Day 18: Gods Know What Time, Part V

Three things happened at once.

The door to the big cage unlocked with a clang.

I noticed a tall figure step out of the shadows behind me.

The figure saw me see it, and attacked.

The thing that came at me was a dog-headed human. It was tall, a lot taller than me, and it ran with a limp but was very fast. I dropped Gunther on the floor and had my sword out before I could really figure out what was happening.

Whatever it was, it showed all the same signs as the cannibal rats. It was covered with wounds, most bearing the stench and pus of infection. It had a rabid, insane look in its eye and it was emaciated and hungry. Clearly it had eaten the other dogheads, and maybe it was even raising the rats for food. I don't know. But it must have been trapped here a long time, and it had waited for me to open the jail door (however I did that) before it struck. And strike it did.

The thing could hit! It wielded a stained, pitted and rusting sword that barely missed me as I dodged to one side. I bellowed with an anger that was not my own: "What do you mean I don't have my shield? THAT'S BULLSHIT!"

Whoever my alter-ego was speaking to, it didn't do us any good. I had lost my shield in the fall, and in the scramble that ensued I had never taken the time to find it again. No amount of yelling in the world was going to bring it back now. I knew what I had to do, and I drew back my sword-arm to thrust...

...and ran away! I leapt right over Gunther's poor, beaten body in my attempt to flee. Why? There was no way I could outrun this thing, and there was nowhere to hide. It could probably see in the dark better than I could. And as I showed it my back it got another swing at me, tracing an agonising line down my back with a flick of its sword. I felt a shiver go through my body at how close I'd come to being bisected.

I dove behind a barrel and looked around. The creature loomed above me and I swung at its legs. I hit one knee and it snarled in anger, missing me and splitting the barrel with a downward cleave. It (actually he, as I could tell from that angle) staggered back and I saw a light - not the asslight, but a second lamp farther in the distance. It came into the cavern from somewhere past the cages. I shoved the remains of the barrel toward the dog-man and made a run for the cage door. I want to say I left Gunther because the beast wasn't going after him, but it's hard to say, looking back.

As I reached the iron bars I knew I couldn't outrun the thing. I turned in time to meet his heavy sword-arm with my own feeble parry. We traded a few more blows as I backed slowly toward the jail door. The light grew stronger beyond the bars.

"Captain!" I never thought I'd be so happy to hear from the little pipsqueak.

"Thank the gods!" I yelled hoarsely. "Get yer ass over here!"

Tallow complied. As I fended off the beast's attacks I could hear his light footsteps and then thuds and clangs as he followed the bars towards me.

I'd been lucky so far. This thing, whatever it was, was powerful and fast. And psychotic. With no shield and whatever the mushrooms had done to me, I wasn't in shape for even a regular duel, let alone this murder machine. I was lucky to stay alive long enough to get to the door of the cage, and as Tallow came through I felt like I was saved. I moved away from the door and, just as I had hoped, the creature got in between us. We locked our swords together and it barked in my face as I leveraged my blade over his, trying to get a slice out of him at least. That gave Tallow his chance, and next thing you know he plunged his little blade into the thing's side. It looked like a good, deep hit. The beast howled and thrashed about, but it didn't go down.

"Wizard! Do something!" There was genuine fear in Tallow's voice.

I tried to stop the thing, tried to drive it back, but even my heavy blow to its shoulder didn't stop it. It may have been weakened by its months or years down here, but it sure was tough. It raised its sword and drove it down into Tallow for all it was worth. The gurgle, the scream cut short, it was sickening. Tallow fell like a stack of firewood. He was just gone.

At the same time, the lantern across the room fell to the ground. Beyond the beast and Tallow's body, I could see the silhouette of a man in robes running for his life. Fleeing the opposite way.

"Grens! Grens, get your ass back here! Grens!" My voice broke, and my shouts fell on deaf ears. The coward do-nothing wizard abandoned us. His footsteps retreated into the distance and there I was, now with the monster that killed my friend between me and the only door out. I cursed as I edged backwards, leveling my sword at the enemy in a high guard, tempting him and hoping he would take the bait.

He did. He closed in and tried to go low, giving me another shot at his shoulder. I tried to get his neck and end it but he was too quick. He saw what I was doing and moved to block so I took what I could get. He was pressing me backwards now and I couldn't see where I was going. I just had to pray I wouldn't trip over a corpse or a crate.

Our next few lunges at each other were fruitless. Whiff, or clang. Never that thud and yelp of success. I was worn out, I was really beat. Sweat dripped into my eyes and the asslight started to gutter low as I tried to score some kind of hit, anything to slow down this monster. I was getting desperate and sloppy, and I knew it, but the force that held me there wanted me to keep fighting. I stopped backing up and held my ground, my blade and his whirling around us like a storm.

A moan rose up. A piercing, hollow moan. It seemed to come from the darkness itself, from everywhere at once. Clattering noises, clicking in the dark. Clicking and moaning, howling and the patter-patter of something-on-stone. A figure with a spear rushed into the little pool of light where we fought and pierced the thigh of the dog-headed beast. Then I saw the spear-wielder: a skeleton, a completely fleshless skeleton! Its jaw was missing, and I can't say how it held together. But it just came out of nowhere and joined the fight against the doghead. Good thing, because I was so shocked I froze up for a second. In the distance I saw the lantern lifted back up from the floor, and Grens' silhouette with arm extended, moving his hand as if conducting a symphony. The skelton responded.

So there were were, me and some poor sod who wasn't buried properly, prodding and poking away at this monster. The monster was more afraid of the skeleton than it was of me, and it kept hitting it over and over with its sword. The skeleton didn't mind. It's as if the sword blows didn't even affect it. Sure, bits of rib and clavicle chipped off, but it just kept fighting. Between the two of us the beast didn't stand a chance. Within ten seconds of our hacking and hewing it fell to its knees, roaring piteously. I stood back to let it die but the skeleton just kept stabbing with its spear. The doghead fell to the ground, the skeleton kept stabbing. Blood pooled on the floor. The skeleton kept stabbing.

Breathing heavily and more than a little disturbed, I walked around the skeleton, giving it wide berth and not turning my back on it. It ignored me, continuing to riddle the dead doghead with spear wounds. Grens and his lantern came toward me, and he met me at the door of the jail. He hung his lantern on the bars and waved at the skeleton. At last the thing stopped its onslaught, pulling its spear out of the minced corpse with intestines still tangled on the head.

The skeleton dropped its weapon and walked over toward Gunther and the dying asslight. I stepped to intervene, but Grens chided me. "Wait," he said.

Without a word the skeleton lifted up my unconscious friend, slinging him asslight-and-all over his bony shoulder. It boggled my mind. How could this thing even stand up, let alone lift a burden I could barely manage?

Grens had other thoughts. He knelt down and put his hand against Tallow's neck, feeling for a pulse. I looked down at him. He looked up at me. He had a weird grin on his pale face, showing through his dark cowl.

"I'm not a wizard," he said.

I nodded. "I know," I said. "I know."

Day 18: Gods Know What Time, Part IV

The tunnel I went down was small, maybe seven feet high and about as wide. It was sort of like an underground stream, with the water never less than ankle deep. It was hard work keeping my footing, but at least the water was clear enough to see through. I also figured out that those black fish weren't going to come after me. If they liked meat, they weren't willing to hunt for it. They kept their distance.

The tunnel continued on like that for a ways. Couple hundred feet I would imagine. I got worried that it was just a natural tunnel and wasn't going to hook up with anything. It sure wasn't curving to the left at all, I could tell that much. And Gunther was getting awful heavy on my shoulder - I had felt kind of weak and shaky ever since getting raked with that mushroom man's tentacle.

It was roundabout that time, just as I was thinking I ought to turn back, that the way in front of me got smaller. It didn't just narrow down like a natural cave. Instead it looked like someone had put a big stone plinth against the ceiling, held up on either side by stacks of unmortared bricks. So even though the tunnel was still just as tall and wide, with this little structure in front of me I was going to have to get through a door no more then four feet by four feet.

Sighing, I set Gunther down in the stream, careful to get the lantern off of his ass first and set it in his lap. Then I took a closer look. I didn't like the look of the structure, and I wasn't about to crawl through before checking it over.

The bricks on either side were not actually bricks, they were stone blocks. All different sizes, but about the same shade as the natural stone of the cave. They didn't fit together well and to make things even more rickety some parts of the stone "walls" had pieces of wood wedged into them instead of stone. They looked like the ends of beams and planks that were too short to use for anything else. There were only two reasons I could think of for someone to build this kind of setup: as a trap, or to keep the roof from caving in. Neither prospect seemed safe.

I looked over the ceiling but I don't know anything about caves. I had no idea if it was stable or not. I drew Gunth's big sword, which was cumbersome to say the least, and poked around at the structure without going under it. I prodded the walls, the plinth, and then even the bed of the stream running under it. Nothing wobbled and no traps went off.

I dragged Gunther closer, took his lantern for myself, and cautiously moved through. Once there I reached back and dragged Gunther through the water. I'm sure he bumpd over a few stones in the stream bed but at least he made it through.

From there I could see this wasn't the only structure. Another of these little trilithons could be seen down the way, and I couldn't see anything beyond that one. More terrifying, to the left side was a small, drain-like opening. It was at ground level, and it was only a foot and a half tall by about two feet wide. It was obviously not natural, but there could be one of those tentacle things inside. I'll spare all the details but I threw stones at the damn thing and nothing whipped out at them so I hustled past it and though the next trilithon.

That was where things changed. The water became murky and the ceiling got heigher. I was no longer in a tunnel but in a large cave. The water got deep, too - almost waist deep. Best of all, I was in a cage.

Yeah, a cage. Really thick iron bars, a little rusty but not that bad considering. It was like somebody built a cage around the tunnel entrance. The cage door was in front of me, and the pool of water I was in extended past it. Beyond the pool of water was another cage door. It was like the cages were a series of antechambers, like - like there had to be multiple failsafes. Multiple failsafes keeping something in. The question was, which side was safe and which side was being contained? Was I in mortal danger in my little pool, with freedom a few cage doors away, or was I standing in the last safe zone before some kind of terrible evil? Suddenly I was very wary of the murky water around me.

The only way to be sure was to go forward. It was a struggle with Gunther on my shoulder but I managed to drag open the heavy iron bar of the first cage door. There was no lock on it, but it clearly wasn't designed to be opened from where I was. Getting it open took a while. It also made a lot of noise, which alarumed me. I did my best to keep an eye on the darkness around me with the asslight.

With the first door opened I entered the next antechamber. I was now completely surrounded by iron bars, with no cave walls to be seen in any direction. I sloshed forward to the next cage door and found that this one was much harder to get open. There was an intricate locking mechanism on the bar, one that I couldn't even figure out mentally how to operate, let alone actually disable. I tried to force the bar like the last one, but no luck. I also noticed heavy dings and chips in some of the iron bars, like someone had tried to bash through them. The bashing looked to have been done from the other side. That boded well for my little pool of safety, but not for getting through and getting home alive.

I set down Gunther in the water. This time I had to take the lantern completely off. I tied it to one of the bars and tried again to get the door open. And again, and again. No success.

At that point I sat down next to Gunther, trying to tell myself the feel of the water was relaxing. It actually didn't feel cold anymore, though the air in the cave did. I figured that if the sneak and the wizard found their way down here, I'd see them coming and we could work together to get the door open. Nothing else to do but wait, or give up.

I must have sat there for half an hour before I couldn't keep myself together anymore. I'm a sane man, but in a life-or-death situation things get bad. Your mind starts playing games with you, especially when you feel trapped. I was trapped. I started by worrying that the tunnels wouldn't connect up, then that my companions would leave without me. I wrote a little bit, actually wrote the first part of today's entry, standing up with my journal pressed against the bars. But I couldn't keep my mind together. I started to wonder if Tallow would leave me behind on purpose, or maybe even if he had planned this. He had triggered the pit trap in the first place, after all.

Eventually my panic overcame me. I decided to head back to the big chamber with the vine-tentacle things and call for Grens and Tallow. Obviously their tunnel wasn't going to hook up with mine and I had to catch them when they came back to the entrance. I stood up and got together Gunther and hoisted him.

No sooner had I set foot out of the little cage than I heard a heavy clank behind me. I screamed, I admit it. I jumped too. I spun around and, in the moving shadows of the swinging lantern, I saw nothing. Nothing different than before. Nothing... except the bar of the next cage door was no longer locked!

I didn't know how I'd done it, and for a moment I tried to feel around the bottom of the pool with my feet. But I quickly gave up on the how and just made for the exit. I pushed the door open and stepped through.

Beyond, the pool got shallower. After a few feet it ended altogether. Above me I could see bars; it appears I had made it out of the small cages and into a giant cage. In the light of my lantern I could see smashed crates and empty barels around me. I didn't know which way to go so I just pushed on straight ahead.

Ahead I heard squeaking. I stepped forward cautiously and another crate came into view. This one wasn't a crate, though, it was a cage. Obviously I had discovered the design theme of the local mining corps. This cage was different; it was tiny, made of wire instead of heavy bars, and there were clumps of fur inside of it. Rat fur. A rat trap, maybe? But this whole mine seemed long since abandoned, and rats couldn't survive in a trap without food and water for long.

I approached, closer but not real close, and knelt down to look at the trap. There was definitely old, moldy fur in there. Some of it looked nibbled at. There were bones, too. I heard another squeak and I almost jumped again when I saw a beady rat eye come into view. The rat looked very sickly, had a number of infected wounds on his torso, and when he saw me he charged the edge of the cage and started furiously gnawing at the wire. He would've done anything to get out of there. As I held the light up a little higher I figured out why.

He wasn't the only rat. He was one of several. The others stayed at the far side of the cage. Heaped up in the corners of the cage were lots of rat bones mixed with chewed-up, rotting fur. Most of them looked to have come from baby rats. The ones that were still alive had been surviving by cannibalising each other. That would explain the wounds. Probably they would mate, give birth, and eat; mate, give birth, and eat. With a whole lot of fighting thrown in between feeding frenzies. What a shitty life. I tasted saliva in my mouth, and that sick feeling you get right before you vomit. I looked away and did my best to choke it down.

Moving past the rat cage I saw two more empty barrels, and found the remains of a once fine battle axe. It had been beaten to smithereens, just chunks of fractured metal stuck on a warped handle, and I wondered if this was the implement that had been used to try to break through the bars.

Eventually I came to the far side of the big jail I was in. I suppose it wasn't more than fifty or sixty feet from the antechamber I had come in by, but I was moving slowly and being real cautious. In front of me was the last row of bars (at least, I couldn't see any beyond it) and thrown against the cage wall were numerous corpses.

There looked to be both human and dog bodies there, to judge by the skulls; but no, it was bodies of humans with dog heads. They were jumbled around in all kinds of postures, but there wasn't a human skull to be seen, and every body bore a canine head. They were big, too - very tall with claws on their hands. The bodies were mostly bones, but there were large chunks of corrupt skin too. It was hard to say whether there was hair on the skin or just thick mold. But the skin had evidently been torn off, nibbled on, and discarded. Bones were strewn everywhere. Several of the bodies were of children.

...

The skin had been torn off, nibbled on, and discarded. Bones were strewn everywhere. Some were children.

...

Just like the cannibalised rats.

Day 18: Gods Know What Time, Part III

I didn't know how many of those tenacles-or-vines were in the walls, and I didn't know if they could reach me or if they could crawl out of their holes or what. I also had no clue whether the fish in the water were biters. So I suppose what I did next was pretty stupid, but I just had to get a light going if I was going to do anything else at all.

So, blind in the dark, I leapt off the pile of rubble I was on into the water and ran sloshing across the room. With every step I wondered if something was going to bite me from below or strangle me from above. I had to estimate how far it was to where the lantern was coming down, and I stopped short of that point. I really didn't want to fight tentacles in the dark.

I fell to my knees in the water, pulled my sword from its scabbard with one hand and held it over me as I scrambled around looking for the lantern. Splash, splash splash... mud, rock, mud, water... Something! Something wiry. It must have been the handle of the lantern.

I stumbled back toward the rubble where my backpack was, pricking my foot on a sharp stone as I went. Cursing, I fell into the water near the rubble--I could just feel it with one hand--and held my sword with my mouth by biting onto it. That hurt like crazy; it was just too heavy to do that. But I did it, because I was not going to get this lantern any wetter than it already was and I needed at least one free hand to go through my pack.

I found my tinder pouch quickly; getting it open one-handed was something else. The thing is designed to be watertight and that means it's tied tightly shut. Finally I had piece of flint in my hand and set about scraping it along my sword to light the lantern.

I heard Tallow yelling up above me but couldn't make out what he was saying. I didn't care, either. Water had run out of the lantern when I opened it, but maybe the wick was dry. Sparks, nothing. Sparks, nothing. Sparks, nothing. Sparks, nothing.

If this was a story, I'd handily get the thing lit just in time to turn around and heroically fight the tentacles. But it isn't a story, it's life. I spent long minutes trying over and over and over. Tallow yelled to hang in there and his voice went silent above. I heard a splash-splash in the water, stopped to listen for a second then furiously kept trying. Sparks, nothing, sparks, nothing.

I spat out my sword and and groaned through my aching mouth. I wiped off my hands and felt desparately for a part of my clothing that wasn't wet. I wiped the wick off and tried again. Spark, nothing. Spark, nothing. Spark, nothing.

In all those minutes nothing attacked me. So when light began to shimmer down from up above and I could see that I was not surrounded by enemies I wasn't surprised. Not relieved either, just done. Up above I could see a shadowy figure holding up a guttering, smoky torch.

"Hey Cap, I got a couple of these. Can't you just change out the wick?"

I looked at the lantern in my hands and wanted to smash it. But he was right, I had a dry wick in the broken lantern in my bag. With dry hands and light to work by it didn't take long. To my embarassment the new wick worked on the very first try. Now we had light from both above and below.

Not a single tentacle protruded from any hole or crevice. Giving the torch to Grens Tallow started to lower the tope again, this time from a different spot and with no bait hanging from it. As it went past the band of holes, nothing happened. For a second. And then... whip, snap! A few feet of rope fell down to the water below as the tentacle cut through it.

"Shit, this ain't gonna work Captain. Hey wizard, can't you just poof them up here or something?"

Grens didn't answer right away. I looked up at him, full of hope. I was freezing cold and sopping wet and I didnt want Gunth to die down there. Even Tallow held his tongue and waited for an answer.

When Grens spoke, I heard him but couldn't see where he was up there. "I'm not a wizard," he said.

"Ah..." I groaned, as Tallow shouted, "Fucker!" And again in symphony: "What do you do?" (that's me) and "What are you good for?" (from Tallow).

No answer.

"Look, I'm not joking," said Tallow. He spoke slowly and menacingly. "We're a fucking team. Now tell me what in the name of all the holy gods your job is, or I'll throw you down there and you can lead them out personally!"

"I..." Grens had to pause to make sure our verbal barrage was finished. "I'm a specialist."

I don't think any of us had anything to say to that. Tallow made choking noises. I tried to focus and come up with something else.

"Hey Tallow, there's another way out down here. Maybe it connects back with the other tunnels somewhere."

"Doesn't seem safe," Tallow called. "What if those things are in there?"

"Then I'll have to fight 'em."

"With the big guy on your back?"

Shit. He was right. I couldn't leave Gunth just lying there like a dinner platter, even if I intended to come back for him. I walked over to the tunnel entrance, keeping a wary eye on the holes in the wall above me, and held up the lantern. I could see maybe twenty feet in. No major holes or cracks in the walls, at least that far. But with Gunther over my shoulder and a lantern in the other hand I wouldn't be able to have my sword ready.

"Tallow, you know any clever ways to pick people up?"

"I wish."

I sighed. I went over and checked Gunth, who was still breathing shallow, still bleeding, and still unconscious. I sheathed my sword, set down my lantern, and was just about to heave him up onto my shoulder when Tallow called out again.

"Wait, I do! His junk!"

I stared up at the silhouette above me. "What?"

"Use his junk." Evidently I was being rather thick about it, and Tallow scoffed at me. "The lantern. Hang it from his belt right above his junk after you lift him up. That way it won't press against his legs and burn him, and you'll have a free hand."

I looked at Gunther, slumped in my arms and half-sitting in the water. I had to admit, it was a good plan. "Sorry buddy," I told him.

I got Gunther lifted up and then reached for the lantern. Since he was face-down over my shoulder I was actually hanging the light more from his ass. There was a leather strap on the handle that I used like a frog to suspend the light from his belt. It was probably awful warm against his buns but he was soaked with cold water so I'm sure he would've approved.

With the asslight beaming from my left shoulder, I drew my sword once again and got ready to head down the tunnel.

"We'll take one of these branches and try to meet up with you," said Tallow. "You have a preference?"

"Left," I said. "Always go left." Weird, I would've thought left was unlucky, but the Nameless Jerk disagreed.

And that was about the time that a bad day started to get worse.

Day 18: Gods Know What Time, Part II

After the fall my head was reeling. I had to shake off the fuzz, the bleary feeling, before I could push a beam off of myself and feel myself over for serious injuries. My tailbone hurt something fierce and at first I thought it was broken. I had twisted, but not sprained, one of my ankles. I was waist-deep in water sitting down, and shin-deep standing up. The cave bed beneath the water seemed to be a mixure of thick, sloppy mud and small broken rocks.

I could see Gunth wan't moving, and when I made it over to him I saw why. Poor bastard, another head injury. He might not be waking up from this one. I reached over to touch him when I heard shouts from above.

"Hey Cap, you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just low on hits. Gunth is rolling to stabilise though." I don't know what that means.

"Shit, you have any heal ranks?"

"I'll try. Do you have any rope?"

"Yeah, hang on."

While Tallow dug around for rope up above, I went ahead and looked over Gunther. I guess that was my "heal ranks". I bandaged up his head, tried to slap him awake but no use. I propped him up on the beam so he wouldn't slip under the water and drown. As I did that I felt something brush against my hand.

"Shit!" I hissed.

"What's that?" Tallow has sharp ears.

"We're in water down here. There's something else in it too."

"Like big?"

"I dunno. Can you get us a light down here?"

"Hang on." I heard some mumbling. "Look, Captain, all we have is Grens' lantern. Didn't you have one?"

I checked my pack. I did have one stowed somewhere. We hadn't brought it out earlier because one was enough. I dug around and found it, but it was broken. Pretty badly too. If that pack saved my life I'm grateful, but I sure wish I had my lantern. I shared the bad news with Grens.

"Alright, look. We're gonna lower it down. Use the light to tie Gunth and we'll haul him up."

"You two strong enough for that?"

"Shit. Well, tie him up, then climb up, then we'll all lift him."

"Right, send 'er down."

The lantern appeared over the hole far above me, and now instead of just a pale glow I could see more detail up there. It looked like Tallow was at the edge of the hole guiding the lantern, and Grens must have been behind him somewhere feeding the rope. It came slowly, but I'd rather have that than another broken lantern.

As the light descended Tallow faded into shadow, but I could see more of my own surroundings. I stood on some rubble from the ceiling collapse, trying to stay out of the water as I looked. We were in a tall, round room; we must have fallen at least 30 feet. To one side--directly beneath that shrine, if I had my bearings--was a cave opening. It looked natural and I couldn't see anything but darkness down there.

I could see plenty of this room, however. There were lots of little dark fish in the water, none much bigger than my hand. That made me feel better but I didn't step into the water again just yet. There was a definite current to the water, little ripples running toward the cave opening. The water was cold and fresh, probably fed by springs below as well as trickles from above.

The walls of the room were something else. Pitted, totally riddled with holes. At least, about halfway up they were. The top had none and the bottom had a few, and the biggest holes were all crowded into a band halfway up the wall. The band went all the way around, and it worried me.

"Hey Tallow, there might be critters living in that wall."

The lantern stopped, and swung back and forth just above the band of holes. "You still want a light?"

I chewed my lip. Gods, what other choice did we have? "Yeah, just lower it quickly. I'll let you know when it's almost down."

Well, it never got there. No sooner did the lantern resume its descent than something lashed out of one of the holes. It was no animal I've ever seen, maybe not an animal at all. It looked more like a vine or stem of some kind, but with fierce agility. Damn thing whipped out at the dangling lantern, a grey-green tentacle with a scythe-like tip. It severed the rope and dropped the lantern into free fall. I couldn't hope to get across to the wall in time to catch it. The lantern went out on the way down, from the rush of air, and I heard a splash when it hit bottom. I thought I saw a glimpse of a second vine lashing out of another hole near the first one, but it could've been a shadow. Now we were in complete darkness again, with an unknown number of an unknown species of predators in the walls above us. And they knew we were here.