Just so she can be taken again 23JAN21
27
JAN/21
The Front Door:
They stood at the lower door preparing to enter it. They all stared at it looking for the right moment to enter. Yetto stepped up to it as if he was going to open it, “This is a bad idea.” The entire group stood in front of the door. Yetto shifted around, “we should try the front door first. I will take this lord Niki, and we will walk in the front door.” Niki nodded. Arnia cleared her throat, “I will go with you and back up My Lord.” Niki grimmest his agreement. They all moved up to the surface.
Pakku’s Raider’s split into two groups. Inex and Wink hid near the door. They planned to wait here until trouble started. The whole group somehow knew that trouble was coming. It was just a matter of when and where. The five rarely have a day where trouble does not befall the good in this world. Yetto, Niki, and Arnia strolled up to the front door. Niki felt honored to be in the middle of the two most beautiful people. Arnia was gorgeous with an innocence that permeated throughout every bit of her face and smile. Next to Yetto though she was a pale and homely girl. He was likely the most attractive person on all the realms of Tiamat. He walked with a glow. Niki swore his could see him even in the pitch of the sewers.
Niki wanting to be on Yetto’s good side knocked on the door. Two things should have made them nervous, but when in Yetto’s glow no one worries. The time it took for the door to be answered was a little long. The main royal houses often have someone standing next to the door at all times. The door was opened with out question. The city is in chaos and they just open the door. A red flag should have been tossed on the field, but they just went into the entry room.
A construct was waiting for them. It spoke but in an unnatural voice, “Can I help you?” It was asking if it could help them but more red flags should have been going up. It was not in the colors of house Cliffster. These great houses would make sure its constructs matched their heraldic colors. It did ask if it could help but do to the unnatural voice no one could hear that it did not really care. It was sent here to evaluate the threat. They should have likely just left but Yetto started to explain that they were sent here to look for Princess Shadalah. It did not really worry much about it and moved off to find the owner of the house. Another flag never seen; it did not even care who we were. It left without asking. Niki even pulled the shackle pin out of his pocket as it was never needed.
They waited in the entry room. The place was quiet. No one was around. No guards, no servants, no one. Something was off. Niki started to worry that someone had taken over the house. A thought poured into his head, “maybe princess Shadalah had taken over the house.” He moved about the entry room to looked into over the rooms. Still no one. The three of them looked at each other. Time was clicking by. The wait was becoming intense. Yetto face turned pale, “what if they move her out through the sewer?”
The three of them looked at each other. They all knew as all the red flags rained down around them. They took off running out into the street. Niki gave some secret signs to Wink. They had worked on these for weeks. He hoped he could tell her to charge down to the sewer door. Maybe Wink and Inex could get there in time. Yetto started to look out into the street. He whispered mostly to Niki, “what are we waiting for, we need to charge.” Niki moved his arm gently across Yetto’s chest to slow him a little. Without looking at him whispered back, “Wink and Inex are heading there. We need to act a little nonchalant. That does seem to be a skill, you are missing.” They both laughed a little. Arnia looked at them in a new strange way as the three of them headed to the sewer, “okay boys, let’s go.”
The Families in the Sewer:
They dropped into the sewer. Yetto looked to the right, “which way lord of the sewers.” Niki had no idea. He looked to the left and to the right. He should know. They had just been in this section minutes ago. There had been a little chaos since then, but he should know. He was at a loss. Arnia was the last down into the sewer, “I like lord of the sewers. Which way lord sewage?” Niki hoped the gab would have brought the direction to his mind, but nope. His mind panicked. He thought, “pitty patter, .. let’s get at er.” Without giving a word, Niki headed off to the left. He went down the tunnel and turned right. He was moving. Even as he had no idea which way to go, he thought if he moved fast, he would run into areas he recognized. He moved right, then left. He heard a little something up ahead.
Niki rushed into a small chamber. Two families cowered in one corner of the room. They were all eating something. It turned Niki’s stomach a little, but it looked like barely cooked sewer lizard. As Yetto started to talk to them, Niki pulled two ceramics out of his pouch. Yetto talked to them. They came down here a few days ago and have been hiding ever since. They were really hungry. They told Yetto that people have been moving around a lot down here. So many that it was not possible to know where they come from.
Niki tossed the coins over to them.
Niki: “do you know where they the market corner is between house Gardiward and Whitehal?”
The Family man: “yeah, the one near the magic shop.”
Niki looking at his friends: “yep, that is the one. … there is a cart that we moved to partially block a street. If you go there, we have friends that are watching it. They will take you someplace safe.”
The Family man: “I think… I guess… are you sure?”
Niki: “we can’t take you now or we would. I know it will be hard, but if you can get there…there is safety.”
Niki started heading back out of the chamber, “this way gang.”
Behind the Puzzle Door:
They headed back into the Sewers proper. Niki knew he would need to explain later why he went the wrong way. He was going through all of his old young noble excuses. He could tell them he heard the two families and that is why he did it. Yes, that was the best excuse. He would claim the good deed was why he went that way. Saving people was now his quest. With the cycles of the moon, saving people from doom was what Selune would want him to do.
Niki turned a corner and stopped. He quickly and silently moved his lit coin to his pocket. Arnia came up to his location, “what is it.” Niki pointed down the hall in complete darkness, “I think there are some guards down that way.” Niki looked over to Arnia. He could not see her in the darkness. He palmed the coin. He started to move down the hall, “follow me.” With a flick of his fingers, he moved the coin up into his hand, moved it around to thumb and flicked it down the hall and into a chamber. Niki followed it a single moment later. He had his sword drawn, as he stepped past the opening. He missed the two guards at the entrance. They had moved to hide on either side of the chamber entrance. Niki shifted right and left as they attacked him taking the brunt of their attacks. Two days earlier he would have died, but his skill since then saved his life.
Arnia moved up to attack the two men. Arnia and Niki engaged the guards. Yetto gave them high fives and told them they rocked. He then started to convince the guards of their doom. His charms not only affected Niki, but the guards as well. Their will was broken, giving Arnia the chance to kill them. Niki moved to the edge of the room, “search them.” Arnia was able to strip one of them of his armor. She looked more regal covered in the old skeleton of a bug. They still needed to find her a shield, but she looked good so far.
The area of the sewer was finally looking familiar to Niki. He picked up his lit coin and headed down the tunnel. Niki led them down through two more turns until they stood in front of the door. The strange triangle art still proudly displayed.
Yetto stepped up next to Niki: “where are Wink and Inex?”
Niki: “around, … I assure you.”
Wink stepping out of the shadows: “where have you been. They are making noises beyond the door.”
Yetto: “we made a wrong turn”
Niki: “we found a couple of families we needed to help.”
Arian: “and Lord Sewage went the wrong way”
Niki: “we needed to help those people.”
Wink: “so, the door. Lord Sewage.”
Niki: “can you open it.”
Wink: “it has this really complex lock. I think we need to move the pieces into the right place.”
Niki staring at it: “So a triangle, three colored pegs in slots. Blue, Red, and Yellow.”
Yetto: “Yellow?”
Wink: “yes, … yellow.”
Niki looking at it, thought that some pegs could not be moved, but might block each other if moved to curtain spots. He suggested that the pegs be moved Yellow to Red, Blue to Yellow and Red to Blue. Sounds came from the door as if the magical lock tumblers were moving within the lock. Niki grinned as he knew he had just solved this complex lock on his first try. Yeah him. The door would not open. Despair filled the space where gloating was about to exude. Wink was the better lock master. After two or three tries she opened the lock. Gloating was not part of her, and in this case, it did not need to be. She had saved the day, no gloating required.
With the door open they poured into the lower levels on house Cliffster. This first chamber had a lot of doors. The room had a room within a room. They all gathered near this inner door. Wink started to work the door. Sounds could be heard beyond the door. Wink having lived in the sewers with many goblin slaves knew it was goblins, “I think it is goblins.” The doors lock clicked. Wink stepped away. Everyone spread out as much as possible. Arnia swung the door open. Arrows came flying out. Each member of the Pakku’s Raider’s moved up and launched some attacked into the room.
The goblins damaged some of them. The raiders moved in to finish off the last of them. Still hanging over a fire was Pyro Gigglespark, the head of house Cliffster. The goblins had turned on him and turned him into a meal. The group cut him down. They all looked at each other, what the fuck was going on? As the raiders started to move out of the room Niki stayed behind for a minute. He looked at the cooked man. Every temptation started to come over him. He wanted to try it. Was it wrong? He had not killed this guy and he would never kill someone for food, but he was already dead. This was fine with him but eating sewer rat was not. He watched the others leave the room. Once the moment no one could see him, he reached down and took a piece of flesh, “ummm that is good.” (meta game note: I rolled stealth during the game to do this)
They went through the doors on the north end of the room. Through a quick hall and into a new chamber. This chamber had some old statue that had been recently destroyed. Niki thought it was likely the goblins. They took their freedom and attacked anything that held their slavery. This was one of those objects. After searching the room, the group moved off to the west. Through another hallway, they entered a room with a suit of armor. This one was not nearly as friendly as the last one. This one attacked. This construct was tough, but the group laid into it. Once it fell to the ground the armor started to rust. Niki hoped to save pieces of it for Arnia. Metal armor would make her almost untouchable. He reached out to Selune and asked to mend this metal. It turned almost as new, for a moment. That moment over and it rusted again. The armor was useless, but bits of metal could be saved.
Wink not wanting to leave enemies behind the group, “we need to check these other doors before moving on.” The whole group fell back to the big room and started to go through different doors. Some of the doors led to storage. Most of which was empty. They gathered some clothes from one of them. Following the halls to the west they came to a crypt. Wink went into the crypt to investigate. It was tight especially when two statues changed into soon to be dead bugbears.
The bugbears were guarding the crypt. Wink disengaged as Niki swapped in her place. Arnai took a position on the right. Both bugbears placed all their hate on Niki. He nearly dropped in the gap between them. Arnia moved over to protect him a little. Wink screamed, “Noooooo,” as she ran back in to defend Niki. This gave Niki just enough space to disengage. Wink was now the center of their attacks. Just before Arnia killed the first one, the second grievously wounded Wink. She screamed again, thinking she should never do that again. The Bugbears might have killed Wink if Yetto’s, cutting insults had not drove them mad. Inex came in to heal Wink and finish off the other bugbear.
They took time to search the crypt. No one would add magical guards without having something to protect. Wink made sure to have magical eyes as the crypt opened. This was the groups big score. Each bugbear had a magical bracelet with her five gems. Inside the crypt were a robe and cloak. Yetto grabbed the robe and Wink through on the cloak. Wink and Niki palmed the two bracelets but did not put them on. They made their roguish signs to each other. Niki made sure to tell her that she looked good in the cloak.
Wink wanted to circle back to the other side of the main room. She was mildly obsessed with checking out every room. As the group started back, they came into a room covered in blood. As Niki looked up dead goblins hung from netting in the ceiling. They had made this room into some form of a barrack, with hammock like netting all over the upper portions. Moving the bodies around the raiders gathered three, twenty-foot pieces of rope. A king’s treasure in rope.
The east side of the main room was more storage. These cubbies and closest were all empty. Wink looked closer. She was convinced that there should be something here. She was about to give up when she ran her hand along one of the walls. Her hand disappeared into some space beyond. She silently brought our attention over. The wall magically existed in a pocket universe. The group stepped through.
Two constructs of armor stood guard within. There were eight pillars around the room. These two stood next to one of the pillars as if the pillar held them in place. Wink quietly moved around to the far end of the room. She now saw two more constructs. This was a prison and trap. Niki looked to his friends, “Pitter Patter, let’s get at er.” Inex had had enough and charged into the room. Niki stepped aside and watched him run by. Niki could have sworn Inex said, “stay out of my sewers,” as he ran by. He shifted into a great desert dog.
The constructs surrounded him. Niki and the rest of Pakku’s Raiders engaged them. Wink made it to the far side to find cells. Niki made sure he was engaging the constructs but in position to help Wink at any moment. She could not open the doors. They had some magical process with the pillars. Wink attacked from the edges so she could talk to one of the prisoners. Corga was trapped within the first cell. All of the constructs ganged up on Inex. The desert dog was smashed from all sides. Inex was standing there once again. They pounded him again. He was hurt, but shifted back into beast mode. Niki dropped the first construct. Arnia moved her attack to the second. Slowly the group finished off all the constructs.
Working with Corga they were able to open her cell. Arnia rushed in to heal her. She had been tortured and her eyes had been nearly beaten out of her face. Arnia’s healing hands helped. She could now see from one half of her skull. She was sent by the Sheik to find her princess. They are to be married. They beat her and through her in here. The group opened the rest of the cells. The next cell had a pile of long dead skeletons. Niki gripped his shield for fear they would come back to life. The next cell, or really the last in the order held Princess Shadalah. She was in a lot better shape than Corga, but still scared. Niki had believed she was the one that turned on this house. It was his personal shibboleth. The last cell had man that was bound and gagged.
As Princess Shadalah came out of the cell, Corga ran over to give her a hug. It looked like a nice heart-warming minute. Yetto and the bound man came out of the other cell. He yelled, “get her away from her.” This was way to ambiguous statement for anyone to process. Corga changed. She healed and became something or someone else. The Princess cried out, “don’t take me to him.” The new Corga pulled out a large green gem. She used it to start casting a spell. Wink, seeing the gem reached out for it. Touched it briefly but Corga and the princess teleported away. She was lucky she was not teleported with them.
The Raiders all looked almost dumbfounded at the formally bound man. They both rescued her and watched her taken away again in the same minute. …