Author's Note: Apologies for the delay. This chapter did not want to be written
Blinding Gas
Rir wasn't happy about their assignment and Vesli was in no mood to disagree. While Courci was fine as she was, it was the two members of the Heir's first team that were the cause of the discomfort. Dismas and Tirel made Rir bristle and this made Vesli unamused. It wasn't any action they did, or any words they said, but their scents. They both carried the scents of the Holy assholes. This had Vesli almost instinctively bracing for the vitriol that he associated with the Holy asshole duo. It was their plague doctor who unsettled Rir the most with her scent that carried a mixture of those bastards who must not be named as well as the miasma of chemicals that was so like Bird but at the same time wasn't that it was wrong.
The rotting scent of the cove filled Vesli's nostrils as they waded through the thick bog like water, Vesli almost grateful for the reprieve from the scents of his two newest companions. Droplets were dripping from the stalagmites of the caves as they delved deeper, the hissing of pitch from the torches and splashing of their steps the only sounds their party caused. While he didn't know Courci as well as his team Vesli did trust her enough to watch his back while he took point and that was enough to settle Rir… for now. It was very likely that the tenant in his mind would never truly settle on this trip. Vesli didn't really fault the beast for that.
Catching a scent on the wind whistling through the cave, the man came to a stop, the others quickly ceasing all movement along with Vesli, looking around nervously. They knew what he was, they knew of his abilities and that if he smelt something then there was going to be a fight. Spinning around, Vesli threw his chain, the cold iron links slicing through the air as they passed between the heads of the plague doctor and highwayman, who jumped out of the way in shock. They naturally assumed he'd been aiming for them, and prepared to fight. Ignoring them drawing their weapons, Vesli jerked his chain to the side so it wrapped around the throat of one of the fishmen that polluted the area, one of the blue bastards this time, and pulled the struggling creature forward into a clawed strike. Partial transformations were always short lived, so his hand quickly lost the bestial form. But it was enough to gash the blue bastard's face open and thus kill it.
Glancing out of the corner of his eye, Vesli saw that while Tirel had lowered her weapons slightly in a cautious and almost confused way, Dismas, who had joined the same time as the holy Bastard, still had a gun raised. The crack of the powder igniting echoed through the tunnel as the flare from the barrel eclipsed the party's torch for the briefest of moments. Vesli felt the iron ball fly past, whistling through the few locks of hair he had left. A growl rumbled low in this throat and Rir was very close to showing this weak prey-thing his teeth. Any plans they had to attack the Highwayman and make Dismas regret attacking, and more so missing, were extinguished when Vesli felt the hot crimson blood splash over his neck. Glancing over his shoulder, the saw another fishman, a purple healer asshole, spasming in its death throws, a bloody hole replacing where once had been its left eye.
"Thanks," Vesli grunted, forcing the tension to leave his shoulders, as the highwayman nodded and blew the smoke from the barrel of his pistol.
"Thanks, yourself," the thin man nodded, "I didn't even sense the one behind me."
"This is their turf," Velsi motioned to the reeking caverns about them, "Their territory. They know how to deceive our eyes. But my nose? That they haven't figured out yet." Granted smelling them over the stench of rotting fish was quite difficult at times. But Rir had learned the difference and Vesli wasn't too proud to use the beast's abilities when they lengthened his expected life span.
"Noted," Tirel said, a wince heard in the voice behind the mask. This plague doctor was more by the book than Bird was, but Vesli felt that wasn't a good thing. Tirel lacked the same sort of spark that made him trust his stealthy friend despite Bird's rambling. Or perhaps he simply preferred Bird to other plague doctors, even when she was infuriatingly confusing.
"What are we looking for in this hellhole again?" Courci asked, the arbalest not liking the cove, her eyes never having stayed in one place since she set foot in these caves. Vesli could almost feel her stress levels rising just by watching her nearly erratic eye movements.
"I don't know, the Heir's ancestor's toothbrush or something," Dismas grunted dismissively adding in a shrug for extra emphasis "I just know to look for the coat of arms."
"So, gaudy, ornate, over the top, and most of all tacky?" Tirel asked the highwayman, the banter between the two sounding routine as they both laughed. The atmosphere was enough to warm even the Cove a hair as Vesli found himself giving a soft chuckle along with them.
Scooping up some of the water from his ankles Vesli quickly washed the blood from his neck and cloak as the Highwayman went ahead and reloaded his pistol. "We've still got a lot of cave to cover," the man called out, "Let's move!" They had gone through the rest of the tunnel and had started down a new one, when he realized something. "I'm surprised you two are taking orders from me," Vesli did his best to keep his tone casual but his ears were perked up, along with Rir's, to listen intently to what they would say.
"We're used to Raynuald giving us our orders," Dismas explained giving yet another shrug. Vesli wondered if that was normal for him, and was not sure how to process being compared to the Crusader. "He became an officer during his service and he doesn't like giving up that sort of power. You sort of… fell into the role, so we didn't argue."
"Plus, we wanted to see if you were as bad as they said you were," Tirel added, her own bird mask seeming to watch Vesli. Alright, so while she lacked the rambling, she was just as blunt as Bird was.
Much to the man's surprise, Courci responded before he could, "I'd trust him over that arrogant little nit you two follow, especially after what I saw the last time I went anywhere with his fuzzy ass."
"Thank you Courci," Vesli sighed, unsure if he liked his ass being mentioned, let alone being called fuzzy, "I can feel the love." At those words, he knew he had clearly been spending too much time with Aela. If he started saying 'by the spirits' then Vesli was sending himself to the sanatorium. …Okay maybe Bird would do if for him, he wasn't that crazy.
"Happy to oblige," she gave him a smirk before sending flat looks to the other two, "You've heard of the collector in the Heir's codex?" When they nodded, she explained what Vesli had done to it on their last mission together. The plague doctor seemed disturbed by his choice of weaponry for that fight, the highwayman just had a look of respect.
"Moving on," Vesli's words were quick, wanting to avoid any talk of him being a 'savage beast', "According to the map, there's a good camp location two tunnels ahead." The rest of the walk there was spent in silence as Dismas and Tirel mulled over what they had been told and Courci watched them both like a hawk. Finally getting to the campsite, and killing the giant demon snails, he saw the highwayman setting up a perimeter of alarms.
"Useful skill," Vesli acknowledged as the highwayman grinned before rummaging in his pack for something. The man would never tell Caillot, but he was slightly relieved to not have that hair-raising sensation just before he was supposed to sleep for once.
"Thanks, your nose is pretty useful as well." Giving a pleased 'aha' the highway man pulled out a bottle of, if Vesli's nose was correct, brandy and took a swig. "Want some?" Dismas asked with a content sigh.
"I don't drink," Vesli declined but was touched by the gesture as his traveling companion shrugged and tossed the bottle over his shoulder to Tirel who happily drank, somehow never showing her face in doing so. Vesli debated on if asking Bird if all Plague Doctors were touchy about showing their faces was offensive or not. It probably was. Drat. Now he'd be plagued by that question on nights when 'blessed' with insomnia. Eventually, the bottle was passed to Courci who took only a small sip, stating she didn't want to see double, especially since she was the 'best shot' of the group.
"Challenge accepted," Dismas took the barb at his own skills in stride, "I believe a wager is in order. Loser gives half their wages for the job to the winner?"
"Whoever gets the most kills wins," Courci nodded as Tirel sighed in exasperation and Vesli gave a genuine laugh, having never expected to feel this relaxed around the holy assholes' teammates.
*/*/*
They'd found two relics of suspect origin. But the things had been in the marked crates, so the group was willing to accept the items as being the objects of their search. They only had to find one more of these odd relics to satisfy the Heir's demands. That's when it happened. Vesli's nose caught a new scent. Then an eerie sound, almost a melody, floated to the party. They all looked at one another confused. Vesli growled low in his throat. The sentiment seemed to be echoed by the others. Carefully, cautiously, the group of adventurers drew close to a ledge. And they looked over.
There, with her bulbous tail-fin curled around a crate marked with the Heir's crest, sat a she-fish of enormous size. Vesli had never seen the like. It was like the female cultists and blue fish men had merged into one thing. The gaping maw filled with razor teeth was open, and the odd melodic were somehow being produced from her throat.
"What in the name of the Light is that?" Vesli murmured.
"The Siren," Dismas answered darkly, "One of them anyways."
"There's more of those things?" Courci gripped her crossbow tightly.
"Three, according to the Caretaker's notes," the highway man had his pistol in hand.
"We are ill prepared to fight her," Tirel whispered "What do we do?"
"We're not throwing our lives away on a trinket for the Heir that's for sure," Vesli refused to let this become a suicide mission.
"And we will suffer the Heir's wrath if we don't do something," Dismas pointed out. The entire party shuddered in unison at the thought.
"If we can distract her? Move her somehow? Then grab whatever is in that crate and run for it," Vesli offered.
A nod from the other three. "That stalactite looks damaged," Courci gestured to one near the Siren. Rir and Vesli decided to dub her the Fish Wench. "While it won't hit her, it might scare her into moving. But my bolts don't have enough power to knock it loose."
"I doubt a pistol bullet does either. Not to mention the noise would reveal us," Dismas was clearly keen on not getting spotted by the Fish Wench. Vesli was in complete agreement.
"Maybe a bolt in the water?" Vesli suggested pointing to a small pool behind the Fish Wench. "She could mistake it for food. Or at least go investigate."
"That's not a large distance. We'd never make it down there before she got back to the box," Tirel pointed out.
"We could combine one of my bolts with one of your Blinding Gas grenades," Courci mused. "It'd stun and blind her, giving us time to get there and then start hauling ass before she recovered."
"She'd still very likely see us. But I don't think she's overly fast on land," Dismas mused.
"Which means so long as we stick to the drier parts of the cove, we can very likely outrun her," Vesli continued the thought, "She could sound an alarm of sorts with her voice though. We would face resistance on our way out."
"Better than facing a displeased Heir," Courci pointed out. At this, the others couldn't argue. Tirel reached into her belt and produced a grenade. After examining it and one of Courci's bolts, the arbalest and plague doctor managed to get the grenade attached well enough it was at least somewhat unlikely to explode in the party's faces. Courci took aim. The bolt landed with a tink! near the pool of water. The Fish Wench's song ceased instantly, and she slowly slid her way over to investigate. Her clawed hand poking about triggered the grenade, causing a bright flash and a surprised screech. The four adventurers bolted. Vesli's chain came down on the crate, cracking open the wood had enough to produce a few flying splinters. Fortunately, or unfortunately, these hit nothing. Dismas, who had the fastest reflexes snagged the item with the now open box and the party ran for their lives.
The Fish Wench's shriek as she spotted them fleeing echoed through the Cove. But they were already aiming for the shortest way out of the caves and onto dry land. They met some resistance, but cut through this and kept running until finally they emerged into the dim light of the Hamlet outskirts.
Vesli panted. "Let's never do that again."
"All in favor say aye," Dismas snarked through his gasping, still holding the relic.
"Aye," Tirel said weakly, having thankfully grabbed the other two objects.
"Aye," Courci managed to catch her breath, edging away from the Cove entrance as she did so.
"Aye," Vesli weakly chuckled as the party dragged themselves back to the Hamlet, weary but alive.
