A sharp mind and quick reflexes (Tylag)

[Catalyst]

The day had started out fine, but as the darkening drew near, the sky began to cloud over with a speed that one only saw in Demios. Tylag was on his way home from some errand or another, suspected that he better hurry if he wished to stay dry.

As he went, he noticed a woman bent over at the edge of the street. She seemed to be suffering from intense stomach pain, from the way she held herself with her arms and moaned. He heard her mutter something to herself mournfully in a language Tylag did not understand.

[Tylag]

Tylag had been heading back to his place of residence after just wanderingthrough the city for fun. The dwarf glanced at the sky. The Darkening drew nearer and the sky began to cloud over with the spee Tylag had began to associate with Deimos. "I better hurry if I don't want to be overtaken by the storm." Tylag muttered out loud.

As the dwarf hurried on his way he ducked his head and began to continue on his way. As he glanced over the street the Dwarf noticed a woman bent over clutching her stomach and moaning. The lady mourned someting. the dwarf didn't catch what she said. That and the language she spoke was not one the dwarf was familar with.

Tylag paused as he contemplated the woman and what to do with the woman's situation. Tylag headed over to the woman but before he did he mentally reviewed his weapons and quickly checked the area to see if there was soeone who was lurking maybe ready to take advantage of the situation.

As Tylag approached he said "Serale"o the woman hoping she understood.

[Catalyst]

Tylag scanned the area and found himself to be largely alone with the woman. A few late evening pedestrians were hurrying along on the opposite side of the road and further up the street, no doubt anxious to get indoors before the weather turned foul, but the woman and Tylag were standing outside of a large warehouse, and there was no convenient hiding places for anyone to lurk within easy reach of the woman.

As he grew closer, he could see that the hands that held her stomach had blood on them, and that blood stained her dress. She looked up at him as he approached. This was the first good look he'd had of her face, and it was full of fear. "kab! Kab yats!" she yelled. Then a cloud of black vapor errupted from her mouth and enveloped Tylag.
The world spun, and a second later blackness closed in from the side of his vision like the drawing of a curtain.

When Tylag awoke, he found that he was uncomfortable. He seemed to be lying on some rough volcanic stone, and it mashed painfully into his back. The air was full of the sour smells of unwashed humanity overlayed heavily with the acrid stench of burning hair. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was in a tiny nearly spherical cave, about 5 feet across. There was a small opening in the cave through which Tylag would just fit, and from the opening came a variety of disturbing human noises, wails of despair, shouts of pain, and occasionally just voices talking.

A small girl, perhaps 9 eras old, crouched nearby, glaring at him suspiciously. She was clad in dirty rags and her feet were bare, and she held a torch in one hand and a dead rat in the other. The rat was blackened, and it was apparent that she had been toasting the rat in the flames of the torch.

"Don't take my rat!" she said with feeling. "I didn't take your weapon and I could have had a thousand glarches for it easy." Hungrily she took a bite out of the side of the rat, her eyes never leaving Tylag.

Tylag found that he was now wearing a pair of greasy leather shorts, low topped boots and nothing else. His warhammer, however, lay across his chest.

[Tylag]

Tylag's glance showed him very few people around besides him and the woman. Mainly there were a few pedestrians along the opposite end of the street farther up the road. There was a large warehouse that the woman and Tylag stood outside it. There was no obvious place for someone to be hiding and the lady to be a setup for a crime.

Tylag's opinon of the likelhood of this lady being a setup dropped when he noticed the woman with blood on her hands and there was blood on her dress. The woman must have heard Tylag approach for she looked up at him. Fear radiated from her face. the woman suddenly yelled something intelligble.

Then just as suddenly a black vapor erupted from her mouth. Tylag lurched backwards trying to avoid the black mist. The vapor enveloped Tylag and the world spun Tylag threw out his left hand in an attempt to grab hold of something. Blackness then closed in from the sides of the dwarfs vision.

Tylag awoke to find first of all he was uncomfortable. The dwarf felt stone pressed against his back. Tylag tried to sit up. the seocnd thing that impressed himself on the dwarf was the smells of unwashed humanity and the sell of burning hair. :Adn people say dwarfs smell bad." Tylag muttered.

Tlag then noticed he was in a tiny spherical cave. There wasa small opening through which the dwarf thought he just might fit. A girl stood nearby and started yelling about her rat and she didn't touch her weapons. At that Tylag picked up his warhamer. and glanced at the girl in time to find her taking a bite out of the rat. The young dwarfs stomach heaved at the sight.

Tylag noticed when picking up his weapon. "Where are my clothes and other weapons." Tylag said and turned to the girl. "Where am I." The dwarf asks curiously.

[Catalyst]

"Where are my clothes and other weapons."

"Gone! Gone! Like a spider in the furnace!" The girl said mournfully. She took another bite of rat. "You came only with those things. You are richer than most, and should not complain."

"Where am I."

The girl looked puzzled. "You are in the caves of Kel of course. What other place is there?" She seemed to consider as she chewed her undercooked meat. "I have heard stories of other places. Airam used to speak of a place where two great lights glow in a ceiling of blue high above, and a movement of air called 'wind' blows the stench away, and long candlemarks go by in which no one hurts you. But these places are not real. Only Kel is real, and Airam was stabbed in the belly and thrown into the mist."

[Tylag]

The girl resonded to Tylag's inquiry. The girl's comment and revelation that he came with more then most. The girl looked puzzled when Tylag asked where they were. "What other places are there. There are many that I have visted and many more I haven't visited" the dwarf exclaimed.

The girl mentioned a perosn named Airam who talked about what to the dwarf was the sky and the wind. Airam must be the woman who I saw in Deimos with the blood stained dress The dwarf thought to himself.

At the mention of being hurt the dwarf asked the girl. "Who hurts you and the other whose cries of pain I can hear? And what is this mist you speak of." Tylag asked cautiously. Tylag paused a moment. "How many of you are there in the caves of Kel."

[Catalyst]

The girl stared at Tylag in amazement. "Do you not know? But of course...you are just born. We are inmates, everyone hurts us. The Arachnidmen hurt us, we hurt each other, and we hurt ourselves. Otherwise Kel will not give us things. Pain is how we live." She picked the liver out of the rat and ate it. "There are 23 of us in Jagged Wound wing, 24 now that you are here. I don't know how many are in other wings, they are forbidden to us."

"See?" She held out her torch. "I burned my hand off to the wrist to get it. It took four times ten sleeps to grow back, but now I need not eat my rats raw."

She pulled up the skirt of her ragged dress, so show a fresh bloody wound on her thigh. "I cut this in myself so that Kel would give me the rat. That is how things work. You go to Kel and you ask for things, and he tells you how much pain is required to gain it, if he wishes you to have it at all. When your wits leave you and Kel has no further use for you, you are stabbed and tossed into the cave of mist and whoosh, you are gone. Later, another inmate is born. Some, like you, have dreams. It must be pleasant to have dreams of crazy places where there is no pain. I cannot imagine them myself."

"Some try to go to the mists without their stabbing. It is told that another place is on the other side of the mist, a place without Kel. But I say it is better to stay here. I do not know how I would get my rats in another place, and if the Arachnidmen catch you near the cave of mists you will be skinned alive by broken stones."

"The Arachnidmen will not like you to have a hammer. You might go wild and hit one of them with it. Weapons are frowned upon by Kel for us inmates. They will take it from you if they find it. You should sell it to one who wishes to run for the mist, they will give you nice things for your hammer."

[Tylag]

Tylag listened as the girl explained their situation. "Inmates. What was your crimes." Tylag spluttered. The dwarf's eyes narrowed who is this Kel. "I may need to speak to him. The idea that your life is based on pain if foolishness." "Listen to me." the dwarf paused "I believe I have forgotten one thing. what is your name." Tylag said as he knelt down to look at the girl.

The girl showed the dwarf a bloody wound which she explained was the price for her rat. The young girl talked that once you lose your wits you are stabbed and sent through the mist.

Tylag placed his hand on the girls shoulder. "Listen what I will tell you is the truth. Where I am from on the other side of the mist there is no need to inflict pain to get what you want. I know other ways to get your rats on the other side of the mist, and ways to get other food which is better then rats."

Tylag paused when the girl mentioned others who wanted to head into the mists. "How many of these Arachnidmen are there in this wing and nearby." Tylag asked carefully.

[Catalyst]

Tylag took a closer look at the girl, and noted how thin she was. It was small wonder, as she lived primarily on rats, and any eating she did required pain.

"Crimes?" She said. "I do not know of crimes. You may ask Kel for these crimes if you want them, and if he is willing to bestow them and you pay the price, they may be yours."

"I do not know how many arachnidmen there are. They come, they go, traveling alone or in pairs. They have weapons and their skin is hard, it is best to hide from them."

"Once I was called Isel, but now they call me torch-girl. It is enough of a name. I know nothing of the other side of the mist. It is not my time to go there yet, and I do not care to be stabbed. If you would talk to Kel, I will take you, but if the arachnidmen find us you must let me hide behind you and take my beating. I have had my rat and do not need to venture out for myself."

[Tylag]

Tylag couldn't believe how thin the girl was. But then she was eating priamrily rats and that cost her a wound. The dwarf furrowed his brow when the girl said she didn't know about any cirmes which would have placed her in the Jagged Prison ward.

The thin girl gave her name is Isel but now she claimed her title was torch girl. In response to Tylag's question about the arachnidmen. The girl said she didn't know there numbers but they came in pairs and alone. A interesting point Isel did mention is the arachnidmen are armed.

The girl did say she could take Tylag to see Kel. "Before we go see Kel would it be possible to meet the other inmates of Jagged Wound Ward." Tylag asked.

Tylag had been thinking while trying to get information about his current place. The dwarf wanted to leave this place but he couldn't leave all this people in this existence. This left the dwarf with a problem how to unite twenty-three others to escape when possibly some might not want to leave what they know.

Tylag looked around and felt uncomfortable with the felling of his skin exposed to the air. The dwarf had worn armor for so long it felt weird to not be wearing it. The dwarf was worried with being discovered. He didn't now if any of the inmates would sell him out to the Arachnidmen but had to view the event as a possiblity. Additonally Tylag wondered whether a immediate break to the caves of mist and trying to utilize the advantage of suprise would be best.

"Isel what is the relation between Kel and the Arachnidmen." Tylag asked curiously.

[Catalyst]

"Before we go see Kel would it be possible to meet the other inmates of Jagged Wound Ward." Tylag asked.

"I do not mind what you do, as long as you don't lead the arachnidmen here to beat me. The others are scattered here and there about the cave. I don't see what good it will do, most will not be as friendly as me because they're bigger and don't have to be."

"I've always thought the arachnidmen worked for Kel, but I don't know that they talk to him. You have to put blood in his mouth to make him speak, and I've never seen them do that."

The girl seemed to be growing nervous about talking. Her eyes darted to the entrance to their cave from time to time, and she spoke in hushed tones.

[Tylag]

Torch girl said the inmates didn't keep together they were spread which struck the dwarf as odd unitl he remembered she had said the inmates hurt each other. Their way of limiting pain as much as possible by spreading out.

The dwarf saw the girl get nervous about talking and she kept glancing at the entrance to the cave. the torch girl said that the Arachnidmen seeed to be under Kel but she had never seen them talk to Kel.

"If you don't want to be around me anymore. I understand but thanks for the information." the dwarf said and he walked over to the entrance to the cave.

[Catalyst]

A variety of odd expressions moved across torchgirl's face. "You do not seem a bad person, you did not take my rat. I do not mind talking to you as the long periods between sleep way heavy in this lair. But if you make noise you draw attention to yourself, and that is never good. The arachnidmen will hurt you for their pleasure, and so it is best to not be noticed. Do you wish to see Kel now?"

The entrance of the cave was not much of a walk, it was only a few feet away. Now that Tylag got close though he could see that the small cave opened out into a larger one. The walls were rough and natural, unmarked by mining tools. The place was suffused in a deep gloom, illuminated only by a luminous lichen that cast a sickly green light from patches on the walls. To Tylag's dwarven vision though, it was not at all difficult to see.

To his left, the passage went about 3 yards and then angled sharply, turning away from him. To the right, the passage extended a good 30 yards before curving lazily to the right. Something was coming down the passage to the right. It was large, perhaps 7 feet tall, and consisted of a bulbous thorax from which four grotesquely hairy legs extended. Above the thorax the body bent into an upright posture, featuring four arms. One arm carried a whip, and the other a club made of a leg bone with iron barbs sticking out of it. The head sported 6 glittering eyes, and mandibles that slobbered a nasty ooze.

The arachnidman moved towards Tylag, radiating self-assurance.

[Tylag]

As it turned out the girls glances towards the cave were not out of fear of the darf as the dwarf had originally thought but as she talked it turned out the she was afraid of noise. According to the girl she feared noise because it brought the archanidmen.

As the girl talked Tylag looked into the cave and saw the cave opened into a bigger cave. Tylag was about to answer in the affirmative that he wanted to see Kel when something came down the corridor. The only words the dwarf could use to describe the thing was a monstrosity.

The monster was part bug and additionally part human. There was a thorax and four legs and above that was a torso with four arms two of which carried weapons. In one hand there was a whip and another hand held a club which looked remarkably like bone.

The creature came directly towards Tylag glowing with self assurance. Time to end their confidence this inmate fights back Tylag thought to himself. Tylag debated on staying where he was and fighting in enclosed space of the smaller cave. But decided against that route when he realized Torch girl was in the cave with him.

Tylag grasped his warhammer with both hands wishing he had his daggers and armor and shield with him. He felt uncomfortabe without the added weaponry. The dwarf stepped into the path of the creature and lifted his warhammer and charged the creature.

[Catalyst]

The arachnidman continued towards Tylag, showing no fear. Its hairy feet gave it a good purchase in the loose soil of the cave, but Tylag too was in his element, as his forefathers from time immemorial had lived and worked in caves such as this.

It swung its whip at Tylag, attempting to drive him back, and the lash fell across his shoulder and back leaving a mark of searing pain. It swung its bone club as well, but this Tylag parried with his hammer, his momentum carrying into a close range that would make it awkward for the monster to use it's club.