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PargAddi

The PargAddi Annals - XIV

"Containment Breach "

Crescent-Go/24 - 7/52
I don't think a single span had passed from the time that Abby was on his feet and he was demanding a whore to test out his new cock.

I laughed myself hoarse when he couldn't get anything to rise. Hubris and Arinas brought in 5 different wenches and Abby couldn't get a rise for any of them.

"Oh gods," he groaned. "I'm gay!!" So, they brought in boys.

That didn't work either.

Neither did ducks, sheep, dogs or horses.

I looked at Hubris. "Tell us again about this cock's history."

"Well," he began. "Molar the Impaler was slain during the Night of the Adulterer wh-"

"BRING ME A WIFE!!" Abby screamed. "Anybody's wife!"

Arinas darted out of the room and returned shortly with a serving woman. The woman took one look at Abby and tore her clothes off while quite literally leaping across the room at him. Abby just as eagerly leapt at her and they fell down on the floor and screwed.

"The carpenter's wife," Arinas explained.

They screwed for a long time. And then a longer time. Both seemed happy and insatiable. We all realised that something was odd about the same time that Abby did. "I can't stop," he said. "I want to stop!"

It took three of us to manhandle him off of the wench and two of my beaters to drag her crying and screeching out of the room.

"Well," I summarised. "This is going to be awkward."

"Is this going to happen every time I walk down the street?" Abby asked.

Hubris shrugged his shoulders. "I wouldn't think so. No."

I sneered at that. "Abby, if that thing causes us problems you'd better cut it off.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," Hubris interjected. "Let's not talk too hastily about cutting anything off. It is time to test your augmentations. Come, walk this way."

We followed him back into his office and sat down. I looked each of my beaters over. Verakus' lower jaw was an emaciated mummified horror. Abby's new eye was still bandaged. "Why," I asked. Hubris shrugged and summoned an orderly to remove the bandaging.

The orderly carefully unwound the linen. He started to shriek, blood poured from his nose, ears and eyes and then he fell over dead.

We all stared at the corpse in surprise. Abby looked up in puzzlement and met the eyes of Arinus across the room. She screamed and started to wave her hands and wands around. Her eyes started to bleed as she began chanting. A magical glow sprang up around her just before she turned and ran from the room.

None of us would look at him after that. He looked at several of the drubbers but nothing happened to them. "Perhaps," Hubris whispered, "it only works eye-to-eye." Abby tore a patch from the bandages and tied it over his eye.

"Hey," he said, "bring me a mirror." Hubris gasped. Typical of a pretty-boy, Verakus had one in his pocket and handed the polished bronze over. Abby stared into it for a bit. I glanced over and saw that his new eye glowed a malevolent red. Verakus' mirror started to melt so Abby put his patch back on.

"Watch it," he warned and then looked around the room with his eye open. "I can see runes on the walls and auras around each of you." Hubris suggested that he was seeing the protective wards around the room. We shuttered the windows and Abby said that he could see in the darkness. "It's not really seeing," he said. "I can see auras around things."

"This may prove a little more useful," I observed.

I used my soul vision to look Abby over. His penis was red and evil. His foot had no imprint. It almost seemed as though it didn't exist.

Verakus intoned a spell looked around. "That worked fine. Nothing special." We all shrugged, but then he started to rant in a strange voice and a foreign language. He ranted louder and louder until we were all holding our hands over our ears and were ready to leap out the windows and doors. Verakus forced his jaw closed and held it closed. He continued to mumble and drool for a bit and then finally managed to stop.

I looked at the rest of my beaters with my soul vision. Upstanding had one hand wreathed in flames and the other looked like a demon's claw. Maloven and Hagrid looked normal. Marakus had the hand of Aug, taken from a rebel brunner killed outside of Eneal.

Hubris introduced us to another attendant. "This is Bofus the Spindle. He is the Warder of the Assumptive Annex. It is time to test all of your abilities and to resolve the problem that you were sent here to solve. We have had a containment breach in the Annex. Bofus, be on your way."

"But," I began.

"Shoo! Shoo!" said Hubris. " Bofus will explain all.

We strode down the hall and across a small courtyard. Bofus explained that the Assumptive Annex was another tower next to this one and that the "containment field" had had failed on the fifth floor. I asked him what a containment field was. "That's classified." I asked him what it was containing. "That's classified."

As we walked up to this Annex Bofus asked, "you have been briefed of course?"

"Nope." I replied with barely concealed irritation in my voice. "What are we doing, where are we going and what are the expected threats?"

"That's classified." He replied. "You are here to protect me and that is all."

"From what?"

"That's classified."

There were two door guards in front of the Annex. I recognised their armour. They were members of The Furtive - the band that imprisoned us under the Hungry Plateau. They sneered at us. "ID!"

Bofus showed them a copper disk that hung from his surcoat. "These ones are with me."

The larger guard shook his head. "They are PargAddi. Access denied!"

"Great!" I said. "Beaters, return to barracks!"

"Whoa! Hold on Adarch!" he shot at me. "These men are with me. Let them in," he demanded of the guards.

He and the two guards argued back and forth for a bit until Bofus summoned Hubris himself. Hubris demanded access to the Annex for us and we finally got in.

The tower was six stories tall and each floor looked to be 30 feet across. There was a strange stone plinth in the centre of each floor covered in Eyzaali runes. The floor were likewise covered in runes and throbbed with magical power.

Abby lifted his patch and looked at each stone as we climbed past on the stairs. "They look like tears into other places. Maybe the God's plane. Maybe the heroplane. Or maybe other places on Glorantha.

On the fifth floor, there was no plinth. The room was soggy with mist. The floor looked damp and there was moss growing everywhere. The room seemed to disappear into the distance and we could hear things moving and calling. I looked at Bofus and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, this is certainly irregular," he said. "We need to enter the room and destroy the plinth."

"And you know where this plinth is?"

"Oh yes."

"Right." I nodded at Hagrid. "Move them out Kastari."

Hagrid nodded. "Maloven, point. Abby follow." He waved a couple of drubbers out as flank guards and we all stepped through the door wardings.

There were some trees here. Stunted and black. There was lots of dirt and even more pools of water. There were no stars in the sky; there was no moon in the air; and the mist concealed everything more than a spear-throw away.

Maloven sniffed the air. "Something smells wrong. It smells acrid and it is coming from those pools."

Bofus pointed out a direction when I jogged his elbow and we weaved our way through the pools. There were things moving under the surface of whatever liquid was in them.

A tentacle rose from a pool that we were circling and seemed to look at Abby. It convulsed and sprayed some sort of goo at him. Abby ducked out of the way and we could all hear the goo eating into the moss like some sort of acid.

Verakus summoned a glow spot to empower our magics. His new tongue twisted his spell in ways that I hadn't heard before but the glow spot appeared - about 5 times the size Verakus usually manages. Unfortunately he started to rant and screech again. His voice grew so loud that the tentacle exploded. We were all clutching our ears and screaming in pain but he couldn't shut up.

So I punched him out.

After we slapped him awake again we kept going following Bofus' instructions.

After another while - with no sun there was no way of tracking time - a tall shape loomed out of the mist. It was 15 feet tall, humanoid and purple. It looked at us and gestured. He squatted down, opened its hand and spoke to us in a language that none of us knew.

Bofus squeaked and I shot him a glare. "This is subject 349. We don't want to fight it," he whispered.

I rolled my eyes. "Verakus. Talk to him."

The hexer looked exasperated. "How do I know what language he's speaking?" At my glare he turned to 349. He said something in a language that I'd never heard before and his eyes bulged as he realised his jaw was doing the talking.

He translated back and forth with 349.

349 replied, "You called for help. We all heard you. I came. What do you want here?"

"Where is here?" Verakus asked him.

"What do you want here in Luathela?" 349 replied.

"Negotiate with him," said Bofus. Verakus looked over at me and I nodded back.

"We are seeking a stone plinth."

"The alien stone? What would you have with it?"

"Yes, the alien stone. We want to remove it."

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