A WAY OUT

The group agrees, though hesitantly, to more exploration. Then they climb up the set of stairs behind the balcony. The stairs spiral up into the abandoned guides’ chambers. Three rooms branch off from a long corridor. Keiron searches the first room while Dante searches the other two. Dante’s the first to discover something of use. “Got something!”

“What is it?” Mary asks.

“Um, it’s a Manual of Bodily Health. Hey, it’s paper. I can just—”

“DON’T OPEN THAT!” Keiron shouts from the other room.

Dante looks hurt. “Why not?”

“Think about what happened last time.”

“Right.” Dante shoves the book into his backpack before venturing to the next room as Keiron continues his thorough search of the first. The cleric finds a luckstone and pockets it. Then he finds another manual. “I found a Manual of Gainful Exercise. It seems harmless, it’s just some stupid thing about appropriate exercise. We can use this paper, easy.”

“PUT THAT DOWN!” This time, Keiron dashes from his position to Dante’s and yanks the book out of his companion’s hands before he can do anything dangerous. “It could disintegrate. You know, like another book we had.” He hands the book over to Mary. “Can you please see if it’s cursed or magicked or whatevered?”

After a moment’s study, Mary declares that it’s a perfectly normal manual, if somewhat a strange topic.

Dante plucks the book from Mary’s hands, rips out a couple pages, and proceeds to make the artifact book whole. “See, there we go. Good as new. We can read the incantation and get that Wendigo out of William.”

“And then what do you propose we do with the demon? Let it possess you?” Keiron asks.

“No. We let it possess you.” Before Dante can object, Keiron takes the book from Dante and hands it to Mary. “You hold on to this. As I said before, we’ve got a couple days. Maybe we can figure out how to trap that thing before then. It’s too risky right now.”

William and Mary agree.

“If these are the guides’ chambers, then the exit must be close, right?” Keiron asks.

“Yeah, just through this communal area there.” William points toward the end of the corridor, where it opened up into a large feasting hall.

The party heads through the hall and over to the secret door William tells them about. As they walk, Keiron gets distracted by a chest on the far side of the room and opens it. Inside rests a Sylvan Scimitar. “Oh, this will fetch a lot of money.” He pauses, a vaguely guilty look passing across his face. “Or you could use it, Dante.” He strides over to the others grouped in front of the closed door and hands Dante the weapon.

Dante hefts it in his hand and gives it a couple test slashes. “Yeah, I think I’ll use this one. He unsheathes his great sword and sets it on the long wooden table in the middle of the room. “Okay, let’s get out of here.”

William opens up the door and starts to walk through.

Behind him, Keiron notices another chest. “Anyone look in this?”

“No,” come the answers from the others.

“We’re not like you,” Dante adds.

“Thank the gods,” Keiron mumbles before opening up the chest. He grabs the iron flask resting inside. As he’d searched the chest, the others had trooped back into the large room. Keiron hands Mary the flask. “What is this thing?”

William shuts the door.

Mary studies it, turning it over and over in her hand. “It’s an iron flask. The guides must’ve had it around for some reason.” She studies it more closely. “I remember learning about this kind of thing from my instructor. It’s got some sort of command word. If you open it up, and then you say the command word, you can trap a spirit in there for as long as it stays sealed.”

“Like, say, a demon spirit?” Keiron asks.

“Yes, I think so,” says Mary. “But we have to figure out the command word.”

Keiron looks smug. “Good thing I noticed that chest, huh?”

Dante glances over at his friend. “Yes, your greed and avarice do come in handy at times.”

Mary ignores the banter and reads the Elvish inscription on the cap. “I think this says the command word is mother.”

“You think?” asks Keiron.

“Some parts are a little worn. But I’m fairly certain.”

“Let’s trap that demon!” says Dante, reaching for the flask.

The group agrees. Mary pulls the artifact book from her backpack and reads the incantation. William collapses as a dark, ethereal form emerges from his body. As more of it pulls free of William, the body starts to coalesce into something more solid. A mouth appears in what seemed to be forming into a head. Sharp teeth flash in the light from a lantern Mary had set on the table. Shocked, Dante becomes speechless, the flask and cap staying uselessly in his hands.

“Say the word!” Keiron yells.

“Mother!” shouts Dante, whether in fear or for the command, he’ll never tell.

The demon spirit loses it solidity and the power of the flask sucks the demon’s form into it. The Wendigo demon looses one scream, which is then squelched by Dante twisting the cap of the flask shut.

As she tends to her exhausted brother, Mary asks who’s going to carry the demon-filled flask.

“I will,” says Keiron without a hint of fear. “I bet we can sell it to some merchant. Do you realize how much this thing is worth? Over a hundred thousand gold pieces!”

“And just how much do you think someone will pay if there’s a demon in it?” Mary asks, helping her brother stand up as he heals himself.

“We won’t tell them that part. It’ll be a special surprise.”

Dante rolls his eyes. “I have no idea why you guys think I’m the morally corrupt one.”

“What? A demon can be useful,” says Keiron. Then he stuffs the flask in his bag. “Let’s get out of here.”