by Skyler Grant
Ryn glanced sidelong at Alex as they walked. "We're a lot alike in some ways. We both lead dangerous lives. When you live off the excitement, you kind of start looking for excitement in love too. It usually ends badly."
"My marriage is already arranged," Jess said quietly . "Djinn society isn't like yours, that doesn't stop us from having fun or loving other people, but it matters—a lot. I never had a choice in it, it happened before I was born."
"Sounds rough. I might not have a past, but I have my freedom. The House has always made it clear I can walk away," Alex said.
Ryn asked Jess, "I spend my whole life running away from things that try to hold me. Do you like him?"
"He is a really good guy. Brilliant, strong, heroic, I kind of hate that. I always feel like I should measure up, but I don't."
"You're a fantastic illusionist," Ryn said.
"And a great musician," Alex said, remembering.
Ryn told her, "You should become some kind of kickass bard. Illusions and music, and solving most problems by having lots and lots of sex."
"I don't think that is actually a thing," Alex said.
Real or not, Jess’s sad look had been replaced by a smile, "Could I? That sounds amazing. I'm going to do that! And Ryn can become a master thief and steal everything from everyone while I play."
"Working on it," Ryn said.
"And Alex is going to save a lot of people, and sleep with a lot of women that turn out to be monsters and do all kinds of exciting things."
"Pretty sure he's working on that," Ryn said dryly.
"Not intentionally," Alex pointed out.
"We're all friends right? I'd like it if we were friends," Jess said.
"We're friends," Ryn said.
Alex thought they actually were. It was a bit of a surprise, but a good feeling.
They still hadn't encountered any Glitch. Alex's map showed several other tunnels coming together and running parallel to the one they were in.
"Where are we going? The surrounding layout looks weird," Alex said.
"The nexus," Ryn said, "Not all the sewers connect directly together, but all the tunnels run into the nexus."
"What is the nexus?"
"All this sewage goes somewhere. When they built the city some genius had the idea to pump it all into one of the mountain valleys and use it for farming. Didn't really work and now you've got a sort of sewage marsh there filled with lots of badness."
"Eww. This mission is not fitting in with new long-term goals," Jess said.
"We're not going that far—the nexus isn’t the marsh. The nexus is where the Artificers built some big-ass pump to move all the crap. I've never seen it, but most of the sewage tunnels converge there," Ryn said.
"So if Sabrina is going to lay a trap, it’s the logical place," Alex said. “We can’t avoid it.”
'You know me so well. We really are on the same wavelength. This one is almost more prank than threat, but be careful or you are going to get dead,' Sabrina said.
"Yeah," Ryn said.
Alex heard the nexus long before they got close to it, his heightened sense of hearing picking up the grinding of gears and the churning of machinery.
"I have yet to actually meet one of these artificers," Alex said.
"They're not that uncommon. They're Glitch, but they're really different from most, they get visions of other worlds and use them to build crazy things," Ryn said.
As Alex recalled they used brown quintessence. It seemed an odd mix for visions when brown in natural-born Glitch was usually associated with durability and defense.
They were getting close to the end of the tunnel. From ahead there was a light source and they moved slowly and at a crouch to look at the room beyond.
The chamber was massive with perhaps a hundred openings from sewer passages forming a half-circle around a lake of human waste. Above some sort of glowing orbs provided light as bright as the noonday sun. Massive blades in the lake turned with a slow rumbling growl as they drove sewage into an enormous pipe at the far end.
"We want the seventeenth hole from the right," Ryn said, looking across the lake.
There was no sort of solid ground between the pipe outlets. It might be possible to leap between them. Of course, the only other option would be wading through the pool of sewage.
Alex felt something from the muck, dissonance.
Concentrating his focus he tried to scan.
Cleanslime
Alignment: Green
Level: 15
Hitpoints 157/157
Cleanslime are an artificially manufactured Glitch, a variant originally made by the Magess Onessa Klint who was obsessed with practicality and wished to get ready for bed as quickly as possible. Her design ingested dirt, grime, and clothing while leaving her unharmed. Further variants have been created to remove debris or solid matter from inconvenient places.
Vulnerabilities: Cleanslime are vulnerable to most forms of elemental and magical damage. While harmonized steel will harm them, they'll also devour it so that approach is not recommended.
"We need to be careful. That muck is filled with things that will eat our armor and weapons," Alex said.
"Not keen to continue on naked and covered in sewage. Can we avoid them?" Ryn asked.
Alex spent a few more minutes focusing on the lake, picking up three other Cleanslimes that were slowly floating through the muck.
Killing the Cleanslimes would result in a lot of XP that tempted Alex, but whoever had built this place must have intended them to be here. Killing them might damage the equipment and he'd prefer to avoid that.
"I can get us around them," Alex said, but he was troubled. These Cleanslimes had nothing to do with whatever surprise Sabrina had devised.
Analysis Mode didn't show him anything. Searching for Glitch waiting in ambush wasn't really its thing.
"What’s the hold up?" Ryn asked.
"I feel like I’m missing something," Alex said.
"Trust yourself. Every good thief knows to trust her instincts. When you get that feeling you've already seen the problem, but you just haven't recognized it."
Alex was focusing all his attention on the pool, but the problem wasn't there. The roof was a rounded dome, but there was nothing there either—or was there? An itch of dissonance was nagging at him.
"Jess, I think there is some sort of invisibility enchantment concealing something near the roof. Can you see past it?" Alex asked.
Jess squinted at the ceiling. "Huh. Going loud."
Jess rippled and cast aside her human illusion, the runic tattoos glowing golden against her red skin as she looked up towards the ceiling.
"I thought before this couldn't be her, but I think it is. If you can hear me, Sabrina, you've got a really beautiful weave," Jess said.
'I do like her. We should take Jess up on her offer when I've done what I need to do. See her world. I think your bracer binds you to this one, but we can free you of it,’ Sabrina told Alex.
Jess shimmered with a golden aura and the air above the lake rippled and parted. Several flying shapes circled. They were a strange blend with the lower body and wings of birds, but the upper torso of a woman.
Shrieker
Alignment: Red
Level: 4
Hitpoints 47/47
Shriekers are a fusion of bird and woman that are intelligent and capable of limited human speech. While practicing asexual reproduction, their human halves do long for human company and they often abduct men and women for that purpose keeping them in their nests. If the human is polite and flattering there are recorded instances where they have been kept for years. If rude they are usually disemboweled and eaten. As with most creatures of red alignment they are powerful offensively with dissonant talons and a screech that is particularly harmful to Glitch Hunters given their enhanced hearing.
Vulnerabilities
The feathers of their bird halves are resistant to stabbing and piercing weapons although the human torso and
head have no such resistance. Fire and frost attacks aimed at the wings are particularly effective for bringing them to ground.
'If you're keeping a list of company-starved Glitch to throw at me, I prefer Deep Maidens,' Alex told Sabrina.
'You wouldn't unmodified, I promise you. If I'd known I'd have a Glitch Hunter boyfriend to keep entertained I really would have stocked up on some vampires or succubi. I went for cheap and kill-happy instead.'
Alex thought it was probably a bad sign that he enjoyed the banter. Killing her was going to be hard.
"We can't trudge through sewage while dodging attacks from the sky," Ryn said.
Alex nodded. "It’s going to hurt our mobility way too much. Even if I had my potion-caster that’s a shot straight up. Same with the grenades."
"I could hit one with a throwing knife, but what’s that going to do?" Ryn said.
"We have to bring them down," Alex said, searching through his pack and pulling out one of the grenades. This one was marked with a crudely sketched snowflake and a blue strip of cloth.
"If I throw this into the muck can you make an illusion around it, Jess? Male, naked, handsome?" Alex asked.
"I call that one the Friday Night Special. Yeah, I can do that," Jess said.
"We bring them down and when they're in range Jess drops the illusion and Ryn can hit the grenade with a knife," Alex said.
Ryn said, "You can keep the illusion up. I can hit a target blindfolded. Long as I see where it lands I'll hit that point. Will it be enough to kill them?"
"I hope so. If not, I think I have a way to get us across the lake without any swimming required. Be ready," Alex said.
48
“At seven-year intervals a ship appears at a port on the Veneldran Sea to take on passengers. Unlike any ship currently sailing it appears to be a relic of the first age. If passengers attempt to board they are welcomed, none has ever been known to leave.” Oddities of the Veneldran Sea
Alex drew back his arm and let the frost grenade soar. His aim had to be precise, he wanted to avoid the Cleanslimes and hit a relatively still area of the sewage so it wouldn’t get drawn too soon into the flow being channeled down the pipe.
It didn't go exactly as planned. The grenade was moving, caught in a slow current of filth.
"We're good," Ryn said, eyeing it carefully with a dagger already in her hand. "Just make it quick."
Jess waved her hands to and fro, glowing gold. The image of a man appeared in the waste just over the grenade. It looked for all the world as if he were taking a leisurely bath in the sewage, his muscled chest glistening in the harsh light of the orbs.
It succeeded in getting the Shrieker's attention as they flew down from the ceiling.
"Pretty man," squawked one.
"Shiny man," squawked another.
"Beautiful ladies, come bathe with me," said the illusion.
"Wise man," squawked a third as they circled lower and lower.
Ryn waited her moment and let the dagger fly, arching end over end. They heard the sound of a clay pot shattering.
You have hit the Shrieker with your Frost Grenade
14 Frost Damage
Vulnerability Exploited
18 Damage Dealt
You have gained 23 Fury
You have 23 total Fury
You have hit the Shrieker with your Frost Grenade
17 Frost Damage
Vulnerability Exploited
22 Damage Dealt
You have gained 28 Fury
You have 51 total Fury
You have hit the Shrieker with your Frost Grenade
21 Frost Damage
Vulnerability Exploited
25 Damage Dealt
You have gained 31 Fury
You have 82 total Fury
You have hit the Shrieker with your Frost Grenade
26 Frost Damage
Vulnerability Exploited
30 Damage Dealt
You have gained 18 Fury
You have 100 total Fury
You have trigged a Fury special effect for reaching maximum Fury
Stun
All enemies damaged this round have been stunned
'Merhal' Alex said, aiming both his hands at the sewage as a stream of frost erupted from them. Where it hit, the waste froze solid and he began to walk across. It was perilous and he had to move slowly, both to keep new ice forming ahead and to avoid slipping. Ryn and Jess followed behind.
The stunned Shriekers, covered in frost and ice, wings frozen stiff, were slowly sinking beneath the sewage. They might drown, but Alex thought once they recovered they might be able to get airborne again. He had to hurry.
Alex had never tried to maintain a tonal this long before. No restrictions had ever been mentioned and now he was quickly finding there were limits. The frost running through his body was starting to hurt him, his breath a frosty cloud, and he was starting to tremble, almost slipping on the ice.
"When we get close we're going to have to jump for it," Alex said with his teeth shattering.
A piercing wail rent the air, agonizing to Alex's ears, and the ice surrounding one of the Shriekers shattered into fragments. All three began to blast each other with their powerful voices, clearing the frost from their bodies as their wings beat against the sewage, trying to work themselves free so they could fly.
Tunnel number seventeen. They were close to the right entrance. Alex used a bit more power to extend the frost before him and then released the tonal before leaping to fling himself into the opening.
Alex came up just short, hands gripping the edge and his Glitch strength at play as he pulled himself over the lip. He turned at a crouch ready to help the others.
Ryn didn't need it, an acrobatic tumble through the air landing her beside him and she tossed him a grin.
Jess hit the wall below the pipe hard, blood rushing from a shattered nose as both Alex and Ryn grabbed an arm and pulled her up.
There came a sound of tinkling bells from the tunnel at their backs.
'Really Alex, I can count too,' Sabrina said.
"Get her up," Alex said, as he drew his weapons and spun around.
A shimmering band of translucent colors floated in the air of the sewer tunnel, like ghostly chimes in a wind.
Dreameater
Alignment: Blue
Level 5
Hitpoitns 53/53
Dreameaters appear to be intangible bands of colored chimes floating in the air. They play a melody that can render those who hear it unconscious and trap them in their dreams. If left uninterrupted their victims will eventually starve to death.
Vulnerabilities
Dreameaters are intangible and completely immune to mundane weaponry. They can be harmed by loud sounds, dissonant steel, and magical damage. Spirit Oil and Anti-illusion bombs will also harm them.
"The topless birds are pissed off, and flying again," Ryn said.
The Dreameater ahead and the Shriekers behind, they were trapped between the two threats which was surely exactly what Sabrina intended.
'I'd recommend forward. You'll be out for a bit and wake up in a nice little cell, or with the Maidens again if you prefer. I'll even keep the thief alive,’ Sabrina said.
That wasn't going to work.
"When I attack, I want you to hug the wall," Alex said.
With his Songhammer Alex struck out the frequency for the Dreameater on his blade and lunged forward.
You have hit the Dreameater with your Songblade
Harmonized
12 Harmonized Damage
No damage resisted
9 Piercing Damage
Immune to damage type
12 Damage dealt
You have gained 15 Fury
You are at 15 total Fury
Chimes rang out and Alex felt drowsiness overcome him. Turning, he stumbled back towards the Shriekers flapping outside. As he neared the exit Alex strung out the note for the Shriekers on his blade.
There came a
roar of rage and Alex pushed himself against the wall beside Jess and Ryn.
The air rippled as three sonic attacks from the Shriekers rippled past and slammed into the Dreameater pursuing Alex.
When they hit the Dreameater, the gentle sound of chimes became a jangling roar and they shattered.
A Dreameater has been killed
You have gained 5 Blue XP
Alex leaned against the wall and felt the weariness gripping him continue to grow. It had been his hope that once the Dreameater was dead the effect of its attack would fade, but that didn't seem to be the case.
The world went black.
Alex's was aware of an ache in his jaw and his eyes flickered open in time to catch Jess slapping him across the cheek. The same happened a moment later to the other cheek. Alex reached up to catch her wrist.
"He's up!" Jess shouted happily.
"About time," Ryn said, pushing Jess out of the way and helping Alex to his feet.
"How long was I out?" Alex asked.
"We're underground, I've no idea. Felt like hours, was probably twenty minutes. I dragged you for a bit. Once we were out of sight, the bird-people stopped trying to get into the tunnel," Ryn said.
"I should go back and finish them off. They're dangerous," Alex said. Things seemed quiet here, the tunnel floor angling upward away from the nexus.
"The streets are already filled with dangerous Glitch we have to leave behind. You're on a mission and you don't need to get yourself hurt before the real fights that matter," Ryn said with a stern look.
Alex wanted to protest, but she was making too much sense.
'She is right, Alex. I may need you to do what you do. I think I've made a mistake. I think something has gone terribly wrong,' Sabrina said.