names

the Goat-Girl, played by Dylan;
Choniqua, a guard, played by Jake;

11th Communion (cont’d)

scenes

The piece of chalk Nil left on the dark parchment has drawn a neat map of the outlines of the covenant’s buildings.

Ilba, when stealing the next bit of hash, opens the drawer and lays her hand on the uncut plug for a good minute or so. She’s going to Monkey-curse Perdix’ hash.

Calvus heads out to meet the Wolf Priest, telling him that the monster in the termite mound is what made the earth shake. Calvus thinks the Wolf Priest’s way of reaching the monster will let them do so without causing it to react so violently. Otherwise, the wizards will just destroy it. They agree to meet in the morning. —The Wolf Priest mentions that someone was left out of the ritual. Calvus says some of the military, some officials are outside the walls. The Wolf Priest tells him the forest has claimed one of them. It’s fair, they agree. When did the forest speak to you? After we completed our ritual. A success? Yes.

Calvus goes to Murry’s rooms. There’s no answer to his knock. Calvus heads off after a soldier to tell him where Murry is. The soldier wants to know why the wall-walking didn’t get rid of Murry. Wasn’t it supposed to protect us from stuff that’ll hurt us? Stuff outside the walls, says Calvus. It’s too late for Murry. Oh, says the soldier. Hello, says Murry. —Calvus asks Murry for a soldier to send down to Cliffside to keep an eye on the roads. He tells Murry about the forest’s price, and he wants those outside the town currently to be intercepted and told to return by way of people-mover. But just the soldiers. Merchants, certain officials... well, the forest must receive its due... Murry will detail a couple of soldiers. He finds Bloody-Back and gets him to do the actual detailing: four other soldiers to head down by people-mover. Bloody-Back asks won’t the forest require someone who lives in the town, rather someone just passing through? I don’t know, says Murry, I just follow orders. Bloody-Back picks Nannimponna and Virgil and Buster and one other, and grabs them from the stocks right away.

12th Communion

scenes

It’s an hour or so before dawn. Something happens that nobody saw. The Goat-Girl is milking the goats. Receptrix flies out over the covenant and off into the hinterlands. Calvus heads out to the gates. Sonata disperses and flutters in a flock about the covenant, looking for something new. She finds what looks like new gopher holes throughout, dug into the ground, near buildings or tree roots. Sonata reassembles by one of the holes. She pokes it with a stick and can’t find the bottom. She drops a rock and can’t hear anything. She sets a rock to glowing and drops it and it falls for a long way until it stops or catches on something.

Calvus meets the Wolf Priest outside, and Calvus tries to convince him to be enchanted for his protection. The Wolf Priest refuses. He’s done his own rituals.

Cameron walks up to Sonata. What’s that? Sonata says (after some mole jokes) that it’s the monster in the basement. What? says Cameron. Sonata explains. Cameron stoops down to peer at it, and picks up Sonata’s stick, and the lip of the hole crumbles and falls in on itself. —Some discussion of the various things that might have caused the various holes: tentacles; escape hatches; subordinate monsters like the hungry woman’s children. Maybe it just needs light. A guard walks up behind them and suggests dropping meat down to keep it happy. He gets down on his knees and sticks his arm in the hole, only Cameron tells him to stop. The Monkeys suggest he be allowed to go on. Sonata yanks the glowing rock out. The guard, Choniqua, suggests his dog, Randy. You have a ratter? Yup, says the guard. Cameron suggests (in Cholæic) that they use a chicken first. Or an apprentice, says a Monkey. Cameron’s worried about pissing off the populace. The Monkeys fight a monkey, and it smells like dead monkey in her head. Cameron notices Sonata’s left eye has gone red, and tells her. Oh. She geases one of her songbirds to fly down the tunnel, and it does, and after a bit the tunnel opens up in a vast lightless chamber. Sonata calls the bird back, and it shoots up the tunnel and out and nestles against her throat. Sonata calms it.

A giant bug-thing flails out of the tunnel and grabs Choniqua and pulls him down the hole with it, widening the tunnel.

They stand there a moment, stunned. Randy’s barking up a storm. Cameron is sent to the Great Hall to find solid ground; Sonata disperses into a flock and heads in search of a mage.

Calvus and the Wolf Priest head down to meet the monster and as they pass the people-mover, Virgil climbs out; he’s been sent by Bloody-Back. The Princeling and the Finger are on their way, and insist on coming by road. Is the Princeling bringing all the soldiers who are down there? Virgil doesn’t know. Listen better, says Calvus, and go inform Murry. Murry’s left word he’ll be in the whorehouse, so off goes Virgil, where he finds the parlorwench who’s the only person awake, and he sends her after Murry, and she tells him not to touch anything. Virgil touches something.

Murry’s in with Alexis. Murry will be down in thirty seconds. Alexis goes back to sleep. Virgil briefs Murry as to the sitch; Murry tells Virgil to come with him. Gosh, says Virgil. Wouldn’t it have been safer to have the Princeling and the Finger come here by the people-mover? Murry goes to fetch his officer, Minkho. (As opposed to the pig-dog.) Murry sends Virgil and Minkho and two other soldiers down by people-mover; watch out for forest-monsters.

On the people-movers, the shadows that had clustered about Bloody-Back’s party stay away from Minkho.

Calvus and the Wolf Priest head lower, passing the reservoir room, where the meet Ishta and Nishoba, currently on monster-watch. The Wolf Priest tells Nishoba he should hit the mound with his boar-hunting stick. Okay, says Nishoba. Ishta tells him to pick up the gear they’ll need. Calvus and the Wolf Priest go on down ahead.

The termite mound is gone.

There’s debris, from the cave-in, and from where the mound was pulled loose. The Wolf Priest smells the termites everywhere.

Cameron goes to wake up Perdix, and in the time it take to wake them, heads down to tell Gi, who heads down to see what’s what. By the time Perdix gets to the door, Cameron’s gone, so they send him after melos and crawl back into bed by the time Cameron comes back. He bellows at the trunk what’s happened. They say they’ll be down in a minute.

Sonata flutters into being around Nil and tells him what’s happened with the bug and the soldier and all the holes. Nil’s going to the basement and maybe try some intellego; Sonata’s going to look for Murry.

Gi’s talking to the earth, and sees the scope of the tunnel network dug overnight beneath the covenant. Gi starts closing the tunnels he sees on his way to Jerry’s. He’s asked the earth to tell him if anything approaches; something does, quickly, beneath his feet. Big. Nil finds him as he’s standing there, recovering from the shock. They discuss the problem. Nil offers to track the thing.

Gi tells Jerry there’s a giant bug eating people. The bug swims past as they’re talking, very quickly. They decide to warn the people and get them into buildings with stone floors.

Sonata finds Murry. There’s a problem, she says; I’ve sent reinforcements, he says. Reinforcements? You are not talking about the Finger and the Princeling, are you. The Finger and the Princeling? says Sonata. She explains about the giant bug and Choniqua. Maybe the soldiers should be on alert. Can we fight this? Could you fight the other monsters? Yes, says Murry. He’ll have the soldiers stay on the walls with crossbows. He’ll also send a soldier around to warn the villagers, only after the priests have reported in. And Ishta should go warn the priests.

But Gi’s already gone to the Lover-priests’ house.

Nil finds the kitchen-wench and asks her for any bug-corpses.

Perdix finally wakes up mostly and Cameron briefs them on the situation and Nil appears and asks their help with rego to bind a tracking-spell to the thing. Oh! says Perdix. That’s rather elegant. Yes, yes. Are you coming?

Gi’s briefing Tishkilla and Fohi about the bugs. Heshe makes a bug-repellent ointment, which Fohi doesn’t want to put on, and Heshe starts yelling at her about how she wanted a not-stupid Corn Maiden. Fohi relents.

There’s an eruption of barking from the makeshift kennels. Gi heads that way. Murry passes him, running quickly.

The Wolf Priest is casting a spell to demand the bug-thing’s appearance.

At the kennels, Murry finds the dogs milling about, De Fluery and a couple of his assistants with pikes and torches, a hole in the floor where a flagstone half-collapsed, one of the dogs bleeding in the corner. Murry sweeps them away and checks the hole, which opens into a tunnel under the kennel. The bug came up and went away, but the dog’s still here. Gi goes and heals the dog. De Fleury is profoundly grateful. Murry tells Gi to maybe seal the floor, but it’s old flagstones, not Calvus’ magical poured-stone floor. They decide to move the dogs entirely.

Tishkilla kicks Gieron awake and briefs him on the situation, which requires some repetition and a pillow-beating. We are moving, says Gieron. No, we’re the founding priests of this town. What are we, fucking morons? Gieron decides to lead his people to safety in the Scarecrow King. But all our houses have stone floors! says Tishkilla. But the Scarecrow King has alcohol! You’re right, says Tishkilla. It’s an emergency. Go seize the Scarecrow King.

Gi’s heading for lower town to warn the people there.

At Nil’s room, Nil and Perdix briefly discuss the theory behind the spells. Perdix asks for a bit of something used to make the map; Nil gives them a bit of chalk. They cast the spell, and then Nil starts the intellego. One of the bug corpses crawls onto the map and then starts zipping back and forth ridiculously quickly. It would suggest there’s more than one, says Nil. We should perhaps link up another bug? I have more of the chalk. We linked them all up, says Perdix. So there’s just one? says Nil. Perdix shrugs. What do we do? Go down? says Perdix. It came from down there. Perhaps? You used to be better at spontaneous problem-solving, says Nil. The problems we solved involved who to seat next to whom at a dinner-party, says Perdix. You would be so egotistical as to think you’re untalented, says Nil, and storms off. —The bug corpse is moving almost too quickly to see around the Great Hall on the map. Nil! bellows Perdix. Basement. Now. They levitate and fly down the hall toward the stairs past an exasperated Nil.

Sonata warns Tully. Do you have anything to ward against bugs? Giant, savage, man-eating bugs? Well, until those modifiers, says Tully. They’re very important modifiers, says Sonata. Tully will gather some equipment.

Sonata flutters away and reappears by Ishta and briefs her.

The Wolf Priest is chanting, demanding its attention. Calvus is able to determine that five of the things hatched out of the cocoon. He warns Ndape. The Wolf Priest feels the thing’s eyes on him. He begins to speak.

Why are you here? I am me. State your purpose. I am me. Stop attacking me. Who’s attacking you? My limbs have been cut off. —The voice sounds like a rough chorus of four or five voices. What will it take to appease you? I don’t know. Leave this place. I am the Wolf Priest. I command it. You are the Wolf Priest? I am the Wolf Priest. The voices laugh. This is not the Wolf’s place. This is the insects’ place. Are you the Roach Priest? You have no power here.

Do not test me, bug, says the Wolf.

A head, limbs, bits of trunk, Choniqua comes splattering at them.

The caves are mine. Leave the places beneath. Or I will move into the places above.

The Wolf Priest tells Calvus what the bugs have said. Calvus points out that they use some of the caves. And it can’t eat people. The Wolf tells the bugs that everything’s different now. I am the same! The magi are here now, says the Wolf. We have to compromise. Compromise? The lower caves are yours. The upper caves are theirs. Where I was born is mine. No, says the Wolf. I have to eat! Eat somewhere else. Go below. Go deeper. I keep where I was born or I take one of your legs! Kill me if you like. They will kill you. Go as deep as you can go or the mages will kill you. Where I was born and below. He wants this cave and everything below. Fine, says Calvus, if they don’t eat anymore of us. Well? says the Wolf. I get one of your legs. All right, says the Wolf. It’s bound in blood. It’s done. —He starts to unroll his pants leg as a flying thing unbelievably quickly lands on his arm and takes it off at the shoulder and is gone.

It’s done, says the Wolf Priest, putting his hand over the stump, standing up, walking a few steps, falling over, just as Ishta and Nil and Ndape and Perdix and Sonata arrive.

The bug hiding on top of Tully’s tower launches into the air and dives for one of the tunnels.

Sonata and Ishta are looking to the Wolf’s healing. Nil and Perdix head back to Nil’s room, discussing modifications to the rego spell to account for five bugs and only one sign. A commonality? Perhaps. Binding to different aspects of the same being...

Tully appears, and uses his leather-thing to scoop up the Wolf Priest. They discuss where to take him. Sonata’s stabilized the immediate wound. Tully brings out a metal plate with rivets that he slaps over the wound; the rivet sinks into the Wolf Priest’s flesh, plating it over, starting to heal his internal wounds.

The townsfolk are settled but worried. Most of the alcohol at the Scarecrow King has been nationalized.

Gi’s trying to find one of the other magi and find out what happened. Calvus and Sonata and Tully and Ishta are talking about the situation as the Wolf Priest sleeps on one of the guest-room beds. Sonata says the deal’s unacceptable. This is agreed. The Wolf’s waking up. Sonata’s Monkeys start chittering. He looks alarmed. Ishta insists he eat something, even though he says he isn’t hungry. Tell us about the deal you brokered, says Calvus. The Wolf Priest is staring at Sonata. She apologizes to him. This deal? says Calvus. They have not appeared again? No. How long has it been? Less than an hour, says Calvus. The Wolf Priest sketches the parameters of the deal. If you kill it or attack it before it attacks you, you will be violating my word. I am the Wolf Priest. It’s my job to work with monsters. Fight them, destroy them, work with them, work for them. We’d rather you do less of the latter. There were Wolf Priests long before you got here, says the Wolf Priest, and they’ll be here long after you’re gone. —Some discussion of options.

Gi’s heading down to the caverns; someone in the kitchens tells him to go upstairs to the guest room.

Murry, armed and armored, heads down toward the caverns.

Before the Wolf Priest goes, he calls Sonata to one side and tells her that her voices are louder than before. They’re getting out of hand. She insists they’re better than before, and she’ll do something about them, soon. The Wolf Priest warns her that his word binds other things than just this, and to break it would have ill effects on his other workings. He takes his leave.

—Some discussion of options. It’s decied to inform the villagers that it’s over.

Gi finds the Wolf Priest on his way to the Great Hall and gets the update.

In the guest room, they’re wondering if they need to call Mens. Should they maybe seal up the caverns? Go talk to the earth, Gi, says Calvus.

Nil and Perdix are bitchily arguing about technique. Murry’s down in the caverns. He doesn’t find the bugs, but he does find the bits of Choniqua’s body, and he makes a sack of his shirt and carries them back up.

Calvus wants to speak to Sonata alone. How’s your Monkey-research? —Some discussion of Monkey-characteristics. Calvus leaves as Hoopoe arrives.

meta

“I saw him at that one place that one time.”

Gætani goats have long Nubian ears, and the elder males of the herd have leonine ruffs.