1)
The adventurers stared up at the hulking stone shape. The weathering of the passing centuries had pitted and scarred it until its features were almost worn away—but even a lazy eye couldn’t miss the long, octopus-like tentacles with their many suckers, and…#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
2)
…the many long-fanged mouths. “So this is the Great God Slitherlgulp. Or all that’s left of it,” said the veteran warrior. “Wonder why he wants it?”
The thief shrugged. “If collectors lusted not, I’d have little high-coin work.”
The wizard winced.#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
3)
“Look at its SIZE,” he groaned. “I don’t think my spells will stretch to shifting THAT.”
The warrior gave him a look, and hefted his great foehammer. “Anything wrong with bringing it back in pieces?”
It was the thief’s turn to wince.#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
4)
“DON’T,” he said firmly. “He’ll pay us nothing for stone shards. Whole or nothing.”
The warrior sighed. “Well, I can’t move it with brawn; ’tis as big as a border keep!”
“He gave us instructions should its size defeat us, remember?” the cleric piped up.#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
5)
“A blood offering to Slitherlgulp?” the thief protested. “We’d be fools to—”
The priest drew his altar knife, sliced his own forearm, and held it out over the cupped hands of the statue.
“Evidently,” the wizard told the thief, “we ARE fools.”#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
6)
“INDEED,” the statue boomed, a mere instant after the first drop of blood struck its stone. “YOU ARE—AND I AM FREE AT LAST!”
The adventurers leapt for their lives, all in different directions, but the tentacles were many and long.#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
7
They smashed, entwined, and squeezed, brutally. Ere falling to sudden dust, leaving only the wizard, whose spell had destroyed the statue, and the thief, who’d ended up under the wizard, alive.
“Another failed mission,” the thief groaned. “We’re going to be poor.”#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
8)
The wizard smiled, carefully cast another spell—and some of the dust drew together, heaped itself up, and became a miniature likeness of the statue. “Spit on that, will you?”
The thief obeyed—and the tiny tentacle shape hardened into aged stone.#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
9)
“Let’s get this back to our collector before he finds some old text that tells him the size of the Great God Slitherlgulp’s idol,” the wizard suggested.
The thief grinned. “You think like a thief.”#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
10)
“That’s a compliment,” he added hastily.
“Taken as such,” the wizard assured him, casting a spell that raised the warrior’s massive foehammer to float above the thief.
Who eyed it doubtfully. “That going to float above me all the way home?”#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
11)
“So long as I’m unharmed,” the mage said with a smile, popping the small idol in a carry-box. “Don’t mind me; I’m just thinking like a thief.”#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018