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With the sewer 5' deep and fast flowing, characters shorter than 6' will need to make a swim check. To make things worse, if you are swimming you are swept southwards at 20' a round, so you need to be able to swim at faster than 20' a round to make progress.
(note that without a swim speed, you swim at half your normal speed as a full round action)
The sewer is also filthy, so those getting in, apart from attracting a nasty odor will probably end up needing to make some saves vs disease...
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When Amelie climbs up out of the sewer Zootloot cringes back away from her. "Wow! You do smell bad. Just awful. Ok. So why don't you start rushing towards that rubble pile. Maybe your smell with scare away the spiders!" He laughs as best as he can while holding his nose.
"But seriously," he says. "It appears there's nowhere to go but through that. So we may as well start. Don't we have a couple of those alchemist fire flasks that we can use to burn away the vermin?"
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Though Amelie tried her best to swim around the debris, the current was just too strong for her. She clambers back up on the walkway, out of breath "Whew, that's not going to work. And, ummmm, I smell pretty bad. Any of you have that cleaning spell handy?"
Gwen stands at extreme range from Amelie, and casts prestidigitation... a lot... a lot a lot.
"So... How was the effluent?" Gwen asks holding her nose.
This takes me back to those months aboard The Throaty Mermaid, and all the seasickness. Though this is worse.
She sniffs Amelie and makes a face.
"Something tells me the smell isn't going away until we get out of here."
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Mavin grimaces at Amelie's stench, and hands her the vial of "filth fever tonic" from the earlier chamber. "Not certain, but if this is what I think it is, you might want to take a swig so you're not wretching in a few days."
Mavin looks ahead toward the impasse. "Well, looks like we're either gonna have to be crawling with bugs or crawling with refuse. Either way, we gotta gird up and move. I vote we try to clear out this rubble, bugs don't bother me quite as much as poop water does. Maybe stand back and clear first it out with some of the alchemist's fire we found back there?"
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The alchemical flames spread over the carpet of spiders, burning dozens.
Unfortunately Gwen's fears come to roost, as the collapsed roof held a pocket of sewer gas that was explosive...
Boom
As the smoke clears it is apparent that the spider swarm is no more, but the pathfinder team is battered and burned.
Status -
Marvin 8 damage (4 if ref 12 passed)
Gwendolyn
Zoot 8 damage (4 if ref 12 passed)
Dwozer
Amelie 8 damage (4 if ref 12 passed)
Lyana - 8 damage (4 if ref 12 passed)
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Realising the ceiling collapse would have prevented the old man from coming down the side passage, the pathfinders continue up the main sewer. Every few hundred feet there are more intersections.
Graffiti covers much of the walls here, most of it simple drawings. Prominent among them is a large stylized drawing of a wyvern in shiny gray paint another is a representation of a beggar’s bowl holding a coin and a key with an arrow pointing to the south. Underneath the picture of the bowl is the word “Almsman.”
The passages lead mostly to the east, with smaller branches running north and south. You also sometimes find ladders leading to access holes, and (more rarely) solid iron doors that are well locked and sealed.
Status -
Marvin 1 damage
Gwendolyn
Zoot 1 damage
Dwozer
Amelie
Lyana - 4 damage
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Ahead a faint light glimmers in the dark. Slowly it resolves into a crude lantern held by a toothless old beggar who holds a chair leg in his other hand. Beside him stands a scrawny youth, similarly armed but obviously terrified. Behind the two derelicts is an open door bearing the symbol of the beggar’s
bowl, coin, and key.
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Beyond the door, a short flight of steps leads up into what appears to be the basement crypt of a church of Abadar. Perhaps two dozen beggars huddle among sarcophagi, some sleeping, some haggling over bits of junk or scraps of food laid out on blankets.
A tall man in clean robes wearing a plain copper mask walks the room, he turns his masked face to you. "If you respect this sanctuary, I offer you what sanctuary I can. Otherwise, begone!”
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"Your offer is timely.." admits the Almsman.
"I have refused the Steel Wyverns increasing demands for tribute. They are due to come today to demand it, and I can no longer pay. I have sworn to not take up arms, so I cannot protect those within. If you would be willing to help protect them, that would be very kind."
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"Correct me if I'm wrong, good man, but I believe that the faith of Abadar forbids service without payment. Tell you what: you provide us with some information we need to resolve a little misunderstanding back on the surface, and we'll consider it payment for helping you with your Steel Wyvern debacle. Sound fair?"
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"What information is it that you require? If I can provide it without breaking confidence then I would happily give it to you."
To Gwendolyn he says. "They are led by a man called Randalan. He likely only has half a dozen of his thugs with him, but that is more than enough to cause problems. Please, make him go away and not come back."
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Mavin smirks at the Almsman. "No mercy for the sinners when you're not the one wielding the sword of justice, eh? Fair enough, sounds like this Randalan needs someone to set him straight.
"Our Venture-Captain recently picked up a strange man who calls himself the Prince of Augustana. Most of his ranting and raving was just that, but his ramblings harbored just enough truth to make us curious, including his mentioning you. What can you tell us about this self-proclaimed royalty, and more specifically of the 'portal to another world' that he claims to have emerged from?"
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While Mavin, Amelie, and Gwen are talking with the masked man Zootloot wanders around the sanctuary carefully stepping over the beggars strewn about. He's been in places like this before and he's not a little bit cautious and wary. Without drawing undue attention he searches the room for any indication of foul play or a trap.
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"Of the portal I know nothing. But if you deal with these Wyverns you have my word on telling you what I know of where the prince dwelt."
The room has three beggars suffering from some type of disease resting in it. They are feverish and the Almsman looks at them with some concern.
"They suffer from Filth Fever, and it is beyond my skills to heal them. All I can do for the moment is make them comfortable."
Looking closer at the residents, one of them has a tattoo of a shepher's crock on his right wrist and a threshing flail on his left wrist.
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"What information is it that you require? If I can provide it without breaking confidence then I would happily give it to you."
To Gwendolyn he says. "They are led by a man called Randalan. He likely only has half a dozen of his thugs with him, but that is more than enough to cause problems. Please, make him go away and not come back."
"Well, taken as a whole were about a half a dozen thugs ourselves." Gwen says proudly. "When do they usually come by?"