Iustino leads the way out of the chamber, leaving the snake corpse behind. Sorrya-Ik follows closely, unlit sunrod clenched in her fist. The damp earth of the tunnel quickly gives way to old stone and Isuntio can feel it under his boots. They have left the handmade tunnel and are now well into the old foundations of the Rahmy. Stains mark the walls from old floods and a few tracks are visible on the floor, showing that humans have passed this way.
The passage is short, and the light ahead grows stronger. A sickly green, arcane light. In only a few moments they are on the edge of another oblong chamber, this one built out of stone and very old, probably a great storeroom for the old fort. But unlike the snake chamber behind them, this room is quite obviously still being used.
The walls are lined with wooden racks, almost like bookshelves but much deeper and tighter packed. Each is covered with a thin layer of soil, wood shavings from which bright yellow mushrooms grow, a colorful blanket for each wooden shelf. Boxes and barrels sit in a corner, piles of wood shavings and animal manure. A few dirty tables and chairs fill out of the furniture of the large room, which si lit by a number of simple arcane lamps which are casting the light.
Sorrya-Ik walks over to one of the trays and then sniffs. With a knowing grimace she says, "Yellowcap. Drugs. Now it is starting to make sense." She looks around, eyes widening, "There is hundreds, maybe thousands of gold coins worth here. This is not a minor find..."
"It's some trivial comfort that he wasn't lying about this not having to do with the Laws of Man." Iustino joked. He then sat down to consider his options. He decided to think aloud in case his companion had something to add.
"So it's a drug operation. We can just blow the materials, ruin their stash. We can apprehend the louts, too. It's just a matter of if we want to try finish clearing this place, first. If it's still in use, there might be more hazards yet." Iustino thought.
"I could lay a trap behind us, try to keep the louts from coming back for their materials, but that would probably take longer than it's worth. You said this is a significant find, important enough to defer our current job a day?" Iustino asked Sorraya-Ik.
Iustino gazes around at the racks of mushrooms, thinking of what he knew about the bright yellow fungi.
Yellowcap mushrooms are grown throughout the Inner Sea and usually have a mild hallucinogenic effect when eaten, although more potent strains exist. Yellowcap mushrooms after found in muddy environments, such as the Mushfens, or in sewers making them somewhat unusual in Azir.
The amount here is very sizable though, implying this is not a casual drug ring but an operation with ties to the professional Azir underworld. Whoever is running this has invested considerable sums of money and time, and may not be easily shoved aside. Worse, they are probably well connected. Even in a rather law abiding city like Azir, bribery is not unheard of.
When the engineer jokes about the First Law Sorraya-Ik gives the teiling a withering glare, "That is not trivial I was half expecting us to find a hidden shrine or temple here, which is much worse then mere drugs. "
Then the woman shrugs, the movement looking painful as he torn muscles flex, "Perhaps? Or maybe it is part and parcel of our job? I doubt you are really shocked we found law breaking in Old Harbor, unless you are more naive then I think."
"It's not that I didn't expect crime, it's more a question of if we want to bother catching the criminals and/or destroying the supply. This operation might leave with much less... turbulence, if we move on and give them the opportunity to leave before the Pure Legion moves in. Making a whole show of it might make any not involved with drugs, if any, more recalcitrant as well." Iustino weighed the choices aloud.
He silently thought about if there was a good way to leverage the materials. "For now, if they just run away with their materials without any prompting, we'll call it a win. Otherwise, let's try to clear out the rest of the basement, and maybe we'll find something else of note down here," the tiefling suggests.
Sorraya-Ik makes a face when Iustino mentions the Pure Legion, "This isn't our jurisdiction. What do we care about drugs? That is a matter for the Tekritanin, assuming they haven't been bribed to ignore it." The woman's dismissive tone makes it quite clear what thinks of the civil law enforcement arm of the city.
The woman peers at one of the other doors leading into the shaded depths of the vaults, that run like an unseen maze into blackness. "Think we will find more snakes?"
"The first one guarding the materials make sense. There might be some kind of sentry on the other end, if other creatures have made a home down here." Iustino responds. He's surprised by how entirely nonplussed Sorraya-Ik is by the drugs, though it does help him make a decision a bit easier.
Iustino walks toward a well-used door. "This goes upward. Might as well clear this before we move back into the bowels. Good to know all the entrances and exits."
Sorrya-Ik nods, peering up the stairs. They are stone, and look to be from the original building of the fort much repaired (poorly, Iustino mentally notes). Drug lords make poor builders, apparently.
"Which of us shall lead the way?" The Pure Legionnaire says, doing her best to ignore her wounds.
There is a sudden sound from the stairway, which makes both of them look. A bright torch suddenly appears and three men are standing there. In the rear is Benin, the portly apron-clad man who led them to the snake chamber, looking afraid and anxious. In front of him is a short squat man with a shaved head and a heavy mace in one hand.
At the head of the small group, and obviously the leader is a tall man carrying the blazing torch. He is wearing the loose burnoose of the desert tribes, gathered around his waist in a beaded belt. His face though is not the weathered tan of the natives but the rough, heavy features of a urban native, handsome but hard. A sword hangs at his belt, the pommel housing a tiny speck of red ruby.
"I suppose I should thank you for not destroying my goods?" he says mildly, voice unlettered but clear. Then he frowns, "I am going to guess Benin's poorly thought out plan of feeding you to Gorja has failed?"
He frowns, and squints down at Isuntio and Sorrya-Ik, "So, it appears we may have a problem?"
"Like I told your stupid man there," Iustino says, pointing at Benin. "This is about the war against the Laws of Man. Some recreational drugs are not the concerns of the Pure Legion, nor myself as an engineer. Now, I must admit, I rather do not enjoy the attempt to feed me to the snake, but if you choose to abandon this place, you can take your belongings. If you try force, at the very least, you won't get to keep your product." Iustino points to the blasts all over the snake, holding a bomb in hand. "So, how about you not make the same mistake your friend made and just take your damn product and get out of here? Because even if you attack us, the Pure Legion won't lose interest in this place, they'll just send more people to secure it, and I suspect they'll be none too happy you've harmed us." Iustino has an edge in his voice, clearly exasperated to be explaining this even more.
"Right now, I don't have a problem, but you can let me know if you think we have one."
The robed man gives a sincere if predatory grin at Iustino's words. He takes a step down, moving the torch aside. "Well, right down to business?" he glances backwards and says, "Benin, you didn't say they would be so accommodating, you led me to believe we had troublesome government agents here, not people willing to make deals."
Still with a grin he steps down into the mushroom chamber and dunks the torch into a bucket of sand by the door, whose charred ashes show it is often used for this. The flames die out, leaving the chamber lit by the dim overhead arcane lamps. Benin and the scarred man stay on the stairs.
The man in the burnoose sighs and looks long and hard at Isutino before saying, "A fair deal you offer, no doubt, even more so for having a White at your back. What do you say of this deal, Legionnaire?"
Sorraya-Ik gives the man a dismissive glance and says, "He does not speak for me, I might report you if I feel like it." She lets that threat hang just long enough for Iustino to get worried before adding, "But probably not, my business is this fortress and the First Law."
The man nods politely and turns back to the engineer, "As I said, a fair deal but I can think of others. Some involve you walking away with a bag of coin and a report saying no one ever need come here again. Other do not involve you walking away." His tone is light, one making casual conversation over coffee around the morning campfire.
Iustino had done his share of working around people who were dragging their feet about his work, but the nature of them so pushing their luck with him and Sorraya-Ik turning a blind eye just got under his skin. He had half a mind to take their coin and submit his actual results, but that would require Sorraya-Ik to play along, something he imagined her rather incapable of. This all lead him back to his original plan.
"Is that worth really pressing your luck? I'm a chemist myself, I have some idea of what all this inventory is worth. I can destroy well before you'd kill or capture us. This location can't be worth your inventory. Perhaps it wasn't clear, by me saying chemist, but my specialty is munitions and demolitions. You can see that from looking at Gorja, there." Iustino motioned to the snake once more, "We're interested in defending this city for the coming war, and this fort seems like it will be a valuable strategic resource. Now, the Legionnaire has offered to overlook this transgression if you get out, how much more generous an outcome could you possibly look for?"
The man frowns, then shrugs, "Fair enough, I suppose threats usually come after the offer." he gives a glance to the man with the mace, who steps down to the bottom of the stairs, but no further.
"The location is actually worth a great deal, yellowcap mushrooms require a great deal of moisture and while Azir is blessed with many things, water is not one of them. Except for the sewers and water mains under the city."
The man rubs his chin and looks pensive, seemingly unconcerned about Iustino's threats to destroy the hundreds of gold coins worth of drugs in the room.
"I would advise you against anything rash, I am not a small time thug to be threatened and then ignored. Both of you would face serious repercussions if I wished it, war or not." The man offers mildly, eyeing the bomb in the tielfing's hands. "I doubt either of you want the udnerworld as your foe."
Sorray-Ik laughs and cocks an eyebrow, "Because right now I am a friend?"
The man smiles and says, "True, but there are ways of making such enmity...personal."
He waves to a ramshackle table, much stained and cracked. "Shall we sit and work out a deal more favorable to our interests?"
"We may not even need the fort. The fact that it might be important is one thing, but as I was telling small-time over there," Iustino motions to Benin, "I am here to survey. We may not even need the thing. Rather than go through all the pageantry and arguing that will inevitably come from what you're proposing, you let me finish what I came here to do, and we can deal in facts, not suppositions?" Iustino said, this day increasingly wearing on his more academic and creative nature.
The man takes this in silently and says, "Fair enough. You wish to explore? Then explore. Indeed, as a token of good faith I'lls end my man along with you. Habib?"
The man with the mace leaves the stairs and enters the mushroom chamber, face an unreadable mask. He glances at Iustino and inclines his head slightly.
The robed leader adds, "Habib is most capable and can go with you in case you encounter other dangers. I can see both of you are wounded, but that is what happens when one enters the abode of an emperor cobra."
He points at the tunnels leading into the back, "Those lead into the old vaults, which I have barely explored. The one on the left is full of our trash, just as a warning." He sits down in a chair and adds, 'I will be here when you get back."
[b]"Fine, but he keeps his distance. I've made it clear the city will send more forces if we don't make it back, but perhaps that's the kind of bet you're willing to make. I'm sure you'll understand the precaution."[b] Iustino replies. He wonders if the man thinks him an idiot. His monstrous appearance has made people underestimate him before, it wouldn't be the first time.
The robed man smirks when Iustino 'warns' him about reinforcements in case of his untimely demise. Clearly he seems unconcerned with any such danger.
Iustino begins to survey what remains of the new ruins, heading into the remaining dark corridor.