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Deadnettles

by Rick

The land on the way to the infested mine was rotten and corrupted. Three steps from true blight, in my opinion, and magically maligned. My intuition -- my father's intuition -- told me it was the wilds revolting against the... revolting undead. It had the sweet stench of mulch and decay, and had it not been the height of summer with the bright sun hidden behind white clouds, had it not been that: it would have been refreshing.

Curie sniffed: despite the skies, rain was coming.

Tiberius and Anko had stayed behind, feeling unwell and interested in speaking further with Grim Ben. Unusual, for certain. "We'll catch up," had been the refrain.

The mine's entrance sported a handful of dozen bodies, miners who had escaped to the fresh air only to die shortly thereafter. With morbid curiosity, Lily prodded the bodies. I stood at the ready -- something non-animal had chewed the bodies, and probably before their demise. It was gruesome in a bloodless way.

Nearby stood a small shack, and something twisted the latch from within. A hand, longer than any creature's I knew of, reached out into the dim sunlight.

Simultaneously, freshly tilled earth beneath the miners' corpses shifted, and two more long-armed creatures joined the first from the mining hut.

"Prepare thineselves!" I recounted from the Codex Candidex.

Strike without hesitation

Lily called back that more miners' bodies were inside the official hut, and had been chewed on.

The ghouls advanced. Their strikes froze the blood in our veins, striking us motionless and feverish with the stench of undeath. A fourth ghoul joined the fight from behind one of its brethren and threatened us all.

I stepped into my role. The grass swayed beneath me, holding my ground firm. The light shown above and around me. My shield blocked their strikes, my armor held fast.

We survived; Lily was the most beaten up but okay otherwise.

Lily found some hooded lanterns inside the small office, so I lit one in preparation for the cave dive. Curie prepped some magical light, her scarred skin shimmering as she cast the spell. It looked faintly like the stars above...

Descent unto the earth

And so we entered the cave. Three skeletons met us, and we dispatched them easily enough. Venrick wanted to decimate the last hobgoblin skeleton with a show, by collecting the power of storms in his hands before shocking the undead's bones to dust. But it was too confined a space, and he let the spell fizzle before simply dispatching it with an arcane slash of his rapier.

As we collected ourselves, I reached over to Venrick. "Here," I intoned, intent on sharing a memory with him to jog his arcane analyses. It was little use, but he understood. "My knowledge is yours," I explained.

We continued on, cautiously, leaving the skeletons behind for investigation later. We were not left alone long: soon we found a main intersection, sporting a mining elevator and a pair of bloodied, feral, undead horrors.

Continue reading...

Germination
04.18.22

Perennials
04.25.22

Chaff
05.02.22

Honeyclover
05.09.22

Corpse-Finder
05.30.22

Deadnettles
06.08.22

Glorybower
06.20.22

Cutworm
06.27.22

Rock Tripe
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Oleander
07.25.22

The Olive Branch
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Blackwood
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Snakewood
08.15.22

Chrysanthemum
08.29.22

Duskpetals
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Star Petunia
09.12.22

Pleated Inkcap
09.19.22

Wheat
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Sprouts
10.17.22

Mimic Orchid
11.07.22

Broken Stems
11.21.22

Hemlock
11.28.22

The Black Bat Flowers
12.12.22

Miner's Hollyhock
01.09.23

Pyrophytic Moss
01.16.23

New Light's Gazania
02.06.23

Dark Hedge Holly
02.27.23

Deadnettles

Strike without hesitation

Descent unto the earth

Continue reading...

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