Seersucker

Ch 53: Any chance that could be a deluxe bath?

Dantes smiled and stood, meeting Vera for a big open armed hug. She smelled of roses and vanilla, her taste in perfume hadn’t changed. The scent immediately brought a flood of memories to the sur...

Ch 52: It's been a while

The first mile or so that Dantes walked was nothing, but empty alleyways filled with trash and rats. Even with the mile of space between the Maw and the wall that sealed the space off, people still...

Ch 51: Watch out below, fu-

As Dantes rose up, clinging desperately to the first branch the Mother’s Reach had sprouted he realized very quickly that it was starting to widen. He threw himself up so that he could switch to ...

Ch 50: Ten copper on the big one!

Dantes stood in the center of the Maw, feeling the sun warm his skin. It was a feeling he missed, though that hadn’t made him seek out the Maw in the past. Putting yourself in the center of a bea...

Ch 49: None of that’s your blood, is it?

Jacopo crawled in Dantes’ jacket and settled into a pocket towards his back.

“This is a much better method of travel,” he said, burrowing as far into the pocket as he could.

“Re...

Announcement

Hey everyone,

I've officially reached the back-end of my backlog, and so will be moving to the planned 3 updates a week rather than 1 a day.  The schedule is going to be Tuesd...

Ch 48: Meet me in the Maw

Dantes and Jacopo crawled through the tunnels, leading a horde of rats and roaches. Dantes had almost no difficulty adjusting to being a rat, but in spite of that he had a bit of trouble keeping up...

Ch 47: Are there any you would want me to spare?

They all sat there in silence for some time, then Dantes stood, and began putting his hands under Tel’s body, attempting to lift him.

“What’re you doing?” asked Merle, though he didn�...

Ch 46: And then nothing

Through the roach he could feel that a number of people were moving about, and sense that there was a lot of blood, and screaming. He attempted to move closer, but the movement of people was too da...

Ch 45: Your surprises are no longer surprising

Dantes gently placed a small candle down on the floor of the wide cavern. He took out a small burnstick, lit it, and gently placed it against the wick of the candle. It lit easily, and then he move...

Ch 44: It seems it's always 'the hard way'

By the time Dantes was done, his hand was sore from the reverberation of the cane. He stopped just short of killing Grimald, he had a feeling that the Executive would find some way to charge him fo...

Ch 43: How can I help you?

The Shadow Cats eyed the weapons, Jayson with curiosity, Jayk with suspicion, and Zak with obvious desire.

Dantes ate another spoonful of stew from his bowl, it was surprisingly good, Jayson ...

Ch 42: Those aren't to eat, they're to bargain

Dantes watched the corpse disposal with mild fascination. He was no stranger to rot and decay, not in midtown, and certainly not down in the Pit. Still, seeing it sped up by the frenzy of rats and ...

Ch 41: Gorge yourself

Dantes moved through the corridors at his usual pace so that he wouldn’t warn his followers that he knew of them tracking his movements just a few chambers behind him. He started to have individu...

Ch 40: Shouldn't have been such an unrepentant-

Dantes placed a small pouch of weed, and a handful of blood-red grapes onto the raised stone in front of him that acted as a table.

Wane shook his head. “I’m out.”

Tel reached int...

Ch 39: Free booze, women, and money

Jacopo watched as the orcs filtered in one by one. The smell of smoke and drink was heavy in the air. Dantes had given the weed he’d bought from Clay to the orcs so that they could get high as we...

Ch 38: Here's the gist

The Undermarket was full of the stench of booze and sweat. All of the various small bars scattered throughout it were full of cheerful drunken orcs, still high off their victory at the supply drop ...

Ch 37: The dainty wave of a highborn woman

Dantes awoke the next day with a splitting headache. He laid awake with his eyes closed for what must have been at least an hour, then he attempted to sit up. The moment he was upright, he vomited,...

Ch 36: Doing a bit of flexing

Dantes walked toward the Consortium’s undermarket bar. He felt good. He’d put on even more weight thanks to his climbing routine, easy access to food, and the whey tip he’d gotten from Merle....

CH 35: Mating yes. Also murder.

Dantes stayed off the main paths, but from he could see through the rats he had watching behind him the Orc’s had ceased their assault in the Maw itself and started consolidating all of the goods...

Ch 34: Violent doesn't mean stupid

Dantes made his way into Collared chambers, exchanging nods and hellos with those he recognized as he made his way toward the usual location of the dice game near Tel’s room. The game wasn’t ha...

Ch 33: What would you say is the largest kind of tree?

Dantes moved out of the brothel and out onto the narrow ‘streets’ of the undermarket. Unlike in Collared territory where everyone knew who he was and their behavior toward him had changed, in t...

Ch 32: A Fey's sense of honor

Dantes and Televor moved through the tunnels between the Collared and the undermarket. It was busy, but not unusually so. It was common for the undermarket to be more active immediately before and ...

Ch 31: Antennae tickled his lips

Dantes was in a darkness so black that his darkvision couldn’t pierce it. He could hear the sounds of skittering in the dark all around him. He could feel the small steps of a million legs all ac...

Ch 30: I'm no rat

After they’d finished an hour of nitty gritty discussions, everyone shook hands and felt that solid mix of satisfied and dissatisfied that always came with business agreements. Dantes feigned a f...

Ch 29: You're not here to kill me, I presume?

Had Dantes been focused on something other than the dice game, he may have placed some rats in the tunnels between the Undermarket and the Collared, so that he could keep a closer eye on when the C...

Ch 28: I did it very carefully

By the time he reached the edges of collared territory Dantes’ legs were screaming at him. He had considered, roughly halfway there, seeing how much favor and how many rats it would take to move ...

Ch 27: Tempt the gods to ruin your day

Dantes slid his hand into the next divot in the wall and pulled himself up, resting his feet between a narrow crack. He looked up, seeing another small divot and sliding his hand into it, he pulled...

Ch 26: Brazen and bold

The blunderbus fired and Jacopo was launched with it to the far side of the room, slamming against the wall. A man screamed, though whether it was Iron or his paramore, Jacopo was in no state to de...

Ch 25: Too many are born with the sun on their faces

Jacopo moved through the tight dwarven halls quickly and quietly. There were no cracks in the walls for him to slink through, so instead he had to rely on the shadows in order to make his way throu...