Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 216 (Patreon)

"Good job, Captain! You found breakfast."

As he saw Woodrat lifted into the air by the tentacle, Ozzy threw concentrated on the chain wrapped around his arm and through it. It wrapped several times around whatever had his captain and he pulled the long, sucker-filled arm back towards him. Woodrat appreciated that he wasn't immediately getting tossed into the Krakens beak-like maw and drew his sword. It took only two slashes to sever the tentacle and he crashed to the deck and was drawn towards Ozzy. The severed tentacle let go of him and flopped around on the deck of the ship.

Ozzy got a better look at the beast. It had a large, ponderous body like a walrus with huge flippers, the size of twice the size of an elephant. The head was a mass of squid tentacles with a snapping beak in the center. This creature was much bigger than the one they had encountered the day before in the other ship. The large body lifted up and the kraken advanced another ten feet, thrusting two tentacles into the hallway where the two humans were taking cover. Ozzy grabbed them both, and pulled hard, his bare feet gouging the floorboards as he moved backwards. Woodrat severed both, the bleeding stumps pulling back out as they were cut, and the creature bellowed and backed off a few feet, surprised by the pain.

Woodrat hopped out on deck and Ozzy followed. "That thing still has seven good arms to grab us with, be careful."

The captain laughed, ducked under a waving tentacle and severed it with one blow, the sword burning brightly now. "I count only six, Mr. Ozzy. But then, a captain has to know who to count the arms of a kraken, to just how tough the beasties are. This is a ten-limbed walker of unusual size. Be careful, they like to eat sailors whole and then spit out the cleaned skeletons later."

As if to prove a point, the kraken spewed acidic bile at Ozzy along with one full skeleton, a skull and many loose bones. It was disgusting, but barely hurt him. Looking down, Ozzy saw the barest outline of his gauntlets. He had been wearing them when he had been fighting the ghoul. And somehow, he was still wearing them, or they were part of him, here in the smoke. The Gauntlets of Gauderang the Vile gave him +50 mitigation vs acid, and stacked with Monstrous. The acid stung when it got into his eyes and that was about it.

As if expecting the larger morsel to be easy to grab after the debilitating acid bath, a tentacle reached out to Ozzy, only to be grabbed by the Butcher and severed by the captain. Woodrat yelled out, "Five, we have it half dead." Half dead was still very dangerous. The remaining tentacles slashed sideways at them, and both of them were knocked down on the slippery deck. A tentacle grabbed Woodrat and before either of them could do anything, he was pushed whole into the kraken’s mouth.

Ozzy cursed and ran at the beast. He grabbed both halves of the beak and pulled them open, and much farther than they were meant to move. Something tore and broke. He could down its gullet, but didn't see Woodrat. Cursing again he dove in after him. The confused and wounded beast wondered where its prey had gone so suddenly. It moved clumsily for a moment, in great pain and waving the remaining tentacles and stumps around, smashing what was left of the ship.

Its meal wasn't co-operating. Woodrat was acid burned but somehow alive, and could tell his Mate was beside him. He started cutting his way out, aided by an eery light that the beast somehow produced here in its stomach. Ozzy had grabbed the beast's gut with both hands and was stealing its smoke with both hands. The kraken stomped back and forth, weakening, unable to do anything. After a minute it slumped to the deck, and a flaming sword cut through its soft, blubbery hide. Woodrat was pushed out and up by his Mate, and Ozzy followed only a moment later.

The acid was burning Woodrat again, but only for a moment as his Mate cleaned him off with a powerful spell. Cleanse washed away the gore and acid from the captain. Ozzy was certain the spell was getting more powerful now. He cleaned himself up and turned to look at the thing they had slain.

"Remember how I said we needed to go fishing before I show you how to make sausage? We can skip that part now. Think we can find a couple of barrels in this tub?"

Woodrat had sheathed his sword, and the whole fight seemed to take on a much different feel. The damned sword was making him too cocky. He'd been lucky, so very lucky, to emerge from that with most of his skin intact. Then he smiled. If luck was smiling on him, then he'd best make the best of it while he could. The fates seemed to agree with him. "On a whale? Yes, I can turn one up. I'll take a look in the hold while you start making us some breakfast.

You have slain a Squid-Faced Behemoth (Named Boss)

 You earn 500 experience which may be used to increase any skill used in the   battle.

 You have gained 5 Core Skill Points.

Ozzy lowered the chain and got his sausage grinder from the longboat set up. Then he began butchering the behemoth. Tentacles went in one pile, slabs from the thick body in another, and everything else in a pile. Woodrat had found 3 empty and mostly useable casks in the hold, and one that was partially full of rendered whale blubber. "Your in luck! That oil is a treat to cook with. Whale blubber is full of smoke and can be fried up for a meal on its own. The oil makes darn near anything taste better."

Woodrat inspected the oil-filled cask and made sure it wasn't leaking, then repaired the other three. Ozzy hauled them up on deck, then took one over the side with him and began harvesting the sargasso weed. The thick weed was dead for several feet down and he made sure he didn't go far enough to be in danger of the moving bits further down. Parts of it were thick with the little red berries. Back on deck, he started running the salad through the grinder, turning it into a finer mix and grinding up the berries. The second run through he tossed in butchered tentacle and some of the organs and guts, along with a good mix of the salad. He concentrated on turning it into sausage. A long string of fat links 8" long came out of the grinder and fell into the barrel.
Woodrat watched from the poop deck and stayed out of the Butcher's way. He had a bad feeling about getting too near him when he was turning everything around him into sausage.

Two hours later Ozzy had two barrels of sausage, and another of squid. Both were soaking in a gallon of whale oil. He put on the lids, and forced smoke into them until it started leaking out the cracks between the staves. Then he applied a little heat and left them to simmer. Woodrat caught a whiff of the smell and smiled. That was squid fried in whale oil, just like his momma used to make for him, when she was home from sailing. Mom coming home was always a treat. Dad couldn't cook anything but clams, and they got very tired of the little shelled critters they had to rundown in the shallows at low tide.

Woodrat was scanning the horizon and looking through the haze over the Sargasso when he thought he saw something in the distance. A slight reflection of something bright. He made a mark on the rail to indicate the direction in case he didn't see it again, and laid his spyglass on the deck, pointing in that direction. Ozzy was just finishing up with his sausage when he saw Woodrat nimbly climb up the tallest mast of the whaler. The captain took a heading from the spyglass and scanned the wrecks in that direction. Sure enough, with many wrecks between them was a smaller ship from which something was glinting. And to Captain Woodrats mind, that meant treasure. A ship that could afford a bit of metal or glass in its build would have other things on it.

"Load up your boat Mr. Ozzy. I see something and we're going to travel that way and see what we can find."