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Due to the halflings. concern about being unable to swim, Gared takes the opportunity to lead the group back to the room where you saw the two Thassilonian statues. Try as you might, no matter what you do the statue does not confer any further blessings on any of you.
"We have scrolls of Water Breathing!" Horven exclaims, slapping his hand to his forehead. "Ow..."
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"Yes. However, unless Fancy is incapable of carrying you & I, I don't necessarily believe those are our only option." Yamyra replies, adding, "don't do that."
"Let's head back, shall we?"
"After you, Yamyra," Horven says, a smile on his face. He didn't know whether it was concern for his well-being or admonishment, but her three words toward him seem to lighten his heart a bit.
After removing his gear and setting it aside, Horven lowers himself into the water. "I hope I don't get filth fever from this..."
"We will be fine, my friend." Ganer said with a chuckle. He waded into the water, and tried to make his way across in his armor, and with his shield.
Horven flails a bit, watching the tiefling swim across with ease. "Blast these short arms of mine!"
Fancy reaches in, retrieving the Halfling from the wet.
"Yes...thank you...very good of you to suggest that, Fancy," Horven says, a bit down at his failed swimming attempt.
"Bah, ye can do it Master Horven, ye just be needing a bit o' divine guidance." The dwarf fretted over the dripping halfling before muttering a blessing to Erastil over him and motioning for him to try again.
Horven nods and heads back into the water, swimming with more ease than last time.
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Relieved to see that Yamyra has made it safely to the other side, Carmina as well jumps into the water and starts swimming towards the other side.
Gared swam across with the halfings, supporting them expertly and guiding them across the water. For a brief moment, he was lost in an old memory of teaching his old villages youth how to swim in the watering hole...
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After drying off on the other side of the pool for a few minutes, you prepare to continue onwards. The tunnel at the far end of the room turns south and slopes downward. After a span of 100 feet, a short flight of stairs leads down to a thirty-foot-square chamber with a cistern filled with dark water taking up most of the floor. Troughs of this dark water run east, west, and south through hallways alongside five-foot-wide walkways. Soggy timbers have been draped over the gaps to provide unstable looking bridges over the troughs. An ornamental torch made of onyx burns in a sconce next to a hallway heading east, from which the distant sound of someone singing with a raspy throat wafts down the hall.
After shaking some water out of his ears, Horven looks around the quite uninviting room. He puts a finger to his lips. "A morbid song..."
"Quite." Yamyra whispers agreement, listening through Fancy's ears.
"On the one hand," she continues, "They're singing, which would seem to imply they aren't necessarily of a mind to attack..."
"On the other, they're singing in a tongue rarely uttered by those still among the living..." She shudders as she makes the distinction.
"I'm not inclined to believe in someone friendly singing like that, but you never know," Horven says.
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"Aye, let us be on our guard, and quiet as we can muster..."Spoke the dwarf, just failing to make out the sound. The dwarf advanced into the room, stalking off to the left.
Horven stealthily follows Gared.
"I would suspect that there are not many, if any, things in this place that we would find friendly." Ganer said, as he waded out of the water. He readied his weapon and shield, and moved forward, ready for whatever might come.
"You can't say the tune isn't quite catchy, though," Carmina opines and moves onwards, whistling along as she does so.
"?!.." Yamyra squeeks as she glares incredulously at Carmina.
Carmina hardly notices Yamyra's incredulous stare, (she's grown pretty accustomed to those) but stops whistling when she realizes that the rest of the group just might be trying to be stealthy.
Gared crept along towards the singing...
Fancy edges forward, cautiously slipping past the others to take the lead.
Yamyra stays well back from the others, keeping her torch aloft, but only just enough to illuminate the way ahead of her.
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You all head off towards the sound of the eerie singing, led by the eidolon heading east along the walkway which hugs the north wall. Looking over the walkway you see the water flowing slowly along the path. Strangely, while this does appear to be a sewer, you do not smell the typical stench of such environments.
As soon as you head out on the walkway you all note a light source ahead about 50 feet ahead. The light is enough to illuminate the corridor, albeit dimly. Fancy makes it about halfway towards the source of the light before all of you hear the sound of the off-key singing cut off. Proceeding further, you see the walkway you are on turn into a stone bridge supported by stone pillars which curves through this cylindrical reservoir, illuminated by an everburning torch hanging in a sconce in the southwest corner. A few feet below the bridge, dark water fills the room. The walls within a few feet of the water’s surface have been painted into a remarkable mural that depicts the skyline of Magnimar, complete with numerous ships seeming to float on the waters of the room.
The area appears unoccupied but your keen eyes spot ripples in the water close by the bridge.
As you look about you, suddenly a raspy voice echoes somewhere below the bridge at the waterline, "Well, it is nice to have visitors here, even though I know why you are here. Still, I can help you with your quest. Consider this a favor from me to you."
"And who might you be? We certainly mean you no harm if you mean us none as well." Horven says, trying to keep the situation amicable.
"As I said, I suspect there is little down here that doesn't mean us harm." Ganer whispered to Horven, not realizing what the halfling was attempting. He wondered why the voice would speak to them in that manner, claiming to offer them a favor, but speaking as though they were foes. "Why do you believe that we are here?" He said simply, wondering how the creature would react.
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The raspy voice responds immediately although you realize he has not shown himself yet. "I know you did not come here on a whim. You came here to deal with...those who make their home here on this sewer. If you want to wander around here, feel free but I should tell you of what you will run into." He pauses for a moment as if gathering his thoughts before continuing. "South of the entry room is a pretty nasty room. Not only are those bridges in there unstable, but also you have to deal with the poison gas in there! Continuing out south of here to the room with the crossing spans and those four sewer pipes you will run into a couple of nasty monster! They look like mutated eels! As if that wasn't bad enough, I know there is a big patch of green slime that is growing on the ceiling of one of the rooms west of here. You will see it in that room with a pool in it. Also I think there is a burning torch in there too."
As you digest this information, the voice adds, "I am Lockerbie Brast, by the way."
Horven keeps silent about their true goal but looks around the area for this Lockerbie.
Quickly catching up to the others, Yamyra interjects. "Who makes their homes down here?"
"For that matter, what do you mean, sewer? We came down from..." She stops herself as the full weight of his words sinks in. "Is this part of the sewers?"
The dwarf moved to the edge of the walk way and did his best to measure up the speaker. "We surely appreciate your knowledge of the area and friendly demeanor. Please forgive our caution, this place has been naught but full of danger."
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Lockerbie chuckles softly in reply to Yamyra's explanation. "Not really a part of Magnimar's sewers, but there is a passage which links up to them. As for who else is down here well..." He pauses for a moment before continuing, "I would be willing to tell you that, if you would do ME a favor."
"Not very long ago, I was a fisherman, captain of the Liza Jane. True she was but a fishing trawler, but she was MY ship." His voice grows emotional as he goes on. "Anyway, I ended up sinking her just east of the Crow several years ago. I lost something very precious to me when she went down and I want you to recover it for me. It was a broach, a gift from my wife. If you show me the broach, I will tell you about what you will encounter south of here."
As you digest this offer, he adds softly. "If you would then return it to my wife, Liza Jane, and tell her you recovered it from my shipwreck BUT also say you found no trace of me, then I will join you to deal with them. I know you will need my help."
"How is it that you made it from 'just East of the Crow' to here?" Yamyra responds. "For that matter, how are we any more likely to succeed in finding the wreck of you vessel, searching it for this broach and then returning the broach to your wife?"
"It is a bit of a tall order," Horven muses.
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"How do you think I got here?? I SWAM here!" There is an obvious note of irritation in his reply. "I found a way into the Crow itself, there is an underwater stairwell right next to the Liza Jane that leads inside the Crow. There is some sort of magical field which keeps the water from flooding the place too!"
"I believe we have seen this staircase," Ganer interjected. What this being said seemed to be on the level, still Ganer couldn't put aside the suspicion that something was amiss. He decided to press the issue. "Why do you hide yourself from us? I can't help but wonder about the honesty of one who will not show his face."
"We have " Yamyra exclaims, fiercely.
"Yes, there have been beings here that we have dealt with...
forcefully,
but only when all other options have been exhausted!"
"Don't bother defending our actions, Yamyra," Horven grunts. "He just wants his favor. Seeing that we could use the help, I say we do it. Though perhaps those of us who don't take well to water should remain behind."
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Gared stiffened at the accusation and nodded fiercely along when Yamyra spoke, then once again curtly when Horven replied. "Aye, we'll have to be earnin' each others trust then." rumbled the dwarf, speaking in a tone that was somehow both ominous and apologetic. The dwarf sighed, then pulled himself straight and addressed the waters."Do ye have any words o' advice or warnings 'bout the job?"
"I think we can manage the last bit," Horven says.
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Ganer didn't back down. He'd all but disqualified himself with the swimming requirement, so he decided that he might as well continue this. "Kill everything we've encountered? Do you identify with the devils? Or perhaps you thing we were wrong to slay the abominations we found in the water? We have not killed anything that was not a threat."