The shrieks in the narrow passage echoed in Twila’s ears. She screamed at the top of her lungs. It didn’t matter; the Sable Tide drowned her out.
Twila tucked one of [Anton’s Paired Pistols] back into her bandolier and fumbled with the cartridge to reload the other. Her finger shoved it down the barrel, fished out a little rod, and jammed it into place.
Rosie wrenched her pistol free. She leveled it and fired a mystshot into a monster’s maw. Then she tripped and slid down the ledge. Rojir’s sword ripped through another’s wings. Auntie Charlie drew her pistol, letting the ladder fall, and added her own shot.
The air filled with the acrid smell of mystshot, almost pushing the musty ammonia odor out of Twila’s nose. Almost.
She fired again, adding her own purple explosion to the shots. Then she drew the [Chain Cutlass] and poured myst into it. Her myst battery ticked, and the sword roared to life. It drowned out her own scream as it deafened her for a moment. She brought it up to block one of the black, winged monsters as it lunged at her and screamed when it cut deep and the thing fell in two pieces.
One of the monstrous bats ducked under Rosie’s dagger, and Auntie Charlie’s shot went wide. It knocked the girl over, scrabbling with its wings to pull its square jaw closer.
Rojir cut across it with his [Reciprocating Saber], slicing its head away from its body.
Twila looked for the next Sable Tide monster, but they’d killed all of them–at least in the little stone tunnel. More screeched and squealed nearby, though.
“Get your guns loaded, pups,” Charlie said between breaths. “Ladder’s coming down. Get it set up.”
Twila loaded first one gun, then the other, looking at the carnage. Chunks of wing and body lay strewn around her, but something was missing. “Where’s the blood?”
Auntie Charlie cleared her throat, looking pale. “They don’t bleed. Sable Tide monsters aren’t real–not like you or me. They don’t sleep, they don’t eat, and they don’t bleed. You can kill them, though. It just usually doesn’t matter, there are so many. Keep your guns in your hands, swords at the ready, and get back up here. We shouldn’t have come here….”
Rojir started to walk back to the ladder, then stopped. “Twi, Rosie, you’re mechanics. What do you make of this thing?” He pointed at the clockwork contraption built into the wall.
“We don’t have time for this, skipper,” Charlie said, worry in her voice. She pointed her pistol at the blackness further along the tunnel.
“Let me take a look. Rosie, Rojir, take my pistols. Auntie, get down here, take the sword, and don’t let them get to me,” Twila said. She freed her weapons, cracked her knuckles, and looked at the machine.
Dozens of gears intermeshed with each other, reaching up into the uppermost reaches of the cave. They grew bigger and bigger as they reached up; the largest spanned larger than Twila thought her arms would reach. Their solid brass construction had kept the rust and sea gunk away, and they shined dimly in the purple light.
Twila plugged her myst condenser into the tiny valve and tried to push myst into it. One small gear near the bottom shook slightly, but nothing happened. The gears had to be jammed somewhere.
“Rojir, bring me that ladder,” she ordered.
He hurried to grab it. As he did, another wave of Sable Tide attacked.
At first, Rosie’s shots with her two pistols and Auntie Charlie’s single mystshot held back the tide. But as more descended on them, the two pistoleers were forced back and turned to their swords and daggers.
All Twila could do was watch as the crew clustered around the purple lantern between her and the Sable Tide. When the ladder finally clattered against the wall of gears, she breathed a sigh of relief, then one of anxiety. “Something’s clogging up the gears. I’m going to climb up. Keep the lantern lit, and keep the Tide off me.”
“Skipper, I hope you’re right about this gizmo, whatever you think it is,” Charlie said.
Rosie shook quietly but reloaded both her pistol and Twila’s. She aimed it at the swarming monsters, but Charlie shook her head. “Save it. We’re safe in the light. Kill anything that goes for the skipper.”
Twila took a deep breath and started climbing.
The ladder’s rungs slipped under her boots, and she struggled upward. One rung. A second. Her head left the lantern’s safety. Almost instantly, a monster flew at her. A mystshot from below caught it, and she looked down–Charlie was reloading as quickly as she could with one hand.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
She climbed another rung. If she could get up two more, maybe she’d be able to see the blockage.
Something crashed into the ladder! Her feet slid out from under her as the soaking, rickety thing wobbled back and forth. She hung from one rung, scrambling for purchase with her feet.
A mystshot flew inches from her head, searing her hair, and she screamed. A split second later, the monster the shot had been aimed at flopped onto her shoulder and crashed downward.
Twila got her feet under her again, breathing shakily. Mystshots zipped through the blackness, breaking off bits of the ceiling to fall down on her and the crew.
Rojir had taken one of the pistols from Charlie and joined the shooting as Twila clambered up another rung.
There! Stones from the cavern’s ceiling had fallen into the gears at the very top, jamming them. If she could move them, the cogs would be free to turn. She stepped up one more rung as mystshots went off around her in a reversed cascade of purple.
She grabbed the largest rock with both hands and yanked on it as hard as she could.
The stone pulled free easily, and Twila overbalanced. The air drove out of her lungs as she bounced off the cavern’s hard floor like a thrown doll.
When her vision cleared, she saw her crewmates fighting around her, the lantern to her side. She coughed and crawled over to the valve, connected her myst battery to it, and pushed myst into it as fast as she could.
The first gear began spinning, with dozens following along at slower and slower speeds. The rock behind them began to rise with a creaking sound, and at the same time, one ahead of them slowly lowered.
“Maybe this is a mystmaze, skipper!” Auntie Charlie shouted over the fighting and the grinding of stone on stone. She fired again as the Sable Tide’s onslaught choked off into a Sable trickle.
The stone before them thumped into place, and they finished off the last few Sable Tide with sword cuts and shots. “These are much easier to deal with when you have weapons,” Rosie said, firing a shot into one on the ground.
Twila coughed more air into her lungs and nodded. She glanced behind her, then looked more carefully. “There’s a passageway under the stone we just lifted.”
With all its fine jewels and rings, the skeleton had slid down into a pit below. A few inches of water sat at its bottom, and a tunnel led to…somewhere.
Twila hopped down into the shallow, briny water.
[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level 1.33 (Myst 1/10, Hit Points 1/1)]
[Head - Empty]
[Eyes - Myst Lens (lvl. 1) Myst Sight (passive) See own status block and others’ classes]
[Chest - Ship Rat’s Harness (lvl. 0)]
[Waist - Apprentice Mystgineer’s Bandolier (lvl. 1) Deep Pockets (passive) - Equip an additional Gizmo]
[Legs - Canvas Overalls (lvl. 0)]
[Gizmo #1 - Multitool (lv. 2) - Tool Transform (active, 1 myst/switch) - Change between many common tools; Skill - Tinkering]
[Gizmo #2 - Anton’s Pocket Watch (lvl. 4)] Redo (active, 5 myst/5 seconds) - redo the last five seconds of time, with knowledge of what’s happening (1 minute to reset); Skill - Piloting]
[Gizmo #3 - [Pocket Condenser (lvl. 1) - Condense Myst (passive) - Condenses 1 myst/5 ticks; Skill - None]
[Gizmo (Belt) - Mystwork Lantern (lvl. 2): Mystlight (active, 25% failure chance, 1 myst/attempt) - start the light; Adjustable Light Aura (sustained, .5-2 myst/tick) - light a variable area; Skill - Perception]
[Myst Battery - Basic Myst Battery (lvl. 1) Small Storage (passive) - 10 myst maximum, requires condenser to refill]
[Weapon/Pair - Anton’s Paired Pistols (lvl. 2) Smoothbore Myst-Shot (active, 1 cartridge/shot) - fire a ray of heated myst; Rapid Shots (active, 2 myst/shot) - fire twice/tick; Skill - Marksman]
[Weapon #2 - Chain-Cutlass (lvl. 2) Rattleblade (active, 1 myst/tick) - spin the serrated blades on the cutlass’s edge; Skill - Intimidation]
[Weapon/Pair - Empty]
[Skill #1 - Tinkering 2]
[Skill #2 - Perception 2]
[Skill #3 - Piloting 4]
[Skill #4 - Marksman 2]
[Skill #5 - Intimidation 2]