“Cool necklace,” said Xim. “Get that from Seinnador as well?”

“No, I’ve had this the entire time. Even back in the Creation Delve.”

Xim cocked her head to the side.

“In your pocket or something?”

“No, I’ve been wearing it.”

“You know,” she said, “for most of the time I’ve been around you, you haven’t been very fond of wearing a shirt. I think I would have noticed something like that dangling around your neck. It’s not subtle.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure. I forget about it until I remember I have it, and it’s like it suddenly appears. I never remember it getting in my way or even feeling it on my skin. It sort of melts away from my perception. Maybe it does the same to everyone else?”

“That’s… pretty weird. Where’d you get it?”

“It was my purchase from the gear shop at the beginning of the Creation Delve.”

She frowned.

“I wasn’t offered any perception-altering amulets. What else does it do?”

“It’s how I can tell what types of Delves people have done. It gives me an ability called soul-sight. There’s probably more to it than just seeing if someone has spent their time in higher-difficulty Delves, but I’m not sure.”

“Mind if I inspect it?”

I opened my mouth to agree, but was interrupted by a loud thud as something heavy hit the deck just in front of us. All three of us jumped at the sound and I sprang to my feet, followed quickly by Xim and Nuralie.

A dark shape rose up, its form shrouded in what first appeared like a long robe. What I thought was the hem began to flow outward, until it unfurled into a pair of leathery wings, spanning twenty feet across. A creature stood before us, tall and lean with giant black eyes and a wide mouth sporting two rows of sharp teeth. Its body was covered in short brown fur, though it wore a loose shirt and torn pants made of rough-spun fabric.

I pulled out my wand with my left hand and prepared to Oblivion Orb the shit out of it with my right. Xim drew her scepter from her inventory and Nuralie produced a long knife, stepping back to put Xim and me between herself and the creature. It was a sensible move. Nuralie didn’t strike me as a frontliner.

It opened its mouth as if to speak… or maybe to lunge forward and take a chomp out of us.

I really wanted it to say “I’m Batman.”

It did not.

What it did say was something like “Ghurrrrrglech!” before having a coughing fit and collapsing to its knees. One hand gripped its abdomen, and I noticed a dark, wet stain on the shirt.

“I- I think it’s injured,” I said.

“What is it?” said Nuralie.

“A Chovali maybe?” said Xim. “But I’ve never seen one before.”

“Chovali?” I said. “Like the colony where we’re supposed to dock?”

Xim nodded. I watched the creature closely, but stowed my wand and approached. I knelt down in front of it, close enough to reach out and touch, trusting my durability to handle any potential tricks.

“Are you hurt?” I asked. “Do you need help?”

The creature looked up at me with its large, dark eyes, and nodded. It struggled again to say something that resulted in another series of wet coughs and it collapsed to its side.

“Xim, it…” Him? Her? “They need healing. Nuralie, can you go grab Lito? The captain as well.”

Nuralie nodded and disappeared silently into the night. Xim knelt next to me and reached out to move the creature’s hand from the wound.

It was a massive bite mark. Whatever had gotten to them had taken a whole chunk of tummy as large as a soccer ball with it. Blood streamed out, quickly forming a pool on the deck.

“This looks recent,” she said. “Very recent.” She placed a hand on the Chovali’s chest and golden light went down her arm and into their body. The bleeding slowed and the flesh around the wound began to scar over, but the large mass of gut that was missing did not miraculously reappear.

“I don’t know if I can…” Xim trailed off, her hand hovering over the Chovali’s chest.

“What?” I asked. “You can’t heal them?”

“Maybe I can keep them alive for a while, but they’re missing organs.”

The creature spat blood on the ground, then looked up at Xim.

“Your bedside manner… it is not good, yes?” It said in a layered, raspy voice. Its mouth curled up in what might have been a smile, though it looked quite menacing.

“I’ve been told I’m blunt,” Xim said, returning the ‘smile’. “If I were more advanced maybe I could… Wait! Cole might be able to help.”

I heard boots on the deck and looked up to see Nuralie leading Lito toward us with Captain Mot in tow.

“Thanks, Nuralie. Can you grab Cole as well?”

“Everyone’s on the way,” said Lito. He stopped and squatted next to Xim. “Greetings, moon-son. It appears you’ve had a rough night.”

“Greetings to you… day-son. I have not had many worse than this one, yes?”

“What’s your name?”

“Q-Quickwind.”

“Can you tell us what happened, Quickwind?”

“I can… but you must first turn to leave, yes? You wade into… a dire environment.”

I heard more bootsteps and Cole arrived. He dropped to his knees next to the Chovali.

“What’s the situation?” he asked, rolling up his sleeves.

“Something bit him in the abdomen,” said Xim. “I gave him a basic Heal to help the bleeding, but he’s missing some intestine. I don’t know Chovali anatomy very well.”

Cole waved his fingers over the Chovali’s gut, and tendrils of blue energy swam into existence. They began probing the wound, searching out severed arteries and sealing them shut. He pulled a satchel from his inventory and unfolded it to reveal an array of jars containing various organic materials. I had no idea what I was looking at, but Hannibal Lecter meal prep crossed my mind. Cole selected two jars and began unsealing the lids.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What dire environment?” asked Lito. “The colony isn’t far. Was it attacked?”

“We were, yes? Another flock arrived three days past. Warriors. They moved through us, all the adults. We died or we fled. The children… I do not know.” He gurgled and coughed again, then placed a hand on Lito’s arm with a long, taloned hand. “They sink your ships, yes? Not the ones that wade upriver, but the ones wading down. They take the wreckage and cast it into the spiral.”

“The whirlpool?” Lito asked. “In the lake?”

“The same with different words, yes.”

“No one has heard of such a thing happening,” said Captain Mot. “No ships have been reported missing.”

Lito turned to the rest of our group, who’d gathered behind us.

“Myria, use our slate and send word to Central. If this is recent and they’ve only targeted ships leaving Foundation, then word of the disappearances may not have made it to the capital. Ember, mind scouting ahead some?”

“My pleasure,” she said, pulling an ornate longbow and quiver from her inventory. Then she, literally, flew away into the dark like a fucking superhero.

“Captain Mot, lay anchor and bring us to a stop. Keep your crew below deck.”

“Aye, Master Lito. That I will do.”

“Ashe, guard the bow. If any of your summons pop out of hiding it’ll be a good heads up.”

“Sure, Smokey,” said Ashe. She pulled out a shield and shortsword, then headed a few feet in front of us, only stumbling a little, then took a look around. “We’re already at the bow.”

“Nuralie,” said Lito. The loson froze and blinked at him. “Do you have something that will sober her up?”

“Yes.” Pause. “It is unpleasant.”

“Will she be able to fight?”

Nuralie looked at Ashe, who swayed on her feet.

“Better than she can now.”

“Really, I’m a better fighter drunk,” said Ashe, overenunciating her words. “I’m more careful.”

“Give some to Myria as well,” said Lito, looking back to find Myria squinting at the slate. “There are lanterns below deck, Myria.”

“Ah,” she said. “You’re right.” She turned to leave, but Nuralie grabbed her by the arm and pressed a small vial into her hand. Myria took a deep breath, then tossed back its contents. She handed the empty vial back to Nuralie, then slapped herself on the cheeks. “Am I gonna puke?”

“Not immediately,” said Nuralie as she walked over to hand another to Ashe. The golden-armored woman scowled at it, then shot Lito a dirty look. She still drank the potion, but gave him the evil eye as she did so.

“How’s it look, Cole?”

Cole had extracted a series of fleshy strips from one jar and half of his tendrils were shaping it into a tube, while the others continued to work on Quickwind’s insides.

“He’ll live, assuming I get a few more minutes to bond his intestines back together. Xim will need to cast another heal to help with the blood loss and accelerate his recovery. He’s not a Delver, so don’t expect him to be back on his feet anytime soon, though.”

The Chovali let out a muted chuckle. It was difficult to read his alien expressions, but I got the impression he was relieved.

“I thought to warn you even at my death, yes? A price I had already settled to pay.”

“This night shall soon become a memory,” said Lito, clapping his own hand over Quickwind’s.

“Let it become a distant one, so long shall we have lived,” said the Chovali. It had the rhythm of a prayer, and the look on Lito’s face spoke of something deep passing between the two of them.

There was a fluttering of cloth, and Ember landed on the deck with little other sound.

“Two dozen or so Chovali on the way,” she said. “Lightly armored and armed; looks like daggers mostly, but more than half with crossbows and they’re led by an Alpha. They’ve also got a Hammerhead with them, which is… unusual for Chovali.”

Lito stood, pulling out a smoke and lighting it. He took a drag, then drew his hammer and summoned his translucent blue shield.

“Then I guess we know how they’ve been sinking the ships. Cole, Xim, get Quickwind below deck,” Lito’s eyes searched the darkness downriver. “Get him stabilized as fast as you can, but we’ll need you both back up here as soon as possible.”

Cole finished bonding a strip of flesh around two severed portions of the Chovali’s innards, then packed his bag and put it away. He pulled a rudimentary stretcher from his inventory and laid it on the ground beside Quickwind. Xim and Cole lifted the Chovali onto it, then began moving him toward the hatch.

“Ember, give me a flare,” said Lito. “Ashe, now’s a good time to bring a friend out.”

Ember nodded and drew an arrow from her quiver. The end began to glow with white light as she aimed upward and fired in a high arc. The arrowhead grew in luminosity as it ascended until it illuminated the entire riverway between the cliffs. The projectile halted at the apex of its flight, suspending itself in the air.

At the outside edge of the arrow’s radiance, dark shapes became visible. Several humanoid forms flew with leathery wings, their lean and fur-covered bodies marking them as more Chovali. Upon each side of the cliffs crawled a half-dozen more, their sinewy limbs flexing as clawed hands pierced the rock and earthen faces.

At the center of the formation was a Chovali whose body was far thicker and more muscular than the others. His wings were extended out into the air, but he didn’t seem to use them to fly. For one thing, he was oriented upright, rather than moving with his front facing the ground, like the others around him. His body didn’t bob or swoop, but maintained a perfect line through the air and he held his hands folded behind his back. Beyond all that, I couldn’t imagine a twenty-foot wingspan was sufficient for physics to give this brick of a creature a pass. However he moved, it was supernatural.

His spread wings were just his way of t-posing on us.

It was unmistakably the Alpha. I could tell not just from the dominant center position, but also from how his soul radiated power. He had no Delver levels. There was no platinum or gold or silver within him. It was black, with churning brown and red hues, like congealed blood mixed with ink and set to boil.

The mass of Chovali parted, and those flying went to the cliffsides, latching on alongside their crawling brethren. The Alpha continued to hover, looking down at our group with what almost passed as a bored expression.

A harsh screech filled the air, and a bird the size of a fucking elephant landed atop the western cliff. Its wings were large enough to blot out half the sky, and a single flap sent a gust through the entirety of the tiny valley, kicking up sand and tousling my hair. Its face was dominated by a long and bulbous beak that ran up the front of its head in a rounded column. Two pairs of tiny black eyes dotted the sides of its visage, which regarded us in a way that made me feel like a worm flushed out of the ground by fresh rain.

“Ashe,” said Lito, “any time now.”

The warrior triplet tilted her head to the side, as though listening for something.

“It’s not quite the right time.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” I whispered. “Is she taking plays out of Grotto’s book?”

Myria strode back across the deck, holding one hand over her stomach and looking a bit green around the gills. She whispered something into Lito’s ear and he nodded, never taking eyes off the enemy.

“Ember, Myria, support Ashe up front. Try and tie up the Alpha until Cole gets here as backup. Arlo?”

“Yeah?”

“Think you can get the attention of the chaff?”

I looked around at the two dozen beastmen crawling along the sides of the cliff. It might be time to try out a new spell.

“I reckon I can make that happen.”

“Good. Nuralie, stay close to Arlo and… do whatever it is you do.”

Pause.

“Ok.”

“What about you?” I asked.

“A friend of mine once had a pet bird that would peck the shit out of me every time I visited. He thought it was hilarious.”

“I see.”

“I always hated that bird.”

The Alpha spoke, and it sounded as though he stood right before us, despite the distance.

“Hiwardians,” it said in a deep and layered voice, “I seek to parlay with one who speaks for you.”

“State your business,” said Lito.

“I claim your ship and shall cast it into the spiral. I seek no blood to spill, but neither shall you leave. Surrender to become guests among my flock. Fed and watered. Bathed and housed. Set loose when my task is done.”

“What do you want with the ship?” said Lito. “And how long will your task take you?”

“I have spoke the words that will be spoken. No more shall issue. Decide.”

Lito took a drag from his cig, hammer resting on his shoulder.

“Eh, it was worth a shot,” he said under his breath. Then, louder, “This vessel sails under commission by the Central Delver Authority, which acts under charge of the Crown. Piracy will be viewed as an act of violence against the King himself, and your flock courts extermination in doing so.”

“Then you reject my offer. A folly.” The alpha’s eyes crawled over the six of us. “I am not unlearned in the strength of those who pillage the depths of the old world. It is hubris to think your pilfered magicks rival the ancient customs. You will receive this wisdom, imparted unto you as death.”

I tensed, anticipating the start of the fight, but was caught off guard as a diemnsional tear opened near the bow.

A beefy, three-fingered hand shrouded in gray feathers tore out through a portal. It snagged a crossbow bolt that was zipping through the air, inches from Ashe’s face.

“Oh, shit,” said Ashe. “Good catch!”