"I'd prefer not to be here when they arrive in the building. If we have no choice but stay in this room? Well, we are actors after all." Sia looks around for an exit.
Not sure if we can act our way out of this one... I'd rather simply not be here when they enter. - says Wings, also searching for an exit.
"While I can likely talk my way out of this, it would be better not the be here when the Hellknights arrive."
"Perfect timing hey?" Keamba spat bitterly through gritted teeth. Power began to crawl off of him in waves, slowly building as he struggled to contain his anger. "Those bastard know just when to turn up. What now ha? Where do we go?"
Westcrown - Rego Aerum - Treasure Sector -
Janiven sighs, "I am sorry this meeting went so sourly and I hope it does not cause you to re-consider. Come down Jing and hurry, I've not trapped myself in this place you can sure of that".
She and the lad move behind the bar and shift a carpet to reveal a secret door in the floor. "Come and quickly, the sewers are no pleasant but they will allow us to evade the Hellknights and regroup. Then we can discuss Arael".
Though not needed, the slamming on the door and booming voice, "Open in the name of Thrune!" Is certainly motivation enough to get a move on and down.
Vara slithers her way through the trap door as the banging commences. "You certainly know how to make a strong sales pitch, Janiven," she mutters.
Blackspire follows Vara down the trap door without a word.
Sia heads down the trapdoor. "This association is starting with a bang." she says as she hears the banging on the door.
I dislike it already! - says the tiefling, pressing to move quick with the others.
"I don't like it either, but I like those Hellknights are the door even less." Sia murmurs to Wings.
Malqazar follows down the trapdoor, making sure there are at least a few people ahead of him.
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Keamba frowns at Janiven but darts into the trap door as the last of the Troupe.
She reaches back to try and pull the rug over the trap door as best she can and closes it. The teen finds a lamp and lights it. The Troupe is standing in what appears to be a pantry.
"Morosino", she calls the lad. Lead them to the crawlspace and down. I'll spend a few moments slowing things down here and meet you all".[/b]
The young lad, Morosino is agitated, "Follow me, quickly!" He races to the end of the well stocked pantry and pulls open a grate below a shelf. He looks back, "Come on, come on!" He hisses, he places the lamp on his chest and pushes himself through sliding down what appears to be a tunnel.
My clothes will be ruined, but what choice do I have? I'll take my chance in the tunnels over the Hellnights.
Sia sits down and slides down the tunnel.
Vara collects her skirts and slides down after Sia.
The gnome slides down the tunnel.
Carefully trying to control himself, Lettu goes with the others and slides down the tunnel. He now trusted a little more on Janiven, but knew he was a terrible people reader.
Sia manages to move out of the way just in time to miss Vara. She helps her up and out of the way of Jing as he enjoys the ride down.
Malqazar tosses his walking stick down the hatch, before sliding down the ladder. He picks the it up , inspects it briefly before saying, "Well then, shall we take our leave of here?"
Keamba trips and begins to slide head first down the tunnel, cursing sharply as he does.
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Morosino is already on his feet, torch in hand, on a ledge on the right side, as the Troupe arrives.
Sia, Blackspire, Lettu, and Malqazar manage to control their descent and land on their feet.
Vara, Jing, and Keamba slide down into the muck back first ruining their clothes and leaving them feeling, well, pretty disgusting actually.
Morosino explains, "On the other side of the door are sewer tunnels that lead left and right, initially we turn left. Thereafter, Janiven left markers for us to follow which will lead us out of here. The mark is a sword etched on the wall. It will always lead in the direction of the safe house.
The sewer tunnel that the group lands in is 20' long and 5' wide. The south way ends in a brick wall while the north way has a door barred from this side. The middle of the 5' span is a 2' wide, 2' deep trench in which sits stagnant sewer water. The door sits atop the the left side of the 1 1/2' ledge. There does appear to be a grate but at the moment it is not open leading to the terrible smell.
Lettu heads to the bar and begins to lift it.
Finally, after some noise from the tunnel above, Janiven slides down an old hand at this she too lands on her feet. [b]"They will discover us path soon enough but their armor will make this a difficult path to follow, still, we should get moving".
The bar is placed on the ledge and Lettu begins to open the door. Janiven nimbly moves by the Troup to the edge of the south wall where sits a rock. She slides it away and breathes a sigh of relief, "Good they are still here!" She places her hand in a hollow and pulls out a sack that clinks, it sounds as if there are vials of some sort within.
She quickly doles out to each of you three potions, "Here. If we do get into an altercation these will mend your wounds".
Sewers? Really? It's still better than Hellknights. She quickly uses Prestidigitation on Vera to help clean her clothing. "Can't have another lady disheveled and dirty." Sia sighs as she examines the slow moving "water", and lines up on the left side of the sewer trench. She casts light on the pommel of her scimitar. "I'll take the lead on this side."
Blackspire takes position on the right side of the tunnel.
"I will take lead on this side. I am comfortable in the darkness."
"Oh, thank you ever so much Sia!" cries Vara as she is magically cleaned up. She collects her potions and thanks Janiven for them. Something about being in this filthy sewer has made Vara much more grateful than she is used to.
Falling into line behind her bestie Sia, she casts light on her kukri then tucks it back into her dress. "I will only use it when necessary in case there are creatures down here watching for our lights."
Malqazar twists the head of his walking stick, before pulling it to reveal a well-made sword. He briefly tests the sharpness of the blade and smiles slightly. He takes a breath in, and his smile quickly fades, "By the foulness of Jubilex! That stench is overpowering!" He snaps his fingers and a flash of light emanates from his hands. Four lights rise off of it, softly glowing above his head. "If any of you need some light, I can certainly help."
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The Troupe takes the left tunnels the groups split walking on the right and left side of the ledges with enough light for all to see by. As you enter the sewers proper the smell does not get any better and the ledges are a bit slippery.
While you walk, Janiven explains, “Arael and I made these marks a few months ago when we explored the sewers. We marked all the intersections so our people could find their way through the sewers to our hideout.”
As the Troupe travels, the noise of the Hellknights back at Vizio’s Tavern diminishes, but Janiven is sure they’ll follow. “They might take a few minutes to search in the tavern, but some are going to follow us down here after they grab a lantern or make torches. They might even try to infiltrate the sewers ahead of us if they can guess our route. We need to keep moving.”
The stretch of sewer you are in is quite long, it appears that if they do step down here, the twists and turns of normal alley evasions will be tougher to pull off down here.
At the end of the first tunnel, Sia is able to see the sword mark that leads to the right. Following in that direction after another 70' Sia and her side of the sewers come upon a door.
"What can be gained by stopping? We need to be sure we have escaped the Hellknights before anything like that."
"Well, I'd say we go right. The sooner we get to this hideout the better."
"Janiven, do you know anything about that door and where it leads? Does our destination lie ahead or through the door?"
Just what I was thinking. Do we know whats behind this door? Moving out of these sewers quickly is a good idea. Muddying the waters with open doors isn't' a bad idea either. Sia examines the door while waiting for the answer to Blackspire's question.
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Janiven replies, "No, we had no time to check every door. Sometimes a closed door is best left alone. If you all believe that entering and locking the door then I suppose we can do that but I agree with Vara and Malqazar, we should keep moving".
Morosino shakes his head at Jing, "I don't know, there is one best way to the hideout else we'll be here wandering till dark and I don't want that!"
Sia hears nothing from the other side of the door though it does appear locked from the light test she gives.
"Let's keep going. It's locked, and I'm beginning to think we shouldn't slow down." If there are no objections, she gets moving again.
"I agree. We could try to scrape the hinges so that it looks to the Hellknights like it was opened recently, but that might make too much noise."
Blackspire prepares to lead his column further down the tunnel.
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Another 40' and the group comes to a four-way intersection that has two small plank bridges allowing easy crossing of the sewer channels. One corner of the intersection has a larger area for the sewer channel with multiple pipes in the wall nearby.
The marking s on the wall indicate to head straight through the tunnel and not veer either right or left. "I say we follow the markers for now", suggests Janiven.
"I hear a noise to the right. I don't know what the noise is, but there's something there. Let's follow Janiven's suggestion and keep following the path."
"Agreed, I'm starting to get used to this smell which disturbs me to no end."
Vara agrees with Sia. "They are too close on our tail to do any exploring right now unfortunately."
There are all sorts of hiding places down here, not just for us but for the more dreaded things that walk in the darkness.
Blackspire tries to make a mental note of the location of the locked door, and of the intersection with the plank bridges.
"Agreed. Let us stick to our directions."
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The troupe continues moving on down the hall across the planks and through another 80' of sewer stretch. The tunnel ends in a T-intersection, with an old wooden tabletop serving as an improvised bridge over the sewer channel. To your left about 15' away, a small, simple door nearby blocks a brick-lined doorway.
Morosino shines his light across the far wall, "Towards the way where the door is located!"
Janiven nods, "Agreed".
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Jing has had enough...too many doors have remain unchecked. He's starting to get antsy. He makes his way up to the door and attempts to check it over.
He doesn't hear anything suspicious. "I hear nothing worrisome....a peak wouldn't hurt right?" he asks the others with a bit of an itchy sound to his voice.
"I share your curiosity, Jing."
Blackspire listens at the door.
"Go ahead. I too wonder what's behind some of these doors."
Westcrown - Rego Aerum - Treasure Sector -
Neither Jing nor Blackspire hear anything behind the door. It is locked as Jing discovers gently testing it.
"Alas, that skill is not in my repertoire. Let us move on, if none else have such talents."
Vara shrugs. "Not my forte either. Let's just keep moving."