Kate Novak - Masquerades

"Just like old times," Olive said in an excited whisper. "My brains, your brawn. A dusty dungeon, the hint of danger. Now all we need is-"

The door rotated a full ninety degrees, and something clattered to the ground behind it. Gold coins glinted in the lantern light as they rolled across the floor.

"— treasure," Olive concluded, handing Dragonbait back his weapon. With a squeal of delight, she pressed her way past the two warriors.

The cellar floor was carpeted with a layer of shifting gold coins and a smattering of silver utensils, bowls and tea services. It appeared that a mound of treasure had been piled up against the secret door. Olive went scuffling through the coins like a child kicking up fallen leaves in the autumn, humming happily. Her practiced eye made a quick survey for gems, jewels, or particular stunning pieces of silver, but there were none of those. She contented herself by rolling about atop the coins and washing her hands in them with a laugh.

"Not bad at all," the halfling said with a sigh. "It doesn't appear that the current owners know anything about the secret passage, or this treasure wouldn't have been left so conveniently in our path."

Alias frowned as she peered at the glistening walls around the dungeon. "Olive," she whispered, "do you remember the walls down here being damp?"

"Bound to be some seepage in a basement this deep," the halfling replied, scooping handfuls of coins into her pockets. The halfling giggled as she moved down the corridor. "I can just picture whoever settled Cassana's estate trying to sell the old place. Yes, Madam, the walls of the basement do leak, but that's a minor inconvenience when you consider the value. Four bedrooms, single bath, prison cells in the basement. The previous owner was a notorious sorceress. She lived here quietly with her undead lover. Did I mention the secret passageway-"

Olive froze in her tracks, literally, one foot poised over the ground in a step that never came down. She remained motionless and, even stranger for Olive, speechless.

Dragonbait took a step toward the curiously immobile, suspended halfling, but Alias caught him by the arm. She bent down, grabbed a handful of coins, and flung them down the corridor. The air about them seemed to ripple and surge for a moment, then the coins hung in the air, just as did the halflmg's foot.

Realizing now what caused the walls to glisten, Alias raised her sword and sprang forward. "It's a gelatinous cube!" she shouted. "It's swallowed Ohve. We've got to cut her out before she suffocates!"

The scavenging monster had been practically invisible in the lantern light, but the adventurers could now see it rippling as the creature, alerted to their movements, slithered toward the secret door in an effort to engulf them. It had no intelligence, so its attack was purely instinctual, and it towered over them and blocked the passage completely.

Alias struck first with a sweeping semicircular cut along one side of the cube, wide enough to miss the imprisoned halfling but close enough to loosen the monster's grip. Dragonbait began slicing at the jellylike creature with his flaming sword, creating great scorching gashes in its side. The smell of burning flesh permeated the air. With her free hand Alias grabbed Olive's shirt collar and pulled hard. There was a soft sucking sound as the cube attempted to draw the halfling deeper into its digestive interior.

Knowing that the gelatinous cube exuded a slime capable of paralyzing even the largest of prey, Alias shifted backward to avoid contact with the creature and nearly lost her grip on the halfling.

The warrior woman stabbed the creature and released the hilt of her sword. With both hands clenched on the halflmg's shirt, she yanked with all her might.

There was a squishing noise, and the slime-encrusted halfling erupted from the side of the cube. Alias slipped on the carpet of coins and fell over backward, Olive landing on top of her. A layer of clear ooze still covered the halfling, but separated from the host body the goo could not survive and began to evaporate in a thin mist.

The creature sent out a protrusion that crested over the heads of the two woman like a wave. Before the wave could overwhelm them, the saurial slashed it from the body of the gelatinous cube.

The wave, cut off from its parent, began to steam into nothingness before it hit the ground. Alias's sword clattered into the coins as the creature, damaged beyond its ability to hold its shape, slumped to the ground in a puddle of steaming goo.

Alias rolled Olive on her back and pushed on her stomach. The halfling'gagged and coughed up a slimy bubble, then took a gasp of air. Alias breathed a sigh of relief

"Is she all right?" the paladin asked as the halfling stirred feebly while ooze steamed off her body.

Alias nodded. "She walked into it with her mouth open," she explained. "Probably paralyzed her vocal chords. Maybe well get some quiet for a while," she said with a grin. "That's not funny," Olive retorted in a hoarse whisper.

They took the time to investigate the rest of the cellar. Dragon bait stood staring thoughtfully into the prison cell where he'd once been chained awaiting death, the cell where he'd sworn to the Nameless Bard that he would protect Alias. Except for the glistening slime left by the gelatinous cube, everything was just as he remembered it.

Alias, who had no clear memory of the place, was busy investigating bits of litter on the floor mixed in with the gold coins and the remains of the jelly creature. Several old rat skeletons, the skull of a very large cat, fruit peelings, moldy cheese, some bloody bandages. The swordswoman studied the ceiling. There was a hole overhead.

"Melman must be using the cellar as a midden," Alias guessed. "If it weren't for the gelatinous cube cleaning up down here, we might have had to wade through garbage. Melman probably threw the poor creature down here when it was just a bud."

"The door between the house upstairs and the cellar is secret, too," Olive explained. "Melman may not even realize that there's anything down here. He may think there's just an old well or sewer. I'll bet this treasure is all Cassana's original horde. Prakis said she stored it down here. Probably in there." The halfling pointed to a side room with a missing door. The hinges remained suspended from the door frame. "The door must have been wood. After several years the gelatinous cube dissolves it, slips into the treasury, drags the coins around beneath it, leaving them piled in front of the secret passageway."

Dragonbait extinguished the flame of his sword, and Alias covered the lantern so that only the faintest light showed. Then the trio climbed the spiral staircase leading to the first floor of the house. At the top, they halted and listened for any sounds that might indicate they'd been heard. The house seemed preternaturally still. Alias wondered if perhaps Olive had been spotted tailing One-Eye to the house, causing Melman to bolt. Olive, her ear to the secret panel, looked suspicious, but she finally pushed on the section of wall that released the secret panel. The curved section of wall slid easily enough until it caught on something in the alcove on the other side.

Olive was just able to slip through the crack in the secret entrance. There she discovered the obstruction immediately. In Cassana's time there had been on display in the alcove a stone statue of a particularly voluptuous succubus. The new owner had replaced it with a brass sculpture of a masked warrior driving a spear through the heart of a maggot-ridden mastiff. The end of the spear was blocking the secret panel from sliding all the way open.

Grunting and shoving with all her might, Olive found she could not shift the sculpture. She solved the problem by hanging on the end of the spear until it bent downward, out of the door's path. On the halfling's signal Alias shifted the panel open all the way and she and Dragonbait stepped into the hallway beside Olive.