Tainted Waters by Leah Cutter

Author:Leah Cutter [Cutter, Leah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal, pantheon, mystery, LGBT, D&D
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“Take that!” Steve said, rolling the ten–sided die across the board set up in the center of the group.

“Miss,” Gary proclaimed as it rolled to a stop, showing a seven.

“What do you mean?” Steve challenged. “That should be a hit.”

Gary glanced over at the new guy, Erik. He hadn’t said much the whole time they’d been sitting there. He had crazy eyes—crazier than Pat’s, even—that kept darting around, futilely trying to watch everyone around them. He wore regular clothes, a T–shirt and jeans, with sandals. His bald head glistened with sweat, which was kind of gross. It trickled down into his awesome sideburns, growing bushy and wild across his cheeks.

Steve had forgotten it was the Aquatennial that weekend. Thomas Beach was a zoo. The beach itself was covered in boats made out of milk cartons. Gary had proclaimed them lame, but Steve had secretly thought they were kind of cool. Particularly the long barge with Cleopatra reclining on it.

So they’d had to find a small strip of the boulevard beyond the bike path, next to the street, to set up their game.

“I’ve got pluses from dexterity,” Steve pointed out. “And that’s a plus–two sword.”

Erik hadn’t been paying that much attention, but he glanced back at Gary and nodded.

What, were they co–GMing or something? This had been the guy who sold Gary the creepy light set up on the gaming table in Gary’s basement. He’d also sold Gary the urn that they’d used to capture that water god’s soul.

Now, they were playing on a board that Erik had brought. It had felt perfectly smooth to the touch, which was what Steve and the others had been most concerned about—rolling dice across a pitted area would end up in too many mis–rolls.

Golden, glowing runes lined the edges of the eight–sided board. Underneath them, when the sun hit the board just right, lurked a second set of runes, green and menacing. Thin, chaotic red lines whirled across the board, connecting the runes to one another.

A many–sided patch about as big as Steve’s palm squatted at the very center of the board, blacker than Gary’s basement had become. It seemed to go on and on, like it wasn’t part of a flat board but an infinitely deep hole.

Steve tried irrationally to avoid rolling dice across it. Not because he thought the dice would disappear down into the depths or something, but because every time he had to reach across that damned hole he got chills.

“Yes,” Gary said. “It was a hit. Roll for damage.”

Steve chortled, picking up his d10, then adding three more. He was gonna hurt this asshole this time. The party just needed a couple more good solid hits, and they’d kill this monster for sure.

“Don’t forget the pluses to damage from my spell,” Mary added.

Steve hesitated. Thieves didn’t generally have spells. He certainly didn’t remember Mary casting something. Still, more pluses were better.

He rolled all ones and twos.

“Damn it!” Steve said. He picked up his dice from the board, ignoring the chills racing down his back.

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