Walking by the light of his Hacklet through the dark and windy ventilation shafts felt akin to walking through the sewers with my grandfather. The biggest differences were that the ventilation shafts did not smell bad, and there was no threat of rats or snakes. The lack of rats and snakes alone made the trek easier to breathe through. There were a couple points where different shafts intersected in a way that was not shown on Aaron’s schematic; however, his grandfather’s words brought a gentle reassurance.
“When people are in mazes,” Aaron’s grandfather said. “They say the trick to get out is to keep one hand on a wall and walk forward. Eventually, you will walk to the exit.”
They stopped in front of a large black hole in their path. Grandfather shone his light on a few small outcroppings in the wall, indicating how they would cross. These stone outcroppings were barely the size for a foot to land on. “Using that trick in the sewers can get you killed. Down here, we’re not looking for an exit. We’re looking for a problem that needs to be fixed.”
“What needs fixing, Papa?”
Tossing the light and other pieces of equipment over the hole, his grandfather chuckled before answering. “When you have a city that’s the weight of the sky pressing upon your shoulders, everything needs fixing.”
Backing up to get a running start, his grandfather gave a wink, then ran for the hole. Despite being an old dwarf, Grandfather was incredibly agile and hopped deftly atop the outcroppings before landing on the other side. Aaron clapped as his grandfather bowed. “Come, my boy. Throw me your rope—good. Now, do what I do.”
Aaron stared down a particularly large ventilation shaft that went straight down. If he didn’t shine his Hacklet light down the shaft, it would have been eerily reminiscent of the tunnel he remembered with his grandfather. He had slipped off the outcropping and fallen that first time and several times after that. However, Grandfather always had the rope, always ready to catch him. Aaron shined the light along the walls and identified bolt ends sticking through the shaft walls that could be used as outcroppings for crossing.
Aaron – Dexterity (No skill) 4 vs. Easy DT – SUCCESS
He did not need Grandfather’s rope anymore. Aaron hopped easily over the bolt ends and landed softly on the other side of the shaft. A half smile had crept onto the dwarf’s face. Memories of his grandfather were always sweet with early life lessons and bittered by the painful end. Flipping open his Hacklet stung deep with the freshness of memories. Grandfather never forgave Aaron for becoming a digital forensicist, and Aaron never came back when his grandfather was returned to the stone.
“For the love of corundum,” Aaron growled while reviewing the schematics. He then cursed his tiny voice while muttering, “I really need a drink.”
Despite a missing intersection ahead, the shaft did turn left and slope downward, which was the path Aaron needed to take. He moved onward and nearly lost footing as distant fans kicked on, causing strong winds to blow through the shafts. He checked the time and hustled forward. No messages from Corey about yet, but Aaron wasn’t expecting the elf gangster to provide any updates on their status. Corey was a wild one and not proficient with communication.
Moving around another bend, the dwarf’s heart skipped a beat as he saw lights shining through vents in the shaft floor. Rushing to the first vent provided confirmation that he was in the right place—though the jail cell was empty, it was still a cell, which meant he just needed to find the one that housed Tommy.
The following vent revealed an empty cell, but Aaron could hear voices as he approached the third. Looking down, the dwarf managed to find that bit of breath he had lost with Tommy’s capture. There was that big bronze island elf, leaning against the cell wall and chatting with a guard on the other side of the cell door. Aaron could not understand how this elf seemed to naturally make friends with everyone—even these cops who arrested him and no doubt treated him poorly. It was absolutely baffling and was something that would drive Aaron mad if he didn’t ignore it.
The cell was mostly empty, except for a cot bolted into the wall and a toilet. Tommy was still in the same clothes as when he was arrested, talking with a cop about food from the islands and some things the guard should try. The cop outside Tommy’s cell seemed genuinely interested as they discussed traditional foods from their ancestors. Aaron had to admit island food was amazing, but this was not a time to talk about food. The dwarf cursed quietly when he could not find a reasonable way to distract Tommy without getting the guard’s attention, too. He decided Tommy was safe for now and moved on to the next vent.
This vent did not have a pale, off-white fluorescent light like the last three. This one shined a sickly green and seemed to emanate fine particles of dust that lazily wafted into the ventilation shaft. Aaron was grateful that the fans had not kicked on yet. Peering through the vent slits brought Swift into clear view sitting on his cot. The cell was like Tommy’s, just a cot bolted into the wall and a toilet in the corner. However, the green aura was like a depressing miasma that made the air feel more dense. Swift’s head was down, and his arms rested on his legs, but the skinny orc’s bare back appeared too tense to be sleeping. Glancing toward the cell door caused Aaron to notice the other difference in a magical neutralization cell. While Tommy’s cell door was just rows of bars that he could easily reach his arms through, the door to Swift’s cell was solid metal that looked thick and heavy. A successful Investigation check assured Aaron that no one was nearby watching or listening to Swift.
“Hey, Swift!” Aaron called out in a loud whisper, his voice squeaking like a toy mouse.
The orc’s head perked up, and he carefully looked around the room.
“Swift, up here! It’s me, Aaron.”
It was strange how much more naked Swift looked in just his loincloth. Aaron was determined to return the orc his shoulder bag as soon as everything was cleared up. After looking at the room's four walls, Swift slowly looked up.
Aaron leaned slightly out of the vent and waved vigorously, “Here, here I am. Right here!”
Swift looked for a moment more, and Aaron smiled when he saw the orc’s eyes widen with surprise. “I’m breaking you guys out of here,” Aaron said.
Swift made a series of hand and arm movements while questions twisted across the orc’s face.
Aaron guessed seeing a miniature dwarf in a jail cell’s vent did little to encourage the feeling of impending freedom. “I took a shrinking potion to get in here. Don’t worry.”
Swift made more gestures, and Aaron could not help but feel there was a jab at his normal height included in those gestures.
“Look, Swift, I don’t need any snide shots about my height. Dwarf height jokes get old fast and typically are as valuable as a coprolite lode.”
Another question from Swift, but Aaron was pretty sure what was being asked this time.
“You don’t know what coprolite is?”
Swift answered in the affirmative with a few other gestures.
The dwarf chuckled. “Sorry, it’s a dwarf thing. Coprolite is basically petrified shit. A stone made of shit. In other words, it’s what dwarves say when referring to any kind of shit.”
Swift nodded thoughtfully and made a simple movement with his hands.
“Wait, is that how you say ‘shit?’”
Swift answered in the affirmative. Shit.
“Huh,” Aaron thought for a moment. “How do you say ‘ass?’”
Swift answered with another simple movement. Ass.
“Shit ass.”
Shit ass.
“What about ‘fuck?’”
Fuck.
“Shit ass fuck.”
Shit ass fuck.
“Shitty ass fucking, camel toe sucking, dirty head fisting cunt.”
Swift and Aaron laughed as the orc repeated everything. Between Aaron’s voice and Swift’s sign language, they had nearly forgotten the predicament they were in. It wasn’t until Aaron adjusted his position on the vent that he realized something was off. The vent opening had gotten smaller. Looking up and down the ventilation shaft, Aaron suddenly realized the whole shaft wasn’t getting smaller; he was getting bigger. The shrink potion was wearing off.
“I gotta go,” Aaron said hurriedly to Swift. “Wait for me.”
Swift made a gesture in response, but his face clearly said, What else am I going to do?
Aaron shook his head at the stupidity of telling someone in jail to wait as he made it to the green-lit vent in the shaft. Peering through the vent, he was relieved to see Jackie pacing the floor. The dwarf called out to her, and after a moment of searching the room, she finally spotted Aaron’s face through the vent slits—he was too big to fit through the vent slit now.
“What in the Woodrot?” Jackie peered curiously through the vent. “You’re Corey’s fuckin’ dwarf, aren’t you? What are you doin’ here?”
“I’m busting you out—along with your cell neighbors, Tommy and Swift.”
“Are you fuckin’ crazy? You know the heat that will bring down on me?”
“Don’t worry about it,” The dwarf’s voice cracked as the potion started to wear off. “I’ll take care of it.”
“How? You going to magically make everyone forget?”
“No, I'm going to hack the records and make you disappear from their sight.”
“I am an unregistered magic user! You can’t make that disappear. Now that they got me, they own me. You can’t hack this away, dwarf.”
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Aaron adjusted his position and suddenly realized he could not stand straight in the shaft. “Jackie, I need to run. My shrink potion is nearly done. Just… wait for me.”
“Wait for you?” Jackie snapped back with incredulity. “Seriously? Wait for you? What are we gettin’ married now?”
“No, I just—” Aaron stammered as the pressure of steady growth increased his anxiety of becoming stuck in the ventilation shaft. “Slag and tailings! I’ll be back.”
Aaron raced down the shaft, half crouched and frantically searching for the next vent. According to the schematic, the next vent should have a control interface that would give Aaron access to McGrady’s credentials. He was crawling on all fours now, trying not to get tripped up on the shoulder bag that seemed to stay where his knee needed to be. The air was feeling thin, or maybe thick; it was difficult to tell beyond the fact that it was just getting harder to breathe. This is what was wrong with dwarves, their love of confined spaces, and being stuck in the rock. There was no honor in this! Then again, this wasn’t rock. It was four walls of sheet metal that were steadily closing in on Aaron, threatening to suffocate him to death.
There was a dead-end intersection in the shaft. Aaron growled at the terrible naming of this type of intersection as he peered left and right. There appeared to be light coming from below in the shaft to his left. The dwarf squirmed and shuffled through the difficult turn and hoped this was the right way, as he felt too big to turn around in this shaft of a coffin.
Aaron – Intelligence (No skill) 5 vs. Normal DT – SUCCESS
“Oh, polonium!” Aaron snarled as he wormed his way closer to the light. “What was that blasted roll for?”
Maybe it was a passive check, maybe it was something else—maybe it was to check his eroding sanity within the shaft. Whatever the reason for the check, Aaron didn’t care as he pulled himself up to the light source. It was a vent opening to a room below, and it looked empty. Quickly, Aaron pushed the vent, but it would not open. He shook and hit it, but it would not budge. Panic crept in as the dwarf desperately looked for any means to break the vent open and escape the trap he had become.
Sweat beaded across his brow and dropped on the vent. The shaft groaned under his increasing weight but did not collapse nor give way to his size. Aaron rolled onto his back to breathe better and stared at the dark reflective metal nearly touching his nose. This was going to be a terrible way to day—slow suffocation mixed with dehydration, starvation, and a touch of mental degradation. It sounded like a mixed drink he would order at the bar. If he made it out, the dwarf swore he’d figure out how to make such a mix. Aaron reflexively reached for the flask that was not in his breast pocket. It was an awkward reach because it was difficult to move his arm in such a confined space, and it was disappointing to be reminded that he did not have a flask in his pocket. Despite not having a flask, Aaron paused as he felt the potion bottle. He wondered how many drops were in this little bottle?
The chance at escaping a claustrophobic death spurned Aaron to move with haste—though haste was challenging in a shaft with nearly no room to move his arms. He finagled the potion bottle from his breast pocket and managed to pop open the top with his thumb and forefinger. Carefully, he contorted his arm overhead and let a drop of the shrink potion fall on his head. As he brought the potion back down to chest level, his arm got caught on a part of the shaft, causing him to accidentally bump a drop of the potion in his mouth.
“Fuck!” Aaron cursed through the nasty taste and the recognition that his voice was about to shrink again. Securing the potion bottle back in his breast pocket, the dwarf waited through concentrated breaths.
A clock ticked in his head, accentuating each second that steadily crept by, like the dripping of water, slowly eroding confidence in his ability to pull off this stunt. Timing was crucial, and it was ironic that Corey never synced watches to ensure they operated on the same time scale. Nor did they have an effective means to communicate. Aaron seriously wondered what sort of botched operation he had thrown himself into?
The falling sensation kicked in as the shaft quickly grew outward, expanding in size. Breathing became easier, and the dwarf let out a sigh as the coffin once again began to look like some angular metal sewer-scape. Yet as the shrinking sensation slowed to a halt, Aaron still felt like he was slipping, falling—he was going to fall! He had shrunk over the vent and was now sliding through the vent slats. He desperately tried reaching for anything to grab…
Aaron – Dexterity (No skill) 2 vs. Normal DT – FAILURE
But his hands slipped across the smooth metal, and suddenly, the dwarf was falling. Hands grasped at the rushing air as Aaron continued reaching for the vent, speeding away when the wind quickly knocked out of his lungs and his back impacted with something. Success scrolled past his vision as he coughed and rolled to his side, only to fall again, this time past the screen of the interface monitor that had broken his initial fall. He landed haphazardly on the interface below and rolled a few times before settling on the desk. He ached and felt bruised from the impact but was grateful the rough landings were not severe enough to cause any moxie strikes.
Aaron arched and flexed while keeping a hand on his back for support, and he slowly tried to move the pain around his body. A quick scan of the giant room yielded no signs of life, to which the dwarf nodded with gratitude. “Let’s get this subsidence plan moving before it caves in on all of us.”
He cringed with the sound of his own voice as he moved to plug into the interface. “Oh, granite!”
The harsh realization of his predicament hit Aaron like a ton of slag. Aaron was miniaturized; the interface was not. There were no miniaturized ports for the dwarf to plug his Hacklet into. Aaron cursed loudly and stomped on the desk as his mind raced with what to do next.
The shoulder bag—the shoulder bag had helped before. Aaron quickly dug into the shoulder bag, searching for anything that appeared as if it could help. There was a moldy muffin wrapped in wax paper, the children’s book Swift had used to communicate, cloth strips, a candle, an old stuffed bear-like toy, some buttons… The dwarf looked around and realized a few things had fallen out of the shoulder bag during the fall, but none of the fallen items gave a hint of being able to help.
Aaron – Investigation skill 10 vs. Normal DT – SUCCESS
The successful Investigation roll helped bring a few more details to light. This room was like a guard room where law enforcement officers rotated through based on a semi-monthly schedule. The schedule hanging on the door gave the impression that newer officers were typically tasked with this duty, though some of the senior officers occasionally pulled this duty, too. It was a prisoner surveillance detail, full of mundane paperwork and watching CCTV footage. However, since the focus was on prisoner observations, and they had to deal with magical prisoners, there was a chance that some anti-magic or magic neutralization equipment was tucked somewhere in the room.
The shrink potion was magic-based, and the effects had started wearing off when he appraoched Swift’s and Jackie's neutralized cells. Desk drawers are common places for stowing equipment like this, and one of the side drawers was cracked open. Aaron rushed over to the open drawer and climbed onto the portion that jutted out. Planting his feet on the drawer and his hands on the desk, the dwarf pushed hard, forcing the drawer to open enough for him to look inside.
“Sweet citrine.” Aaron smiled despite his voice. Regardless of the difficulties, at least this moment held a stroke of luck. Lying inside the drawer were a pair of magic neutralization handcuffs, glowing that same soft dusty green from the cells. The dwarf dropped into the drawer and stood in one ring of the cuffs.
The office door slammed open. Aaron froze like a cave newt in lantern light.
“Look, I don’t like this shit anymore than you do,” a voice said as someone stomped into the office. “But the shit has got to get done.”
“Come on, man,” Came a second voice. It sounded like this one was standing outside the door. “Can’t you cover for me?”
The first one could be heard walking around the desk. “You do a halfling one favor, then they think you’re their bitch for life. Is that it?”
“Oh, please,” The second responded as Aaron quietly crept deeper into the drawer. “Don’t be so dramatic. Though I do like the idea of you being my bitch.”
Aaron – Dexterity (No skill) 4 vs. Easy DT – SUCCESS
“Har, har, you flatfoot fucker.” The first one dropped into the desk chair and started rummaging through the items on top of the desk. “Do your damn paperwork. I got my own shit to deal with.”
“Yeah, ‘cause I know how much you love to sit at this desk, watching all those cameras and keeping an eye on the cells. Hmmm, I can see you’re getting all hot and bothered in that chair.”
The drawer Aaron was in slammed closed, causing the dwarf to fall back and roll. To his dismay, the cuffs were working, and he was taking up more space in the drawer. The lower drawer could be heard opening, and the first cop searched through the items in that drawer.
“Come on! I know you’re looking for an excuse to not be here. I’ve got the perfect one. Come help me with my paperwork, and I’ll buy you a round at Snaggletooth’s.”
“Gods above, you just don’t stop.”
“I stop for my bitches.”
“Fuck you!”
Laughter followed as it sounded like something was thrown at the one outside the door. Aaron focused on controlled breaths as he steadily grew larger, filling up the back end of the drawer. But his breathing froze, and his heart skipped a beat when the drawer started to slide open.
“You know I got a pair of cuffs here,” The first voice taunted, leaving the drawer partly open. “I could throw them on you, and then we’ll see who the bitch is.”
“If you cuff me, you’ll have more paperwork to do…”
The first one sighed while drumming their fingers on the desk. “You’re going to owe more than one round at Snaggletooth’s.”
“Done.”
There was a groan, then the sound of the first one getting up from the chair. “I really hate you sometimes.”
“Bitches be hatin’.”
“Come here, you little half-fuck!”
The two could be heard laughing as the first ran out of the room, slamming the door behind them.
Aaron quickly pushed open the drawer and climbed out of the second coffin he had nearly been trapped in. Letting out a few deep breaths while stretching, Aaron scanned his surroundings and guessed he was nearly the size of a gnome. Looking at the Hacklet’s connector let him know that more growth needed to occur. Standing on his toes, he stretched and tried to reach into the top drawer for the cuffs.
The door slammed open. Aaron nearly fell from the shock of the cop’s entry.
“Just give me a minute, will you? I forgot something.”
Aaron – Strength (No skill) 6 vs. Difficult DT – SUCCESS
The cop quickly walked around the desk, looking across the surface, and then paused.
“Come on, man!”
“Just wait a minute,” The first cop spoke hesitantly. “I don’t remember this here.”
“Then why’d we come back here if you don’t remember your thing being here?”
“That’s not what I mean—you know what? Forget about it.”
“It’ll be easier to forget if you don’t keep coming back here.”
“Yeah, yeah,” The first one said while looking through another drawer.
Aaron was under the desk, his hands pressing against one side of the desk and feet pushing on the other, as he struggled to keep himself prostrate and as close to the top of the underside of the desk as possible. He could feel a bead of sweat slowly form into a drop that casually rolled down his brow and hung tenuously at the edge.
“I got it!” The first cop said while slamming the drawer shut.
“About time. Come on, let’s go!”
“You seriously have no patience.” The first cop spoke while walking around the desk. The door slammed again, but Aaron waited. The drop of sweat fell from his brow and quietly splashed on the floor below.
His arms and legs trembled. This was a terrible hiding spot, but it had worked in a pinch. When he felt he was on the brink of muscle failure, Aaron let his feet drop to the floor first. One thing going for him was the steady increase in height, which made wedging under the desk a little easier—though his muscles certainly did not appreciate the strain.
He still needed to stand on his toes, but Aaron could more easily reach in and grab the cuffs this time. He hoped the closer proximity would help eliminate the shrink effect more quickly. While waiting to return to a workable size, Aaron flipped open his Hacklet and checked the security cameras outside the precinct.
The crazy street elf Corey was not seen on any of the cameras. Aaron breathed a sigh of relief—that meant he still had time to make this plan work. Miko could be seen standing on a distant street corner—it looked like she was playing a game on her phone. That was also a good sign because she was supposed to leave the area when Corey was on his way here.
Looking around the room, Aaron was confident he was now bigger than a gnome. In fact, he was nearly restored to his original height. The dwarf pulled out the Hacklet’s connector and tested its size with the interface port—almost there.