Another day, and we were back in the manor. We had cleared out large patches of it, although admittedly in a less systematic way than any of us would have cared to admit. But we had reached a point now where we were guided by the blank spaces in the map, eager to fill everything in. Once more we found ourselves in the northeast corner of the map, roughly underneath the levels we had explored the day before.
Everyone seemed a little more thoughtful than usual. Ev and Aleandra seemed tired from their unicorn games of the night before. One was currently in unicorn form, being ridden by the other, but for the life of me I could not tell you which was which. To be frank, I don’t they very much cared anymore. Qual was far from his usual boisterous self. It was clear that he did not approve of the changes that the others in the party were going through, but he kept his opinions to himself. As for Sorel, she seemed determined to stay between Golem and me. This seemed to make my Golem-servant move closer, which meant that Sorel and I were touching more often than not. At one point, Sorel grabbed my hand and held on. It took me a second to realize her intent, but I eventually relaxed and let her. I could feel tension leaving her body, and I’m pretty sure the gesture put me in a better mood too. Golem tried to copy the gesture but was shooed away by Sorel.
We wandered down several corridors, filling in our map as well as we could, establishing which areas were likely fruitful to explore. We opened the door to a bedchamber, where two lovely twin girls, dressed in nothing but silk undergarments, beckoned us to join them on the bed. Boy, did they pick the wrong party. I was the only one who might be tempted, and Sorel was going to make sure I took no action. Well, wouldn’t you know it? The two lovelies turned out to be were-pigs. Irritable were-pigs, at that. We were careful not to let them bite us (who wants to be a were-pig?), so killing them took more effort than it might otherwise have.
A few rooms later, we came across a series of chambers that were hot and humid and felt (and smelt) like a swamp. We had to fight a shambler in one room and another one of those face-eating snake-men in the other. By this point our combat skills were growing more formidable. Qual had figured out how to summon a lightning bolt, and the rest of us had honed the lethality of our combat skills. Monsters like this were still a threat, but one we were more than capable of dealing with.
The snake-man was guarding two suits of dragon-skin armor. I saw this as a boon for me, and I took the one Sorel identified as magical. This would allow me to keep my mobility, but it would give me the protection I need to stand up in a straight-up fight, which I was doing all to often. It fit like a glove. Actually, it fit better than that. No sooner was the last strap tightened when the scaly armor sank into my skin. There was a few brief moments of intense pain, then I felt normal again. I didn’t look normal, though. The dragon skin had fused to my body. I looked like I was some kind of reptile man with glossy green scales. Sorel said it made me look sexy. Despite the plate-like scales, I could feel her every touch. I suppose it could have been worse (though I sort of missed the tiger-face, if I had to choose between them).
One more encounter pretty much put an end to the day. We found something like a sauna, where the floor was slippery and steaming hot water filled a small pool. A giant crab guarded the room, and I can’t tell you why it had not been cooked in the heat. I had said that we had all grown in our combat skills, but you could not tell that from our fight with the grab. Qual went down on the wet stone and Ev was nearly cut in half with a claw. Aleandra and I could not hit it to save our lives, and Sorel was running low on magical energy. Eventually, we tipped it into the boiling water (soup!) but everyone felt like we had earned an honest day’s wages.
Do dragons swim? At the very least, the heat should not have bothered me as much as it did. Sorel tells me that’s because I have the skin of a green dragon and that I’m better adapted to swamps. I still sweat a lot.
Golem broke out of her passivity to care for my wounds once we returned to camp. Sorel took exception to that and she began to apply first aid in her inexpert and inelegant way. Having the hands of these two identical lovelies (save for the hair) on me was a bit much, and I’m afraid I showed my enthusiasm involuntarily (I even have scales down there!). Sorel blushed and moved away. I thought that was the end of it. Then came the Talk.
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