Ozzy saw a notification from the bank that he'd sold three barrels of Trifecta Bacon. It was a tricky recipe to get right, but with that kind of money rolling in, he'd be doing more of it. He transferred 1500 gold to Baron Billy. The two of them had hammered out a deal. They split the money down the middle on the large sales of enchanted meat. Billy didn't worry about niggling details like the meat coming from the Gadobhra stockyards in the first place.

Billy and Layla had become much easier to deal with after he returned from the Smoke and the new trade routes were opened. They were mostly happy as long as money and building points were pouring into their coffers. The only worry was finishing the fortress on schedule. The walls and buildings were going up fast. They were ahead of schedule on that part, despite the annoyance of constant raids by players and mercenaries.

Billy was countering that with quests for the players in the area. He offered complimentary healing and night vision potions and had set up a points system for how many 'bandit ears' were turned into him. Several dozen magic items adorned a small shop in Gadobhra where players could pay in either gold or 'quest points.' Mcteeth and a special 'assassination squad' roamed the area many nights, killing the teams of players miles before they got to Rowan Keep.

The problem was going to be the rune carving and the teleporter. Neither of those was things Ozzy could help with, so he helped by moving slabs of stone and making bacon and ham to feed people. After learning a bit of grilling, he spent a few nights cooking and feeding people his simple recipes. Jorges didn't always need someone to lift stones or haul bags full of gravel and sand, but there were always hungry people to feed.

The Red Banner mercenary company had come in lean and hungry. Their corporal had come by the butcher shop looking for normal bacon but had mentioned that the butcher's guild in Wolfsburg sold them bacon carrying a small enchantment. Runt had pulled out a slab of the trifecta bacon and given off some slices. The corporal and the rest of the cavalry had been eager to try some samples that he handed out and said they preferred his recipe. That was Sedgewick's gain and Wolfsburg's loss. They would need to up their game if they wanted to compete with him.

The Butcher loaded two of the barrels of bacon and went to grab the third. Two silvery chains wrapped around it, pulling it out of his hands and putting it back in the center of the room.

Ozzy sighed. The pit wanted to play, but he didn't have the time for it now. "Sorry, things to do. We'll do some tug-of-war tomorrow." He went to grab the bacon, and again, the Pit pulled the barrel further into the room. "I told you, I don't have time for this." Ozzy walked to the barrel and slapped the chains away. Chains appeared everywhere, hauling the barrel of bacon off to storage and tripping him when he went to follow. The doors slammed shut, and more chains wrapped around his arms and legs.

Warning: Your Charnel Pit has gone feral!!

After besting you in Tug-of-War, your Charnel Pit has decided that you are weak and are not the boss of it.

Perk: My Pit, My Rules has been replaced with Spare the Shovel and Spoil the Charnel Pit

You probably shouldn't have taught it a new game and then lost to it. Unless you can regain dominance, you're working for it.

"Shit! Damned system. Could have warned me."

More chains wrapped around Ozzy, pulling his arms and legs in all directions, and lifted him off the ground. With five chains around each arm and leg, he had no leverage to pull against and was stuck tight. The chains slammed him against the ground several times, like a troll playing a game of Smashydwarf, and then tossed him high in the air. He hit the smokehouse wall and was held there with chains pulling his arms and legs tight.

He started to yell for help and then thought against it. That might just get a lot of people killed by the thing. Worse, Joe might see him like this. The old cyclone had told him several times not to go easy on the pit. Damned if he wasn't right, but that didn't mean Ozzy wanted to be rescued by him.

All around him, the chains were moving. Some were doing work, lifting meat or turning it to smoke the carcasses evenly. Other chains twisted in the air or banged against the walls. He heard voices and screaming coming from all around him. It sounded like two insane people arguing with each other. Concentrating, he realized it was the pit, screaming at itself. Guttural curses and threats were mixed with sibilant whispers of assimilation and conquest. As if he didn't have more problems, Ozzy got the idea his murderous smokehouse had a split personality. He'd mixed a Charnel Daemon that escaped from a dungeon in Gadobhra with an insane Star-spawn from the outer dark. He probably should have expected some problems. Joe had been right about making it behave. It had been testing him all the time, and winning at tug-of-war had given it bad ideas. He needed to kick its ass and teach it who was boss. Of course, first, he had to get out of this trap.

The chains holding him were strong. They were forged from a Tier 4 metal melted in the pit with a lot of heat and magic. But they weren't as strong as the bindings on Old Smoke.

Ozzy had a knack for working with chains. He'd taken Chainwork as a mate and gained the perk: Tight Chains. Ten ranks in Smoke Weaving and hundreds of hours spent making chains for the ships he'd sailed on all added up to an ability to know how a chain was constructed. Just as he had with Old Smoke's bonds, he looked hard at one particular link, trying to see how it was made.

There were no runes in the link like there had been in the manacles holding Old Smoke, but the metal had aspects of magic flowing inside. He recognized dark and fire aspected mana easily. A third was deeply integrated with the metal and woven into it. Earth? Or was there a separate metal aspect? Suzette had taught him a little about aspects and spells. He should learn more about magic now that he had some of his own, but his abilities from the smoke worked differently, and he'd been busy catching up after his vacation. The last aspect he didn't recognize. He concentrated hard and had a quick vision of stars in the night sky. Celestial? That made sense. Celestial and Metal aspects from the metal of the meteorite and the daemon contributed Fire and Dark aspects. Fire and Darkness were the components of smoke, and he had some skill with both of them. He'd start with those.

Slowly, he started to push his smoke into the link he was studying. It was harder than pushing it into the wood, but he could do it. As he moved smoke into the link, he saw the shiny metal darken and turn black. As his smoke encountered the fire and dark aspected mana, they combined and were drawn into his smoke. When he'd absorbed all of the fire and darkness, he tried to do the same with the other two aspects. It didn't work. He could push the other mana around, but he didn't have a good feel for it and couldn't absorb it. Instead, he started pushing it into the next link, leaving behind a pure black piece of chain. He absorbed more fire and darkness and kept pushing. Link by link, he cleared that chain around his right hand of everything but his smoke and then started on the next one.

Somewhere in the middle of the second hand, he got noticed. His right hand was now in control, but only part of his left. The silvery chains jerked hard at him, and the whispers became deranged screams. What was left of the Star-spawn knew what he was up to and was pissed. By contrast, the other voice didn't seem upset. He could hear that voice better now; the images of burning flesh and bright fires were almost pleading. The daemon still had the purpose of building a pit, lighting a fire, and charring the meat of creatures. It was arguing with the Starspawn, and Ozzy saw the chains divide and move to two sides of the pit. One set of chains was bright and silvery, the other set darker, with flickers of flame running up and down the links. He felt the daemon trying to get into the chains he had cleared of celestial and metal aspected mana and let it in.

Divide and conquer worked for Ozzy. He yelled out, "You and me, buddy! We'll cook up the biggest critters we can find and keep the fires burning hot." There was a confused scream of betrayal from the silver chains as the blackened chains let go of Ozzy. They started twisting around their shinier cousins. The daemon half was roaring now and happy to kick out the interloper.

Ozzy's hopes of quickly corrupting the other chains with smoke were dashed as the Star-spawn shifted strategies. The chains still holding him started burrowing into his arms, and two dug into his sides. It hurt like hell, and soon he was bellowing as loudly as the daemon. He poured mana and heat together and made more smoke, pushing it hard into the chains and torturing him.

Outside in Sedgewick, the battle hadn't gone unnoticed. The citizens were used to the occasional growl from Ozzy's smokehouse. This was different. People ran away and stuffed cotton in their ears. Butter belly looked down from the Splinter, concerned. "Whatever he's cooking down there, I don't want to eat it." Makken had told Joe that he suddenly needed to run off 'to check on a pot I left on the stove.' Joe sat in one of the Adirondack chairs outside. He took a sip of whiskey and shook his head. "I warned him. Young'uns always think they've got a better way of doing things." He'd give the Butcher a couple of hours and then go rescue him.

Ozzy grabbed at the silvery chains and forced more and more smoke into them. Once two feet of each chain were corrupted, he switched to heat. The links he concentrated on grew hot, and he snapped them, one by one, until he was hanging from one arm by a single blackened chain that released him. He dropped to the floor and ran to the woodpile, chains still dangling from his body. He dumped a load of kindling into the pit. The hot coals caught it on fire immediately, and black smoke poured upwards. Ozzy grabbed the smoke and used it, putting both hands on the side of the smokehouse. For long minutes while the chains around him fought, he pushed all the smoke from the burning wood into the walls, feeling them come under his control. As the fire started to burn down, he dumped in a bag of screaming coal and another cord of dried wood before seeing how the main fight was going.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The silver chains were winning the contest, forming thicker and thicker chains around a large ball of silver. The darker chains flailed at it but didn't have the level of coordination that the Star-spawn did. Ozzy was worried it was trying to reform itself and start the nightmare over again. He threw his Trammelian Chain at the ball, the meat hook biting deep into the chains, and jerked hard, bringing all the silver chains down in a pile. "Ok, now we can have a real fight." The chains must have agreed because they formed into a vaguely humanoid shape, and a large fist punched Ozzy in the face, hitting him backward through the double doors and knocking him down.

Joe looked at the Butcher with a small smile. "Don't quit now, son; you have it on the run. A few more hits like that, and it will break its chains on your hard head."

Ozzy stood up. "Toss me that shovel, would you."

The smoke golem laughed and sent the shovel flying to him. "You're finally getting some smarts."

Ozzy charged back into the smokehouse and brought the shovel around in a double-handed swing that caught the silvery chain creature in the chest, knocking it back. Ozzy hit it three more times, each time moving it backward. The last slam had it teetering on the edge of the flaming pit. Blackened chains grabbed it and dragged the silvery chains into the flames. "Hold it there, Chainey; I'll get some more heat."

Ironwood logs and oak from a treant were thrown into the pit. It was heating up but needed to be hotter. He started pushing his heat into the flames. He didn't think it was going to be enough. Luckily, he had a large supply of stored heat nearby. But first, he needed something to hold the chain critter down. He grabbed his Billhook of Entwined Fates, where it leaned against the wall and pushed the silvery mass of chains deeper into the fire. He looked over at the blackened chains, quivering nearby.

"Here's the deal: My pit, my rules, I'm the boss. You can be the junior partner if you behave." He heard a terrifying roar in his head as the daemon agreed. "Good, now I've got a job for you, Chainey. Time to bring the heat."

The blackened chains climbed to the top of the smokehouse and punched through the roof. Derek saw a thick black chain connect to the rigging. The heat started running down the chain from both the sails and hull. He yelled out loudly. "All hands! Heat the sails! Dump everything you can into them, and someone drag the Captain from the tavern."

Ozzy aimed for the hole in the roof and threw the Trammelian Chain. The two chains twisted around each other, providing a thick conduit for the heat to run down to him.

Below, Ozzy had the other end of the chains wrapped around his billhook. He was pulling as much heat down the chains as they could take. The pit grew hotter and hotter, and the silvery chain began to soften. The Star-spawn screamed and pleaded. It tried vainly to climb out, but Ozzy knocked it back down with the billhook each time. "You had your chance! Now I'm going to melt you down for good." The screams went on and on as each link melted. Some of the silvery chains were still loose or hiding. The black chains hunted them down and pushed them into the pit. He saw a new message when only a few feet of the silver chain were left un-melted.

The last of the Star-spawn begs to serve you, acknowledging you as Master of the Pit.

The daemon laughed and roared, strongly disagreeing with letting it stay. Daemons prefer a system where the strong conquer and dominate. It had been content under Ozzy and had accommodated the newcomer when the pit expanded. But they'd never really gotten along. The daemon was a hard-working fiend who knew his purpose in the world and liked to burn things, especially meat. It took a bit to catch on to the idea of smoking and barbecuing, but it accepted the ideas. But the Star-spawn wanted to be the boss. It spent too much time making complex schemes to take over and not enough time moving the meat around, but it was a higher tier than a lowly daemon.

Now, the Star-spawn was the weak creature. It was dying and pleading for its life. The daemon wanted no part of it. Its chains sought out every crevice, finding every bit of silver metal, and wrestled those parts into the fire, where they joined a semi-molten mass.

"Sorry, but Pitty doesn't like you, and I don't like you. I'm reforging every damn link and putting my smoke into it." He pulled the last bits of chain stuck inside him out, wincing at the pain and tossing it into the fire. When he tried to force smoke into the metal this time, it went easily. He drained more and more heat from the ship and drained mana from the smokehouse itself. The pool of metal turned dark and thick. One last scream echoed in his head as the ghost of the Star-spawn was destroyed.

Then he drew out the metal, link by link, forging it into strong, smoky chains. When all the metal had been drawn out, he concentrated on the walls of the Smokehouse and the bricks of the pit. Every part of the structure became saturated with his smoke, the wood and bricks turning shiny black with a hint of metal for mortar. More and more wood and coal went into the pit to produce heat. Finally, all that was left were the blackened chains.

"Your turn, Pitty; time for an upgrade." The daemon's essence moved into the new chain, and the old black chains moved to the pit, where Ozzy melted them down and imbued them with smoke, drawing the strengthened chains back out. It took hours to do, and he took his time. The alien feel was gone from the blackened chains, leaving only the daemon. The daemon seemed very smug about the situation. Ozzy wasn't going to argue, and he only understood half of what he'd just done.

The dark chains moved up into the rafters again, dozens of smaller chains ending in meat hooks hanging down and holding the very well-cooked meat. Above him, on the Splinter, Captain Woodrat and his crew breathed a sigh of relief. They'd put as much heat into the sails as possible and started the new furnace in the hold. They relaxed now as smoke and heat came up from the smokehouse and were absorbed into the ship. They heard Captain Ozzy singing an old chain-making chantey he'd learned on Dauntless. And while the Butcher could carry a tune, whoever was singing with him was terrible.

Finally, the job was done. Ozzy grabbed a ham and started taking bites of meat. Joe walked through the walls of the smokehouse and handed him a tall glass of strawberry surprise. "That'll do, son, that'll do."

Pitty McChain-Fiend is ready to get to work! It's time to burn the meat! Wherever you travel, he'll be with you and ready to flay the flesh and cook it to well done!

You have won the contest of wills with your feral charnel pit, taming the beast with strength and cunning even when chained and tortured.

The Perk: Your Pit, Your Rules is back.

Rule 1: The Butcher is the boss.

Rule 2: You and Me, buddy!

Rule 3: If the Butcher loses at tug-of-war, see rule 1.

Ozzy noticed that the tattoo of a chain on his arm was now the same color as the chains of the pit. He pulled on the Trammelian Chain and looked at the length of it. The links were stronger and darker, with a slight metallic sheen to them. He could feel his pit daemon inside of it. "Yeah, OK. I did promise that. I guess you're heading to work with me from now on."

As the pit cooled, a chain darted into it, bringing out a chunk of melted metal. Ozzy looked at it. The hundred-pound piece of metal was dense with Celestial aspect mana as if all of the mana from the Starspawn was here, but none of the crazed intellect. He wondered what it was good for.

Pure Starmetal, 100 pounds. Enchanted with Celestial mana. Tier 5 substance. Sought by enchanters everywhere and prized by elven smiths.

He pulled the remaining heat from it, wrapped it in burlap, and tossed it in a corner. That was tomorrow's problem.

You have earned 500 experience points in Resist Torture and 500 experience points in CON.

You have earned 1000 experience points in Pit Alchemy and 1000 experience points in CHA.

You have earned 1000 experience points in Aspect of Smoke and 1000 experience points in COR.

You have earned 1000 experience points in Aspect of Heat and 1000 experience points in RAD.

You have earned 15 Enhancement Points.

You have an additional Heritage Option: Legacy of Prometheus.

Ozzy was tired. Maybe he'd take part of the day off and do some fishing tomorrow.

One-hundred-thousand gold coins have been deposited to your account by Roderick Kallvek for the delivery to his emporium of 1000 barrels of Sedgewick Sausage.

Holy shit! He hadn't actually expected the merchant to be able to get the Legion to go for the deal so quickly! He sent Billy half of that amount.

"Hope you're ready to get to work, Chainey. It's time to make the sausage!"