Queen of the Demonweb Pits

to shimmer, changing into a slug so that she could peek beneath the door.

The shimmer of magic went jarringly off-color. Escalla changed shape into a bizarre multicolored slug with something shaped like a flower planted on her behind. Her eyestalks wrenched around to stare at herself in shock.

'I'm a nudibrach!'

Benelux cleared her throat. A what?

'A type of sea slug with exposed gills and a brightly colored venomous integument.' Escalla waggled her floral backside, making her anemone-like gills wave. 'I didn't plan this! Why am I a nudibrach?'

Henry slithered closer, trying to keep his voice to a whisper. 'It isn't what you were trying to be?'

'No!' Escalla tried to move. 'Damn it! I look ridiculous. Hang on and I'll change back.'

There was a glow of light, a jangling note of discord, and Escalla changed shape. Where once there had been a slug, there was now a short, gnomish creature with a huge pickle-shaped nose. The creature reached for its clothes, then cast a patient glance at the rest of the party.

'What? What are you all gaping at? If you don't like the view, then quit steaming up the window!' The creature muttered as it wrapped itself in Escalla's little dress. 'Faerie butt. Does it every time.'

The Justicar reached into his pouch and came out with the small mirror on a stick he used for peering about corners. Escalla took the mirror, gazed levelly into it and immediately had a fit.

'All right! Who's trying to be funny?' The girl frantically tugged at her nose. 'Ouch! I'm a brownie! This is not funny!' Escalla suddenly jerked her hand away from her new nose. 'Ick! I touched a brownie! I am a brownie! Ewww!'

She began to change shape again, but the Justicar leaped in to stop her. 'Wait! Something's wrong.'

'Jus, I'm a brownie! A lovable icon of childhood fun!' The bulbous-nosed creature did a jig of wild anger. 'I have to change back before I puke!'

'Just wait.' The Justicar let Cinders sniff at the air. 'There might be something strange about this room or this level. Let us check it out first.'

The Justicar carefully edged up to peek through the window in the door. Seething, Escalla sat down, one hand propped up her chin and the other propped up her huge nose.

'This is so unfashionable!'

Sitting beside her, Enid frowned. 'Are brownies unfashionable?'

'Ha!' Escalla clicked her fingers. 'Have you got any idea how many parties brownies get invited to?'

'Millions?'

'None!'

'Oh.' The sphinx shrugged. 'Well, I knew you would only have asked if it were really big or really small.'

The Justicar stood peering through the window in the door. He examined the view very carefully, then signaled Henry to join him. They both looked through the window, staring into a slice of an alien world.

The window looked out onto a gloomy twilight. Ruined walls surrounded a castle courtyard littered with drifts of old, dry leaves. An empty fountain filled with sculpted hippocampi stood at the center of the open square. The sky held an eerie blood-red moon that stained the stones with a horrible venous purple light. Henry took a searching look at the scene, then ducked down to consult in whispers with the Justicar.

'Sir, do you know where that is?'

'No.' The Justicar glowered, scratching the stubble of his chin. 'But it's a gate into another world. That much is obvious.'

Benelux made self-important throat clearing noises at Jus's side. If I might be permitted a glance? As you know, I am a multi-planar artifact. My erudition is clearly one of the party's strongest assets.

Jus drew the sword and lifted the edge of the blade over the window. He moved the sword slowly so that Benelux might see the view. The blade mused, brim full of wisdom and experience.

Yes… yes, yes… clearly not Oerth. Benelux mulled her thoughts. A double moon, characteristic blood-red sky. Did you note the architecture? Extremely distinct.

The Justicar kept the sword held high. 'Do you recognize the place?'

Hmm. No.

Deeply annoyed at the waste of time, the Justicar shoved at the door. It swung open upon an alcove that ended in a clear, slightly reflective wall. The Justicar carefully touched the surface-pushed-and saw his hand penetrate as though piercing clear water. He withdrew his hand, sniffed his fingers, and then waved the other party members through.

'Come on. Escalla, sweep the path behind us. Henry, close the door.'

Guarded by the ever-watchful Justicar, one by one the party stepped through into another world. They breathed alien air, trod alien stones, and crossed swiftly into cover. Polk waddled through a drift of leaves, his footfalls the only sound in the breathless gloom.

The scent of the Demonweb had gone, and with it, a strange, bleak sense of depression lifted from their souls. Each of them stood a little straighter. Escalla looked at her hand, then shimmered and changed-this time flickering back into her usual faerie shape. She heaved a huge sigh of relief. Vain as a cat, she inspected her naked self, front and behind, with Jus's mirror, suspiciously searching for the slightest hint of brownie lingering on her skin. She tried her wings, found she could fly, and then joyously turned invisible and whirred away into the sky.

The Justicar looked up at the row of grim, blank windows that faced the courtyard. Nothing stirred, and yet the castle was filled with a sense of dread presence. He carefully examined the fallen leaves, the dust and dirt, kneeling in the shadows of a crumbled hall.

'Cinders?'

Cinders smells undead.

Jus held up a hand to keep his friends still and motionless in the gloom. He went flat and slithered through the long weeds that grew throughout the courtyard, moving under brambles with scarcely a whisper of sound. The Justicar found old, gnawed bones-human bones. A long-dead body lay nearby, the skin waxen and drained of blood. Eviscerated and gnawed, the body still held a vile pallor. The Justicar rolled the corpse over. No blood had pooled at its back. The body had been drained of blood before it died.

Jus crept back to his friends, and Escalla popped into place beside him.

'Hey, Jus?' she whispered. 'What do you think lives here?'

'Vampire.'

'Oh. Whacko.'

They both took it so matter-of-fact that Henry and Enid could only stare. Polk scribbled in his chronicles. Benelux muttered to herself. The Justicar gathered the party in the shadows of a tower-well out of sight of the castle windows.

'We can stay here and rest. We just have to be careful. A vampire is not a problem if it never knows we're here.' The Justicar said it as if he'd just told them to fetch water or cut wood-all part of the job. 'Escalla will go see if the vampire is near. We'll find a secure room. We need to rest and replenish our magic. Then we go straight for Lolth's palace and hit it hard.'

'Vampire scout away! See you in ten!' The faerie saluted Jus and flew away, turning invisible as she went. While they awaited her return, Henry knelt beside the Justicar and looked at the dark spaces around the castle yard.

'Sir? Is it dawn or twilight?'

'It probably stays like this. Perfect for undead.' The Justicar moved stealthily over to a set of stairs. 'Watch the others. Don't let Polk wander off.'

He knelt above a tiny smear on a flagstone, then followed the trace to the base of a tower. There were slight marks in the dust that filmed the stair-long, broad smears. The Justicar touched the marks, lifted his fingers to his nose and sniffed, then lifted the scent up to Cinders.

Snake smell.