Post by Dead Greyhawk on Nov 14, 2007 20:29:05 GMT -5
The Company struggles to understand the signs before them. The hobgoblin was slain and left behind, but the bloodstain in the rug does not match with the position of the skeletons. The hobgoblin corpse was left here long enough to be stripped clean of flesh. The meaning of all of these things just escapes the Company's fractious mind. What is clear, at least to Eig, is that the chest contains, or contained, something that the hobgoblin wanted badly. The skeleton points directly towards it. According to Eig's keen senses, the chest is merely closed and not locked. He can find no strange wires, pressure plates, or whatnot leading from the chest, and he urges the others to open it. "Come on guys," he begs, "let's get it open!"
The Company is dubious of Eig's claims. Unfortunately, Dell is usually the arbiter of whether an item is safe to open or not. In his absence, Jasper, who has only rarely attempted to search such items, and Pfiffwin, who looks at the others with contempt, may have the skill to corroborate Eig's claims. Otto looks over at Pfiffwin and motions him towards the chest. "What? Do you think I am a petty safecracker? My skills are in stealth, not pilfering!" says Pfiffwin, with an injured look. "If you are so certain it needs to be opened, do it yourself."
"Look," says Eig, a word not usually inclined to garner help from anyone, "I just need help lifting the marble slab. It's too much for me alone. Any of you can aid me with this." Alouicious, a long suffering look on his face, walks up next to Eig, plants his feet and prepares to help him lift. The rest of the Company gives them, and the chest, a wide berth.
Eig and Alouicious lift the lid of the chest up, straining from the weight. Aloucious suddenly grunts and springs backwards, grasping at his chest. "It cut me!" shouts Al, a large slash across his chest bleeding freely.
The lid of the chest slams downward, trapping Eig's arm in between marble lid and thick oaken chest. "My arm! My arm!" cries Eig as he struggles feebly, trapped against the chest. As the Company looks at Eig, he slides over to the right, unbalanced by the crushing burden of the chest lid. Eig's left leg stands independently of Eig's body, now slumped to the ground, blood jetting into a pool beneath him. "My leg! My leg!" cries Eig as he turns paler and paler.
Hugh suddenly runs forward to heal the serious wound taken by Eig and, hopefully, prevent him from dying before their eyes. Eig's leg totters as Hugh runs up and then falls over to the ground, the leg cleanly cut through midway up the thigh.
Eig, even with his horrible wound, is still conscious, and he moans and writhes on the ground, reaching out for his amputated leg. "Put it back on! Put it back on!" he rants and raves as Hugh struggles to deal with the grievous wound. Attracted by the commotion, and likely the voluminous blood, Eats Salmon puts his square head into the building looking around. Eig responds poorly, screaming, "Keep him away! He's hungry! Who knows what he'll do!"
Winthrop elbows his way into the mass of people near the chest, stepping straight through the pool of Eig's blood. He grabs hold of the leg and slams it into Eig's chest. Eig, in shock grabs hold of it with both hands, allowing Winthrop to grab Eig's pouch of berries from his belt. " Here, eat!" says Winthrop, pushing berries upon Eig in an effort to quiet him. "Now we can think without his screaming," mutters Winthrop. "Is he going to die?"
Hugh claims that Trithereon's might has healed Eig of his physical wounds, sealing and rerouting those vital blood vessels in the leg. Eig is likely to need months to learn how to get about with only one leg. Regeneration of a leg is beyond Hugh's ken, but perhaps the priests in Niole Dra, the capitol of Keoland, could help him. Alouicious believes his ring would bring back his own leg, but not the leg of another, once it is lost. Eig's ability to recover from the mental shock and wound of losing his leg is something that no one can predict.
Now that the chest has injured two of the Company, one badly, its contents become more intriguing. "Antonus, open the chest," orders Winthrop. Antonus sullenly waves his arms and casts his magics, not liking the way he's being treated. The lid of the chest flies open and a long shining blade scythes around the chest. Otto grabs Hugh's hornwood spear from his back and jams it into the open chest. With a great heave, Otto levers the marble lid up and open. "Jam it open," grunts Otto, the sweat beading on his brow. "Don't let the trap reset." Alouicious uses his battleaxe to do so, propping it between the lid and the corner of the chest.
Otto reaches into the chest to find out what Eig has given his leg for. The chest contains a set of rich robes, apparently ceremonial in nature. In a pocket of one of the robes is a copper clasp of a great holly tree, set with tiny rubies as berries. Raven finds the copperwork to be of high quality and thinks the clasp would be valuable as an ornament. In the bottom of the chest is a bag of silver coins, minted in Geoff. Herbert, the remaining druid, takes the robes and the clasp, storing them against future need.
Winthrop is very interested in this blade that has caused such grievous harm. He asks Pfiffwin to look into the chest with him to find the blade's mechanism. Hidden in the wall of the chest is a counterweight driven pivot. Each time the lid opens, the counterweight swings through an arc, swinging the blade at the same time. Winthrop, with help, carefully removes the blade from the wall of the chest, imagining having it cast as a knife or dagger at a later date. It is carefully wrapped and placed inside his chest, which he summons from the ether without problem.
Winthrop, Raven, and Otto confer about what to do next. Carrying Eig would be unwieldy and a nuisance at best and a problem at worst. Leaving someone behind to watch over the druid is equally troubling. "Well, we can't leave him here alone in the middle of the woods," says Raven. In the end, Otto, through Jasper, asks Eats Salmon to watch over Eig. Eats Salmon, happy to be in a forest again, agrees, and Winthrop leaves the pouch of hallowed berries spread open for the bear. Jasper warns Eats Salmon not to eat too many, because he'll get a tummy ache. The Company leaves the moaning, sobbing Eig behind, clutching his leg, as they press on further into the wood.
The Company, two fewer, head further down the road, trying to maximize what little light they have left. The road splits, with the right branch heading down to the stream where a ford is visible. The left branch continues on towards and past several buildings that can be made out through the gloom. The Company believes the Great Tree lies on the other side of the stream, but chooses instead to follow their previous plan to not be surrounded. They stride on towards the buildings, seeing two doors, one to the right wing and one to the left wing. They take up positions before the doorway to the right.
The door opens to reveal another building that is more disordered within than without. The doorway opens onto a large kitchen with various kitchen implements and a large cauldron in the fireplace. Two doors lead out of the room. A desultory search of one shows that it is a pantry, the room covered in shelves on which rotting and moldering things sit. The other door leads out into a garden surrounded by a high stone wall. The garden has gone to weeds, but Herbert and Otto both can see a variety of crops still growing among the other ground cover. The garden has not been abandoned a full season yet.
The garden has a small shed abutting the main building. Out of an abundance of caution, Otto opens this door as well, not expecting that anything of value or danger would be within. He is quite surprised when a dark floating form with black burning eyes lunges out of the closed space at him. Backpedaling, he calls for the aid of the priests and swings his bastardsword through the creature with great might and vehemence. Hugh and Perrin both attempt to release the unlife's soul into the afterlife. The creature fades from view, but none know whether from the priestly admonitions or the magical weaponry. The small shed is dark, dank, and musty. Garden implements and the remnants of bundled herbs hang from the walls. On the floor of the shed is a corpse, swollen, black, and bloated, bound in its chainmail armor and with a shovel embedded in its back. No weapon or shield sits by it, and Raven posits that whoever killed the warrior, they took the easily carried weapon and shield. The Company gingerly rolls the putrefying corpse over and sees what they are searching for: a badge. On the warriors hauberk is a patch with metallic threads sketching out a green tree. The race of the warrior is a mystery at this stage of decay, and, for once, none of the Company wishes to take a sample or investigate the corpse further.
The Company returns to the main building and forces the door to the other wing. Beyond the door is a large room that seems to have served as a dormitory of sorts. One corner contains a partition that blocks the view from the door. Empty and disarrayed bunks fill the room, but webbing coats the ceiling, apparently spreading outwards from beyond the partition. "Hugh, need your sword up here," says Otto. Hugh, broadsword flaming, walks up through the door and ignites the webbing, flames snaking down the long threads towards the corner.
High pitched clicking and skittering sounds come from behind the partition and a horde of spiders, each the size of a watermelon, scuttle forward along the wall. Otto, holding the door, begins to methodically cut them down, but Hugh backs up, trying to clear space for Raven and Diego to slay them both before they can reach the Company. Raven attempts to do so, sending shafts at the spiders, but instead strikes Otto in the back, impaling him. "Arrggh!" cries Otto, as he is assailed from both sides.
"Sorry about that," mumbles Raven abashedly. Otto continues to slay the remaining spiders, Thaag Caladon's ring drawing the lifeforce from them to heal Otto's wounds. Too few spiders exist to salve the grievous wound caused by Raven's arrow, and Otto remains quite injured at the end of the fight.
"Don't do that," says Otto to Raven as he hands him back his arrow.
The Company searches the room hoping it holds no further surprises. Most of the room seems to be disordered and empty of useful items. The area behind the partition seems in better shape, except for a collection of burnt spiders. Under the now-burnt mass of spider webbing is a small closet that contains dried herbs in jars. Herbert takes them, hoping to use their contents in curative unguents.
The Company turns away from the abandoned dormitory, certain now that these buildings contain neither friend nor living foe, just the dead and undead from the battle for this hallowed ground. Perhaps the area near the tree will provide a clearer explanation of the events and give some indication where the druids may be.
The Company backtracks slightly to the ford and prepares to cross it. The ford is broad and shallow, the water coming up no higher than mid-thigh on Pfiffwin, the shortest among them. Even so, the Company takes great care when crossing the ford, sending folk across in pairs. Their diligence yields a dividend when Antonus and Hugh cross.
A great carapaced beast clambers up the stream towards the two of them in the ford, its claws and humped back breaking the surface. Hugh prepares for battle as Antonus calls to the archers on the two banks. Raven and Diego unlimber their bows while Otto speedily runs out into the ford to help protect Hugh. Otto's care is unnecessary, as arrows penetrate the weaknesses of the creature's carapace and it keels over, dead.
Otto wades down the stream until he can grasp one of the claws, and he then pulls it up to the ford. The creature is an abnormally large crayfish, one the size of a horse. "Tell Eats Salmon he has an alternative to berries," says Otto to Jasper. Jasper runs off at a sprint and is back in time to join the last of the Company in crossing the stream.
Herbert is appalled at the Company's behavior. First, they attack a black bear in the forest, instead of trying to capture and cure its dementia. Then they attack the spiders, burning their home, when they could easily have rendered them harmless. Now the have slain a creature native to the waterway when they could have used one of the many magics at their disposal to divert or block it from them. The Company of the Blue Sun, even Otto, is not disposed to maintaining the life of the forest, and Herbert makes a note of it.
The white road begins again on the far side of the ford, leading into a branching path. Trees line the far side of the path, but through the underbrush, a great white wall is visible beyond them. The wall seems to parallel the path in both directions, so the Company chooses to go to the left.
The road leads on through the wooded area, branching ahead with more buildings off to the left side of the road. Continuing their plan of leaving no potential enemies behind them, the Company hikes up to the buildings. The road continues on, and a set of smaller buildings can be seen further in the distance.
The buildings on the left hand side of the road seem to be connected to one another, like some sort of compound. In comparison to the previous buildings, which to most eyes would have seemed unblemished, these buildings show signs of smoke and fire, and one of the doorways lacks a door. The Company approaches with great care.
Entering through the bare doorway, Otto sees that a battle most definitely has taken place in the room. The room is scorched and burnt. Rags, the remains of cleaved wooden shields, and scattered bones are intermingled with broken cots and other debris. The battle here must have been fierce. Otto waves Raven and Diego into position to cover him with their missile fire as he crosses the room to a door on the far side.
The door appears blackened, and char marks score the wall around the frame of the door. Once Hugh comes into sight, Otto shoulders the door open. Most of the door collapses in a pile of charcoal, as the entire inner face of the door has been consumed by a vicious flame. Broken cots and bones are smashed into the walls of the room, forming a circle of destruction and devastation starting at the far end of the room. On the ground at the center of the destructive pattern is a single desiccated corpse with the broken, charred halves of a staff on either side of it.
"Winthrop, I think this is more your line of work," projects Otto, as he moves over to the next, charred door. Winthrop and the archers bustle into the room, Winthrop cooing over the broken staff. While Winthrop busies himself with the destroyed magical item, Otto shoulders the next door open.
A large table in poor shape surrounded by scattered, overturned wooden benches fills the room. Bloodstains, long dried and browned, spot the floor, but no corpses or skeletons are seen. Otto walks forward to check for enemies but is startled when four brown, two-foot long insects scuttle out from under an overturned bench and swarm up his body, stinging and biting. "Arrgghh!" cries Otto in revulsion as the giant centipedes attempt to bite at his exposed face and wriggle through the joints of his armor.
Cutting syllables echo through the room, and the giant centipedes fall to the ground, stunned. Otto stomps on them with his foot, jumping up and down on their corpses like Giuseppe for good measure. Winthrop, waving the two halves of the staff, smiles at Otto.
The Company is dubious of Eig's claims. Unfortunately, Dell is usually the arbiter of whether an item is safe to open or not. In his absence, Jasper, who has only rarely attempted to search such items, and Pfiffwin, who looks at the others with contempt, may have the skill to corroborate Eig's claims. Otto looks over at Pfiffwin and motions him towards the chest. "What? Do you think I am a petty safecracker? My skills are in stealth, not pilfering!" says Pfiffwin, with an injured look. "If you are so certain it needs to be opened, do it yourself."
"Look," says Eig, a word not usually inclined to garner help from anyone, "I just need help lifting the marble slab. It's too much for me alone. Any of you can aid me with this." Alouicious, a long suffering look on his face, walks up next to Eig, plants his feet and prepares to help him lift. The rest of the Company gives them, and the chest, a wide berth.
Eig and Alouicious lift the lid of the chest up, straining from the weight. Aloucious suddenly grunts and springs backwards, grasping at his chest. "It cut me!" shouts Al, a large slash across his chest bleeding freely.
The lid of the chest slams downward, trapping Eig's arm in between marble lid and thick oaken chest. "My arm! My arm!" cries Eig as he struggles feebly, trapped against the chest. As the Company looks at Eig, he slides over to the right, unbalanced by the crushing burden of the chest lid. Eig's left leg stands independently of Eig's body, now slumped to the ground, blood jetting into a pool beneath him. "My leg! My leg!" cries Eig as he turns paler and paler.
Hugh suddenly runs forward to heal the serious wound taken by Eig and, hopefully, prevent him from dying before their eyes. Eig's leg totters as Hugh runs up and then falls over to the ground, the leg cleanly cut through midway up the thigh.
Eig, even with his horrible wound, is still conscious, and he moans and writhes on the ground, reaching out for his amputated leg. "Put it back on! Put it back on!" he rants and raves as Hugh struggles to deal with the grievous wound. Attracted by the commotion, and likely the voluminous blood, Eats Salmon puts his square head into the building looking around. Eig responds poorly, screaming, "Keep him away! He's hungry! Who knows what he'll do!"
Winthrop elbows his way into the mass of people near the chest, stepping straight through the pool of Eig's blood. He grabs hold of the leg and slams it into Eig's chest. Eig, in shock grabs hold of it with both hands, allowing Winthrop to grab Eig's pouch of berries from his belt. " Here, eat!" says Winthrop, pushing berries upon Eig in an effort to quiet him. "Now we can think without his screaming," mutters Winthrop. "Is he going to die?"
Hugh claims that Trithereon's might has healed Eig of his physical wounds, sealing and rerouting those vital blood vessels in the leg. Eig is likely to need months to learn how to get about with only one leg. Regeneration of a leg is beyond Hugh's ken, but perhaps the priests in Niole Dra, the capitol of Keoland, could help him. Alouicious believes his ring would bring back his own leg, but not the leg of another, once it is lost. Eig's ability to recover from the mental shock and wound of losing his leg is something that no one can predict.
Now that the chest has injured two of the Company, one badly, its contents become more intriguing. "Antonus, open the chest," orders Winthrop. Antonus sullenly waves his arms and casts his magics, not liking the way he's being treated. The lid of the chest flies open and a long shining blade scythes around the chest. Otto grabs Hugh's hornwood spear from his back and jams it into the open chest. With a great heave, Otto levers the marble lid up and open. "Jam it open," grunts Otto, the sweat beading on his brow. "Don't let the trap reset." Alouicious uses his battleaxe to do so, propping it between the lid and the corner of the chest.
Otto reaches into the chest to find out what Eig has given his leg for. The chest contains a set of rich robes, apparently ceremonial in nature. In a pocket of one of the robes is a copper clasp of a great holly tree, set with tiny rubies as berries. Raven finds the copperwork to be of high quality and thinks the clasp would be valuable as an ornament. In the bottom of the chest is a bag of silver coins, minted in Geoff. Herbert, the remaining druid, takes the robes and the clasp, storing them against future need.
Winthrop is very interested in this blade that has caused such grievous harm. He asks Pfiffwin to look into the chest with him to find the blade's mechanism. Hidden in the wall of the chest is a counterweight driven pivot. Each time the lid opens, the counterweight swings through an arc, swinging the blade at the same time. Winthrop, with help, carefully removes the blade from the wall of the chest, imagining having it cast as a knife or dagger at a later date. It is carefully wrapped and placed inside his chest, which he summons from the ether without problem.
Winthrop, Raven, and Otto confer about what to do next. Carrying Eig would be unwieldy and a nuisance at best and a problem at worst. Leaving someone behind to watch over the druid is equally troubling. "Well, we can't leave him here alone in the middle of the woods," says Raven. In the end, Otto, through Jasper, asks Eats Salmon to watch over Eig. Eats Salmon, happy to be in a forest again, agrees, and Winthrop leaves the pouch of hallowed berries spread open for the bear. Jasper warns Eats Salmon not to eat too many, because he'll get a tummy ache. The Company leaves the moaning, sobbing Eig behind, clutching his leg, as they press on further into the wood.
The Company, two fewer, head further down the road, trying to maximize what little light they have left. The road splits, with the right branch heading down to the stream where a ford is visible. The left branch continues on towards and past several buildings that can be made out through the gloom. The Company believes the Great Tree lies on the other side of the stream, but chooses instead to follow their previous plan to not be surrounded. They stride on towards the buildings, seeing two doors, one to the right wing and one to the left wing. They take up positions before the doorway to the right.
The door opens to reveal another building that is more disordered within than without. The doorway opens onto a large kitchen with various kitchen implements and a large cauldron in the fireplace. Two doors lead out of the room. A desultory search of one shows that it is a pantry, the room covered in shelves on which rotting and moldering things sit. The other door leads out into a garden surrounded by a high stone wall. The garden has gone to weeds, but Herbert and Otto both can see a variety of crops still growing among the other ground cover. The garden has not been abandoned a full season yet.
The garden has a small shed abutting the main building. Out of an abundance of caution, Otto opens this door as well, not expecting that anything of value or danger would be within. He is quite surprised when a dark floating form with black burning eyes lunges out of the closed space at him. Backpedaling, he calls for the aid of the priests and swings his bastardsword through the creature with great might and vehemence. Hugh and Perrin both attempt to release the unlife's soul into the afterlife. The creature fades from view, but none know whether from the priestly admonitions or the magical weaponry. The small shed is dark, dank, and musty. Garden implements and the remnants of bundled herbs hang from the walls. On the floor of the shed is a corpse, swollen, black, and bloated, bound in its chainmail armor and with a shovel embedded in its back. No weapon or shield sits by it, and Raven posits that whoever killed the warrior, they took the easily carried weapon and shield. The Company gingerly rolls the putrefying corpse over and sees what they are searching for: a badge. On the warriors hauberk is a patch with metallic threads sketching out a green tree. The race of the warrior is a mystery at this stage of decay, and, for once, none of the Company wishes to take a sample or investigate the corpse further.
The Company returns to the main building and forces the door to the other wing. Beyond the door is a large room that seems to have served as a dormitory of sorts. One corner contains a partition that blocks the view from the door. Empty and disarrayed bunks fill the room, but webbing coats the ceiling, apparently spreading outwards from beyond the partition. "Hugh, need your sword up here," says Otto. Hugh, broadsword flaming, walks up through the door and ignites the webbing, flames snaking down the long threads towards the corner.
High pitched clicking and skittering sounds come from behind the partition and a horde of spiders, each the size of a watermelon, scuttle forward along the wall. Otto, holding the door, begins to methodically cut them down, but Hugh backs up, trying to clear space for Raven and Diego to slay them both before they can reach the Company. Raven attempts to do so, sending shafts at the spiders, but instead strikes Otto in the back, impaling him. "Arrggh!" cries Otto, as he is assailed from both sides.
"Sorry about that," mumbles Raven abashedly. Otto continues to slay the remaining spiders, Thaag Caladon's ring drawing the lifeforce from them to heal Otto's wounds. Too few spiders exist to salve the grievous wound caused by Raven's arrow, and Otto remains quite injured at the end of the fight.
"Don't do that," says Otto to Raven as he hands him back his arrow.
The Company searches the room hoping it holds no further surprises. Most of the room seems to be disordered and empty of useful items. The area behind the partition seems in better shape, except for a collection of burnt spiders. Under the now-burnt mass of spider webbing is a small closet that contains dried herbs in jars. Herbert takes them, hoping to use their contents in curative unguents.
The Company turns away from the abandoned dormitory, certain now that these buildings contain neither friend nor living foe, just the dead and undead from the battle for this hallowed ground. Perhaps the area near the tree will provide a clearer explanation of the events and give some indication where the druids may be.
The Company backtracks slightly to the ford and prepares to cross it. The ford is broad and shallow, the water coming up no higher than mid-thigh on Pfiffwin, the shortest among them. Even so, the Company takes great care when crossing the ford, sending folk across in pairs. Their diligence yields a dividend when Antonus and Hugh cross.
A great carapaced beast clambers up the stream towards the two of them in the ford, its claws and humped back breaking the surface. Hugh prepares for battle as Antonus calls to the archers on the two banks. Raven and Diego unlimber their bows while Otto speedily runs out into the ford to help protect Hugh. Otto's care is unnecessary, as arrows penetrate the weaknesses of the creature's carapace and it keels over, dead.
Otto wades down the stream until he can grasp one of the claws, and he then pulls it up to the ford. The creature is an abnormally large crayfish, one the size of a horse. "Tell Eats Salmon he has an alternative to berries," says Otto to Jasper. Jasper runs off at a sprint and is back in time to join the last of the Company in crossing the stream.
Herbert is appalled at the Company's behavior. First, they attack a black bear in the forest, instead of trying to capture and cure its dementia. Then they attack the spiders, burning their home, when they could easily have rendered them harmless. Now the have slain a creature native to the waterway when they could have used one of the many magics at their disposal to divert or block it from them. The Company of the Blue Sun, even Otto, is not disposed to maintaining the life of the forest, and Herbert makes a note of it.
The white road begins again on the far side of the ford, leading into a branching path. Trees line the far side of the path, but through the underbrush, a great white wall is visible beyond them. The wall seems to parallel the path in both directions, so the Company chooses to go to the left.
The road leads on through the wooded area, branching ahead with more buildings off to the left side of the road. Continuing their plan of leaving no potential enemies behind them, the Company hikes up to the buildings. The road continues on, and a set of smaller buildings can be seen further in the distance.
The buildings on the left hand side of the road seem to be connected to one another, like some sort of compound. In comparison to the previous buildings, which to most eyes would have seemed unblemished, these buildings show signs of smoke and fire, and one of the doorways lacks a door. The Company approaches with great care.
Entering through the bare doorway, Otto sees that a battle most definitely has taken place in the room. The room is scorched and burnt. Rags, the remains of cleaved wooden shields, and scattered bones are intermingled with broken cots and other debris. The battle here must have been fierce. Otto waves Raven and Diego into position to cover him with their missile fire as he crosses the room to a door on the far side.
The door appears blackened, and char marks score the wall around the frame of the door. Once Hugh comes into sight, Otto shoulders the door open. Most of the door collapses in a pile of charcoal, as the entire inner face of the door has been consumed by a vicious flame. Broken cots and bones are smashed into the walls of the room, forming a circle of destruction and devastation starting at the far end of the room. On the ground at the center of the destructive pattern is a single desiccated corpse with the broken, charred halves of a staff on either side of it.
"Winthrop, I think this is more your line of work," projects Otto, as he moves over to the next, charred door. Winthrop and the archers bustle into the room, Winthrop cooing over the broken staff. While Winthrop busies himself with the destroyed magical item, Otto shoulders the next door open.
A large table in poor shape surrounded by scattered, overturned wooden benches fills the room. Bloodstains, long dried and browned, spot the floor, but no corpses or skeletons are seen. Otto walks forward to check for enemies but is startled when four brown, two-foot long insects scuttle out from under an overturned bench and swarm up his body, stinging and biting. "Arrgghh!" cries Otto in revulsion as the giant centipedes attempt to bite at his exposed face and wriggle through the joints of his armor.
Cutting syllables echo through the room, and the giant centipedes fall to the ground, stunned. Otto stomps on them with his foot, jumping up and down on their corpses like Giuseppe for good measure. Winthrop, waving the two halves of the staff, smiles at Otto.
