Zcerneboch, the Dark One's page

Zcerneboch does not say anything if Poshment tugs upon the rope.

"I do not treat with usurers little one, nor do I feel time as I once did. There will be time enough I think for a reckoning."

Posh can hear oars gently working the water. By the time he is tugged up out of the strange dark miasma all trace of the angler's little boat are gone except the echo of those oars.

This time Posh is lowered by bucket down into the well. And again as he passes into an implacable darkness and choking musty smell.

"Hello little friend." Again the ghostly voice and a sound like someone wearing wooden clogs walking on the deck of that strange benighted boat. "I have good news. We have retrieved your friend's blade, and no meager feat it was, I assure you."

The spongy hand reaches out, and presses a blade hilt into his hand.

Dreamy harp music and wavy air distortion.

"Return to your bright world then and take your rest. Return to the well at this time tomorrow and we shall see if I and my crew are worthy anglers."

That would be late in the evening.

Bottom of the Well

The hand that Posh's hand comes into contact with is long-fingered, cool, and disquietingly spongy.

"Return to your bright world then and take your rest. Return to the well at this time tomorrow and we shall see if I and my crew are worthy anglers."

Posh notes that he can see his hands again, thanks to his glowing shirt cuffs. He can see his feet too and the rope above until the darkness claims it. He can also make out Zokon high above at the top of the well. Other than that though there is nothing but the dark around him.

Of Zcerneboch there is no sign.

Bottom of the Well

There's a fetid scent in the cave air that makes it difficult to breath without coughing.

"An agreement then, I shall return your lady's sword and in return some time in the future you will retrieve something of equal value for me. Is it a bargain?"

Posh can't really look at anything just now. His light has gone out. It is like really really dark here. Like really dark. At present Posh cannot even see the tip of his own nose. And it is tough to know if his eyes are actually open or not. It's that kind of darkness.

"Most assuredly. What do you have to offer in exchange for the retrieval of this most priceless blade for your dear dear friend? The darkness is nothing to me and my crew. We were born in it, molded by it. I am Zcerneboch, a traveler upon the Lightless Seas."

There is a noise like a pirate with two peg legs walking on the deck. It seems very close.

Bottom of the Well

"The water here is deep, and perhaps too dark for one such as yourself to see in."

Bottom of the Well

"Почему ты пришел?"

The voice is silken rasp that seems to form in Posh's head without traveling the unseen spaces between.

"Why have you come?"