Monster Fucker - Redux Ch. 04

"Says the suck up."

"Better than rotting down here when everyone's partying."

A grumble

"So, what you doing here anyway? You here to relieve us?"

A snicker.

"As if, the old lady'd kill me if I didn't come home today, just here to tell y'all I'll see ya'll after the weekend, and that Lady Chün wants ya'll on another shift first thing tomorrow."

A collective groan.

"You got to be kidding me."

"I ain't the ones who pissed off a noble."

"Shit wasn't even our fault; the woman just has..."

"Yeah, not my problem, just be happy ya'll weren't thrown into the tower or something after that fuck up."

Fuck..."

"Anyways, I gots to get laid, so see ya'll later."

"Ah, just shut up Toshi, she ain't all that."

"Whatever, least I ain't got to pay for it," the third guard said as he made his way back up the passageway. Once more he passed by Harold without a glance, disappearing out the doorway several moments later as the remaining pair returned to their conversation with sourer moods. With their attentions once more distracted, Harold peeked out of the alcove, judged the distance, crushed the glass vials sequestered within the porous balls, held his breath, and tossed them. And with an inaudible plop, they landed neatly at their feet, expelling their colorless, odorless contents a moment later. In another moment they collapsed to the ground with a thud.

With his breath still held, Harold made his way down the remainder of the way. Though the mask around his nose and mouth filtered out most of the quickly dissipating gas, it was never good practice to take any chances with skunk-sloth gas. There was a reason, even the creatures the damn thing came from, scampered away as quickly as they could whenever they expelled the gas.

Once more reaching into one of the myriad pockets lining his suit, he plucked out several iron-spider silk ties. As effective as sloth gas was, it was still a good idea not to get surprised. And with his abysmal fighting skills, it was better safe than sorry.

Guards secured, gagged, and given another dose of gas, Harold once more popped his neck and turned to the real challenge.

The vault door, though it was more a grey slab of metal inset into a wall, more than an actual vault door. It was a rather unimpressive sight, but it didn't make it any less formidable; it was after all a Gregor and McClain...

Squinting," huh, an A-series," Harold muttered to himself," this should be easier than I thought," he added, producing a pair of finger-length metal styluses as he set to work.

The A-series or as it was better known within the vaunted dwarvin guild's engineer's troop," the artificer's lie," was a masterpiece of a vault. Packing a maze of destructive runic inscriptions, an iron door reinforced with adamantium, stasis traps, ETC. The thing was a beauty and would have taken nothing less than a dragon or an archmage to open it without a key. An impossible task, but there was a reason the greedy bastards at Gregor and McClain always laughed when they installed one of the damnable things.

"There you are," Harold whispered, finding the seem of the vault's maintenance hatch. It'd taken nearly two tankards of grung ale and a throbbing hangover to get the information but given how many of the vaults were spread throughout Shijin, it'd been worth it. At least it wasn't one of their masterwork vaults, Harold thought as he set to work on the series of runes inset into the tube that controlled the door's locking and defensive mechanisms.

"In the event of a default," the drunk engineer had chortled between his tenth mug of ale.

"Yeah, right," Harold snickered to himself as he set the last tumbling rune into the guild's override configuration," ya'll are just greedy sods," he finished as the tumblers clicked into place and the door silently slid open behind his crouched form.

Closing the hatch and stuffing his tools back into his clothes, Harold stepped into the vault.

The space was cavernous, unlit, and had its walls lined with row upon row of lockboxes inscribed with Imperial script and common numbers. Whistling silently to himself, he took it all in. It would have taken forever to search every one of the boxes, but thankfully the canary's talon around his neck was good for something besides leaving him in crippling pain.

With gentle tweets and subtle throbs, he quickly found the lockbox, picked it's lock, and gazed disappointedly at what lay within.

Thought it'd be bigger, he mused, looking at the pocket-sized leather-bound book. Shaking his head, he gingerly reached for the book, as unimpressive as it looked, it was still valuable. And Harold was nothing if he didn't appreciate valuable things.

So, with a gentle touch, he grasped the book and was gone.

~Alex/Eliza/Lisa

It'd taken another three or so more days of traveling by junk and another day of hard trekking, but they eventually reached Dawnspoint. And like Eliza and Lisa had thought the thing was barely an outpost. It was more a crumbling tower of stone and vine-covered wood, but it was at least well-maintained. Or as well-maintained as an undermanned outpost in the middle of an unforgiving jungle could be.

The soldiers weren't any better with their haggard appearances, worn weapons, and patched together uniforms.

It was no wonder that the payment for this delivery was a bit higher than usual and the guild was making contracts for things they usually didn't deliver. The men were barely supplied and with Jacque's penchant for squeezing out as much money from any given deal.

"I should have charged more," Lisa muttered to herself as they approached.

"Hold," a round-faced guard with enough bags beneath his eyes to carry an army's worth of groceries greeted," this is a..." he started, shuffling over with a hand on the sword on his hip.

Eliza quirked an eyebrow, a question in her expression, while Alex took a tentative step back.

Lisa shook her head, ""we're here on a delivery," she said, presenting their contract from within her pack.

"Oh," the soldier sighed, relieve tinging his tired features," ya'll are with the Iron guild."

"Yeah."

Another sigh," we were bout to start eating our shoes, if ya'll hadn't gotten here sooner."

Eliza rolled her eyes, Alex looked surprised, and Lisa just nodded and smiled as they were motioned into the tower.

"Where're the goods anyway? I don't..."

"I got it," Eliza said, pulling out her sleeping familiar from her dangling pouch.

"oh." he said, his eyes going wide," ya an artificer?"

And with their delivery made, the three found themselves seated in the tower's common area with Eliza's familiar floating as always behind the blonde's head, though its glow was dimmer than it once was.

"So, what now?" Eliza asked, looking around the decrepit interior and the haggard looking soldiers bumbling about, though they looked happier with their supplies delivered. Why the idiots didn't just hunt for food was utterly beyond Eliza," not much to do around here."

"Yeah," Lisa said," but Alex wants to explore the Talon and besides," she added with a smile," I have a surprise for you."

Eliza quirked an eyebrow as Alex looked up from the table she'd rested her head on.

"What sort of surprise?"

"Do you feel like delving?"