The boat bumped onto the harbor. After two weeks of traveling, both Victor and Silk still had not recovered. Although they could walk, they had trouble balancing and seemed to be deteriorating back into their previous immobile states. Wincing, they both limped out of the ship and saw Argosy Isle for the first time.

A massive metal metropolis bulged out of the rocky island, with people and automata alike walking throughout the streets. Automatons of every shape and size wheeled about, metal behemoths on wheels carrying many types of goods. Stalls and stores lined the first story of buildings, each one promising to sell a different ware. As they went to the central marketplace in search of directions to the nearest source of medical care, an old man stepped out of a nearby stall shouting things at the hawker running it.

"See if I ever buy anything from you again, ya pathetic fraud" the man yelled while walking away. He had a scruffy white beard and a leather fedora adorning his head, with an odd contraption in his hands. It looked like two metallic tubes stuck together in a crossbow-like manner, only it lacked a string. Much like a crossbow, it had the first portion leaning with a small trigger on it. However, it only looked like the shaft part was intact.

Levi walked up to the man. "Excuse me, do you know where we might find medical assistance?", she inquired. The man stopped cleaning his broken-crossbow thing and nodded. "I'm the best doctor here. I used to be an adventurer, so you had to have a guy like me patch ya up after a scrap. Judging by the look of your friends over there, I'm guessin' that's exactly what happened. It's gonna come at a cost, though."

"And what cost might that be?", Levi asked.

"Ya gotta consider me joining yer crew", he said. "My last one kicked me out on account of my age, and I've been stuck here for over a decade with no one to take me in."

"Pardon me, but that story sounds quite familiar. Could you be the legendary Henry Thunderbranch?", piped up Levi.

"The one and only. S'pose that my drinkin' and bounty huntin' reputation also might contribute to my current unemployment, as well."

"Ah. Well, I'll hold an interview or something once you, you know, heal my dying friends".

Henry took a swig from his flask and wiped his mouth. "I'll see what I can do"

Henry's house was more of a hunting lodge with a bed in it than anything resembling your typical domicile. Heads of various monsters and hazardous creatures were mounted on walls, with what appeared to be some sort of animal being used as a rug. Henry hauled the two onto a cot and looked at the various scratch marks and bruises on them.

"Ayup. That's some nasty venom over there. Massive sprains and a big ol' welt on this young man's entire torso. Gotta quick question for you, though"

"What is it?", nervously asked Levi.

"What the hell were you doing tanglin' with an Abyss Lord?"

Victor's head jerked up. "I don't know, it just seemed like a good idea at the time", he croaked deliriously. "Also, what's an Abyss Lord?"

"An abyss lord, laddy, was whatever gave you that nasty toxin. From the look of the erratically-place marks, I would say that was the Lord of Madness. Um, you are a boy, right?"

Victor coughed in an attempt to hide his outburst of laughter. "If you think I'm a challenge in that department, try asking my blond-haired friend over here."

"Already tried that. Your friend over there sure has a mouth on hi--I mean her"

Henry quickly shifted his face away from Levi's intense gaze, her eyes piercing his very soul and stripping it bare.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Anyways, back to the Abyss Lord. What are they?" Victor said as Henry began mixing several herbs together.

"Abyss lords are the translated names for what yer elven friend would call Sehirim. I've met a couple of them back when I was swashbucklin' with the best of them, and they are DEFINITELY above your weight class. From what I know of them, there are somethin' like four of em' still kickin after whatever killed the Omnic Empire. Speaking of yer elf friend, get the hell off of my wall-mounted trophies. Those aren't cheap ya know".

Bundo crawled down off of some antlered white-furred abomination and crouched down in shame. "Bundo is sorry about that."

"Ah, it's okay. Just worried you were gonna break-em.", Henry said. Having moved on from crushing together the herbs, he then proceeded to mix them in an odd, oily substance. "It's just some carboxylic acid. I found out it's uses when messin' around with honey, after I saw some locals from an island treat burns with the stuff. Very useful and has been the only thing that I know of that effectively counteracts whatever the Abyss Lords use, when combined with a couple of herbs."

The old man, apparently satisfied with the odd sour-smelling mush, then filtered it through some odd-looking filtration device that comprised of a bizarre entanglement of transparent tubes. Henry lit a fire underneath the main bulbous portion of it and waited for several minutes before removing a cylindrical compartment of the thing, revealing a small beaker of a transparent crystalline substance. "Okay, now this stuff is very potent, but you have to tell me which one you fought. Do you have any features or stuff yeh could tell me so I can get it right? Yer life may or may not depend on it"

Victor scratched his head. "I don't really remember much, to be honest. There was this big dark thing with spiny, needle-like teeth that was pretty fast. Most of it is just a hazy blur. Last thing I remember before blacking out is saying something about rhymes and poetry."

"Partial lacunar amnesia combined with what appears to be delirium. And before you ask, yes, they all have the weird teeth and dark coloration. Given what you said, I'm guessing you fought Batrascu. He's a nasty piece of work, and more unpredictable than the rest as well." Henry explained. Taking out a small object that looked like an apple corer that divided things into squares, he put the crystal under and turned them into small cubes before putting them on a rack. He then took some odd ashy powder out of a drawer and burned it on the fireplace over the cubes, the fumes discoloring them into a sickly vibrant orange.

"Alright, take one of these before every meal and on your bed. DO NOT swallow 'em under any circumstances, just leave them under yer tongue for a couple of seconds until they melt. Yer physical state and bone density should stop deteriorating and begin improving in a week or so."

Victor nodded and poked Silk awake.

"What is it? Who are we fighting? Why do I smell like oranges?" She jerked awake and punched Victor directly in the face.

"Ow. That's a violent way to wake up. Is it because you woke up in an unfamiliar environment and got startled by my illustrious presence?", Victor said while rubbing his face. He then checked to see if his nose was broken or if any bruising was going to take place. As it turned out, it wasn't.

"No, it was because you needed punching after getting us in a brawl against whatever beat us up and made us sick. I'm used to waking up in weird places, remember? I lived in an ancient shifting library with portals for doorways for ten years. I wouldn't get startled by something like this." Silk replied nonchalantly. "Say, where did my book go?", she added.

"Got it right here.", Victor stated while throwing the book at her. Silk caught the book one-handed and flipped it open to where her bookmark was.

"Ooh Alleb you go get him! I knew Wradden was going to win! Zombies are way better than Therianthropes. Suck on that, team Jack!" she muttered while continuing to read through her saucy romance book. Apparently, the heroine on the cover had decided to commit to one of the love interests and possibly upset part of the fandom (Silk excluded, as evidenced by her reaction to the passage).

Henry and Levi stared at Silk. "You read romance novels?", questioned Levi.

"Why shouldn't I? It's not like there's anything wrong with it.", Silk said defensively. Her eyes took on a familiar gleam that Victor recognized as her pre-violence expression. He leaped across the room and hid behind a desk in an odd display of athleticism for someone who was supposed to be bedridden.

Just as things were going to reach a boiling point, their moment of respite was quickly shattered by a loud slamming on the door of the lodge. A voice boomed out, "TAX BRIGADE OPEN UP! PAY YOUR TAXES OR WE WILL USE LETHAL FORCE."

"Ah crap. It's these guys. Alright, let me take care of something real quick. Guy is always ramblin' about taxes and me needing to pay extra. Can't the guy running these clowns forgive and forget already?", Henry said while picking up his odd contraption. Grabbing hold of the grip on the barrel and sliding it down a bit before putting it back to its previous position, it made an odd clicking noise.

Victor widened his eyes, realizing what it was for the first time: it wasn't a broken crossbow, it was a miniature blast-cannon from the Omnic Empire.