You continue eastwards down the sewer for perhaps an hour before daylight appears above you. Peering upwards, sunshine pours through ceiling and you can hear the sound of voices. There are many of them and the tongue is recognisable as a from of giant.
Greeg pauses and indicates for the others to stop so he can try to hear what is being said.
Edit - That should be 24 sorry. Went from memory on the skill and turns out I only have 14 not 16.
Kevaras halts and peers upwards, cautiously, as he waits in the shadows.
Greeg listens and hears the normal sounds of a market.
"What is that infernal language? Giant? Didn't expect to find myself in this sort of spot..." He whispers, "Best keep eyes peeled for any unexpected sewer donations then."
The main artery of the sewer system ends here. There are other branches, but they much smaller. Against all likelyhood, you seem to have reached an inhabited area.
"A market? Here? Interesting. Who lives here, and what do they trade?" Cronin muses, not really expecting an answer. "And yes, Don, Giant."
"Done my best to avoid giants so far, heh....but you guys think this is related to the tainted water supply? Sure, we had to take on a few of them sand giants yesterday but I don't see anything so far that connects em to that. Maybe best to go back and head to the west end of the system."
"Perhaps, but this may bear investigating at some point. But I agree, lets fully explore this under area before we put ourselves in a revealment that we can't take back."
Heading westwards, you return to your staring point and set out again. As before, the sewer system provides an undercity grid. As you journey on however, small patches of algae appear and the walls seep small amounts of water.
An hour into your journey, and the sewer starts to look battered, cracks showing in the ancient walls. There appears to be no immediate danger. These fractures were made centuries ago. At length, greenish light shows ahead.
"Signs of water finally." Don comments, relieved a bit. "Hmmm, Betting the light is from some sort of phosphorus mold...Still..." He looks over to Nayce, motioning down the tunnel.
Stealth to investigate light closer, one knife drawn.
Creeping foward, Don finds that the sewer has twisted and collapsed downwards. Peering ahead, he sees a mass of strange plants. Deprived of the sun, they grow pale and translucent, the green of the algae reflecting off them. A little further down, the tunnel ends abruptly. Plants crown into the bottom of the sewer.
"Nothing here, it just ends. Unless these plants are special..."
"Could this be where they are poisoning the water supply? These could feed into the water supply beyond."
"Could be, but this stuff's been unchanged for a while now." He calls back to the others, "Any you guys know about moss?"
"Actually, I've made a particular study of algae . . ."
Cronin studies the mosses and realises that Don may be mislead when he says the tunnel leads nowhere. The plants are certainly unusual, but the cleric judges from their size and luxuriance that there must be space beyond them. The plants themselves are harmless, for all their eerie glow.
"Is the water safe. If it is, then it's possible the problem doesn't come from here."
The water here is untainted by the blight afflicting the outside world.
Ooc -Are these the plants we found at the towns well? I'm sure there was mention of a plant like this previously.
"Seems we either risk a run in with the sand giants or dig this place up. I don't like destroying something so unique, so if we're digging this corridor up, let's try not to kill the plants eh?"
The stance was a little unexpected from such a large and brutish man, but Greeg had a soft spot for subterranean environs and the unique creatures that lived there. It was in his nature to protect them when he could.
"Dig through it? I didn't exactly bring a shovel, but I guess the pick in my climb kit could help..." Don steps forward to do exactly that, with the goal also of not collapsing the tunnel.
Dungeoneering
The plants looks quite passable. Beyond them, you can just see a gleam of a slightly different kind of light. Possibly even filtered daylight.
Don continues forward to investigate.
Stealth
Inching forward, Don creeps to past the plant life and finds himself teetering on the edge of a cliff. Above and below is an astonishing terraced garden. Only the smallest glimmers of daylight can make their way down, but leaving the atmosphere pleasantly cool and damp.
Some 100 feet above his head, he sees inverted towers, hanging like stalactites from the roof.
He motions for the others to come forward. "Haven't seen anything like this before..."
Despite the absence of full daylight, the plants give off a phosphorescent glow which is quite soothing to the eyes.
The terraces are narrow, but quite climbable, with routes leading from one to the other.
Kevaras uses his botanical skills to gather seeds from these unique plants for safe keeping and propagation back home.
Near the edge of the cliff, the paladin stares in awe at the subterranean garden and the curious inverted towers, that remind him of when he was younger.
At this distance it is hard to tell, but there seem to be slightly brighter lights in the inverted towers.
The place does indeed remind Kevaras of his Underdark birthplace, although there are fewer immediately obvious death traps.
"Something tells me, we got fliers up there...and if they're hostile, well these terraces are as good a spot as any to pull an ambush. Still, we're here to investigate so might as well get moving."
Ready to go up to explore the area.
Kevaras positions himself so that the rogue is protected on both sides by warden and paladin, as the three of them head down the terraces.
Kevaras turns abruptly on his heel and begins to unpack his climber's kit.
"Don't leave home without it."
Don instinctively flinches as the paladin spins about towards him. He starts to protest for a moment, then suddenly becomes very interested in the atmosphere.
Greeg had some rope when they first came along, but he'd left it back at the entrance to this place when everyone was having troubles climbing down. At least they could use it to climb out again when this was all over.
He looked up wih interest at the terraced walls and then watched as his friends began to unpack their climbing gear, scratching his chin with interest.
"Um, will we really be needing such equipment when these terraces are clearly for farming. I'm sure there's a place where we could easily just walk up, or maybe even just boost each other up to each ledge as we go."
edit - well i nailed the climb at least.
Greeg sees that the terraces can be climbed easily enough (Athletics DC15/DC10 with climbing kit, moving at half speed). Although they are clearly well tended, it does seem as if they were designed for winged creatures. The vines themselves seem harmless and offer good handholds. Towards the towers, the vines grow thickly enough to make it a simple matter to travel through them. Even so, progress will be slow.
After giving the matter some thought, the goliath spots a likely upward path. It will take perhaps half an hour to reach the bottom of the tower. (i.e. the lowest bit).