out if he’s going to protest this much?” Lord Horatius interjects
“I’ll do it myself!” The gnome shouts and begins digging into his own flesh to pry the blob out, nearly overcome with pain and on the verge of passing out, Lord Horatius grabs the blade from Slyphwhisper.
“Move.” Tethys demands as she lines up a swing intended to amputate the gnome’s leg at the hip.
Lord Horatius watches the untrained cleric waver in her balance, “Gimme that thing, you can’t use it properly.”
“What are you talking about? I’m a cleric, we’re all about surgery and this is merely a large surgical instrument. Do you want me to go fishing for that thing with a toothpick or use something that’s going to get the job done with one swing?” Tethys counters
“One swing? One swing from you weaving like that is liable to decapitate the man!” Lord Horatius exclaims
Discordia watches as a slight bulge under the gnome’s skin begins crawling up his leg and passes the gnome’s knee. The warlock fires eldritch energy at the moving knot, burning Slyphwhisper’s leg and bringing the gnome back into consciousness.
“Why are you shooting at me?” Slyphwhisper demands
“He’s back.” Lord Horatius announces and kneels low towards the gnome, “listen, I’m going to try to pour alchemist fir.. grrk.” Slyphwhisper reached up with his small hands and begins to choke the hexblade before he could complete his thought.
Tethys kicks Lord Horatius out of Slyphwhisper’s grip in order to clear the path for her axe swing.
“Stop!” You’re not going anywhere near my leg with a greataxe!” Slyphwhisper cries and pleads for her to use the dagger
“Fine. Baby.” Tethys affronts and slings the greataxe back over her shoulder and sits next to the gnome’s leg. She starts by poking the knot with her finger. Causing the blob to move further up Slyphwhisper’s leg, sending searing pain up and out the mouth of the gnome, causing Discordia to blast the knot again and causing Lord Horatius to shove the cleric out of the way. The hexblade stands over the leg with his short sword and stabs Slyphwhisper’s thigh just above the knot.
“Idiot. You missed the thing completely.” Tethys chides
Lord Horatius snatches the dagger from Tethys’ hand and looks over to Slyphwhisper and gives a nod. The gnome reciprocates and Lord Horatius commences digging into the wound with the dagger. Slyphwhisper writhes and screams in agony.
“Shh… calm down, it’s only a little prick not much blood really.” Tethys tries to reassure Slyphwhisper as Lord Horatius severs the gnome's femoral artery and blood begins pumping into the air over the head of the kneeling hexblade causing Slyphwhisper to hurl insults of unmentionable nature.
“You know I can’t work under these conditions, you’re going to have to be quiet if you expect me to heal that when he’s done.” Tethys informs the gnome which turns the gnome’s hate speech to the cleric’s direction.
“Crap, he’s got a lot of blood in him.” Lord Horatius observes
Slyphwhisper’s world was quickly spinning into blackness. Lord Horatius finally produced the speared red blob on the end of the dagger for all to see. Tethys laid her healing hands over the geyser the gnome’s leg had become. The cleric worked every healing trick she knew and well the bleeding was staunched, the nasty gash in his leg remained and it would take several more sessions with the healer to get his leg back to normal use.
Lord Horatius pulled the woozy gnome to his feet and prepped to lead him out of the basement, “stop, we have a problem.” Discordia announced
The rest of them looked up and failed to notice anything amiss right away, although they felt odd, out of sort. The hair on the backs of their necks stood up and they had the uneasy feeling of being watched closely. It was after several more seconds that they too spotted what Discordia had seen. All the marionette’s heads were turned towards them and all of their soulless dark eyes were focused right on them.
Next Episode: Goo Me!