(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

either - I am something of a connoisseur. Return when you have something
of value to me."
I sighed in relief.
The caverns below Lothar’s residence were rank with the smell of old filth
and offal. The scent was sharp, like a foul aged cheese in a cold basement.
Mildew-yellow stone undulated in crests beneath my feet so that the hard
sole of my boots see-sawed between the peaks and troughs with each step.
I should've recognized the stench of wererats.
It leaned against a support post for a small bridge. In one hand it held a skin
of wine with streaks of blood marring the leather; it had likely been looted
from some poor sod that had crossed the creature's path. Finishing off a
deep swig the wererat wiped its muzzle and looked at me with feral red
eyes. There was a cunning danger about it, and the voice that issued from its
mouth was oily and insinuating. "So...a biped comes slinking into the nest of
Lothar's servants. What do you want, man, and where do you intend to go?
Step lightly, intruder, and speak the truth to Mantuok."
Dak'kon's hand rested casually on the hilt of his sword and Annah crossed
her arms, looking remarkably casual while her hiding the fact that she was
ready to pull out her daggers.
I stood bold enough to seem a threat, but not so haughty as to be issuing a
challenge. "Who are you?"
"I am Mantuok. I am the voice of Many-as-One and the emissary of Lothar,
Master of the Bones. I speak here and you answer. What do you want
here?"
I cocked my head. "You work for both of them? Doesn't that test your
loyalty?"
"And why should it, hm? The Master knows the secrets of power, and the
Many know the secrets of the city. Perhaps someday I shall play them
against each other and become the greater for it," a sharp bucktoothed grin
split his features, and I knew that this was a dangerous wererat was more
treacherous than all the others I had come across. "Many-As-One sees many
advantages in such an arrangement... and the conversion of the Buried
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