Chapter 37: Chapter 37: In for a Copper

Access to the sewers was more complicated than we first assumed it might be. The usual accesses, sponsored by the bounty board companies, were closed. The city didn’t want adventurers streaming into the undercity to hit some mechanism that floods the streets, or some other damage, in the middle of a major celebration. 

This wasn’t to say we couldn’t make our way into the sewers, but that we needed to be a little more circumspect about it. 

So we broke into a city guard waystation. We were already fugitives, or would be soon. And I happen to know how most of the waystations were set up. As busy as the city was, there wasn’t anyone in the building itself, mostly a place to store gear, and render communication services at a time like this. The city guard was also involved with suppressing fires and dealing with other natural hazards, so there was an emergency access door for civilians. Not many were stupid enough to break into a guard house. The door was alarmed and enchanted with a minor curse that would mark the person who entered as well. Curses were also illegal in the city, unless state sanctioned. 

Because Justice already carried the burden of two curses, being on bail already, she was up to adding another. ‘In for a penny’, as she said, which was a unit of Tamaran currency. In the back of the waystation was an access tunnel to the undercity, for security purposes, should the guard need to get down there. It was also used to move around the city and set up larger operations. 

Justice tried not to look around too suspiciously as I opened the door to the guard house and stepped in. It made some angry chirping noises, and I could tell, by the disgusted look on Justice’s face as she wiped the invisible grime on her waist, that the curse took hold. Not skipping a beat, I walked into the building towards the back, where access was usually installed. 

A simple trap door with metal rungs leading down brought us to the sewers. I had Justice close the trap door behind us, hoping that if any City Guards did check it out, they would assume it was some tourists that fled after accidentally opening the door. 

The sewers were as dark and damp as ever. Justice cast Infravision, but then took the lead on guiding us around to the gate we’d found during our bounty work. It made sense, in a way. Justice had spent her whole life in a cave system. She probably had a better idea of where to go than I could muster. I was vaguely embarrassed from a vestigial part of my Kobold pride, but this was completely irrational. 

The sewers seemed quieter and more menacing than usual, and the echo of waters that constantly filled the air made it hard to listen for a potential ambush. Even Katarachin halted his light commentary, maintained throughout our second journey through the city. 

But aside from a few, glowing, animal eyes in the distance, and some errant rippling of water in the main flow of the channel going down the center of most of the paths we traveled, we didn’t encounter much until we made it to the gate we’d found two nights ago.

When Justice stepped up with a small kit of metal picks and put her hand on the gate, it clicked open without effort. We looked at each other.

It looked like we were not the only ones going into CenSum tonight. 

“What do those say?” There were several placards on the wall that my eyes had passed over. 

*Danger hazard. Access to lower levels ahead. Death is not the responsibility of the state without necessary permits and guards.*

The tunnels here were older, less evenly carved in places, as the original work was not done by guild work managed by Dwarves. They did what they could to even out the passages, but it was easier for the guilds to just run patching crews through here than risk damaging the foundation of a five hundred year old city center. Thankfully, with the advent of vanishing pots, most of the sewer wasn’t as foul to pass through anymore.

Ahead, we could hear water growing louder, and as the chamber opened up, we saw it become more of a retention pool that took up three fourths of a wide, short room. It might have been about fifty by forty, but the ceiling might have been only five feet with the retention pool being at least a foot and a half deep. There were exits across from us, slowly filling the room with more water. The remaining forth of the room was taken with a yawning hole where the sound of draining water echoed and filled the already claustrophobic room. 

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I reluctantly stepped into the chest high water, pulling myself upright to keep my snout from treading water. It wasn’t quite terrible, at least the water was more or less clean. I suspected this was more a runoff system for rain and 

“It has a small ramp that leads down, I think. Probably the lower level access point,” Justice said, just above the din.

I wasn’t looking at the hole leading down. I was trying to figure out what was making the former quill points on my neck prickle. 

“Scaleen?”

I drew Katarachin’s Victory and my only remaining dagger and motioned for Justice to be quiet. My terror state was keeping me awake, and now the back of my neck tingled making me feel like prey.

Something was bobbing in the water along the wall, caught in some unseen eddy current.

It looked like a container at first, until I realized it was a sealed spell scroll casing, not completely drowned and dense enough to sink. I’d done a lot of research into investigating criminal timelines, and leather casings for scrolls weren’t designed to withstand more than a mild soaking. 

I reversed my normal blade and said to Justice, “Something is wrong, I think something’s here.”

Justice saw what I was looking at and frowned. I saw a purple screen show up. “That’s a scroll of Levitating Platform…”

“It must be new, it should have sunk.”

Justice made a complicated set of gestures and a portion of the water lifted, maybe a gallon or so’s worth. She made another gesture and it spread out like an arc, skimming across the top of the pool. 

Within moments, it splatted against something. That something immediately coalesced into the corpse of a person, followed by a grouping of three other bodies. The water around them suddenly became murky and dark.

“What in Harenot’s name is that?”

Amidst the corpses was a long, sinuous figure, like a twenty foot snake but wider Justice and with a dozen small, nearly vestigial legs, and a very long and bulbous head with small beady eyes and many, many teeth. 

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