Savidus looks over to Nesswen as he wipes his sword off on a piece of black cloth pulled from his belt. "Are you ready to continue?" His voice is flat, not sounding so much concerned for her health as checking on the status of a fellow soldier.
"Yay!" Prevara says in low tones, clapping her hands excitedly. She reaches out to give Nesswen a hug. "Oh you poor thing. Do you need anything?"
Not wanting to be rude, Nesswen accepts the hug from Prevara. But she's not as enthusiastic about it as Prevara seems to be. Breaking the hug she pulls out one more potion and empty's the contents.
"I'll be fine. Let's continue, and hurry. I'd rather we get out of here and not be found than get caught."
Perception check (Looking for the Sword)
Nesswen quickly finds the sword symbol pointing down a left passageway and the group is soon trundling along again. Janiven and Savidus, who had previously been running with weapons sheathed, now run with them drawn and ready for anything else that might come.
The minutes seem to crawl by as the tunnels drag on and on. A right turn is missed by Prevara but caught by Nesswen behind her, keeping the trek on track, and two other intersections lead everyone first right, then left. The last turn barely caught by Prevara as the mark is nearly wiped clean by a rivulet of water.
As everyone moves into another multiple exit intersection, Prevara looking about for the proper exit, there is a cry from Kalvek. A piercing pain shoots up his leg and as he turns around he spots the giggling goblin that must have lain hidden as the group past him just waiting to plunge his dogslicer into the rear guard.
Janiven reacts quickly to the threat, moving to Kalvek’s side to deliver a sweeping slice across the goblin’s arm that nearly severs it. The goblin drops the dogslicer in that hand and seems to realize all too late that he might have bit off more than he can chew.
(OOC: Damn, I knew I should have mentioned I was moving with my longsword drawn.)
Drawing her longsword, Nesswen spins around the backside of goblin, placing him between Kalvek and herself. Then attempts to skewer him on her longsword.
to hit; LS+Sneak
Her chain snaps out as Prevara steps into the sewer water to attack at the goblin. Hmph!
The poor goblin is crushed under the numerous blows as he tries to turn and flee. He never gets more than a step as Prevara's chain snaps around his chest, ripping off ratty clothing and flesh alike. He falls into the water which quickly turns a dark green with his blood.
Just as he falls, however, a shout can be heard from the tunnel that the group just exited from, and the chase continues.
Down tunnels, checking at intersections for the sword, each time someone manages to find it, usually either Pravara or Nesswen. And every time it seems that the pursuit has been left far behind, some sound can be heard. Or at least, some sound is thought to be heard. Echoes and falling water play weird tricks with ears straining to hear any sign of pursuit and often what one person swears is the sound of mailed feet, others cannot hear.
Other sounds also begin to be heard, or perhaps they are merely imagined as well. Sounds that echo through the blackness but do not bear the clinking of metal armor.
With the two fights down and the seemingly unending string of noises that either are or are not there, Nesswen moves through the tunnels longsword drawn. She seems to be holding her breath as they enter an intersection, and releases it as they find the arrow pointing the way. Having lost count of how many intersections, she's given up on trying to memorize the way.
Prevara sighs as they continue running through the sewers.
Savidus says nothing as the group marches on, concentrating instead on trying, as much as possible, to keep his armor from making too much noise. This, combines with having to crouch everywhere, is making for a pretty irritable looking man.
Still, he doesn't complain. He just keeps pressing on.
“I think I remember these tunnels,” Janiven whispers. “We’re getting close to our exit. But stay alert. If the Hellknights have guessed our direction they may try to drop in ahead of us.”
The idea of being close to the exit lifts everyone’s spirits, but they are almost immediately dampened as Prevara comes up to a near wall of piled refuse. The trash and filth stretches from wall to wall, and nearly as high as the ceiling. Too far to be climbed over without some effort and time spent clearing the way. The water still trickles through, but just barely and without a hole anywhere near large enough for a person to slip through.
“This… wasn’t here before,” Janiven says worriedly.
"Weeellll.. if they do decide to try and get ahead of us, they are in for a real surprise." Prevara pouts and starts tapping gently against the wall of trash. Itsa trap, itsa trap. Itsa trap, itsa trap. Her head seems to nod along with some song in her head. "So now what?"
Janiven shrugs, looking just as un-enthused as Prevara and Yuki. "I'm pretty sure this is the right way..."
Nesswen steps forward examining the wall of trash with Prevara, but doesn't touch it. Looking for anything that might give way to believe this is more than just a "dump site."
The pile of refuse truly does look like nothing more than a pile of refuse. Likely someone has just been doing some illeagal dumping since the last time Janiven was here.
OR, someone piled up some garbage to block the way and force you to stop or change course. But it certainly is just a pile of garbage.
"We need to decide what we're going to do, quickly. Standing here looking at it doesn't help us. Do we move it? Or go back and try to go around? I don't see any other options."
Seemingly unconcerned with their impending doom, Prevara starts picking at the trash. She undoes a wad of parchment and starts to read, ".. guaranteed... longest.. .. sure to please." Hmm. It gets balled up again and she tosses it over her shoulder. On her tip toes she grabs at something above her head. It turns out to be a torn sack. Again it is tossed over her shoulder. Fruit rinds, rotten vegetables, ragged doll, something like meat, shards of glass. All boring and all over her shoulder.
Savidus rolls his eyes as the thrown sack catches on a spike of his armor. Tossing it off and to the side he strides forward, gently but insistantly pushing Prevara out of the way. His large hands scoop garbage out and back, shoveling the refuse out of the way and letting those behind find something to do with it.
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As Kalvek and Savidus are pulling the trash away, Hakkar sits off to the side untill the smell hits him from a newly excavated sack that has maggots crawling out of it. He then trots over to Prevara's side to help keep watch. Meanwhile Kalvek is trying to hold down the meal Janiven just gave them as he pulls handfull after handful of refuse away.
While the boys are 'taking care of the trash', Nesswen walks over to Janiven. Talking softly so that her voice doesn't travel far down the tunnels she asks her, "How far back was the last intersection? I have a bad feeling about this, and I think we need to find a different route around."
"Oh," Prevara says as she is nudged aside. She adjusts her goggles and starts to pet Hakkar thoughtfully. Let the boys do the dirty work. Her attention idly goes down the tunnel. How hard can it be to notice a large group of clanking, angry Hellknights?
The trash moves pretty easy and, though there is plenty of it and it is pretty smelly and refuse like, there turns out to be not much of it. In only a couple minutes the trash is cleared enough to be clamored over and past. It's not cleared, but at least it's passable.
Janiven thinks for a moment on Nesswen's question but eventually shrugs. "I'm not sure, but neither am I sure that we could easily find our way back to our path after we did go around. Taking a side passage might only force us back the way we came, or any number of other directions."
Savidus take s step back as the path over the trash is large enough and brushes stray pieces of refuse off of his armor before motioning for Prevara to go first. After all, she is on point.
Prevara scrambles over the trash heap, chain in hand. "We really should tell someone about this once we get out. People should try to be more civic minded."
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Tremendously startled by Kalvek's sudden action, Yuki rams her staff straight back behind her. Once the whole sentence is said, she whispers apologies over and over again. Although it's a bit degrading to her, she allows him to pick her up only because it'd be better for the group.
Hit: 5 + 2 = 7
(OOC: I'm assuming that doesn't hit so I didn't bother putting a dmg.)
Yuki's reflexes might not necessarily connect in a way that does serious injury to the Half-orc, but it certainly sends the desired message. Really though it's something of a moot point as Kalvek has just as much trouble carrying Yuki over the trash as she had getting through it herself. After all he is much taller, and now encumbered with someone else, all while trying to climb over a pile of trash that was only cleared enough to be passable. Needless to say, Yuki's kimono gets plenty dirty, but no more dirty than anyone else's clothes.
Nesswen takes a quick moment to listen to the tunnels behind them before pressing on through the trash.
Sheathing her sword before pressing through the trash. Once on the other side she runs her fingers through her hair picking out what little she can. For the first time in several weeks since her escape to freedom, she would gladly like nothing more than a bath right about now, as well as some fresh clothes.
There is no sound of persuit to be heard by Nesswen.
Janiven and Morosino scramble after Kalvek, neither seeming very concerned at this point about keeping clean. That's a total loss regardless of effort by now.
Savidus notes Yuki's reaction with a small smile, then starts his own scramble over the heap after Nesswen. Regaining his footing, he once again brushes the most obvious pieces from his armor before drawing his longsword and taking up his place in the marching order.
When everyone is ready, the march begins again. One can only hope there are not many more of those kinds of blockades to get past. The march doesn’t go very far, however, as Prevara comes to a door of sorts blocking the way in front of her. A quick glance to Janiven shows her nodding with a small smile. Seems she remembers the door well enough.
Whew! A small, little happy dance has Prevara bouncing as she sees the door. She reaches out to open it with her right hand, the chain in her left ready to strike. Just.. in ... case..
And it opens to reveal……
Another tunnel! Hey, no one ever said that this was the exit did they? This tunnel runs left to right across the door and Prevara clearly makes out the sign telling her to turn right.
"I think we should go right..." She says pointing right. Strong and confident, that's Prevara. Just as she steps out into the tunnel her stomach starts to growl. Her shoulders slump. "Think we'll get out soon?"
"Well if we don't, we can always eat what passes for rats in this place," Savidus grumbles, kicking a torble down the tunnel as he shoulders his way through the door.
As everyone moves through the doorway and turns right into the hall beyond they soon find themselves at another crossroads, this one a branch off to the right. A quick survey of the intersection reveals the arrow pointing to the right but just as Prevara is heading off that direction, she hears a shuffling sound coming down that hall. Like something being dragged along the stone floor. Peering into the dark she can just make out two forms of people walking towards her.
Prevara motions for everyone to move back and stay low. Quickly she points to her eyes and then down the tunnel, lifting two fingers to indicate how many she sees. We're never going to eat.
Savidsu stops immediatly where he is as Prevara issues her warning. He is well aware of the noise he makes and is perfectly willing to give up some position to ensure the party makes no more noise than they already have.