I’ve been horrible to you. I’m sorry, but don’t expect regular replies. Ok, then.
Ok, something like four sligs guarding a flintlock in a room-like room in the scarabanian temple. No signs of anything else. I decided not to head directly into the occupied room, and instead explored a bit.
The first room I entered looked something like a lab. Not my lab, a proper lab – Bench, basin, vending machine where a fridge should be. I suppose there wouldn’t be any frozen fuzzles in it, though, so that would be an improvement. I would have taken some meat – paramite and scrab; Why not eat them? They’re already dead, they’re not going to get better – but my pack was full as it was with more meat and scrab chicks.
I was staring at the vending machine, and it got me thinking why there were sligs in here, hunting scrabs. After all, rupture farms, the main meat packing facility around here, weren’t around anymore. Then it dawned on me that it would be stupid for just one company to get all the action. There must have been competitors. One must have spotted the hole in resource consumption and occupied it. These industrialists must be here because some company that wanted scrabs sent them.
I peered at the vending machine for a company name, but it was just a general vending machine packed with food wrapped in plastic. Oh, well.
I moved onto the next room, and it was full of bed-like slabs. Or at least mattress-like slabs. I really began to worry about who designed this place. Next to one was an open bag. It contained guns, gear, smoking pipes, and smoking substances that should probably be illegal but weren’t because the Magog Cartel loved a moneymaking opportunity. It was probably illegal for the guards, anyway. Nothing I could use with my assorted limbs. I moved on.
There was only two more rooms. One I decided not to explore because of the smell. The other was the one that contained the guards. There was nothing for it. I had to go in.
Elsewhere…
There is a dark, smoky room. You couldn’t expect rooms like it to be anything else, really. There must have been occupants, because every now and then there was a cough from the gloom.
Presently, a door near the back opened, and a few glukkons walked in. They all sat down, and then the door closed.
For the profit the readers, our personal light will now be toned up a bit to allow for good sight. There are half a dozen or so gluckons sitting at a table, most with personal sligs, smoking cigars. With our new personal light, we can see that they’re playing a card game.
As we watch, one wins. This is obvious because there are suddenly many disgruntled mumblings, throwing down of cards (by the sligs), and general fidgeting. One gluckon stands up.
“Gentleglucks” He announces “Well played by all of you… except, of course, the losers, heh…”
The effects of this sentence make it obvious that the only person who didn’t lose was smiling with a smug expression on his face. And, incidentally, standing up.
“Now, for your pleasure, we have some entertainment prepared. We have found an employee who has been in possession of illegal smoking substances, who will be punished accordingly.”
This sentence, on the other hand, met the murmur of approval.
“ Afterwards, we shall have a scrab, a pack of three paramites, and seven mudokon slaves… punished accordingly.”
That gluckon’s slig then indicated a wall, which was opening to a window that showed a large room with two doors. The lights in this room are quite adequate for normal vision.
One of the doors open, from which a legged slig is pushed through holding only a spear. He is staring at the opposite door like it was a many-tentacled thing with gnashing teeth and an adequate striking range. Then, with a delay of a few seconds, that door opened…
Yet another chapter completed. I am so proud of myself.
) after a business trip to Europe (Really France, but he visited my Grandmother/ His Mother in England, too) and I am practicaly brain dead right now (this is fine - fact, not fiction) because I was up until 3:30 AM this morning and slept for two hours!
