Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 181 Rough draft. (Patreon)

The fight had not gone unnoticed. Rolly and Squirmie weren't to the village yet when the Suzette's first spell lit up the early morning darkness. He arrived as Layla was trying to keep Suzette alive and threw himself into the effort of healing her. The huge gash across her back slowly started to heal as he fought against the bleeding. It was still touch and go because of the poison in the wound, but eventually, after two thousand points of healing were applied to the gash, it started to close, and she began to regain some health.

Layla had cleaned the wound over and over, using strips of cloth to remove the blackened blood that kept seeping out. The clothe smoked and smelled foul, and had made her feel horrible, but kept at it. She was surprised when she got the announcement that she had gained the skill: Minor Poison Resistance. She asked Suzette about it when they got her to the ACME building and comfortable.

"I picked up minor poison resistance from helping you. Just touching your wound made me ill and I got the skill after a few minutes. Did you get it as well?"

Suzette giggled, half drunk at this point on 'Medicinal Brandy'. Billy had needed to run to the tenth floor for a bottle, Ozzy having drunk everything on the first. "I had the skill already at rank 7. It just moved to rank 8. I was negating 40 points of poison damage and still dying from it."

Layla considered her own health. Even with the huge chunk ACME managers started with, she'd have been dead long before Suzette from that wound. How the girl had managed to stand up and hurl spells was beyond her. And Ozzy had terrified her more than the huge ghoul. The Butcher had been radiating fear and intimidation in waves, making a little voice in her heard advise: "It's a monster! Run!" At least they had been on the same side as the monster that won the fight.

Layla was recognizing that there were many types of power in this world. She and Billy had power by their position in ACME, and some growing political power as Baron and Baroness. But she was deeply jealous of the sheer personal power some of their 'underlings' were attaining. That monstrous ghoul had laughed at her and Billy, and scoffed at them ruling the city. And then Suzette had punched holes in it with beams of light, and Ozzy had stood up from the dead and split the thing in two. She wanted that kind of power. Hanging from her belt were the two light cleavers that Ozzy had dropped. She planned on using them every day she could to start the process of getting her own power. Billy could come along with her, or he could start polishing her boots.

And being on the winning side against Bone Gnawer had its benefits. She understood better how the workers were attaining their skills. It certainly wasn't an easy method. How many things like this had they fought?

The   Terror of the Carrion Ghouls has been dealt a Mortal Blow!

Long   have the carrion ghouls controlled this part of Hungrytown, opening the   oldest graves to free the undead, or eat the corpses within. While other   ghouls are slaves to their stomachs, Bone Gnawer was a crafty craven, hiding   from Mama Laveau and preying only on those weaker than itself, especially   those weakened by its pack of lesser ghouls. You may claim a Large Favor from   Mama Laveau the next time you visit.

Your group of heroes has slain Bone   Gnawer, a Level12 Epic Boss. Each member of your party earns 10 CSP and   1000 experience.

 Each member of your group has also earned the option to buy the skill: Strike   Undead for 5 CSP. This is a skill that increases your damage against   undead with physical melee attacks, physical ranged attacks, and magical   attacks that use force, radiance, or fire.
 Choose either RAD or STR as the governing stat for this skill.
Additional Damage: 10 points per rank of Strike Undead + 5   points per point of RAD or STR.
Cost: Stamina or Mana equal to the amount of additional damage done.

Billy was having similar thoughts. Being laughed at by a pile of rotten meat had infuriated him, and there hadn't been a damn thing he could do about it except stick cross-bow bolts into its tough hide. He bought the skill: Strike Undead without a second thought. Hungrytown took up a quarter of his city, and there were undead in other areas of it. He wasn't going to be laughed at the next time he ran into a ghoul. Or at least, not as hard. He had seen Layla pick up the Butcher's cleavers and suspected he wasn't the only one that felt that way.

Suzette swirled the brandy in her glass, smelled it, and poured it down her throat. "Dammit, this stuff is weak as fruit juice."

<There is a reason for that, two-legs. Rolly stole your weak poison and drank it, replacing it with fruit juice. You didn't notice until now.>

Rolly covered his face with his palm. "Squirmie, you weren't supposed to let her know, dammit."

<But then I wouldn't get to see her face turn all red and her hands start to glow. Think of it as agility training.>

Suzette collapsed back into her chair. "Piss off bug, Rolly is right, I don't need more alcohol. It won't help. He'll either be back at dawn...or he won't."

Rolly was glad to relieved he didn't have to dodge her spells. They burned and she hardly ever missed, no matter how much he dodged. "Don't worry about Ozzy, he's tough and he seems to get along with Hades. He'll be back quick."

"Not quite what I'm worried about. He's been training Smoke Magic with Joe, and in that fight he looked like he was made of smoke and fire. He didn't so much die as he did blow away. I'm worried he's off somewhere now dealing with this new magical shit. How long does that take?"

"Something to ask Joe, maybe? I'll go talk to him." Rolly got up, and Squirmie flew to his shoulder.

"Why don't we all walk you home? Layla and I could use a bit of tavern food. And you could use some days off, Suzette. You had one coming from the Sphynx job, and your normally day off. Grab two more and relax a bit. Hopefully Ozzy is back by then." Billy was actually happy for a chance to walk down to the village. He needed to take a look at it with fresh eyes, not blinded by the city.

The five of them walked back to Sedgewick as the sun was coming up, each acutely aware of the heavy bag that no one could lift sitting in the middle of the road.

Ozzy awoke to the sound of waves, and the feeling of being on an ocean. He rolled over and nearly fell off the chunk of wreckage he was on. He was stopped by a rope tied to his wrists and looped through a metal fitting nailed to the wood. A voice spoke: "Don't make any sudden movements or you'll dump us in. This bit of hull is barely enough to keep the two of us afloat. The speaker was a heavy-set man with thick legs and arms. His skin was grey and his hair almost white. Ozzy carefully moved to the center of the wreckage. The whole piece was only six feet by twelve feet. Broken planks connected two heavier pieces of wood, and all of had broken ends as if something had smashed an entire ship to pieces.

"How the hell did I get here? And where's here?" The sky looked white with huge black clouds sailing across it. The water looked funny, too dark. He scooped some into his hand, and realized it wasn't water; it was smoke! The smoke poured off his hand, feeling warm and light.

"You fell out of the clouds, far as I could tell. I paddled over to you when you bobbed to the surface. I figured you was dead and might have something interesting in your pockets. Just my luck to rescue someone only wearing an old kilt that stinks of death. No pockets at all. So I drug you up onto my little ship and tied you down. Gives me something to talk to at least, while we sit and soak up some of the black."

"Uh...ok. That doesn't match up good with my memories of fighting someone and then passing out, but I guess I believe you. The evidence seems to agree with you. I’m Ozzy."

The other man waved, not interested in coming to the other side of the raft to shake hands and maybe capsize them. "Nice to meet you Ozzy. Call me Vulture, that was my nickname on the last ship I sailed on. I'm sort of fond of it and might keep it for a bit. At least until I find another ship. New ship might mean a new name, you never know."

Ozzy just nodded to that. It made sense at the moment. Other things didn't. "Why aren't we sinking? Why didn't I sink when I fell in the smoke?"

Vulture grinned. "Basic laws of nature, lad. Wood floats. If it didn't, ships wouldn't float, and then the world would make no sense. Have to have ships. You floated because you've got a hot fire burning in you. Hot smoke goes to the top, cold smoke goes down. You float, I wouldn't. Not enough fire left. So don't go flipping us over."

"So how long have you been shipwrecked for? Anyone going to come looking this way? Or do we just float forever?" Ozzy could see nothing in all directions except black clouds in a pale sky, and a sea of grey smoke.

Vulture spat into the sea. "Something like a week, I think. I was on the Indestructible.Boy, it sure was a surprise to the captain when another ship rammed us and broke the whole thing into kindling. I got lucky enough to land near this piece. But don't worry about someone finding us. When you fell, you were leaving behind a plume of fire and smoke 10 feet wide. It was like a giant arrow pointing to you. There will be someone coming to see what that arrow pointed to. Who it is, that's what you have to worry about."

Ozzy was watching the horizon a half later when he saw what he thought was a sail. "Is that a ship?"

Vulture watched for a minute. "That is indeed a ship. That's the topsail just poking over the horizon. Heading straight this way. And that's a shame."

Ozzy watched as the bit of sail got bigger, then revealed another sail beneath it. "Why's that?"

Vulture shook his head sadly. "Because I've seen that ship before. That's the Grey Haze, the ship that destroyed the Indestructible and left me floating here. Frankly, I prefer being wrecked to rescued, but I don't think we'll have a choice. So just sit back and relax, she'll be here soon."