Up the Water Spout
Log Info
- Title: Up the Water Spout
- Emitter: Solar Flare
- Characters: Delilah, Donna, Ashes, Elyanna, Sirri, Illiria
- Place: Alexandrian Sewers
- Time: Monday, March 28, 2022, 8:57 PM
- Summary: Having barely escaped the crushing cubes by dropping down the drain, the Valethor gang, less Delilah and plus gnome guide and directing damselfish, explore the lower pipes. Quickly. Away from the cubes that are literally testing the square peg, round hole contradiction. They encounter a dead end. Fortunately, being a mourner, Ashes has a spell for this. Several in fact, and after detecting secrets, seeing invisible things, and imparting a Fly spell on Donna, they find first an access cover, and then a concealed doorway, in a chambre above them. Also, an Itsy Bitsy Spider that isn't very Itsy Bitsy. Opening the concealed door, they discover... a portal to Charn? A room, disguised to appear like Charn, and a boy held prisoner. Success! He warns them it is a trap, and two displacer beasts appear. Failure!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Delilah 5'4" 106 Lb Human Female A golden haired human girl in white robes. Donna 5'4" 106 Lb Human Female A black-haired human girl in black robes. Ashes 5'11" 177 Lb Hobgoblin Female A somber arvec in grey clothes with a skull face. Elyanna 5'11" 153 Lb Half-Orc Female A grim, Arvek-blooded woman in raven feathers. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NPCs of Note =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Sirri Gnome Female Leader of the expedition Illiria Merfolk Female A damselfish in distress, Cleric. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the GM -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Solar Flare -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
The battle with the Cubes is over. Well, aside from the one that's still trying to stick a tendril down into the passageway, but it doesn't seem like Gelatinous Cubes are really made for sticking out tendrils, so it doesn't seem to be getting very far with that.
Probably best not to get too close in any case.
"Alright," breathes Illiria, the mermaid currently sitting on the floor, "That was..." She pauses, chewing over her words, "...Exciting. We'll call it exciting, almost getting eaten by... enormous... cubes. Does this happen often, on land?"
Sirri, meanwhile, is gazing into the distance, cupping her chin in one hand as she stands in deep thought. "This passageway looks like it runs straight in the direction we wanted to go," she pronounces. "I mean, it can't possibly be that easy, can it? It's gonna dead end or something, I know it." She looks up over her shoulder, "Or am I just being a Negative Gnoll?"
"It is not unheard of, but not common." Elyanna offers, then steps forward, coiling her whip anew, to dip into a crouch to once again take up the demselfish burden.
As the redwoman sees to proper techniques to that end, "Prepare for the worst, and hope to be pleasantly surprised. We seek the lair of a devious creature." is her answer to the gnome.
"The Negative Gnoll was much bigger." Ashes comments, stepping away from the tendril and starting down the corridor. She takes a moment to help Elyanna and Illiria get organized for the long carry. "Do you want me to hold your tailfin out of the muck?"
A glance at the brawler, "you have the light Donna."
"Like she says," Donna grunts, shaking gelatinous goop off her gauntlets... then imagined goop that yet remains. The skulls are probably going to be troubling her sleep for a bit...
"This is adventurin', Sirri... Bad luck's as likely as spring rain, an' ten times less pleasant. Don't mean everything's *gonna* be harder'n it has to be, but..." Trailing off, the brawler gestures back at the ladder, and the questing pseudopod.
On Ashes' note, the dark twin nods, moving up to the front of the procession. "Just stick close t'me until you hear me yell, Sirri. Then get behind Ash."
Illiria puts an arm around Elyanna's shoulder and makes herself as easy to pick up as possible; and as mermaids go (or sentient creatures in general, really) she isn't particularly heavy to begin with. She glances at Ashes and smiles, but shakes her head, "No, no need to worry," she replies. "Far greater things to worry about than a dirty tailfin, it'll get clean again when I return to the water. But I thank you nonetheless. Just be ready to fight whatever awaits us, yes?"
Sirri, for her part, looks up at Donna and nods once. "Okay," she acknowledges. "But, everyone keep your eyes up, alright? These passages often have manholes that are... not... particularly easy to spot. It'd be awkward if we missed one and had to come back and deal with--" she gestures towards the Cube that's still trying to get in "--That, 'cause I don't imagine it's gonna give up on that, like, any time this age."
And with that, the gnome turns on her goggles once more and starts off down the tunnel.
Elyanna bears their travelling companion with only a little grunt of effort, shooting a flash of gratitude toward her friend who helps with the extra mass.
Her attention returns to the brawler on her advisory, then, "Shall we, then?"
GAME: Ashes casts Detect Secret Doors. Caster Level: 13 DC: 15
"Feiu of the tears, let me see secret doors." Ashlee touches her breastplate, and prays. Illiria is given a nod, dirty tail it is, and she falls in line getting ready to defend or attack. In her case, it's holding her parasol close, like a shield and tapping her friends to make sure they squirm into the right places beneath her armour. "Let us shall."
"Let's do," Donna agrees, holding the light over her head and leading the way down the tunnels. Without magical assistance, all the brawler can do is check the floor every few steps, just in case.
The tunnel goes straight for quite a long time, with Sirri taking the time to dig out one of the butter tarts she'd held in reserve and eating it as she goes; and as it turns out, she has enough to offer to everyone else. Illiria readily accepts, eager to try the food of the surface folk, and most definitely finds it to her liking.
Sirri's mood also improves considerably as she eats, even walking along through this filthy, disused place. "This is actually pretty fascinating," she points out. "I don't think anyone knew about this tunnel before." She points at something that... clearly means something to her, "See that stonework? That means this place is... well it's old! Like really old. They don't build sewers like they used to."
After probably half an hour of walking in this place, it is ultimately Ashes who spots it; an opening, outlined by the magic of her spell, up above. There's no ladder or anything to mark it, but there's a way up. Good thing to, since there's a big iron grating up ahead.
The ashen Arvek nods, having had a similar yet different experience. "The Vardama catacombs go on forever. Centuries deep."
She points upwards, "There. An opening."
A moment or two passes, "I have a fly spell and some rope."
Elyanna shakes her head with a soft, "Thank you, but no." for reasons that could be paranoia.
Could be the idea of eating while in a sewer...
Or... well, her hands are full and she has airs to maintain.
The Keeper tries to keep an ear perked for signs of unexpected company, even as she looks about for other signs of things being out of order, "I am not familiar with the construction of Alexandria, was it built atop another empire, perhaps?"
Butter tart! Donna accepts gratefully, and after a quick probe for soggy bits and finding none, one corner is popped into her mouth, the tart gradually grazed away without the need for a hand to steady it.
Sometimes survival skills have nothing at all to do with telling good mushrooms from bad!
Once the opening is discovered, the brawler stops, tilting back to stare up, and up. "Sounds like a good idea," she says after a moment. "You wanna go up, or would you rather I did, just in case there's a face-eater up there?"
Sirri looks up, and ahems softly. "Opening that is definitely a job for someone a lot taller than me," she points out, still licking her fingers clean after eating the tart -- fingers that she has, somehow, kept clean even through all of the preceding events. How does she even do that? Must be practice.
Fortunately, it doesn't look like the manhole is looked, just really hard to see. It's your standard disk of metal, probably iron or copper or something, and it's just overgrown with moss or cobwebs. But what's up above it?
Hard to say.
GAME: Ashes casts Fly. Caster Level: 13 DC: 17
"You can go up." Ashlee says, swallowing the last of her butter tart. Eating in the sewers... well she's eaten in the temple. She's eaten in worse places.
"Feiu of the Tears, let Donna fly." She touches her breastplate and then the brawler, a dark glow surrounding her. She takes some spidersilk rope out of her satchel and holds it out.
The Keeper considers the dilemma for a moment, craning her neck to see the manhole up above. Hmmm, "I can bolster you for battle, but, I don't think I have much left to make it last more than a half minute or so at best."
A slow sigh through her nostrils, "Though we may need it for a later hazard."
<OOC> Ashes says, "oh put a ward hex on her too, +2 AC for the first hit or Save"
"And keep her safe." Ashlee touches Donna again, her hand unpleasantly cool, like graveyard earth.
"S'okay," Donna says, lightly pushing off the ground and bobbing thoughtfully in place, acclimating herself to this new -- and, frankly, *indescribably awesome* -- sensation. "Let's save the fighty stuff for when we need it, an' it can better help more'n just me."
Taking the offered rope, she threads an arm through the loop, and starts to float upward. "If I can't find anything to tie it off on, I'll just hold on. I'll shout soon's I know either way." And she rises to the level of the manhole, planting both hands and *pushing,* bracing on nothing and finding leverage regardless.
Pushing against the underside of a manhole cover is difficult enough; doing it with nothing to brace yourself against is nothing short of agonizing. Donna certainly is feeling the burn in her arms by the time the heavy metal lid pops off, leaving the little hole clear for anyone who wants to make their way up.
Ashes and Elyanna are tall enough that they could jump and catch the edge; Sirri and Illiria will need help.
Up above, the open space Donna finds herself in is eerily silent. A reflection of the light on a set of eight eyes might cause a startle; but it turns out that the spider, with legs over thirty feet long each, is already dead, and has been for some time. The web it must once have used to hunt from is already looking a bit tattered, in the air above Donna's head.
"So uh... Nobody scream," Donna says at the edge of the hole. "There's a spider the size of Norrington's self-righteousness, but it's dead already. Wonder how long though, cos I don't see leakin', but, anything that'd kill it, if it's still here..."
That happy thought goes unfinished, as Donna lowers the rope, electing to support her friends' weight herself.
"Let's help Sirri, then Illiria up." Ashes suggests, turning to the gnome and stooping, cupping her hands. "Step up on my shoulder."
There's a bit of a longer glance at Elyanna, silently conveying a thought that they're going to be lifting a mermaid and it will be like wrestling a rather large fish.
Hopefully she won't be losing too many scales. She's careful to hide this glance from Illiria, no sense making her feel uncomfortable, even if she is.
Elyanna nods, "Agreed." to Ashes' suggestion, and starts puzzling out the particulars of how they're going to convey Illiria up safely. It may take some extra line, "I have rope in my knife, we can probably tie something suitable together." she suggests.
Getting Sirri up through the manhole is a simple matter of passing her up to Donna. Getting Illiria up is slightly more complicated, with with the mermaid's cooperation, all things are possible; and soon enough everyone is standing in front of the corpse of the enormous spider.
"That doesn't look all that recent," Sirri points out, from where she's standing behind Donna's legs, peering out. "I mean... yeah, no leakage, no twitching... I heard giant spiders can get all twitchy for days after you kill 'em. Dunno if that's true, I always just run away from 'em."
"I think," Illiria adds, "We can all feel most grateful that it is... bestilled." She blushes softly. "I wish not to advocate harm to another creature, but I am... I think we are fortunate that it is not our foe today."
Other than the giant spider, there doesn't seem to be overmuch in this room, but for a bit of mist over the floor and a few connecting tunnels. But then, as moments earlier, it's Ashes who spots it; an outline on the wall, which is most definitely a concealed doorway. The weave of magic over it parts like a veil of grasping shadows banished by the light, at least to her eyes.
Once the are all safely at the new level, the sight that meets Elyanna's eyes is.... a peculiar form of nostalgic.
Her armoured fingers idly scritch at her midriff, then, "We are."
Knowing her countryman has spells at work, the Keeper turns to the Mourner, "Do you see anything?"
Then, she hunkers down to scoop up the far flung mermaid.
"Over there." Ashes points at a wall, which seems unremarkable. She takes a moment to approach the large spider and rests her hand on the nearest leg. She doesn't normally do rituals for invertebrates, but she does count at least one as a close friend. She whispers quietly, "Feiu of the Tears, this is a big one for your garden."
That ritual complete she looks at the others. Right, she can see the doorway and no one else can, "It's here, just well concealed." She approaches slowly, then gestures in an arcane way. Her eyes glow, "Feiu of the Tears, let me see magic."
This just might help if there are magic traps; she's got no other way to detect them.
"Gettin' kinda sick o' lookin' at giant spiders, m'self," Donna grumbles, briefly shuddering at the memory of the last one the group had faced. "An' I get you, Illiria, but... I understand bein' glad to see this thing dead. Brrrr."
Ambling over to the marked section of wall, Donna tilts her head, keeping to one side to let more capable eyes examine it. "Lemme know what you got, Ash, an' if I can help."
The spider looks... kinda more like a common house spider than anything else. Just, like, really big. The door doesn't honestly appear to be locked, it looks like the person who cast the illusion was entirely dependent on that keeping people out.
"That's a really big spider." Ashes says in monotone, her back to it. This is obvious, and in that sense, unremarkable until she adds some more details. "Like a house spider, that got big. Like, the same thing might make Chippen that big."
With glowing eyes she examines the door some more, "It looks safe, and unlocked. They were relying on the illusion." Confidently, she gives it a push.
The Keeper continues to bear Illiria as she moves in Ashes's wake, though Donna's remark prompts a snort, "Agreed."
Without any mystical means to aid in the search, she holds her position and settles for keeping an eye out in case something comes along... or the giant spider decides to do anything more interesting than lay there.
"...We talking feeding big, or magic big?" Donna wonders, leaning over to peer into the doorway opened by Ash's push. Ashes stares as well, "I don't know. I'd guess magic. I don't think anything normal a spider could eat would get it to that size."
The door opens, pushing inwards with the creak of rusty hinges and the groan of old, slightly warped wood. The scene that the door opens to is one completely incongruous to the rest of the sewers; it's a scene straight out of Charn, like if you'd walked into the private suite of a tavern in Abyss'a, complete with the sweltering heat present even at night coming forth like a wall one has to step through. The room is rather spare, as much as one can see in the light of the moon (wait -- isn't it actually daytime?); definitely not the sort of fare anyone of means would settle for.
Sitting in the middle of the floor is a small, human looking child, but for a bit of a point to his ears. He looks up at the sound of the door opening, already flinching in terror until he sees who it is; or at least, who it isn't.
"Don't," he whispers to Ashes. "It isn't *safe*. The Iron King will get you."
To either side of the room Ashes has opened, there are wide doorways, with long strings of beads instead of doors; pushing through one and then the other come a pair of large felines, sporting six legs and a pair of tentacles from their shoulderblades. With glowing red eyes they pad forwards, one taking a position behind the child and one stepping in front. One of them looks up at Ashes and snarls, curling its lips to show teeth as it growls.
Donna flinches away from the heat at first, largely out of reflex; the sewers may not exactly be chilly, but the difference is enough that stepping in is akin to taking a punch. But that proves to be the least of her concerns, as she peers past the torchlight, to the small child, and his warning.
And then--
"...Tell me those ain't displacer beasts," the brawler groans. "Sirri, Illiria... If you got a way to hide, now miiiiight just be the time to do it."
"Perhaps it got into something it should not have." Elyanna muses distantly, still somewhat wary, even though the path is clear.
The change in venue brings whatever train of thought was in progress to a tumbling halt as she tries to parse the shift in environs.
The decor.
The smells.
Even the time of day.
There's a shake of the red woman's head, then, her attention turns to the boy, then Scarfield and Griefcliff pad their way out to confront them.
It's going to be that sort of night, it appears.
The heat hits Ashes like a pillow to the face, a soft, solid impact. It washes over her, drawing in confusion at the moonlight, and then the boy. No wonder scrying showed him in Charn. The Mourner is convinced, and only her hand on the doorframe and her magic sight contradicts what she was ready to first assume: She had opened some sort of portal.
"It's okay," she replies in monotone, fixing a stare on the boy, "I belong to the Feiu of the Tears."
Those are displacer beasts. Well, Donna doesn't want to know for sure. The hobgoblin's head nods once, and she echoes, "Hide."
