Of course they had her followed. But it was only a single guard, and Chase gained a stealth skill boost when she finally managed to shake him off. They don’t have more people to spare to watch me. Their desperation is to my advantage, she realized.

Once she was back in the bunkroom she’d sheltered in, she rapped a pattern of knocks on the vent grille. After a couple of minutes, a black leather nose poked out from between the bars.

It was adorable, and Chase felt her tension melt, as she pulled the grille away, and hugged Renny. He stiffened for a second, then returned the hug.

“Sorry,” Chase said, releasing him. “It… I guess I was under more stress than I thought.”

“It’s all right. I like hugging.” Renny said. “How did it go? Are my friends okay?”

“I think so. It… I didn’t get everything we wanted. It’s like cards. Your friends are some of her high cards. But she really is trapped, and she thinks she needs your help to get free. I did get maps!” Chase waved the papers. “And blueprints. Hey, can you read these?” Chase peeled out the appropriate scrolls, and handed them over. “We’re looking for a way to get her out of the cell.”

“Let me see,” Renny took them, holding them up to the light. They were so big compared to his tiny form that only his tail and legs were visible, sticking out from under them. Chase stifled a giggle. She had the feeling that if she started laughing it would turn into crying and that would go on for a while. This was hard, and there was so, so much at stake.

“Yes, I can read these,” Renny said.

Chase grinned. “Perfect!”

“Not so much,” Renny said, swapping the blueprints around to a new sheet, and studying it. “I’m assuming her cell is the one labeled ‘dead drop.’ In which case, there’s no way to get her out of it without some serious magic.”

“Could you do it?”

“With my air magic? No. I’m no tinker, but it looks like they put her in there then lowered the capstone, with no way of getting it out again. Any attempt at breaking it or tunneling through it will drop the capstone and crush everything in the cell.”

“So what kind of magic could work, here?”

“Well…” Renny wrinkled his muzzle. “If we had a merchant, they could make a pack of holding. We could lower it to her through this feeding shaft and she could get in, then we could pull the pack up again. Or if we had an explorer we could make waystones, slip her one, then she could use it to waystone to a waymark.”

Chase crinkled her nose. “Wait… didn’t you come into this land through those waystones your group found? If she has your friends, she has the waystones. She can use those to teleport outside!”

Renny shook his head. “They were single-use only, they crumbled to dust after we arrived. It wasn’t even magical dust. And before you ask, none of my friends are merchants or explorers.”

The halven rose to her feet and paced back and forth, thinking. “Okay. No two ways about it, then. We have to get my people involved.”

“You have people?”

“Yes! The ones from Bothernot that got captured? The reason I’m here?” Chase waved her arms, aggravated.

“Right. Sorry. It’s been very stressful lately.” Renny looked down. Then he darted back to the vent, and tugged Chase’s pack out. “I sewed it up for you. The seams were really a wreck. Now it shouldn’t tear as often.”

“Thank you. Ah… can you ride inside? Maybe use an illusion to make it look like an empty pack if anyone looks inside, so they don’t see you?”

“Sure. Oh, wait, there won’t be enough room for both me and the circus wagons.”

“The circus—” Chase slapped her forehead. “They took them and never gave them back! Mother lumper!” Then she shut her mouth, embarrassed about swearing. “I mean… oops. I guess I had a lot on my mind.”

“It’s okay.”

“I still feel like we should get those back,” Chase shook her head. “We need to get this done, then go deal with Thomasi and Vaffan— the Necromancer.”

“We’d better hurry. I’m not sure how long it’s been, but it feels like hours we’ve been in here.”

“I know,” Chase said, and once the fox was in, she shouldered her pack and headed out into the darkened halls again.

It was an entirely uneventful trip, up until the point she stumbled into the remnants of a massacre.

It had been a mess hall for the guards, once. With low benches, sturdy tables, and tin eating utensils on the tables, and lamps gleaming in the hanging chandeliers. Now bodies lay draped over the benches, the chandeliers were askew and guttering, and blood dripped unending from the tables, pooling in a gory tide that belched down a central drain gulp by obscene gulp.

Then the smell hit Chase’s nose, and that roll she’d eaten turned in her belly, twisting and contemplating the fast and violent trip back up. She fought her gorge down, but her mind flashed back to the dead bodies in the entry way, when they’d first entered Pandora Prison, hours ago. She looked away.

“Chase?” Renny whispered from behind her.

“Everyone here is dead,” Chase said, faintly. “I can’t look, I’m sorry. Can you?”

She felt her pack squirm, then open. He must have moved some of the laces so they’re accessible from the inside. Clever little golem.

“It’s certainly a mess. All the dead guys are wearing guard uniforms, except… oh no. No, no no!” A weight left her shoulders then, and Chase looked back to see Renny run splashing through the blood, to cradle a gore-slicked form.

Incongruously, it was wearing a wooden mask, crudely carved, with buckteeth and a fringe of spiky hair. The words “PORKEW PYNE” were cut into it.

Chase focused on the figure, trying to ignore the rest of the dead, and realized that it very definitely wasn’t human, or even halven. It had fur peeking out from its torn, ragged clothing. “What is that?” Chase whispered.

“Who is that, you mean. It’s a he,” Renny snapped. “He’s Porkew Pyne, and he is best Raccant. Moira said so! He’s… best. He was.” Renny sagged, letting the heavy corpse ease back to the floor. Then he started poking and prodding it, searching the creature’s pockets. “Ha!” He said, straightening up, and revealing a soulstone.

“Does this mean he’s in there?” Chase asked, remembering what Renny had told her.

“I think so. We’d need to find a Necromancer to be certain. But definitely not that last guy.”

“No, definitely not him.” Chase said, trying to breathe shallowly. “We’ll have to double back around. Take the long way to the cellblock.”

“Why?” Renny said, looking up at her, uncaring of the blood slowly staining his plush body a deep crimson.

“Because…” she shot the other exit a look. “Because there’s no telling how far ahead Zenobia is. And we don’t want to run into them.”

And also I don’t want to walk through that blood, Chase thought. Because I’m pretty sure my nerve’s going to break if I try and I need all the moxie I can get for this next part.

One clean and press later, Renny was back in her pack, and Chase raced through the halls. Time was the issue now, no place for caution anymore. Looking at the maps, if Speranza’s foes had pressed this far into the guard’s chambers, then they didn’t have too much farther to go. If they reached Speranza’s cell they could drop the rock, and then this would be over. And not in a way that left Renny’s friends alive.

Most of his friends, anyway. Chase couldn’t imagine what Renny had felt, holding Porkew’s body in his arms.

Her mind flashed to Greta, then, and she almost stumbled. Greta’s bloody form appeared in her mind’s eye, sinking into a puddle of blood. The image, the vision was so vivid that Chase could almost hear her sister’s voice, echoing through the halls. Chase… Chase!

Wait.

She COULD hear her sister’s voice!

“Chase!” Greta shouted, and Chase skidded to a halt, whipping her head around, to see a small figure backlit against an open doorway.

“Greta?” Chase said, and took a few hesitant steps forward, staring down the side-passageway.

“Chase! Come on, quickly!” Greta beckoned, then looked back. “It’s all right! She’s my sister!”

“Foresight,” Chase whispered, checking the approach, and almost crying with relief when it ended in a hug from Greta, and a happy thumbs up from a shaking ghost version of herself.

Your Foresight skill is now level 16!

With relief she followed the vision, and Greta bawled in her ear as she rocked her sister back and forth. “I was so scared! I was worried you’d be… you’d be…”

“Shh, shh. I know. I know,” Chase said, patting her sister’s back, and finally managing to wiggle free from Greta’s strong arms. “It’s been scary. But I think we’re okay.”

“You’re the one who stayed behind, then?” A familiar voice interrupted. Chase knew it, remembered it well from the conversation she’d overheard.

Zenobia!

She lifted her eyes past the small knot of armored men, to the tall figure beyond… and only now did she remember where she’d heard that voice before.

The Camerlengo stood there, her regal face gaunt, lined with stress and worry. Her hair was brown, streaked with white, and tied back into a stern bun, and tiny spectacles perched on her nose. The woman’s eyes glittered as she studied the two halven below her. She bore a slim sword in one hand and a book in the other, and what Chase had taken for glittery dress was a suit of thin chainmail over black cloth, the metal links so thin that they looked like they’d have trouble stopping a determined chipmunk.

“Scouter,” breathed Camerlengo Zenobia, and studied Chase with those cold eyes.

“Um,” Chase said. “Hello?”

There were five guards around her, all outfitted with breastplates and chainmail, bearing a variety of weapons. All look wounded, bearing cuts and bruises. But the amount of gore on their armor was far out of proportion to their injuries, and Chase had a sick feeling, as she realized that she was looking at the ones who had turned the mess hall into an abattoir.

“Your men are hurt,” she said. “I can help with that.”

“It's all right, the Camerlengo can heal them,” Greta said. “She's a cleric.”

“Oracles have some slight healing ability. Do your best. I shall preserve my sanity for the trials ahead,” Zenobia ordered.

“All right...” Chase said, walking over to study the guards. A prickling sensation on the back of her spine said that the Camerlengo was still staring at her. How did she know I'm an Oracle? Did Greta tell her? Did I tell Greta? I did, didn't I.”

“Lesser Healing,” Chase commanded, over and over again until her sanity was almost gone, and her lesser healing skill had risen five times.

And along with that, came the words she'd been waiting for.

You are now a level 5 Oracle!

CHA+3

LUCK+3

WIS+3

You have learned the Afflict Self skill!

Your Afflict Self skill is now level 1!

You have learned the Omens and Portents skill!

You have learned the Transfer Condition skill!

Your Transfer Condition skill is now level 1!

“Status,” Chase said, as the last of Zenobia's entourage stepped back, fully healed. “Oh my goodness...” Forgetting everyone else there, Chase examined her new skills one by one. Finding them... odd. Oracle was a very strange job, and she wasn't sure how these would be helpful.

Afflict Self

Cost: 5 For Duration: 10 seconds per skill level

Inflicts you with a random minor condition. The condition fades when it is cured, or when the afflict self duration expires, whichever comes first. This skill is a spell.

Omens and Portents

Cost: N/A Duration: Passive Constant

The gods send you signs, sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant. Your dreams are occasionally filled with visions, or sometimes sticks will fall in mystical patterns around you. But it's up to you to decipher them! This skill has no levels.

Transfer Condition

Cost: 10 San Duration: 1 Turn

This skill lets you put a condition or debuff that's affecting you on another target. After casting this spell, you have a short amount of time to touch them, boosted by your transfer condition skill. If you succeed, then they gain a condition or debuff of your choice from those currently afflicting you. Note that the duration of the condition or debuff is unchanged. This skill is a spell.

“Child,” Zenobia said, as Chase finished up reading and the silence stretched into the darkness. “Who is your god?”

“Hoon,” Chase said, glancing back at her.

To her surprise, the Camerlengo flinched, as if she'd been struck. Her eyes went wide, then narrowed until they were glittering slits.

“Um. Does it matter?” Chase said, stepping backwards... and felt hands on her shoulders, as the guards nearest her took hold. They weren't rough, but firm enough that she realized escape was not going to happen.

“By itself, no.” Zenobia massaged her eyes with one gloved hand. No blood on her, Chase noted, in that weird moment of heightened perception she got when she had a feeling danger was on the horizon. “But you're three times over a lawbreaker. And a Grifter, to boot. A Grifter! I can't trust a word you'll say, and I won't have you at my back.”

“Hold on!” Greta shrieked. “She's my sister!”

“I know. Fear not. I am not without mercy,” the Camerlengo said, looking to her with glittering eyes.

Pretty sure that's a lie, Chase thought to herself.

“Bind her,” Zenobia commanded. “We'll leave her here and proceed on with the plan. We shall sort her out later.”

Chase glared at her, but didn't resist as the guards pulled out ropes and sat her in a chair, tying her arms and legs to it.

“Wait,” the Camerlengo said, pacing to Chase's side, and glancing down at her. “Search her pack.”

Chase inhaled, worried. But her worry eased as the Camerlengo moved toward one of the doors, peering into the darkness.

They untied her enough to remove her pack, then tied her back, as she watched one of the guards rummage through it. “Papers, mostly,” he said to Zenobia.

“Let me see.”

Chase held her breath again... but let it out as the guard handed her the scrolls.

“Maps. And blueprints...” Zenobia studied Chase. “Where did you get these? Did you—” she shut her lips so abruptly that they made a little snapping noise.

“I tricked Speranza into thinking I wanted to help her. She gave me those thinking I could try to figure out a way to get her free.”

Chase watched as the guards tossed her pack aside. It bulged a bit more than it should, with the scrolls out of it. Renny was still in there. She was willing to bet that he'd gained a few levels in the dodge skill, evading the guard's hands.

This is temporary. This is nothing. Once they're gone, Renny can come out and set me free. It's just rope.

This comforting feeling lasted up until the moment Greta picked up her pack. “Don't worry. I'll keep it safe for you until we get back,” Greta said, looking down.

The Camerlengo looked up, but didn't say a word, and under those eyes Chase didn't dare say a word. She looked away instead, until she felt the almost-physical pressure of Zenobia's gaze move away from her.

The rasp of paper on paper, and Zenobia grunted in satisfaction. Chase risked a look, and caught her studying the blueprints. “Yes... the pump room is where I remembered it. Good. Easier to drown a rat than to crush it. Come then. We've wasted enough time.”

Then she looked sidways at Chase, with a small smile on her lips. The first the halven girl had seen. It was not a nice smile, and it was gone in a heartbeat, but Chase didn't like it at all.

Without another word the group left. Greta was last of all, hesitating in the doorway, looking from her sister back into the figures shuffling into the darkness. Her eyes were wide, and her lip quivered, holding back unspoken words.

“Go,” Chase said. “It'll be okay,” she lied.

And Greta took a step backward, another, then turned and fled.

Chase shut her eyes then, and gave in to despair. She cried then, cried for the second time that day. So many had died, so much had happened, and her dreams of adventure had been twisted into... well, this. This wasn't fun. This was a dark, bloody hole in the ground that threatened to eat her father and now her sister as well. This was strange, dangerous humans who saw her as a tool or an obstacle, and deadly opponents who could kill her in seconds if she slipped. Where was the magic? Where were the fabulous creatures, and the lands out of storybooks, and the gold and jewels and magnificent treasures?

Chase bowed her head and sobbed without shame, nobody there to see her crumble.

And bit by bit, she felt better.

Broken, she drew herself together. If this wasn't the adventure she wanted, then she'd get through it and on to better things!

If she wasn't strong enough to fight the evildoers face to face, that was fine! She'd find ways to shift things into a situation that wasn't a fight!

She was a halven, damn it all, and halvens didn't sit in the darkness and angst about things they couldn't control! They just got on with fixing what they could fix, and trusted the big things to sort themselves out.

And what's more, she was an Oracle! Would Hoon have chosen her if she was going to be stuck here alone in the darkness, moping until everyone was dead? Heck no!

WILL+1

Feeling better about the whole thing, Chase opened her eyes again. What should she do here? How should she fix matters?

The first trick was to get free. The second thing... she gnawed her lip, in thought. There was one group that she needed to speak to. The group that had built this prison in the first place.

Getting free took precious minutes of twisting and writhing and, in some cases, torn skin as the rope chafed and ripped at her. But the blood slicked up her limbs, made the work easier, and her dexterity did the rest. Some healing was necessary afterward, but by now she had the skill down and the numbers she got from it were respectible.

After that it took her a while to get her bearings, and remember the map. It took longer still, precious minutes sliding by, and a near encounter with Speranza's guards before they recognized her and gave her directions to the place she was looking for.

But at last Chase stood in a hallway lined with bars, separated into cells. From one of the nearer cells, humans in prison uniforms called out for help, stretching their hands past the metal grilles to try and clutch at her. She evaded them, nodding to one of Speranza's twisted minions at the corner as she approached.

“Where are the halvens?” she asked him.

He pointed, and she followed his finger, ending her search in front of a smaller cell. Inside, a dozen halven sat against the back wall, staring at her with varying degrees of shock.

“Chase!” One of the least shocked among them rose. Her father rushed to the bars, and pushed his arms through. Chase leaned into the hug, rubbing his shoulder, doing her best to ignore the cold steel of the bars pushing into her face.

“Hello Dad.”

“How did you get here? How did you get past the guards?”

“They think I'm on their side. They think I can talk you into helping to release one of the prisoners,” Chase whispered into his ear. She felt his arms stiffen, then he chuckled, before letting her go.

“I'll go let the others know. Keep your voice down, I don't think the guards are too far off,” Stem Berrymore muttered.

Chase nodded, and waited patiently as the captive halven huddled together and muttered. Finally, the group moved up to the bars, and Susan Crabapple squinted at her, brushing back a lock of grimy red hair as she addressed the younger woman. “We're supposed to release a prisoner? From what?”

“Remember a room called the 'dead drop'? A room that was designed to be capped by a very big chunk of stone?”

Benjy Lapin sucked air through his buckteeth. “Ouch. They actually done stuck someone in there? Well. That's it for them. Place is built to collapse if anything happens to that there stone.”

“Actually there may be a way around it. Is one of you a Merchant? Or an Explorer?”

“I'm a Merchant,” said Grummer Gar. “I was running the General store for years before I handed it off to Jooli.” He tugged his whiskers, and squinted at her through broken spectacles. “Why?”

“Before I answer that question, we need to figure out if letting her out is a good idea. See, she's got a trick where she can charm people...” Chase launched into an explanation. The older halven's eyes got bigger and bigger as she told of what Speranza could accomplish merely by singing.

“That's terrifying,” Stem said. “I see why they locked her away.”

Ruggle Casker spoke up in his creaky old voice. “Come to think of it, I heard tell of a guildmaster who had that ability, back during the wars.”

Chase blinked. “She was a guildmaster too? Like Dijornos was?”

The second she said the prisoner's name, every head whipped around to look at her. Chase noticed that her father's face had gone absolutely pale. “Sweetpea? Where did you hear that name?” He said, in a hoarse voice.

“He's upstairs,” Chase said. “They gave him a fear of water and surrounded him with a lake. He's not going... wait.” She furrowed her brow, remembering. “The Camerlengo is here. She's trying to kill her way to Speranza. But when she found the blueprints of the prison, she said something about going to the pump room instead, and drowning a rat...”

Benjy rubbed his chin. “I'm the one that put in the plumbing, here. If Speranza's in the dead drop, then that's at the very bottom of the prison. Rerouting the pumps will flood D level and C level too, but she'll be dead first. It'll drain the lake up top, though.”

“Wait. C level?” Chase said, eyes wide. She'd studied the maps to get here, multiple times, and certain details stuck in her mind. “These cells are on C level!”

More than that, she realized. I haven't gone up or down any stairs since I ran into her. She LEFT me on C level. She left me to drown. Or maybe it was an oversight?

Chase remembered that small smile the Camerlengo had shown her. That cruel little grin... No. No it hadn't been an oversight. That had been malice, pure and simple.

“I don't think the Camerlengo cares if we drown,” Chase said, slowly. “We're going to have to—”

The room shook, and a great roar came from above, as something blew up deep inside the mountain.

CHASE'S CHARACTER SHEET

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Chase Berrymore

Age: 15 Years

Jobs:

Halven level 8, Cook level 4, Archer level 2, Grifter level 3, Oracle level 5

Attributes / Pools / Defenses

Strength: 47 Constitution: 28 / Hit Points: 75 / Armor: 0

Intelligence: 49 Wisdom: 72 / Sanity: 121 / Mental Fortitude: 25

Dexterity: 75 Agility: 53 / Stamina: 128 / Endurance: 0

Charisma: 96 Willpower: 39 / Moxie: 135 / Cool: 25

Perception: 50 Luck: 96 / Fortune: 146 / Fate: 20

Generic Skills

Archery – Level 1

Brawling – Level 7

Climb – Level 15

Dagger – Level 2

Dodge – Level 10

Fishing – Level 14

Ride – Level 10

Stealth – Level 14

Swim – Level 7

Throwing – Level 19

Halven Skills

Fate's Friend – Level N/A

Small in a Good Way – Level N/A

Cook Skills

Cooking - Level 14

Freshen - Level 10

Archer Skills

Aim – Level 1

Missile Mastery – Level N/A

Quickdraw – Level N/A

Rapid Fire – Level N/A

Ricochet Shot – Level 1

Grifter Skills

Fools Gold – Level 1

Master of Disguise – Level 3

Silent Activation – Level 4

Silver Tongue – Level 3

Size Up – Level 1

Oracle Skills

Absorb Condition – Level N/A

Afflict Self – Level 1

Diagnose – Level N/A

Divine Pawn – Level N/A

Foresight – Level 15

Lesser Healing – Level 13

Omens and Portents – Level N/A

Transfer Condition – Level 1

Unlocked Jobs

Farmer, Herbalist, Teacher