I grimaced down at the small river of glowing green sludge. "Why is this here?" I asked the others as we stood in the dark cramped tunnel. The entrance was at the back of a closet that Luggage led us to, and after climbing down through the floor, we found ourselves in a weird sort of toxic catacomb.

"Who knows." Said Jessie with a shrug. "But Randall isn't going to fit in this tunnel, so I think it's about time for that wish." I grimaced. I wanted to save my last wish for an emergency, but we did still have Nat with us, and we couldn't leave Randall behind again, not with a big hole in the floor and Hellhounds on the loose, and especially not upstairs in the very hallways said devil dogs were guarding. At my nod, Jessie said clearly. "I wish I had an artifact that would let me shrink Randall and then return him to the proper size unharmed as many times as I wanted."

Wish detected. Grant wish?

"Looks like I have the juice for that. Probably some space warping effect like Abel used. Anyway, I need some payment if I want to grant it." I shrugged. "What do you have for me?"

"I was going to offer ten reserve heals." She said casually. "I mean, it's not creative, but you do need them. You're full up right now, but you go through them fast. Another ten free once you run up your current tab should be more than enough to afford an artifact like that."

Confirming the wish, I was pleased to see she was right. The power gathered and then exploded out, creating a small necklace in the shape of a gold circle with a crystal star shining in the center. I passed it to her, not getting a charge this time since my heals were currently full. Reserves were useful as hell when I found myself in need with no wishes to trade, which like it or not might very well end up happening pretty soon.

Jessie laughed delightedly as she took it, and the star crystal sparked once. She blinked, eyes going hazy, and then grinned at me. "Looks like this one comes with instructions. Granted, it's not complicated to use." She turned, climbing up out of the tunnel, and I followed. She pointed the necklace at Randall, then flicked the star inside the circle, which began to spin. As the image of the bear changed, Randall himself began to shrink, until he was only a little guy about the size of a breadbox.

Bethy squealed with excitement, clapping in enthusiasm as she watched the bear shrink, then snatched him up, squeezing him tight. "He's so CUTE!" She crowed. "I wanna borrow it. I can use it on Luggage, and Donuts, and Poptarts and I'll have super tiny little mini animals to carry around and put on my shoulders. Or I can turn into swarm of bat kitties and carry them all!"

"Not the time Bethy." I said firmly. "Also doesn't work for anyone but them. Specificity helps cut down on cost."

She pouted, but I didn't bother arguing with her about it, just turned and climbed back into the reeking glowing tunnel. "Well, we're ready to go now." I said, grimacing at the scent. It was worse after getting to leave for a while and come back. I wished my sense of smell would stop working, but it didn't seem likely.

"So, I vote we don't TOUCH that stuff." Rasped Benny. "I'm not sure what it is, but very few things that glow and smell this bad are a part of a healthy breakfast."

I nodded. "I'm more curious why they felt the need to make this sewer tunnel. This shouldn't fit between the floors. We punched through the ground outside that alchemy lab without any trouble, it was like four feet thick. Someone purposefully put this here to guide...whatever that shit is. And judging from the direction it's flowing, it's not going TO the vault."

Chelsea nodded. "It seems like some kind of runoff? But what exactly makes this kind of byproduct? Is it part of the defenses? Is the air conditioning filter worn out? Who the hell knows?"

"I really wish we could gather information with wishes." Cursed Nat. "That stupid secret price imbalance is the most inconvenient thing. We could try anyway? Spam a lot of very general questions and see if anything sticks. Couldn't hurt to have more info."

I shrugged. "We walk and talk. We don't wan-" My voice cut off as I triggered Belial, blurring forward with my staff flashing out to deflect an attack from...something. Something vaguely familiar. It dove back into the channel when it saw me, and I waited for any sign of further attack, but it was gone. "Ok, did anyone else see that? Because I might be crazy, but that looked like-"

"The things from the woods." Said Callie with a grimace. "Except mutated. Its antlers looked like blades, and I think it had a fish tail instead of back legs."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Oh come on!" I yelled at the muck. "How is that even a thing? Who looked at those fucking monsters and thought, 'hey, lets make them way worse'. That is just...deeply unpleasant." I sighed. "Alright, well it seems like they're ambush predators, and that they don't work well on land. Let me take the lead and stay on the other side of me. Belial and my staff combined make me a solid counter to these things."

Not as solid as if I'd had time to fully acclimate myself to their venom, but who knew if they even had the same stuff. We started forward, the Hellhound hanging back looking miserable and snuffling to his vampire. This little sewer system wasn't exactly a maze, but there WERE turns, and he kept us seemingly on the right path. We had a few more scares with the muck monsters, but when they realized I could sense their ambushes they stopped bothering.

I was a bit worried about it actually. Ambushes from dangerous monsters made sense, but these things backing off was odd if they were security beasts. Which meant they probably weren't. These weren't like the Hellhounds that were left here on purpose with orders. They were just here. So where had they come from? Did it have something to do with the runoff? What exactly was IN that vault?

As we continued, Bethy pulled back. "Luggage says the smell is getting worse. He says this a bad place, and his nose is starting to not work."

"Is there any way for you to put him...somewhere? Like with the cats?" I asked, shooting the poor hound a concerned frown. Tried to kill us or not, he was pretty cute dog, and he was helping. I didn't want him to suffer for no reason when we were probably getting close. It looked like a straight shot from here anyway.

She bit her lip in thought. "Maybe? I can't keep him in my shadow. He doesn't work like that. But I used my domain to catch him. I might be able to put him inside for a while. I won't have access to my domain while he's in there though. And I might be a little distracted."

"It's your call." I shrugged. "But if he's suffering that bad it might be best for him."

After thinking for a moment, she nodded. "You're right." She got down on her knees to face the hound, listening to his snuffled directions, before kissing him on the top of the head and scratching behind his ears. Her eyes started to glow that unearthly red, black grass beginning to sprout from the stone beneath her heeled boots. Then, after a second, the grass faded, as did the form of the dog.

Bethy stood, eyes glowing still, and sighed. "Alright, he said it's straight down the pathway. We're almost there. Good idea Shane."

"It's nothing, glad he's ok." Bethy's crazy might be rubbing off on me, or he might remind me of Jin, who was back on the Necromedes who knew how far away, but I thought the Hellhound was kind of cool. We continued down the passage, and I felt more than a few brief hints of danger before the creatures noticed me and backed off. They were testing me, checking to see if I could still see them coming.

Finally, we came to the end of the tunnel, where a waterfall of green muck poured from a brass grate in the top of the tunnel. On either side of the canal, set into the dark stone, were a pair of brass ladders marked with a myriad of delicately carved symbols. Before anyone could step forward, I held up a hand. "Chelsea, can you take a crack at deciphering these? Maybe Nat can help. I don't want anyone touching the ladder until we know what the symbols do."

Something about this place was off. The vault was supposed to have the item that the Blood Murder Palace needed, not...this. Toxic waste? Something was wrong with this vault, and I wanted to know exactly what that ladder and the spellwork strewn hatch above it led to before anyone of us touched it.

They nodded, stepping forward as Callie leaned in next to me. "What is it?" She asked quietly, stealth muffling her voice to keep it from anyone but me.

"I'm not sure...it's-" I cut myself off as I thought of something. Triggering my overlay, I pushed with my Eye of Revelation, shifting the context slightly and..."There's no safe way forward." I said with a grimace. "A few neutral, but no gold arrows. None of the ways we can enter that place are good for us."

She scowled. "We have to go forward though. We have no way back. Whatever is in that vault is our only leverage if we can't figure something out. And if we CAN we don't want them to have it."

"I know." I said tensely. "But I don't want to lead us into a trap either. Maybe if they figure out what the ladder does and why it's there, we can find a safe way to proceed. Just because none of our current options are any good doesn't mean we can't make our own way."

Chelsea called out to us after a minute or two. "I think we got something." We headed over to stand with her, and she pointed at a few symbols. "It's some kind of filtration system. I don't know why they need it, but this whole thing is cyclical. At least based on the enchantments. It pumps this stuff through the entire surrounding area, and the soil and wildlife leeches...something, out of it, making it safe to use. Then they do something to it up there and it becomes tainted."

"Is the hatch safe to use?" Several of the white arrows pointed up, so I suspected it was at least survivable.

"Maybe?" She said uncertainly. "Nothing is supposed to go up this ladder. Things come down it to do maintenance on this place, but going up isn't what it was designed for. In fact, climbing DOWN it is supposed to filter some of whatever is infecting this muck."

Looking around, I took in the place around us. Staying down here was a bad idea. I was sure this stuff was going to do something to us if we lingered, and going up seemed like it might be worst, but we needed to do it. "Chelsea, can your flames of purification cleanse the area around us and on the other side of the hatch? Just for a minute so we can get through there and hopefully to somewhere safe?" She looked uncertain, but I had a plan. Holding out my hand, I triggered Afterburner. "Well then how about I give you a boost."