As the heat of the room continued to grow, Stigr switched his beat, infusing the air with his music as the monstrous Chef lumbered forward, grabbing the edge of the northern bench and giving it a firm shake. A pot of boiling water shifted next to Ragnar, falling on his leg and causing him to wince.

Getting angry, Ragnar roared and charged at the chef, Abs on his heels, slamming his warhammer into the side of the bloated creature.

A loud thunk rang out as Abs, catching his rapier on the corner of the bench, had the weapon twist in his hand and slam his hand into the bench, making him cry out in pain.

“Stigr, the healing wand,” Zagthaan said, taking it from him and following the other two, hangong back from the reach of the massive cleaver.

The heat swelled again and the three non-tieflings started to burn in places, the fire sensitive trollkin starting to smoke slightly.

The huge cleaver rose, falling on Ragnar as the lolling tongue flopped around. The strike on Ragnar threw off his warhammer strike, but his shield followed in, spike impaling the blubbery mass. Ducking under the follow up strike from the Chef, Ragnar realised that the blow wasn’t for him as it hit Abs as its edge caught the gnome coming up from under the center bench.

Stepping up next to Ragnar, Zagthaan tapped him with the wand, healing over a few of the patches of burn scales moments before the heat rose again and the giant cleaver swung back around, hitting both of them across their chest pieces.

Ragnar and Abs struck with all their weapons, Zagthaan healing Ragnar and herself before the Chef grabbed the bench past them and shook it, a huge pot of water falling across the pair, making Ragnar grunt with pain.

If it weren’t for the fact that the Chef was trying to kill them, Zagthaan would have appreciated the dowsing in hot water. Ignoring the water, she imbued her warhammer with ice magic and, following the lead of Ragnar and Abs, struck the creature, all three of them adding more damage to the bloated mass in front of them.

As the temperature swelled again, Zagthaan saw Abs faint as the Chef struck Ragnar hard, causing him to stumble, throwing his warhammer strike off, yet again.

Anger evident in Ragnar’s pose, he swung the shield up, the spike passing through the non-existent jaw, squelching through what was left of the creature's brain and protruding through the backside of the creature's head. Ripping it free, Ragnar sagged a little as the temperature of the room faded away.

Glancing back at Stigr, Zagthaan nodded to him and waved at the door as the sigil locking it faded away. Looking back at the bloated mass, Zagthaan spotted something shiny in its pocket, pointing ragnar at it as she moved towards Abs.

“Room key, probably,” Ragnar stated as he looked at the tag.

“Cool,” Zagthaan said, dropping to her knees next to Abs before tapping him with the wand.

“Ah,” he groaned. “Everything hurts.”

“It would,” Zagthaan replied, helping him to his feet before getting up herself.

“Ragnar, can I get some of those potions?” Abs asked. “I hurt.”

“Mmmm,” Ragnar replied, looking at the gnome as Zagthaan tapped him with the healing wand.

“Come on Ragnar, don’t short change me. I know I haven’t been the best team mate, but even if I don’t acrobatics my way there properly, I do still pull off the flanking.”

While keeping glaring at the gnome, Ragnar passed over a pair of the moderate healing potions, watching at Abs downed them both immediately.

“Thanks Ragnar. You’re my man.”

“Putting it on your tab.”

Waving Stigr over to her, the pair tried the shutters between the kitchen and the restaurant, where they could still hear the violin music coming from. Neither could budge the shutters and, seeing Abs shake his head at the two other, unlabelled doors across from them, they gave up on the.

“I don’t want to loot any more, this place is scary,” Abs said, putting his lock picks away again.

“Dibs on nap,” Ragnar said.

“Ya, where?” Zagthaan demanded. After a brief moment, her face lit up. “Gee, that’s a good point. Room 111. We have the key for that and it’s just around the corner. Let’s go!”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Ragnar dared to say.

Abs, checking the door to their left, grumbled as he failed to pick it. “This fucking door,” he grumbled. “Need the key for it, or we have to go back downstairs and around it.”

The nearby doors to their north were labelled, ‘Laundry’, ‘Female’, ‘Male’, ‘Manager’s’ with more around the corner, another set of bathrooms and ‘Security’.

“Fuck, we need to get into the managers office to see if the key for the padlock to the gondolas is there,” Zagthaan said, looking at all the doors.

“Or the security office,” Ragnar suggested.

“Or the security office,” Zagthaan replied with a sigh.

“Security office first.”

“Not the closer Laundry first?”

“Nope,” Ragnar and Abs both replied.

“Cool,” Zagthaan replied, waving towards the Security office. “Abs, can you go check the door first please. Traps and whatnot, then poke your head in.”

Shrugging, the gnome looked over the door, tools scrapping loudly over the lock before he opened the door slowly. When it was barely open more than a handbreadth, a demon dog shoved it open inward, biting Abs’s arm.

Quickly stepping up next to Abs, Ragnar swung past him at the dog, missing and hitting the door frame instead. As he drew his hammer back, vines lashed out from a lasher further back in the room, catching Abs and bouncing off Ragnar’s shield before retracting back.

Making sure to not be in the line of sight from the lasher, Zagthaan moved behind Abs and tapped him with the healing wand a moment before the gnome lashed out, hitting the dog, then stepping back and to the side so that Ragnar could occupy the door.

As Stigr moved behind Ragnar, casting resistance on him, the dog followed Abs partway through the door, biting him before Ragnar shield bashed the creature, drawing it’s attention to him.

Vines lashed out again, striking Ragnar in the chest and catching Abs across the head. Zagthaan, a vine brushing her armour, ignored it and tapped Abs with the healing wand, while keeping out of the way as Stigr moved in, the three working in concert, the distant violin music bolstering them.

As Stigr bit into the dog creature, the lasher struck out, striking Zagthaan in the shoulder, slipping into a joint in the armour and hitting her flesh. She cried out in pain as another vine smacked into Ragnar’s side. Seeing the hit and ignoring her own injury, Zagthaan tapped Ragnar with the wand.

Taking a double step back from the combat, Abs put his hand on his knees and bent over, sucking in air, giving Stigr the moment to sink his claws and teeth into the dog, ripping through its side, dropping the creature, giving Ragnar the space to step through the door and into combat with the lasher.

Its vines lashed out again, catching only Stigr. Healing herself, Zagthaan glanced towards Abs. “Abs, whatcha doing?”

“Watching Ragnar beating up that lasher.”

“Abs, get in here and help!” Ragnar roared at him from the room.

“Fine,” Abs huffed, moving into the room with Stigr, the pair aiding Ragnar in dropping the creature, with Stigr getting the final hit, sinking his teeth into the creature's shoulder and ripping its arm clean off.

Turning to look back at Zagthaan, Stigr noticed a key hanging from a hook just inside the door frame. Taking it, he passed it over to Ragnar. “It’s labelled staff,” Stigr said.

“Did we even find the staff room?” Ragnar replied.

“No,” Zagthaan spoke up, “but that will probably open the staff door, which will let us go through to 111 without having to go back downstairs.” Glancing down the hall, she waved at a door. “Manager’s office next?”

With Abs leading and opening the door slowly, they entered the manager's office. The front room was evidently a secretary's room, small with a desk, a chair and a filing cabinet, another door on the other side of the room. Abs, trying the handle to the door, borrowed the key from Ragnar, trying it on the manager’s office door, finding that it didn’t fit.

“Ragnar, why do we keep him around?” Zagthaan asked, loud enough for Abs to hear.

“Meat shield.”

“He’s not a very good one.”

Abs, trying his lock picks on the door, sighed loudly.

“But how much damage has he taken versus the damage I’ve taken?”

“This is also true.”

“When he hits he’s usually doing well too.”

“I’ve been doing damage,” Abs grumped at the pair. “Want to break down the door?”

“If you break the door, then the problem is, can the door still be used as a door if we go to use that room as a camping spot?” Zagthaan asked. “Also, Lucy said doors couldn’t be broken.”

“Let’s try the laundry first then,” Abs replied, waving them out the door to the hallway. Pushing open the door revealed a pair of washing tubs and a few piles of clothes. As they rummaged through, Ragnar found himself a handful of coins and a note.

“Hey Ragnar, what does that say?” Zagthaan asked.

“No idea,” he replied, handing it to her.

“Why are you giving it to me? Just ‘cause I read a lot doesn’t mean I understand everything.” She glanced at it and read aloud, “4, 6, 2, 9.”

“Could be a combination to a lock,” Abs stated. Zagthaan shrugged and handed him the note. “Alright, I’ll keep this. The lucky numbers.”

“Yeah, just enter them into the lotto, I’m sure you’ll win real big,” Zagthaan said, dripping sarcasm.

Heading back to the staff door, Abs inserted the key and turned, the lock clicking open and the door swinging open. “Huh,” he muttered, pocketing the key again before they slunk along the corridor towards the lower floor rooms.

Passing a sign stating ‘Rooms 101 - 111’, the group looked up and down the corridor before making a beeline to the room. Turning the key in the lock let them into a neat and well appointed room, the only thing of note being a suitcase sitting on the small table. Zagthaan, barely glancing around the room, immediately took the key from Abs, locking the four of them in the room before starting to take off her armour.

Abs, checking out the suitcase, retrieved the small note with the numbers on it. As he entered the numbers, Stigr picked up a note from the table next to the bed. “Remember to retrieve the code from pants, they’re in the laundry,” he read out loud as the locks clicked open.

A few sheets of paperwork were tossed aside before a large coin with a snake on it came into the candlelight, followed by an antique pistol with a handful of cartridges. “Hit the jackpot!” Abs crowed.

Rolling over a little from her spot she had laid down on the couch, Zagthaan looked at Abs. “What you got?”

“Got this coin,” he said, showing it to Zagthaan.

Pulling the one with the slave girl on it out, she threw it at Abs head. “Here.”

Snatching it out of the air, he looked it over. “I didn’t know you were into slave girls.”

Glaring at him, she rolled over, trying to ignore the others as they settled down to rest.

~

The dream was dark, unending, shifting and almost silent. A distant susurrus brushed their minds before condensing into a single directive.

“Become more powerful.”

Malice dripped from the words, but was not directed at them, more directed at another, distant entity.

The dream faded and they woke slowly, new purpose and strength infusing them.

~

Whoop. Whoop. Whoop.

“The Cleaner is outside somewhere,” Abs said, rubbing his eyes and sitting up on the part of the couch Zagthaan wasn’t using.

“I thought the siren going was a good thing?” Ragnar said, scratching the insides of his claws with a dagger while laying on his back on the double bed. “Or was it a bad thing?”

Zagthaan yawned and stretched. “No, the siren going is a good thing, because he doesn’t show up till the siren stops.”

“It’s also a bad thing because it means that the monsters are generally more active,” Stigr said from his spot on the floor, laying across the inside of the doorway.

“Yeah, but, monsters are generally less shit than the giant fucking guy,” Ragnar stated.

“Well, we know we can probably kill him,” Zagthaan added. “I mean, we did a fair amount of damage to him and he looked wounded.”

“He had to run away from us,” Abs added.

“Yeah, but he also had Lucy. Whatever that means.” Zagthaan sat herself up and stretched again.

“Shall we go upstairs and check out the rooms there?” Abs asked. “What was the other key we got?”

Ragnar rummaged the key out and threw it to Abs. “That one.”

“201 to 210,” Abs read on the tag. “Shall we go look at those rooms?”

“I really don’t want to, but we have to find our way through this place somehow,” Zagthaan said, glancing at the door where Stigr was sitting up.

Abs picked up and waved the gun around, it being slightly too large for his small hands. “Hey, I got this awesome pistol from this case, there might be other things like this in the other rooms.”

Zagthaan eyed him. “You know what else is probably in those rooms?”

“Not monsters?”

“No, the opposite to that.”

“Gold.”

“Yes monsters.”

“More coins.”

Zagthaan rolled her eyes at him. “I need to meditate for my spells first, give me an hour.” Gathering her clothing, she wandered off into the bathroom, the sound of running water reaching the others ears a moment later, moments before loud curses about the lack of hot water and “thrice cursed exploding boilers.”

~

Ragnar glanced over his shoulder at the others as they walked out of the room. His scales prickled for a second, his danger sense alerting him as he spotted the creatures out of the corner of his eye. Even before Stigr, the last of the four, had entered the corriver, Ragnar was charging the nearest of the three hallway lashers, his warhammer slamming into its side, drawing out a loud crack. As if in response to his sudden charge and hit, all three lashers struck out, vines striking shield and armour, only a couple getting through to deal any real damage.

Taking the scene in, Zagthaan’s eyes widened as she saw a croaker down the corridor, one of the creatures responsible for her missing arm. Panicking, she rapidly chanted out a spell, whipping the small length of chain from her pouch and waving it like a lash at the croaker. A pair of chains, pulsing with her red and grey aura, appeared and struck the croaker before vanishing. Her own eyes flashed, the fear still there, but starting to ebb away as she came to realise she could hurt them.

A flash of light streaked past Zagthaan and Ragnar, slamming into the face of the lasher attacking Ragnar giving him the opening he needed to slam his warhammer into the side of the creature's head, dropping it. The croaker, taking the opening of the lashers death, had moved up and tried striking at Ragnar, missing as Abs buried his rapier into the croakers side. Seeing the new target, Ragnar lashed out with his shield, hitting the coraker moments before another wave of attacks pummelled into the pair of fighters.

Anger starting to replace the fear in her eyes, Zagthaan moved up between Abs and Ragnar, her own warhammer swinging into the creature. A flare followed her warhammer, missing the creature's head a half breath before spikes exploded out from it, slamming into Ragnar, Zagthaan and Abs, catching the gnome in the arm and the armour of the other two.

“None of that!” Ragnar roared at the croaker as Abs moved behind it.

“Abs, kill it!” Zagthaan squeaked out as she backed up a step. As Abs’s blade missed, her eyes widened. “Kill it Ragnar!”

With a grunt of effort, Ragnar’s warhammer struck, the creature's shoulder snapping under the strike, rendering the arm useless at the spike from his shield followed the hammer, embedding itself into its other shoulder.

Again, vines lashed the group and, as the lasher nearest to Abs retracted its vine, he stepped into an opening and stabbed, the blade glancing off the edge of a vine.

Warily, Zagthaan tried striking at the croaker, the anger flowing away and fear returning as she missed the strike. Another flare whizzed past her shoulder, this one hitting the creature as it struck at Ragnar, who, with a grunt, shrugged off the blow before retaliating.

The shield swung out, colliding with the neck of the croaker, dropping it and, as he spun and stepped past its falling body and using the momentum to bring his warhammer down on one of the two remaining lashers, the crack of wood echoing down the hallway.

As the two lashers struck again, Abs stepped past one of the strikes, stabbing the creature as the other hit Ragnar twice. Stepping behind Ragnar, Zagthaan pressed her knuckles against his back, pushing her healing energies into him as Stigr stepped behind Abs, casting a healing spell on the gnome before the two fighters stepped forward.

Rapier and warhammer striking out, the last two lashers fell in a breath of each other.

“Nothing like a little morning exercise,” Ragar said, shaking out his arms.

“Let’s check the other rooms along here real quick,” Stigr said, nodding down the hallway.

Poking their heads into each room, the group found nothing until they stepped out of the hall for the guest rooms, spotting a storeroom they’d overlooked the previous day. Stepping into it, they started opening small tins and packets, chewing on jerky and biscuits for breakfast.

“Hey, Zagthaan, what’s this?” Abs asked, showing her a small bottle he pulled out of the med kit.

Studying it in his hand as she packed extra bandages and salves into her own pack, she informed him it was a potion to resist poisons before taking it from him and stuffing it into her own med kit.

☆~☆