Darkest Dungeon Dames 3: The Forest (Patreon)

"It was obvious that the people of the hamlet would not witness my deeds in the same light as my own. They are blinded by the shadow cast by myself and those that stand even even higher still. They are simple villagers; common beasts of human beings, bleating and barking at whatever may disturb them without comprehending what they see. They are simple folk, and I shall see that they are kept in line with simple solutions."

-from the ancestral diaries

"My uncle was fucking creepy!" I tossed down his paperwork after my little outburst, shaking my head. There were notes and bills that we had deciphered, clearly bribes to payroll his mercenaries and bodyguards. As he neglected them like most of his projects, they went wild and terrorized the woods as a clan of bandits. Even keeping to the woods and trails, there were few safe routes to the hamlet that they did not watch over.

The groundskeeper came by with more papers and a tray of tea, giving me another half smile (if you counted by his number of teeth). "The former master was eccentric," he said, not quite a correction or confession. He set down the folder before starting to pour the hot drink. I sifted through the names and files, dedicated to the work of undoing most of the things my uncle had accomplished. My mother was a woman who barely tolerated sugar in her tea, so I'm not sure how she was still the sister of this nutjob of a man.

I was glad to see a few familiar faces in the new listing. Juna, Noelle, Madam West... many of the heroes from the first jobs were recovering nicely.

"The townsfolk seem very pleased as of late," the groundskeeper noted proudly. "The fishermen and hunters bring in bigger game since the lack of... ahem... dangerous wildlife. Also, your donations have been quite... placating. And the tavern, local smiths and the Church of Light are reporting especially high income lately." He winked and tapped on his breast pocket. "And of course, it all trickles back to yourself bit by bit. A tactical choice with your funds, m'lord."

"It wasn't about money," I sighed as I thumbed through the listings once more before I decide. "Here. Get a hold of Madam West again. I think her intelligence and medicine will prove useful in guiding these new faces."

"Mm," my manservant murmured in approval. "The Plague Doctor, the Crusader, the Highwaywoman, and the Mistress of Hounds. Fine choices, sir.” I rolled his eyes at his continued use of his little nicknames. 

“Whatever you say. Just see that they get whatever they need to push on. Madam West in particular. She has more field experience around here, and I don’t want us to have to lose another adventurer because of a lack of equipment.”

My uncle’s servant (and I guess mine) nodded unsteadily. “Yes, lord. But sometimes it’s not the person or their belongings, or even their killer that ends them.” He grinned again and wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Sometimes it be fate.”

Madam West arrived near the edge of town, her various pouches and packs full of updated ingredients and sharpened tools. The plague doctor’s beaked mask still had its chips here and there, but it was still as airtight as she could afford to be. She had picked up a fresh leather robe and set of gloves, actually smooth and oiled compared to her beaten old garments. “Yes! Very good!” she chimed in a chipper voice. Her goggled eyes looked over her new comrades. “I hope you’re all set to go, because I certainly am.”

“Yes,” Nor said gruffly. “I think half the town could hear you through the pub window.” She was a stocky woman, with broad shoulders and chest that were lined with worker’s muscle. A sturdy wooden baton was on her belt, and the old iron and leather breastplate looked commonplace for a town guard. Her shaggy hair and unwashed face seemed to deny that idea fairly quickly.

“Yes, well if you’d like to borrow it later, I’m sure it can be arranged. He does love to meet new people,” West said, tipping her masked head to emphasize her wink.

“Whatever. Let’s go, Bitch.”

“Pardon?”

Nor whistled a precise, shrill noise and a shaggy dog came trotting out from behind some nearby rain barrels. It was the same dull blonde color as its master, and it seemed well kept on top of a quality breed of herding dog akin to a collie but with a hint of wild like a wolf in its eyes and tall build. It took up a position right at the houndmistress’ hip (the one that did not already have a weapon).

Vanders looked between West and Nor before she snorted with laughter. The woman kept her hair short and scrappy, boyish in her build and style. A long knife and a flintlock hung on her belt. While her longcoat covered and protected much of her midsection, her weapons remained in plain sight. Her skin was tanned from the outdoors, and a blue bandana hung around her neck and stopped just above her cleavage.  "Oh, this is going to be fun."

"I had hoped to be keeping better company on this purge," Ellen admitted, adjusting the sheathed longsword on her bountiful hips. "But I've still faith in your lot." The woman was armored, but in the unique way that was only known to be from crusaders or certain barbarians. While savage sorts did so out of bravado or lack of materials, the steel and silver that made what was effectively a chainmail bikini was a result of the righteous warriors claiming that the Light would see them through the perils. 

Vanders' eyes ran up and down the crusader. Wide and sturdy hips with just a few feet of chainmail to cover them. Large and proudly upthrust breasts with a few curved pieces of metal for a top. Snow-white hair that trailed over her golden-tanned shoulders and chest. "I'm perfectly fine with the party so far."

"I had just heard we had a Vestal among our ranks," Ellen added.

"Sister Hura is... resting her righteous soul," Madam West said, carrying a hint of amusement in her voice. "We saw quite a lot on our earlier expedition."

"You came out alright," Vanders pointed out. West shrugged and started walking.

"Memory is like surgery," the doctor explained. "Maintain the healthy parts and remove those that will would infect the rest."

The others paused, but Nor and Bitch followed promptly after. "You heard the woman. Let's go perform some surgery."

It was short travels to the woods where the outlaws ruled. Vanders and Nor lead the way, scouting for traps and signs of activity. It was better than having a jiggly woman in armor and the clinking of bottles following too close. "There's probably not much this close to town," Nor reported as Bitch went sniffing around. "They wouldn't want to draw enough attention to be too big a threat."

"Perhaps. But too far back and they'll be at the cliffs. That would leave them cornered and easier to spot from the shores," Vanders added. Bitch went darting past the armed woman's path, sniffing around a tree before she barked to Nor. The scruffy woman nodded and the dog took a large mushroom in its mouth. It trotted back over to Nor, who knelt down and took it out of the hound's mouth. She brushed some of the dirt off of it before taking a large bite of the cap, chewing it while passing it back to the dog. It quickly wolfed down the rest while Vanders stared at the unusual pair.

"When I'm the only sane one in the party, things are not looking good for us," Vanders grumbled. She paced ahead casually before she paused by a rotten old tree. She bashed her boot heel into the wood, caving it in and reaching inside. She produced a few pieces of gold jewelry with a wicked grin. "You can keep your mushrooms," she chuckled, stuffing the valuables into her coat.

Nor gave a small snort, followed by Bitch making a shockingly similar sniffing noise. "I expected nothing else from your sort," Nor grunted as she rose up to move on.

"How you mean?"

"It's not hard to figure out when you know what to look for." Nor stepped up to the woman and stared grimly into her eyes. "You've got your weapons out where they can be seen while keeping more hidden." She sniffed close enough that the tanned highwaywoman winced. "Your clothes reek of blood and gunpowder, and more than just one kind. You recently cut your hair and keep your collar up like someone who wants to hide. Most interesting, you've got the bandana. That design on the edges was one that belonged to the Bayside Cuthroats gang before they went and disappeared." Nor frowned and concluded "You're just another bandit. Bit of a fox in charge of the henhouse here, isn't it?"

Vanders chuckled and shrugged. "You sure you're not the dog and Bitch isn't your handler?" Nor's thin lips smirked a little, but Vanders whipped up a hand with the stilleto she'd slid into her hand when she shrugged. It stopped just short of Nor's neck, and while she didn't flinch, she certainly froze. Bitch growled but stayed at the ready.

"Nobody knows about this, alright? I'm done with that time of my life, and I'm trying to get things right again. So let me tell you this, you fucking bitch..."

Bitch barked in reply.

"Not... not you," Vanders mumbled, her momentum lost. She sighed and slid the knife back up her sleeve. "Nobody else finds out, alright?" She reached into her coat again, but this time tossed Nor one of the jeweled bracelets she found in the hidey hole. "And don't go reading me like that again."

"Comes with being a lawman," Nor mused. "I remember your group's wanted posters going down. I expect you've been keeping your hands clean since then."

"Of course not," Vanders sighed as she peered behind a tree skeptically. "I'm out here. Who in the hell is out here with a clean conscience... or a brain that's still in one piece." She jerked a thumb back at West and Ellen chattering behind them. "So if you're making guard money, then what brought you out here?"

"Same as you, I'd imagine," Nor sighed. "Got tired of that life. Of seeing all the blood and the terrible things people will do, just to have to fall back on a code. Rules, superiors... the system we made was too big and too bulky to stop everything. I wasn't sure I was doing any good anymore, and when I heard about this place... it seemed like it actually needed the help."

"Sounds like you and chainmail tit will get along great!" Vanders laughed. "And what about the dog?"

"Bitch is my little sister." Vanders did a double take at the grim woman.

"Woman, tell me that you're even capable of joking."

"Probably best not to think about it." Nor gave another of her flimsy smirks as she went ahead. They went on quickly and quietly. Between the two of them, they were able to spot and disable a few simple traps. They both stopped when they heard a woman's voice calling for help.

"Someone's coming," Vanders reported.

"No. They're not moving. Something else is going on here." Nor whistled and Bitch went skulking ahead low to the ground. She returned a minute later with a few barks and scratching the ground with her paw. "Someone's been captured. I think they have a hostage."

The group moved up to a small clearing where a woman was tied to a tree. She was bruised, dirty and naked, where they watched from a distance. Vanders scowled and pulled out her pistol, just for Nor to grab her wrist. "The hell do you think you're doing?"

"She's an alarm!" Vanders hissed back quietly. "It's an old trick. Worst case, she's a bandit hiding a knife. Best case, she's a stranger they left to scream and squirm. They just need to listen for her voice to change when someone finds her."

Madam West reached for her knife, but Nor grabbed her as well. "What is wrong with you idiots?! That's a person out there!"

"Another victim of the damned," Ellen growled, quickly stomping out into the clearing. Everyone else scrambled and struggled to stop her as the half-naked, half-armored woman barged in. "It's alright, m'lady! Help has arr-"

"I'm gonna shut her up!" Vanders shoved her way free and raised her gun, firing right at Ellen. The shot blew away a piece of a tree on the other side, and both the captive and the crusader went silent. Vander holstered her smoking gun and put a finger to her lips, glancing around for a moment. "Quietly," she muttered to them. "I think we're clear for the moment."

"What in the forgotten hells was that?!" West blurted, keeping her voice down behind her mask.

"If we're lucky, they think that we were already taken care of by someone else. They won't hurry here, but they'll come looking eventually for any good stuff left over." Vanders gestured towards the bound woman. "Untie her, but make sure you check the ropes on both sides." Sure enough, Ellen untied her and found a number of rusted old bells by the backside of the ropes. The naked woman threw her arms around the barely-armored crusader’s neck.

“Thank you, miss! The men here… they’re monsters!” she babbled pleadingly.

“And we are slayers of monsters,” Ellen said proudly, patting the hostage on the back. Vanders made a  back and forth“soso” gesture as she gave the others a wry smile and Madam West stepped closer as she reached into her bag.

“I’d like to run a quick check up on you, if I may!” she said rather cheerily. “Who  knows what you might have picked up waiting out here for so long?”

“You don’t have to fucking giggle when you say that,” Vanders scoffed. “But we should be moving. They could be here to check any-” There was a popping sound and a burst of blood as a small piece at the top of Nor’s ear was blasted off by a straying bullet. “OR NOW! Arm up!”

Nor grabbed her bleeding ear with one hand and the hostage with another, shoving her into the woods away from the gunshot. “Stay with Bitch,” Nor ordered, giving a sharp, short gesture to her dog. The guard dog immediately took off for the thickest tree to hide behind, the woman running after. Nor herself snarled and drew her studded club, turning with the rest to face the direction of their attackers. She saw a flash of a few hooded figures, but they were likewise staying among the trees.

“I think I can slip around. Ellen, you able to hold their attention?” Vander snapped quickly.

“How about we just smoke them out?” West produced a few fat bottles and hurled them into the forest ahead of them. There was a crash, a hiss, and a thick green cloud that came from the trees, quickly followed by a lot of retching and coughing. The bandits burst out from the woods, filthy men in clothing that was dirty but new, showing that their business was rough but profitable. One didn’t get to wipe the tears from his eyes before Nor clubbed him upside the jaw. A spray of blood and bone fragments marked his path as he went down and stayed down.

A man with a blood-stained hood raised a rifle at Nor, just for a long blade to tear across her face. Half of his head left the rest of his body with a choked excuse for a scream. “Corruption reeks from the lot of you!” Ellen thundered. The crusader raised a gauntlet to deflect an incoming knife from a third thief, but he had moved too close to use the end of her sword effectively. The war-hardened woman didn’t bother hesitating to try, throwing herself bodily forward. She crushed him against a tree between her muscles and massive, barely armored breasts. It knocked the wind out of him so she could slam the hilt of her sword against his face, busting his nose open. “I hope your blood is enough to redeem your disgusting wickedness!” Ellen growled before she thrust her sword right through his stomach, pinning him to the tree.

Vanders and West picked off any more from flanking them, firing flintlocks and throwing scalpels and acid beakers to cut off further attackers. “So much for the quiet approach!” Vanders called as she threw down a pair of her empty pistols. There came a shout as a large man with an axe burst out of the woods, charging her position. A piercing string of barks cut off his roar as Bitch burst out from the trees and clamped her teeth on his throat, throwing the big man down and twisting her head with a single neat gesture that seemed concerningly easy for her.

“My what a good doggie!” Madam West chimed, clapping at the display as the dog licked her lips. Bitch growled as she faced the forest again, another thief suddenly stumbling out. He had a bandana over his face, but he was clearly unprepared as Vanders popped up and shot him between the eyes.  

“Worthless little shits!” A gruff voice snarled as another figure stepped out of the woods. This one was a woman, or something close to it at least. She had a broad build, wide shoulders and a heavy set of limbs, but her face and skin still looked withered like she was ill or starving. Her cheekbones stood out too clearly, her eyes were gray and sunken, and the fingers on the end of her bulky arms were oddly boney. Her sleeves were missing on her fur-lined vest, mud and filth on her long skirt and greasy black hair hung over her face. "The fuck are you all doing here?" she asked in a slurred sort of disarray.

The team raised their weapons towards her. Madam West gripped the cork on a beaker while Vanders cocked a pair of flintlocks. The puzzled bandit gave her a loot and have her a grin with half as many teeth as their should be. "Ey! Vanders! S'about time you got back here!" West's mask remained, but it tilted slightly to tell Vanders she had glanced her way.

"I ain't coming back for you bunch, Perkins," Vander grunted. She scowled back at her former comrade. "Who told you I was? And what's happened to you?"

"Ah! Ahaha!" The awkwardly big woman laughed unsteadily. "The voices, yea? They know a lot of things. About you... about this place... and about alllll the death and dyin' there was. And is gonna be..."

"Enough of your rantings!" Ellen was the closest and rushed the last couple yards to make her swings. The others watched in horror as the busty crusader's sword was suddenly stopped short of Perkins, but not by her hand. The flesh in her thick arms and shoulders churned like something else was moving under her skin. It burst apart like a gunshot through an apple, but there were no blood and bones inside her limb. The strands of flesh simply turned into a number of flabby-looking tentacles that wrapped around Ellen's blade, catching it and undulating as if trying to stroke the weapon while gaining no harm.

"Oh you'll be a fun one," Perkins laughed gruffly. She swung the tentacles that were on her arm to one side, flinging the sword away as it was ripped from the crusader's hands. She stared in surprise as one of the fleshy tendrils turned and slapped her across her bare chest, sending her flying backward.

"What in the world...?" Vanders grunted, lowering her weapons as she stared at the blindly flailing appendages.

"It had to be tentacles," Madam West mewled, though a hint of excitement in her voice. "Think of the samples!" Perkins turned her half-focused stare towards Nor, her face bearing some sort of agonized grin. The former guard was the first to snap out of their horror.

"Dogpile on the squid!" she shouted, drawing a pocket knife and flinging it at the thing. Its tentacle lashed out and caught the simple projectile, but it confirmed what she thought. It was grab and anything that came near it, and wasn't relying on Perkins' senses. Rallying to her command, Vanders emptied both of her flintlocks at her old mutated ally. One tentacle lashed out and actually caught one of the balls in midair, but the other sank into her normal shoulder. Perkins staggered but it hardly slowed her down, as if she hadn't noticed the penetrating gunshot.

"I'll set you up!" West shouted as she hopped over her cover, throwing a pair of beakers at the monstrous woman. The tentacles lashed out and crushed them when they got close, but they erupted into a putrid yellow shade of smoke. Perkins hunched over as she coughed and held her mouth, and even just being nearby made Nor rub a hand under her nose. Ellen ignored it and bull-rushed the mutant, ramming the larger Perkins and knocking her back. She grasped for the tentacle clutching her sword, but the other limbs lashed out and caught her by the legs. They flipped her upside down, holding her ankles so that the chainmail skirt flipped up and confirmed that she did not need any further protection from the elements than her scarce armor and her faith... underwear didn't count.

"I knew you were asking for it," Perkins chortled. "Beggin' for it." Ellen punched at her head, but she was unphased as one of the fleshy tentacles started to slither between her legs. Ellen had just let out her first gasp when Nor charged in swinging her studded blackjack like a bat. Perkins raised her good hand to catch it, ignoring where the studs buried into her skin. "More of you, eh? Then let's make a real orgy out of this one..."

Nor just gave a short whistle through her teeth. Bitch finished flanking Perkins through the yellow stinkbomb and buried her teeth into the back of her leg. A quick twist brought Perkins to her knees, and cutting between the crowded struggle came Vanders. She drove her sharp stiletto into Perkins' eye, twisted, and sliced it across her face into the other socket. It cut with concerning ease, as if Perkins was already partly rotted away, but she fell over dead at their feet. The tentacles twitched for a minute or so longer before they went as limp as the rest of her, but Ellen was able to pull away well before then.

"Are you hurt, my dear?" Madam West asked her, a bit of hope in her voice.

"Barely," the crusader confessed. "My pride worse than my body." She bent down and picked up her blade before wiping some tentacle slime off of her thigh. "I vow to serve you all better in our next battle."

"Lookin' forward to it," Vanders grunted. She went to wipe her blade off on her pants, but after looking at Perkins' body again she decided to use some grass instead. She didn't want anything that came out of that... woman?

Nor nodded and Bitch went to fetch the hostage. "So what was that?" she asked, turning to Vanders. "Knew you on sight, did she?"

"Used to run with them for a spell. Before I went solo and then retired. Mostly retired." Vanders eyed the corpse of the woman and her almost liquidly flesh tentacles. "They were never this... weird before. That's something new. Perkins used to just be a big cow of a woman with a mean set of whips."

"They're monsters." The naked woman returned, a hand resting on Bitch's back. "I don't know what they're doing, but they're... changing themselves. They talk when nobody's there and look at things I can't see. And they have those... pieces."

"They do?" Nor asked as Madam West started carving off a piece of tentacle for herself. "More than one of them?"

"There were four," the woman said Ellen went to her pack. She pulled out a cloak and tossed it over the woman's shoulders for her decency. "Three now, I guess. I didn't even know they could be killed..." She swallowed and turned her face away from the carnage. "They said they were... The Flesh. The Teeth. And The Bone. Nobody called them by anything else. I never saw why, but they had that same... growth going on. Something wrong inside them. The guards who were... checking on me, they said they were taken to the pit before these changes. Whatever that is..."

"Easy now," Nor assured her. "We can handle this. Here." She checked the sun and passed the victim a pack of rations and a couple of coins. "Bitch can take you back to the road and find me again. If you wait there for a little while, there's a carriage that comes by every couple hours. Friends of ours, so to speak. They'll take you back."

The frazzled woman said her thanks and hurried off, the watchdog leading her way. Nor looked over the battlefield and snorted. "Starting to get late. And I don't feel like fighting something called The Flesh in the middle of the night."

"Agreed," Ellen said with a nod. "We'll face them at full strength in the morrow."

"Just... a little later, alright? Like away from the corpses maybe?" Vandrs offered.

"If you insist," Madam West sighed. "But all this really has worked up my appetite."

The women settled into camp a short way from the clearing. Bitch returned about an hour later and Nor was sure to feed, pet and praise her good behavior. They always had at least one of the party on watch, but they were glad to find that no ambushes came. Vanders set up a few bell traps in the surrounding trees, but they had found a little cubby of a cliffside that left them comfortable sheltered. Ellen started up a fire before Madam West went to work with a cauldron. They were all relieved to find her adding meat and carrots rather than any of her strange concoctions.

The women started to become more at ease as the sun went down. Ellen's boisterously grateful bit of grace before dinner was met with various smirks and lazy nods, but her confidence was assuring. Bitch nosed around and watched everyone eat until they caved and passed her a few morsels, even if she had a bowl of her own food.

"Where'd you find a friend like that?" Vanders pried as she itched behind Bitch's ears.

"Wolfhound," Nor explained simply. "Some dogs got loose and had pups. They were gonna put her down, so I wanted to prove em wrong. That I could make somethin' out of her." Bitch came over and licked her cheek, but Nor smirked and shook her head. She rolled up her sleeve and showed some rough and deep scars on her forearm. "She wasn't always so cooperative."

Vanders scoffed and shook her head. "This is why I liked cats more," she joked. "They're always shits, so you don't have to wonder if you can trust 'em." The others laughed.

"So you feel at home with them then? Like you can relate?" Nor jabbed back.

Vanders lifted up her shirt enough to show a long scar between her breast and belly. "Got it in a knife fight over some loot. Best friend in the world, she was. Trust ain't for everyone."

Ellen gulped some of her winskin and undid a piece of chain on her breastplate. "You call that a scar?" she gloated, undoing one of the cups to show a rather thick, slightly cross-shaped scar at the edge of her areola. "I had my armor knocked askew from a mace before an arrow got me. Lucky they forgot which side the heart is on, eh?"

"Heart nothing," Vanders laughed. "Another half an inch and you'd be short one nipple, friend!"

"Well, if we must..." Madam West mused, though a giggle in her voice. She unbuckled and removed one of her thick leather gloves, holding up a hand. She had to point out where a strange crease was on the pale skin, just to turn her hand around and show the mark on the other side. "So I'm still with my old professor... he's this mortician for the city, see? And I'm his apprentice and he asks me to cut open this corpse. To this day I don't know if it was some anesthetic or just some lazy guards with a drink, but I get a scalpel in him and he starts SCREAMING and flailing around! I get a scalpel through my hand and I start screaming and everyone's just bleeding and shouting! It was hilarious! In hindsight of course..."

It was what they needed more than anything. Their campfire and jovial attitudes made it feel as though they weren't deep in bandit territory, watching the darkness for any moving shadows or the gleam of a gun barrel. They took their shifts on watch, but at least their rests were deeper and longer than they expected them to be.

They still weren't sure how, but the ladies kept the element of surprise. The bandit camp wasn't as large as they had been expecting for a band troubling this entire part of the forest. There were only about a dozen of them, but they saw the three that their rescue had mentioned. Three of them were standing by the morning fire and the other thieves just seemed to be... watching them. Bone, Flesh and Teeth had the same strange writhing under their skin, muscles and bones seeming to shift around without reason or logic.

West assured them she had done something like this before as she bound a few of her bottles and containers to Vanders' spare packs of gunpowder. Bitch carefully ran the charges around the camp before Vanders shot them both at once, triggering a blast of fire and smoke that wiped out most of their enemies. Ellen and Nor rushed in and quickly put down the remaining goons, leaving nothing but their leaders. As soon as the smoke cleared, Vanders popped a load of grapeshot into the back of the still-fixated bosses. Sure enough, the flesh on her back bloated and rolled to fill up the missing skin.

"More have come," one of them said grimly, turning to face their intruders. She was a blonde woman, as unwashed and distant-looking as the rest of them and clad in light leather armor. She was ghastly thin, but her joints thick and angular against her skin.

"Excellent... the bait must have worked," whispered the other. She had thin red hair and was chubbier than the rest; not wide, but fat as her breasts and belly sagged strangely low. She had been the one to take the shot in the head and seemed rather jolly about it.

"Good. It was getting hungry," the last one said. She grinned wide with crooked teeth. Unlike most of the bandits, she seemed to have too many to fit in her mouth. The brown haired woman smiled wider and wider until her lips split along her face, spreading past her cheeks and opening until it was like the maw of some gigantic insect or parasite.

"I'm fine with not knowing what happened here," Nor grunted as the two sides faced each other down. "Let's just end it."

The skinny one called Bone held out her hands, her fingers twisting in a painful-looking spiral. Bones growed from her skin until it formed an ugly spiked growth around three feet long. Vanders fired a shot at her, but she raised an arm and the bullet bounced away. It exposed some large chunk of bone at her elbow, though it seemed unharmed by the gunshot. Bitch barked and ran around her, trying to flank while buying Nor the time to rush in and swing her baton, cracking against the summoned bone blade.

The Teeth went for Madam West with its massive mouth of pincer-like teeth open wide. She hardly backed away when Ellen went charging into it, driving her sword straight through its belly. The mutated woman choked as blood spilled from the wound, backing away as Ellen peeled her sword back out of its guts. There was another strange sight as The Flesh's flabby skin stretched out. It wrapped around Teeth's middle and sealing the wound as parts of its pink, slimey skin broke off and covered it up.

"They've got a healer!" Vanders called to the rest.

The Fang turned to Ellen again just as Madam West slashed it along its recently patched up wound with a curved dagger. She raised it to her beaked mask and studied the pink substance for a moment. "It's still just flesh. Thick and diseased, but still just that!"

"Good! Flesh cuts easy." Vanders drew a knife and rushed for The Flesh as Ellen and Nor kept the others busy. Nor's heavy wooden baton was driving back Bone, cracking whatever she called out after a few blows. Her skin kept giving way to let out bone spikes or broad plates from her ribs to stop the blows from hitting her actual body, but they always chipped and cracked under the weight.

"I've busted enough skulls of killers like you!" Nor growled as she went on swinging and driving her back. "Bones always break."

"So says the human that killed all of these," The Bone hissed. She stretched one of her ribs out, ripping it out and swinging it. It pierced through Nor's armor with concerning ease, leaving a deep cut along the side of her breast. "And for what? To pretend you're above the guard when you're nothing but a filthy washed up dog-fucker?"

Nor's face turned furious, another brief opening where The Bone's toe bones suddenly stretched out of her foot as one large, sharp spike. She kicked upward and buried it into Nor's stomach, making her choke and cough up a mouthful of blood. She pulled back, but Bitch came darting from around behind her. With a few precise bounds, she landed on Bone's back and bit into the back of her neck. The mutant screeched in an almost insectoid chittering as she tore out blood and bone, but more spikes shot out of her back. Each piece of her spine thrust out as a long barb, several scratching deep near the wolfhound's ribs. She yelped and recoiled, bleeding and limping a bit but still standing.

The bone panted as another glob of sludge from The Flesh sealed up her heavily bleeding neck. She started to rise to her feet when a set of brass knuckles smashed into her eye. She went down in a daze as a husky voice snarled. "You..." Nor snarled, lower and rougher sounding than Bitch's actual growls. "You never, ever, EVER fucking hurt my bitch!" Nor started to pummel her into the dirt, beating her with her brass knuckles on one hand and her baton in the other. There was the sound of more bones cracking and bending, but this time they were not by Bone's own accord. It was too dazed to regenerate or produce any more weapons, clawing with its dull fingerbones at Nor's arms. When Nor next saw bone, it was fragments of skull and brain stuck to her club. Nor breathed heavily as stopped seeing red, Bitch coming over and licking at her bloody stomach.

"Easy girl," she grunted. "I'll be okay..."

The Flesh tried to reach its blubbery growth towards The Bone in an attempt to revive her, but Madam West hurled a bottle towards her. Its moldy black and green contents spilled over the flesh, rapidly withering it and turning it a putrid black before it fell off of her body. The Flesh gave a startled scream as it recoiled. "That's it! Take deep breaths now, deary! It'll infect faster that way!" West shouted as Vanders moved in with her knife.

Ellen clashed with Tooth some more, its vast mouth biting at her just to be parried by her longsword. It lunged at her, trying to knock her back but the scantily clad paladin bracing her boots in the earth. She barely budged and raised her sword to get the blade in the way of her teeth. The fangs clanged against the sword, leaving chips and dents in the solid steel. "I'll be proud to release you from this world, monster!" Ellen grunted. She wasn't the most skilled with a sword, but a quick shift and a mighty heave drew the sword along the insides of its mouth. The already wide mouth screeched as the sword cut it even wider, blood spilling from its ugly maw.

Tooth raised its hands in a pathetic defense as the crusader drew back her sword for a finishing thrust. "I'll remove the taint from you myself to see your soul judged for the sickness that it is!" Ellen roared, but as she thrust at the mutant, Teeth's hand grabbed her wrist. It didn't stop the thrust from piercing her chest, but it slowed it enough to keep from finishing her on the spot. Ellen watched in horror as her hand started to change shape, the fingers splitting apart and forming their own huge and knife-toothed mouth. Her hand-jaws snapped shut around Ellen's upper arm, ripping the limb off at the shoulder in a huge spurt of blood.

Ellen screamed a shrill howl of pain, but it was only there for an instant. The monstrous woman recoiled, its malformed hand already ripping off pieces of flesh and bone to feed into its second mouth like some horrendous crab hoarding its meal. It had hardly begun feasting when Ellen's shout turned deeper; from a howl into a roar. Blood kept coursing from her one side while the other arm hefted her sword and swung it down on The Tooth, ripping the fanged arm off of her body.

"AN EYE FOR AN EYE, DEMON!" Ellen bellowed, her eyes wide and wild in righteous fury. She ignored her gruesome wound completely as she single-handedly whipped her sword again and again, rapidly ripping Fang into pieces in a rampage of crazed and holy vengeance.

The Flesh reached for Fang, but Vanders pumped a spray of grapeshot into its formless appendage. More of its goo went splattering away from its main body, where the skin was now stretched tightly to grant its flaps of skin more freedom to move. "None of your freak kin here to save you now, Alice!" Vander shouted at her former comrade. "Who you gonna heal once my girls are done ripping yours to pieces?!"

The glob of flesh suddenly turned to Vanders and wrapped around her. She gasped as it surrounded her upper body, swallowing her in a soft, tight and unbearably warm coccoon. She choked and shivered, blinking rapidly as she flashed back to her escape. When the bandits had abandoned her and let her hang. How it was only a bad noose that let her fake her death and escape. That life-saving sense of strangling that made her brain fizzle and her whole body go hot and limp... the kind that she went through when she had the whores bring out the ropes...

She thought she felt her ears pop, but realized it was more of a sizzling. The flash of daylight caught her eye as the skin melted away and the putrid stink of another one of Madam West's potions hit her nose. It was still more air than she was getting a moment ago, so she sucked it in quickly. She thrust an arm and her head through the burning opening, ignoring what pock marks it left on her skin.

"Are you quite alright?" West called as casually as if Vanders had stumbled down some stairs.

"No!" Vanders shouted. "Now light it up!" West threw another beaker, this one snapping open and bursting into flames. The Flesh gave an inhuman squeal as its fatty appendages bubbled and melted away in the fire. Vanders tore away with the embers still eating at her hair and burning her cheek, which she'd find left a shallow burn scar across her cheek where the melting flesh had landed. Vanders pulled out a pack of gunpowder, tossing it at the creature. Flesh caught it, only for the powder to blow up in her face when it made contact with the fire consuming her body. It gave one last sickly gurgle before Ellen stepped up behind it and cleaved its whole body in half vertically with a wet splat and concerning ease. It was as if there were no bones inside her at all.

"Well!" West said as if she'd found a rather untidy mess left behind by children. "It looks like I have my work cut out for me here!"

"Take care of her first." Nor gestured at Ellen. Her eyes were still wide and wild, slowly coming off her righteous fury and adrenaline rush. West tutted and went over and her surgical tools.

"Shame that," West noted as she bound the stump and started disinfecting it. "Terrible shame."

Ellen finally seemed to inhale given how hard she took her next breath and refilled her bulging bosom, but she slumped into a seated position. "Why's that?" Ellen huffed, tired but grinning tightly. "The evil is purified. The cost is always worth it for the great good of The Light."

"Mm," West mused indifferently as she headed up her stitching needle. "Well I hope you're just as resistant to pain from a needle as you are monster teeth... and that you're right-handed."

While she worked, Vanders stumbled wearily over to Nor. She wiped the melted flesh lumps from her face with her bandana before tossing it aside. She glanced at Bitch and Nor sitting together in the grass, some bandaging already bound around both of their injuries. "Worse than they look," Nor responded gruffly.

"Good, cuz you're lookin' real ugly about now," Vanders scoffed.

Nor chuckled quietly and shook her head. "Good to see you held your ground." Vanders raised an eyebrow. "Against the monsters and against your old pack."

"It's a gang," Vanders snorted. "Humans call it a pack, you old bitch. But whatever. They did me wrong, I did them right back."

"Glad to hear. Because we're not done." Nor grunted and heaved herself up to her feet, gently resting a hand on Bitch's back for balance.

"What do you mean by ‘not done?" Vanders gestured towards the twisted bodies in the middle of the bandit camp. "How do they not look like their leaders? We loot this place, bring back a fat bonus for the boss, get a cut and we go."

"The hostage," Nor grumbled as she walked further into the camp. "She said they mentioned a pit that they got this twisted shit from. You think that stuff's done with?"

Vanders frowned. She had a point. Whatever was causing this couldn't be good and it certainly wasn't natural. They left West and Ellen to their surgery as they went deeper into the camp. The simple huts and shacks grew less and less the farther they went. There was an open space there, a small clearing with nothing but sickly grass and an old, battered well. Only a dozen or so of its stones remained, but a rusty bucket hung on an old chord there. The hole was deep and dark, ignoring any sort of sunlight that shone over its stone walls. The two women approached it carefully, but there was no signs of life or motion. Still, Bitch growled at the old and seemingly harmless hole.

"Something in the water, I'd guess," Nor mused. "Sounds like more of West's kind of thing. We can have her take a look at it and how we're supposed to stop it." She clicked her tongue and Bitch turned away with her. She paused and looked back. "Ey, Vanders. you coming?"

"Huh?" The outlaw blinked as she looked back at her teammate. She itched at her ears in a way that Nor had only really seen when Bitch had some kind of a flea or a tick on her. "Sorry, I was... listenin'."

"...listening?"

"Yeah. To the noises."

"Van..." Nor scowled at her skeptically. "I don't hear a thing. Didn't your mother warn you about not listening to strange abandoned wells?"

Vanders wasn't listening. She walked slowly but moved ever-closer to the well. It wasn't a voice coming out of it. It was more like a hum... or a low heartbeat. As if there was blood flowing right beneath the darkness. It felt smothering, but in the good way. Not like The Flesh, but like the hookers with their ropes or the faulty noose that had set her free. Vanders shuffled closer to it and held out a hand for the well's water bucket. There were still a few sips of the murky water inside. It was familiar somehow. Something she'd never seen but the farthest reaches of her brain recognized in some primordial recognition. It felt powerful, but that was all she could recognize. Vanders lifted the pail to drink, hearing the muffled shouting behind her but not paying attention right now. The thrumming was getting louder.

Nor pulled the pistol from Vanders' coat and fired. There was a spray of red as the outlaw went limp and tumbled into the well, dragging the bucket of corruption down with her. Nor frowned and cut the rope, ensuring that nothing would climb out of the cursed place and nobody would drink from it again. "I thought you'd be different from the rest of your girls," Nor sighed, shaking her head. She looked down at the pistol before stuffing it into her belt. "I warned her... not my fault if she won't listen. C'mon, Bitch. Let's bury our dead."

Madam West seemed to know just what to do with the well. She emptied a few vials into the depths, the same toxins she used to rot and wither same corruption she found in The Flesh. Once that was gone, she prepped another charge of explosives like she had used to collapse the tunnel on the pigs from her first job and dropped it down. There was a deep rumble underground and they had thankfully backed away as the well collapsed into the earth, burying and sealing off whatever was down there. If whatever it was had survived the poison and the rubble, it wouldn't escape. Even if someone went searching, there was nothing but a crater of dead earth now.

The carriage picked them up as planned, the grinning groundskeeper letting them collapse into the seats and bringing them back to report their success. Duncan was proud of their work while regretting the news of their losses. He honored their deal and divided Vanders' reward between them (despite some distinct clearing of the throat coming from his groundskeeper).

Ellen went to the local church, who were glad to take her in. She made a large donation and let them tend to her in between meditations. They said that they couldn't do anything for her arm beyond common prayers. "That will be plenty, thank you," Ellen assured them brightly. She wore a thick patch of gauze tied onto her stump, but she'd need to find some more long term solution. The war on evil was clearly not over. "My body may falter all that it wants, but it is clear my spirit shall heal. I'll live to break the skulls of demons another day." She took some breaks from her fasting to stop by the physicians (all of whom were surprised at how clean the cut was) to see that it didn't grow infected, just as West had advised. She spent most of her earnings, but it was practically so. She bought a room at the inn for a more permanent residence. She bought food and drink for herself and her comrades in battle. She paid for a simple but proper grave to remember Vanders. Most expensively, she saw the blacksmith. She wanted to be sure that he could modify her sword so it was easier to swing with one hand when the time came for her to fight again.

West enjoyed herself at the inn some more. She had figured out which girls didn't mind her pale skin and crooked smile, or at least that faked it well enough to giggle. The ones that appreciated her... unique interests in anatomy (and of course her tentacle totem). There was the jester playing for coppers on the stage and the graverobber passed out, snoring on the bar. The leper could be seen now and then with the abomination, holding hands or having a quiet meal together. They said that their holy vestal would be 'busy with treatment' for a while. West thought she heard her voice sometimes on the air, though she couldn't tell if it was from the church or the recently cleaned up sanitarium. Their savage hellion was always arm wrestling or brawling whoever was up for it, clearly chomping at the bit to feed her bloodlust once again.

"You used to work with these idiots?" Nor was at the bar with Bitch at her side. The bouncer had some objections until Nor threw down a half dozen of the bandits' markings she'd taken off their corpses. He had decided that she was enough of a hero or too dangerous a killer to bother with the "no animals" rule.

"Miss Nor! Good to see you both are well!" West said rather jovially into her seat next to her. Nor took her mug of beer from the bartender, taking a sip before pouring some into a bowl. She set it on the floor for Bitch to start lapping up with her meal. "To answer your question, not many of them. I look forward to the opportunity, though."

"Look forward to it?" Nor grunted. "I can't wait to forget about half the shit I saw and you're itching to go out again?"

"I think of it as research," Madam West replied in a bit more level tone than her usual cracked behavior. "It's not always clean and it's not always successful, but it needs to be done." She shook her head as she lifted her mask, looking over the assorted party with her dark eyes. "First time I've lost one, though. I heard the last party had the same thing happen to their sorcerer."

"Anyone else would have been wiped out," Nor noted grimly. "And it's not the first time I made it out of a bind just because I had Bitch with me." She dropped another crumb of biscuit to the big dog, which it happily caught in its mouth.

"Be glad you've got someone so loyal," West sighed. "All I've got is a dead mentor and a teammate I tried to stab in gladiatorial combat last time I was out." She gestured to the bartender, swapping coin for beer. Their host was practically thrilled to have them stay at his place. Nobody in the hamlet had real money besides Mr. Darkest. He was trickling money into the town as a whole, patching up old roofs and donating to the church and the hospital, but these strange women who kept coming in made the real money, and they were in some sort of a state that they needed to spend it.

"So why do you do this, Miss Nor?" West pressed as she took a large gulp of beer. She gave a brief hum of approval. Even the beer was getting better in this town. Maybe they were making a difference after all. "Looking for redemption like the bandit? Money like the graverobber? Glory like the barbarian?"

"Are zere any requests?!" Noelle chimed from her makeshift stage of empty crates. "Toss your coin in between my bosom and your song is free!"

"Or... whatever that is?" West muttered, nodding at the jester.

Nor sighed and rubbed her temples. "I just saw some awful things on the night watch. It was one thing watching it come from the crooks and the scum, but when I found the guards themselves doing it... I knew I had to do better than that. I forgot that when I looked for a greater evil, I'd find more horrors and more disturbing crimes." Bitch whined and pushed her skull under Nor's hand, forcing her to pet her.

"You get good at forgetting," West mused. "It's part of the job."

"I have my ways of dealing with guilt. This is just step one." Nor gulped the rest of her beer to catch up with Bitch's rapid drinking. "So you know this place?"

"It's a local hotspot, as it were," West confirmed.

"And the talent?"

"Oh absolutely!"

"Do you know any that do the whole... whips and chains thing?"

"You'll want Iris," West said promptly. "She's got some meat on her bones, but she knows what she's doing in the pain department."

"She mind if I provide my own cuffs?"

"Dear, she might even give you a discount!"

"And that the dog watches?"

"Well, nevermind the discount then..."

I've lost another, but we've had such success so far. The ladies return with looted wealth that helps restore the manor and clean up the city. It drives monsters from the darkness so that the villagers won't need to be afraid. It's a shame, even if they save dozens with every one we lose. I'll need to make sure they really know the risks from now on, but the applicants just keep coming and keep returning for more.

In other news, the Groundskeeper has brought more help to the manor. I was surprised to wake one day to a pale, silver-haired young woman around my age. She was in a full French maid outfit and she was up on her tiptoes, an unfortunate angle for the girl's underthings. Between both of our startled cries, the groundskeeper came hurrying in with a trowel and a ham sandwich; he was either on his break or came prepared for as many scenarios as possible.

He introduced me to his young cousin Delia. "I made her," he assured me proudly. Delia gave him a puzzled look before he corrected himself. "That is, into what she is today."

"I've been at school," Delia helped him. "Cousin Gerald paid his brother for my tuition." She seemed calm and unusually steady. I suppose you had to be if you lived anywhere near the groundskeeper for long.

The groundskeeper did a lot of laughing and coughing like he did when he was trying to cover something. It was something I got used to at this point. "Yes, well... your uncle, he was spending his wealth so rampantly on such amoral projects... I thought it would be best to..."

"Embezzle. Yes," I assured him. "I'm not angry, gr... Gerald?" He nodded. "Well, it's in the past. We're making money again, I understand, but can we really afford another housekeeper? I don't need a bunch of servants like my uncle."

"Not at all, sir!" Gerald insisted, patting a boney hand on his cousin's shoulder. "She's out of her lessons for the season and I convinced her parents she could use some real work experience. She's only using one of the guest rooms and a few scraps of food. It'll do her good, I tell you, sir!"

"And the outfit?"

"All the master had left lying around in terms of ladyclothes," Gerald said modestly. "At least, this is the more decent of them... and I thought you could use some company! The old master loved a pretty face wandering the halls!" 

I sort things out between them. Gerald's not to hire on anyone I don't approve, but she is rather pretty. It's one more way to keep the mood of the place up a bit. For all the death and busywork, it's nice to have some company around... that is, SANE company. The groundskeeper seems harmless, but clearly nutty from whatever he went through with my uncle. Delia is a charming conversationalist and an absolute pleasure to speak with and look at. I suppose it's worth considering if I'll be the one to keep the old Darkest bloodline going. It's a worthwhile distraction from what feels like gathering a small army to wage war with the land itself.

-from the diaries of Duncan Darkest