Death of the Mighty Pen

[Ozymandias]

"James Crow", the unkempt old pharaoh parroted. Ozymandias did not replace his weapon under his frayed and soiled robes, but relaxed his stance. "What are you doing here, James Crow?" James' body bobbed again before he replied, causing his own tattered clothes to twitch.

 

He stared at the haunted newcomer, awaiting his answer.

[James Crow]

"Me?" James said with a slight grin, "I'm just a corpse seeking a cobbler to mend my broken soul." Then he started to laugh like a mad man. "Please forgive me, my day has been hectic." James looked at the old pharaoh, and narrowed his eyes, "Please follow me, the real Butcher would like a word with you." With that he turned and walked normal, except for the occasional twitch, down one of the many side paths.

[James Crow]

In another portion of the Pen....

Scheherazade, Brighid, and the Shadow found James waiting outside. “Where ready.” James didn't look up, something was on his mind. Then he started to walk in the direction of the Tower. The others watched then followed. They traveled in silence.

When they reached the Tower, James went to one side and stepped on a rock, opening a secret door. “Not there James,” pleaded Scheherazade as she hid behind Brighid, remembering the place as the way to the prisons.

“Then stay here if you want,” barked James, as he descended the stairway.

The Shadow followed James almost immediately. Scheherazade let out a sniffle, but when Brighid looked at her she quickly changed her face into a fake smile. Then with a nod they both followed.

James waited at the bottom of the stairs. When he saw that Scheherazade was still there he shook his head is disappointment saying, “Here.” He pushed a stone and behind it was a giant glowing stone. “This is the fastest way to our destination.”

“And that would be?” Brighid asked, hoping for a straight answer...when would she learn.

James, for the first time in a while let slip a wicked grin. “Simple my Lady,” he replied, “The center of The Mighty Pen!” With that he touched the stone and vanished. The others looked at each other and then one at a time touched the glowing stone. Brighid was the last and thought she saw Grimmael out of the corner of her eye. But when she looked no one was there. So with a deep breath and touched the stone. After she vanished a figure hidden in the shadows lit his oil lantern.

(to follow our group of heroes and heroines click here:http://patrickdurham.net/themightypen/index.php?/topic/17246-journey-to-the-center-of-the-mighty-pen/)

[Quincunx]

Tzimfemme sat on the runed edge of a shallow sewer channel looking at the picture of her doing prophecy. Her head was in her hands but her feet were in the muck. The other wall was not runed. The old picture was not affecting all of the tunnels now.

 

Half the tunnel was good enough for the Butcher. He stomped on the sloping bricks. It was not dry up there. It was not clean. It was just less wet.

 

The naked mage heard him. She withdrew from her mind and stood up and faced him. That aggressive smile and the light in her eyes had stopped other madmen cold.

 

The Butcher raised his arm and struck. Tzimfemme dropped like a burst flour sack. She had never moved nor braced herself. Head and feet and one hand stuck out of the shallow channel, upside-down. They searched for a grip for a bit then went still.

[Ozymandias]

Ozymandias followed the James Crow individual woodenly, his footsteps still only soft splashes, his shadow a small stub to the other man's long and looming one.

[James Crow]

As the corpse of James walked down the many twisting ways he asked the old pharaoh a question, "In chess, who moves the kings?" Ozymandias knew the answer couldn't be as simple as it would seem. And while he pondered that Corpse James pushed a stone and went down a passage unfamiliar to Ozymandias. But he followed.

Ozymandias found himself in a large.....ballroom? There were dancers all around him, but James had vanished. “Welcome old one,” oozed a voice from all around him. Though it seemed as if the dancers didn't notice. “I must see if you are worthy to meet me. So you will have to pass three challenges. The first one is simply a test of strength.” Then the voice burst out in an oozing laugh, and all the dancers drew swords and charged Ozymandias.

[Ozymandias]

This old pharaoh knew as he had been schooled, and in this case, his education meant he was terrible at chess (as his teacher had been born before the game).

 

A look of concern knit dirty, musty eyebrows even as he raised his mace to ward off a blow.

[James Crow]

The corpse of James watched the events unfold from a vantage point on one of the support beams. The old Egyptian looked spry for his age. Left, right, right, left, down, swing, spin, back, back, swing. The dance hall hadn't changed its purpose. It remained a dance, yet consequence had been added, at least James didn't think death was normal for a bad dance, though he could be wrong. But the old man was winning. So James took so time to muse to himself. 'The person that moves the pieces in a game of chess. I hate those people. Self-proclaimed gods, puppeteers, doomsayers. They all have disappointed me in the past. This one seems to be no exception.” Then James had to pay attention to the dance hall again. A new dancer had made an appearance. This new dancer was bigger than the ones the old man fought, red eyes glowing with hate, wielding a large wicked looking blade in one hand, and in the other dragging what looked like a.....body?

[Ozymandias]

Ozymandias eyed the new opponent appraisingly. Heaving a heavy sigh even as he caught his breath from the swift, brutal battle, he let his bloodied mace fall to his shoulder. "Well. Knew I shouldn't have come this far alone-" A dark hand went to his brow to wipe away the bubbling, fizzing sweat. "But I just had to."

 

A dozen small cuts on his hands, face and neck bled small, bubbling rivulets of blood. Like his sweat, it gave off the faintest of hissing noises.

[James Crow]

“That is simple not fair,” James hissed from his vantage point. “He beat the test and you add more. That's cheating, and I hate cheaters!” With that said he dived at the brute with all the grace befitting a corpse. The thing just swung the body it carried into James which sent him flying, right towards Ozymandias!

Ozymandias seeing this ducked and James flew through the wall behind him. And right into the butcher that was fighting Tzimfemme. They both just looked surprised.

[Ozymandias]

Taking one look at the bestial foe (who was again leering at him), the old pharaoh turned and took off at a full sprint through the hole in the wall.

 

Crapcrapcrapcrap!

 

On spying the fallen Tzimfemme, though, he braked so abruptly that trying to stop on the moist sewer floor nearly sent him into Tzimfemme's forbidding-looking runes.

 

"BEAR CRAP!" he exclaimed as he twisted, and tumbled into the fetid water as well.

[James Crow]

James stood from the water, and realised that it had turned to blood! Then he looked at the old Egyptian and said, "Know anything bout waters of blood?" Then he looked up at the naked mage with a smile, "How's it going?" Then at the charging brute, "riiiiight, need to start running!"

[Bubbling Mud Heads]

Elsewhere in the Pen, Mara decided she was bored. The professor was still trying to find room 47, and was as usual, very lost. So, Mara lagged behind until he disappeared and snuck off in another direction. She had heard a squeaking earlier and traced back to the room where she saw a large black rat sniffing at mugs and cupboards. Silent as the feline she was, Mara pounced, paralyzing the rat with a bite to the back of it's neck, and breaking it's spine. Mara looked around, there were several more squeaks, echoing in the room, apparently they were unused to cats. Mara picked up the now dead rat and carried it to the door, proudly depositing her offering to the occupant of the room, and crept back out into the hall to hunt for more.

....

The Professor looked around, each door looked the same, the wooden floor of the hallway divided a nearly identical pair of walls. He turned around searching for some sign, anything when a shadowy figure menacingly stepped around a column towards him.

"Oh, my! Are you a shadowy figure?"

the figure hissed in response,

"Well, it's very nice to meet you! Might you be able to direct me to room 47 please?"

[Ozymandias]

The shadowy figure paused. Up close, it looked like the shadow of a person, but for one, it had no discernible origin, and for two, the way it shifted made it seem to be studying the Professor- as though it were curious.

 

The Professor gazed back, still half expecting his answer.

[Bubbling Mud Heads]

"Perhaps you don't know either?" The Professor sighed, "Oh, well..." The Professor half turned as if to leave, but was stopped by the shadowy figure. "Oh! You want to help me? That is very kind of you! Thank you so much!" and linking arms with the shadowy figure, the Professor skipped off merrily down the hall...

....

 

Mara found a hole in the wall and, thinking it a rat's nest, she squeezed inside and looked around. Mara sneezed, "My what dust!" sweeping her tail across the floor created a cloud of little terrified lumps of dirt, all fleeing before her... Mara grimaced, she absolutely hated dirt, and followed a little tunnel inside the walls, careful not to brush the sides or floor with the fur. The tunnel led directly into a drop, with the outer wall on one side and the inner wall with the tunnel opening on the other, little bridgelike tubes and flooring stuck out into the drop, and Mara, feeling slightly impish, hopped down onto good, sturdy-looking piece of pipe, and slipped completely off the side into the drop.

Falling down, a long long way down, Mara tried to catch boards or hook her claws into the wall, but they were too far away. Then the floor appeared, or what she thought was the floor, it was green and slimy and sploosh, Mara fell straight into a pool of nasty sewage water. Claws sprang into action and Mara latched onto a strip of cloth, pulled herself up onto a cleanish wooden board and looked around. She was still between the walls, "Good, no one watching." Mara shook herself, rather like a dog, and turned the walls slightly hairy and dark. Luckily, dirt was afraid of her, and she was mostly just wet and cold. Looking up she spied an opening in the wall, and dragged her drenched and shivering carcass across the wooden board. Through it an amazing battle was taking place, water splashed, magic glowed, and mighty warriors danced. Mara watched in wide eyed amazement, as the fight continued....

Edited December 6, 2013 by Bubbling Mud Heads