Rexus accepts the coins with a nod of thanks, recasting his light spell on one of the copper pieces, before following Xia down the stairs. If he is offended by her claiming the cloak he says nothing of it.
Down the stairs is a large circular chamber dominated by a fifty foot wide pool of rancid, brown slurry. Much of the plaster on the walls has crumbled away and what remains is covered in crude drawings and sinister sigils. From the middle of the pool comes a strange moan and two fleshy shapes begin their slow progress from the pool towards you!
"Eugh, lemures. I hate lemures. Why couldn't this place be infested with something nice and clean, like snakes? No, first rats, then those stinking possum things and now lemures. Why did it have to be lemures?" Eudoxia complains vehemently, unpleasant memories rising at the sight of the grotesque creatures.
Despite her disgust, Xia retains enough presence of mind to remember her lessons, throwing aside her preferred cold iron blade and drawing her silver wakizashi and mithral dagger.
Standing her ground, she assumes an alert, ready stance, watching the two devils intently.
Rexus hurls a blob of acid over Xia's shoulder. It hits the flesh mound square but disperses to no effect across the blubber-like flesh.
Both lemures continue on, one getting close enough to strike!
Xia's silver sword flashing in its eyes is just enough to prevent the blow hitting, although Xia's prepared strike is equally ineffective.
Eudoxia follows up her earlier ineffective slash with a low , probing jab with her dagger, which leaves the lemure facing her open to another high slash with the sword.
Part of the lemure recoils from Xia's dagger, the flesh fleeing to other places on its amorphous body. Unfortunately for it, that presents an excellent target for Xia's silver sword - which strikes with a nasty hissing sound and leaves a ragged gash.
From behind Xia comes a small handful of filth, which thankfully misses her, but also misses the devils in front. "Woops..." She hears from Rexus.
The lemures surge forward again but, wary of Xia's weapons, they don't press their attacks hard enough.
Dancing back from the Lemures' attacks,Xia slowed her breathing and focused her energy, as her sword master had taught her, in order to launch a devastating series of attacks.
Xia's rain of blows achieves a devastating effect. One lemure, already gashed is cut practically in two and simply dissolves away into the sludge. The other lemure just starts reeling backwards when Xia lands two hefty blows, sending it the way of its colleague.
On the far side of the cistern old doorways hang open like an old mans smile. Past the doors Xia and Rexus find an old room, wtih chunks of moldy plaster missing from the ceilings and scattered furnishing, hinting at a bunk-room and a kitchen lie around in states of complete disrepair.
Xia smiles in grim satisfaction as the two Lemures go down. "Did I mention how much I loathe those things" she says, wiping the sludge off her weapons. "I wonder what they were doing here? Someone must have summoned them or something."
"This looks like what we were searching for" Xia adds upon spotting the three chests. "Shall we take a look?
Unless Rexus objects, Xia will carefully open the chests one at a time.
The chests are unlocked, simply stiff from age. Xia notices that one of them has small scratch marks around the edge of the lid, as though a small creature had tried to force its way in. The contents however make it clear that it did not succeed.
The first chest contains a suit of leather armour, still gleaming like new even after all the time in its crate. Beneath it is an unstrung shortbow, with string coiled neatly next to it and a small pouch containing a dozen pearls. (100gp each) Additionally Xia finds a silvery grey cloak at the bottom of the chest, it ripples and fades as she holds it to the light, seeming to disappear even as her hands tell her she is still holding it.
Rexus levers open the second chest and whistles quietly. Under a layer of ancient straw lie four gleaming silver birds, painstakingly carved in perfect detail. On the base of each bird a word is inscribed.
The final chest contains a locked iron box, about the size of those used to hold financial ledgers - a quick attempt reveals the box to be firmly shut with no key in sight.
"Quite a haul" Rexus says, looking around. "I suggest we don't stay down here to examine everything properly. I have an idea, and a friend I would like you to meet." He packs the birds away into his bag and picks up the coffer, although he seems surprised by the weight. "I think you'd best have both hands free... just in case."
"Examining the stuff elsewhere does sound wise. I don't want to run into more of those nasty fey creatures or anything. Shall we go meet this friend of yours then?"
"Yes, lets!" Rexus agrees.
Rexus leads Xia across town and the Bleakbridge, back towards the Green's and the Sarini family residence. A few streets away he turns off into the student district and leads Xia to the Long Roads Coffee House.
Rexus pulls his hood up, seemingly trying to be inconspicuous and walks into the coffee house with the chest. He heads straight to the back stairs, whispering in a waiters ear on the way. He heads to the third floor, enters a small bedroom and deposits the chest on the floor before gesturing for Xia to take the only chair.
A minute or two later a polite knock on the door is followed by a blond haired halfling who, upon seeing Rexus, hurries over and gives him a bear hug which lifts him clean off the floor. "Rexus. You're still alive! Thank the gods... and you are?" She asks, turning suddenly to Xia.
Eudoxia smiles slightly at the exuberant greeting Rexus receives, the halfling obviously cares about Rexus.
Xia is slightly unsure of how to respond to Laria's question, about how much information to reveal. Rexus might trust Laria but there was still a risk from revealing too much too soon, and the halfling mightnot take too kindly to learning she was a Sarini at this present moment in time. Deciding to err on the side of caution, it being easier to add more words than take words back, Xia replied.
"I'm Xia, I'm... I'm a friend of Rexus's. We knew each other as children and he came to me for help following his recent troubles"
Xia looks towards Rexus for support, it was the truth after all, even if not all of it.
Laria looks Xia up and down in an appraising fashion for a few, long moments before nodding decisively. "Well if Rex trusts you then I do too. Now what are you doing in my humble shop?" Rexus explains briefly, although Xia notices that he is entirely candid - clearly when he said he trusted Laria he was not prevaricating.
At the end of the story Laria whistles softly. "Well this is quite a tale Rex. Let's see if what you got was worth the hassle." She fishes in one of her pockets, produces a small leather bound pouch and gets to work on the lock - which gives a minute or so later.
The inside is stuffed to bursting with papers, which Rexus dives on. Laria, seeing Rexus distracted, moves over to Xia. "From how Rexus tells it you are clearly capable. I was wondering if you'd be willing to do me a favour? A friend of mine, Nan, lives in my basement. He has a collection of unusual pets and I haven't seen him for a few days. Would you mind going down to take a look for me?"
'I'm sure I can manage that for you.' Xia replies nonchantly. 'What sort of pets are we talking about here?'
"I'm not sure exactly." Laria confesses with a shrug, "He said something about rare birds last time we spoke. He's probably fine, but I worry."
Laria leads Xia downstairs and behind the counter, down another short flight of stairs and into the storeroom. From behind a large jar marked "Preserved Mawangian Deathfruit" Laria flips a switch and one of the store cases swings out to reveal a doorway. "It opens with a wall switch on that side." Laria says. "Let yourself out and come back up when you've found him. I'll take Rexus some tea and pastries so you can join him when you get back. Thanks for this."
She leaves the storeroom and Xia can hear the moment she gets to the top of the stairs as the hubbub of orders rises immediately.
Xia enters the doorway, calling out softly to Nan as she does so. No sense in startling the man.
Xia finds herself in a long corridor which stretches away to her left. There is very little light, although her sharp senses can make out a larger area down the cave and what appears to be a lake off to one side . As Xia approaches she sees the top half of a statue of a beautiful elven woman, at the same moment as catching a foul stench of rotting meat somewhere under the pier.
Xia tenses upon catching the scent of the rotting meat, and the continued absence of any sign of Nan. Beginning to fear the worst, she draws her sword (mwk cold iron) before cautiously moving closer to the source of the smell.
As she draws her sword Xia catches sight of a trail of ripples moving rapidly towards her through the water - something is under there and seems to be headed right for the shore, and her!
Of course there had to be something nasty living in the water down here, Xia thought as she drew the second of her pair of blades and readied herself for the upcoming attack.
Surging from the water comes a long, sleek, white reptile which launches itself up onto the dock with a thrashing of its powerful tail and bites hard at Xia.
Already prepared for the attack Xia dances sideways, opening a gash in the crocodiles flank as she does so. It crashes hard into the dock, giving Xia an opening to strike again.
Taking advantage of the opening Xia attacks with both swords.
Xia lands another blow across the first one, prompting a roar from the crocodile. It lashes out with its tail, before turning sinuously and biting for her legs.
The bite connects with considerable force and Xia feels something crunch under its jaws.
"Let her go you monster!" comes a cry from Xia's left and a sizzling sound preceeds a blob of acid striking the creatures flank.
As the crocodile's teeth sink deep into her leg Xia cries out loud. She'd never felt pain like this before. Instead of despair however, Xia is filled with a cold fury. She wasn't going to end up some reptile's lunch down a stinking sewer! All thoughts of proper form and technique left her head as she threw herself at the beast, hacking and stabbing wildly, and screaming defiance.
In a flurry of blows Xia downs the crocodile - driving one of her swords through its skull for good measure. The thing flails for a few moments and then, finally, falls still.
Rexus approaches warily. "Are you alright my dear? I realised that you'd gone a moment ago and Laria said you were down here..."
"Do you have food?" a whispering voice, interspersed with odd clicking noises spoke from the shadows. "We are so hungry..."
"I ... I think so," Xia replies to Rexus "You saved my life" she adds, with a faint note of surprise, looking Rexus in the eyes.
Xia tenses at the sound of the whispering voice then relaxes once it is clear that it doesn't represent an immediate threat.
"We have plenty of food upstairs" she calls out gently. "Are you Nan? Or a friend of his perhaps?"
"We can't go upstairs." The voice hisses, "Bright lights and cages there. Nan was helping us, but then he went and never came back." The clicking noise intensifies suddenly, as though two or three new voices join the chorus. "We're so hungry!"
"Go upstairs and find some food, quickly! Eudoxia whispers urgently to Rexus. Raising her voice again and continuing in a calming tone she calls out again, " That's fine, I understand, we'll bring some food down here to you. The lady upstairs won't hurt you, she's a friend of Nan's. Nan was helping you, right? Do you want to talk to me about that? Maybe we can help you as well?
Rexus hurries off and the voices retreat, straining her ears Xia hears chattering and rapid trills that sound like bird-calls, followed by a short scream and the sound of weaponry being used...
Xia rushes towards the sound of the fighting, ready to intervene once she knows what is happening.
As Xia burst into the room she sees a strange sight, a table with a lantern and a pack of cards spread across it, as well as numerous mostly empty crates make up the rooms furnishings.
At the far wall a large, part human part bird is crushing a Tengu, a second tengu is trying to break the bird thing's grip and two more are moaning on the floor where they appear to have been beaten. There are three daggers sticking out of the part bird but its grip still seems strong enough to choke life from the one in its talon.
Rushing in to intervene Xia swings one of her swords at the bird thing's arms.
Xia's attack doesn't achieve much, but it does distract the creature long enough for the Tengu it was grappling to shove one of the daggers further into it's throat. The creature gurgles and collapses to the floor, dead.
Pulling itself up and smoothing ruffled feathers the leader Tengu speaks, hoarsely.
"We are Fushi. Korva, Jay, Maggie, Treep. We did not kill Nan. Sister Chough" she gestures at the dead creature. "did that. We are sorry. How do we pay for dead?"
At that moment Rexus returns with an armful of food and nearly drops it all. "Goodness me!"