Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
“We have to keep moving!” yelled Turbo as he ducked under another wild blow from the ghoul in front of him, stabbing upward with the knife in his hooves. The blade sank into the creature’s chest, but its only response was to leer at him – running its tongue over its decayed lips in a gesture of hunger – before it lunged forward, trying to sink its teeth into his neck.
Its reward for its effort was to have its head bashed in by Sandbar, the monster unable to utter so much as a grunt as the heavy base of the stanchion he’d grabbed upstairs caved its skull in. “We are NOT leaving the captain behind!” he panted, glaring at Turbo.
“I didn’t say we should leave her behind,” shot back the other stallion. “I said we need to keep moving! Just drag her along until she recovers!”
“I’ve got her!” Drafty’s words were strained as she picked up C. Shell’s rigid body. “Let’s go!”
“We should be getting close to the vault,” panted Cloudbank, managing to speak clearly despite her teeth gripping Severance’s handle tightly. “Once we’re there, we’ll have a chance to regroup.” Or at least, I hope we will.
They’d been beset by ghouls almost from the moment they’d entered the bank. They had pushed their way past the sagging front doors and into the dimly-lit interior of the place only for nearly a half-dozen ghouls to rush them as soon as they’d moved away from the entrance. Heedless of the light spilling in from the nearby windows, the undead ponies had poured out from around corners and behind the teller counter, shrieking and gibbering as they’d charged them. Fortunately the living ponies had been prepared, staying in a tight formation and fighting defensively as they’d fought off the sudden onslaught, but the ensuing melee had still been horribly chaotic. Both Drafty and Sandbar had lost their weapons in the initial rush, the latter grabbing a nearby stanchion and wielding it like a club to make up for the loss. Drafty had simply made do with a nearby chair, awkwardly using it as a shield to keep the ghouls away from her.
The fight had lasted less than a minute, but it had driven home how perilous their mission was. Several of them had sustained minor injuries, and Sandbar had been briefly paralyzed at one point. Fortunately Cloudbank had been able to cover him until he’d shaken it off…though she knew that the real credit went to Severance. The weapon was the major reason they’d come through so well; although Cloudbank wasn’t able to wield it well enough to score a hit with every stroke, the two that had connected had killed an undead pony each time.
Despite that, Cloudbank hadn’t been able to bring herself to think of the fight as a victory. Even though three of the ghouls had been destroyed, the other two had retreated deeper into the bank, no doubt to find a place to prepare for another ambush. Worse, they’d all heard the distant sounds of scrabbling and hurried clopping that indicated even more ghouls waiting for them. But that hadn’t been what had bothered her the most. They seem different, she’d thought to herself as they’d hurried toward the entrance to the basement. More feral, almost like they’re desperate. These ghouls hadn’t bothered to taunt them with wicked rhymes or dark promises about what they’d do to them. Instead, they’d simply hissed and snarled at them, using words only to spew curses and snatches of phrases at them in the midst of battle. Even their appearance had seemed different to her, with their skin stretched taut and their stomachs being recessed to an unnatural degree. It’s as if they’re starving.
By the time they’d managed to find the entrance to the basement, they’d been attacked twice more. These had been different from the initial massive push, however. Each time had seen a ghoul leap out from a place of concealment – out of a nearby office the first time and from behind a small kitchenette the second – and, screeching hideously, had lashed out at them, trying to land only a hit or two before falling back. The first time had cost Cloudbank a blow to the face but hadn’t paralyzed her. The second one had occurred only moments ago and had left C. Shells stiff as a board. The ghoul had immediately tried to grab her by the mane and pull her away, and probably would have succeeded if Turbo and Sandbar hadn’t intervened when they did.
All that, and they hadn’t even made it to the basement yet.
“That’s it,” pointed Drafty. “The green door, just like Piggy said. That should take us down to the basement, and the vault should be dead ahead.”
“You just had to phrase it that way, didn’t you?” quipped Sandbar dryly.
“Go shiver a timber, pirate,” she shot back, though the corners of her lips turned up slightly as she said it.
But Turbo was in no mood for their banter, holding his knife at the ready as they approached the door. “There’s going to be more down there,” he warned them. “Someplace that’s dark and cramped is perfect for them.”
Anything else he was going to say was cut off as C. Shells gave a grunt, climbing to her hooves as her paralysis wore off. “That was awful,” she groaned as she stood up. The feeling of being trapped in her own body, aware but completely helpless, had been horrifying.
“Can you still fight?” asked Cloudbank, keeping Severance in a ready position. She’d asked the weapon a moment ago to keep her apprised if it was aware of any movement around them, but while Severance had been amenable to doing so it had let it slip that it couldn’t see through walls, meaning that in the tight confines of the bank’s hallways it was just as blind as they were.
“I could, if I had a weapon.” C. Shell’s voice was frustrated as she glanced around, trying to find anything that she could use in the next attack.
“Here.” Turbo’s flung a wing out towards her, tossing a knife lightly in her direction. When she caught it, he did the same thing for Drafty. “One for you, too.”
Fumbling for hers, Drafty gave him a questioning look. “You picked these up after we dropped them?” She hadn’t seen him do that.
But Turbo shook his head. “I just made sure to take a couple extras from the banquet tables. You can’t afford to be caught empty-hooved in Vanhoover. Just be careful. Those are my last two.”
Both mares nodded their thanks to him, readying their weapons as Cloudbank moved to the door. “Okay, on three…” She glanced around to make sure everypony was ready, then turned her attention to the door.
“One.” She lifted Severance high, ready to slash anything that came out from the door.
“Two.” Drafty and Turbo got on either side of the door, knives at the ready, as C. Shells and Sandbar covered their backs, watching for any ghouls trying to come up from behind.
“Three!” She kicked the door, which immediately swung open. When nothing leapt out at her, she moved toward the lightless entrance-
-and immediately fell back, covering her nose as a fetid stench filled her nostrils. “Ugh! What is that?” she gagged, her eyes watering.
Drafty glanced in the doorway, but immediately yanked her head back as she inhaled the awful scent. “I dunno,” she croaked, her face screwed up in disgust. “I can’t see anything down there.”
“Do we have a light?” asked C. Shells, wrinkling her nose. “Preferably something we can toss down there to see what that is?”
“I saw some oil lamps a few rooms back,” ventured Turbo, “but I have no idea if they’re full or not, and we’d need some way to light them.”
“We’re not going back.” Cloudbank had stepped back from the door in order to get some fresh air, but now moved toward it again, her face determined as her weapon whispered a solution into her mind. “Severance can light the way.”
Sure enough, as she stepped through the doorway, the blade began to glow with a soft fluorescent light. The light didn’t shine as brightly as Cloudbank would have liked, but it managed to push back the darkness enough to show her a single flight of wooden steps leading down, ending at… “What the heck?”
Turbo moved after her. “What’s…? Oh.”
At the bottom of the stairs, the floor couldn’t be seen, hidden under a layer of scummy water that looked pitch black under Severance’s dull light. As still as glass, it stretched from the one corner of the room that was illuminated off into darkness, with no easy way to tell how deep it was. The odor of stagnation was overpowering, and Cloudbank tried to take shallow breaths as she surveyed the scene. This is not good at all, she knew.
“Everything okay?” called Drafty.
“The place is partially submerged,” replied Cloudbank. Despite wanting quite badly to turn and leave – only partially because of the smell – she made herself start down the steps. “It must have been like this ever since the beginning of the flood.”
From behind her, Cloudbank could hear the others starting to follow her. “Oh wow,” muttered C. Shells. “This place needs to be bilged really badly.”
“At least we’ll hear any ghouls splashing around before they get to us,” pointed out Sandbar, trying to be optimistic.
Cloudbank stood on the lowest step that was still above the water level. “Not necessarily,” she replied, her voice ominous. “Undead ponies don’t need to breathe, so they could swim through and attack us without ever breaching the surface if this is deep enough.” There’d be some ripples if the ghouls did that, she knew, but those would be almost impossible to see due to their own traipsing through the water.
“It’s worse than that.” Turbo let out a slow breath as he considered the scene in front of him. “Imagine being paralyzed and then knocked off your hooves while you’re down here. Even if their paralysis doesn’t last very long, you can bet they’ll try and pounce on you to make sure you don’t get up before they use it again.”
“Okay, I’m going to nominate this place as having officially become too dangerous,” interjected Sandbar. “I say we fall back and try a different bank. There’s got to be others that aren’t this bad off.”
C. Shells nodded. “I agree. In this sort of environment, hauling out bags of bits while also having to fight for our lives is going to be impossible. We should try somewhere else.”
“No.” Cloudbank shook her head, dipping the end of Severance’s blade into the water, causing light ripples to radiate out as she felt its tip strike the floor. “Everypony back at the camp is counting on us, and we’ve already come this far. Besides, it’s not very deep, see?” She withdrew Severance and showed them how far the water came up on the curved blade. “A little over a foot. We can handle that.”
“I don’t know, Cloudy.” A worried frown creased Drafty’s features. “We know there’s still more ghouls upstairs. If they corner us down h-”
“All the more reason to hurry up.” Cloudbank strode forward as she spoke, splashing as she entered the knee-deep water. This is how the earth ponies will have to go through it, so I need to do the same. “C’mon. The sooner we reach the vault the sooner we can get out of here.” Wanting to look fearless, she strode forward, knowing that’s what Lex would have done if he were there. The other four shared doubtful looks, but slowly fell in behind Cloudbank, weapons ready and trying not to breathe in too much as they headed towards their goal.
Behind them, the door at the top of the stairs slowly swung shut…
Cloudbank and company make it to the basement, but things seem much worse down there.
Is Cloudbank being foolish, or will they manage to overcome this new challenge?
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OK Cloudy, thats going just too far. youre out numbered, out gunned, outmatched, on the enemies home turf, and you have dependants.
The only way I can see just Cloudy herself getting out of there is because she is a low level boss with self healing and deity weapon. If she sticks behind to help. shes going to fall. There are more ghouls than she has healing spells.
Cloudbank seems really determined to carry out the plan as quickly as possible even though there's actually no immediate rush to get the money since the food Lex conjured for the camp should keep their hunger at bay(even if the food will spoil at the end of the day). And from their point of view, Lex could conjure up more food once he recovers.
Granted, she could just be in a hurry to get this mission done and over with so she wouldn't have to put Drafty and the rest of their party in any more danger. Though what she's doing is obviously leading to the opposite effect.
At least it's a good thing that ponies don't have paper money(as far as I could recall at least) so most of the bits should still be intact and viable for use when they bring it back to camp...though the most likely outcome is that they'll have to abandon most of it in favor of escaping the ghouls. Seriously, hauling a bank's worth of coins is going to be heavy. Hope Sandbar's claim of being strong holds true.
It's interesting to see the ghouls actually being starved which meant that if the survivors wait long enough the ghouls could potentially kill themselves off by cannibalizing each other until their numbers are no longer an issue. Still, this means that these particular ghouls are in no mood to play with their food, which makes them even deadlier as this gives the party less time to react. And combined with the confined space, getting out is going to
Also, I wonder if Turbo picked up the rule to keep spare weapons from 'Fencer' given that she had so many blades hidden in her dress so many chapters ago.
8595411 The odds are definitely against Cloudbank and her group, but she's decided to press on anyway. She's very clearly motivated by her desire to help everypony back at the camp...but it also seems like she wants to live up to Lex's example. Given that, it's arguable whether she's being brave or foolish.
8595424 While Lex's magic did conjure up more than enough food for everypony, the amount it made only slightly exceeded the camp's current population. More than that, even leaving aside issues of preservation, is that the meals were collectively enough to keep everyone satisfied for a single day's worth of food intake; tomorrow they're going to start feeling hungry again. So they do need to come up with an alternate food source sooner rather than later. And they can't really rely on Lex conjuring more, either. Although he did admit that his injuries were a fluke, his explanation therein was rather technical, which makes me wonder if Cloudbank really grasped that he could potentially do that without hurting himself. Likewise, he was the one who told her that his doing that wasn't a long-term solution anyway.
That said, one thing I wanted to create in this chapter - and which I don't think I succeeded at - was creating a sense of ambiguity about whether or not Cloudbank is right to push on. The reasons not to are obvious: there are still ghouls lurking around them, the basement looks dangerous and intimidating, and everypony else is urging her to turn back. Those are all self-evident reasons to abandon her mission and maybe try again later and/or elsewhere. The thing is, there are also reasons to keep going: the floodwaters swept through the entire city, so if other banks have subterranean vaults they'll be in equally bad conditions, the ghouls are intelligent and can recognize patterns and prepare traps, and the longer they wait the hungrier they'll be. Given that they're also only lightly injured, and still fully armed (thanks to Turbo's preparedness, which he did indeed pick up from Garden; that was meant to be a subtle call-back to her), there are good reasons to keep going...even if we know that she wants to live up to Lex's image.
As for the ghouls...they seem to be getting hungrier and hungrier. While they might turn on each other, you have to wonder how long it will be before they decide to try for the camp full of delicious ponies only a short distance away...?
8595718
The food situation is still a problem though not an immediate one since most of the ponies at the camp will understand if Lex doesn't conjure any food the next day due to how taxing it was on him the first time. Of course, I wouldn't put it past Lex trying to do it again to ensure that everyone under his watch don't go hungry. And even if Cloudbank comprehended Lex's explanation, she probably thinks that Lex will probably overdo it and collapse again. Though the reason for why she's worried about Lex is still up for debate even if Drafty thinks otherwise.
As for the ambiguity of the chapter, to me, the reason this wasn't pulled off successfully was because of the action scene at the start. Starting the chapter in the middle of the fight made me more aware of details and descriptions like how the ghouls didn't back away from the sunlight, indicating how hungry they were while also reminding the readers of the ghouls' paralyzing attacks. Of course, me and the other readers are usually on the lookout for hints and details like this so that might have played a part in that.
The fact that the ghouls are going hungry indicates one of two things, either the remaining survivors have gotten wise to their ambush tactics(or boarded themselves up in a safe house like Cloudbank and the others did with the apartment. Or the are no more survivors to hunt in their surroundings. In either case, it would be interesting to see how creatures that usually ambush their prey fare should they decide to come out and hunt in the open.
Of course, another reason for the ghouls' lack wordplay and singing(kind of miss that btw) could be due to 'Nosey' influencing their actions. Though the way the one ghoul leered at Turbo seems to suggest otherwise.
Cloudbank is definitely being foolish, there are other vaults. Waste high water is a force multiplier for creatures with the paralyze ability (thank goodness they can't cast sleep). What really worries me though, is that terrible stench....
i reminded of a dog i had one time.
he would let any one in the house and just sleep.
do not try to leave he would rip you apart.
this is going to be interesting, from years of gaming i can say they should have taken the time to clear the upper floors as they worked there way in.
this mistake will be a lesson hard learned.
8596609 That Lex probably would try to make food again is something that Cloudbank is no doubt very cognizant of; given how upset she was when Lex woke up after the first time (and his highly technical explanation for why it wouldn't happen again), she's probably not very eager to put him in that position. More than that, she's reached a point where she's no longer openly hostile toward Lex; thanks to Drafty's nudging, Cloudbank is uncertain how she feels, but she's now aware of the possibility that Lex is putting his trust in her, and she seems to be responding to that idea (i.e. not wanting to disappoint someone who took a chance on her). Whether or not that's the full depth of her feelings remains unknown, even to her.
With regards to the chapter not quite promoting the level of ambiguity I wanted (in regards to Cloudbank's decision to go forward), I think the problem is that when I write these, I'm very cognizant of what I don't write, and presume that readers will also read between the lines. In this case, the idea that "the basement is flooded" was meant to cause a realization that this is probably the case for ALL basements in Vanhoover, and that other banks probably won't be any better off. Between that, that the ghouls were intelligent enough to adapt to tactics, and that no one had been badly injured yet, there was no practical reason to turn back besides "this seems spooky." Heck, Cloudbank hasn't even had to dip into her (small) reserve of spells yet!
I should add that it's a truism that - outside of very particular powers and abilities - undead creatures are completely immune to all mind-affecting powers and abilities under the d20 rules.
8597006 Well, the water was knee-high, and ghoul paralysis lasts for thirty seconds at most...but yeah, it's not a good environment for them. But does that mean that other vaults will be any better? The floodwaters covered the entire city, remember.
As for the smell, well...standing water is going to become stagnant after a while. Surely it's just that, right?
8597375 They were hoping to make this an issue of speed, rather than clearing the entire building. Remember, there are ghouls throughout the city. An extended engagement runs the risk of bringing more ghouls from outside the bank down on them.
8597727
this is true but this would give them a safe building to work out of and 2 or 4 degas cod hall a cart full of bits back to camp and make several trips. and do a e vac fore the team for the last trip.
i like to camp on a building a just snip the ceders and enigmas.
So... Horror story time?
9112553 It does look that way, doesn't it?