subplotkudzu | Emirkol Part I scene 3

Deitrich and Melas stepped forward into the torchlit room, with Hiram and Cybele directly behind them. The quartet quickly took in the scene: the altar-with-chains in the rooms center, a large crate to the right, two smaller ones to the left, a large hole in the ceiling apparently excavated to the surface, the monotonous clotter or rain on the altar rolling away in the blood grooves across the floor, the four ropes - two loose, two taught - hanging extending down from the hole, the torches braced on the floor out of the rain. "So, not the wine cellar then? I'd had hopes" Melas muttered.

Only Deitrich was able to make out the shadowy shapes behind the altar and larger crate, and yelled out, "Come out! Those are not very good hiding places."

The hiders apparently took umbrage at this, rising and throwing javelins with practiced motions; Melas was able to dodge the one aimed at him but Deitrich was momentarily shocked by the felinoid nature of their assailants faces - cat-man! The javelin pierced his clothing and scraped across a rib, opening a long gash in his side. Less than a finger's breadth in either direction and the wound would most assuredly have been fatal! Hiram wasted no time in providing a counter-stroke, flicking his hand up and letting fly a palmed throwing dart that took Deitrich's assailant in the throat; the beast-man fell with a gurgle and his blood joined the rain washing away in the gutter. Melas fired his crossbow at his attacker, but his aim was low and it merely splintered the wood on the crate.

At this moment Deitrich proved his mettle, for wounded as he was he nonetheless sprinted, drew and leapt, landing atop the crate and piercing the cat-man's shoulder with an expert thrust. The beast was reaching for his blade when the lady Florane ended the encounter with a word - an arcane syllable that sparked a bolt of light from her hand to the furred brow between slitted eyes, laying the cat man out stone dead.

A quick exploration of the room followed. It seemed obvious to all that the beast men were looting the tomb, but for how long had they been doing so? The shaft extended at least thirty feet into the ruins of the tower, and so could not have been dug overnight. Cybele lowered her head into her blouse and queries "are you well in there?" Causing the men to wonder what madness was this (Tom: she has a chaos armpit with a mouth in it? The inquisition will notice that!; Jim: It's not often you see a woman talking to her own breasts like that.) before her familiar, a viper named Renee, emerged with a hiss. The ophidian part of the Lady Florane slithered up one of the ropes, confirming that this was indeed a night not fit for man or beast - at least not in the tower above.

Hiram, meanwhile, recalled his awareness of the stage, glancing down the room's other passage and seeing it extend at least another 40 paces, with an all but obscured side corridor to the south at about two thirds of that length. With Melas assistance he then opened the largest of the three crates, with the hunchbacked man chucking and saying "likely a pile of skulls!" Instead it contained loose packed dirt to act as a cushion for the five urns. Hiram produced yet another anecdote, informing his friends that the chaos beasts practiced fire burial (rather than giving their dead to the sea, as is proper) and identifying the pictographs around the urn as being the life highlights of those whose ashes they contained. With a kick he opened one of the smaller chests - that one contained the skulls! - and while Melas had only been joking Hiram was serious indeed, as these were the skulls of the beast men's most worthy foes, taken to insure that they would not be revived or even reborn.

Certain that something foul was afoot here, the nobles decided to travel further in; Melas bound Deitrich's wound and then followed Hiram - a young actor taking the lead in his most challenging role yet.

To be continued.