“It’s on the way to the front, we might as well,” Dexter agreed.
They filed forward, pausing only to check in the sail locker before coming up to the double sized doors on opposing sides of the companionway that led into the cargo holds. When they entered the starboard cargo hold Jodyne pointed to the open trap door in the floor.
“That’s how it was when I came to check on him,” she said, her voice subdued. “I called his name and looked down in there, but he didn’t respond.”
“Didn’t you go down and look?” Rosh asked.
Before Jodyne could answer Dexter stepped forward and peered into the darkness of their hold. He grunted and squatted down, trying to peer inside himself.
“Captain,” Jenna said, her fingers brushing his shoulder lightly as they rested on it.
He glanced up at her, then looked at her fingers. Her touch was reassuring, but under the circumstances it seemed inappropriate. He cleared his throat meaningfully and she removed it, smiling briefly at him as though they shared a private joke.
“What is it?” he asked, turning to glance back into the hold.
“There’s something… odd,” she said. Her nostrils flared as she knelt down beside him and stuck her head into the hold to look around. “A strange odor, I’ve not smelled it before.”
“I don’t smell nothing,” Rosh muttered.
“You’re a human,” Jenna snapped at him. “You’d have trouble smelling yourself if you made a mess in your pants.”
“I’m a what?” he said, confused by why being human was bad.
“This ain’t helping Kragor none,” Dexter said, silencing the two of them.
“Captain,” Keshira said, breaking her silence and stepping forward. “Let me go.”
“Why?” Dexter asked her.
She hesitated, opening her mouth a few times before finally speaking out her reasoning. “I am stronger and faster; if something is wrong I will survive longer,” she explained. “And if I do not, it is better I die than you.”
Dexter frowned. “My thanks, but you’re all my crew, my responsibility. I’ll be the one sticking his neck out.”
The Captain turned then and climbed down the steep staircase into the hold, stooping his head when he reached the bottom to avoid cracking his skull against the timbers that supported the floor above. “Someone pass me a lightstone,” he muttered, realizing he had forgotten to bring one with him.
A few moments passed and Dexter heard footsteps as one was fetched. He peered around the steerage hold while he waited, trying to force his eyes to pierce the gloom. He thought he heard something at one point, but when nothing further developed he dismissed it.
Jenna landing lightly behind him made his heart jump in his chest, however. He cursed softly at her and saw the smile on her face. She held up a stick that had a glowing crystal tied to the end of it. It shed enough light to chase away the shadows for half a dozen feet or so.
“What are you doing?” Dexter snapped.
“Bringing you some light, Sir,” she replied smartly.
Dexter scowled and glanced past her at the trapdoor, then realized it would be useless to try and order her away. He turned instead and moved deeper into the hold, looking for some sign of Kragor’s passage.
He found a knocked over barrel and the shattered remains of another. “Jenna!” He hissed, pointing to the broken barrel.
She nodded and moved off to the side, stepping around a pile of spare lumber they had tied together for emergency repairs. Smoothly she drew her weapons, then let out a gasp of surprise.
Dexter scrambled over the long timbers, drawing his long sword in the process. He hesitated in surprise when he saw a flicker of energy leap up and down the blade, shedding a faint light of its own. His hesitation and distraction cost him though. He came down on a tentacle and stumbled into Jenna, sending her off balance as well.
The tentacle he tripped on wrapped around his legs and tripped him further, sending him crashing to the hull. He tried to roll free but was held up by the thing around his calves. He hacked at it, feeling the energy that coursed from the blade and into the tentacle channel back through his legs.
Jenna rolled out of harm’s way, or so she thought. She bounced off a crate, stunning her and bruising her shoulder. Another tentacle wrapped around her arm, pulling her off balance and making her drop her short sword. She kicked at the tentacle, doing no damage but granting her enough momentum to twist around and hew at it with her sword.
Jenna’s first swing cut into the leathery hide but did not sever it. It yanked at her, surprising her with its strength, and pulled her across the uneven flooring. She could only grit her teeth as her side and legs were scraped against the wood. She looked up when the momentum slowed and saw a mottled brown shape detach itself from the floor. She saw six tentacles attached to it, with one of them having hold of her, and in the midst of the triangular shaped creature a circular orifice rimmed with tiny teeth, something that reminded her of a leech.
She smelled the puff of gas almost instantly, and recognized it as a much stronger version of what she had smelled in the cargo hold above. She held her breath and struggled, but it was too late; she had already inhaled enough of it to affect her. A slow paralysis gripped at her, numbing her skin and then her extremities. Her sword managed to sever the tentacle that held her, but before she could lift it again it fell from nerveless fingers.
“Dexter!” She gasped, reached out for him as he was being pulled toward the creature as well.
Dexter hacked at the tentacle again, being ready for the shock this time, and lurched to his feet when it recoiled from him. He saw Jenna ahead and faintly heard her cry, which caused him a rush of adrenaline fueled by anger. He lunged towards her and stumbled, seeing what the creature had left behind. Kragor lay on the decking, limp and unmoving.
Another tentacle swept in, slapping him in the side and knocking him off balance. He turned, growling in rage, and swung at it, realizing too late the strange odor that had surrounded him. He disregarded it as his sword severed the tentacle, the electrical effect from the blade causing the dismembered tip to spasm and contort for several seconds.
He tried to advance on the stowaway but found his legs not obeying him. His ankle turned on the first step, and his other leg refused to move fast enough to catch him as he teetered and fell. He looked up and watched another tentacle approach him. It came in slower, obviously cautious of the weapon that had caused it such pain. Dexter was unable to react to it, other than to watch it approach and wrap itself around his torso. It pulled him back towards the sucking orifice, with Dexter furiously struggling as a prisoner inside his own body.
“What was that?” Rosh asked, looking at the others. “You hear something?”
“Captain!” Keshira said, diving through the open trapdoor.
Rosh recoiled back, surprised, then looked to Jodyne. She looked back, equally confused. Rosh shrugged and moved down the stairs as quickly as possible, his tall frame cramped in the hold. He pulled a dagger from his belt, wishing he had thought to bring his sword. A glance at the low ceiling made him realize how pointless his massive sword would be. Likewise he had no pistol at hand.
Keshira brushed aside barrels and crates as she moved like an elemental force through the hold. She reached her destination and grabbed on to the tentacle that was wrapped around Dexter. Using her great strength she dug her fingers into it and pulled, tearing it apart slowly and stopping the advance Dexter made towards the creature.
With Dexter safe she turned to Jenna, who already lay in front of the thing that had stowed away. She grabbed a hold of Jenna’s legs and pulled the helpless elf back, easily ignoring the puff of gas that enveloped her. A tentacle wrapped around her arm and another around her leg, pulling at her. The pleasure golem bent towards it, then regained her balance and pulled back. It slid across the decking towards her, then tried to release her from its sinuous arms.
Keshira grabbed hold of the one around her arm, pulling on it and dragging it closer to her. It slid alongside Jenna, who was oblivious by that point, and then was within range of the fury of the pleasure golem. Keshira’s fingers dug into its body, pulling it up and throwing it against a box. She pounded her other fist into it, pummeling the boneless body of the creature mercilessly.
“Keshira!” Rosh said, coming upon the scene and trying to get her to stop. The creature she was battering
