[center][h3]Dead Zone Hinterlands - Curien Mansion[/h3]
Harry’s [@Eviledd1984]  Amaterasu’s [@DracoLunaris] Chosen Undead’s [@Simple Unicycle] Level 11 Big Band (32/110)
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1764[/center]

With how dark and cramped these halls were, neither Kit nor Band could fight at full strength, and any skirmish was bound to favor their unknown assailants. When it came to tackling the spider, their best bet was Band supporting from behind, rather than block off his comrade completely behind his bulky frame. Even with that tactic in mind, though, neither were quite prepared for the Bunker Spider when it scuttled from the shadows. Featuring far more than eight legs, the monstrous thing reminded the detective more of a house centipede than a spider, but there was no mistaking those nightmarish fangs–especially when they punctured Kit’s cuirass. Band moved fast to intervene and crumple the beast’s exoskeleton beneath the strength of his Brass Knuckles, allowing the Chosen Undead to retake control of the fight and finish the thing off. It was a brief but vicious exchange of blows, and despite his hardened nerves and body of steel, Band’s heart was pumping from the experience.

When thanked, Band shook his head. He didn’t need the knight doubting himself right now. “Nah, it ain’t nothin’. No need to go round pledgin’ fealty, either. I’m just happy to help.” Really, the two had gotten lucky, and not just for the fact that the spider didn’t seem to be venomous. With how volatile fights in tight spaces could be, it would be terribly easy to accidentally clip Kit with a strike and aggro him, given his gleaming nature. Band had missed his chance now that the knight had healed himself with an Estus flask, but he’d need to use a Friend Heart to free him the first chance he got. In a place like this, with any number of unknown horrors lurking around every corner, being able to flee would be the difference between life and death. “Those things are spirits, by the way. You got the right idea hangin’ on to ‘em, but I’ll tell ya what they do later. C’mon, let’s boogie before anythin’ else shows up.”

The two pushed forward through the hall with the fewest intact spider webs, reasoning that Harry would have torn through any in his path during his abduction. After so many delays, the pressure was on to find both their other allies and Heismay, so the atmosphere was tense. At the same time, Amaterasu was working her way back along the distinctive scent trail Harry sent, with the man himself shuffling along behind her. With the covetous bug satiated -for now- by his peace offering, it left Harry to his own devices. Naturally, he’d broken a couple of the valuables stuffed into his clothes while brawling with the gnomes, which turned out to be very fragile. None took more than a single hit to shatter like porcelain from either him or Amaterasu. Even picking one up and dropping it was enough to take it out. With that easy -and perhaps cathartic- run-in out of the way, they could seek out the other half of their team as well.

After about thirty seconds, the two pairs converged in a strange room. It was square, and decently sized, with black and white checkered tiles and a variety of cupboards and cabinets along the wall. It also seemed impossibly tall, with at least five stories between the intruders and the vaulted ceiling, with a narrow perimeter staircase winding upward one long flight at a time. It was difficult to gauge, though, since the only light in here came from a single bulb that dangled directly over a ten foot square pit in the center, its wire stretching up into the darkness. When the opposite door creaked open a moment after he stepped inside, Band readied himself for another fight, only to identify Amaterasu in the fitful glow of that lonesome bulb. “Aha! Found ya.” He let out the breath he’d been subconsciously holding. “Y’all in one piece still? Good. We been runnin’ into all kinds of creepy crawlies in here. And still no sign of…!”


Just then, the doors of the room’s cupboard and cabinets flew open. Out leaped at least a dozen [url=https://i.imgur.com/8AKNlVT.png]human skulls[/url], with tiny skeletal limbs, red glowing eyes, and implanted sticks of dynamite. “Oh damn.” Overwhelmed, Band whirled toward the nearest ones, trying to put together a plan. These targets were plentiful and small, and there was no telling whether or not they’d explode when hit. With that pit in the middle of the room, the team couldn’t assume a back-to-back formation, which meant they could easily be blindsided. As he watched, one of the skulls did a spin to light its fuses, then charged.

Then something happened. A whitish blur shot down from a high vantage point and struck the sizzling skull. It soared through the air, little legs flailing, and plummeted down into the pit. It happened so fast that it left Band blinking, confused. The next moment, though, it happened again, with another skull lighting its fuse and being summarily disposed of. The same blur streaked across the room again and again, handling the little bombs two or three at a time. Finally, when the last four lit up at about the same time, the white streak zigzagged around to capture all four before it came to a sudden stop in the room's center. The Seekers’ savior seemed to be a white-furred, [url=https://i.imgur.com/S5JozVu.png]batlike creature[/url] with big ruby-red eyes, small but strong enough enough to hang from the cord with one clawed hand while the other held the four struggling skulls by their fuses.

“This place is dangerous,” he warned the awestruck onlookers, his stern voice colored by a provincial French accent. “Full of all manner of disgraceful creatures. You should return from whence you came.” With that, he dropped the hissing skulls into the pit. They exploded violently, and when the flashes ceased, the batlike fellow was gone.

Band narrowed his eyes, thinking. For a while now, it felt like he was being watched, and now this stranger -the first intellectual being his team found in here- had swooped in from the shadows to save them. It wasn’t much of a stretch to imagine that the bat, stealthy and swift, had not just heard Harry the moment he first yelled out for Heismay but also been following the intruders ever since. Trusting in his intuition, Band decided to go out on a limb.

“Heismay? That you?” His voice echoed through the upper reaches of the room, and it garnered no response. “I know you can hear me. Look. The militia sent us after your head. Said you’ve been kidnappin’ kids. But I think there’s more to this story, and not just ‘cause you saved our butts just now.” Band searched the darkness as he spoke. “Morris told us there’d be no monsters here today on account o’ the sandflash, but that clearly ain’t the case. He said he saw you climbin’ into town late at night, but why would he catch ya climbin’ when you can move like that? Somehow didn’t mention you’re a little bat fella neither. And how’s a little guy like you steal kids bigger than you are, too? It don’t add up.”

A moment of eerie silence passed. Then Heismay’s voice echoed back down, giving no hints as to where its source might be. “I am many things, not all of them good, but I am not a kidnapper.” His voice was filled with indignant venom, as if the very idea of him doing such a thing seared his soul. “The world out there is filled with loss and pain, and I could not abide its cruelty. I thought it better to live here in solitude than in the embers of hell. At least the monsters here do not hide their true faces!”

Sensing Heismay’s pain, Band tried to read into his words. “So the village [i]is[/i] hidin’ somethin’. It sounds like we won’t find the lost kids up here.”

“Indeed, you will not,” Heismay confirmed knowingly. “But you won’t find them in Martira, either. I don’t know what was happening down there, but I do know who put a stop to it, and I believe she has the childrens’ best interests in heart.”

Band raised an eyebrow. “So you know who’s been stealin’ ‘em?”

“Not stealing them. Saving them. From a terrible fate,” Heismay corrected him insistently.

“Oh?” Band had expected a second layer to the story, but a third? [i]Now we’re talking.[/i] “And who might that be?”

For another moment, silence reigned. Then Heismay replied, hesitant. “I’ve gathered that you’re all outsiders to Martira. Genuinely concerned for the children, and able to understand that not everything might be as it seems. If I take you to her, and you see that the children are safe, will you promise to leave her in peace?”

“If this friend o’ yours stole the kids away to keep ‘em safe, then all we gotta do is fix whatever’s goin’ on in Martira so they can go back home safe and sound.” He squinted. “Assumin’ she lets ‘em.”

“She will,” Heismay told him. “She’s been taking good care of them. Once the problem is dealt with, she’ll bring them back.”

“If that’s how it is, then you have my word,” Band told him. “But if it ain’t, it ain’t just your ass, ya hear?”

“Very well.” The shadows stirred, and Heismay appeared. In full view, he seemed laughably small, but Band saw the sword slung across his back. “Then let’s go.”

As if in response, the lightbulb -and all other sources of light in the mansion- went dark. Band looked up sharply. “What just happened?”

Heismay’s eyes narrowed in the gloom. “The house doesn’t want to give us up.” He took off at a run, waving at the others to follow him. “Hurry!”

A creak issued from the doors behind the team, through which Amaterasu and Harry had come. A peek backward over Band’s shoulder gave him a terrifying glimpse at a [url=https://i.imgur.com/91KAnWw.png]shadowy figure[/url] with white glowing eyes and a [url=https://i.imgur.com/x2Iye1M.png]huge ghost[/url] swaddled in a pitch-black robe. Something deep inside him told him to not try fighting these things. Instead, the detective burst forward in a stream of sound. “Don’t gotta tell me twice!”

Behind him, the masked ghost let out a harrowing shriek. With Heismay to lead the way, it was time for the intruders to run for their lives.

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8elMUjz37E0[/youtube][/center]