The passage was damp. Lychen covered the walls and matts of drying green scum covered the floor. The air was heavy with the earthy smells of rot and mildew.

Jane wend around the worst of it until she caught up to Paul. He stood at a junction. The corridor they were in continued to the right, but the left wall had been breached, opening the way into a natural cave. "Which way, oh fearless leader?"

Jane closed her eyes and extended her new magical senses. The air flowing from the natural caves felt alive. There was an undercurrent of magic flowing over the stone. After walking through lifeless corridors it drew her. "I never claimed to be the leader." She said. "though this whole trip was my idea. I say we keep going left."

"Ladies first," Paul said doing an intricate bow and swishing the torch.

The floor here was uneven, the stone interspersed with patches of scree and mud. There were mushrooms everywhere, from tiny one smaller than Jane's pinky to some of the largest she had ever seen.

Names and properties trickled through Jane's head. What made it surreal was that none of this knowledge had been there yesterday. Sure mum had taken John mushrooming when he was little but they had always stuck to a few common variaties. Now she knew the bone white mushroom with the green tinge under the head was toxic, while its neighbour was just unpleasant, with a taste like old cabbage.

She picked her way forward, hunting for dry footing in the flickering candle light. Damn Paul for keeping the torch. "Careful for the purple ones, they explode if you get too close. Ooh mudcaps."

They were growing in a wide swath just past the clump of purple globe fungus. Though not much to look at, the plain brown mushrooms had several uses. She could get a good price if she could find somebody to buy them.

"You're picking Mushrooms now? What if they're poisonous?" Paul said.

Jane crouched in the mud and twisted the mature mushrooms out of the mycelium mat. There were enough for three doses of strength potion. "They're not, but those ones over there would kill you, painfully. These are quite hearty. Unless I can find madder, maybe Druid Starskie will trade me some."

"Since when do you know so much about mushrooms?"

Jane got up and dusted the knees of her britches, or at least the spot where her knees now were. "Since I became a witch. I got two points in Herbalism and two points in Forest Lore."

"This is a cave not a forest." Paul said.

Jane stowed her mushrooms in her loot sack. They continued in silence.

The passage angled upwards and broadened out to fifteen feet. The walls were more irregular and moist here, the limestone coming down in rippling sheets. Shadows danced about them taking the forms of lions, bears and other frightening beasts.

Jane shivered and kept her gaze on the ground where the shadows where not so suggestive. Paul would laugh his ass off if he realised how freaked out she was. "Just my imagination," she muttered under her breath.

"You say something?"

"I'm sorry for dragging you here unprepared. You're right we should have provisions, and equipment and potions."

Paul chuckled, "if we waited for that we'd never get out of Lambford. It's not like either of us get paid."

Up ahead the stone on the left opened up into a side passage. Jane followed it. It only ran for ten feet or so before turning sharply to the right and ending in a small room. She looked over her shoulder, "Paul, I need to pee, why don't you go back to the main passage and wait there."

"We should stick together," Paul said, "never split the party, it's what every adventurer that comes through dad's tavern says."

She glared at him, hopping from foot to foot. "It's a dead end. I'll be perfectly safe but if I catch you watching, I'll turn you into a frog."

"As if I'd want to watch someone pee." Paul said then stomped away, swinging the torch with each step.

She placed the candle on a small ledge on the wall, then loosened her britches. That would not work. With a loud sigh she stepped out of them entirely. It took a moment to find a comfortable position, squatting facing the wall, so she could use it for balance.

"Are you done yet?" Paul called from the main cave.

Done yet? She hadn't even started. The awareness of how much things had changed was distracting. She tried to release her bladder, but it only made the pressure worse, was she aiming the right way? Should she move her butt higher, or lower? The nerve of that boy. "You try peeing after getting all your bits changed."

The limestone wall was quite fascinating. She'd picked a spot where a miniature cave had formed with tiny stalactites and stalagmites intertwining like a toothy maw. Jane focused on the intricacies of how the stone had dripped and formed over countless years.

Her bladder released. She had to twist her hips to keep the stream from wetting her shoes. Worse yet, it left her feeling uncomfortably wet down there, no matter how she squirmed trying to shake things dry. She gave it up and stepped back into her britches and tied them in place.

Back in the main cave, Paul was standing in guards pose, legs together, back stright. The Torch held stright up in his left hand, and his right resting on the pomel of his short sword. He didn't so much as blink when she approached, his eyes remaining on the far wall of the passage. Not that she could have followed through with her threat. If there was a sorcery to turn someone into a frog, she didn't know it.

They resumed their exploration. The passage ended in a wide cavern. On the left the wall curved inwards broken by a rough hewn stairway heading up. On the right the wall fell away, opening into a chasm that disappeared beyond the reach of her candle or Paul's torch.

Jane stood as near the edge as she dared. The air here was colder, carrying a hint of winter and echoed with the sound of water tumbling over stone. Was it Alf the sacred river, or only some minor tributary? Whichever it was, the chasm offered no safe way to descend. "We go up, I guess."

Paul gestured for her to proceed. The stairs where slippery at first but grew drier as they ascended, Jane still in the lead. With every step the air grew fouler. At first it was just a hint but grew worse as they climbed. When they reached the top. the passageway stank like an over full leech pit.

like the stairs the landing was cut square, the limestone left marred with deep gouges. There was a single doorway, covered with a heavy curtain of raw hide.

Placing her feet toe first to make as little noise as possible, Jane edged along the left wall. She pushed the edge of the hide aside until she could see past it.

The room on the other side was large, twenty feet across and twice as long. It may have started as a naturual cave but the corneres had been worked square. Clusters of glowing crystal where spaced evenly along the eaves, they filled the space with a pale greenish light. A heavy door spanned the entire spinward end of the room. Made of black metal it reflected the crystal glow like spilt oil.

Three heavy grates marked cells along the far wall. The cell imediatly accross from her was empty, but she couldn't see into the other two. The cavern floor was covered in balding animal hides, there was also a crude table made of split logs hammered together with long iron nails, several stumps that could be used as seats, and a bedroll, sized for somthing much larger than a man.

Jane pushed through the curtain. The hide swelched under her feet. A cocaroch, at least two inches long slipped from beneath it and scuttled away. The smell was even worse here, and now that she was fully inside jane could see why.

The corner to her left was piled high with bones and excrement. A human skull had rolled out of the pile and lay propped against the wall, staring sightlessly back at her.

Jane shivered at the sight. She'd only ever seen one other skull before, Druid Starskie kept it on the highest shelf in his medicine hut. Becca told her that he had conversations with it. This skull was different. At some point it had been struck hard enough to leave the bone splintered right accross the top. What ever lived here was a killer.

As if in response to her thoughts the broom shivered in her hand, the bristles retracting. Its battle mode looked formidable. It wasn't just the lack of bristles but the knots that rose to the surface in just the right places. On a more mundane weapon iron rings would have been added at the same points.

She turned left, casting her eyes over the bedroll, if you could call it that. Really it was just a pile of hides maybe a dozen deep, four feet wide and eight feet long, and crawling with a virtual swarm of insects.

The shadows in the leftmost cell shifted, someone was crying. It was a soft, keening sound that went on and on. Jane's heart lurched. She clutched at Paul's free hand, "There's somebody here, in the cell."

"There's keys by the curtain, I'll get them," he whispered back.

Jane continued towards the far cell, while Paul went for the keys. She could see the prisoner now. Curled up at the very back of the cell was a naked woman, her skin pale and her body so thin that her ribs stuck out beneath her arms. She sat on the ground with her knees drawn up to her chest and her head down.

Jane pulled at the cell door. To her surpirse it swung open, she didn't need the keys after all. She placed the candle near the wall where it would be out of the way and slipped into the cell. "Hay there, can we help you?"

The girl at the back of the cell shivered but didn't move from her corner. She must have heard her, so why was she just sitting there? Jane froze in the centre of the cell. Something was off. The cell was clean, well cleaner than the room outside and the door had been wide open. So why wasn't the girl escaping?

The girl against the back wall uncurled and lurched towards Jane. Her body may have looked human, but her face did not. The eyes where wide and bright red, the jaw extended to accommodate the long and pointed teeth of a predator.

Jane moved without thinking, swinging her staff up to meet the creatures charge, striking it under the jaw hard enough to lift it clean off it's feet.

"Jane, don't hurt her" Paul called from behind her.

She backed out of the cell, eyes unblinking as she watched the creature. It lay in a heap against the wall, playing dead most likely. "It's not human, some kind of ghoul. See if you can find a key for this door."

The keys clanged as Paul tried them one after another in the lock, muttering under his breath when they failed to fit. The fifth key fit and turned with a squeal of rusted metal. "Got it."

Jane breathed deeply, glad to be out of the cell, and gagged on the stench. "Let's get out of here."

"Are you sure that's not a human girl? She looks normal enough."

The Ghoul moved, jumping up with a snarl, its red eyes focusing on them though the bars. It jumped, then kicked the wall lauching itself accross the cell. The latch on the door gave way with a loud snap. The ghoul dropped to the floor the moment the door swung open.

Jane sidestepped, holding a guard up with one hand as she fiddled with her coin pouch with the other, pulling out the goblin tooth. "Still look normal to you?"

Paul had sidestepped the other way, meaning that the thing couldn't attack one of them without turning its back on the other. Perhaps they were learning, Jane thought as it turned to face Paul.

The tooth between two fingers, Jane settled her mind. There was a pattern to doing sorcery. until now she had followed every step of centring and calling up life force, but there was no time. She said another word of power, "GOB!"

As stamina flowed from Jane to the tooth, it vibrated and grew. She flicked it away, then grasped her staff with both hands and swung it at the back of the ghoul's knee.

It hit with the crunch of cracking bone. The Ghoul screamed. Paul feinted with the torch, making the ghoul dodge right, then came in with his short sword.

The sword dug into the ghoul's neck, severing muscle and tendon until it came to rest against its spine. Black ichor sprayed from the wound.

Jane backed away to avoid the noxious stuff. Beside her the tooth inflated, turning darker as it filled. Once the transformation was complete, a Golbin stood in its place, dressed in leather rags and clutching a rusty short sword. It squealed wordlessly and rushed into the fray, hacking at the other side of the Ghoul's neck.

The monster's spine parted with a sickening squelch, and the head tumbled to the ground. Its body twitched twice as if to strike out with its claws and then also fell.

"Well that was a waste of Stamina." Jane said, kicking at the ghoul to make sure it was dead. It shook form the contact but showed no signs of life, or was that unlife? Jane wasn't sure.

Paul circled the goblin which now stood at ease, a few feet away from Jane. Its passivity was a testament that despite appearances it was not a real goblin. A real goblin would have been sniffing at its environment, but this one didn't move, not even when Paul poked it with his finger. "Neat, you should name it."

"No point, it will disappear soon." she said, heading towards the next cell. It looked empty, but now that they were here a through search was prudent.

Paul marched over to the goblin and tapped it on sholders with the flat of his sword. "I dub thee Bob, slayer of Ghouls. He doesn't get the experience does he?"

Jane shook her head and went back to searching the cell. At least there was no sign of another ghoul. If something was hiding in the straw it had to be small. "Don't name it, you'll get attached. It's my construct so any experience it gets goes to me."

Her staff had sprouted bristles again. She used it to move the dirty straw out of the way, just in case there was something worth taking hidden in there. She saw the first coin moments later. "Hay Paul, their's coins under the straw!"

He rushed into the cell and started scattering straw in all directions as he searched the other side of it.

"Bob, hold the door open" Jane said, pointing at the goblin. Great she thought, why did Paul have to name it? Now she was going to feel sorry when it disipated.

Jane squatted down, and ran her hands beneath the strew, pulling out two more coins. Then her hand landed on a length of chain. It moved, undulating like a snake. Then a loop of it caught about her wrist and pulled her towards the wall.

Jane tried to pull away, but her hand would not come free. While she was wrestling with it another length of chain coiled out of the straw on her left and caught her other wrist. Both chains grew taunt, the links whipping about her wrists. The chains ended in manacles, made of the same oily black metal as the spinward door. The pair of them snapped open and shut about her wrists. For a moment the chains went slack and then they began pulling towards opposit corners of the wall. Jane found herself pressed against the stone, her arms stretched out as far as they would go. "Paul?"

"Let me guess, you're manacled to the wall." He said from somewhere behind her.

"How'd you know?"

"Because I'm manacled to the other wall." he said in a deadpan voice.

"That's ok, I know a spell for this." She said focusing on her breathing. In and out, in and out. She set aside the burn in her over stretched muscles and joints. She set aside the fear that whatever lived here could return at any moment. There was only the breath, and her life force and her sorcery. Jane opened her eyes and intoned the word of power, "DOP!"

The drain of her Stamina was familiar now. she felt it travelling up her arms towards the manacals, and then it twisted, cascading back like ice-water, making her shiver. The cold traveled over her skin until it reached her throat. "Taft Hon?"

"What happened?" Paul said.

They couldn't make eye contact. No matter how Jane twisted, she could see nothing but the cell wall. "Grah Mara, Ton pad," she said, "Graphy!"

"Something tells me that spell didn't do what you expected," Paul said, "I'll get us out, give me a moment."

Paul Grunted several times, then she heard chain striking stone.

Jane followed the sound as he strolled across the cell, jangling the keys as he went. "Hold on, one of these should open your manacles."

He got it on the second try.

The moment Jane was free she ran out of the cell, with Paul close behind her. Just the few minutes being chained up where enough to chafe her wrists. The manicals Paul had escaped hung from the far wall, they were still locked. She looked at her friend then pointed to the manacles."Burg dat?"

"I've got fat wrists." he said, "I got nine gold from that, how about you?"

Jane held up eight fingers. "Blar."

Pauls lips moved, but Jane couldn't hear him over the screech of metal against stone. The door on the spinward wall lifted, revealing a grey skinned humanoid at least seven feet tall. It wore animal skins wrapped around its waist, and nothing else.

The Ogre, for that was what the monster was, ducked under the door and let it crash back into place. Its eyes looked too small for its head, almost disappearing between its thick brow ridges and protruding jaw. It sniffed the air, its nostrils flaring. Its ears twitched left and right and then it turned towards them and banged a rough club against the floor. With a bone shaking bellow the Ogre charged, bringing its club around in a wide low arc.

Bob blared a war cry and ran forward swinging its short sword at the Ogre's knee. The Ogre clubbed him against the wall with enough force to make him burst into ectoplasm.

Clutching her staff before her, Jane dropped into her defensive stance, looking from the Ogre to the exploded goblin and back again "Fragale!"

Paul crouched beside her, waving the torch before him, to keep the Ogre at bay. He followed with a jab of his short sword. "For Bob!"

The trick may have worked on the Ghoul, but the ogre was having none of that. It batted the torch away and pushed towards them, snarling as it came.

Jane retreated, back towards the curtain. Walking backwards down stairs, in the dark while fighting an Ogre seemed like a stupid thing to do, but it was the only option open right now.

The ogre swung high, they ducked, then low on the backswing, they jumped. Paul cleared the club with inches to spare, but Jane wasn't quick enough. The tree sized weapon clipped her foot and sent her spinning through the air.

The Ogre bore down on Paul. He retreated, but was already almost in the midden, boxed in by his much larger foe.

Jane rolled forwards from where she had landed, and sprang up, ignoring the throbbing pain in her left foot. She thrust with her quarter staff, putting every once of weight behind her weapon. the end of it stuck the Ogre just below his left ear.

It roared in pain and backhanded her without looking. Its thick meaty hand striking her chest with enough force to send her flying for the second time. she hit the wall between the cells, hard enough to make her see stars. At least the pain in her skull distracted her from the pain in her chest. She landed on all fours gasping for breath.

The Ogre lumbered towards her, ignoring Paul for the moment, then swung the club in an upward arc.
It caught her full in the face and chest, sending her airborn for the third time. She caught a glimps of Paul, rushing the Ogre from behind, his sword swinging down towards the monsters leg and coming up bloody on the other side. He was screaming something, and his face glistened with tears. A notification obstructed Jane's view.

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED, MOSTLY DEAD.

She slumped to the floor, and everthing went black.

Authors Note

There has been one more minor ninja edit. North in part 1 is now rimwards as I've decided this is story is taking place on a discworld, though not the Discworld. This one has glacier covered mountains along the outermost edge, and a single large ocean in the middle. Our story takes place on the ring of temperate land, about 500 miles from the Rimwolds. As to what is keeping the world up, well no one has ever seen past the Rimwolds, so who knows? Giant space turtles will neither be confirmed nor denied.

Part 4 is already written and will be posted next week.