The forgotten larder settles into a heavy, humid silence as the chitinous horror lies broken against the fracturing stone. RagNook shifts his stance, his massive frame looming over the carcass with a practiced, rhythmic grace.
Eldred
The butcher moves like a dancer. I have never seen such reverence for a beast that tried to gut us.
RagNook Butcher of the East
Eldred, leave the shelf fungus alone. These Blood-Caps are tainted by the creature's ichor. Only harvest those that grow from the clean bone-marrow.
Eldred
He is right. My hunger made me careless. I should have known the rot follows the beast.
Eldred kneels by the towering ribs of a leviathan, his hands trembling as he carefully scrapes the bioluminescent caps from the calcified bone. He keeps a wary eye on the shadow of the shaft, where the clicking sounds have finally ceased.
“harvest the fine cuts of meat from the beast and prepare a fire using the dry bones lying around”
SUCCESS (Legendary Cooking, rolled +1)
RagNook moves with a predatory fluidity, his cleaver flashing in the bioluminescent haze. With surgically precise strikes, he renders the succulent muscle from the creature’s chitinous plates, his motions efficient and rhythmic. He gathers the desiccated, marrow-rich ribs, snapping them like kindling to build a small, crackling hearth upon the stone floor. The scent of roasting fat begins to cut through the subterranean damp, savory and rich.
RagNook Butcher of the East
The muscle fibers are dense, threaded with just the right amount of connective tissue to keep them tender under high heat. This will sustain us for days.
Eldred
I never thought I would eat at a table of death, let alone smell something so heavenly in this wretched hole.
As the fire roars to life, a sudden, sharp screech echoes from the shadows above. The clicking resumes, faster and more frantic than before, as the ceiling debris begins to rain down like coarse, jagged hail.
Quest Complete
Harvest the Blood-Cap mushrooms
Skill Upgrade: Medicine Mediocre→Fair
+ Story Quest Added
Survive the ceiling collapse
+ New Item Acquired
Leviathan meat