The stairs weren’t particularly slippery but they were steep and narrow. The three of us stepped down with cautious steps. Ceylas reached the bottom first and pushed on the wooden door. It was slightly swollen but she shoved against it with surprising strength (Strength Check: 15+-2=13) and managed to push it ajar so we could all slip through.
What little light from the sun on the street above cast a gleaming sliver into the earthen corridor. The dirt ground beneath our feet seemed hardened and well-worn. While not particularly clean, it was at least free from debris and offage. But as we peered to the east the limited light faded. I blinked, surprised at how well I could still see in the grey light of the dim hall.
I’d paused at the entrance and as Cambrin and Ceylas reached the end of the corridor to the east they both turned back to look at me. “Are you coming?” Ceylas asked impatiently.
I nodded, moving toward them. “Shouldn’t we have, like a plan or something?”
“We have a plan,” Ceylas said, “Find big teeth and kill it.”
Beside her, Cambrin shook his head and sighed. It was clear Ceylas was the more impatient and reckless of the two. “He means an approach to the labyrinth, Ceylas. And perhaps a notion of caution given that there are more than just alligators that make a home here.”
I swallowed, nodding, and glanced up and down as I stepped into the intersection. This was a t-junction that headed north and south. To the south it bent east again almost immediately but the north continued well beyond my sight. I straightened, listening (Perception: 17+4=21). I could hear the cascade of water that moved through the channels. To the south east water gushed, crashing back and forth against a hard surface. There was a tang of salty air coming from that direction. To the north I could hear (Nature: 13+1=14) what sounded like bugs or small rodents, but nothing particularly sizeable.
“We don’t really know much about where things are down here and I don’t like the idea of leaving our backs exposed,” I said, glancing at the curve in the channel behind us as we faced to the north.
Cambrin frowned. “There is little option. The intersections cross at so many points that it would be difficult to secure all directions. What we do know, however, is that we are at the south-easternmost point of the system. In that direction,” he pointed to the south east, “there should be the outflow into the ocean.”
“And we’re sure the alligator can’t come and go from there?”
“The guards assured us it was secure,” Cambrin said.
Ceylas tilted her head. “We should check. Guards can be dumbasses,” she said. She’d already turned and started moving in that direction before Cambrin or I could agree with her.
I bit back the grin I felt at the disrespectful observation. There was something about Ceylas that reminded me of a friend of mine. She was sassy and ready to jump right into action.
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The corridor turned to the east and carried on that way about thirty feet further before it dropped into another long channel that headed south. There were about fifteen feet between this level and the one beneath us but even from here I could see the way water washed back on the channel slightly with the ebb and flow of waves against the side of the city. There was a tang of salt in the air.
“Do we drop down?” I ask, reaching for the strap on my backpack, “I have rope.”
Cambrin shook his head. “The guards implied that the beast wasn’t fond of the saline. And surely it cannot traverse the height to reach us from this place.”
“He’s right. No real point getting our feet wet before we have to,” Ceylas agreed.
I nodded, clipping my haversack closed again as we all turned to head back the way we’d come. This time we passed the entrance on our left and headed up the the tunnel. Within a few dozen feet we came upon another intersection. The path continued north but branched to the east.
I sighed. “This is going to be a nightmare of mazes, isn’t it?” I gazed down the slanting ramp that lead to our right. It was paved in slick checker tiles either side of a water-filled channel. The water was murky and yellowed with a decidedly unpleasant smell. As I gazed down into it I saw floating, slimey murk that bobbed in the water. My stomach heaved (Constitution save: 3+3=6) and tossed up the contents of the tea Siria had given me and what I imagined was the remains of whatever breakfast Lo’Kryn had eaten earlier. It burned my throat and tasted rancid on my tongue as it spewed from my mouth. My own vomit splattered against the water, causing a splashback that almost hit my boots. I stepped back, wiped my mouth and tried to focus instead on our bearings. If the layout made any sense at all that way would lead to the corridor we’d just come from but it also appeared to continue beyond it.
“Eww, gross,” Ceylas said, turning away from the channel of water. I could hear her dry retch and I wondered if it was from her own disgust at the smell and sight of the gastly sewerage or a sympathetic reaction to my own retching.
Cambrin shook his head and pulled his map case around so that he could draw out the map. He folded the parchment carefully which made it easier to handle and gave us a view of only the immediate area. I peered over his shoulder.
“There is very little in that direction. Both of these corridors,” he pointed to two others to the east that ran parallel to the one we travelled on, “continue north. These channels,” he pointed to the intersecton that marked our current location and several that intersected all three at regular intervals north of us, “carry onward systematically. It is, perhaps, a challenge to know the most logical route to explore given that they are all sizeable enough to house an alligator in motion although none seem particularly sensible as a lair for such a beast.”
“You think it has a lair?” I asked.
“It would make sense that it has made a home for itself down here. In fact, such beasts as this are known to submerge their meals and leave them to decay and tenderise over time so it’s most likely this creature has created its home in one of the larger rooms.” He pointed to four rooms on the map that connected with the channels on this side of one of the city bridges.
As Cambrin and I considered our options with the map, Ceylas peered down the slope. Her gaze narrowed (Perception: 18+1=19) and she whispered, “Do you guys see that?”
We both followed the direction of her pointing finger, looking down in the slosh of water to where a slight churn of motion jostled at the corner where this corridor, and the one heading to the outflow met. There was a large, bloated lump that seemed to writhe. I swallowed, hearing again the strange grinding noise of some kind of creature.
“What is that?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Ceylas said, “but it looks disgusting. I don’t want to go near it.”
Cambrin, however, was already stepping in that direction.