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"We should make a joint effort when this subterranean exploration has reached its denouement."
Maxis grins. "You're on, squirt!"
Eggs ..... hmmm ... don't forget the bacon though. And the ale.
"Well, I shall be happy to take you to breakfast after this, milady." Maxis replies with slight comic bow. "Though I'm usually more of a waffle guy. Yeah I know, it's just a mechanism for eating butter and syrup, so sue me."
The group's conversation echoes back at them from the open space, slightly distorted and muffled by the water that covers much of the floor. A quick look around indicates that there are six likely paths to explore.
I recommend we approach this exploration systematically," opines Magnus. "We can initiate here, with the most proximate, and then proceed to exploration loci in a generally clockwise direction, unless we discover a more suitable alternative at least. Acceptable?"
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Are you ... attempting to date me?
Maxis blinks. ”Well… I mean— sort of?” he manages, awkwardly. ”Although, when you say it like that, it makes me feel like I’m losing my touch.”
”Let’s just say a nice breakfast when we’re done here at a sidewalk cafe I know. That’s harmless enough, right? Think of it as a professional courtesy to a fellow Pathfinder if you like.” He flashes his most charming smile.
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Bork nods solemnly at Magnus’ suggestion, as if the wizard had just recited ancient scripture.
“Clockwise? Of course! The most noble of rotation.”
He gestures a circle in the air with one greasy finger, almost religiously.
As Borks fingers turn, you see Sir Good-longshanks Armor Pants take a half step in a clockwise direction.
He turns to the others. “Also, this keeps us from splitting up while Maxis tries to impress the pirate. And I for one don’t want to fight a ghost by myself while someone else is proposing over seaweed.”
He nods once, definitive. “Clockwise it is.”
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Drokki clears his throat like he tries to bring Zenari and Max to focus on the matter at hand
"Clockwise direction sounds good to me" says the dwarf
Maxis bows his head and raises his hands in a gesture of surrender.
“Also, this keeps us from splitting up while Maxis tries to impress the pirate. And I for one don’t want to fight a ghost by myself while someone else is proposing over seaweed.”
"Hey, hey, nobody is saying the "P" word. Don't say the "P" word." counters Maxis hastily. "I'm all business. Let's go."
He glances down at Magnus. "She was already impressed." he grumbles defensively to the gnome.
The party gathers at the first path that makes itself evident and travels down a narrow set of stone stairs into another chamber.
Tall stone cylinders stand in a line in the center of this chamber. Broken pipes protrude from the ceiling above the cylinders, rusted and covered in green algae. Every few moments, one of the cylinders makes a feeble grinding sound and a dribble of water flows down from the top of the cylinder and drips to the floor.
When the system functioned, it drew water from below the foundation and pushed through the pipes into the sewers and channeled away. The earthquake destroyed the connection to the pipes, and the increased water volume soon overwhelmed the system, rendering it permanently inoperable.
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Maxis makes his way into this room and looks around.
"Ah, it's a pumping station. A busted one." he announces after a quick look around. "Those cylinders bring water up from the lower levels -- they used to be connected to those busted pipes, and the excess water would be channeled away into the sewer channels. I'm guessing that earthquake damage busted those pipes."
"Interesting for civic engineering folks. Not so much for loot-hungry monster-hunters like us. I think we can probably move on."
"A most notable hypothesis!" says Magnus by way of agreement with Maxis diagnosis of the situation. "Formidable engineering and imposing stage presence. Fascinating!"
The small wizard readies to move to the next closest investigation point.
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Bork pads forward, boots squelching on the slick stone, and tilts his head at the wheezing machinery. He steps around one of the cylinders reverently, fingertips brushing a corroded pipe.
“This was a good system. Logical design. Limited moving parts. Efficient. It moved water with purpose.”
He crouches near the base of one column and gently taps the housing with the butt of his wrench, listening to the echo.
“But it’s done now. The moving earth cracked the spine, and the pressure crushed its heart. You can’t reroute dignity.” He stands, rubbing grime between his fingers, then shakes his head with quiet finality.
“We leave it. No sense waking up these old ghosts.”
The next closest point leads to a rather precipitous and slick drop as water flows down but the party soon finds a set of stairs that lead down, nearby.
Crashing water and the occasional bit of flotsam from the sewers flows into this large, broad pool that fills the entire cavern and extends to the southwest. A small cove stretches to the north where a barnacle‑covered boat is moored. The craft is mostly filled with water, and the rope securing it to the shore is saturated and beginning to rot.
[ooc]In case it is not clear from the description, the pool continues off map to another section of caverns.
Magnus studies the boot and pools of water for a moment. "I would aver navigating on this venerable watercraft. It's visibly decrepit and only scarcely buoyant. Unless there are no other means of traversing the surrounding environs, I strongly counsel that we should just circumvent this nautical transportation." He moves on to the next clockwise exploration point.
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The athamaru's shoal-sense bristled at the party's utter incohesion.
Still, splitting up in a crocodile-infested sewer seemed like as good a survival tactic as any.
A lot of neat things had been found in the first room they entered. There had to be more. Koi has a good feel around in the dark in the pump room before moving on to catch up with the gnome.
Koi finds the sump pump room woefully lacking in loot then hurries to join the rest of the group just as they come to the conclusion that a 20 year old boat may not be the best option for navigating the sewers.
The group moves on to the last unexplored area.
The sides of this chamber are rough and uneven, dropping sharply to a large pool of water that fills the entire room. To the east and west, the masonry of the sewer walls has crumbled away.
Most of the water is 6 feet deep, but the section in the center (marked in dark blue) plunges to 15 feet. The water is calm.
Zenari takes a dip and good thing that she does as she finds a barnacle encrusted lockbox at the bottom of the deepest part of the pool.
While she's down there, a voice calls out, echoing in the sewers.
"Hey! That self-important snot bubble up there ain't the boss of us! He can't tell us where we can't go. You think you're so fancy with your acting skills? Let's see how you do with weapons!
Somehow your thespian rivals from upstairs have found their way into the sewers and are looking for a fight.
Unfortunately, they don't seem about as ready for a fight as they did for some improv.
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Bork lets out a sharp gasp as the voice echoes through the sewer.“Snot bubble?! That is His Royal Zussiness you are referring to!”
He jabs a finger into the air, not quite sure where the rival voices are coming from but gesturing with conviction nonetheless. “You dare insult the goblin king and try to upstage us in the same breath? This… this is an act of WAR!”
With a twist of a crank and a loud bzzt, he surges into overdrive once more, sparks dancing down his boots.
“Sir Goodshanks, Defend our honor!”
Bork ducks behind a barnacle-covered pipe, draws another arrow, and looses it toward the would-be hecklers.
◆
◆Command
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“Target identified. Advancing.”
He closes the distance with precise, echoing footfalls. Then he throws a heavy metal fist toward the bandit’s chest.
“In service of the Goblin Crown!”
Maxis' blow is particularly well aimed and brings his opponent down in a single slice.
Bork's arrow hits, but Sir Armor Pants is still having trouble with his targeting mechanism.
Koi's mental assault dazes the third mercenary.
Seeing how crowded the walk way is, Magnus just double moves across to the other side, and casts Shield on himself, just trying to establish line of sight on the targets for future spells.
"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the mercenary in red says, throwing down his weapon as the Pathfinders take down his leader and seriously injure him and his companion in a matter of seconds.
"Whoa!"
Yellow follows suit, putting down her weapon and raising her hands, as well.
"Let's all just take a moment here and talk things out, ok?
"We didn't know you were THAT serious, ok?"
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The athamaru does not take kindly to distractions. It's hard enough when one's attention span is notoriously brief. But rather than knock the yellow-bellied mercenary out cold, it chooses to return the favour.
"You call that a diversion?"
Koi ◇Unleashes its Psyche, ◆Strides north , ◆Fades to Daydreams , then ◆Swims sneakily towards the sinkhole, peering silently over the edge.
The mercenaries look around nervously, keeping their hands well away from the weapons they've discarded.
"What does it matter to you? When you've got a job to do, you've got to do it well. You've got to give the other fella hell," the woman in yellow says.
"We were paid to come down here and explore this place but 10 silver pieces isn't worth dying over," the man chimes in.
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"Wow. You're outnumbered two to one, but this clod offered you 10 silver and you were all like 'Yeah, I don't care that one of them has a pet dragon and one of them is a killer robot and one of them is a devilishly handsome and highly trained man-at-arms, let's get those guys!' You goons must have been pretty hard up for cash." chuckles Maxis, though he doesn't lower his bow.
"What do you think guys? I say we strip them down to their skivvies and send them back up to the goblins."
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Bork adjusts the strap on his wrench holster and steps forward, eyeing the two surrendered mercenaries.“Ten silver?” he echoes, baffled. “That’s not a contract. That’s a murder with extra steps.”
He looks between them, voice calm but firm. “You came down here without a banner, without proper preparation, and now your plan is ‘we didn’t think it would be this hard?’”
He gestures with one grease-stained hand toward the flooded ruin around them. “Places like this… they demand planning! Duty! Tools rated for moisture exposure! I, for one, am embarrassed for you”.
Then he catches himself. "Oh! We haven't tended to the wounded!", as he pulls out his "healing kit".
"Mercenaries for a mere gold?" says Magnus rolling his eyes. "Seems rather laughable, or pitiable. Have you considered perhaps merging efforts? Matriculate alongside us, and survive and be enriched sans extraordinary effort from your person, yes? The alternative appears rather dire as I perceive it. Rational minds will answer in the affirmative..."
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"Oh nothing, they just came down here to kill us for the price of a bottle of claret. But they're really sorry, and they promise they'll never do it again."
"OK, look," he says to the miscreants. "We all make bad choices. Even I've been known to make a few. Everyone deserves a second chance. So now's your chance to be sensible."
He lowers his bow and stows the arrow.
"Where are the other guys who were in your group? And how did you get down here without the goblins noticing?"
"And what exactly did you think you were coming down here to look for? Besides dysentery?"
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As the athamaru's psyche returns to its leashed state the glint in its eye dulls. It rests on the stony floor while its brain recalibrates.
"Zenari, we were attacked just outside this room by... some of those theatre mercs. I think we have it under control. So I came in here in case, uh, of something. Though now I can't remember." Was Zenari even still down there? Koi could see where those harsh goldfish stereotypes might be coming from.
Koi sighs. "I am get so, stupefaction."
"We're all that was in the group?..." the man says. "And you can't really think it was that hard to sneak past the goblins."
"Look, all we know is that we were hired by Olansa Terimor. She's a city council member and a property dealer..." the woman begins.
"And a worshipper of Norgorber!" the man chimes in with a shiver.
"Yes. And a worshipper of Norgorber. I guess she heard that a way to get down here opened up and there's rumors about long lost places down here that haven't been explored in a long time. Places where dark cults enacted ancient rituals. We needed the coin and it seemed like easy money. The worst that could happen is that we came down here and ran into something dangerous and just ran away. Who would know the difference?"
Bork knows that the three mercenaries are hurt, the one on the floor near death if not already dead but they don't seem to have any cogs or springs inside them so he's not sure how to fix them.
They're willing and eager to leave if the Pathfinders allow them.
And, if the Pathfinders turn their attention to the lockbox, they will find the lock mechanism rusted completely shut.
Inside is an old scrap of paper with the words “For the Ilnudar family matter”, 5GP and a jade cat