Legend of Grimrock: Destiny’s Chance. (Part 14)

For the one or two of you who have stumbled upon this site, with no idea what you’re reading… or if you are the one or two, who was bored beyond reason at 3am, unable to sleep and read my previous Legend of Grimrock fan pieces, and are quite surprised that after (over!) a year, I have added another one – and you want to brush up on the previous stories – here’s links to them!

Part 01
Part 02
Part 03
Part 04
Part 05
Part 06
Part 07
Part 08
Part 09
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13

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“I just don’t think we should trust him,” Silvertan hissed between his serpent lips.

“Trust him?” Tawmis chuckled. “Are you not the one that tried to steal from a guard and got all of us – with the exception of you, Blaz – into this mess?”

Silvertan shrugged. “I didn’t ask for any of you to try and assist me,” he replied, his scales shimmering in Grimrock’s flickering torch light.

“Granted,” Tawmis amended, “that rotund guard, Boris lied about what he had caught us doing that night, to save face, since he wasn’t supposed to be in The Fallen Star – a place of… questionable reputation with the ladies of entertainment.” (1)

“I joined –tic!- the fray after you had –tic!- been knocked out from behind,” Blaz’tik reminded Tawmis.

“As I told you before,” Silvertan’s reptilian eyes focused on Tawmis, “I had every intention of being thrown down here alone. I could have survived down here alone. I live in the shadows.”

Taren shook his mighty, minotaur head. “You have seen the horrors that are down here, lizard. Do you truly believe that cowering in the shadows, waiting for these things to pass would have allowed you to survive alone? I have seen the horrors of the undead, who do not see with human eyes. Instead, they see with a hatred for the living. No amount of shadows could have hid you from them.”

“Perhaps,” Silvertan said, the ‘s’ making a slithering sound, “you are correct, brute. Perhaps I would not have survived alone down here, as I thought I might have. Perhaps I believed too much in my own skills, but this isn’t about me. This is about that rat, and how we should not trust him. His name is Coy, for crying out loud. He’s not even hiding the fact that his very name is a symbol of deception!”

“Then perhaps we should be thankful that he’s not hiding what his name means,” Tawmis shrugged as he held the torchlight in front of him. “Speaking of that Ratling, how far ahead did he go and search for us anyway?”

“He’s probably bringing back an army of some horrors to kill us,” Silvertan muttered. “Or there’s more of his kind down here, and he’s leading us into an ambush.”

“You’re not the trusting sort, I take it,” Tawmis finally said, feeling exasperated by Silvertain’s constant barrage and notions of why the Ratling was not to be trusted.

“I am not the foolish sort,” Silvertan corrected. He paused for a long moment, and finally amended, “And I may have some issues with trust as well.”

“Some?” Tawmis replied, sarcastically.

“I just don’t think it’s a wise idea to trust strangers down here,” Silvertan hammered on.

“Blaz,” Silvertan turned to the insectoid. “Isn’t there any kind of magic that you can do to see if the Ratling is lying to us? A Detect Lie or Detect Evil kind of spell?”

Blaz’tik looked at Silvertan. “Those sound –tic!- like rather silly spell names. There is one that’s similar to this ‘detect lie’ you mentioned, but it’s called Detellius.”

“That’s excellent,” Silvertan hissed. “Can you cast it on the filthy Ratling next time he shows up? I’d like to ask him a few things to see if he’s telling the truth.”

“I would love to cast such –tic!- a spell, however,” Blaz’tik explained, holding up his insect like arms, “I have none of the –tic!- spell components that are needed.”

“Naturally,” Silvertan sighed.

“What spell components do you need, insect?” came Coy’s voice, directly behind Silvertan who screeched out and slammed his own body against the wall.

“How did you get behind us?” Silvertan spat. “You were trying to backstab me, weren’t you?”

“With what,” Coy asked, with a wide smile. “My teeth? I have no weapon, if you haven’t noticed. However, much like my ‘brethren’ as you’re so fond of saying, I am a pack rat, and do have some components that might be useful to a mage. I have a pouch of sandalwood shavings, forioan mushrooms, two whistle leaves, and a small pouch of grounded herder spores.”

“Those –tic!- components,” Blaz’tik said, his insect eyes somehow wider with excitement, “could indeed –tic!- prove very useful!”

“They’re all yours,” Coy said, removing his belt and pouches and handing them over to Blaz’tik.

Tawmis looked at Silvertan and whispered, “Do you trust him now?”

“Even less,” Silvertan replied. “Even less.”

TO BE CONTINUED?

(1) See the very first post of the story! Boris, the guard Silvertan had tried to rob, did indeed like to the king and say that Tawmis, Taren and Silvertan had been caught trying to rob Houralus Survine, one of the Royal Men of Curvia (which was the rich side of town)

Tawmis Sanarius – Human (Son of Contar Stoneskull and Yennica Whitefeather)
Taren Bloodhorn – Minotaur
Blaz’tik – Insectoid
Silvertan – Lizardman
Coy – Ratling from the Isle of Nex