Dur looked over the group and at their dead enemies. “What the fuck happened and where the fuck are we? Why is everyone so hurt?”

“Good question, good question and that guy hit me in the face,” Ragnar stated, pointing at a dead croaker.

“Mmm. Yeah,” Zagthaan said, standing to her feet shakily. “Shall we just go into one of these rooms and close the door first before we talk? Just in case?”

“I mean, those things could probably just tear through the door if they tried,” Stigr said. “But at least we’d have a warning.”

“This is true,” Zagthaan agreed. “Also, if Ragnar and yourself sit against it, that’d likely help.”

“I am a beefy boy.”

“Suddenly sword straight through the chest,” Ragnar said, pushing his hand out from his chest. “Ow.”

“I am no longer a beefy boy,” Stigr said, nervously.

“I’ve not seen a single one of the normal ordinary creatures hold any sort of weapon,” Zagthaan pointed out.

“No, one of their tentacles will go through the door and into my chest,” Stigr said, imitating Ragnar. “Have you seen the movie ‘Alien’?”

“What’s a movie?”

“By movie, I mean theater play. That.”

“Oh, the Alien one? Yeah, I’ve seen that.”

“Just imagine that, but real. Oh god, what if we meet face huggers?”

“That would be atrocious,” Zagthaan replied. “Ah, anyway, shall we just duck into a room real quick?”

Ducking into the room, the group caught Dur up on the events since they’d arrived, including Zagthaan’s missing arm, Lucy, the town’s preacher, where they’re heading and their hope to end the town’s curse and find the artifact.

“I woke up here,” he said, waving at the room and the corpse of a croaker. “Tendril in the back of my head. Ripped it out, killed that one, heard the combat outside and joined ye.”

Zagthaan went to the dwarf and, turning his head around, revealed a root sticking out the back of his head, the roots only having spread a little, less than it had in eight hours for Zagthaan. “If it’s infected, I can cut it off,” Ragnar offered.

“Oh dear. Do we have to cut this one off?” Abs asked?

“Someone got a knife?” Dur asked.

“What size?” Ragnar asked as knives were offered to Dur.

“The sharpest one.” Taking an offered knife, he dug at the root in the back of his head.

“Oh my god, it’s the first ‘Saw’ movie, I mean, play,” Stigr said, aghast.

“God, you’re right, and he’s really doing it,” Zagthaan said, retrieving her healing potion, but getting it waved away by Dur.

“Yeah, but the original actors were dumb,” Abs stated.

“Even more realistic than the show,” Ragnar added.

Dur ripped the root out, tossing it at the corpse. “Well, I’m glad that thing is mostly out of your head,” Zagthaan said, smearing a poultice into the wound. “We’ll have to watch it and make sure that it doesn’t spread.”

“Tell me if you feel like biting anyone,” Stigr said.

“Or spitting on them,” Zagthaan added.

Dur nodded a thanks to Zagthaan. “Before waking up here, all I remember was being separated from you all in the fog.” Taking the other four in, he nodded approvingly. “You all look stronger than when I saw you last.”

“Yeah, we had a funny dream,” Zagthaan stated.

“And now we have to save Lucy,” Abs said. “Or try at least.”

“We gotta find her first. I think she’s on the other side of this floor.”

“Let’s go then,” Dur said, nodding to the corridor.

Heading back to the entrance of the rooms, the group tried the public bathroom doors, finding them both locked. Crossing the hallway, they tried another unlabelled door, this one opening into a cloak room.

“Someone may have left something in a pocket,” Abs said, entering and starting to rummage through pockets.

Zagthaan, spotting a light blue coloured half cloak, nodded to herself as she took it and, getting Dur to help, affixed it to cover her right side and the stump of her arm. ‘It’s cool,’ she thought to herself, even with the colour clash she now had going.

Glancing at the others, she snorted with amusement as another half cloak was changed into a loin cloth for Stigr, while Ragnar appeared from the back of the room, a new cloak replacing the previous one he had been sporting. This one was mottled greens and browns, complimenting his scale colour, making him just that little harder to distinguish from his surroundings.

“I’m going to try the Lounge door,” Abs said, wandering back out into the corridor. By the time the others caught up, he’d moved on to the Reading Room door, opening that one and going inside.

Rummaging through the room gave them each a tome. “Bird spotting for amateurs,” Zagthaan read out loud to herself happily as she tucked the small book into her pack. Smiling happily to herself, she looked over the books the others had found. “Card tricks, that’s neat Ragnar. What you got Stigr? Homebrew distilling? Can’t wait to see what you do with that.”

“How to win friends and influence people,” Abs said to Zagthaan, tucking his book away before heading back to the hallway, the other four in tow.

“All right, shall we?” Zagthaan asked as she waved at door labelled 211-220

“Yep,” Abs replied with a nod.

“I’m down,” Stigr said, cracking his knuckles. “Let’s have another fight in a corridor.”

“Just like in high school,” Zagthaan replied with a nod.

Before heading through the door to the hotel rooms the group checked the two elevators and the waiting room. Neither elevator showed any signs of use, doors either not opening or responding to their button pressing or open, but with a layer of dust on the floor. Giving up on them, the group headed for the hotel rooms.

Each door along the corridor was locked and Abs, disgust on his face, didn’t even bother taking his tools out as each door handle was tried and found to be locked.

Annoyance on his face, Abs tried the last door, labelled ‘220’, finding that it swung open easily, letting them into a musty room. The only thing of note in the room was another, palm sized coin sitting in the middle of the lounge table. Picking it up, Abs noted an old man, hunched over with a cane, bald and clearly ancient.

“That’s weird,” Stigr said, looking at it.

Zagthaan tilted her head at him. “What is?”

“The different things printed on the coins.”

“Most likely different parts of a puzzle we will need to solve,” she said dismissively as Abs pocketed the coin.

As they exited the room to keep exploring, they noted another group enemies in their way. A croaker emerging from room 219, a lasher and a croaker from rooms 218 and 217, a huge lasher, crouching under the ceiling and a pair of demonic dogs in front of the lasher.

“Croaker’s yours,” Ragnar said to no one in particular as he charged down the hallway, his warhammer slamming into the smaller of the two lashers a moment before a javelin leapt past him. Abs followed Ragnar, his rapier dispatching the lasher moments before the dogs arrived, biting Ragnar. “I require healing!” Ragnar hollered.

The croakers lashed out, hitting Dur and Abs, drawing a “Me too!” from the gnome.

“Torag strike my foes,” Zagthaan intoned, a spiritual warhammer appearing and flying at the croaker attacking Abs, missing the creature. “I’ll heal you shortly,” she called back to Ragnar and Abs.

The large lasher’s vines reared up, striking at Ragnar and Abs, glancing off armour or just outright missing.

Stigr started up his drum beat as Dur and Ragnar struck at their targets, Abs stepping around the croaker, striking it as Zagthaan’s warhammer struck it again.

The croaker Dur had swung at, stepped inside his glaive's reach and struck, hitting him in the shoulder, forcing him to take a half step back.

Letting her spiritual warhammer stay targeted on the croaker, Zagthaan moved up to Abs, casting a healing spell on him.

“Go help them! I’ve got this one,” Dur yelled at Stigr as the massive lasher stuck the three closest targets or Ragnar, Abs and Zagthaan.

Nodding, Stigr moved closer, drawing on his magic. Screaming his spell at the massive lasher, the spell damaging and dazing the creature.

Ragnar struck one of the dogs with both his warhammer and shield and, as the already severely injured animal tried to bite him again, he shoved his warhammer into its mouth and twisted, snapping its neck.

Dur grunted as, after slashing his target with his glaive, the creature closed the gap again, pummelling him in his midriff. As a wound opened up on his stomach, both croakers spasmed, spikes lancing out at everyone, but only catching Abs and the remaining dog, which yelped in surprise.

“Keep still Abs,” Zagthaan grumbled as she healed him, her aura repairing some of her own wounds at the same time. With some strength returning to his limbs, Abs struck the croaker that Zagthaan’s spiritual weapon was hitting, the creature finally dropping.

Dur, annoyed at the damage he’d taken, quickly drew a javelin from his quiver, jamming it into the croaker before twisting and tripping the croaker. As it struggled back to its feet, he stabbed it again before a flower burst from its mouth, spitting the infecting liquid at his wounds. With a flick of his hand, he wiped the gunk away, thinking no more of it.

Music and spell mixing, Stigr tapped Ragnar's shoulder, releasing his magic, healing the dragonkin as Ragnar stepped to the side of the remaining dog and smashed its side with his warhammer and shield spike.

The massive lasher swayed slightly as the group continued their assault on the other creatures, Ragnar swatting another attempted bite from the dog away as Zagthaan, redirecting her spiritual warhammer to hit the large lasher, stepped up to the dog and brought her own warhammer down on the creature, ending its life.

Free from the pestering dogs, Ragnar stepped up to the lasher as it broke out of its daze and struck. Vines hit Zagthaan and Stigr, Ragnar ignoring them as he struck back.

Abs, already ducking, turned his momentum into a roll, moving underneath the lasher to the other side, pausing to take advantage of an allies presence on the other flank.

Stepping back again, Dur swung his glaive, the weapon glancing off an arm spike, leaving the croaker room to follow and hit the dwarf, yet again.

Zagthaan, not wanting to be anywhere near the approaching croaker from behind her, stepped closer to the massive lasher, giving it the distraction Abs needed to kill it, the gnome jumping up, grabbing a vine and inserting his rapier into the creature's spine. Seeing the lasher start to fall, Zagthaan turned and redirected her spiritual weapon to attack the remaining croaker.

Changing his position to support Dur, Stigr stopped playing his music, focussing his full attention on healing Dur. The green-grey magic swelled, settling on the wounds and bolstering the dwarf as Ragnar turned and, stepping next to Dur, began assaulting the croaker.

Suddenly having a more violent target in its face, the croaker attempted to hit Ragnar, but found its strikes hitting the shield only.

Moving to surround the creature, Zagthaan, warhammer flaming, Stigr, claws rending and finally Ragnar with his warhammer, the group managed to drop the creature.

Silence fell on the group as they winced, their latest wounds causing them enough grief.

“I need to sleep,” Zagthaan grumbled as she turned and headed back to room 220, the others following her, closing and barring the door with the heavy couch inside the room.

~

As night settled over the town, the fog darkening outside their window, the siren ended, silence filling the fog for several hours before the inevitable wailing started up again.

~

“Fuck this shield, fuck this shield,” Zagthaan muttered as she began repairing the dents and holes in Ragnar’s shield.

“That shield has saved your life on numerous occasions,” he chimed in as he did his morning stretches.

“Hoping Victor can do that for me now,” she replied, handing back the repaired shield.

“I need another wand of healing,” Stigr stated as he checked over his drums.

“You’re like a wand of healing,” Zagthaan offered.

“Are you all done?” Abs asked impatiently, peeking through the slightly opened door down the hallway.

“Yeah, yeah,” Zagthaan muttered as she held her wrist out for Dur to tie the warhammer to.

~

Exploring the rooms that had been opened from the various monsters inhabiting them, there was only one item of note found in room 214.

“We are pleased to invite you to join the manager for the event in the hall, this evening,” Abs read out from the piece of intricate parchment.

“So, who’s getting boss fight vibes from this?” Stigr queried.

“We can do it stealthily,” Abs offered.

“Cause that’s worked every time,” Zagthaan replied with sarcasm.

“There is no stealthing a boss,” Stigr stated.

Moving back towards the hall, they checked the last unmarked door, another holding room for guests, three safes sitting along one wall.

Eyes lighting up, Abs immediately went to work while the others rummaged through the weapons. “Imma take this,” Stigr said, holding up a broadsword.

“Do you even know how to use that?” Ragnar asked.

“No,” Stigr replied with a smile as the sheath became strapped to his back.

Thumping the first safe with a fist, Abs began working on the second, opening it within a few moments before scooping out its contents. Upon picking up a dagger, it shrunk a little in his hand to fit his grip. With a nod, he sheathed it before pocketing another pistol with several shots. Turning to the others, he held up an amulet. “Can anyone identify this amulet?” he asked.

“Eh, sure, I’ll give it a go,” Zagthaan said, taking it from him and holding it up, squinting at it.

“It’s an amulet of health,” Stigr stated, looking over her shoulder.

“It should probably go to Abs,” she replied.

“I don’t have an amulet,” Ragnar offered.

“Ditto,” Zagthaan replied to Ragnar.

“Honestly, who needs it more?” Abs said, looking at it.

“Who gets hit the most?” Stigr queried.

“Probably Abs.” Zagthaan held it towards the gnome.

“Yeah, probably me,” Abs nodded. “I’m gunna wear it.” Slipping it over his head, he tucked it under his shirt before trying the last safe.

Zagthaan, looking at her half cloak, shorted at it and untied it, tossing it onto the opened safe. “Wrong colour, no matter how cool it looked,” she stated.

“It was far from cool,” Stigr said with a bored yawn as Abs gave up on the third safe.

“Let’s go fight,” Ragnar said, waving towards the hallway and where the hall lay.

~

Looking at the big double doorway to the hall, the group paused.

“Well, deep breath,” Zagthaan said, taking a deep breath. “Shall we go into the hall?”

“Yep,” Stigr said, twirling a drumstick, “and I know exactly what song I’m going to sing this time.”

Pushing the doors open and stepping in, they slammed shut behind them, the red rune appearing instantly as the massive chandelier in the ceiling blazed to life, half the candles missing, but still with plenty of light to brighten the room.

The walls were covered with plants and tendrils, reaching up and spreading along the ceiling and covering the stage to their right where a large creature dressed in a torn suit started standing up from hunched, a massive vine from the middle of its back detaching from the wall as it raised two branch-like arms.

It bellowed and, detaching from the walls and floors, its minions turned to focus on the invaders. The smaller creatures, tatters of uniform hanging from a more plant than person torso, turned sunken or missing eyes on the invaders as the Manager jumped down from the stage, the massive vine lashing at Stigr, slapping the wall behind him as another small minion squirmed its way out of the Managers belly.

“Oh, I don’t like that,” Stigr stated as he started his performance. (Song of choice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHRuTYtSbJQ [AN: note sure how he can do this on drums, but we’ll roll with it. Was better than the offering of Barbie Girl.])

Abs, rapier leading, moved to and struck the newest minion, rapier piercing wooden flesh before he took a small hop to the side.

“Ragnar, want me to deal with the trash and you deal with the big guy?” Dur asked, eyeing the smaller minions to the south.

“Sure,” Ragnar replied, anger etching his tone as he started to rage, turning his anger towards the Manager as Dur charged, his glaive flashing through the air, but missing as the minion moved out of the way.

Ragnar’s warhammer slammed into the Manager, the dragonkin growling the entire time, glaring at the taller creature.

Seeing what was probably the best time to start casting, Zagthaan closed her eyes for a moment and began, her one armed movements now becoming more practised and sure.

The minions struck back at their assailants, missing Dur and Abs, but the other three hitting, one pummeling Ragnar while two others launched spikes, hitting Stigr and Zagthaan, both doing their best to ignore the blows while maintaining their performance and spell casting.

A tree arm swung at Ragnar, who ducked under it, letting it go past him to hit the stairs. The vine, as if directed by another set of eyes completely, struck at Abs, who thankfully saw it coming and ducked and tried to get through to the other side of the Manager, only to be clotheslined by the Manager. Flipping backwards, he tucked and rolled sideways, getting to where he needed to be at the expense of taking hits from the Manager and two minions.

With a grunt of effort, Dur’s glaive struck, slicing through shoulder to side, lopping off the arm and part of the chest of the minion he was aiming for. Glancing over his shoulder at Zagthaan, who was, like him, separated from the others, he watched as she finished her summoning spell, nodding in approval.

“Victor!” she called, the ice elemental appearing behind the minion that had thrown a spike at her. The elemental saluted and, as it dropped into a combat pose, Zagthaan charged at it, drawing on her magic to create her shield before slamming her warhammer into the creature as Victor struck from the other side.

A scream erupted from Stigr as he targeted the Manager. The spell buffeted and damaged the creature, but failed to daze it. Using the momentary distraction of the spell, Ragnar and Abs went to work, warhammer and rapier striking and breaking off chunks of wood from the arms of the creature.

The minions struck back, hitting Ragnar and Zagthaan, while another, attempting to get to Dur, tripped, giving the dwarf an opportunity to dig his glaive into the creature, drawing blood.

Bellowing at Abs, the Manager raised one wooden arm, bringing it down towards the gnome, who, with a half step to the side, neatly dodged the blow. The massive vine lashed out at Stigr, almost cracking like a whip as it missed, striking the air next to the trollkin.

Responding to the bellow, three more minions, previously hidden in the vines along the far wall, emerged, vines detaching as they stumbled out.

Seeing new targets, Dur grinned, lining up his glaive on the closest minion and charging. The weapon connected, ripping straight through the chest and, as he ripped it out and twisted, he killed the creature.

Taking the chance, Stigr stepped into combat with one of the minions, clawing at the creature, wounding it before it could attack back.

Stepping into a more ideal position, Ragnar struck, allowing Abs the chance to strike as well, the pair of them whittling down the large creature between them.

Zagthaan held back for a moment, waiting for Victor’s attack before launching her own. The ice elemental missed the moving creature though, so she tried to hit with her own warhammer. Still not used to fighting with the smaller elemental, she left herself wide open and the minion, apparently smart enough to see the opening, struck her solidly, causing her to take a step back and suck in her breath before drawing on her magic to heal herself. The creature followed her though, striking her again before she could bring her warhammer back up to guard with.

A spike flew at Stigr’s head, making him duck under it as he maneuvoured to get into a better position. One of the new minions charged at Abs, while another closed in from another direction. The charging one missed its attack, but got in the way of the other, tripping it up. As it fell, Abs stabbed, rapier piercing through the skull, the creature slipping off the blade as Abs turned and ducked, the Manager’s vine lashing at him, barely missing the gnome and the minion.

Ragnar batted away the strikes from the minions before the Manager struck him in the chest. Growling and glaring at the larger creature, he pushed its fist away as it stepped onto the stairs of the stage next to him, getting higher ground.

Stigr released more magic, his chord of shards washing over two of the minions, but doing nothing as they twisted out of the way of the bulk of the spell.

Yet another minion made its presence known, this one coming out of the vines from the corner of the stage nearest to Ragnar. Throwing a glare at the new minion, Ragnar stepped to the side, following the Manager, trying to keep in a spot to help Abs with flanking, the thinking and repositioning throwing off his strikes.

Dur charged again, targeting the minion attacking Abs, hitting it and drawing its attention to him, giving Abs the chance to step up to the Manager and, striking from the bottom of the stairs, Abs struck with his rapier, severing a leg tendon, causing the Manager to collapse on the stairs. Another swift strike lanced the creature and it howled and bellowed as it collapsed on the stairs and immediately began to rot away. “Got him before he got up on the stage,” Abs said calmly.

“So you upstaged him?” Ragnar offered as he turned his attention to the newest minion.

Zagthaan snickered as she followed Victor’s missing hit with a strike of her warhammer, dropping the minion between them. With a wave of her warhammer, she pointed at the nearest minion, Victor acknowledging the new target with a nod.

As Victor turned, the minion launched a spike at him, which glanced off his icy form before he moved to attack the creature, his own icy fist missing the minion.

The creatures attacked their nearest targets, all missing, including one that attacked another minion, except the one focused on Ragnar, who managed to slip past his guard to hit the dragonkin in the shoulder.

Roaring in its face, Ragnar struck with both his warhammer and shield, dropping the creature to the ground before turning towards the next closest, anger at being hit still evident in his eyes.

Killing his target, Dur moved closer to Stigr, who stopped performing his music to focus on biting and clawing his target, ripping a hole in the creature’s shoulder and chest, killing it.

Zig-zagging across the floor, Zagthaan got behind the creature Victor was fighting and, igniting her warhammer with fire magic, she struck the creature a moment before Dur arrived, his glaive gliding past Zagthaan and striking the creature in the neck, dropping the last enemy in the room.

“That fight did not deserve that song,” Stigr said glumly.

“We did beeline to the manager,” Abs stated, going to the corpse and picking up a small copper key from the rotting wood and flesh.

Zagthaan, watching Victor, swore she noted a hint of sadness on its features as it saluted and started to fade. Nodding to it, she tapped her warhammer head against her chestplate.

“Bye tiny little friend,” Stigr said, watching the exchange. “Second tiny little friend.”

“This is probably the manager’s office key,” Abs said, showing the others before heading for the door. The doors, now that the Manager and minions were dead, had reopened a little, the rune on it faded and broken.

Making their way back downstairs, they walked confidently, though still cautiously, through the seemingly empty hotel to the manager's office. Abs, inserting the key, opened the door smoothly, revealing a room with a desk, a chair and a box on the desk.

The box, on the top, had 5 slots, the same size as the coins they’d found throughout the hotel. Engraved on the side of the box was a few lines of text, which Abs read out.

Three bright coins in five holes be.

At one end sits the Seducer of She.

The wind from behind the woman doth play.

The Formless One, Null, lies furthest from they.

The Old Once beside the Serpent sits not.

Tis to the Prisoner’s left that he doth rot.

“Hey Zagthaan, you’re really good with puzzles, right?” Abs said, looking over his shoulder to her.

Taking the coins from Abs, Zagthaan sat on the chair as she laid them out. Stigr came and knelt on the floor next to her and the pair went to work while Ragnar and Dur stood inside the door, looking out into the hall, making sure they wouldn’t be interrupted.

“Okay, so the snake coin has to be here,” Stigr said, placing it in the far right slot.

“Old man here?” Zagthaan said, dropping the coin into a slot. “Maybe slave here?” She dropped the slave coin into the slot next to the snake before trying the latch.

“We’re not getting something right,” Stigr stated, swapping the coins around.

“Obviously,” Zagthaan said, taking off her gauntlet and rubbing her face. “Okay, what if the ‘Seducer of She’ is the old man?”

“Wouldn’t make sense, then there would be no reference to the snake,” Abs chimed in. “Old man far left?”

“No, there’s supposed to be an empty there,” Stigr said. “At least, I think so from the line “Formless one, furtherst from they.”

“Okay, so that leaves us only a couple of combinations,” Zagthaan said, dropping the woman into the middle slot and the old man to the left of it. An audible click resounded from the room, bringing out grins from the trio as she flipped the latch open, revealing a large, wrought iron key.

“Took us longer to solve this puzzle than it did to kill the boss,” Stigr stated.

“Yeah, well,” Zagthaan replied, waving her hand dismissively at the box. “Murder seems to be a strong suit of our group. Puzzles, not as much.”

Standing and putting her gauntlet back on by slipping her hand into it and raising it up so it slid onto her hand, Zagthaan let Stigr retrieve the key before they headed back out towards the large locked door.

“I can’t hear the violin any more,” Stigr stated as they neared the restaurant door. Looking in as they passed, the restaurant was shattered and broken, the curtain previously hiding the musician now torn, the broken violin the only thing left of the creature. “Once sec,” Stigr said as he went and retrieved the pieces of the instrument, tucking them into his bag.

“I think the cleaner came by,” Abs said, looking over the mess before they continued on towards the massive locked doors.

The key fit perfectly and with a firm twist from Stigr, the lock clicked open. Tossing it aside, they pushed open the doors, revealing a courtyard, thin fog leaking in from the outside. Across the lawn, barely 100 feet from them lay a large, open building with gondola lines going up from it.

Stepping into the courtyard, the group started towards the gondola house. The sound of massive wings flapping reached them as a massive winged creature descended from the thick fog, aiming its sharp looking beak towards them.

☆~☆