He Who Fights with Monsters, #1
He Who Fights with Monsters
by Shirtaloon
Contents
28. How Did You All Fit In There?
Overview
Blasted from the reawakened waterfall aperture, Jason slows his and Hiram’s fall with his cloak and they land safely. Dozens of shabs are expelled; most die, four survive and head for the village. Jason sends children to warn the town, prepares with a defence potion and stacking afflictions, discovers his Sin Eater resistance, and summons his leech familiar. Hiram resolves to handle one wounded shab while Jason intercepts the others.
Summary
A torrent from the waterfall aperture hurls Jason and Hiram through the tunnel and into open sky. Jason extends Cloak of Night’s weight-reduction, halting their spin and drifting them to the ground near the channel leading to the village lake. After landing, they spot objects being ejected from the mountaintop.
The falling shapes resolve into shabs; most smash to the ground and die, while four survive by landing in the channel, injured but moving toward the village. A quest to protect the village appears. With one shab on their side and three across the channel, Hiram commits to the wounded nearby one while Jason takes responsibility for the other three.
Jason dashes over the water’s surface, loots a dead shab for a core, water quintessence, and coins, then hands coins to five children and orders them to warn the village. Positioning himself between the oncoming shabs and the town, he drinks a shell-skin potion, trading speed for toughness, and casts his inexorable doom spell on each shab to amplify any incoming stacks.
Attempting to bloodlet for effects, Jason struggles against the potion-hardened skin and briefly poisons himself with his dagger, but his Sin Eater passive resists the venom and grants stacking Resistant boons. He deliberately reapplies the cut to build a second stack, confirming the ability’s utility.
With the shabs closing, Jason summons his Sanguine Horror familiar, disgorging a massive pile of leeches, readying to intercept the three injured monsters while Hiram moves to engage the fourth.
Who Appears
- Jason AsanoUses Cloak of Night to survive the fall, warns children, loots a shab, buffs with shell-skin, applies doom stacks, leverages Sin Eater resistance, and summons leech familiar.
- HiramPanics at the fall but recovers; agrees to take on a wounded shab on his side of the channel while Jason handles the others.
- ShabsHalf-shark, half-crab monsters expelled from the aperture; most die on impact, four survive injured and head toward the village.
- Children by the channelWitness Jason’s landing; receive coins and sprint to warn the village about the approaching monsters.
- Sanguine Horror (leech familiar)Summoned as a massive pile of leeches to help Jason confront the incoming shabs.