“Cragstone Plains, Cragstone Plains! Never ever venture to the Cragstone Plains! You’ll be maimed! You’ll be maimed! Never, ever, ever, ever seen again!”

old children’s song taught to those of the Weeping Hills.

We encountered six more Withered before we reached the edge of the field where the mist began to thin and the crops fell away as the ground grew rocky with long slabs of stone encroaching on the dark earth like carpenter’s joints linking two different lands together.

The landscape sloped up as massive stone slabs sprang from the ground at awkward angles, creating jagged arches and buttresses creating a labyrinth of cramped crevices and passages leading off in all directions. It was an absolute mess.

“Cragstone Plains,” Jacob observed. “How are these plains?”

“More like Cragstone maze,” I replied, tossing my arms in the air. “I mean—pick a direction?”

Jacob looked at me, pouted his bottom lip and shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Okay,” I replied. Closing my eyes, I raised one arm and started to spin. I heard Jacob’s chuckle as I counted.

Five, four, three, two, one.

I stopped, opened my eyes, and found myself pointing back at the mist where we’d come.

“Try again?” Jacob suggested. I did.

Five, four, three, two, one.

This time I opened my eyes to a jagged triangle of stone the color of rotted banana skin. There was no way over it, but at its base was a tunnel. It was tight, but if we stooped down we were able to make our way inside.

“Great place for an ambush,” I observed as we struggled through the cramped space.

“Don’t say that,” Jacob asked from behind me.

“Scared?” I teased as the tunnel split into two directions. This time, I didn’t hesitate and just headed to the left. No point in trying to make sense of this mess. The only light fell faint and diffused through the small cracks above, filtering through dusty air before it reached us, giving the entire corridor a soft, dull glow that was barely enough to see by.

“They sure don’t make this easy,” Jacob remarked.

“That’s Mizaguchi for you.”

A pin of light grew ahead of us. A tiny landslide of pebbles cascaded down ahead of us as the ground sloped down. Bracing against the walls, I moved carefully towards the light, which expanded as we grew closer, finally bursting into blinding moonlight as we came out into a tiny valley with sheer slopes all around us reaching high into the sky.

“Now what?” Jacob growled as I looked around for an obvious way out. Aside from the way we’d come in, there didn’t seem to be one.

“Hmmm,” I mused, scratching my chin with the back of my axe.

“Look out!” Jacob shouted. I whirled around to face him just in time to see two Withered emerge from the stone and sweep toward him. They were different than the ones in the fields—bigger and darker, and each carried an enormous scythe.

The one in the lead swept the sickle at Jacob, catching him in the ribs and carving away a good chunk of his health. It raised up for another strike, and I leapt in front of him and fired. My Blunderbuss blared and slugs into the monster’s face. The bass cry of my riposte sounded out and I brought my axe down quickly, aiming for the thing’s neck.

Blue and white vapor flared out like a spray of blood.

Massive!

160

There was no hope of dodging the next scythe, so I Shadowstepped and swept my axe across both of them.

89—65

Jacob’s Mortal Arrow tore into the Withered I’d riposted. I raised up to attack, but this time I was watching closely, and saw the thing shift slightly. If I attacked, I knew my blade would simply pass through it and strike the rock wall on the other side. So, instead, I turned, and drove the handle of my axe into the other Withered as it attacked.

25

The damage was barely there, but my Rally bar was almost full. I dodged its scythe and heard Jacob cry out as the attack landed on him instead. I slashed out, catching the wraith in the leg and following up with a quick jab to the stomach.

65—35

My Rally bar filled and I brought my blade down with everything I had.

100

The thing screeched and slashed out, but I blocked the blow with my axe and retaliated, finishing it off with a well placed chop to the neck.

Jacob cried out and I spun around to see him on the ground, his casting bone held in both hands in an attempt to block the incoming scythe attack. His health was below half, and there was a good chance that that blow would end him. I didn’t have time for a full swing. Instead, I fired my Blunderbuss into the thing’s back.

22

The damage wasn’t much, but it did what I wanted, which was to get the thing’s attention.

“Heal!” I shouted, Shadowstepping out of the way of the creatures next attack. As Jacob popped a Soothing Syrup, I unleashed on the Withered with a series of attacks the caused its health to almost vanish. It shifted, avoiding my final blow that would finish it off, then brought its scythe across my chest with a heavy blow that dropped my health to 50. I leapt back as Jacob fired a final Mortal Arrow that finished it off.

“Jesus,” Jacob muttered as I downed three Soothing Syrups to get myself back to full. “Those things are no joke. Bet you’re glad you’ve got that cape of yours.”

I heard the tinge of envy and spite in his voice that he was trying so hard to hide, so I decided to give it back to him.

“Bet you’re glad you’ve got me with you.” I smirked as I gathered the Quintessence, and bent down as I saw another item gleaming at my feet.

“What’s that?” Jacob asked as I examined it.

Withered Scythe: Haunted blade of the Withered, once used to harvest crops, this ghostly scythe now cries for the flesh of the living.

Physical Attack: 95 Attribute Bonus: Skill: D

“Junk,” I replied, closing my character sheet. “Maybe Alastor or Will give us some Quint for it. Hey, what origin are you using anyway?”

“Corrupted Erudite,” he replied.

“And you’re just gonna be a caster forever?” I asked. “No weapons or anything?”

“I am pretty sure I could use a Skill based off-hand. But I didn’t start with one and I haven’t found one yet.”

“Gotcha,” I nodded, looking around the hole we appeared to be trapped in. I really didn’t feel like going back the way we’d come, and was relieved to find a set of hidden handholds cut into the rock at the far end of the deep cut in the rock where we stood. “Ah, here we go.”

Putting my weapons away, I made my way up the rock face as quickly as I could, looking down occasionally to make sure Jacob was behind me. The stone was rough against my fingertips, and the indentations were slight, which made progress slow, but finally I reached the top and found myself staring out at a jagged mess of rock breaks and barbs that speared out in all directions like the shell of a sea urchin.

I let out a heavy sigh as Jacob came up behind me, standing awkwardly, his feet braced on either side of a triangular stone spur.

“How are we ever going to get through this?” Jacob groaned. “You—you just wanna go back?”

“I thought this was the girl who could help you?” I countered.

“She is, but…” his voice trailed off as he eyed the complete mess of seemingly unnavigable ground in front of us.

“You know, I thought you had a little more umph to you, Jake,” I said, goading him on. He scowled, twisting his lips unappreciatively.

“Fine,” he replied. “But don’t get mad at me when we die and have to come back through this mess to find our bodies.”

“At least we won’t be naked like Dorrin,” I laughed, taking a careful step forward.

“That’s true!”

We figured it was best to stay above the twisting maze of cramped tunnels beneath us. The goal was to find Grecia and get her back to town, not to explore every inch of the place. But each step hazardous, a chance to slip from some precarious perch and tumble down into a pit of stone spears or a hovel filled with Withered. After what felt like hours, I started to lose hope.

“This is ridiculous,” I scoffed, turning and looking back in the direction we’d come. I couldn’t even see the edge of the landscape anymore, or the fog in the distance that would mark the beginning of the dying fields beyond the windmill.

“Who’s lacking in umph now?” Jacob chuckled.

“Do you think—do you think there’s a chance Wilhelm was wrong about where to find her?” I asked. “He said she could be in two different places, didn’t he?”

“He said he’d start here if he were us,” Jacob replied. I scowled, spat into the dust beneath my boot heel.

“I dunno…maybe you’re right—”

Something moved in the distance.

“What?” Jacob asked.

I squinted, took a careful step forward for a better look. And then I saw it.

A wingtip, such a dark violet that it was verging on black. It beat softly, vanished below a drop off, then appeared again. At its tip was a sharp point, like a tooth, and I heard a sound like tired breath catching in a sick throat.

“There,” I pointed. Jacob stepped up beside me and followed my finger.

“What is it?”

“Not a Withered,” I replied. “Come on. Let’s check it out.”

Moving carefully across the treacherous ground, we crept towards the dark wing as it batted slowly through the quiet air. Finally, more of the creature came into view and I found myself staring at what could only be described as a demon.

Its body was that of a man, but rippled with stacks of impossible muscles. Its skin was covered with pustules that looked ready to burst, as though the beast was suffering from a disease causing it to rot from the inside. Its wings, like the blades of the windmill, were pierced in places by holes that could have been made by gunfire.

The thing’s back was to us, making it impossible to see its face, but it stood at the center of a hollow in the rock, and beyond it, cowering in the corner, was a woman—the witch, Grecia. But what I saw, was beyond anything I’d expected.

I felt stupid having pictured an old woman in a dark robe and a pointy hat. That would have been far too cliché. Instead, I saw a tattered red robe, thick and heavy, draped across the rock, its edges frayed as though it had once been much longer. Beneath it, the witch was huddled, leaning on sharp elbows, her skin rotten and brown and wisps of grey hair draped down from beneath the robe that was covering her head. Beneath the shadows cast by its tattered hem were two yellow eyes that seemed to glow as they swept aimlessly across the hollow in which she lay. Although I couldn’t make out her entire body, I could tell its proportions were bizarre, exaggerated like a person who’d been stretched on a rack and somehow survived.

“Is that—?”

“Yes” I said quickly to quiet him, eyeing the strange beast below us.

Stone Demon—Level 6.

“Think we can take him?” Jacob asked, more quietly this time.

“Maybe…” I mused, angry at myself for wasting my Firebomb. “But like you said, if we die, it’s a long walk back.”

I looked at him for input, but he simply shrugged. The thing was twice his level, and if we were going to beat it, that meant I’d have to make sure to keep its attention on me at all times. Despite Jacob having more health than me, that thing would probably two-shot him, or maybe even one.

“Okay, Jake,” I said quietly, readying myself. We were above the demon, and it still had its back to us, which gave us the advantage. “I’ll go in first and get his attention on me. You give him everything you’ve got from up here, okay? If he hits you—”

“I’m screwed,” he said, finishing my thought.

“Exactly,” I smiled, gripping my axe tightly. “All right. Here we go.”

Raising my axe above my head, I planted my foot and leapt off the edge towards the demon.