Paul Kidd - Queen of the Demonweb Pits

Enid pounced into a knot of bugbears. Clubs lashed at her, and she took the head off a bugbear with one huge swipe of her paw.

At the iron wall, Escalla found herself the focus of a dozen charging monsters. She shrieked, turned into a small pink blob, and flowed out of her clothes, which stayed stuck to the wall. Clubs crashed onto the wall, and the blob-faerie rose up, boiling with fury.

"Bastards!"

Bugbears slammed a blow onto Henry's helmet, making the metal ring. An instant later, Escalla trilled a twisted scream, and the ground before Henry boiled with huge black tentacles. The black tentacles lashed out to crush and strangle half a dozen bugbears, shielding Henry from harm. Escalla-the-blob wiped her nonexistent nose and turned back to the fight, just in time to be hit by a club and go ricocheting from the walls like a rubber ball. She landed like a splat of pudding, shook herself in anger, and mottled herself polka-dot in rage.

"That does it!"

Power flashed, and a flaming point of searing heat appeared. Twisting a bugbears arm and breaking it, the Justicar took one appalled glance and dropped flat beneath Cinders's fireproof hide.

"Enid! Duck!"

The sphinx wailed and leaped over a dozen bugbears, landing behind Escalla as the blob fired. A fireball flashed into the far side of the room and exploded with apocalyptic force. At the center of the blast, bugbears vaporized. Others flew in smoking chunks through the air. Ecalla-the-blob laughed in maniacal glee, then stared in shock as a wave of heat raced straight toward her.

The force of the explosion bowled her and Enid back into one of the bugbears' alcoves. Still stuck on the wall Henry screamed as the hedge of black tentacles in front of him vaporized. Scorched but alive, the boy opened his eyes and stared in dazed amazement at a room that smoked in total ruin. The only uncharred thing in view was Cinders's gleaming teeth. The dog sniffed the breeze and happily thumped his tail.

Big bada-boom! Funny!

"Real funny." The Justicar, scorched around the edges and extremely annoyed, rose from beneath Cinders. He kicked a flaming bugbear out of his way then stuck his head into the alcove where Enid and Escalla staggered.

Enid was totally devoid of fur and feathers, and the tuft of her tail was on fire. Escalla-the-blob was now charred black, her two eyes showing white, dazed shock. The Justicar staggered over to Enid and used his last healing spell to repair her burns and restore her dignity. The big man held Escalla by the scruff of her protoplasm and shook the blob free of soot.

"I am now out of healing spells, and we have no healing potions. You personally have done more damage to us than the entire Abyss."

"Just me?" The faerie-blob coughed smoke rings. "H-hoopy! D-did we find any treasure?"

A gem lay on the floor amidst a nest of rags. The Justicar swept it up and shoved it in Escalla's mouth, planting her on the floor. He then returned to Henry and wrenched him free of the magnetized wall. Walking against the vast pull of the magnet, he wrestled Henry outside, then returned to retrieve Escalla's clothing, his helmet, and Benelux.

The magic sword cursed and babbled in absolute outrage. It won't do, sir! It shall not do! I have never been so humiliated - not since the day that I was forged!

Struggling to tow the sword out of the room, the Justicar merely growled.

Warming to her tirade, Benelux's voice rose like a matron-martyr. No, sir, it shall not do! I have been wielded by kings, sir! By demigods! Demigods! By heroes bold! The sword lacked lungs, and so had no need to pause for breath. That it should come to this - a victim of mere clumsiness. To be dropped in combat by a chosen warrior…

The Justicar opened his hand, and the sword flew through the air to clang against the magnetized wall. Benelux squawked in shock and pain and then went into a magnificent sulk.

Very well. We shall acknowledge that there may have been extenuating circumstances just this once.

Not bothering to answer, the Justicar wrenched the sword off the wall and began towing her back outside.

The sword squawked at her rough handling. Hmph! I had thought that romance might mellow your attitude toward the social graces.

"Nope."

I can see that.

The party gathered out on the open path, dusting blackened armor, snuffing out flames, and trying to repair their gear. The Justicar-flameproof in his hell hound skin and dragon scales- looked at Escalla with an expectant air.

The faerie had just changed back into her normal form and was contemplating the charred ruins of her underwear. She caught the Justicar's look and instantly went on the defensive.

"Like it was my fault!" The faerie tossed the blue bugbear gem into the portable hole. "Who killed all the bugbears anyway? Me!"

The Justicar simply looked at her, and Escalla squirmed.

"Fine. It was my suggestion to go into the room in the first place, but that does not make me actually responsible!"

No answer came, and Escalla wriggled on the hook.

"Oh, man! I thought love meant never having to say you're sorry!" Jerking her clothing on, Escalla fussed with her straps and skirt. "All right. Sorry! But I'm saying it in a sense of regret for mutual misadventure-not in responsibility! What do you want me to say?"

The Justicar retied his helmet's chin strap. " 'Sorry everyone for blowing you up.' "

"Nnnng!" Escalla took it all with extreme ill grace. "Sorry everyone for blowing you up!"

" 'I promise not to blow up my friends for at least another week.' "

"All right already! Don't rub it in!" The girl kicked at a smoking chunk of bugbear. "Damn it! I promise not to blow you all up for another week. Two weeks! There! Are you happy?"

Enid was looking between her hind legs in shock. "What happened to my tail?"

"Nothing!" Escalla busily dusted the sphinx's new-grown fur. "Get your spare clothes out of the portable hole, honey. You're suffering from fallout here. Hey, guys? Great new plan! We open only the doors Jus tells us to-and leave the other ones alone!"

Henry rubbed the lump on his skull and said, "Good plan."

Escalla's underwear and accessories gave up the ghost, falling to earth in a dust of ashes. "Damn it! That was my best silk!"

Cinders grinned in glee. Funny!

"Yeah, hilarious." Escalla fed charred underwear to the hell hound. "There! Live it up!" Angry, scorched, and with her clothes smelling of soot, Escalla stamped off along the path. "Lolth had better have some decent treasure! This adventure is playing havoc with my wardrobe." The girl left sooty clouds behind her as she walked "Come on! Let's get into the palace while we still have a sense of style!"

The paths twisted back on themselves for another half mile. With one eye peering down the long, empty pathway around the next corner, the Justicar checked for marks and signs. The pathway seemed clean and untouched. The only sign of life was a blundering pack of giant spiders that moved steadily away along another road. The Justicar let the spiders go, then waved his friends to follow as he moved out into the path.

Henry stood quietly beside the Justicar, examining the door that hung in space up ahead. It was the next point marked upon the mysterious map.

"No sign of Recca, sir?"

"None." The Justicar nodded to the door ahead. "But these doors are probably guarded. There's no way past the guards without leaving signs of a fight."

"He can't have keys, sir. Not the way we do."

"He knows we're heading for the spider palace. He might find a different route."

Leading the way, the Justicar crept up to the door and inspected it carefully for traps. Escalla cracked her knuckles noisily, approached the door, then changed into a sea slug with eyes upon long stalks. She inserted her eyes through the crack of the door and carefully looked about. Her voice spoke through a breathing tube behind the slug's red mantle.