“I don’t think we’re in the fortress anymore,” Ayame said as she gazed around.

What lay before them was far more vast than any room inside either complex so far. Behind them, they saw the double doors they’d come through, with the malachite stone of the fortress spreading out in both directions before reaching common gray ( Read more... )

( Chapter Twelve: Secrets in the Hold )

          “I think I found something!” Zip announced. This success served to distract the beguiler’s churning thoughts of the last several minutes.

After the strange proposal in the repugnant room of pukestastic odors, the two emerged with Dip wearing the widest grin Zip had seen on his brother in a long time. His twin had always seemed ( Read more... )

           Dip glanced at Shiore. Not sure what was going on with Wrast, he hoped the elf girl would give him some indication of what to do. Unfortunately, she looked just as concerned as he felt. In fact, he might even have said that her concern might have been called fear by some. Dip had a hard time determining fear in other races, but he ( Read more... )

           Zip watched the walls of the elevator shaft turn from bare gray stone to polished black malachite as the elevator creaked and groaned. It was a sudden change; one moment gray stone, the next black malachite, separated by a line where the two came together - the precise moment Jzadirune disappeared into the shadows above and they ( Read more... )

( Chapter Nine: Descending Into the Hold )

Date: still the 6th of Harvest Plenty, 506AF

Place: Drunken Morkoth Inn, Cauldron, Islandia (my name for the world)

So that was an interesting day. I had a lot of fun delving through the dungeon, but my plan to take rear guard back fired. Cut off in the back was not fun. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the tunnel hadn’t been so narrow. I ( Read more... )

           This. Is. So. Cool!

The chest put this mouth and tongue to good use - it spoke! Dip’s jaw dropped, a small smile tugging on his lips and a twinge of excitement tickling through his nerves. For a chest with a set of monstrously sharp teeth, it did not try to chow down on Wrast’s arm. Maybe it could tell there was metal ( Read more... )

          “Ew,” Shiore commented, looking around. “I think we found their garbage disposal.”

Bits of rubble and debris covered the floor of the cold room. Patches of green mold grew on the damp walls and clung to the ceiling. Lying in a heap in the one corner, opposite their entrance hole, was the gutted, putrefied remains of an eight ( Read more... )

         Awed by the permanent dancing lights spell drifting through the beautifully worked hall, Zip almost didn’t see Dip’s heightened sense of alert. As soon as he glanced at his twin, however, he saw the tension in Dip’s jaw and the tightness in his knuckles as he gripped his weapon. At that moment, he realized what Dip had already figured out ( Read more... )