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Nona trundled down the walkway on the west side. She wanted to try to help M'boka out of the water, but her armor slowed her down. As she moved, she kept her shield in front of her and held up her light-emitting morningstar to bring its light to the fight. "Gott Dammit, Katzu, you rushed off before I could give you your armor!" she communicated mentally to Katzu. "Be careful."
Unable to do much else, she called out to the hungry beast, "Food that fights back vill give you indigestion, idiot! Now scram before you become a meal yourself!"
Hearing her words swallowed up in the echoing chamber, unheeded, she said "Ach! It vas vorth a try, hey?"
Katzu moves closer.
When he gets close enough, he tries to bite one of the tentacles.
The squiggly things are two quick. "Next time," he thinks, "my claws too..."
Katzu looks a little disappointed when the monster is slain before he can help, but shrugs and walks back to look into the side room, standing guard in case anything comes out while the others regroup.
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M'boka takes Nona's hand and climbs up out of the sewage, a look of embarrassment clear in his eyes. Thank you, my friend. I am afraid I have shamed myself. Forgive me for my failure. It shall not happen again.
Once he makes it out and gets to his feet, he continues down the hall and looks at the lifeless form of the monstrous beast his companions had slain. What an odd creature. It seemed to have some intelligence as well. You all did well to destroy it through, I think.
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As it falls, Searlas runs forward and checks it's vitals, attempting to stabilize it if it still has any life left within it.
"Obviously not the brightest though. Or possibly desperate. Either way, when a crazed tentacle beast screams and runs at me, my first instinct is generally about the same as Kiddir's."
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Finally out of the water and somewhat less covered in filth, M'boka fishes around in his pack and produces a coil of rope. Here you are, Nona. Thank you again for your help. You too, Kiddir. That attack of yours was rather impressive by the way. You also, Rilia. He then spends a few minutes cleaning muck out of his pack and helping Nona set up the rope to aid in crossing the waterway.
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"Thank you," Nona says, accepting the loaned rope coil. She ties one end securely around her waste and sets the rest of the coil on a hook on her belt, prepared to throw to someone to help her avoid drowning when dealing with sewer crossing.
Once over to the other east side with Katzu, she looks into the side room to see if there is anything hiding there.
Nona:
Katzu:
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Searlas concludes that the monster is indeed quite dead.
Looking to the side you note that the bricks that once sealed off this natural cave appear to have been removed long ago. Garbage litters the cave’s floor, and the knee-deep pile writhes with beetles. Fresher pieces of refuse lie on the top, largely untouched by the resident decomposers. Nothing of value lies in the rubbish, perhaps there were a few scraps of paper that might have been valuable to someone a few years ago, but they are mostly a soggy pile of mush.
The eastward running tunnel terminates in a small shrine centered around a large statue of a rat, around which handfuls of baubles and trinkets lie as if left as offerings. Nearly every brick bears some type of scratch marks, many having the appearance of writing without actually forming coherent letters. About one foot above the walkway, a large pipe emerges from the southern wall. You watch as one human climbs out the pipe, is handed a lit torch, and then starts to pull a second man out of the pipe.
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The men appear to be startled that someone else is here.
"We're, uh, just passing through, and there was this big beast of a creature so we decided to hang out here where it couldn't get us. Did you see it? I heard it go off in your direction."
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Hearing voices, Nona sends Katzu to move closer to see who was there, and follows closely, listening as they speak.
"We dispatched what you ran from. Best not give us any trouble," Nona warned.
After seeing them, she reports back to those still at the tunnel junction, "Three men ahead, acting like they've got something to hid," speaking as softly as she can and still make herself heard by her allies. Some kind of rat statue and a dead end.
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Searlas walks forward a bit, arms open, palms out. "Hey, hey. No need to be so cagey. We've all got business to conduct of our own that we'd prefer not to disclose to strangers, but being cagey just makes people nervous. Besides, some times when 2 people find their business crosses paths, it can be mutually beneficial!"
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"Good job Nona, you play the short, feisty watchwoman and I'll play smooth, unsubtly cruel one with a scorpion whip with a bare midriff exposing a Calistrian tattoo." She addresses the men standing in front of the deceased tentacle monster. "Just passing through aye? It might be best for all of us if you come clean.... Yes, down here."
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"Er uh, well, you see, that rat statue over there marks this as wererat territory. And wererats are known hoarders. Since we didn't see no wererats, we figured we'd check out what they collected. So how about we go on our way and you can have anything we missed..."
As the two looters are talking the eyes of the rat statue glow deep red.
"Pell, look at that. I think this might be the group of wererats returned to their nest!"
"I don't think hiding in a pipe is gonna help this time."
The two men grab quarterstaves, clearly ready to fight their way out of a frightening predicament.
<- Your action!
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Listening to the others talk, he knew easily that these men were thieves and had no business here. It wasn't difficult to realize this was going to devolve into a fight. He draws his sword as he walks towards them down the side of the sewers. "My friends and I outnumber you by a large margin. You wouldn't want to throw your lives away needlessly. Throw down your weapons and whatever you found and we will allow you to pass peacefully. Fight us and you will perish." He thumbs towards Kiddir. "Trust me."
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"Actually, I do have a vague idea as to the meaning of some of these notes. If you are concerned about the creatures here perhaps we can help each other? Why did the eyes on that statue flare up and what has got you so spooked?"
Searlas points out a couple of the markings. "That one over there means pipe, and that one there means plant. I'd be careful using the pipes to move about if I were you... at least given these markings."
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Nona peers around Katzu and watches warily. The others seem to have more experience with such things, so she keeps quiet and watches to see what happens next, saying only, "A fight avoided is a fight von, I alvays say."
Then as Searlas mentions the markings, she pushes Katzu to advance a bit and adds, "I know a number of languages, if dat vould help."
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"We thought it was you that did the thing with the rat," replies the other looter in response to Searlas.
"Let's get out of here," the first looter recommends.
Assuming they are not stopped, they will proceed to exit back the way you came from.
Nona is unable to make out the markings, but she has a feeling that through the pipe is most likely the way they need to go.
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Searlas looks them up and down for a moment. "No... that wasn't us. Judging from the look of you, and how skittish you appear to be, if there is danger I suspect you are more likely to accidentally run into it. Take care of yourselves, and try not to run into any Hellknights on the way out."
He then begins to inspect the pipe, listening for sounds of skittering from within.
"Here's the pipe... Well Rilia, I hope you don't mind a little... how would you say it... eau de me-"
Searlas cuts himself off and looks about at the group. "I suppose a little professionalism wont kill me."
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"If the statue's eyes glow in the presence of vererats, then either one of you three is a vererat or there are vererats coming our vay. In any case, you vould best be getting out of our vay. Since we have been so nice to you, tell us, vhat vill we find if we crawl through those pipes you just crawled out of?"
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Ser Willem listens as the others interact with the interlopers, he takes note that they seem a little too skittish to have done this before. Nonetheless, he doesn't say anything as they leave. When they are gone, he looks to the others. "Perhaps we should remain vigilant. Most creatures do not take kindly to those who poke around in their lairs."