It turned out what Fabian actually smelled was the stench of a band of lizardmen gathered in the next chamber over feasting on the remains of the pirates they had massacred. They had left most of the useless bodies behind. What they were really interested in were the gall bladders, which were considered quite the delicacy amongst lizardmen. In a pinch they'd eat the spleens, too, and maybe even the pancreas, but gall bladders were where it was at.

Fortunately for Fabian and Brandon, the creatures had stuffed themselves to the gills on pirates and were beginning to get drowsy. The loud snoring was audible well before they ran into them.

"Do you think those are the monsters that killed my men?" Brandon whispered as the peeked around the corner.

"I'm positive," Fabian said. "See that one over there picking its teeth with a pegleg? These are the culprits all right. Well, nothing to be done except to kill them in their sleep."

"Isn't that kind of cowardly?" Brandon asked. "It just kind of doesn't seem like an honorable way to vanquish a foe."

"Would you rather fight them when they're wide awake and hungry? You saw what they did to your men. There's nothing cowardly about being smart and doing what it takes to win. Besides, discretion is the better part of valor and all that jazz. Don't you know anything? It looks like the last one is starting to nod off. When I give you the signal, let's move in there quietly and slit their throats. Or bash their brains in. Or whatever method of killing would give you the most satisfaction. It doesn't really matter as long as the end result is they're dead and we're not."

"Okay, sir," Brandon said with a gulp. "I'm in."

"Wait for it. Wait for it. Looks like the last one's asleep. Move in now."

They started to tiptoe in and Brandon immediately kicked a metal goblet that was lying on the floor. It made an immense clanging sound as it bounced off a wall and rolled across the floor.

One of the lizardmen stirred a little but then settled back into sleep.

"Watch your giant oversized feet, you clumsy oaf," Fabian hissed at Brandon as quietly as he could. Then he pulled out his dagger and went to work. A fountain of green arterial blood sprayed him in the face as he slit the throat of the nearest lizardman. It made a gurgling sound as it started to wake up, but Fabian covered its mouth with his arm until the light faded from its eyes. Then he moved on to the next one.

Brandon couldn't help but feel a little squeamish as he stood over a sleeping lizardman. His hand trembled violently and the cutlass was shaking all over the place. "I don't think I can do this," he said as he dropped his hands to his side.

"Are you completely worthless, Scrote?" Fabian asked as he slit another lizardman's throat. "Fine, just stay there and be quiet while I take care of these things." Another geyser of green blood splattered him across the face as he dispatched yet another lizardman. "Just for this though, I get seventy-five percent of any treasure you find." He drew his dagger swiftly across another throat. "Better make it eighty percent. I just got some lizardman goo in my mouth."

"Um, I think this one's waking up," Brandon said as he stared in alarm at the lizardman that was closest to him.

"Well, you'd better kill him then. I've got my hands full on this side of the room."

"I can't bring myself to murder a helpless creature," Brandon said.

"It's not going to be helpless if you let it wake up. You'd better do something."

Brandon looked around the room until his eyes fell on the goblet he had kicked. He scooped it up and whacked the lizardman on the head with it. Unfortunately, this seemed to wake it up more. And it was quite angry.

It swung a large clawed hand at Brandon's face, barely missing him by less than an inch. Brandon finally found the nerve somewhere inside to fight back now that his adversary was awake. He swung his cutlass awkwardly, missing by more than a foot. The lizardman stepped back and let out a high-pitched gutteral shriek that caused all of the remaining lizardmen to leap into wakefulness.

"Damn it, Scrote, now look what you went and did." Fabian found himself suddenly surrounded by five extremely pissed off lizardmen. Brandon was facing off against four of his own.

Fabian looked up and saw a wooden beam running the length of the ceiling. Thinking quickly he leaped up and grabbed it, pulling himself out of reach of the lizardmen's claws. They leaped at him, but luckily they weren't very good jumpers. After a moment they gave up and decided to join their brothers who were focusing their attention on Brandon.

Brandon had backed himself against a wall and was only barely managing to hold his own against his attackers. The addition of five more lizardmen trying to rip out his guts was not a welcome development.

"Sir? I could really use a little help here?"

"You're doing great!" Fabian shouted. "Just think of all the fighting experience you're going to gain if you survive this. In the meantime, just keep them busy for me." He took advantage of the distraction to jump back to the floor quietly and tip toe out of the room.

"All right, these stupid lizardmen must have a horde of treasure around here somewhere. Just got to find it." He was in a narrow hallway with doors leading off on either side, both of which were locked. Fortunately that was no problem for a man with Fabian's skills. He would have preferred to have his official lockpicking kit, but he had lost that a while back when he'd left his possessions at that inn. He would just have to make do with his dagger. It was a little less elegant, but it got the job done.

He started on the door to the right. After a moment of jiggling the dagger the door swung open and an unholy stench wafted out. Fabian held his nose and peeked his head into the room. A naked emaciated man with long hair and an immense scraggly beard was chained to the wall. There was a small amount of straw covering the ground, but otherwise the room was empty.

"Thank Balthazaar you've come to rescue me," the man said in a raspy voice.  "Those lizardmen have kept me imprisoned here for months. I didn't think I would ever get out of here alive."

"Who are you?" Fabian asked as he tried not to breathe through his nose.

"My name is Vetiver. I am a monk of this temple. Those lizardmen invaded and killed all of my brothers. For some reason they've kept me alive just enough to torture me."

"A monk, eh?" Fabian said. "You got any gold? You know as a reward for me saving you?"

"Our order has taken a vow of poverty, so I'm afraid I have no money to reward you with, but you will have my eternal gratefulness and I shall ask Balthazaar to bless you many times over."

"Well, that's a real shame. Good luck getting out of those chains, buddy." He turned and started to walk out the door.

"Wait, you can't just leave me in here!" Vetiver shouted.

"Uh, yes I can," Fabian said. "It's the easiest thing in the world. Watch, I'm doing it right now." He walked back in the hallway and closed the door behind him, muffling the monk's screams.

He set to work picking the lock on the other door. This one took just a little bit longer, but at last it popped open with a satisfying click. "Jackpot!" he shouted as soon as he spotted the enormous wooden chest in the back of the room.

He examined it carefully looking for traps. He spotted a simple exploding mechanism, which he easily disarmed. Then he set to work picking the lock on the chest itself. This was the toughest lock yet, but Fabian was more than equal to the task. He flung the lid open, triggering a secondary trap, which he had not managed to find before he set it off. A dagger flew at his face with alarming speed.

Fabian's reflexes were just quick enough to dodge out of the way, although it did nick the side of his face hard enough to draw blood. "Son of a bitch," he shouted as he rubbed his cheek. "Well, let's see what kind of reward I've gotten for my troubles." He looked into the box with eager anticipation, but his smile faded immediately. "Three bronze shillings? That's it? What kind of fucking bullshit is this? Who goes to that much trouble to guard three lousy bronze shillings?" He pocketed the shillings anyway as he proceeded to search the chest for a false bottom. He quickly realized it was just a normal empty chest.

Grumbling to himself he made his way back to the hallway. He followed it ahead to see if there was anything else worth plundering, but it soon petered out into a dead end. He retraced his steps and came to the unpleasant realization that he was going to have to make his way past those lizardmen again if he was going to get out of here. "Hopefully Scrote has managed to take care of the situation," he said to himself. From the sounds coming out of the room, it seemed that the battle was still going on.

Fabian quietly peered into the room. It appeared that Brandon had somehow managed to kill two of the lizardmen, but he was still being attacked by seven more. His face was covered in scratches and gouges and it didn't look like he was going to be able to hang on much longer. He still might be able to provide enough of a distraction for Fabian to sneak past the lizardmen and out the other side of the room, but the skirmish was taking place a little too close to the opposite door for Fabian to feel comfortable that he could get through it without being drawn into the battle himself.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a second and then went back to the cell containing the dirty smelly monk. He held his nose again and opened the door.

"You came back for me!" Vetiver shouted. "Oh glorious day! Bless you, mysterious kind stranger! Bless you a thousand times over and then bless you again!"

"Hold still while I get these chains unlocked," Fabian said. The padlocks were old and quite rusty and Fabian soon discovered it was easier to just bust them open with the handle end of his dagger.

Soon the prisoner was freed from his shackles and he flung himself at Fabian, wrapping him in a full body embrace. "May the light of Balthazaar shine eternally on you, my hero, my savior! Blessed be your offspring for a thousand generations!"

"No hugs," Fabian said as he shoved the monk off of him. "Come on, follow me. We don't have much time."

He led the monk back to the room where Brandon was still attempting to fight the lizardmen, but the look in his eyes showed he was on the verge of giving up.

Fabian let out a shrill whistle attracting the attention of the snarling lizardmen. "Hey fellows. Your prisoner here has managed to escape." He shoved Vetiver towards the band of creatures.

The lizardmen, who by now were insane with bloodlust leaped on the monk and began ripping him to shreds with their sharp claws. The monk's screams soon turned to a gurgle as the lizard men tore pieces of his body off.

"Come on Scrote, let's get out of here while we still can."

"But what about that poor man?" Brandon asked. "We can't just leave him there to be killed by these monsters!"

"That poor man was in a prison cell, Scrote. And do you want to know why? Because he's a worthless scumbag criminal who rapes small children and other animals. He confessed his crimes to me before I took pity on him and released him. If he can sacrifice his life to save ours, then perhaps, in some small way he can atone for his sins."

"I don't feel good about this," Brandon said. "I'm going to go back and try to help him."

"How dare you deprive that man of his chance at redemption?" Fabian said as he grabbed Brandon's arm. "What kind of sick and twisted monster are you? Have you no feelings? That man would curse your name for all eternity if you interfered with his noble sacrifice. Besides, it's too late now anyway. He's clearly being liquified as we speak. Now let's get out of here."

"But is it a good idea to turn back?" Brandon asked. "What if Oogums is up ahead?"

"I've been as far as this way goes. There's nothing up there. Let's go back and check out a different tunnel. In the meantime we can both sleep easy tonight knowing that we've allowed an awful criminal an opportunity to make things right. Make no mistake, Scrote. We did good here today. And we might still have a chance to find something valuable in one of those other tunnels, if those untrustworthy pirates haven't stolen it first. Now let's go!"