In the Belly of the Beast (2/2)

Once it had been a wine cellar, he thought. Or a storehouse for supplies. It was a vast open room supported by countless pillars that stretched floor to ceiling. Glowing runes broke up the darkness in patches along the floor... and they were the only patches of floor he could see, because every other surface was covered in what looked like brown taffy. Piles and lumps of it were spewed unevenly over the floor, over the pillars, over parts of the walls.

There was a main staircase in the southern portion of the room. He could just see it, winding up to the floor above. He could also see the spiky tendrils hanging around it, at just the right angles to snatch at anything that dared to take the stairs.

Rising up out of the taffy here and there were wooden tables and benches and bits of furniture, and in the multi-colored light of the runes he could see piles and heaps of metal items and jewelry and coins and weapons and armor.

And he could see something else, in the center of things.

“Good news and bad,” he said softly, pulling back from the peephole. “There's a flight of stairs heading down in the middle of the room, and they look completely clear of the mimic. If there's anyone alive in here, I'm pretty sure they'll be down there.”

“What's the bad news?” asked Glub.

“The mimic is piled up all around the room. If we wanted to stick to the clear spots we would have to hop through magic runes to get to it, and I have no idea what they do. But I'm pretty sure they do something bad, if the mimic isn't on them.”

The tunnels shuddered again, and stone crumbled somewhere in the distance.

“We can't stay here and do nothing,” Fluffbear squeaked.

Threadbare put his eyes back to the peephole. “It looks like parts of it have receded a bit. It's putting more mass into its tendrils, I think.”

“Let me see,” Buttons said. “I can Case the Joint,”

He made room, and she scanned it. “Okay. So I'm thinking I can carry a mouse and toss it down the stairs to do some scouting. Good news is the mimic low enough on the walls I can probably use my Burglar skills to crawl over them, but the problem is that staircase is in the center of the room. Even if I go to the closet edge, that's still way too far for my arm. So I'll have to hop on at least one of the runes. Probably that red sparky one, or the yellow one that looks kinda like a fish. Which one do I go for?”

Threadbare rubbed his chin. Then he gently nudged her aside, stared through the hole, and whispered “Appraise.”

Your Appraise skill is now level 37!

Your Appraise skill is now level 38!

PER+1

“The sparky red one is a fire trap,” Threadbare said, studying each rune carefully. “The yellow one just repels tiny things. I think it's a preservation spell.”

“Yeah? Wonder why the mimic left that one alone?” Buttons asked.

“I know the answer to that one,” Apollyon said. “I think, anyway. My family deals in a lot of food and you need preservation spells for the shipments. You're not supposed to spend a lot of time in their area of effect, or you get the depleted intestinal flora condition. Which means that you stop getting nourishment from whatever you eat. It's nasty, but a Cleric can take care of it and it kills you slowly, so you usually have enough time to get to one and get it fixed.”

“Mimics are, hmm... supposed to be all stomach,” Dracosnack whispered. “It would make sense that it wouldn't find such a state, mmm, desirable.”

Fluffbear looked to Buttons. “This is a big risk. Are you sure you want to do it?”

“I'm the safest one in here to try,” Buttons said. “It doesn't eat metal, and I'm metal. I don't have any intestines, so that floral thing won't bother me. And if it grabs me I'll just play dead and it'll put me on a pedestal.”

“If it doesn't squish you first,” Fluffbear said.

“Yeah, there's that.” Buttons clicked her teeth together, with a tiny 'ping.' “But I'm your burgl... ah, I'm your quartermaster. This is why Garon chose me, yeah?”

Fluffbear nodded. Then the little black-furred paladin stretched up and booped Buttons on the nose. “Bless your agility one hundred,” she squeaked.

“Woo, yeah!” Buttons grinned. She picked up one of the cloth mice and tucked it under her arm. Then she unlimbered her gun and handed it to Apollyon. “Keep this safe, sexy. Don't shoot anything off until I get back, huh?”

He choked and turned red, but gingerly tucked the pistol into his pouches... tried to, anyway. Frowning he hauled out a small box. “What's this?”

“Oh!” Threadbare said, taking it from him. “That's the box of reagents that Garon sent along. For me to enchant my own items. I had almost forgotten about that.”

“There's a chance Buttons could set the mimic off,” Fluffbear said, glancing to the peephole that the tin soldier was already wiggling her way through. “Do you want to enchant something useful now?”

“No,” Threadbare shook his head. “I need to save my sanity to heal her if things go wrong. Enchanting takes a lot of energy.”

“Then watch her, and stand ready,”

As they spoke, Dracosnack twitched. “Wait! I could just use my magic fingers to—”

He spoke too late, as Buttons vanished through the hole, and the sounds of tin clinking against stone echoed through the room on the other side.

Threadbare pushed his face up against the peephole... and gasped, as he saw the entirety of the pudding-like flesh around the room shift and quiver. He started to call a warning, caught himself, and used Wind's Whisper instead.

“I think it hears you! Be very quiet,” he cautioned Buttons and the clinking noise stopped.

But the mimic didn't stop moving. Toward the center of the room, just to the north of the stairs down, a pile of it seethed and bubbled, pulling substance from the surrounding heap. And as he watched, a slit appeared on it, stretching horizontally, stretching and opening...

...and a vast eye stared out into the room, twitching around, four pupils chasing each other around the orb until they coalesced into a cornea, and scanned its domain.

Scanned, and stopped, focusing on the peephole, staring at it with laser focus as Threadbare stared back.