“It’s a hole in the ground. And it’s dark down there.”

Huffy was always one to state the obvious.

Takoda chimed in, “I can hear a river or something. I can’t swim or see in the dark. Maybe we should go back to the surface and wait for Manicotti to come up to us.”

“I like pasta,” Timber volunteered.

Kali and I were flying above the large hole that plunged down from the foot of the steps in the loud lizard chamber. We did not plan to go any further today and were simply scouting out the immediate area while our fly spells lasted.

We have only been in the House of Withered Blossoms (or under it) for a few days, but it felt much longer, and some of my friends were getting anxious or punchy, depending upon the mouse.

Star and Beorn looked at one another and shared disturbingly maniacal grins. Of my eight mice they were the ones most gung-ho about pressing on into the unknown.

“Hold me over the hole, I need to pee.”

This was a typical Beorn thing to say, and I replied, “You haven’t had to pee in years.”

Kali looked over at me quizzically. “Beorn,” I said by way of an explanation. She nodded and we flew back to the others.

We set up a camp back in the hall by the collapsed bridge. It is dark, damp, and not the most comfortable of places, but it is probably the most defensible, and least accessed in this part of the underground fortress.

“But it smells like ass,” snorted Badger. “Wet ass!” he quickly added.

Fireday, Pharast 29, 4713 mid day
Beneath the House of Withered Blossoms

In the morning we prepared to move further down and further in, but first Kali used an Arcane Eye to scout the way.

This is such an incredibly useful spell that I wish I could cast it. I sometimes wonder at the accessibility of spells to different types of spell casters. Why is it that clerics have ready access to some spells, while wizards and sorcerers have access to a different set? Why is there overlap? Why do some casters need to prepare specific spells from a list while others can simply cast any spell they know when they need it?

Back in Magnimar while I was still studying at the Temple of Pharasma there was a lecture on the different styles of magic users. But it was incredibly boring and I was already moving on toward Groetus by then, and so I never caught the gist of the explanation.

Whatever. Magic can be capricious like that.

Anyway, the water from the pool at our level plunged about a hundred feet down before splashing into a wide shallow pool, which drained through another large shaft at the far end of a cavern. On this first level were a handful of oni looking creatures who were torturing people in cages.

Thirty feet down the water plunged into a deeper pool, but there was little else to see here and so Kali sent the eye further down another thirty feet. Here were some creatures we later identified as “kytons” who were also getting their jollies by torturing people.

This brought up two important details.

First, there was an awful lot of water down there to deal with, which was fine because we were already expecting that and I had prepared a number of spells to deal with copious quantities of water.

Second, what the hell is wrong with creatures that feel the need to torture others simply for the pleasure of it? They clearly weren’t expecting to gain any information from their victims, nor were they using them as a source of food. They were inflicting pain and suffering for no reason at all other than they enjoyed doing it.

I felt the fur on the hackles of my friends rise and Star let out a fierce growl of anger. Beorn cackled in anticipation of what was to come. It was time to descend and end this.

And it did indeed end. With a combination of spells and brute force we killed all of the tormentors and freed the tormented.

We met the naga twins. We were expecting them and promptly killed them. “Fuckers!” Star grumbled.

The only surprise was at the bottom level we met samurai who introduced herself as “The Mouthpiece Munasukaru.” She then tried to dissuade or distract us with promises of wealth and riches if we were to simply leave.

She smugly proclaimed that she represented Munasukaru, but Dasi was having none of this nonsense and said that we represented the Amatatsu family. That pretty much ended the diplomacy portion of this meeting, which was fine with me.

And then she and all of her minions died.

“Take her head! Take her head!” Beorn urged. Takoda and Timber joined in, and so why not? I’d like to forcefully present Munasukaru’s mouthpiece to Munasukaru herself.

The samurai had stood before a pair of double doors, and opening them we saw a hallway stretching to the left and right with doors at either end.

“Oh goodie!” Pookie chirped.