Night 60: Underground Lake

[razing_phoenix]

[From here.]Just like the last time, Guy's feet hit the uneven sand as he took in that unmistakable smell of dampness. This area was almost dead quiet when compared to the hallway that they'd just come from, but he still could make out the lapping of water and the creaking of the dock. All of those sensations just reminded him of the fact that they

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[trolltaker]

"I like a man who knows how to bargain," Charon laughed. "But, unless you're willing to let me have someone's stomach, too, I can't exactly take you up on that offer, now can I? Nowhere for the beer to go. It'd just get everywhere, stink up my boat, and then the whole damn neighborhood would think I was throwing a party without 'em. The spiders here have nasty tempers, you know. Hold terrible grudges over the dumbest things, too."

What he'd give for a good drink, though. This place didn't pay him near enough, but that was his lot in life -- or, in his case, death. Alas.

"But, as long as your nose isn't completely busted, I'll take it," he decisively said. His bleached-white bones grasped the man's hand in a loose handshake as he brought his staff down against the wood. The sound eerily echoing against the cavern walls. "Done."

Clearly pleased with himself, he took a deep breath.

And let out a long, contented sigh.

"Hmm, the lake smells especially foul today! Nothing more invigorating than a rank odor clinging to the air, I always say." Turning away for a moment, the ferryman switched out his staff for a paddle. "All right, then, Stinky! You and your friends can hop aboard our little love cruise now."

[its_the_mileage]

Nothing like watching a skeleton breathing to cap off another night at Landel's.

Absurdity aside, though, that had been more painless than Indy had expected, so much so that he was tempted to ask what the catch was. No fights to the death? No giant boulders? Not even the puzzle about the fox and the goose and the grain? He wasn't complaining, but anytime they entered another room down here and the source of impending death wasn't obvious, Indy was starting to be convinced that just meant you needed to look harder.

Maybe the ferryman would just capsize the boat halfway across and let them all try to race the sea monsters to the nearest bank. Ultimately it only mattered in giving Indy a chance to prepare himself--even knowing something terrible was going to happen wouldn't've kept him standing on the dock. They'd made it this far.

"Thanks," he said to Taylor in a low voice as he climbed carefully onto the boat. He tried to position himself so he'd be jostled as little as possible, but being paddled might still be easier on the chest than walking either way. Indy was curious how well the Grim Rower would be able to maneuver the whole heavily-laden boat with one oar, but he guessed they were about to find out.

[unheroed]

Giving up a sense (or your voice) to get across the lake didn't seem as bad as it could have been. It wasn't like they were being asked to chop off a limb, and with any luck that sense would return when the morning came. The skeleton wasn't one-hundred percent clear on that, but Harvey was assuming based off of past experiences. Hardly anything lasted until morning.

It was true that smell was more or less a freebie; hell, Harvey would have gladly given that up so that he didn't have to be breathing in the scent of his own burned flesh for once. But Sangamon beat them all to it. Predictably, Peter got up in arms about that, but Harvey was just glad that it seemed like he was traveling with a group of people who would be tripping all over each other to be the martyr. When it came down to it, Harvey really couldn't afford to lose most of his senses. He was already pretty much half-blind and half-deaf as it was.

This explained the voice thing, though. It turned out that the skeleton's real voice was exactly how Harvey would have imagined it, which was strange. Weirder still was the realization that he'd stolen the voice of some kid who'd come here before the six of them.

Either way, the skeleton was a lot mouthier than Harvey would have banked on. He guessed it didn't matter so long as they got across, and Sangamon's offer had been taken without complaint. Harvey piled in after the others, taking a seat next to Jones. "You must be getting a kick out of this, Mr. Archaeologist."

[scalyfishman]

Take a sense, huh? Well, it wasn't as though Depth Charge had ever been all that attached to his human senses: like they stood up to his old sensors without a hard-number reading to analyse anyway. Seemed a shame that taste didn't seem to be on the skeleton's list, but whatever, smell was plenty good enough. He hadn't once found an opportunity to use his tracking skills, so-

"Hey-!" But S.T. was already leaping in like- well, like the big dumb hero type he was planning on playing at, and the kid too, from the looks of things. It would've been bad enough if he'd taken the skeleton up on his offer, but S.T.? Oh, no, S.T. fell under his jurisdiction as far as the Maximal was concerned.

Which made it all the more uncomfortable that the man had offered himself up as the sacrificial LAN so easily. Truth be told, he felt kind of cheated.

But what was done was done, and Depth Charge clambered into the boat without a word, even if his teeth were gritted so firmly the odds were he'd be down to gums by the time they reached the other side of the lake. The ferryman had implied that the trade would be for one night only, but until they woke up to S.T. smelling the roses he wasn't going to take it for granted. They had no reason to believe anything that wasn't written in blood down here.

[toxicspiderman]

S.T. hopped into the boat, scrambling up to the bow to sit alongside Charon without rocking it at all. "Sorry. No spare stomachs." It was a hell of a lot weirder, not being able to smell anything at all, than he'd expected.

But looking out across the lake, with the water sliding under the boat, made up for it. At least it would, if the effect wore off eventually. He wanted to say something witty to Peter about the spiders, but the kid looked green enough. Besides, if Charon really had a phobia, it might come in handy.

Then Harvey took up the burden of small talk, so he went back to staring at the water and being antisocial.

[trolltaker]

Charon was glad to get the show on the road, and he easily let the group climb aboard. "Too bad," he sighed at Stinky's stomach remark. "Let me know if any of you change your mind, though. Maybe I could cut you a deal, heh!"

This was a larger group than he was used to ferrying, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. Not everyone looked too pleased with coming along for the ride. Obviously, they didn't know how good they had it tonight.

"Listen, Smarty," he said to the kid who had climbed in first, "it's either this or swimming across, got it?" After changing his staff out for a paddle, the skeleton pushed them away from the dock. The waves quietly lapped against the side of the boat as they began to cut across the lake.

"And, believe me," he added with a low chuckle, "I doubt you wanna touch the water here."

[its_the_mileage]

"Being rowed across a subterranean lake underneath a mental hospital by a smart-mouth skeleton? Doesn't get any better," Indy replied dryly, but as ridiculous as the situation was--and as wary as he was--he wasn't really complaining. They seemed to be getting somewhere here--although where was anyone's guess.

Maybe nowhere, he thought with a flicker of grimness as he glanced at the dark water and the dock receding into the blackness of the cave as they moved away. This could all be a wild goose chase. All they knew was that the military had seemed to want them to make progress down here. Indy had chased after a lot of myths in his life, but here there wasn't even that much of a promise that something he'd want would be waiting at the end of the journey.

It was a leap of faith, he told himself, redirecting his gaze toward the lanterns at the far side of the lake. If nothing else, it was as good a plan as any other he'd had.

"Should we start taking bets on what's on the other side?" he asked Dent after a minute.