For several heartbeats, Maly stood stunned upon the stairs, unsure of what she was seeing. The only light illuminating the space was from the open door above, making everything here gray gloom. Yet the shadows did little to protect her from the horrors within the room below.
On some primitive level, she recognized that much of the basement was the same: a low-ceilinged square with unpainted stone walls, dirt floor, and a few bare wooden shelves. Pale mushrooms sprouted in one corner and, near those mushrooms where there had once been a ragged hole in one wall, there was now a section of new stones and mortar that did not match the rest.
Yet her eyes were fixed on the three figures regarding her, each an impossibility. The most human was a naked, pale figure, yet his skin was rotting and missing chunks, like a corpse that had been picked over by scavengers. Where his almost bone-white skin was intact, the light glinted off what appeared to be fish scales, which only made sense because, instead of a human head, the figure had the gaping-mouth, wide-eyed head of a large fish.
Standing at the fish-man’s hip was an intact, upright skeleton of what appeared to be a child. It turned its skull to look up at the fish-man, then back at Maly, staring at her with empty, black sockets. The dirt around the skeleton’s feet swirled and moved like mist, giving the stunted figure’s lower half an almost dream-like appearance.
Two strides away from the pair was the most disturbing of the trio. Its back half was that of an enormous worm, or perhaps—Maly realized with disgust—a maggot, undulating as it shifted its weight. The top half of the creature was that of an enormous cat, though not a great majestic animal like Destiny the panther. Instead, an emaciated body with scrawny arms and patchwork fur pulled the worm-thing forward. And the entire monstrosity, from notched alley-cat ears to maggot stump, was covered in long, thin, protruding spines.
Between the cat-maggot and skeleton lay a robed ratfolk body, which Maly recognized as the priest from the underground temple. Twin spines protruded from her chest. Maly couldn’t be sure, but she looked dead, hands curled up defensively and eyes wide. The bejeweled box, the only thing of any beauty in the basement, lay toppled on its side, lid open and mummified hand discarded upon the dirt floor.
A voice echoed in Maly’s mind. It was Destiny, but far quieter and more distant than she’d heard him before. He spoke as if doing so was a great effort. Demons… the panther hissed. Minor, but… even lesser… demons are… deadly. Beware, child.
Here we go… it’s the protagonists versus the filth demons! First, a few notes about recovery in Crusaders. That bad news is that Destiny is out of this fight because he was put into a “critical state” (below zero Vitality) and will be hospitalized for weeks—or however long I think makes sense—according to the rules. Same goes for Kura, Kami’s brother. The good news is that “injured heroes always recover their full Vitality total between scenes, unless they are in a critical state. This does not mean that the hero’s injuries have miraculously healed or vanished, but that [s/he] has recovered from the pain and punishment, pulled [her/himself] together, and may act again at full efficiency if needed, despite [her/his] injuries.” So at least both Emah and Maly are ready.
It’s Round 1 and here will be our initiative order for the full battle:
- Alertness 17: The child skeleton (I’ll provide names shortly in the narrative)
- 15: Maly
- 13: Emah and Kami
- 10: The other two demons
The skeletal demon controls dirt and will send a wave attack up the staircase at all three PCs. The resistance to this attack is Physique, which is bad for the normal humans. I even won’t roll for Kami because she has 10 damage resistance thanks to her Elasticity and the attack does 10 damage. She’s fine. Similarly, Maly only has a Physique of 10 so the attack automatically hits and does the full 10 damage with no rolling necessary. She’s at 20 Vitality and can only withstand 2 more rounds of the sandblasting.
Emah has a Physique of 13. Against an attack value of 20, that gives her only a 15% chance to resist. But she rolls 08! Perhaps she’s further up the staircase and so is shielded from the brunt.
If the PCs stay on the stairs and try ranged attacks, they will be at a disadvantage because of the swirling dirt. So Maly moves into melee and realizes she needs to deal with this skeleton first. Unfortunately, with her 13 Prowess and the little thing’s Acrobatics, she only has a 5% chance to hit. She rolls 80.
Emah sees Maly’s futility and moves in to help. With her sword, she has a much more respectable 40% to hit and rolls 26! She does 20 damage with the sword and drops the little skeleton to 10 Vitality. Good round for Emah!
Kami sees that she won’t be able to hit the agile little thing, so instead tries punching the gross fish-headed thing. She only has a Prowess of 10, but it only has an Alertness of 10, so that’s a 50% chance of success. She rolls an impressive 01 (!) and slams the thing for 30 damage, one third of its Vitality. Even better, the thing doesn’t have Super Strength so gets knocked back into the wall and is stunned, losing its turn. It stands slowly, and, because of Regeneration, regains 10 Vitality (putting it still at a whopping 70).
That leaves only the maggot-thing, and it fires off two spines. It’s Prowess versus Alertness for (rolling randomly) Emah and Kami, which makes some sense because they were the ones effective in their attacks. With her Elasticity, that gives Kami a 90% chance to dodge and she rolls 71. Emah, meanwhile, is more vulnerable to missile attacks and only has a 30% to evade. She rolls a 57, and so takes 10 damage, putting her Vitality at 29. More importantly, next turn she will be subject to the thing’s venom, which could absolutely kill her.
All in all, I’d say that was an even first round. Two members of each group were hurt, and neither has a clear advantage from my perspective. Fingers crossed for Round 2!
As if on cue, the child-like figure raised its bony arms, skeletal fingers outstretched towards Maly. The dirt at its feet, which had been moving lazily, suddenly rushed out like an ocean wave. The choking cloud blasted Maly, dirt scouring her exposed skin, and she coughed and stumbled half blind down the remaining stairs.
Kavac… Destiny wheezed in her ear. Demon of dirt… and grime.
“No kidding!”Maly sputtered aloud, then reached out with her mind. Any tips for defeating these things? Or sending them back where they came from? But the panther was ominously silent. It was a terrible time to get timid, she thought. Maly did not want to be fighting demons in a basement when there was a member of the East Bay Dragons upstairs who might be the key to getting her inheritance back. Well, to be fair: She never really wanted to fight demons.
And yet, demon-fighting was upon her. Spitting sand from her mouth, Maly pulled her twin daggers from their sheaths and struck at the small skeleton. It surprised her with its dexterity, leaping up and over her blades with jaw-dropping ease.
As it landed, however, Emah was there, yelling and slashing down with her sword. There was a crunch of bone. The skeleton cried out, shrill and terrifying, for its voice was also that of a young child.
The rotting hulk stood over Emah, raising its arms overhead and looking to smash fists down upon her friend. Before Maly could shout a warning, however, twin fists the size of dinner plates bashed into the fish-headed thing. It flew sideways into a stone wall with a crunching impact.
The third creature yowled like a drowning cat as it launched spines from its body. Kami’s misshapen torso flowed like a ribbon, avoiding the arrow-like quills. But one thunked into Emah’s shoulder, which she acknowledged with a grunt.
Xapha… the panther’s voice whispered. Demon of… infected rot. Its… touch is… ruin.
“Not helpful, Destiny!” Maly shouted into the melee.
Round 2, and the wounded demon Kavac has limited options in these tight quarters. It can try its wave attack, making everyone—including its allies—less effective, or it can try a more direct attack. It decides for the latter and claws at Emah. With her mastery of the sword, she has an 85% chance to parry. She rolls 34 and does so easily.
Maly doesn’t want to engage the thing that Destiny just said could kill her, so she’ll attack the fish-zombie demon. She has a 65% chance to hit but rolls 100, which is a critical miss. Oh boy. I’ll say the thing catches her arm and she will be a “passive target” for the next round, meaning her Alertness will drop to 5.
Emah doesn’t see the predicament Maly is in and instead tries to finish Kavac. She still has a 40% and rolls 04! Emah’s apparently been itching for a fight. One demon down!
Seeing the threat of the spine-thrower, Kami attempts to bash it. I’ll say that on a critical miss she’ll hit one of the spines and subject herself to the toxin. She has a straight 50% to do so and rolls 25! Her Super Strength does its work, and the demon Xapha is down!
That leaves Mr. Fishhead, who will attempt to bash Maly into the wall. She is a passive target, so has no chance to avoid the damage. The demon does 18 damage, dropping her to 2 Vitality. Unfortunately, it’s also back up to 80 Vitality itself thanks to Regeneration.
This is going much better for the PCs than I expected! It turns out that if Kami can actually hit, she can do a ton of damage.
The small skeleton wailed like a distraught child and launched itself at Emah. She cursed and slashed with her ancestral sword, however, and cleaved the creature midair. A clatter of bones hit the floor, and the dirt swirling all around them abruptly ceased.
Maly didn’t relish getting close to the spiny cat-maggot that Destiny said could kill her, so instead turned her attention to the rotting fish-headed man. It was staggering to its feet after the impact, the stone cracked all around it like a spiderweb. The scaled hulk was slow, halting, and unsteady, so she was shocked when it caught her arm as she stabbed down with a dagger. It lifted her, struggling and feet kicking air, in its grip so that Maly’s face hung near its lidless fisheyes. It reeked of spoiled meat and dead fish, making her gag.
Vakal… Destiny’s voice breathed weakly. Demon… of slow… decay. Unstoppable…
Maly opened her mouth to comment on that little nugget when the thing swung her hard against the cracked wall. Her teeth clattered together, and all the air left her chest. She collapsed to the dirt floor, gasping.
Stars danced in front of her eyes, but she looked up to track her opponent’s movements. Thankfully, it had turned away from her, towards Kami, whose oversized fists pounded down again and again on the spiny maggot body of the third demon. The sounds were grotesque, like boots squelching in mud. Kami didn’t see the fish-thing lumbering towards her, and Maly had no breath to shout a warning.
Round 3! Maly will hurl a dagger at the back of Vakal. She has a 65% chance of success and rolls 27, doing 15 damage. Emah, meanwhile, will easily slash out with her sword, automatically hitting and doing another 20 damage and bringing its Vitality to 45. Can Kami’s fist make it a trifecta? She rolls 93 and cannot.
Now it’s Vakal’s turn and will strike at Emah since she engaged it so closely. She has a 75% chance to parry the blow and rolls 81! Ouch. 18 more damage and she’s down to 11 Vitality. Meanwhile, Vakal regenerates back up to 55.
Even though the demon Xaphal is gone (banished back to whence it came), let’s see how Emah does against its toxic quill. She has a 20% of resisting its effects and rolls 84. That’s very bad. I’ll tick off 10 damage now, bringing her to a single point of Vitality. In an hour of game time, she will be in a critical state and dying.
Instead, Maly hurled a dagger at the thing’s back. It sunk into the demon’s rotting flesh with a satisfying thunk but didn’t slow its advance on Kami. She willed strength into her legs and worked to unsteadily regain her feet, still gasping for air.
Thankfully, Emah shouted a wordless challenge and stepped to the demon Vakal’s side. She sliced her blade horizontally across its ribs and a great slab of scaled flesh tore free, falling to the dirt with a wet slap.
Though it showed no sign that the strike had hurt it, Vakal turned ponderously to regard Emah. She raised her blade to parry but it simply backhanded her, much as the animated bronze armor had done upstairs days before. The demon was not nearly as strong as the armor, however. Rather than fly across the room, she simply staggered to one knee. Emah spit a glob of blood onto the floor and stood, fury in her eyes.
Before she could attack again, Emah winced and looked down on her shoulder. The demon Xaphal’s spine still protruded from her skin. She pulled it free and tossed it aside, regripping her sword with two hands.
It’s Round 4, and the only way the PCs are going to take down this regenerating hulk is to keep bashing on it and not let up. Maly once again has a 65% chance to hit and rolls 51. That’s 15 damage.
Emah thrusts with her sword, automatically hitting. That’s another 20 damage. Vakal is at 20 Vitality.
It’s all up to Kami. Can her 50% chance save the day? She rolls 81 for the second round in a row and misses.
Vakal still sees Emah as the primary threat. It tries to finish her off and Emah rolls 42, parrying the blow. Its Vitality climbs to 30.
Let’s do Round 5, which should finish it off. Maly rolls 33… critical hit! I’ll double her damage and that’s it.
…or is it?
Back on her feet, Maly hurled herself upon the demon’s back, stabbing again and again with her second dagger. The blade squelched into scaled, stinking meat. She couldn’t think about that, though. A panic had begun to rise within her, born out of Destiny’s silence and Emah’s wince. The panther had said that Xaphal’s touch was ruin… what did that mean for her friend? The only way to know for sure was to kill this last monstrosity and get her to a medic.
Vakal slumped forward and Maly yelped as the tip of a sword thrust from the thing’s back, near her arm. The metal was coated in a gray sludge instead of blood. As the body toppled, she kept stabbing and stabbing, riding it down to the dirt floor. Maly found herself yelling incoherently, now with both daggers back in hand. She attacked like an Oakton drummer hammering on her instrument, and continued long after the demon ceased moving. It took Emah’s sweat-slicked arms pulling her off to regain her senses.
The two women stood together, panting. Maly stank of corpse and fish and was sure she would be plagued by nightmares for the rest of her life.
“Shh, shh,” Emah said desperately. “It’s over, Maly.”
Destiny’s voice, weaker than she’d ever heard it, whispered a single word.
Unstoppable…
To her horror, the demon Vakal began to rise, even as the remains of the two other demons quivered.
Next: How do they stop it?!
My Hero Brain 
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