Gritt's Tale Part 6

Well, we dug through those bone pits.  Figured that big skeleton monster mighta taken care of some treasure hunter coming down, but we didn’t find anything.  Kept looking through the place.  Got set upon by some real mean little buggers.  Not that we knew what they looked like at first.  The whole place went dark.  The lantern, the magical light the priests had cast – all went out in the blink of an eye.  Well, that was a real weird fight.  Firstly, there was someone telling us where to hit.  Someone who could tell us where those little fellers where.  Thing is, it wasn’t a voice I recognised.  Found out later it was Artox – Mandraiv’s pet snake.  Darndest thing yet.  Had a real smooth turn of phrase too.  No lisp.  Sounded like he liked chatting actually. 

Well, we finished off the dwarves – Derro they were called, someone said, and the light came back on.  Wasn’t just them we had to deal with though.  At least they were real flesh and blood.  More of a worry was some bone snake monsters.  They looked like they was skeletons, but there was something different about them.  They didn’t reek of death, and they didn’t lurch around jerkily like the other dead things had.  These looked like someone had put them together out of carved bone.  Well, didn’t matter – they bit hard enough to make us want to break em anyway.

Well, after we took care of them, it was time to lick our wounds.  It’d been a long day.  We headed back to the Three Rings.  Turned out the day wasn’t over.  While we was strollin’ along, the ground in front of us, right in the middle of the street, just opened up, and a real ugly thing came out of the ground.  Worst thing I’d ever smelt.  It had a great big maw, and three tentacles. Started jabbering away, saying it wanted to eat us.  Well, not only was the thing ugly, smelly and stupid, but it was also unlucky.  As unlucky as you can get really.  Of all the people to climb out of the ground in front of, it chose us.  Well, it was the last mistake it made.  Filthy thing bit me a couple of times though.  I remembered I’d heard about those things though.  Trash monsters.  Live in the caves under the city.  You live in Korvosa long enough, you might see one.  Every now and agin one gets hungry for something living, crawls out of the ground.

Next morning I found out that gettin bit by something that damn dirty ain’t good for your health.  I was feelin’ real bad.  Sweatin, had the shakes.  Well, I figured I needed healin’.  I’d seen how they charged down at Abadar’s bank, and I didn’t like the way they’d treated Justin neither.  Went down to Sarenrae’s temple.  Didn’t mind payin there – at least they’d use the money for something good rather than just stuffin’ it in some vault or other.  Not that I had anything against Sol.

Well, when I got back to the inn, Sparrowhawk started tellin’ me she’d been down to Shelyn’s temple too.  Started sayin’ she was beautiful and would fit right in.  Didn’t see it quite that way myself.  Matter of fact, set me to thinkin’ whether she’d been bit by that trash monster, and was delirious.  She hadn’t though.  Seemed like she really thought she was a good looker.  Well, she weren’t no painting.  Matter of fact, if she came out of the ground with a bit of dirt on her face, it’d be pretty hard to tell her apart from a trash monster.  Still, weren’t my place to go tellin’ her that.  Weren’t my place.  She’d find someone someday.  Maybe.

We headed back to those Warrens.  Came across another of those trash monsters.  This was one was a bit tougher, and grabbed ahold of me.  Dropped me down a pit before Justin blasted it with his gun.  Seemed like it could really hurt if he aimed it right. 

Well, didn’t take long before we stumbled across the alchemist lab.  All sorts of beakers, flasks and other interesting things lying around.  Wouldn’t have minded having a play with some of it, but we didn’t have time.  We kept poking around and came across what we were looking for.  The head of the boy that 1000 Bones had been talking about.  Not the rest of his body though.  The head was stitched on a body, which was made up of all sorts of parts that had been sown together.  Looked real wrong.  Ain’t no way to go treatin’ a dead person if you ask me.  Anyway, Watson undid the stitches.  Then it all went wrong.  The room went dark.  This time we were prepared though.  Sol was ready, and used a magic scroll.  Lit the room up like it was the middle of the day in the park in there.  Well, there was another of those Derro.  This one had 3 arms though.  No wonder he was hiding underground.  Don’t know whether he was related to a spider somehow, or whether he’d sown it on and magicked it up.  Well, either way, he was one tough little bastard.  Kept throwing around some magical flasks that burnt people pretty bad, and the flames didn’t die out easy neither.  I tried hitting him with my sword, but he had all sorts of magic protections. 

Well, this was the second fight in a row where we pretty much owed all our survival to Artox.  Magic protections or no, Artox managed to grab a hold of the dwarf a couple of times and give him a damn good squeeze.  I managed to get a lucky hit in as well, and after what seemed ages, he fell. 

Poor old Watson.  He spent the whole fight unconscious on the floor.  You should’ve seen his face when he woke up though.  Didn’t know better, I’d say he was looking at that creepy extra arm with, well, a kind of envy.  Real thoughtful.  He was kinda disappointed too.  Seemed he was expecting his old adversary Fyffe.  Well, if that dwarf was only the apprentice, I was kinda glad the master weren’t there as well.

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