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| The Mother of all Clogs |
It was dark in the sewer. The reek of greasy smoke and burnt hair stung João Afonse's eyes.
His flaming flask of oil had struck the nearer rat-pack, immolating the vermin in a rat-pocalypse of fire.The second rat-pack had fallen upon the party, scratching and biting. To complicate matters, the kobold shaman had magically thrown the corridor into darkness - at his barking command, strands of black fog, like a thick pitch, had coiled forth from the adventurers' lantern.
Esperalda's Gnome-vision could see the outline of the kobold shaman, as well as the bright shapes of the rats all about her - running up her leg, climbing upon Diego's maille, dangling from Osondria's hair. She decided to prioritize the one biting on her leg, and slashed at it. The rat fell away with an angry squeak.
With her free hand, Esperalda drew an unlit torch from her belt; they needed light (at least the humans did) but with their lantern extinguished (or gouting darkness, she wasn't sure how this worked) she would need something with which to light the torch. Her beady, Gnomish eyes fell upon the flickering pool of flaming oil - on the opposite walkway.
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| The Edge of Night |
"Garl's Glitterballs" Esperalda said, to no one in particular, as she readied herself to jump the greywater channel. "I hate this sewer..."
"Try to stay to your right..." said Osondria, as she slapped hard at the rats that assailed her. "...if you're jumping. The walkway was drier to the right."
"Thanks, coach..." Esperalda said, not without sarcasm. But she angled right as she leapt. She landed, surprised by her good luck, with a semi-dry squelch.
While this had been transpiring, the kobold shaman had taken to throwing small darts at João Afonso, who was defensively pressing himself into an archway.
"I can't see him!" called João Afonso. "I can't really see anything!"
"Hold on, Killer..." said Esperalda, as she bent to the now-guttering puddle of oil. A rat's body had caught fire, and she lit the torch from the sizzling corpse. She stood up as the torch took flame.
The fire was now interfering with her Gnome-vision, but she could just make out where João Afonso's big shape bulked, relative to the kobold. Osondria was suddenly at her side, as a kobold dart struck the masonry beside her.
"Take a step straight forward, then turn a clock-point to your left..." she called to João, ignoring the cleric. Osondria readied a blessing.
"Garl Glittergold..." said Esperalda, under her breath, "...just for once, just aid my throw."
"I can work with that..." said Osondria, as she blessed Esperalda, while the Gnome hurled the torch.
The torch arced across the channel, struck the walkway, bounced once, and then landed at the kobold shaman's feet.
"Yark?" said the shaman, looking down to the flaming torch at his feet. João Afonso leapt.
"Yark!" said the shaman, as João Afonso landed on the walkway next to him, drawing his greatsword.
"Squish!" said the greatsword, as it slew the shaman.
Across the channel, Esperalda grinned wickedly. "No "Yark" today..."Yark" tomorrow."
Beside her, Osondria smiled. "There's always "Yark" tomorrow..."
Shortly thereafter, the shaman's spell ended, and light returned to the lantern. Searching the corpse, Esperalda found a bone tube, in which rested a scrap of vellum. She handed the tube to Osondria, who unrolled the scroll and gazed at the runes.
"It's a scroll of Command...for animals, I'd say..." said the Cleric. "...probably how he controlled the rats." Seeing that the Gnome wasn't really listening, Osondria shrugged, re-rolled the scroll and tucked it back into the tube, before placing it into her belt.
Esparelda was working on untying the shaman's purse; once free, she examined the contents.
"Another addition to the Trove..." she said with a grin, as she poured another dozen or so gems into her hand.
João Afonso and Diego Garzia were examining the clog.
Diego sighed, "That is one big clog...do plumbers make dungeon calls?" he asked, wryly.
João Afonso nodded in agreement. "We're going to need some shovels and rakes..."
"Speaking of which..." said Osondria, "Look who I've found."
Fernando Poe trailed, embarrassed, behind the cleric. As he explained, just before the guardroom fight, he had been hit with an intense feeling of dread and doom. so as to make it difficult even to breath. He had run along the walkway, headlong into the wall, then had fallen into the water, before getting stuck at the doors in the middle chamber. Realizing he was lost, he sat down in the dark until the feeling left him. Shortly hereafter, he had seen Osondria's magic light approaching, and had called out to the cleric.
"Fear spell" said Osondria. "Happens to us all."
"Hmph!" said Esperalda, not entirely satisfied.
A party of workers were hired, through Voil Guldi, to help clear the clog and recover the lost coins, at a 10% commission, plus expenses. As Esparelda had predicted, it took the better part of the day. As the last barrel of coins was carried up to the street, where Osondria was keeping tally, one of the workers called to Esparelda.
"Hey, Ms. Gnome...You'd better look at this..."
The graywater level had lowered considerably, as the clump had been removed and the drains finally cleared. Through the murky water, where the base of the clump had been, Esperalda could see the faint outlines of a door...no, a trapdoor, resting in a short plinth at the bottom of the channel.
The party agreed - the next adventure they accepted would be above ground.
To Be Continued...
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