STORY ARC #4 HERO OF PENDOWN

Servants of Miishlo

“Come to me, Manling…”

This is a continuation of Trouble at the Ballast Tanks by JF Danskin, part of a collaborative ‘Choose Your Own’ tale titled The Hero of Pendown. Check out how you can contribute, as well as read other amazing entries here.

You decide that it’s wisest to investigate the area first. What were these filthy kobolds doing on a ship crewed by humans? Or was the manifest more diverse than you initially thought?

“Excusemee, Masta!” comes a poorly vocalized request from knee height. You drop down low to meet a kobold dragging a bright yellow “Wet Floor” sign into the middle of the vast chamber.

He adjusts the sign until he’s satisfied with its position, then leans on his mop with a satisfied sigh.

“You there, uh…kobold,” you grab the pint-sized kobold by the scruff of its neck. He resists, smacking you with his mop, but you easily overpower him. “What is this place? What’s going on here?”

You plop him back down, and he tugs at his blue overalls in an attempt to adjust them. “That two questions too many!”

You’re unsure if there was any punctuation missing in that statement, but the kobold continues after a long “Hmmm…”

“This is Primary Ballast Tank. Very important to ship function,” he says, seeming to recall an orientation meeting he might’ve had at his job training. “Help ship steer.”

There is another long, guttural vowel sound spewing forth from the kobold’s snout.

“And what is going on here?” Eshami kindly repeats.

“Oh! Yes! Second question!”

You tap your nose at the priestess.

The kobold leans in close to you, and softly growls an answer. His breath reeks of rotten fish.

“Miishlo taken control of ballast tanks. Miishlo controls all kobolds. Miishlo will not be defeated. Miishlo…eh” He scratches his head with the tip of the mop handle in frustration. “Oh! Remembers! Miishlo wants to eats all the humanses.”

“You’re a human,” Eshami leans in to remind you in a quiet whisper. You swear her elven ears wiggled in jest!

“What is Miishlo? Where is Miishlo?” you ask, hating to cause so many of this seemingly innocent kobold’s brain cells to fire up.

He stretches his arms out as far as they can go, then he tries to do the same with his stumpy tail. “Miishlo big. Mean.” He leans in to whisper again. “Only one who in own head. Miishlo has others ‘install’.”

Install? You run the word through your multi-brain-celled kobold translator — your brain — and come up with ‘in his thrall’ as the most likely answer. You pass this information on to Eshami in a whisper.

You pat the kobold on the head and he hisses. “Oh, second question!” you remind the little dragonling.

The kobold stamps his feet proudly, waving his mop around. “Secondary Ballast Tank!” He points over to a hatch set into the floor in one corner of the room.

“Thank you, honorable kobold,” Eshami beams, leaning over to scratch the creature’s soft, bearded chin. He begins to coo in delight.

You gently pull her away from the kobold, and the janitor seems happy to just go back to work mopping the puddles.

“What do you make of that?” she asks you. “Something with mind-control abilities that is also rather large… and possibly aquatic?”

You remember fighting such a creature, once, but you remain silent for fear that you’re correct.

You and Eshami walk over to the hatch leading below decks. You remove your boots, and pray your enemy isn’t a swarm of flesh-eating piranha as you lift open the hatch.

“Hmm… delivered right to my door!” a sinister male voice suddenly booms, nearly pulling you down into the black water.

“Hero?” Eshami asks, concerned, but you can barely hear her words.

“Come to me, Manling,” the voice commands.

“Can you hear me?” You think it’s Eshami again, but you cannot tell.

You must flip a coin. If it lands “heads”, you may choose your adventure normally. But if it lands “tails”, you must choose option #2. Remember, cheating makes the kobolds sad, and you don’t want that…

Do you:

1. Pull out your hand crossbow, fire a few shots into the water, then slam the hatch shut (click here).
2. Drop down into the water (click here).

Miishlo demands you follow his Medium account and subscribe to his email list to stay up-to-date. Miishlo demands comments to hear about how great he is! Obey!

Miishlo also has a Ko-fi account set up here. You may divulge a portion of your wealth to sustain his endless hunger! Failure to do so may result in Jonathon Sawyer being eaten!