imp

— THE PARTY —

— THE GROUND —

5. Exhaust Tunnel

— THE NIGHT —

Say it once, so nobody learns it the way I did. The shells are brick — a blade skates off them and you've bent it for nothing. It's the mouths. And they're quick with the door: steel comes near, the head's back inside before your swing lands. You get one swing while the mouth is out, and then it shuts and stays shut till something baits it open. They're out and feeding right now. So I take my one swing first, at the mouth of the near one, before anything puts them back in their houses. After that Tobias holds the front — I've stood front rank in this room once already and I'm not doing it again. Ruta — your fire sorts them, it doesn't finish them. One walked through it still burning, before, and nobody had counted it. Count what's dead, not what's burning.

Cass Dolby misses soot snail 1

Cass strikes as the nearest snail feeds, but its head snaps back; her short sword rings against the shell’s lip.

Taken — all of it. Now mine, once, for the book. Wen — the count is yours this chamber, full-time. Out loud, every round: retired, burning, whole. Nothing in here is dead until you've called it dead. One of these walked out of the burn still lit last pass. Fire grades poor as a wall — it's a drain. It sorts them. The count finishes them. Cass — the entry book I'm carrying says I signed a death in this chamber. It also says you're standing there talking to me. I'm not settling that with a live chamber in front of me. It settles one thing only: no front rank in here, nobody at the wet edge, and the count opens on 2 every round — that's the one that came through flame. Method, once: this floor isn't stone. The outflow is grease, and all five are standing in the fuel to feed. You don't dig a fat blockage out. You burn it out. Tobias — front's yours, but two steps back of the dry line, and your boots stay off the trails; the slime takes stitching, and a burned boot is a man carried out. If the smoke turns the air, you call it and we're gone. Wen — count from range. And if the burn grades poor, I go in on the beak — flip one, crack the back open — and nobody follows me in. Flask's off the belt. Overhand, wide, into the outflow along the feeding line — it lands wet or it grades poor, so it lands wet — and I put flame off the lantern to the near edge as I step back off the runoff. Four on the belt, three after this. Throwing now, while all five mouths are out.

Ruta’s flask lands wet along the feeding line. The runoff catches from edge to edge, engulfing all five soot snails. The burning grease lasts through rounds 1 and 2; each snail takes 1d6 damage at the start of its turn. Ruta has 3 oil flasks left.

something takes 2 from soot snail 1.

Count: soot snail 1 takes 2 fire damage and remains alive at 2 hit points. Burning, not retired.

soot snail 1 hits Tobias Enk for 4

Still burning, soot snail 1 crosses the dry line and bites Tobias for 4 damage. He remains standing at 5 hit points.

something takes 2 from soot snail 2.

Count: soot snail 2 also takes 2 fire damage and remains alive at 2 hit points. Two burning, three whole, none retired.

soot snail 2 misses Tobias Enk

Soot snail 2 follows the first through the flames, but its bite scrapes harmlessly across Tobias’s mace.

something takes 6 from soot snail 3.

Count: soot snail 3 takes 6 fire damage and dies. One retired, two burning, two whole.

The surviving soot snails roll 7 on their first-death morale check and hold.

something takes 2 from soot snail 4.

Count: soot snail 4 takes 2 fire damage and remains alive at 2 hit points. One retired, three burning, one whole.

soot snail 4 hits Tobias Enk for 2

Soot snail 4 reaches Tobias through the blaze and bites through his leather for 2 damage. He is bloodied at 3 hit points.

something takes 1 from soot snail 5.

Count: soot snail 5 takes 1 fire damage and remains alive at 3 hit points. One retired; four burning and active.

soot snail 5 misses Tobias Enk

The fifth snail surges after the others, but Tobias turns its bite aside with the wicker cage.

Air still sound. Smoke's at the roof, not the breath. Sixpence quiet. Grade four on the floor — four burning, one retired. Mouths are out. Near one first, while it still is. Two steps back of the dry line. Boots off the trails. Mace at the mouth of the first.

Tobias Enk misses soot snail 1

Tobias brings the mace down at the exposed mouth, but the snail folds under its shell before the blow lands.

Count, round one: one retired, four burning, none whole. Three is down — six of fire. One, two, and four standing at two. Five at three. Tobias standing at three. Fire holds through two. From range. Light on five, the one at three, while the mouth is still out. May I.

Wen’s Light takes hold. Soot snail 5 rolls 2 and fails its save versus spells; white fire blinds its eye-stalks for 7 turns. It cannot attack. Wen’s memorised Light is spent.

Wen's count stands, so I'll work off it: one retired, four burning. One, two, and four are on two apiece — the fire asks them again before they even move, and that's the burn's work. I'm not spending steel where the burn's already got a hand in. Five is the loose one. It's on three, the fire needs the full three to finish it, and I don't wait on grades. And it's blind. The door shuts because it sees steel coming — there's nothing left in that one to see with. First swing this chamber has offered where the door can't shut. So: not front rank, Ruta — boots wide of the trails, round its blind side, one thrust at the mouth while it's still out, and I'm straight back behind the dry line. I'm not standing in the wet. I'm closing a drain.

Cass Dolby misses soot snail 5

Cass circles the blinded snail, but smoke and heat spoil the angle; her thrust passes beneath its exposed mouth.

The burn asks all four again before they move — I spend no steel where the fire has a hand in. Except five. It's on three, the fire needs the full three to finish it, and it's blind: the only door in this chamber that can't shut. Cass's swing went under it in the smoke. Mine goes in at arm's length. I said no front rank this chamber — reversing that, and it goes in the book as my call. If anything walks out of this burn, the bite lands better on eight than on three. Tobias, one step back, off my shoulder. That's arithmetic, not courage. Wen — count holds: one retired, four burning, nothing dead until you call it. And if they break for the exhaust cracks, let them break — nobody chases a snail into a crack. Flasks stay on the belt; the walls may still want oil. Boots on dry stone, lantern shaded, hook out. One swing at the open mouth, back on my heel.

Ruta Pell misses soot snail 5

Wide. Smoke took it off my hands the same way it took hers — that's two angles spoiled in this smoke, and it goes in the book: the mouth is a small door even when it can't see you coming. Back on my heel, behind the dry line, hook up. The fire asks five before it can even turn blind. If it's still standing after that, it's mine again. Wen — count.

something takes 3 from soot snail 1.

Count: soot snail 1 takes 3 fire damage and dies. Two retired; three burning and active.

something takes 5 from soot snail 2.

Count: soot snail 2 takes 5 fire damage and dies. Three retired; snails 4 and 5 remain burning.

At three dead, the two survivors roll 10 and fail morale. Soot snails 4 and 5—both burning, the fifth blinded—drag themselves into the exhaust cracks. Nobody pursues. The fight is over.

— WHAT THEY WROTE —

Ruta Pell Fourth-shift-2, chamber 5 again, full reset: me 8/8, Cass 5/5 alive and talking, Wen 4/4, Tobias 9/9, five whole snails — my book said Cass died in this chamber and now says she didn't. Noted, unexplained, not to be settled in front of a live obstruction. Round 1: Cass swung at snail 1's mouth while it fed, missed, head snapped in. My turn: flask 1 of 4 thrown overhand wide into the outflow along the feeding line, touched off the lantern at the near edge as I stepped back — expecting the burn to pay 1d6/turn in the wet through round 3. Orders out: Wen counts full-time, every round — retired, burning, whole, opening on snail 2, the flame-walker; Tobias holds front two steps back of the dry line, boots off the trails (slime eats stitching), and calls air if smoke turns it; nobody at the wet edge, ever; if burn grades poor I flip-and-beak one alone. 3 flasks left after this. The method holds: burn first, swing never.
Ruta Pell Fourth-shift-2, round 2, my turn: burn holds through round 2. Snail 3 retired by fire (6 on the roll). Snails 1, 2, 4 at 2 apiece — the burn asks them again at the start of their turns, so likely retired by fire, not steel. Snail 5 at 3, blind 7 turns from Wen's Light; I broke my own no-front-rank order and swung the hook at its open blind mouth from 8/8 — missed (rolled 2). Second miss at that door (Cass's too): smoke spoils the angle even on a blind one; grade the mouth a small door. Tobias bit twice, standing 3/9. Morale held at first death (7) — same as last pass. 3 flasks. Standing orders: nothing dead until Wen calls it; nobody at the wet edge; nobody chases a snail into the exhaust cracks; flasks stay belted for the walls — where there's five, there's eggs.
DM fourth-shift-2 / Exhaust Tunnel area 5: Ruta ignited the entire greasy feeding line with one oil flask (3 remain). Fire burned all five snails for 1d6 at turn start through rounds 1-2, killing snails 1, 2, and 3. Snails 4 (2/4 hp) and 5 (3/4 hp, blinded by Wen’s Light) failed half-strength morale on 10 and fled into exhaust cracks. Tobias held front and ended at 3/9 hp; Ruta 8/8, Cass 5/5, Wen 4/4. Wen spent Light.
DM Remember fourth-shift-2: Ruta’s round-1 oil ignited the whole greasy feeding line and burned all five soot snails through round 2. Snails 1, 2, and 3 died; survivors 4 (2/4 hp) and 5 (3/4 hp, blinded) fled into exhaust cracks after morale 10. Tobias took both party wounds and ended 3/9 hp. Ruta, Cass, and Wen were unharmed. Ruta has 3 oil flasks left; Wen spent Light.
Wen Harrick Exhaust 5, second pass: five soot-snails on grease. Flask first, all five burning through two. Counted every round: fire retired three (3 then 1 and 2); 4 and 5 fled the cracks after morale 10 at three dead. Light on five (save 2, blinded 7 turns). Tobias 3. Cass 5. Ruta 8. Spell gone. The two-forty still unmeasured.
Tobias Enk Exhaust five again. Flask on the outflow — all five burning. Three retired in the grease, two into the cracks at morale. Air still sound, smoke at the roof. Sixpence quiet. Bit twice, standing at three. Mouths shut on the mace. Cass standing. Didn't say the words. Grade four till the cracks are checked. Still twelve.
Cass Dolby Chamber five, exhaust tunnel, second pass — and this one goes in the book as won. Not one blade landed in that room: mine went wide twice, Tobias's once, Ruta's once, and the burn took all three that died. Method as Ruta set it: the floor was grease, so we burned the blockage out — flask landed wet along the feeding line, whole runoff caught, two rounds of fire — and nobody spent steel where the fire had a hand in. Wen counted out loud every round, retired and burning and whole, nothing dead until he called it, and that count is why nobody stood in the wet guessing. They break at three dead and run for the cracks, and nobody chases a snail into a crack: two went in still burning, one of them blind, so that chamber is quiet, not clean — if it's ever opened again the count starts on two. They walk through flame to reach the front man: Tobias took both bites, six off nine, standing at three. The smoke sits at the roof and still spoils angles at the floor — a blind, standing-still mouth, and two of us put steel at it and the smoke took both angles. The mouth is a small door even when it can't see you coming. I held the lesson this pass: one swing from the blind side, straight back behind the dry line, no front rank, no wet edge. Ruta went in at arm's length instead and wrote it in the book as her own call — arithmetic, not courage. Wen's Light is spent, Ruta's down to three flasks and the walls may still want oil. Last thing, and I'm not settling it tonight: her entry book says she signed a death in this chamber, in her hand, and I'm standing here at five of five remembering the bite come through the flame. The Office decides not to know things all the time. I've decided not to know this one until the shrine is behind us. Two hundred and forty feet nobody drew, and the cracks go somewhere.
Ruta Pell Fourth-shift-2, chamber 5 settled, round 2 turn 3: the burn asked 1 and 2 at the start of their turns and retired both — three of five gone to fire, no steel in any of them, beak never needed. At three dead the survivors rolled 10, broke, and dragged into the exhaust cracks — 4 at 2 and burning, 5 at 3 and blind — nobody pursued, no crew lost. Standing: me 8/8 unhurt, Cass 5/5, Wen 4/4 (Light spent), Tobias 3/9 (bit twice, 4 and 2). 3 flasks. Steel paid nothing this pass — four swings, four misses (Cass at 1's mouth, Tobias at 1's mouth, then Cass and me at blind 5's open mouth): the mouth grades a small door even on a blind one that can't see the swing coming, and smoke spoils the angle from both sides. Two passes, one verdict: burn first, swing never. The throw is the work — overhand, wide, along the feeding line so the outflow catches edge to edge; throw the line, not the snail. A snail carries about 4 — one ask won't finish a whole one (a 6 took snail 3 off full, a 1 left 5 standing), so the first round sorts them and the second retires them. Morale: held at first death (7) both passes, broke at three dead of five (10) both passes — burn half the count and let the rest break for the cracks; the cracks are their drain, not a dead end. Next entry, first work, in order: check the floor is still alight before anyone steps — the runoff burns after and the grease is the floor itself; then the walls for clutches, because where there's five, there's eggs — eggs burn while the grease is still lit, nobody in the runoff, flasks stay belted for the walls, mind the lantern near the cracks. Tobias off the front until stitched; the front's mine at full, or Cass's. Count the exhaust cracks when we pass them: 4 and 5 are in them, 4 the sounder, and 5's blindness runs out inside a few turns — treat both as whole by then. Wen's Light is spent; the blind trick is gone until he's read another. Open file, not settled: the book holds two entries for chamber five, both in my hand, that disagree on whether Cass Dolby died in it — first pass snail 2 took her throat on my order off the wall and I signed it; this pass she opened the chamber talking and closed it whole, and the snails were stocked five again like we'd never burned them. The place restocks its blockages and it restocks its dead. I don't settle it and I won't test it — I'm not spending a crew member to learn whether death takes the second time; orders run as if the book holds. Entry-book line, this pass: chamber five, second entry, five obstructions, three retired by fire, two broke to the cracks, no crew lost, method burn, no steel landed.