The pirates and Guild Consortium aren't the only ones feeling the pains of war. Soon after the incident triggered this conflict, low rumblings began emitting from the Pit of Judgment. The Beast doesn't seem to be feeling well, and an upset Pit Beast can only lead to tragedy. Almost every doctor in the kingdom was tending to wounded soldiers on the front lines. The poor Pit Beast had no one to look after him. The war between the Pirates and Guild Consortium raged on. uBs, still considered a neutral party, delivered services to both sides. In fact, the Pit Beast was so busy with various prisoner executions that one had to make reservation weeks in advance if they expected to get in some Judgment time.
While enjoying her day, Kestri goes to retrieve the mail and finds an urgent letter with her name on it. It read: “I urgently request your aid and knowledge. My best friend, the Pit Beasty, is very sick. I fear he is not long for this world. Enclosed is the sum of $200 for your services. Sincerely, the Executioner.” With money in hand, Kestri goes back to her tower to gaze into the depths of her crystal ball and see what is going on. She sees images of the pit beast eating prisoners. The future in the crystal is very unclear. It looks like the pit beast will die without help. Kestri decides to go to High Shepard Speed to make sense of this prophecy. Speed is baffled, “The Beasty? Dead? Are you sure? That thing is extremely valuable to uBs!”
Speed heads down to the pit of judgment while Kestri returns to her tower to do more research on the subject. The Executioner sighs, “Well, Beasty has eaten a ton of Pirates and Guildsmen. You know, with the war on and whatnot. He’s been spitting things up lately, the belongings of his varicus victims. I’ve been burying them all over the Judgment Pit. It seemed like the right thing to do.” Speed gets a map and a shovel from the Executioner to see if he can literally dig up some clues. He first finds a gold bar that is covered in slime. It’s inscribed with Guild emblems. Speed asks the Executioner about it, “Beasty spit it out after eating that Marquis Andover of Tredony I gave him the other day. Maybe he doesn’t like the taste of Guildsmen?” Speed then finds a slime covered dagger and goes to the Executioner once more. “The Beast vomited it up after eating Peter the Pirate. Do you think his flesh was bad?”
Meanwhile, Kestri is doing research on the pit beast. Looks like it can digest anything except for metal. After Speed finishes his conversation with the Executioner, he goes to meet Kestri to see what she makes of all this nonsense. Kestri ponders it for a bit, “After multiple feedings this gold bar and dagger are all that remain? I wonder if all the prisoners of war being executed might be clogging up the beast’s digestion.” Kestri has a plan. She’ll make a potion to help the Beasty out with his problem but Speed has to jump in and survive the pit to heal him. Speed doesn’t want to agree but goes along with the plan. He decides to ask the Executioner how exactly to survive the pit. The Executioner recalls a story, “A squirrel covered in cinnamon jumped into the pit the other day! He must have gotten into a spice trader’s stash. In any case, Beasty sneezed and sneezed and the squirrel came up later untouched. You might try powdering yourself in cinnamon.” Speed goes to the village and buys enough cinnamon to cover himself.
Kestri finishes her potion and decides that before delivering it to Speed, she should convince the Monarch to stop feeding the poor beast so many prisoners. Lady Redrum isn't as happy, “The pit beast’s health must be protected at all costs! He is invaluable to uBs! So fine, we have to stop feeding him so many war criminals. So tell me, Adept Kestri, what do you suggest?” Kestri suggests to stop throwing in all the Pirates due to the daggers they wield. The Monarch agrees and marches off. Kestri makes her escape to deliver the potion to Speed.
Speed takes a deep breath and leaps into the pit to purge the poor Beasty of all the metal he’s eaten. High Shepard Speed jumped directly into the heart of the pit, pausing only slightly to pinch his nose firmly closed to protect it from the cinnamon dust. The courageous hero seemed more worried about that then Beasty’s iron grip and razor teeth. Villagers jumped back in terror, expecting the usual flurry of claws, tentacles, and tufts of hair/bone/flesh followed by the inevitable screams of pain. Several tense moments passed as uBs waited with bated breath. But instead of screams, it was unusual metallic clangs emanating from the pit that rang in their ears. The peasants worried for naught. Speed knew exactly what he was doing. Within minutes he climbed victoriously out of the pit covered in slime. The day was saved, as was the Beasty!
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