STORY ARC #4 HERO OF PENDOWN

Shootout in the Ballast Room

“Miishlo always gets what he wants. Now, he wants you!”

This is a continuation of Servants of Miishlo and The Way of the Sword, 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.

Standing with your feet at the edge of the hatch down to the secondary ballast tank, you realize that it might be easier to just shoot him from where you’re standing.

You pull out Eshami’s hand crossbow and fire three shots into the water below.

“Hey! How did you — ” Eshami pads her waist, realizing that her sidearm is no longer in its holster. She glares at you and pouts.

You smile at her and shrug innocently.

“Insolence!” comes the booming voice inside your head. You can make out two glowing red eyes below the water. “Miishlo hasn’t eaten for days! Your flesh shall sate my hunger!”

The kobold thralls suddenly turn and gather around you and Eshami. There look to be several dozen of them, many more than you thought you had seen before, each pushing you closer to the edge of the hatch with their mops and buckets.

“Hero!” Eshami cries out as she is being crawled over and dragged towards the hatch you’re precariously standing over. She manages to swing her longsword haphazardly, sending several of the kobolds flying backward.

One crazed little custodian charges at you, and you twist out of the way at the last moment and he falls into the water below the open hatch.

“Fleshy mortal…” Miishlo’s voice calls you again, the sound in your head ten times stronger than before.

Suddenly, out from between Miishlo’s glowing red eyes shoots a lightning bolt! It narrowly misses your head and shoots up to the ceiling. It ricochets off the metallic surfaces of the room, and barrels through a pack of kobold thralls, before finally fizzling out.

But not before striking Eshami.

Her muscles seizing from electrocution, she throws her body back in obvious pain as the kobolds take free shots at her unguarded body.

“Eshami!”

But you have no opportunity to react as a magical orb shoots out from the water and stuns you. The effect isn’t painful, but you cannot move, and slowly fall into the open hatch.

Your last image is of glowing red, hungry eyes in the water.

“Miishlo always gets what he wants. Now, he wants you!”

Your last thought is that you failed Pendown. Hopefully, Miishlo will choke on one of your bones, but something tells you he’s done this before…

THE END

Miishlo is upset that you wanted to kill him. He’s just an innocent aboleth doing aboleth things — dominating the minds of lesser mortals, and eating choice, artisanal humans. Please subscribe so that he can watch you choose other adventures.

Miishlo also has a Ko-fi account set up here. Buy his immortality for a Twonie! All money goes to the Fish Without Friends Fund (My bank account) so no other Miishlos have to suffer alone. ❤