Chapter 81: Chapter 81: The Tentacle’s Kiss

They had discussed trying to draw Celyne, the ice harpy, out of her lair. It would be easier to fight her out in the open rather than in her cave, where they would have no control over the terrain. And who knew what kind of traps might be waiting for them inside. But it looked like they were going to find out anyway when Ilyawraith made the decision that they should go up the mountain to slay her.

“You can feign injury and bleed yourself,” Ilyawraith said, “to try and draw her out. But we don’t know how long that will take, or if she will come at all. She’s grown fat from the mountain goats that dwell on the cairn.”

“So why deliver another meal to her doorstep?” Nom said. “Let’s have her come to us.”

“Like I said, we are taking a detour to hunt these monsters,” Ilyawraith said. “We don’t want to spend more than a couple days here before moving on. She could be hibernating up there.”

“And if that’s the case,” Quincy said, “then we’d be wasting our time pretending to be wounded just to lure her to us. Besides, this will be good experience for you. Dungeon diving is a big part of the monster hunting part of the trade.”

Nay could sort of see where he was coming from. When she ran her taco truck business, or hell, even when she was coming up through various kitchens, it was part of the brigade system to learn or at least have some knowledge of every role in the kitchen. From dishwasher to sous chef, knowing how a kitchen operated was valuable knowledge for becoming a chef one day. And even when she did become a chef, learning about purchasing produce, keeping account of the business finances and even knowing how the front-of-the house stuff operated was required knowledge for running a business in the food service space.

Now, she was getting a crash course in the monster hunting part of the trade. Not to mention it was a facet of being a Marrow Eater. But back in her world, she never really had to worry about being killed by one of the animals or plants she was extracting food product from.

“I’ve scouted the lair and found a drop-off zone where we can gather before we begin,” Ilyawraith said. “In the meantime, let’s Buff up and get ready.”

---

[Quest Detected]

[Quest: Slay Celyne, the Ice Harpy]

[Accept Quest Y/N?]

---

Nay accepted the quest and then consulted the Jezabelle Childe cookbook to see if there were any recipes concerning fighting harpies. While she stared at her interface, she discovered a Search function feature for the book. She clicked on it and a search bar and holographic-like keyboard appeared near her hands.

She typed in ‘harpy’. After a moment, several recipes dinged onto her interface.

Hot Harpy Wings.

Fried Harpy Leg.

Harpy Eye Soup.

Those all looked like recipes for Marrows and Delicacies retrieved from harpies. She was looking for more of a harpy-fighting Buff they could use. Well, if she had the ingredients for it in her inventory and if it didn’t take too long to whip up.

Then she saw a recipe that caught her attention.

Jezabelle’s Winter Apple Tarts For Fighting Winged Monsters.

She was sure harpies had wings, from what she knew of Greek mythology. And even though she wasn’t in a Greek epic or tale, there must be some similarities between the creatures mythical and real. Because why else would they be called harpies? Which made her wonder if there were ever crossovers between the worlds. Could monsters from certain stories and myths in her world be because of stuff someone glimpsed here? Was it a dumb thought or was there a connection somewhere?

She clicked on the recipe.

Jezabelle’s Winter Apple Tarts For Fighting Winged Monsters. Eat this delicious treat if you’re ever going to be adventuring through an Eyre or mountain pass that might be rife with bloodsucker bats or even wyrms. Or use if you’re nearby a hive of rasp stingers. It could save your life!

Ingredients: Winter apples, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, butter and any flaky pie crust.

Grants Extra Damage to Winged Creatures. Lasts 3 hours. Can only be used once a day.

Then there was a picture of the Epicurist Icon for this recipe. She needed to picture this icon in her mind with True Eye in order to activate the recipe. All of the recipes she had used from the cookbook had this component. These icons were the key to each recipe. She had a feeling that she could see the icons because of her Chef’s Delight and Chef’s Kiss abilities, as she saw these flash whenever she passed over the icons.

The Epicurist Icon for the tart was a rune-like etching of a thrown apple streaking towards a winged beast.

Nay checked her inventory and saw that she had some winter apples and some of the leftover pie crust that they had used for the crystal berry tarts. “Yes!”

She produced her cast iron pan from her inventory and got to cooking a batch of the apple tarts.

#

After everyone ate and Buffed up and got spell effects, Ilyawraith flew up on her cloud to do a last minute scout before she would begin ferrying people up.

While they waited, Nom offered his digestive biscuits to them. He held out the sleeve of Duke Umberto’s Digestive Biscuits for anyone interested. Everyone declined.

“C’mon,” Nom said. “We just ate. You don’t want an upset stomach while battling a harpy, do you? I don’t know about you but that would be a rather inconvenient time to be stricken with the quick squirts.”

“Gross, Nom,” Nay said.

“He does paint a convincing picture,” Lain said, accepting one of the biscuits.

Tuk-Tuk and Quincy each took one as well. Quincy noticed Nay glaring at them and shrugged. “He’s not wrong. We did just eat. Keeping the gut healthy keeps the mind healthy, they say.”

“You sure you don’t want one Nay?” Nom said, waving the sleeve of crackers in front of her. “Imagine getting de-stealthed because of a rambunctious bowel movement.”

“Goddammit,” Nay said and took one of the biscuits.

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#

The wind atop Bronwyn’s Cairn was howling. Its frigid force reminded Nay of when she first arrived in this world. She had been naked, cold and afraid. Now she was leather-armored, cold and nervous.

Ilyawraith had ferried them one at a time to a ruined camp of ice and rock that was actually above the lair entrance and close to the peak of the mountain. There were frozen bones in the ice and snow. Some still had yellowed flesh sticking to them. This must be where Celyne deposited all the bones from her meals.

Nay saw a human skull amongst all the mountain goat and elk bones. Even with the loud wind, Nay thought she heard the neigh of mountain goats below them. Tuk-Tuk and Nom had creeped towards the edge of a drop off and looked down.

She saw Nom talking to Tuk-Tuk.

Nay scanned her mini-map and saw that the cave system in the rock went far below and past the range of what she could see. She didn’t see any dots in there. But she did see some right below them on the mountain. Must be the mountain goats.

Nom slithered over to the rest of the group. He had to talk over the party line to make his voice more clear because of the wind. “Guys, I have an idea.”

Ilyawraith and Quincy gave the tentacle their attention.

“Maybe there’s still a way to lure her out,” Nom said. “Maybe we need to give her an offering.”

#

Tuk-Tuk had an arrow nocked in his bow. He was aiming down at a mountain goat that was on a small shelf of rock below them. If he shot it too close to the edge, the body might tumble down the mountain. So he had to wait till it scooted closer to the mountain wall edge.

It stood there, chewing its cud for a moment, and then it scooted over. With a thwack, Tuk-Tuk released his bow. The arrow struck the mountain goat in the heart, killing it instantly. No pain.

Ilyawraith flew down and picked up the fresh carcass. She returned to everyone else, setting the mountain goat carcass on the ground.

Nom approached it and a slit opened up on the side of his body and a tendril emerged. The end of the tendril was curled around a vial containing a red powder. Nom grabbed the vial with a protuberance and the tendril retracted, the slit on his body closing.

This was the first time Nay had seen him do this. She had no idea he could carry things like that.

“What are you staring at?” Nom said.

“I just didn’t know you had a pocket like that on your body,” Nay said.

“I call it, ‘Nature’s Pocket’,” Nom said. “Now, can you scour some of the flesh for me? This needs to get into the meat.” He waved the vial of crimson powder at her.

“Uh, sure,” Nay said. “What kind of poison is that exactly?”

“I named it ‘The Tentacle’s Kiss’,” Nom said. “I derived it from slowly consuming small portions of red shardbloom –“

“That’s a poisonous herb!” Quincy said.

“Indeed it is,” Nom said. “And the poisonous components are made even more pure, concentrated and volatile after I extract a few droplets of my blood after each consumption. Which is then dried into scabs and crushed into a powder. What you see in this vial took weeks of work. I’m fairly certain it has the potency to kill a frost giant.”

Everyone was looking at Nom in alarm.

“Jesus Christ,” Nay said.

“How come no one mentioned to me that Nom was a Poison Maker” Ilyawraith said.

“I forgot to tell you,” Quincy said.

“Must have slipped my mind,” Nay said. Then Thorn appeared in her hand and she scoured the side of the goat, trying to make the cuts look like claw marks. Nom, with great care, using his body to shield the wind, tapped out the contents of the vial into the wounds. “There we go. Now we leave this offering at the front entrance of the lair to prepare our trap.”

“You really think this stuff is potent enough to kill the harpy?” Nay said. “Is there any chance of it tainting the Marrow?”

“The toxin is destroyed by heat,” Nom said. “So if the monster’s stomach acids don’t do the job, as long as we cook the Marrow before ingesting we’ll be in the clear. Trust me, I wouldn’t use a poison that would ruin a Marrow.”

The next step was scoping out the entrance and observing if there was any activity within. Nay approached the entrance in stealth form. She wished she could move faster, but even with the Fleet-Footed spell, she felt she could only move at half of her unenhanced speed.

As an experiment, she tried to run. She felt a pressure pressing against her. It held her momentum back. It was like pressing against the edge of a bubble. She realized she could push through the bubble. When she did, she immediately popped out of stealth.

So, she waited for the cool down to expire and then she activated stealth again. The lair entrance was a dark portal that led into the mountain. The top half of the entrance was blocked by icicles. Nay crept forward and ducked underneath the ice and entered the first chamber of the lair.

It was dark. And there was a terrible smell of feces coming from the back. Every surface of the cave was covered in a thick layer of ice. Her nagaskin boots gripped the rime floor. She consulted her mini-map and saw that there was a tunnel towards the back and it led to a series of chambers below them. It kept going, even past her range of sight.

She didn’t see any dots so she figured the harpy was somewhere out of range below. She exited and told them it was clear.

Tuk-Tuk, in polar bear form, carried the mountain goat carcass by the nape of its neck with his teeth. He was careful not to pierce the skin and risk getting poisoned himself. He deposited their ‘offering’ in the center of the entrance chamber where the wind would carry the scent of the meat down into the lair.

Everyone got into position near the entrance, but hidden out of view. Except for Nay, who was stealthed and inside the lair, her back pressed against one of the walls and her weapons in hand.

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