"I can attempt to burn a path through. But if we lost the Dottari, it might give them an idea where to go." Sobbok says as he looks over his new companions at the jellies.
"Or, we could walk thru the sewage. I don't like the idea of stepping on unknown creatures, no idea how they might react to that."
Sanchia spends the time it takes for the others to catch up staring at the jelly things and trying to figure out what to make of them.
"Does anyone have any idea what they are?"
Eoin takes the wayfinder out of his backpack as the group is discussing their options. He has been in Westcrown for a few months...he tries to imagine where Rego Sacero is and which path would take them the closest to it.
Sanchia spends the time it takes for the others to catch up staring at the jelly things and trying to figure out what to make of them.
"Does anyone have any idea what they are?"
Eoin takes the wayfinder out of his backpack as the group is discussing their options. He has been in Westcrown for a few months...he tries to imagine where Rego Sacero is and which path would take them the closest to it.
[dice=Survival]1d6 + 2
[dice=Wild]1d6
You are able to identify the jelly creatures as Torbles, also known as ooze bugs. They are an unnatural breed of carnivorous, sewer dwelling insect. You remember hearing they were created by a wizard tasked with controlling the rising rat population in the city sewers.
"I vote to go to the left, since that way leads up.", he says to the group.
"Oh! These must be torbles. I've heard of them. They are meat eaters so maybe we should walk through the water and leave them. It might slow the dottari down."
Sanchia sounds a little doubtful about the idea, but also urgent, they do need to keep moving.
Sobok shrugs and says,"After you then." as he motions to the sludge and then will follows the group through the morass as they continue to flee the Dottari.
The trench in the middle of the tunnel is 3ft deep and filled with loathsome, burbling sludge. The "current" is flowing against you, but is not strong enough to prove much of a deterrent, if you really want to go splashing around in it.
Sobok sighs and hopes his paycheck comes soon as he plops into the muck and moves forward.
Sobok wades safely through the swarm of quivering torbles. Those closest to the edges of the trench extend long, stalk-like antenna curiously, probing the air as the lizardman passes. Several of the ooze bugs change colour, their gelatinous bodies wavering from blue to orange, then back to blue as Sobok moves on. Once he is passed the swarm, Sobok is able to climb back onto the walkway. Up ahead, he can make out the bottom rungs of a metal ladder, leading up to what is most likely a heavy manhole cover to the city streets.
Behind you, you can hear that the Dottari have reached the junction and are splitting up to search the tunnels for you.
Janiven follows Sobok into the filthy water.
"S~@#, this is... s@+#. Literally, s++&." she retches.
Until now, you hadn't noticed that in addition to the torbles blanketing the floor of the tunnel, there are also a few crawling along the ceiling. Suddenly, one of the inverted ooze bugs drops onto Janiven's head. The poor woman is already having a bad day, and this proves to be the final straw. Janiven shrieks and bats the torble away. It hits the tunnel wall and bursts, leaving a smear of flourescent ichor along the stonework. The rest of the swarm begins to tremble angrily, their bodies changing from blue to a deep, baleful red.
Round 1 Initiative: Torbles > Players > Dottari > Janiven
Pulsing with angry red light, the ooze bugs swarm across the walls and floor of the sewer tunnel. The swarm ignores Sobok and Janiven, as they are difficult to reach whilst wading through the trench, but Sanchia, Eoin and MWG are within range. The torbles secrete an acidic slime on contact that burns skin.
9 vs TN
12 vs TN
12 vs TN
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= 10
Seeing that Sobok and Janiven are not being attacked, MWG jumps into the sewage water :
= 8
And keeps her bile down.
She says to Sanchia and Eoin "Get in the water! They seem to not like it!"
Seeing the slimes avoiding the water, Sobok gives up waiting in the back and slogs forward through the muck to get past the swarm and make room for the others.
Vigor total = 11
Eoin rushes past the ooze bugs and stops just in time to avoid banging his head into the ladder.
He turns around and raises his right hand, pointing to the nearest bug. A translucent blue arrow shape that looks like a small comet shoots at the bug.
Eoin's bolt strikes the swarm, causing several ooze bugs to burst, but not inflicting any noticeable harm on the swarm as a whole.
The Dottari appear behind the group, having run to catch up .
"They're getting away!" the guards shout (somewhat breathlessly), "Open fire!"
You all duck instinctively as crossbolts whizz down the tunnel, clattering off walls and splashing down into filthy sewer water. Miraculously, none of you are hit.
Janiven wades through the sewage to keep up with the rest of the group.
Round 2 Initiative: PCs > Torbles > Janiven > Dottari
Sobbok climbs out to make room for others to come forwad.
Claws ringing against metal rungs, Sobok ascends the ladder and emerges through a drain in the Rego Sacero. The sun is setting over Westcrown, framing the crystal dome atop the Qatada Nessudidia (the enormous, four-storey temple to Asmodeus) with golden fire. Nearby, the Arodennama (90ft tall marble statue of Aroden) gazes sadly over a city that has seen only decline since his own untimely death.
It will be full dark in less than an hour, and that is when the shadow beasts come out to play.
A procession of red-robed clerics of Asmodeus shuffle passed, chanting in the infernal language of the nine hells. They don't notice Sobok's scaly head peeking out of the manhole. The street is otherwise empty.
Eoin climbs up the ladder and stands next to Sobbok. He sniffs his cloak and says, "I hope that smell doesn't linger."
MWG runs in order to get farther away from the guards and to the ladder quicker :
If she reaches the ladder with time to spare, she'll start climbing.
Sobok wrinkles his nose and says, "I think we will stink until we get some new clothes and scurb our scales till they shine."
Sanchia just goes for it, running through the central canal like she hopes she can walk on water. She grabs onto the ladder and climbs.
Janiven scrambles out of the sewer channel and follows Sanchia up the ladder, the point of her rapier scraping against the sides of the narrow shaft. Sanchia would hear the other woman whimpering quietly as she climbs.
In the sewer tunnel, the enraged torbles turn on the Dottari. You hear cries of alarm and orders to retreat echoing from below, as the guards pull back the way they came, pursued by the swarming ooze bugs.
Janiven collapses as she exits the drain, crying out in pain. You all see she is clutching her side, where the shaft of a crossbolt protrudes from her soiled leather jerkin. Blood covers her hands, as she morbidly probes the gristly injury.
"Bastards got me," she grunts, looking up at you all, "Is it as bad as it looks? Cos' it looks pretty f%%+ing bad. Don't suppose anyone thought to grab some wine from back there?"
Sanchia take a quick look at Janiven's wound but doesn't touch it yet.
"I have a kit and can fix it up. But we should move somewhere less noticeable first."
Sobok looks at her with concern and says, "Let me tend to that."
Sobok speaks in an ancient tongue and reaches out to touch Janiven's wound.
Janiven can't help but cry out, as the crossbolt is pushed the rest of the way through her abdomen, so it can be removed from the other side. Blood immediately begins oozing from the wound, until Sobok repairs the damaged flesh with a wave of his scaly paw. Janiven's eyes widen in awe, as agonising pain is reduced to a dull, niggling ache.
"Well I'll be thrice-damned.... " she mutters, awed by Sobok's display of power, "Not just a pretty face. Guess I might make it, after all. Thankyou."
Even after being healed, Janiven is still in a some discomfort and will struggle to walk without someone to support her.
"The safe house isn't far. We can make it before nightfall, if we hurry. Arael will be waiting for us. He's going to want to meet you all."
Janiven directs you to an abandoned and boarded up building in the Rego Sacero. The winged eye of Aroden stares down at you from above the sealed entrance, marking this as a shrine to the dead god. Anti-Thrune graffiti covers the walls of the derelict temple.
Janiven leads you down an alley running parallel to the building and directs you to move aside a stack of crates, revealing a crawl-space through the outer wall.
Inside the temple, you feel a strange sense of peace settle over you like a warm blanket. The sounds from the redt of the city are oddly muted, despite the shattered stone dome above your heads. Twelve statues (in various states of neglect) stand vigil over the crumbling altar, each depicting one of the dozen guises Aroden was known to assume during his life;
"Don't worry about that," Janiven says, glancing up at the yawning hole in tbe ceiling, "For some reason, the shadow beasts can't enter the shrine. Arael performed a ritual to keep them out.
Sobok slips through the crawl space and looks around at the area. He then looks at Janiven and says, "What can you tell us about this Arael?"
"Arael is the leader of the Children of Westcrown. He's a half-elf and a cleric of Iomadae. His family have always lived in Cheliax and he has seen first hand how the tyranny of House Thrune has crushed the spirits of our people. He's just an all-round great guy!"
A half-dozen tired and dishevelled looking rebels are scattered around the temple when you first entered. A scrawny/spotty young man in his late teens gawps at you all, as you follow Janiven inside.
"Morosino!" Janiven calls, gesturing to the slack-jawed youth, "These are the new recruits! We had an unexpected brush with the Dottari, but lost those flatfooted devil-f$@+ers down in the sewers. Where is Arael? He's going to want to meet everyone."
"J-J-Janiven?" the boy stutters, staring at her in shock. His gaze drifts down to her wounded side, then back up to her face as he blurts out, "Arael has been taken!"
"Anywhere I can leave my boots?"
Sanchia takes them off, opting for less stinky wetness over a little extra protection. She'll just step carefully.
One of the other rebels wrinkles his nose at the stench wafting from your sodden boots and gestures toward a small fire burning beneath the broken dome.
"First thing we *must* do is wash our clothes - any place around here we can do that? Then later, we'll probably all need to buy new clothes because I doubt even washing will get all of the stink out - any place we can do that?
What can you tell us about Arael's capture? Who did it? Do you know where she's being held?"
The rebels arrange to have your dirty clothes washed and provide you with alternative attire to wear in the meantime.
"Arael and I went to meet a man called J-J-Jarvis Alebrecht, at a warehouse in the Rego Pena. He said he could hook us up with weapons and armour, for a p-p-price." Morosino says, "Only we was j-j-jumped by the Dottari the moment we arrived. B-B-Bastard Jarvis must have sold us out!"
"That idiot!" Janiven curses, "I told him not to get mixed up with the Council of Thieves!"
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Sobok looked at the strange human pants before putting them on and tightening a rope around the middle to keep it up. The humans strange shape seemed to be able to keep the pants up over their nethers, but the lizardman lacked that same shape. Their legs were also strangely formed which meant the pants bunched up around his knees under his armor uncomfortably, but at least he wasn't wearing someone else's excrement any more.
"Let us see what we can find!" He says to the others as he heads out to network.
Sanchia unhappily puts on the robe-like smock thing brought to her. But she sees a chance to bargain for better.
"I can go out and ask around after him tomorrow when it's safe" she tells Janiven. "I know some people who know some people. But I'll need to look good. Is there anything fancier I can borrow? If I show up like this I won't be able to get my questions in through the laughter..."
Eoin is thankful to get new clothes. He doesn't care what they look like, just as long as the don't smell like his old ones.
"What is this Council of Thieves you mentioned?", he asks Janiven.
"What is this Council of Thieves you mentioned?", he asks Janiven.
Janiven explains to Eoin that the Council of Thieves is a shadowy syndicate of rogues and neer-do-wells, with their grubby fingers in all manner of nefarious pies. If you want to buy/sell stolen goods, have someone beaten/killed or set on fire, the Council of Thieves gets a cut. Council agents riddle the Westcrown underworld like a virulent and aggressive cancer, but their contacts and resources have occasionally proved useful to the Children of Westcrown in the past.
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