Loyalty of the Tiefling

by JHMLYNDALE

The events of Mask of the Betrayer, but with the twist of Neeshka having managed to follow her harbour-boy… who is hers rather than Elanee's. Prologue, 25 chapters, Epilogue.

12. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

They went out through the gate, watched by the Guard who was still not sure how this outlander had gone out into the dark as the prey of the bear-god and returned from that battle as his ally. There were strange rumours of him speaking to Nak'kai, the shaman of the Berserker Lodge, and that he had been given use of a Witchboat. The three half-celestials that had also fought Okku had not given away much as when the large brother in the antler helmet was drawn into talking of the fight his sister with the shorter hair and grey skin had quietened him. And whatever the Witches knew and had said in their discussions with mighty Okku and the outlander they were not sharing with the common folk. Not that the Witches had any reason to as it was them rather than their inferiors that were blessed with the wisdom of the spirits.

Down the road and around a bend and behind a windbreak of trees Blake and the others paused. "I doubt anyone will give us trouble while we are in your company, my friend," Blake commented to Okku, "but as pretty as that dress is on Neeshka it is not intended for long walks…"

"As she has been saying," rumbled Okku, "continuously."

"So we had better change to more practical garb."

Okku nodded and settled down to keep guard while his mortal companions went their three separate ways to quickly don their armour. As Blake dressed and resisted the temptation to peek to one side and watch Neeshka, a temptation that was why he was in the middle as he did not trust Gann to resist it, he pondered how much armour to actually wear. It would be a rare bandit that would dare challenge Okku so in that regard any armour was unnecessary. With a shrug Blake decided he might as well wear all his armour even if he did have a sweetheart who was so well supplied with magic bags as well as being keen, perhaps a little too keen, to find things to fill them with.

Fairly soon Blake was dressed and found that, as expected, he was the slowest since he had that many more pieces and layers to his armour. With a harrumph Okku set off down the road and shrugging again Blake set off after him. The trip was a fairly short one and as, despite the lack of splendour compared with other sections, this road was still part of 'The Golden Way' there were regular milestones and the occasional rough stone shelter or wooden hut for travellers to use. They'd set out at a strange time and were travelling at a strange pace, slower than horseback but faster than a laden cart, so it was a few hours into darkness before they reached the next shelter after the one it had been a little early to stop at.

The next day went just as peacefully as though the road did not go directly to the Sunken City the guidance of the spirits to Gann and Okku was enough to take them down the right trail off it. This guidance was fortunate as going by the map Blake had been a little surprised. Gann cheerfully blamed Blake's map reading skills for that and was quite smug about not needing a map himself. Blake felt more inclined to blame the standard of the map since it did not seem Deneir had blessed this cartographer with accuracy, but accepted Gann's teasing.

It was late afternoon of that day before they began to approach the shores of the lake and to see the sun dipping down and behind the ruins jutting out it. The way the sunlight sparkled on the water and shone shafts of light through the empty window frames of the ruined walls was quite picturesque. However the great tentacles whipping up out of the lake spoiled the scene and those and the corpses washed up along the shore discouraged any thoughts of swimming or enjoying the beach.

"I can smell rotting and corruption in the air, and it isn't you spirit-eater," rumbled Okku, making Blake wonder what the bear-god's point was since growing up in a swamp had made that sort of smell unremarkable to him. "It is a stench of bloated corpses and twisted spirits."

"There is indeed a sunken city here," Gann added, gesturing out at what was visible, "beneath the ebb and flow of the waves with only ruins to be seen. Perhaps the fall of night shall grant us a bridge, though I fear what that would gain us. We will not be the only petitioners at this gate."

"You sound uneasy, my friend," said Blake gently, "and more than the scene would provoke."

"It is said that one cannot go home again, but for me this is the first time", replied Gann, looking around and his lips tightening as he saw more that was strangely familiar to him. "I have walked to this place many times in my dreams. To be here in the waking world, it is a little unsettling."

"I can only imagine," Blake nodded. "Let us hope though that Shaundakul has blessed our exploration and that your dreams have given you insight so together we can prevent reality becoming a nightmare."

"Thank you," said Gann, with a very slight bow of his head, "but for now let us seek insight from that fellow walking the shore."

Blake nodded to Gann again and cautiously approached the man. He did not seem too troubled by the corpses or that interested in them and he looked too prosperous to be a corpse-scavenger. What other reason for patrolling this shoreline there was though escaped Blake. The man glanced over at Blake's deliberately open approach and raised both eyebrows in surprise and greeting.

"Welcome to the middle of nowhere stranger. If you have come to join old Fentomy then well met, if you have come for the fishing then you'll be sorely disappointed."

"I've not come for the fishing, I doubt much worth catching escapes the owners of those tentacles," Blake replied before adding, "and since 'Fentomy' means 'false face' in the language of geniekind I suspect fishing is not your purpose either."

"Ah!" said Fentomy with some exasperation. "Perhaps I should have chosen a cleverer name, but my little jest amused me. You are correct, this is not my true nature. I am, in truth, a Dao. When visiting more primitive worlds such as this I typically adopt a form that will not alarm the indigenous inhabitants."

"Thank you for your consideration," Blake replied, not insulted and not completely sarcastic. "So what does draw you to visit here? With the corpses and tentacles to spoil it this seems a less than pleasant spot."

"Oh… this and that," said Fentomy vaguely. "I may tell you if we meet again, but until then all I will say is to point out this journal. It belonged to a fisherman who made the mistake of lingering here after nightfall. Farewell, and good fortune."

With that Fentomy began wandering away higher up the beach. Blake looked at him for a moment and then shrugged and decided that even with the reputation of genies there seemed little chance of a trap in that advice. Moving closer to the shore Blake reached out and picked the journal up off the crate on which it was resting and began flipping through what pages had not been stuck together by damp from waves or rain.

"Hmm. Oghma has blessed us with knowledge, though Deneir did not bless this man's penmanship. The handwriting is not good and it has got wet which makes it worse…" complained Blake. "Ah, this fellow was here to fish out corpses to strip rather than to fish for fish." He nodded with a very slight chuckle. "And it seems Fentomy did get some amusement from using that name as the fisherman thought he was just some bloke… but this part is interesting. A 'black swirling eye just appeared on the shore'… does that sound like a shadow-portal to anyone else?"

"Sounds like it to me harbour-boy," Neeshka agreed.

"Aye," replied Blake, looking through a few more pages of ill-written scrawl, "Gann's insight served him well, or he guessed right, when he said the fall of night might bring a bridge."

"Insight, of course," Gann said with mock hauteur. "Guessing is a habit I rarely fall into."

Blake prodded one finger at an entry in the journal. "I don't like the sound of 'evil creatures from the Hells'…"

"Is a little redundant," Neeshka smiled, teasing Blake over whether he meant the content or the writing style, "they'd hardly be good creatures from the Hells…"

"So we had better not camp in plain sight," continued Blake with a half-smile, "while we wait for dusk and the shadow portal."

They went back up the beach and built a small fire in the shelter of one of the dunes. As Blake lit this he looked around to make sure that there was nothing this firelight was playing on that would be too visible from the shore. In some ways the 'object' that was causing the most trouble was Okku as he was quite large and visible even without any extra light. He rumbled a little but moved around to between the fire and the shore to further shade it. Nobody had much to say as they waited as the mortals were tired from the walk and Gann in particular was quiet. He was uneasy and thinking silently about his dreams of this place so that depressed his usual chatter.

Blake settled himself comfortably with Neeshka snuggled against him, perfectly content to use his chest as a cushion despite the Mithril breastplate and chainmail over it, and enjoyed the quiet. Slowly the stars above began to become visible as the sky shaded from blue to purple to black. Eventually though he had to disturb her and break into Gann's thoughts, satisfy Okku's impatience, and move. As Okku buried the remains of the fire with one paw swipe through the sand Blake moved cautiously to peer over the top of the dune and saw nothing moving save the tireless tentacles and the energies gently writhing around the edge of a shadow-portal.

"Aye," Blake said with some regret. "Our guess, sorry… our guesses and Gann's insight… were right."

"Then let us take advantage of this little-one," rumbled Okku, annoyed at the delay waiting for night had caused and his determination outweighing any reluctance to enter the Shadow Plane yet again.

Blake nodded and led the way towards the portal, pausing before it to make a few quick spells to add to those persisting upon him, and then passing through and into the gloom of shadows. At first things seemed little changed as though without moon or stars it was harder to see them against the blacker sky the shape of the ruins against that sky appeared the same. Then Blake noticed there was now a wooden walkway stretching out into the lake rather than just a pair of lines of posts and that the nearest pair of posts was far closer to the water's edge. For a moment he was not sure if it was just an extra pair of posts but glancing to his right he saw a building that now had shoreline mud within its walls rather than lake water so it was that the lake was lower here.

"That explains that," Gann murmured, gesturing at the altered shoreline, "I had wondered at seeing buildings above the waves in my dreams, and why those of my mother's kind would live somewhere as damp sounding as a Sunken City."

"It still looks rather damp, my friend," replied Blake.

Gann nodded in acknowledgement as Blake turned his attention to an even more obvious difference between before and after they had entered the portal. Had the figure standing between them and the walkway greeted them in that form before then they'd have not needed his unimaginative alias to recognise his nature, him being a huge man in a Turban wearing a waistcoat over a bare chest would have been more than enough clue. For a moment Blake considered if they could get past without speaking to him as they did not need any extra complications. However there seemed no way to do that without being rude and Blake was not eager to go out onto the walkway considering how creaky it looked. Besides even if they were emerging from the water further from the walkway than they'd been from the posts this Shadow Plane lake did still have those huge tentacles waving from it.

"Ah, you've made it here," greeted Fentomy as they approached. "I knew you didn't seem like the average beach-combing adventurer."

"Thank you for that compliment, if compliment it was," Blake replied, "and since you are greeting us I take it you may be willing to share your purpose this time?"

"I run one of the largest gem mining operations in the Great Dismal Delve," said Fentomy, with a practised and slightly smarmy smile. "But our daily yield has been reduced due to sabotage by one of my rivals. To recover my profits I need a heavy lifter. A being of great strength and power, but easily controllable."

"That," Okku growled, "was a very colourful way of saying you seek a slave…"

Blake glanced over his shoulder and then nodded. "I do not tolerate slavery."

"Neither do I," snarled Okku, exposing some teeth. "Wretched Dao, I should liberate your head from your shoulders and free you of your foolish beliefs."

"Please," Fentomy protested, managing to look almost genuinely insulted, "slavery is a distasteful descriptor and not appropriate in this case. Your assumption says more of you than of me."

"Then what do you mean?" asked Blake.

"Are the oxen that hauled the materials to make your weapons and equipment slaves?" Fentomy said, sounding like he had given these examples before. "Or what of the Golems that stand guard over Wizard's towers? Are they slaves?"

"I suppose not," agreed Blake, before adding with a slight glower, "though animals should still not be mistreated."

"Well… leaving animals aside then," Fentomy said, retreating from one of his examples, "a Golem is simply a tool to be used. It does not have the intelligence or, like an animal, the emotions to be more than something to be used to spare mortal labour. I am just looking for another tool myself. There is a being I can use beneath Coveya Kurg'annis. It is among the mightiest of the Earth Elementals bound to this plane."

"Why would there be an Earth Elemental beneath this city?" asked Blake in a reasonable tone.

"I don't know," Fentomy reluctantly admitted. "Whatever function it once served the mortals that bound it to this place are long dead and so long incapable of sharing what their purpose had been. I simply need you to vanquish this Earth Elemental so it will return to the Elemental Plane of Earth where I have the means to bind it to my service."

"So, its function could be something that is still useful," Blake pointed out. Fentomy did not dispute that and after a moment Blake continued. "I do not wish to seem unhelpful but I am afflicted with a centuries old curse. I would prefer to not delay speaking to the Slumbering Coven by taking your task, nor to risk angering them if the Elemental would be missed from beneath their city."

"Any delay you suffer by aiding me would be irrelevant," replied Fentomy, his smarmy salesman's smile making a return, "and you may even see the Slumbering Coven sooner by performing this task."

"Explain," Blake frowned, "please."

"This 'Slumbering Coven', this group of overstated prophets who spout advice to these lesser creatures you see milling about," said Fentomy, before adding as he remembered that was why Blake and his friends were there, "no offence…"

"None taken," Blake replied truthfully, though Okku grumbled slightly.

"They just stopped admitting audiences a short time ago for reasons unknown to me," continued Fentomy. "There is no guarantee how long it will be before they start seeing people again, and even if this was soon there is a long line of petitioners ahead of you. However they could also be reached from beneath the building, where the Earth Elemental is and where I can gain you access."

"So… I would get to bypass the queue and you would get your Earth Elemental. This seems a fine deal, aside from that I would be intruding upon the Slumbering Coven rather than being invited before them. Oh, and the risk as I said before that the Elemental might be missed."

"That may not be as great a problem as you think," Gann commented, breaking his unusual silence. "Hags can be a practical people. Given a choice between answering questions and attempting to force us to leave… Well, one would allow them to listen to their own voices and show off their knowledge and the other could leave them and their guards dead."

"And even if, despite this fine fellow's words, you feel my plan would give you little chance of gaining your answers," argued Fentomy, "that would still be more chance than if you never get to see this Slumbering Coven at all."

"Going in the sneaky way sounds good to me harbour-boy," Neeshka said, giving Blake a quick grin.

"It would, dear," Blake replied fondly. "Very well, I trust Gann's judgement of how the Coven might react so we shall exchange services and destroy the Earth Elemental for you Fentomy."

"Excellent," said Fentomy with unhidden satisfaction. From somewhere in his outfit or thin air he drew out a metal object. "Here is the key. You will find the entrance on the west side of the building. This leads to the partially flooded passageways beneath the Coven, a place known as the Skein. Return to me once you have slain the Earth Elemental. Do not fail me and you will be handsomely rewarded."

Taking the key Blake walked along the wooden walkway and towards the dome that even his merely human eyes could see now. It appeared the same building, like the other ruins, as outside the Shadow Plane but this did show how different the level of the lake was between planes. The fading daylight those hours ago had glinted off water that was high enough to partially cover the roof. Here though the water barely reached the base of what looked like the upper storey. This was fortunate for the two Hagspawn Blake noticed as even the very large one of the pair of them would have had to learn to breathe water to be able stand guard outside that door.

As Fentomy had warned there were 'lesser creatures' milling about and Blake paused to consider them. The presence of an Illithid was annoying enough to almost make Blake wish there were some Githyanki around. What was even more irritating was a smallish Ogre in chainmail who took that pause as a chance to begin calling out insults directed at their equipment. This seemed to be his way of trying to persuade them they needed better things such as he could sell them. Blake ignored him though as even if he was not sure about Gann's spear and leathers he knew the quality of his own and especially of Neeshka's equipment. Though to be fair, Blake mused, the armour and rapier he'd spent so much on as a present were concealed under the cloak along with her perky horns and lissom tail so perhaps the Ogre's judgement was not quite as abysmal as it might have been otherwise.

Okku suddenly stopped and sniffed and rumbled deep in his chest. "Can it be?" Okku asked, almost rhetorically. "The scent of my spirit-kin, in this foul place… why would my spirit-kin be petitioners at this place? Perhaps the foul reek of this place confounds my sense of smell… but these pups have an unnatural stench to them."

"We can spare some time," Blake replied, "so let us find out."

"I was not waiting for permission…" murmured Okku, "but… thank you anyway."

Giving the group of Fire Genasi loitering near an outhouse a respectfully wide berth, and ignoring the sneer the one in finer clothes still gave them, they saw Okku's nose was right. The walkway did not extend far to the left, ending at the corner of the building rather than wrapping around it the other way, but there was enough of it for a group of Telthors. Okku rumbled as his eyes confirmed what his nose had scented and as he could smell more of these spirit's stench.

Noticing Okku's approach a Telthor Wolf glanced at his fellow spirits before he spoke. "The Bear-King has left his barrow. How strange," he commented, looking less like a proud wolf and more like a puppy seeking approval from his audience.

"And he keeps with flesh and blood beings," replied a Telthor Bear, its rumbling voice sounding almost squeaky to ears used to Okku. It added with mock surprise and some glances around the group, "how confusing."

"Well met spirits," Blake said politely as Okku glowered a little at them for commenting to each other rather than greeting him, "what brings you here?"

"Brothers, this one speaks to us," sneered the Telthor Wolf. "I understand the language, but lack the willingness to hear it."

"They're lucky that you're my sweetie-pie harbour-boy aren't they," Neeshka whispered, leaning in to speak almost directly into Blake's ear. "Some might have understood the rudeness, and lacked the willingness to hear it."

Okku's ear twitched as despite her quietness he caught Neeshka's words. "Children," he rumbled, deep enough to confirm the Telthor Bear sounded like a cub by comparison, "you will hear the words of my friend as if they were my own and you will answer his question."

"We shall," the Telthor Wolf replied, accepting the order but adding, "though we do still wonder why you are so far from your barrow."

"This two-legged one suffers from an… illness," Okku said vaguely. "The affliction will spread to the land if it goes uncured, thus I am duty bound to protect him until he is cured. And you children, I still wonder why you are here, in this awful place so far away from your home?"

"But this is very near our land," commented the Telthor Bear. "We roam the darkness beyond the cliffs and feed on the corpses that wash ashore."

"What nonsense is this?" Okku growled in disgust. "Why would you behave as vultures and feed on carrion?"

"We do what comes naturally, cousin bear," a Telthor Wolverine said, breaking his silence and sounding unashamed.

Okku's growl could be felt in the wood of the walkway it was so low and resonant. "These Telthors act as common beasts and disgrace my kind. Such petulant children should be disciplined… by fear or by fang."

"I agree," Blake said, as the Telthors began to look unsure. "Something needs to be done here and we have both those choices available."

"It has been too long since I have disciplined a wayward pup, I will enjoy this," roared Okku, his colours flashing in the dark of the Shadow Plane. "Worthless corpse-gnawing maggots! Lower your heads and flee my sight! I will give you a moment's head start…and if I catch you, I will tear off your limbs and shove down your gullets a feast of your own carrion… Now run!"

That the Telthors obeyed was not much surprise though it was also no surprise to Blake, glancing around, that Gann had been pseudo-casually leaning on his spear and that Neeshka's hand had, like his own, been close to the hilt of a sword. As the Telthors fled and Okku glared at them to encourage them to continue there was a third lack of surprise that the Hagspawn Guards were looking in their direction. The smaller one seemed to be reassuring the larger to calm down and the larger seemed to have enjoyed the show and be commenting enthusiastically.

"Did we have to be quite so noisy?" Neeshka complained, using her skills to look at the Guards without appearing to do so. "Believe me, if you want to sneak in the side way the last thing you want is to attract the attention of the guards and they are watching us now."

"Ah, but they were watching us already, or rather watching you," Gann pointed out. "Guards seek any diversion to relive the tedium of their duties and that you are concealed beneath that cloak only means the strain is on their imagination rather than their eyes."

Blake turned to look at Gann, using that as an excuse to sweep his gaze across the Guards and see that as expected Neeshka was right. Gann smiled and raised one hand in a warding-off gesture, "I know. Not too much imagination or eyes… look, maybe, but don't stare and certainly don't touch. You and your lady have made that clear."

"Hmmm," Blake smiled back, "and I think you are right. With her grace even a cloak cannot make her less than eye-catching, which shows how impossible it would have been had I tried to design her armour to be dowdier and try to hide how beautiful she is."

"Hey! I like this armour, and no need to talk about me rather than to me," Neeshka protested. "We still have the problem of the guards, whether they were attracted by me or, more likely, by the giant multicoloured spirit bear shouting at other spirits."

There was not much room on the walkway, especially for Okku, but they did their best to get some distance from the door guards without passing too close to the Genasi or the Illithid. Blake did not think this attempt was doing much good as he knew it would take a lot to stop him looking at Neeshka and he expected the same was true of those bored Hagspawn. Perhaps if they retreated further down the walkway they could conceal themselves? He had a spell of invisibility prepared and Neeshka was sneaky and Gann might have some gift of the spirits… but that would leave the problem of the unwilling and probably incapable Okku…

Then an ugly voice hissed out at him. "Spirit-Eater! You betray the Gift!" a little ape-thing Blake vaguely recognised as perhaps being something called an Uthraki challenged. "If this was a place more private I would hasten your inevitable destruction."

Blake glanced from that Uthraki to the other two just visible around the corner. He had become tired of being addressed as spirit-eater and allowing himself to take insult here could perhaps give them an opportunity other than finding out if Neeshka's innate talent could make the Shadow Plane darker. That Darkness would have hidden what they did but not that they were doing something so this could be better. Blake gave thanks to Lady Luck for compensating for how he was failing The Lady of Strategy with his lack of ideas.

"Let's find some place more private then…"

"You are right to yearn for a quick death," interrupted the Uthraki, "and I will provide it to you so the Gift may pass to one more worthy. Meet me on the dark side of this building when you are prepared for your end."

"What an arrogant creature!" Okku growled as the Uthraki bounded away and around the corner to the welcome of his friends. "These disgusting apes have changed little in the years of my slumber."

"Aye! He deserves death…" replied Blake loudly, dropping his voice to add, "and it also provides a reason why we are going around the side of the building."

Neeshka glanced at the guards who did seem to have seen the exchange of threats and to have heard her harbour-boy declare his apparent reasons. This was hardly the most masterful deception but that those little ape-things didn't look like the sort to cooperate in any plans might have tipped it in their favour. She frowned a little as she glanced again and realised there was something familiar about the rhythm of how the Hagspawn were talking.

"Hrmm," Okku replied, as quietly as a bear-god could and his expression showing what he thought of trickery rather than honest vengeance. "I hope your first reason was the main reason, little one."

"I think they are making bets," commented Neeshka softly, with another glance across. "I wonder what odds I could get on us."

"They may look brutish," Gann smiled, also keeping his voice low, "but even Hagspawn know that if someone bets they will survive then if they lose the bet and die that also means they cannot pay up."

"She is blessed by Sune so she'd dazzle them with her smile," said Blake, pulling off his hat and pulling up his chainmail hood, "the problem would be them expecting us to come back to collect."

"That would be the drawback of her persuasiveness, but a curse she has to live with possessing such charm."

Neeshka frowned at Blake and Gann as her harbour-boy donned his helmet and began to strap his huge clumsy shield to his arm. She didn't want those two arguing but it was almost worse when they started getting on. She'd seen Blake's sense of humour but, aside from Grobnar, the friends they had travelled with before were rather less light hearted than Gann so she'd not seen him sparking off someone that way. It was good though seeing her harbour-boy joking despite the curse so she hoped this would persist when he was cured and when they managed to return to the Sword Coast.

After a pause and a glance at the Hagspawn guards Neeshka reluctantly unbuckled her cloak and began folding it away into one pack. As she'd feared the smaller one poked the larger one in the ribs and made some comment that made his friend chuckle in agreement. Blake's head whipped around at the chuckle and for a moment as he saw how the Hagspawn were leering things hung in the balance. With an effort he reminded himself that of the three gifts Sune had blessed his beloved with it was only her beauty these guards could admire rather than them sharing her love or her passion. And tried to not dwell on the lack of privacy meaning he had not been able to share her passion recently.

It seemed better to honour the plan the Red Knight had given by taking his frustration out on the Uthraki and to count his blessings. Neeshka's presence might be a reminder that he could not, for now, honour Sharess by trying to ensure Neeshka was sensually fulfilled but the happiness Neeshka's presence brought him was a blessing from Lilira, the Joybringer. As Blake rounded the corner he saw the Uthraki and that they seemed to have been working each other up into a frenzy. They were breathing heavily and one was slightly drooling in anticipation. Blake quietly began to chant.

Seeing their approach the one that had challenged them tensed and snarled and exposed long canine teeth. "Now you die!"

Blake did not reply other than to finish his spell and, to nobody's surprise but the Uthraki's, the large parent ball of flame of a Firebrand formed in front of him as the Uthraki's short powerful legs drove them forward. This split into three and each of those whooshed out and into its target. Fur began to smoulder as flesh burned and the impacts drove the Uthraki back. Howling a little in pain they slapped at themselves, their charge spoiled and distracted enough by the pain for Blake to take a few quick strides with his longer legs and strike. The flesh of their leader's chest was remarkably tough and as his sword carved through it and discharged magic into the wound Blake felt a definite drag. This was no worse than cutting through studded leather though, and far easier than metal, as he opened the Uthraki across his front from collarbone to opposite hip.

Another Uthraki tried to take advantage of Blake being vulnerable in mid-swing and bounced up into the air to try to land on Blake and cling onto him with hands and feet and bite at the back of his neck. Though Blake had a chainmail hood the Uthraki's teeth were long enough they might slip between the links so it was lucky for Blake that Okku was there to protect him. With a snap Okku lunged and his huge teeth closed on one leg, stopping the Uthraki's forward motion before Okku began shaking and whirling him around by that leg. Before the Uthraki could begin to feel much pain from his leg, as the teeth worked into the flesh and the joints tried to bend in strange directions, Okku's jaws relaxed and his prey found himself flying out over the water.

There was a thud and a splash as the Uthraki struck a ruined building's wall and bounced off it into the lake. A brief moment later a suggestion of movement in the darkness and then a scream cut off by a faint crunch showed that the question of whether Uthraki could swim was not to be resolved that day. Blake hoped that would be enough of a meal for one of whatever those things in the lake were rather than it simply whetting its appetite and prompting it to go on the hunt. One of those could be a lot more trouble than the Uthraki and especially since the third of them had already been impaled through the chest on Gann's spear.

It had grabbed at the shaft and was still trying to snarl defiance and insults. Before Blake could decide if Gann needed help Neeshka was already moving. Her rapier flicked out and the incredibly sharp tip sliced across the Uthraki's throat and through veins and windpipe so the snarling dissolved in blood. Gann heaved his spear to one side now the Uthraki was no longer holding onto the shaft as tight or bracing itself against being moved and there was another splash as the Uthraki went off the edge of the walkway and its flesh slid off Gann's spear.

Casting a suspicious look into the darkness in case the bleeding corpse attracted something Blake then looked down at where his opponent still lay. Blood bubbled in the long wound where air was escaping from the lungs and stained the white fur red where it had not already been burnt black. That the blood was bubbling and still pulsing out of the cut showed the Uthraki was still breathing and its heart still beating so Blake decided to show mercy and swept his sword down as if he was sweeping a broom across his body. The tip of his sword was not as sharp as Neeshka's, but it was sharp enough to cut through the Uthraki's neck with little resistance and almost decapitate him.

The Uthraki howling and the splashes of them going into the lake had been a little noisier than Blake had hoped. He was concerned how long they could remain around the side of the building now relative silence had returned before the Guards became suspicious. Thankfully there did seem to be only one door so they were not going to have to spend time searching for which one Fentomy's key fitted. As Blake moved towards this, and reached into his pouch for the key, Okku decided to be tidy and reached one great paw out to the last Uthraki corpse to snag his claws into the blood soaked fur and casually flip it away with a splash.

"Door, there," Blake called, giving his sword a quick shake. "Inside before the guards realise it has gone quiet and how quickly those idiots died."

"Again you give orders," protested Gann mildly. "We are friends, not lackeys…"

Blake nodded to Gann and quickly inserted the key in the lock and turned it. The door smoothly opened but to his surprise behind it was a shadow portal rather than a corridor or ramp or flight of stairs. Blake gave the portal a suspicious look and muttered, "This was not what I was expecting."

"But what other choice do we have little-one?" Okku murmured back.

"True enough," replied Blake, stepping forward and confident the others would follow.

This confidence was not unjustified and they all found themselves together in a corridor whose stonework looked to be of high quality but which had an air of disrepair in the missing and cracked stones and the small rivulets of water running down the walls. Blake looked around as he wiped his sword and tried to try to get some idea of the age and provenance of where they had found themselves.

"Imaskari?" Blake asked.

"Looks like it to me," Neeshka replied. "Like the ruins under Okku's barrow."

"Myself," Gann interjected, tapping at the stonework with the butt of his spear, "I find it of more immediate interest that this behind us is a blank wall rather than my being concerned who built it, as fine as the work was I am sure."

"No portal," nodded Blake, "which was one risk of entering that way. I'd have preferred if, assuming Fentomy was telling the truth, that there be another path out as well as the one that would lead us to the Slumbering Coven."

"Come, come," Gann chided, "even if we found another path I know you and I both would wish to see the Slumbering Coven rather than use the alternative."

"And I'm not leaving you harbour-boy," added Neeshka, "so I'd have no need of another way out. As good as it is to have more than one escape route."

"If need be, little-one," Okku rumbled, "then though my claws are for killing and not digging we can see if these stones and earth can withstand the tireless assault of a god-of-bears who wishes to leave."

Blake nodded. "If this is the Skein then let us hope Tymorra smiles and it is not as twisted as a ball of wool can bec…"

"Sleep…. Sleeep… Sleeeeeep! Sleeeeeeeeep! No dreams, no nightmares! Aha ha ha ha!" an echoing voice interrupted him.

"What in the Hells?" Blake said mildly, looking about.

"It seems finding a path is not the only concern," commented Gann, "that sounded rather insane as well as like a Hag."

"The way… the voice carries…" said Blake, closing his eyes to try to listen harder.

"Sounded distant to me harbour-boy," Neeshka reassured him.

He opened his eyes to look at her and Neeshka smiled and ran a slender finger back along one backward swept pointed ear. Blake returned the smile. He trusted her judgement that the voice was distant and he trusted her sense of direction. The latter would be of more use had there been some stairs or a return portal to find their way back to but this did look like a large enough place that without her skills it would be easy to get lost in.

"Let us see where our feet take us," Blake nodded, starting away and keeping his shield on his arm, his helmet on his hand, and his sword in his hand.

Corridors led to bends led to short flights of stairs and the whole time there was the trickling of water. It was reassuring they would not die of thirst as magic and boiling could make almost any water drinkable but the effects of the noise did make Blake glad he had not drunk much in the last few hours. Beneath their feet the stones were damp and a little slippery and the air had a smell of decay and of the slimy weed growing along where the water flowed. The smell, if not the occasional corpse, was rather reassuring to Blake as it reminded him of home and the Mere and slow moving or stagnant waters. It also confirmed what his eyes seeing colours had suggested, that passing through a shadow-portal had taken them back out of the Shadow Plane to where things could grow or rot.

Passing around another corner Blake saw a short flight of stairs with a door at the bottom. Opening this door he was rather displeased to see a group of people standing there at the top of the matching stairs back up. That the Skein was inhabited was something else Fentomy had not mentioned and the way the Hagspawn in the centre was glowering and brandishing his club made these not look like people you wanted to meet unprepared. Fortunately the Uthraki had given them cause to prepare with spells and requests of the spirits and the echoing voice had given cause to remain prepared.

To one side of the Hagspawn was a Grey Dwarf with a club and shield and to the other side was a Drow with a Quarterstaff. The only Grey Dwarves Blake had met had been those that attacked West Harbour, or been trying to kill him on the orders of the Githyanki, and the Drow did have a certain reputation. More important though both were rather wild-eyed so even treating them even-handedly as Tyr would wish and judging them as individuals rather than as members of their races it seemed likely they would need to die.

Hanging back a little from that trio was a human that appeared to be unarmed and dressed in cloth rather than the hide armour of the others and a female Gnome that although wearing hide armour had her crossbow slung and her dagger sheathed. They were looking far more nervous and far less enthusiastic. Blake looked over them and judged distances and intents.

"Hmm, why am I reminded of Leldon's thugs?"

"Because you are ever so clever," replied Neeshka, fluttering her eyelashes up at him in mock admiration.

"Would those be the ones you slaughtered without mercy?" Gann asked, knowing the answer but trying to speak with enough emphasis to be heard and understood and having the satisfaction of seeing the Gnome and human glance at each other.

"Aye," agreed Blake simply, failing to realise what Gann was attempting as him trying to speak loudly was quieter than Khelgar speaking normally when there was the chance of a fight. A moue of annoyance came to Gann's face as Blake did not elaborate and attempt to further intimidate their opponents.

"Look, here!" the Hagspawn said, like Leldon's thugs too self-confident or too stupid to back off. "We got some new arrivals."

"Heh, looks like they got nice gear," added the Grey Dwarf, sounding covetous rather than concerned that 'nice gear' was often in the possession of those skilled enough to have earned it. "Let's get 'em!"

"Fool!" Okku growled, his rage intensifying so coloured lights sparkled off the damp stonework. "They also have the protection of a God-of-Bears."

"Hey!" said the human very nervously. "Why do we have to attack every one that blighted Mistress sends here?"

The Gnome very carefully kept her hands well away from her weapons. "Yeah, we don't have many left since the last time Gulk'aush came to feed. We should be welcoming newcomers, not murdering them!"

"That would be less bloody," Blake commented calmly, "for all of us but especially for you."

"If you block our path then you shall die," rumbled Okku, disdaining any subtlety in his threats.

"That bear seems really tough," the Gnome muttered to her friend. "I don't think we should get on his bad side."

"Then tell us..." Blake asked, seeing an opportunity, "who is this Gulk'aush?"

"Gulk'aush is the mad hag," replied the Gnome quickly, trying to curry favour as Okku continued to snarl and show teeth as long as her hand. "Once a member of the Slumbering Coven, but she was exiled here for some terrible crime…"

"Cowards!" the Hagspawn interrupted. "You are supposed to be fighting not answering their questions!"

"I refuse to gang up on any more poor, defenceless souls," said the Gnome, trying to sound as if this was a moral decision rather than realising this group were far from defenceless. Or admitting that five against four when one of the five was unarmed and one of the four was a bear-god was hardly 'ganging up'.

"I'm with you," the human agreed quickly. "Let's go back to the Sleeper."

The pair of them ran off, followed by curses from the Hagspawn. His ideas of their ancestry and what fate they would suffer were colourful to say the least.

"Doesn't matter," said the Drow confidently. "More loot for us. Let's do the deed."

"You're right," replied the Hagspawn, pleased at the reminder that he was going to get to hit something. "Attack!"

He began to charge and heard one of their weak foes mutter curses of fear but then the next thing he knew he was lying flat on his back, pain deep within his chest where the sonic energy of a Cacophonic Burst had ruptured the delicate blood vessels around his lungs. He coughed and a froth of red coated his lips as he fought for breath and felt the pain there and around his heart that had been squeezed and stretched against its natural beat. He had just enough wit to realise those had been magic incantations not curses and that the foe must not be as weak as he had thought. Through his mother's blood he had inherited a resistance to magic so for that to be overcome meant not only the enemy had magic but that he had quite strong magic.

The power of the Cacophonic Burst also splashed out to either side over the Hagspawn's allies but the Grey Dwarf showed he had all the toughness and determination of his surface cousins and barely paused in his charge as blood vessels and flesh ruptured across his side. Unfortunately for him that meant just that he got far enough down the stairs to be within Okku's reach that little bit sooner. A huge paw swung, a wooden shield and the arm beneath shredding as spirit-claws sliced easily though them, and the Dwarf was smashed back the way he'd come to almost land on the Hagspawn.

Meanwhile the Drow was levering himself back off one knee and onto his feet. The effect of the spell had staggered him more than it had the Grey Dwarf and he'd have fallen flat had he not quickly jabbed one end of his quarterstaff down and propped himself up. One side of his body was agony where this had caught him. It hurt to move and though pain was something he could, mostly, ignore he knew he could not move at full speed or with his full skill. That and seeing both his allies down and wounded and groaning as they bled made retreat seem a good idea.

As the Drow began to limp quickly back into the shadows an arrow streaked up and into his side, forcing him to lean on his quarterstaff again. Neeshka fitted another arrow to her shortbow's string and drew it back with one smooth pull. She was slender but, especially with a belt to help, she was strong and could use a bow of surprising power and draw it with impressive speed. Neeshka had noticed the narrowness of the stairs compared with the bulk of Okku and realised the bear-god and her harbour-boy with his tower shield would easily be able to block those. It would be all right for Gann as he'd be able to stab up from the side but her rapier didn't have that reach. So while their foes' attention was on Blake who was talking and on Okku who was snarling and lighting up the Skein Neeshka had used a small measure of her stealth to sidle back, sheath her rapier, and string her bow.

Her fingers relaxed and with a slight slap against the thin leather covering the chain sleeve on that forearm another arrow took a short flat path into the Drow. To Neeshka's annoyance he straightened a little as she released and this took him in the thigh rather than gut. The Drow wobbled on his feet and took one lurching stride using his quarterstaff as a crutch before Neeshka released her third arrow just as he turned and fell. This struck him in the upper chest but was a grazing blow with the arrow passing mostly through muscle before its head emerged out of the opposite pectoral. This was enough though for the Drow to fall and enough blood began coming from both wounds, around the shaft and around the head, to show Neeshka had hit a major blood vessel.

Okku bounded up the stairs and his great head dipped down to bite at the Hagspawn. A moment later and one shaking shrug of his huge neck sent a chunk of the Hagspawn's upper chest and neck flying away to spat against the wall. The Dwarf lurched up, shield arm hanging uselessly with the equally useless splinters of his shield dangling on its straps from it, and swung his club in a clumsy blow that managed to strike Okku in the side of the head. This was hard enough and well placed enough for Okku to actually feel it and be stunned for a split-second at least.

His path blocked by Okku's arse Gann shifted his grip on his spear, hefted it, and threw. The thickness of the shaft, the size of the spearhead, and the iron bands and ferrule on its butt made it rather heavy for throwing any great distance. At this range though that did not matter and even if the Dwarf had still had a shield for it to hit that would have dragged him off balance with the weight. As it was the spear dragged the Dwarf off balance as it sank into his chest. This did not last for long though as Okku recovered from his momentary daze and swept a paw across the Dwarf's face, fragments of shredded beard and shattered teeth getting between his claws, and the spear fell out as it caught against something as the Dwarf fell.

Okku moved slightly to check his kill and Blake trotted up the stairs to also check. The Drow was still slowly dying so Blake stabbed his sword down and through his heart to finish him. There was a crack as his blade cut through the breastbone and the arrow-shaft that was across the front of the Drow's chest. Pulling his sword back out and moving to one side Blake smiled as he saw Neeshka come up the stairs and disdain to recover the two other arrows. She was rather less frugal than he was, but even Blake drew the line at cutting arrows back out of corpses rather than just picking up ones that had missed. Neeshka smiled back and put on an air of ostentatiously ignoring the Drow corpse while she put her bow away.

Blake's smile broadened but then faded slightly as he glanced across to where Gann was recovering his spear. "Something is bothering you my friend."

"Aside from attempted murder and robbery you mean?" Gann replied with a half-smile.

"Aside from that, yes."

"I do not know if you have enough command of the language of Hags to realise," Gann sighed, "but 'Gulk'aush' is not a proper name... it is more a title."

"A title meaning what?"

"It depends on the context, but the closest to human speech is 'lawbreaker'... or 'lover.' Although in the world of hags the two meanings are very close. They do not value love as you and I might."

Blake nodded slowly. "Love and devouring your mate would seem to be awkward to resolve. Though there is other love than romantic or sexual."

"All of which kinds my mother's breed are strangers to," Gann said with contempt, before adding, "and I think all of which you have felt or feel."

Blake half-bowed his head in thanks and then began walking again. The constant trickle of water and the presence of corpses continued to accompany their travels though as they entered a partially flooded section this became water tricking into water and some of the corpses were floating rather than sprawled on the floor. As Blake looked across one of these pools he wondered if these had been filled by the trickling or if there were holes leading out into the lake. He gave the water and a corpse a long look to see if he could see any fish or evidence that they had nibbled the corpse. This was probably irrelevant as even if there was a large enough hole it would be too dangerous to try to travel through the lake with those things that owned those tentacles, though thinking of those Blake realised something.

"Keep an eye on the pools and corpses. I was wondering if there were holes leading to the lake, and if one of these pools doesn't have any corpses that could mean it does have a hole and that hole is large enough for a tentacle to come in to feed."

"From this scene that appears not the case here," commented Gann, waving at the pool, "so I'd ask instead what that over there is."

There was a swirl of dust just visible in the distance and as it moved towards them Blake cursed a little. "Air Elemental. Can't drown you like a water elemental, but can take the breath from your lungs."

"Then once again little-one," Okku chuckled, "you are blessed that you are in the presence of a god-of-bears who does not breathe."

"Your aid, and especially your friendship, has been a blessing," Blake replied sincerely.

"Before we indulge in the group hug," Gann commented, "I'd remind you that thing is still approaching."

Blake nodded and muttered some words of incantation, the weave responded and a Greater Missile Storm erupted from him. Patches of light pocked the Air Elemental as each magical missile struck and discharged its energy into it. The swirling faltered almost imperceptibly as the animating spirit binding the air tried to recover and then Okku seemed to disprove his earlier statement. Charging forward his muzzle snapped into the middle of the Elemental, his spirit teeth clashing together, and the Elemental vanishing so fast under this attack it looked as if Okku had simply inhaled it.

That he had not was shown by some strange glowing dust that was left on the floor rather than having had to be coughed up by Okku. Blake moved cautiously forward to join the victorious bear-god and crouched a little to examine this. There seemed some magic about the dust but he did not recognise it and nor had any elemental he had fought before left such a thing. Blake peered and frowned at it a little more before straightening with a clank and a shrug.

"I… have no idea what that dust is," Blake admitted, "and I don't care to touch it to find out."

"Probably wise," replied Gann, "you are afflicted enough with your curse without being poisoned as well."

"Be a little hard to wash it into the water…" Blake began before being interrupted again.

"When they come, kill each one. When they die, stack them high. When I'm through, eat them too," the voice echoed again before dissolving into laughter at its own rhyming and then broke into coughing as it seemed to have laughed too hard to breathe properly.

"That cackling is driving me mad," Gann commented, looking more affected than the poor poetry would account for.

"I want to tear out the throat that keeps uttering that noise!" growled Okku in agreement as he demonstrated his reputation for being quick to anger.

Blake listened as the coughing stopped in case the voice had something else to say, and when it didn't he finished his sentence. "Stone floor is damp so the dust seems to be sticking to it fairly well, just leave it I think."

"Doesn't look to be worth any coin," Neeshka nodded, showing her fine sense of priorities.

With a smile Blake nodded back and continued, careful to not step on the small pile of dust that was drifting in the slight breeze and clumping as it got wetter. These corridors seemed to look very similar to him but so far it had not been as twisted as he had feared it might be. A few more turnings and as they walked along the edge of a flooded section they had the amusement of several swirls of light resolving themselves into Telthor Rats, that then took one look at Okku, squeaked, and fled before he could even begin to roar. One of the Rats was so anxious that as its spirit paws scrabbled on the stone floor parts of its form began to lose solidity and it almost lost control and swirled back into intangibility.

There was a closed door so, after Neeshka checked it for traps, Blake triggered whatever magic made it slide back in sections into the walls. It was quite impressive as well as useful how that magic lingered in places but peering inside Blake's eyebrows rose as he saw something even more impressive. He wandered in and down the short flight of stairs as he craned his neck back and looked to the ceiling high above them and along the towering height of the Earth Elemental enclosed in rings of magical light that almost reached that ceiling. Blake had seen some large Earth Elementals when approaching Nolaloth's valley and the illusionary ones created by the Wrath of the Ashenwood had hardly been small but this one dwarfed those.

"That is the largest living chunk of rock I have ever seen," Gann commented, also peering up towards where the Elemental kept the cluster of rocks that seemed to serve it as a head. "I hope we do not intend to antagonise it."

"Would you rather antagonise a Dao," asked Blake, "by taking his key and then not doing what he asked?"

"A good point," Gann admitted, with a smile. "Can I have some time to think about it, and perhaps think about it outside… past that door that is far too small for this fine fellow."

"There is the saying about soldiers who are perhaps over-blessed by Torm with obedience," Blake chuckled, "whose reaction to the command to 'jump' is simply 'how high'." He looked again at the gigantic Earth Elemental with a dubious expression as he realised the largest one he'd ever seen before would barely reach this one's waist. "It seems the correct reaction to a Dao asking you to vanquish an Earth Elemental is also 'how high'."

"Just get on with it, little one," rumbled Okku, unimpressed by an Earth Elemental with forearms as large as the bear-god's body.

"This device seems simple enough," Blake said with understatement as he looked at the single prominent lever. "Despite its age it is functioning and keeping the elemental contained. When I pull this lever the elemental will be released, so I hope Okku is not the only one that is ready."

"Are you sure about this harbour-boy?" asked Neeshka, glancing at the vast bulk of what he was suggesting they fight.

"Not really," Blake admitted, rubbing at his beard in thought and glad he had an open face helm that allowed that. "Let's hope the Red Knight is blessing this plan and that Tymorra is smiling rather than Beshaba. Could you switch to your bow please, my love, and use your ring…"

A minute or so later Blake was standing with some cords tied end to end and in a loop around the lever. Glancing at Neeshka who gave him a reassuring smile that lifted his spirits as always he tugged the cord and the lever slid in its slot. The rings of light vanished and the huge Earth Elemental slumped slightly as its weight shifted to it keeping its own balance rather than it being held. Neeshka's arms and back flexed as she drew her shortbow and Blake wished he had time to admire the effects of that on her bosom but he was too busy trying to concentrate to cast some magic. An arrow streaked up at the Earth Elemental, Neeshka's skill letting it find one of the cracks between the rocks, a moment before the missiles of a Greater Missile Storm arced out from Blake's hand to pelt the Elemental.

The arrow between its rocks and the second one Neeshka sent into it as it tried to react seemed to have little effect despite her having felt it was worth the coin to use some that were imbued with acid. Blake's Greater Missile Storm also did little; a few pebbles broke away from the impacts but compared with the size of the Elemental any craters those left were very difficult to even see. The attacks did get the Elemental's attention though and it took a single half-step forward before bringing the ends of both arms together in front of its 'face' and then smashing them down together at its attackers.

Blake and Neeshka had to move fast, even a glancing blow from those rocky stumps would have turned them into pulp, but Blake allowed himself a smile as his boots thankfully gripped rather than slid like the fleeing spirit rat paws against the floor. As the room shook with the force of the impact and the Elemental slowly realised it had missed and began to straighten from its crouch it suddenly found itself with a god-of-bears on its back. Even Okku could not leap high enough to emulate on the Elemental what the Uthraki had wanted to do to Blake but if the Elemental was distracted and bending over in the sort of blow Blake had hoped to provoke then that became far more possible. It became even more so as the Ring of Invisibility that had helped Neeshka to remain unseen while following the kidnapped Blake through the portal could also be used on others.

Okku's claws dug in as they found or, with their spirit-sharpness, made paw holds for him as he clung on and the Elemental moved. It was more like trying to keep his feet in a earthquake than being on prey but Okku's growl of challenge echoed his determination. To one side and below of the bear-god Gann also became visible as his spear stabbed at a knee joint. His spearhead sank into it with a quick precise motion before withdrawing again to avoid being trapped. As skilled as that blow was and as stubborn as Okku was these were not doing as much harm as Blake had hoped.

The Elemental straightened with Okku still hanging on his back like a kitten on a trouser leg, but a kitten that was deliberately trying to shred the trousers rather than just climb them. His rear paws scrabbled as Okku gripped with his front paws and small fragments of stone tumbled down the Elemental's back like dandruff. It seemed to notice this attack and the weight of the bear-god as little as it was noticing the arrows Neeshka was loosing into it. Blake aimed carefully to avoid hitting Okku and muttered the incantation for a Disintegrate. He did prefer spells, as he'd said in the burning grove, that affected more than one target but there were times you wanted concentrated power. Against this Earth Elemental though it was rather underwhelming as the huge thing moved and rather than strike the knee it instead ate a large chunk of rock away from the thigh.

For a moment Blake hoped. That would have been a crippling wound, or perhaps a fatal one with how heavily it would be bleeding, against a creature of flesh and even with the Elemental he wondered if there was enough thickness of leg to support its movements. It continued to move though without its leg giving way or any more stone cracking apart or coming loose. Blake cursed a little. "I don't think I can reach its knee," he said, before clarifying. "With my sword. With any force."

"I have the same minor problem," Gann commented, "so with such a 'diminutive' opponent I have to be content with the idea of valiantly assaulting its ankle."

Blake almost smiled and then he glanced at where another arrow from Neeshka hit their towering opponent. With the way it was moving as it tried to follow them not even Neeshka could always find a crack between the rocks. This was one of those that hit stone and there was a slight spark as the arrowhead glanced off and then a small patch of clean rock appeared as the acid it released ate at the weathered outer layer and trickled down a short way from the impact. 'A few… hundred… more hits like that,' Blake thought, 'and we'll be getting somewhere.'

"Perhaps you should have been using your bow," Blake said to Gann, brandishing his sword to glint some light at the Elemental and turn its attention back away from Neeshka. Blake was glad Neeshka would realise this was to keep the Elemental's limited mind swaying between enemies uselessly as if she thought it was more over-protectiveness he'd get the side of her tongue that was less pleasant than the other things she could do with it. "Perhaps I should have switched to bow myself. Had not wanted to strap my shield to my back, but a shield would not do any good here…"

"Less talking little-one," Okku growled from where he had got his claws into what the Elemental used for shoulders. "More fighting!"

As Okku continued to work away pebbles were falling down the Elemental's back and clicking on the floor like those that could precede a landslide. However despite the bear-god's efforts Blake did not think this creature was going to collapse like the mountainside it resembled. Looking where Okku was Blake sent a Scintillating Sphere into the Earth Elemental's crotch. More stone clattered down as the electricity split the rock and dried a relatively tiny amount of the damp soil lubricating the joint. The tails and rears of Neeshka's arrows were also falling to the floor. If they had wished they would be able to see how many 'missed' and bounced off fairly intact and how many she had put into a seam between the rocks to release their acid and then be half-pulped as those stones ground against each other and them.

Gann darted forward, his spear stabbing out in front of him as he did what he said he'd have to and valiantly assaulted an ankle. He had to quickly draw his spear back as it would be as easily pulped with the Elemental's movements as the arrows had been. As expected the attack did not do more than, again, switch the Elemental's attention and it clumsily turned. As large as the room was it was a little too small for the Elemental to move freely. Fortunately its mind was also a little too small and it did not seem capable of thinking to use the restricted quarters to let it squash Okku against a wall.

It swung one arm in a horizontal arc across the floor like the tail of one of the great beasts of Chult and Gann hand to jump back. The Elemental did have to crouch slightly to reach that low and Blake saw his chance and swung at the knee that had come within reach. It was a good strike with his blade cutting deep into the soil of the joint and the magic along a foot or more of blade discharging as the wound reached that depth. Despite that all it achieved was that the Elemental had a bit of a limp as it straightened to attack Blake and when, a few seconds later, it turned to attack Neeshka after another arrow or two drew its attention that way again.

As Okku continued to hold on with his forepaws and scrabble with his rear Blake could feel his curse beginning to sing siren songs to him. Tendrils of hunger ached to taste the spirit it could sense within the huge Earth Elemental. Why waste time attacking the crude, if impressive, physical form when a small relaxation, a small indulgence, could bypass that and drink in its animating power directly. Without that within it this would be nothing more than a pile of soil and boulders. Blake crushed down the temptation and the hunger. He disliked using the curse on principle and, on a more practical note, he did wonder what would be left to return to the Elemental Plane of Earth for Fentomy to bind if he devoured the animating spirit?

There was beginning to seem little other option though. With how little harm they were doing to it this fight could take a very long time and eventually its luck would be better than theirs and it would manage to hit one of them to smear them across the floor. Okku was the only one who seemed to be making an impact and this was very gradual. Although he was wearing away the stone of the Elemental's back this was like a river carving a valley; the bear-god was just as tireless as the running water but seemed to be working just as slowly. Wait. Running water. Blake looked at the Earth Elemental's joints where every time it moved it more water came squishing out of the very damp soil between the rocks.

"How far vertically would a Burst of Glacial Wrath reach?" Blake asked, thanking the Lady of Strategy and Lady Luck as a suggestion of an idea came to him.

"I…I am not sure," admitted Gann, "as we agreed…using the power of the Spirits to attack is something I do not favour, so I have rarely used it…"

"If you are concerned about me," Okku grumbled from above them, "then don't be. I can endure anything the Hagspawn can do."

Gann glanced up at Okku, not sure if that insulted him or whether he agreed his skills were unequal to truly hurting the god-of-bears.

Neeshka tensed and released another arrow and then gave Blake a grin as this struck the Elemental in the shoulder-joint and the Elemental's motions ground the arrow to pulp. "Come on harbour-boy, if you have an idea then share it, getting expensive with arrows here."

"Gann," Blake said, nodding to Neeshka and pointing with his sword for Gann, "that leg, please."

Concentrating a moment Gann beseeched the Spirits for their aid and power. They responded and the intense cold of the Burst of Glacial Wrath swirled around the Earth Elemental's leg, frosting it with ice up to just above its knee. Even as this ice formed though it was falling away as the rock beneath it broke apart. Over the long years the Elemental had been standing there water had seeped deep into cracks in its rocks and now under Gann's magic this froze and expanded into ice that widened and lengthened these cracks. The Earth Elemental staggered as fragments of stone fell away from it, the damp lubricating mud in its ankle joint set solid, and ice formed within the mud lubricating its knee. Dust of ice and frozen mud ground out from its joints and drifted to the floor as it continued trying to move.

Blake muttered an incantation and channelled the power of the Weave into a Delayed Action Fireball. With the extra power required to cast this in armour and the usefulness of alternate spells at that level it was rare that he prepared more than one and often when he rested he'd not cast it as he'd been reserving it just in case he needed its specific talent. Being aimed directly at the Elemental's leg the fireball detonated at once and water and ice flashed into steam that exploded outwards taking more chunks of rock with it. The size of these chunks was impressive as the ice forming had already pushed apart and weakened the stone. Blake hesitated and then chanted and cast a Firebrand even though there only being one target meant only one ball would form rather than several.

This single ball of flame arced out from Blake and compounded the damage. As the weight of the Elemental came more onto that leg it splintered apart like the stones of an undermined castle tower and the Elemental began to fall. Blake and the other mortals dashed back out of the way and this heaving was finally enough to make Okku lose his grip. The bear-god did not seem hurt though as he bounced and rolled and came to a stop. For a moment as the Elemental shook the room with the impact Blake hoped the pile of rocks and soil was just and only that, but then the rocks stirred as the Elemental began to try to rise.

It got itself back up onto its knee and the stump of its other leg. A few fragments of stone, barely the size of boulders, still clung to the mud at the end of that thigh but aside from those its lower leg was gone. Shifting position as best it could the Earth Elemental swung its arms at the tiny foes that had managed to wound it so severely. Blake had remembered Neeshka's oft-repeated advice though and was not in front of the Elemental where it could reach. Instead he was indulging in some back stabbing, or rather in some back-side and back-of-knee stabbing.

With the elemental kneeling he could reach, if only just, to stab at its hip joints. Seeing this Gann moved around and in to take over that task with the longer reach of his spear and allowed Blake to concentrate on stabbing and slicing at the Elemental's remaining knee. It tried to shift position to attack them behind it but this placed more stress on the increasingly wounded joints and with a sucking squelch like losing a boot in swamp mud its knee joint began to part. There was a roar as Okku charged and sprang at the again at Elemental's back. The bear-god's claws dug into the edges of the groove he had worn as his weight and momentum bore the Elemental down as it failed to balance on the two thigh length stumps its legs had become.

The room shook again, the puddles that had barely reformed leaping into the air again as the shockwave passed them and as the shock bounced back off the floor and through the Elemental's body there was a sharp crack. Stone was very good when being squashed but far weaker when being stretched, as it was when the shock-wave passed out of it into the air above. All along where Okku had weakened the rock with his clawing a deep fissure appeared and with a growl of satisfaction the god-of-bears dug his claws into either side and flexed his great shoulders in an attempt to widen this.

Blake had slightly staggered from the floor heaving beneath his boots but he came back in and set to work on the fallen Elemental as well. It writhed under Okku's attempts to divide it but with Gann continuing to weaken its hips and Blake chopping away at its shoulders it soon lost use of its arms and what was left of its legs. Neeshka had put her bow away but was standing back a little with an unsure expression on her face; the males seemed to have this under control and she neither wanted to get in close enough to use her bracer blade nor thought her rapier would do much good. Then suddenly the Skein began to shake and a few small rocks to fall from walls and ceiling of the room.

As his curse snarled that there was no longer prey within its reach and another chance to feed had been lost Blake decided that would have been one way to tell the Earth Elemental had 'died' and its spirit returned to the Elemental Plane. That the room seemed to be collapsing was an even more obvious hint though. "Hmm," he mused, "it would seem I was right in fearing the Elemental did still serve a purpose here."

"This does appear more extreme," replied Gann, "than the two great-thuds, as impressive as they were, would explain."

"Elemental is defeated," Blake complained, leading the way towards the doorway, "the place starts to collapse. A disturbingly familiar result."

"But this time I am staying by your side in the collapsing fortress," smiled Neeshka, lifting Blake's spirits, "not letting you get kidnapped again harbour-boy."

"For my part I will hope this does not become as familiar to me as it has become to you," Gann commented, "once is more than enough."

"Of that we can agree my friend," replied Blake, glancing back and forth and deciding to head back the way they had come, "though I think we can also agree that the Red Knight blessed, somewhat, our tactics in the fight but not my sense of strategy. Might have shown more foresight to find the route out and then come back."

"If you wish to attribute your skills and decisions to one of your supposed gods then I shall not argue."

"And if you wish to deny their existence," Blake said in return to Gann, jogging along, "then I shall agree to disagree on the matter."

Gann nodded to Blake as they continued. As they travelled the water filling the lower sections sloshed back and forth as the Skein shook, sometimes cresting high enough to send water across the path, and the corpses bobbed on the waves the shaking created. Blake was tempted to hold his shield above his head to shelter it but knew it was more important to not block his view of larger rocks than it was to block the path of the smaller.

"Careful harbour-boy," chided Neeshka, as she easily sidestepped one rock and Blake dodged another that shattered on the floor. "I don't want to have to pull you out of the way like last time."

"Out of the way of the King of Shadows," Blake commented, "was Khelgar that pulled me out of the way of rocks…"

"I grow ever more surprised at your survival," chuckled Gann, "the more I hear of how friends needed to aid you at every turn."

"But, aye," Blake continued, glancing through a doorway and then continuing on, "this cloak is not as nice as the one I got in my Knighting ceremony but I still don't want you grabbing and tearing it off, my love."

"Only tore that one partly off," Neeshka pointed out, "you lost it when being carried by the Gargoyle, remember?"

"Wait," frowned Gann, his stride not faltering, "wait… 'Knighting ceremony'?"

Blake glanced over his shoulder at his friend as Neeshka grinned. "Gannayev, Gann-of-Dreams," she said proudly, "may I introduce you to Sir Blake Marsh, Knight of Neverwinter and, unless they replaced him already, Knight-Captain of Crossroad Keep."

"Why is this a surprise?" Blake asked, distracted by grumbling at Beshaba for the bad luck and at Shaundakul for not blessing their exploration when he found a collapsed dead end. "I mentioned Crossroad Keep and the battle there in my tale-telling."

"Mentioned, aye," admitted Gann, "and come to think of it you did defend yourself that, rather than the personal feelings your lady claimed, one women's devotion was due to her being a good Seneschal …"

"Kana," Blake commented, leading the way back down.

"But you did not mention that you were Lord at that Keep."

"Or that he is one of the Neverwinter Nine," Neeshka added, "one of the personal agents of Lord Nasher, the ruler of Neverwinter."

"Most of my life I have been a harbour-boy, as Neeshka puts it," Blake said, nodding as Neeshka pointed down a turning since he trusted her instincts, "and would the titles I recently earned make any difference in this land?"

"They did not to me little-one," rumbled Okku, "my wrath was not altered by how you had introduced yourself to Nakata before the hunger devoured her. Who you claimed to be did not affect my oath or my determination."

For a moment Blake frowned until he remembered there had been that second spirit-wolf that had run when the curse struck at Nakata and had witnessed this and the exchange of words before. "I just hope this collapse is not too complete," he said, trying to change the subject and glancing back towards the ceiling fall, "we can't check as passages are blocked but there were other people down here."

"It seems that though they fled," replied Gann, accurately if undiplomatically, "we might have ended up killing that human and that Gnome after all."

Blake nodded as he jogged over to peer through an open door that was in the direction Neeshka had pointed. The doorway led into a room and peering across Blake saw there was another door on the opposite side. There also seemed to be something stirring in the shadow and Blake cursed as it came into the dim light and he saw a tall, twisted, and grotesquely female form. Perhaps he should try to look on the bright side and regard this as more practice for meeting the Slumbering Coven.

"Gah!" Blake exclaimed, failing to look on the bright side. "Beshaba's Blessings. Unless there are two down here this Hag must be Gulk'aush."

"No sleep, sleeping," cackled the hag, confirming her identity, "dream, dreaming! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Yes, this is the source of that wretched squawking!" Okku growled, far more grateful than Blake for this meeting. "I'll tear out that throat, as I said, and silence her for good…" He paused, and remembering the little-one's tendency to try to use words added, "just ask."

"There is something about her," mused Gann, almost to himself, "beneath the mask of insanity she is wearing is a face I feel I have seen many times in dreams, but…"

"Ah, another lucky one, lucky to know sleep, to know dreams," Gulk'aush babbled, her shoulders rolling as she tensed to spring, a faint suggestion of drool appearing as her expression became even more insane. "My gift to you, eternal slumber… yes, and you might dream too, you might!"

"Very well then," said Blake, seeing this and bringing his sword to a guard position, "we fight and Okku gets his chance at your throat mad hag."

Gulk'aush sprang and Blake's sword blurred out to meet her but even with the persistent spell of Haste speeding his motions, of Cat's Grace making him more dextrous, and his Mithril armour not restricting him as much as Iron would he was still too slow. The tip and edge of his sword cut nothing but air and he barely managed to get his shield in line to deflect the hag's leap. As he did Blake felt a scraping across the armour over his gut and realised, with some disgust, that was her trying to disembowel him with her long twisted toenails.

Blake staggered back a little from the impact but Gulk'aush almost seemed to bounce off the floor into attacking Okku as he lunged forward to bite at her. She raked her fingernails along one flank of the bear-god and she seemed foul enough in her nature and her filthy state that these wounds acted as if they were poisoned. The shimmering as they closed was fainter as if Okku's healing had to overcome much more than simple grooves in his spirit flesh. Glancing back Blake saw the door had closed behind them so there would be no retreat even if Okku or himself were willing to leave this noisy hag unsilenced.

A flurry of stabs from Gann's spear drove Gulk'aush back. She cackled at him as she dodged but if it did not wound her it did at least stop her follow-up attack on Okku and distract her from Neeshka. Although she was a lot smaller than the hag Neeshka was just as fast and as she was not insane she was better able to use that speed and her rapier to good effect. The contrast between the clumsy semi-berserk hag and the gracefully precise Tiefling was great but neither was able to land a blow on the other. Their methods were different but their speed was well matched and Gulk'aush had almost as much reach with her longer arms and fingernails as Neeshka had with her rapier.

Okku swung again, missed, and then roared with frustration at not having felt Hag-flesh under his claws. The room almost seemed to shake with that as well as the rumblings of the collapsing Skein. As Gulk'aush cackled mockingly at Okku and swept her fingernails back across at Neeshka the hag's eyes suddenly went wide as a stray word caught a fragment of her shattered attention. It had been hard to hear anything over the sound of the roar and what was happening outside this room but Gulk'aush glanced at the man whose innards she'd not managed to squish between her toes. For a moment her cackling stuttered in surprise as she saw magic erupt from his gauntlet clad hands.

She had seemed too fast to easily strike with his sword so Blake had wondered if Gulk'aush was also faster than the missiles of a Greater Missile Storm. To his pleasure he found that she was not as the missiles curved away from him and in at the Hag from different angles to burn into her tough flesh. This did not stagger or slow Gulk'aush much but it was enough for Neeshka and her rapier stabbed out and across the Hag's thigh. Her ears were more attuned to her harbour-boy's voice so she'd realised a moment sooner what Blake was doing and been ready for the chance.

This was not a deep cut and although Gulk'aush was suddenly limping and slowed Neeshka's full lips thinned in irritation as she saw she'd not struck anything vital and the wound was not bleeding heavily enough for the hag to be quickly weakened by blood loss. Blake swept his sword forward for another stabbing slice to draw the point and side of the tip across her guts, as she had tried to do with her toenails to him, and though he missed it was close. Before Gulk'aush could cackle about still being fast enough to dodge she found that in moving away from Blake's sword she had moved into Okku's claws. A huge paw slammed into her side, claws tearing at the flesh over and between her ribs and at the softer flesh of her waist.

Bowled off her feet Gulk'aush tumbled and slid across the stone floor, leaving a little slimy trail of hag blood as she slid, even though she seemed to have rolled with the blow a little and to have used it to gain some extra distance. The Hag twisted and brought herself up on one knee and stared defiantly at them, her eyes almost glowing with her madness and the pain they had managed to inflict on her. Okku's rumbling of satisfaction drowned out a sudden gasp from Gann as the hag's eyes moved past the advancing Blake and onto him.

"They took it all away," Gulk'aush chanted, her eyes fixed and staring, "my dreams, my love, my son! Ah, my love sleeps somewhere without me!"

"Hold still and I'll send you to join him," replied Blake, impatient with the delay as more sounds of collapsing masonry came to his ears. Then Blake faltered as the Hag shimmered and vanished. "What… where did she go? Not invisible and…"

"Sleep," Gann suddenly cackled from behind him, "dream, dream, sleep!"

"Hells!" cursed Neeshka. "I might have suggested we could stab Gann, but I didn't mean like this."

"Try not to cut off anything Gann will miss too much," Blake said, with a slight smile, "clerics can heal much as long as things are still attached."

"No promises, little one," rumbled Okku, "and the Hagspawn would want us to deal with him as swiftly as we can."

Gann's spear darted out in a remarkably clumsy blow towards Neeshka. She easily dodged that and glanced at Blake in puzzlement. Blake nodded back as the possessed body of Gann continued to move and confirmed a hope. There was a saying about being so drunk it felt like your feet didn't belong to you. In this case though the feet and the rest of the body literally didn't belong to the possessing spirit. Moment by moment however Gulk'aush seemed to be becoming accustomed to being shorter and male and prettier and 'Gann' was moving in a less apparently intoxicated manner.

As irritating as the Hagspawn was at times it was still difficult, even knowing delay was to the hag's advantage, to hit a friend. Suddenly 'Gann' swept his spear like a long club at Neeshka and she had to block it with her small shield. It was only a slight noise she made, an 'oop' rather than an 'ow!', but it was enough to break Blake's hesitation and send him charging forward with a roar almost worthy of Okku. Even Blake was not sure whether this rage was at 'Gann' for landing a blow on Neeshka or at himself for dithering rather than already having broken an arm or a leg while the possessed Hagspawn was still too clumsy to prevent it.

Neeshka's eyes widened as she stepped back a little and 'Gann' turned to meet Blake. It looked like her harbour-boy was not following his own advice and they'd need a cleric for resurrection rather than simple healing. Blake's sword swept in and the possessed Gann brought the spear around to meet it in a clumsy parry that would at best deflect the blow into a crippling one rather than an almost immediately fatal one. 'Gann' jerked back though, the spear going to one side, and the tip of Blake's sword just grazing a groove into the leather over Gann's chest, as Okku took advantage of the distraction.

Great teeth met through Gann's cloak as Okku seized this in his mouth and began to shake his head about like a terrier with a rat. He was not being gentle or subtle but as he bounced 'Gann' off the floor, and sometimes the ceiling, with each shake he was being gentler than Blake's eviscerating blow would have been. Gann's spear clattered away as he or the spirit of Gulk'aush became dazed and lost their grip and then with one last shake the clasps on Gann's cloak finally gave way. As the Hagspawn tumbled across the floor Okku spat out the cloak, showing it had fresh holes but that a god of bears did not drool over things he held in his mouth.

Blake slid his sword back into its scabbard as he stepped across to where 'Gann' was dazedly rising to his feet. Then he punched Gann in the face, hard, and felt a little guilty how much he enjoyed doing this. It seemed some part of him felt Gann had still been owed this from how much Blake had wanted to do it during their first meeting at the prison. Gann's Hagspawn heritage meant his skin was tougher than it looked but it was nowhere near as tough as the knuckle studs of a Mithril gauntlet. Blake's left arm twitched as experience gained in harvest brawls tried to bring that in for a follow up punch to the gut before he suppressed that instinct since in harvest brawls he'd not had a shield on his arm.

Instead he brought his right arm back again and drove that into Gann's gut instead, angling the blow slightly up and under the ribcage. 'Gann' crumpled around this blow a little and as he bent forward this was when Blake used his shield. He twisted his body to draw his right arm back and sweep the shield on his left arm across in front of him so the edge of it caught Gann in the side of the head with a thump. 'Gann' staggered to his left with the direction of the blow and then, as he tried to straighten and turn, Blake decided on something that was almost regarded as cheating at a harvest brawl.

He'd more often suffered this blow, especially from female participants, than given it and the experiences had been memorable enough that Blake had ensured that whatever armour he wore did protect that area. Gann's lighter armour though seemed to not have the same degree of protection as Blake's right boot swung forward and into Gann's crotch. The good tingle of a solid blow went up Blake's leg as the far less good and far less tingly sensation of receiving it went through Gann.

A Monk would have regarded the kick as laughably unskilled but the impact of a Mithril toecap there was enough to cause 'Gann' to gag and fight for breath and almost seem to vomit up the hag. Freed from her possession, or perhaps just reacting to the blows, Gann slumped down onto one knee while Gulk'aush reappeared and seemed almost as dazed. How much of the pain had bled through to her Blake did not know but whether it was this or that Gann might have forced her out rather than her relinquishing control the effect was the same. For now she was slow and was vulnerable.

"There she is again!" Blake pointed out, unnecessarily, drawing his sword as he spoke. "Keep her away from Gann while he gathers his wits and summons some healing magic for himself."

Gann coughed a little and looked at the blood on his fingers before gingerly dabbing at his nose and mouth. He did not remember much but he thought the pain in his arms and legs that might soon turn purple with bruises rather than his normal grey was the bear-god's work. The pain in his gut and lower down, the pain in his face and the side of his head, and this blood on his fingers he was confident had a human feel to it. Ladies had struck him and they tended more towards a blow against the cheek or, if too far provoked, to be more precise in crushing genitals with a knee so he doubted it was their lady Tiefling that had inflicted it.

"You seem to have a vicious streak, one I have not seen with your trained efficient swordplay," Gann complained as his eyes went in and out of focus and he looked again at his fingertips that suddenly seemed utterly fascinating. "I shall definitely avoid angering you in future."

Blake frowned a little as Neeshka reached the dazed staggering hag. If he were being vicious then he'd have used the flat of his sword, broken bones with the impact of the metal and let the discharging magic burn and stun Gann. Instead he'd treated it like a harvest brawl, and that was just good clean fun that had let Brother Merring feel useful by healing people afterwards. Ahead of Blake there was a flash of reflected light as Neeshka's rapier darted out and cuts across Gulk'aush's gut. It seemed a shallow wound but enough to make to make her begin to retreat. Okku grumbled and moved to place himself between Hag and Hagspawn as the former moved and the latter remained on his knee and made no attempt to summon some healing.

Neeshka's shorter but far shapelier legs managed to keep up with the hag's longer stride and her rapier dabbed out again and stung Gulk'aush towards rushing on with less caution where her feet were taking her. As his sweetheart began to lose ground Blake unleashed an almost effortless twitch of arcane power and a Melf's Acid Arrow issued from his hands and across into the hag. She howled as the acid burst over her and added more pain to that she had suffered in her own body and in the Hagspawn's. This seemed as much of a diversion as Blake had hoped as Gulk'aush staggered and grabbed where it had struck and as he tried to move to where the shape of the room and the Neeshka's pursuit would drive her.

Gulk'aush's stride being broken slightly by the stagger had let Neeshka catch up again and the hag had to half turn to defend herself against another blow. Seeing this Neeshka shifted her strike so rather than her sword continuing on its previous path she instead aimed for the arm that was fending her off. Tough Hag flesh parted as she drew the tip of her rapier along that forearm to try to cripple it and open the way for another more fatal attack. Turning away again and back into what was becoming an attempt to flee, rather than just to gain a pause to regain some wits, Gulk'aush's eyes widened as she saw Blake was ahead of her.

There was no retreat. If she tried to get past one of this pair then before she could the other would also be on her, there was a wall another way, and they'd catch her if she tried to run the other. She'd managed to avoid that human's blows before but she knew she was not fast enough to avoid them now. There perhaps was one chance though if these people were as soft-hearted as them not slaying their friend suggested. If they would accept her surrender then that at worst would allow her to live those moments longer and at best allow her to regain some of her speed to escape or defeat them…

"Enough!" cried Gulk'aush, flattening herself against the wall as she threw up her arms and attempted to cower. "This blood of mine you've spilt has loosened insanity's grip on me for now. I do not wish to die, though it would bring an end to the punishment I've endured for my crimes, my crimes…"

Blake was tempted to continue his attack as the hag's words dissolved again into cackles, and especially as hags could be so deceitful, but he held back. "No more laughing, please," he requested, before curiosity drove him to ask. "What were these crimes you committed?"

"I violated the sisterhood, broke the sacred laws of Kurg'annis. I took a man as my lover and I loved him. Oh, how I loved him."

An expression of slight nausea came to Blake's face as he saw the twisted limbs, the hooked nose, the long dirty finger and toenails, the sagging deflated breasts, the matted greasy hair… "Please, continue," he managed to say.

"I kept this love hidden, told my sisters I was just toying with him… just toying a little longer," Gulk'aush reminisced. "But I let him escape and fooled my sisters with the desiccated corpse of some other man. They remained ignorant of my terrible crime until I birthed the product of our love."

"Impressive," whispered Neeshka in Blake's ear, "he actually managed to… you know… with her?"

"Shush," Blake whispered back. "This curse makes me ill enough inside without that image as well."

"Then they found my beloved and made me devour him alive in front of his son," added Gulk'aush sorrowfully. "Even as they forced chunks of his flesh down my throat he smiled at me, at our son, so beautiful like his father was my son Gannayev."

"You!" Gann protested, staggering to his feet as the mention of his name broke his daze and made him realise what he was hearing. "You are my mother?"

"So…" breathed Gulk'aush, looking at Gann properly for the first time, with eyes not clouded by hunger or madness, "my son has returned and he has brought violence against me." She frowned reproachfully. "Will you murder your mother? Is this the homecoming you have sought for so long?"

Gann gathered a little of the power of the spirits and asked them to bless him with some healing, his posture straightening as they did and some of the pain left him. "You attacked us, you possessed me and forced my friends to drive you from me…" he replied. Gann paused and glanced at Blake. "Which they did rather painfully I must say." Putting that aside Gann continued. "I think you have brought violence against us…" He paused again and glared at the hag. "And you abandoned me, cast me to the wilds of Rashemen!"

"Abandoned implies I had a choice in the matter, my child," Gulk'aush said, trying to look honest. "I had but one choice in this, and that was to love your father."

"What does a hag such as you know of love?" sneered Gann, far from convinced.

"More than you, I think, child," Gulk'aush sneered back, the similarity showing Gann had inherited more than the obvious physical traits from her. "Have you not drifted from creature to creature, spirit to spirit, finding no dream that has touched you? You know what I speak of is true, Gannayev, Gann-of-Dreams, spirit of Rashemen. Do not waste what short time we have together with protests and accusations."

"You…speak… as if your words are truth," rallied Gann, "but you know nothing… of me, of my life…"

"I know you have dreamed of this city beneath the waves," Gulk'aush interrupted, "and your travels have circled it all your life until now, until the time has come to destroy it. It was ordained we speak this one last time, my dear Gann. It is the one hope that has cradled me in this prison."

"You… you are a creature of lies spawned from lies!" Gann accused her, reluctant to admit she had any insight into him.

"And you, my beautiful child, are far more terrible," said Gulk'aush calmly, not denying the accusation. "To be spawned from the love of a hag; by such things are cities and nations laid to ruin. Do you wish to see the proof of my claims?"

Gann was beginning to look almost as stunned as he had in the moments after being kicked in the crotch. Blake had some sympathy for this as it had been a real shock when he'd found out how his mother had died and how much his foster-father Daeghun had been keeping from him. 'Uncle' Duncan casually mentioning things that he assumed Daeghun would already have shared had been an abrupt way to learn them.

"This is your choice Gann, but, even if this Skein was not collapsing, you might not have another opportunity to speak with her."

"All right," replied Gann, glancing again at Blake. "I admit I have my doubts, but if you think it is worth listening then I will trust you enough to listen some more."

"My words you should hear," Gulk'aush protested. "There are others that deserve your hatred far more than I. The Coven that Slumbers, they must be awakened and with violence. Send them to join your father who drifts in the rivers of the dead."

"Mad Hag, we are here to question them," rumbled Okku, "to learn so the oath of a god-of-bears can be fulfilled. Their deaths, and yours, would be a fine thing but not if it lets the curse survive."

"Show them at last the horror that the love of a mother and her son can bring to their dreams," Gulk'aush continued, Okku's words drowned by her visions of long overdue revenge. "The voices echo through my mind and insanity will soon reclaim me. Take from me my eye so your friend can also enter their dreams, I will need it no longer."

With that Gulk'aush plunged her fingers into her own eye-socket, squeezing the eyeball and working her fingers around behind it to pull it out. As it came free and her long fingers closed around it the talons of her fingernails met and overlapped to slice through the optic nerve. One end dangled like a worm feeding on her face and a far smaller piece protruded from the eyeball like a stalk from an apple. Blake looked very dubious as Gulk'aush offered the gruesome present but as he had not managed to strike home with sword rather than spell his sword was still clean and could be returned to its scabbard to free his hand.

"Use it in your travels, use it against the Coven," Gulk'aush said, as Blake held out his hand and she gently placed her eye in it. "Now leave me, the escape you seek is ahead. I do not know how much longer I can remain sane… the voices in my head are a cacophony."

"Then hear my voice this last time mother," replied Gann, "where I walk, you shall be with me until the end days. We shall be together again."

Blake continued to look at what was in his hand as Gulk'aush turned and staggering slightly ran off. Seeing her harbour-boy was staring rather Neeshka gave him first a smile that took his mind off of what he was holding and then a small waterproof leather bag to put it in. Once the grotesque gift was inside that and Blake had scrubbed at the gauntlet leather over his palm a little he felt a lot better. Gann gave him a sardonic smile as they looked at each other again.

"Normally they might say that a child has his mother's eyes," Gann commented, "or in my case that I have caught a lady's eye…"

"Does this gift have any power?" asked Blake, his mind turning to practical matters as they began moving ahead again. "At the Mosstone we both entered that dreamscape without needing such."

"That was at the Mosstone where the currents of dream run strong, however little those Othlor could sense it," Gann said, "here we may need whatever magic might linger in that eye."

Blake nodded and decided that while it was in the bag and had not begun to noticeably rot it was worth carrying this eye. Or at least that it would be undiplomatic to dispose of it while Gann was watching. Together they continued on and managing to avoid the falling rocks, or in Okku's case to simply ignore them, they fairly soon reached a flight of stairs leading up. The door and the stairs were quite a squeeze for the god-of-bears but he managed and they emerged into a small room. There was only a faint tremor beneath their boots and paws so it seemed the collapse of the Skein was not yet greatly affecting the city above.

"You smell that?" Okku rumbled quietly, taking another sniff.

"Smell what?" asked Blake.

"I forget at times little one how limited your noses are," Okku chuckled, "past that door, another narrow door, there is the smell of fear and death and of Hags and Hagspawn."

"A single door," commented Blake, "no way for Neeshka to use her stealth and for me to use my magic I need to be able to see them…"

"Hrm, you are wasting time, little-one," Okku growled, "our course is clear and is one that is worthy of us."

Blake nodded and, catching her eye, gently waved Neeshka forward. She gave him a grin and a wink of mutual commiseration at Okku's contempt for subtlety as she sidled silently to by the door. Okku's great hindquarters tensed and then as Neeshka triggered the magics of the door and its sections slid aside and up into the surrounding walls Okku sprang. Patches along his flanks rippled with slightly different colour and there was a noise of grating stone as he grazed the doorframe and plunged on through. With barely less speed, but more caution, Blake followed with Gann and Neeshka falling in behind him.

Beyond the door was a short corridor and chaos as one Hagspawn died beneath Okku's claws and he snarled at the others who had been knocked back by his charge as they attempted to regain their formation or, in a couple of cases, regain their feet. There was just enough room despite the size of the bear-god for Gann to move to one side to protect his flank and Blake to see past him. There was a Hag hanging back and shrieking orders; with how much trouble they'd had with Gulk'aush Blake decided to try to take advantage of her distraction.

The power of the weave answered his incantation and abbreviated gestures and a narrow beam of Disintegrate joined Blake's hand and the Hag's upper chest. She shrieked even louder as this ate away at her clothes and her tough flesh and she lost most of a pectoral muscle and the breast above it. As she convulsed and grabbed at the wound with the arm that still worked Okku sprang forward, off his first victim and knocking aside another. One Hagspawn was slightly more on balance than the others and seeing the extra threat to the Hag tried to attack Okku but Gann was there and his spear sank into the other Hagspawn's gut.

While this Hagspawn folded over Gann's spear, and the scent of ruptured bowels added itself to the already foul air of the chamber, Okku' great jaws closed over the Hag's head. His mouth was large enough to engulf it and as he shook her about by this grip his teeth almost met though the muscle and skin and tendon and bone of the Hag's tough old neck. With one final heave of his own huge neck and his shoulders Okku flung the Hag across and into the Hagspawn that had begun to regroup.

Blake had seen them gathering but had not tried to prevent this since he still had some spells that would be useful if they were clustered nicely. As the Hag bowled into them and scattered and disrupted them slightly again Blake decided to just stick to his favourite. With very well practised ease Blake chanted, the weave responded, and a ball of flame formed in front of him before splitting and arcing away in the individual balls of Firebrand. One of the balls swooped down onto the Hag so despite the wound to her torso and her near decapitation she had still been clinging to life.

Meanwhile Gann dumped the almost-corpse off his spear and onto the floor and having raised the butt end of his spear to angle the spearhead down he reversed this to sweep it around in an arc into his enemy's head. There was a crunch as metal bands met bone and fragments of skull were driven into the Hagspawn's brain. He stepped back and away from the corpse, a little saddened that this was such a bloody homecoming.

Blake's sword swept out in a powerful diagonal forehand blow that laid one Hagspawn open from shoulder to opposite hip. This turned Blake's side towards another Hagspawn who moved to smash his club into Blake's exposed ribs. As he brought his arm back across his body for the backhanded blow Neeshka's rapier darted out and sliced across the back of his hand and severed the tendons that held his fingers closed so all his swing did was send his club skittering across the stone floor. Before the Hagspawn could really feel surprise at this or the pain in his hand Neeshka's rapier had whipped back around to slice though his throat.

Okku pounced at another, dagger length claws piercing the hide armour and the tough flesh beneath as he bore the Hagspawn down to the floor. The impact of the back of the Hagspawn's head on the stone would have been stunning enough even without having both shoulders crushed beneath Okku's paws. Not being inclined to leave a foe merely crippled the bear-god snapped his jaws down between these front paws and bit the Hagspawn's face off.

Seeing the fate of his fellows the final Hagspawn turned as if considering whether to flee for reinforcements but this took his shield out of line and allowed Gann to stab out and upwards into his waist. The spearhead sliced into the soft meat and up under the ribcage through the vital organs beneath until it grated on bone as its tip just pierced out through the Hagspawn's upper chest. Gann had not intended to transfix his enemy to that extent and had to let go of his spear and let the Hagspawn fall before he could get a better angle to try to pull his spear back out again.

While Gann did this Blake pulled his cleaning cloth from his belt and began wiping off his sword and wandering. The architecture of the room was quite nice with stonework that was still attractive despite the decay, the triangular platform filling the middle of the wide floor, and the columns of light reaching up from that towards the ceiling high above. That those columns of light contained Hags rather than something more attractive and were surrounded by corpses in varying states of decay did spoil the effect though.

Blake checked there was only one other door aside from the one by which they had entered and smiled as he saw how far Okku's glancing blow to that doorframe had knocked the guides out of alignment. The two parts of the door that slid out from left and right were trapped within the walls so only the section that slid down had been able to move, and that seemed to have jammed partway. Returning to the triangular platform Blake looked at the two humans and a Mind Flayer that were still on their feet and then crouched by one of the corpses.

"I see why you smelt death, my friend," Blake commented to Okku, examining the corpse. It was just rotten enough to be gruesomely fascinating to him. Though he had seen, and made, many corpses since leaving West Harbour he'd only seen them fresh or very badly decayed when a corpse someone else had made was returned as a Zombie to trouble the living.

"That smell is not one that should engender pleasant dreams," said Gann, looking around and wiping off the head and shaft of his spear. "However deeply these Hags sleep that they are satisfied to be surrounded thus does show their nature to be as malevolent as my mother and her punishment suggested."

Neeshka wandered up onto the platform to peer at the standing figures. "Are those two, and that Mind Flayer, still alive?"

"Not for long," replied Gann, also considering them. "They seem locked in dreams and, unlike the Hags of the Slumbering Coven, will not be sustained to survive forever thus. Without aid or them breaking their own dreams they will soon enough join their unfortunate predecessors on the floor."

"If there is that risk it seems dangerous asking the advice of this coven," Blake commented, "and that neither the queue nor these corpses did not discourage them shows they must have been very desperate."

"Wretched Hags," growled Okku, glaring at the columns of light and their contents. "Give me the word and I'll tear them to pieces. All of them once we have our answers, or a few to encourage the others to give them."

"So what now?" Neeshka asked, glancing between the Hags and the standing but insensate figures and the corpses on the floor. "I don't want to end up 'locked in dreams'… or dead on the floor."

"And I don't want you to end up like that either," replied Blake, peering more closely at one of the Hags and deciding on a direct approach. "Hello?"

"Stab them?" Neeshka asked with a raise of her eyebrows, suggesting even more direct approaches. "Or let Okku do as he suggested and tear a few apart and see if that gets their attention?"

"These energy fields," said Gann, gesturing, "prevent us from slaying these crones as they sleep, but from here we can invade their collective dream, and perhaps destroy them from within."

Blake turned and looked at Gann, giving him a very dubious look at that suggestion. Gann looked calmly back until Blake spoke. "That sounds like fighting them on their own terms, on a battlefield of their creation and under their control."

"Their power is great, true," Gann said reassuringly, "but my own should be sufficient to prevent them manipulating the Dreamscape against us."

Slowly Blake nodded. He trusted Gann and although he would prefer Okku's idea and to remain outside of dreams it did seem more likely the Coven would speak to them in the Dreamscape than if they were rudely awoke by the death or maiming of part of their group. There was likely some way they could contrive to slay the crones despite the energy fields but that had not been their reason for travelling here although, after their encounter with Gann's mother, that was something they might do whatever the Coven's answers before leaving again.

"Very well," Blake replied with noticeable reluctance. "Let us hope for success in travelling in and out of dream, or failing that at least that the old stories are true and Neeshka could awaken me with a kiss."

"And what of me?" smiled Gann.

"Ever been kissed by a man with a beard?" Neeshka asked sweetly.

"Ah," said Gann, "a true motivation to avoid failure if that would be my reward. Though I am sure you would vouch he is a good kisser I'd prefer to not have this confirmed by my own experience."

"Your loss," Neeshka winked, giving Blake a grin as she saw her harbour-boy's expression.