Lady Elaydren sits quietly as Demon ruminates.
"We never know why things happen, or what may come of them. I'll find your relic for you."
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"Very good. To reach the site Bonal suspected the Schema was located in, you'll need this map." she says, producing a piece of paper and handing it to Demon. "Somewhere beyond the..." she looks at her notes, "...E-213 valve cluster you'll find a sealed door. Open the seal, and the tunnel beyond will take you to the long-forgotten level far below, where the foundry resides."
"I assume that more attempts will be made to...to stop me recovering this schema."
"That is highly likely, unfortunately," Lady Elaydren replies somberly. "The Lord of Blades, the warforged prophet - he wants the schema for his own dark purposes. He is the one who sent that warforged to kill Bonal, and he may have other agents seeking the schema, as well as the one you already fought off. But who knows what lurks in the hidden places beneath the city?" She thinks for a moment. "Now that I think about it, Bonal did say that he would definitely need to bring fire on the expedition. Anyway, I urge caution, Demon."
Demon is easily able to follow the map to the lowest inhabited level of Dorasharn's tower. It is one of the more ancient spires in the city and is currently only inhabited from its middle levels up. Below that, a complex sewer system separates the inhabited levels from the lower levels that have been closed off for hundreds of years.
The tunnels and corridors at this level of the tower are narrow and dark. An occasional window slit looks out upon the crowded walls and foundations of other towers, and infrequently placed torches sputter here and there, giving off pallid pools of light and clouds of smoke. Even so, rough and dirty people crowd the narrow corridors, and the smell of sweat and sewage permeates the stale air.
One tunnel opens onto a large chamber, where a mix of goblins, humans, and shifters gather around a small pile of garbage spread across three rotting blankets. One of the goblins shouts, "No pushing! No pushing! There's always enough for everyone at the Rat's Market!"
Demon kneels down in front of the pile of detritus, "Goblin, what is your name?"
The goblin looks at you, his eyes narrowing then darting down to look at the merchandise, unpurchased in front of you. "Skakan."
He points to his wares, "I've got rare sticks of sealing wax, only partially used, for a mere sixty coppers. The goblin leans forward, almost conspiratorially. "Or maybe you could use this fine woolen blanket with just a hint of mildew?" He winks at you. "Only thirty-nine coppers. How about a skewer of boiled rat-meat? For you, just five shillings."
Demon, nonplussed, pulls out his coin pouch, "That skewer does look tasty," and he hands Skakan five silver. "Where could one find a guide to show them around while they enjoyed the skewer?"
"What is there to see that is interesting to the viewer?" Skakan replies warily.
"How about the E-213 valve cluster. I hear it's lovely this time of year."
Skakan nods, looking around. "It is, it is. A guide could take you there for 60 shillings."
Demon hands him three Crowns, and holds up an additional four for the goblin to see. "Show me."
Skakan folds up his merchandise inside the rugs. As Demon leaves, he notices a shifter who appears to be watching him and the goblin from across the chamber. As soon as he spots the shifter, it turns and fades into the crowd, disappearing.
Skakan hustles and leads Demon downwards through twisting tunnels, sewers and cavernous rooms. They climb down ladders, and once even jump across a dark gap from one tower to the next. The drop appears to plummet into a deep cavern far below. With each step-down, the odor of mold and sewage becomes stronger, and Demon can hear liquid sounds increasing in volume as he descends.
Eventually, Skakan points out a narrow passage that leads to a staircase that descends deeper into the tower. "There.
"Thank you, Skakan." Demon nods to the goblin, and hands him 5 Crowns instead of the four promised.
Skakan looks at Demon gratefully, seems to want to say something, and then turns and scampers up the stairs back the way he just came.
Demon descends the final stairs into a wider tunnel. A shallow ten-foot-wide trench, about two feet below the tunnel floor, runs down the center of the tunnel. Swiftly carrying sewer water down the tunnel towards Demon, it passes through a thick metal grate. A dozen metal iris valves, evenly spaced along the tunnel walls, open at irregular intervals to dump more putrid water into the tunnel.
Sixty feet down the tunnel, on either side of the channel of water, stand a pair of feral shifters, a male and a female. Demon recognizes the male as the shifter from the market. The shifter bristles, and his claws elongate.
The male shifter barrels down the opposite side of the trench from Demon, yelling. Three different valves in the tunnel go off in succession, one right in front of the charging shifter, just missing him, and water shoots into the trench with an enormous splash causing the water to slosh and spill onto the walkways above. He charges to the end of the row, bellowing, "I'll kill you!"
Demon ignores the male shifter, charging the female, bring a kick around leveled at her midsection.
Demon's kick whips around and the female shifter catches his leg in her arms, pivoting around Demon and switching places with him on the walkway.
Bursting past the female shifter, a warforged wielding a rapier lunges at Demon, slashing deeply into his midsection. The warforged growls deeply, "Leave."
Two more valves spurt water out as the male shifter leaps across the trench of water, landing safely on the other side. He runs towards his female counterpart, a third valve dumping water right in between them.
Rapier tries to press the attack, slicing at Demon again, but Demon Straight-arms Rapier, shoving his face back.
Demon attempts to kick the warforged in the stomach with a punishing kick, yelling in his face. "Back off!" He leaps out across the trench to the other side.
Demon slams his foot into the stomach of the warforged, knocking it prone. It slashes out from the ground as he prepares to jump across the trench. Demon knocks the rapier into the air and grabs it, before kicking the warforged in the face and leaping across the water, rapier in hand.
Demon leaps across the trench, but lacks the strength he needs to clear the distance because of the fighting with the warforged, and slams into the side of the walkway, dropping into the fast running water.
Demon hits the water with a splash and immediately drops the rapier. He is swiftly swept down the channel past the warforged and the two shifters towards the grate at the eastern end of the tunnel.
The female shifter pushes past the other shifter, moving all the way back to the east end of the tunnel. "Don't let him get away!"
The valve in front of the male shifter opens, drenching him in water and sewage. "Gaahh!!"
Another valve in front of the warforged opens, and the deluge knocks it onto its back on the platform, as a third one shoots out in between the warforged and the drenched shifter.
Heaving himself out of the water on the opposite bank, Demon stands and steps away from the opening of one of the valves of water, yelling at the shifters and warforged. "Come and get me then!"
Leaping accross the trench right at Demon, the water-logged shifters foot slips on the ledge Demon stands on, and he tumbles back into the water.
As the shifter lands on the ledge and starts to fall back into the stream, Demon kicks out towards the shifter's chest.
The shifter knocks aside Demon's kick but loses its balance, plummeting back into the water and is swept downstream.
The female shifter yells as her counterpart plummets into the water. "Mirricth!" Leaping, she clears the trench as Mirricth floats quickly past beneath her. She turns and reaches down, grabbing his outstretched arms, but is unable to pull him from the water. She holds onto him to keep him from floating further down the channel.
The warforged gets to his feet and yells at the shifters, pointing at Demon, "I paid you to get the warforged!" Leaping across the trench, he lands in the running water, and is swept towards Demon.
The valve next to the female shifter blasts open, dumping a stream of water and detritus into the stream. [b][i]Demon hurries up to her and attempts to knee her in the head as she helps the male shifter up, but misses.