Without uttering a single word, G gestured to his companions to stay behind as he approached the entrance of the darkened doorway to the right. As he drew closer, the shimmering figure came into sharper focus, and he could discern the form of the grurenderer, whose invisibility was thwarted by G's see-invisible spell as he approached the creature, a hush fell upon his steps, as he neared. The air was thick with the underground humidity, and the rough stone of the narrow alley was slick with condensation. Sparse light flickered, cast by clusters of luminescent fungi that dotted the walls, their glow was ghostly in the subterranean gloom.
Under the influence of the See Invisible spell, the shape of the grurenderer began to emerge from its cloak of invisibility, surrounded by a shimmering blue aura, delicate yet otherworldly. As the spell guided the creature into G's perceptual range, it revealed its formidable form, adorned with six eyes that G hadn't fully noticed before—three on each side of its head. Each set of eyes not only served a distinct, enigmatic purpose but also emitted a unique color of mana, crafting a vibrant display of their magical abilities and enveloping the creature in a tapestry of arcane energy.
As G watched, a deep, almost instinctual understanding washed over him, hinting at the creature's capabilities and its place within the magical ecosystem. The grurenderer, now fully visible, seemed to stand as a majestic guardian. The first set of eyes glowed a baleful yellow, darting back and forth with acute awareness. Above these, the second set smoldered with a faint red, silently attesting to their ability to sense the warmth of living flesh. The crowning set of eyes, the smallest, shone with an ethereal blue light, piercing the veil between the magical and the mundane to reveal the intricate flows of mana winding through the shadows like unseen rivers.
As G drew closer, the creature's imposing silhouette became clearer. It exuded an air of feral nobility, with silent steps that belied its size and betrayed its predatory grace. Its rough, fur-like hide, reminiscent of heavy leather armor, seemed to absorb the ambient magic of the environment. This absorption gave its coat a faint luminescence, subtly hinting at its spell-resistant nature.
For a moment, as G's spell allowed him to lock eyes with the creature, the alleyway held its breath, the usual echoes of the subterranean world hushing in reverence—or perhaps in fear—of the grurenderer's unveiled majesty.
"G, what are you doing?" Phan inquired from behind him. The grurenderer turned its head towards her, its eyes narrowing as it emitted a menacing growl that reverberated through G's bones.
"Phan, take the others and go into the tavern right now!" G commanded quietly and calmly, maintaining eye contact with the grurenderer. Which was very odd as the creature had six eyes and two of them were now focused on Phan, and four of them were looking at G.
"Aren't you the most adorable grurenderer?" G cooed in a soft high-pitched voice reserved for communicating with cute animals. However, this creature was anything but cute, and he needed to prevent it from attacking his friends. G reached into his bag and retrieved one of the two dead goblins from his previous encounter in the sewers. He placed it on the ground in front of him. The creature watched him intently and sniffed at the dead goblin, then proceeded to take a huge bite out of it, snapping the bones in the process. G struggled to keep from grimacing in disgust. He glanced behind him and saw that the others had reached the entrance to the Rotten Worm and entered the tavern, followed by the guard troll, who closed the door behind them.
G's voice softened as he addressed the grurenderer, "Aren't you a brave one?"
The beast looked up, its growl less menacing now, more curious. G caught himself—had he mistaken its nature? "Forgive me. You're a fierce girl, aren't you?" He amended, the tone slightly higher, infused with respect. With cautious steps, G approached, his disguise melting away, replaced by the swirling mana that now shrouded him like a cloak. He extended a hand towards the grurenderer, pausing before making contact with its thick fur, watching for any sign of aggression.
As it gnawed on the goblin remains, distant shouts and the clank of metal reached G's ears. He turned to see a squad of hobgoblin guards charging towards them, swords at the ready.
"Halt! By the city's decree!" The command thundered through the alley.
A moment of realization flashed across G's mind—they were here for the grurenderer. But had they seen it? Or had they seen him, shifting forms in plain view?
He spoke with Tocai, "We have to get out of here. What's the fastest route to the sewers?"
With a swift incantation, thorny vines erupted across the alley behind him, the Briar Patch spell springing to life, a barrier between them and the advancing guards. One guard, crystal in hand, howled, his point accusing, "There! The creature is with him!"
"Damn it," G muttered under his breath. The last thing he wanted was to fight in front of the tavern. There was no telling how many guards would converge on their location, as one of the guards raised a whistle to his lips and blew three piping blasts that echoed through Muck Town.
G used his mental link with Tocai. "Can you guide us back to the sewers?"
"I have computed the layout of the alleys in this district," Tocai responded, his voice calm and analytical in G's mind. "I believe I know where the next entrance should be."
He glanced back at the grurenderer, its growls subsiding into a low rumble. "This way, quick!" he urged, surprised at the creature's compliance as it ceased its snarling and, with a quietness that was unnerving, its heavy steps soundless, lumbered after him.
Rounding a sharp bend in the alley, G nearly stumbled over a goblin curled up on the cobblestones. With no time to lose, he hurdled over the slumbering form, his boots striking stone with a thud. The grurenderer, lacking G's agility, simply barreled past, sending the goblin rolling into the shadows with a startled yelp.
The pursuit was relentless, and the guards' yells grew louder and more chaotic. As G reached an intersection, he threw out his hands, casting another Briar Patch to spring up behind them, a snarl of mana-infused thorns. He cut left without missing a beat.
"Tocai's voice entered his mind, "Across this building, then right for three blocks."
G raised his eyes to the towering structures that rose like silent sentinels around him. A crossbow bolt clattered off the stone wall above, a near miss that sent a jolt of adrenaline surging through him. In one fluid motion, he pivoted towards a door and threw himself against it. It didn't yield. The grurenderer, responding to the urgency, slammed into the door with a force that tore the hinges free, and the barrier buckled inward with a crash.
The sudden intrusion startled a family of goblins huddling against the far wall of the dimly lit room. Their eyes wide with fear, they shrank back, pressing into the shadows. Ignoring their alarm, G scrambled up and dashed through the room, bursting into a narrow hallway.
He didn't slow, even as a goblin peeked from a door, his face registering shock before he slammed it shut. G's focus was on escape; he skidded to the hallway's end, flung back the bolt, and burst out into the street with the grurenderer on his heels.
"This is the correct lane," Tocai confirmed crisply.
G glanced at his mini-map, seeing marking the sewer trapdoor. It was larger than expected. He spared a hopeful thought that the grurenderer would fit as they sprinted toward it.
The air was heavy with the earthy scent of mud and refuse, momentarily catching G's breath as he surged ahead. Another crossbow bolt whistled past, burying itself in the wall just as they rounded another corner. Three guards emerged, swords gleaming and one aiming a crossbow, their hobgoblin faces etched with grim determination. Hugging the wall, G pressed on, pushing his elven legs to their limits.
Glancing back, he saw the guards closing in, the nearest now only meters behind. With no time to spare, G pivoted and cast a Briar Patch spell. Thorns sprang up behind him, long spikes snagging the guards' leather armor as they attempted to push through. The first two guards grimaced, persisting despite the thorns piercing their flesh. The crossbowman stopped, fumbling to reload his weapon.
"They're right on us," G gasped, spotting the sewer entrance ahead. He needed just a few more seconds—seconds he prayed the thorny barrier would grant them. Doubting the delay would suffice, he braced for what came next.
"Get ready to fight, girl—we have to stand our ground here. I'm not sure if you understand me, but they're not going to let us get through that door," G said to the grurenderer, muttering another spell and sending a Mana bolt into the crossbowman. The grurenderer stopped and turned on the hobgoblins, almost knocking G over in the process.
"The two in the lead are level 6 with 74 and 72 hitpoints. The one with the crossbow is level 5 with 59 hitpoints," Tocai informed him.
As the grurenderer materialized, its formidable roar sent a wave of hesitation through the hobgoblins, undeterred by the briars. It rushed forward with a powerful sweep of its paw, it sent one guard flying across the street, thorns still buried in the guard's armor.
G hurled another mana bolt, targeting the crossbowman who frantically attempted to reload. Beside him, the grurenderer, stung by a fresh sword cut that oozed blood, spun toward the assailant. The mana bolt struck true, and the crossbowman collapsed.
With a ferocious roar, the grurenderer reared up on its hind legs, towering over the last guard ensnared by the briar spell. The creature's descent was merciless, both massive paws driving the guard into the pavement with the horrific echo of shattering bones and the clatter of mangled armor. It struck again, ensuring the defeat was absolute as the guard's attempts to protect himself proved futile.
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Nearby, the crossbowman writhed, the briar's thorns gouging deeper, sealing his fate as he ceased to move, overcome by injuries and loss. The guard lying across the street, dead or unconscious.
Silence fell momentarily, broken only by distant whistles. G's eyes darted upward as a guard on an overpass bridge spotted them, signaling urgently with his whistle.
Considering another attack, G hesitated—without a crossbow, the lone guard posed less of a threat. Instead, he turned to the wall, his eyes scanning for any sign of the hidden door. A green stone embedded in the wall caught his eye, glowing faintly amidst the shadows. A prompt flickered beside it, beckoning him to act swiftly.
You have passed a perception check and found a secret entrance.
Ignoring the prompt, G pressed the stone, which clicked ominously within the wall. The revealed entrance was just wide enough to pass. He hurried onto the narrow platform, descending swiftly, but as he emerged, the sight of several guards hastening their way filled him with dread.
"You need to get inside and keep moving down. Don't stop. I'll handle the door," he urged the grurenderer, which, still nursing its wound, lumbered toward the tight entrance.
Fear gripped G as the creature momentarily jammed in the doorway, its massive body scraping against the stone. Blood smeared the wall as it struggled, the muscles under its thick skin rippling in a desperate effort. With a guttural grunt, it finally squeezed through, G slipping in behind.
Once inside, G slammed the door shut. He scrambled down the rough-hewn ladder cut into the wall, his heart pounding in his ears. The creature, visibly weakened by the ordeal, limped slightly.
"We can't linger here," G said as the dull thuds of the guards pounding on the door echoed through the tunnel. "The door won't hold them for long."
G hastened down the tunnel, the stench growing more foul than anything Muck Town offered. Adjusting his cowl to filter out the worst of the odors, he reverted his robes back to a deep black for better concealment. He vaulted over streams of sewage and followed a wide ledge to another tunnel, moving swiftly despite the labyrinthine network beneath the city.
The maze of smaller tunnels, likely leading to drainage from the buildings above, complicated their escape. Even with his map, the shadows cast by the dim light made navigation challenging. Initially, the sounds of pursuit were clear, but now only the heavy breathing of the invisible grurenderer behind him filled the silence.
After some time, G paused on a wide ledge to catch his breath, away from the fetid waters below. His mana had mostly regenerated during their prolonged movement, and he reset his traveling spells before moving on. They traversed several large square stone chambers, each serving as a nexus to multiple sewer tubes, always choosing ramps that led further downward.
As they moved, the sewer became a conduit for the city's refuse, with large tubes funneling the waste into deeper pools. G hypothesized that following these channels might lead them to an exit. Along the way, they encountered low-level threats: Ratlings skittering in the shadows and clusters of insects clinging to the ceilings of the chambers. G utilized his stealth abilities in these rooms, carefully avoiding unnecessary confrontations.
Despite the challenges, they pressed on, guided by G's belief that these main channels would eventually take them to the sewer's outflow, and, hopefully, to safety.
Skitterling
Level 2
Hitpoints 13
Mana 1
These small, insectoid creatures scurry around the sewers with surprising speed, their exoskeletons providing ample protection from most attacks. They have multiple legs and sharp pincers, making them quite agile and deadly in close combat.
As they ventured deeper, G thought he caught a glimpse of a goblin, its skin mottled with green fuzz, but it vanished before he could get a good look. They paused in one of the larger chambers, thankfully devoid of the usual ceiling-dwelling bugs. Despite the pervasive stench, the chamber was relatively free from sewage.
Exhausted, G slumped to the floor beside the grurenderer. "You know, I can't keep calling you 'grurenderer' if you're going to stick by me," he mused aloud. His thoughts drifted to Crewton, his loyal dog safely back at the tavern. "How about 'Bits O' Bacon'? Or Bitsy, for short. You like that?" He chuckled softly, imagining the creature's reaction if it knew what bacon was—fortunately, it probably didn't.
The creature seemed to consider, its head tilting slightly—perhaps in agreement—before thumping against G with affectionate force and resting its head on his lap. "Alright then, Bitsy it is," G declared, a genuine smile spreading across his face.
Feeling his weariness deepen, G searched his bag for something to eat, his fingers finding a remarkably fresh mushroom. As he ate, he savored the distant echoes of water dripping in the murky chamber, the sound oddly soothing beneath the dark-elf-occupied old dwarven city. He then cast Healing Petals, carefully feeding the petals to Bitsy until her wounds were completely healed.
Taking a deep, resigned breath, G reflected on his predicament. Surrounded by the dank, oppressive walls of the city's dregs, he realized just how much he disliked cities. Too much chaos, too many complications—it was all just stress and trouble he didn't need. As the hour passed, he reaffirmed his preference for the quieter, less troublesome paths of the world outside these city walls and sewers.
G looked at Tocai's quest counter again.
Quest: 23 hours 27 minutes until expiration.
Find Tocai a body - You must find a host or home for Tocai within ten days.
He needed to find a host or home for Tocai within ten days. Two days had been added to the timer when he moved Tocai to the robe from his non-magical leather hat, which he had given to Riclos to wear while they escaped the astral ship. G hoped the old man was still alive. Ryan had gone crazy, and G didn't understand why. But if Riclos was truly being used as bait, then G still believed that the old man would be alive when he came to kill Ryan. Right now, G needed to get back up to that level without going through the guards behind him.
He stood up, feeling tired, but the thought of those guards behind him made him ready to move on. Hopefully, if they followed this larger tube, they would find another chamber that went upward to more sewers. He was still under the city, and he could see that on his map. He could even see the three levels of sewers, or parts of it above him, as he moved around the map, trying to find the best way up.
"Tocai, is there any way for us to go up without going past the guards? " asked G, hoping his familiar could compute, triangulate, or something out of here.
"I have very little knowledge of this level of the sewers based on this room and the tunnels we can see. Once we have explored a bit more of it, I will have a better chance of understanding its design," said Tocai.
With a frustrated frown, G led the way cautiously along the grimy walkway. The lesser tubes branching off were mostly dry, marked with a crusty residue. Ahead, the main channel of sewage continued its relentless flow.
Bitsy stopped behind G, and he looked back. She was tilting her ear to one of the tubes. G went back to listen.
"I told you these sewer goblins would find the trail again. They aren't bothered at all with the stench down here," said a deep voice.
"I don't trust them. They can barely speak, and they are dumb as mud in a puddle," said another voice as the conversation faded into the distance.
G looked at the tube. It went up to the level above a foot back. These guards were right above them, which meant they were not far from finding the ramp down.
Hw paused, his mind racing as he scanned the murky tunnel once more. There was no way to mask his scent in these dank depths. The realization hit him hard. The fuzzy goblin he'd glimpsed earlier must be one of the sewer goblins the pursuer had mentioned. If it could indeed sniff him out through this fetid labyrinth, then his magical safeguards were alarmingly ineffective. It's not just any goblin—it's adapted to these sewers.
The idea that the creature could track him through the spells designed to obscure his presence from magical tracking added a weight of inevitability to his situation. G's pulse quickened; he knew they needed to move faster. The protection he relied on was compromised, and every minute in the sewers was a minute closer to being found.
His hands moved quickly through his inventory, the sound of clinking glass filling the tense silence. He pulled out several vials filled with swirling, mysterious substances taken from a necromancer's spell room. Each vial pulsed with an unknown power, tempting yet terrifying. G hesitated, knowing all too well the chaos that could ensue from recklessly using such potent magic. The risk of unleashing something catastrophic was too great.
With a resigned sigh, G stowed the vials away. No, I can't risk more unknowns. Determination set in his eyes as he decided the only viable option left was to outpace his pursuers. "We need to keep moving, and fast," he muttered under his breath, preparing to push his limits in the murky, treacherous paths of the sewer.
After a relentless sprint, G slowed his pace as they descended another level and entered a distinctly different chamber. It wasn't just the layout, with ramps leading both upwards and downwards alongside the flowing waste, that caught his attention. Dominating the space was an ancient door, and its design was a stark contrast to the utilitarian sewer passages.
The door, octagonal and fashioned from an indeterminate stone, was a relic of dwarven craftsmanship. The hues of the stone blended from brown to gray, interspersed with flecks of green that caught the dim sewer light, causing it to shimmer subtly. It was bound by thick, rusted metal bands adorned with etched dwarven runes that flickered with a ghostly light under his torch. Despite the obvious age, the metal, unfamiliar and robust, held the heavy structure firmly in place. The door's deep set into the wall and the absence of any visible handle or knob added to its enigmatic presence.
G approached cautiously, his eyes narrowing as he examined the mysterious structure. The feel of the cool, hard surface under his fingertips was unexpectedly invigorating. It didn't just seem like a barrier; it felt imbued with energy, as if it were more a magical artifact than a mere access point.
"There's something about this door," G murmured, tracing the runes with a sense of awe. The flickering light from the torch seemed to dance more vigorously as if reacting to his touch. "It feels... alive, almost like it's waiting for something."
G inspected the door, trying to use his identity skills.
Dwarven door: Unknown
As G inspected the door, complex dwarven runes etched around its frame shimmered into visibility. He ran his fingers over them, feeling a tangible thrum of power. Despite its weathered surface, the door stood robust, a relic of dwarven craftsmanship intended to endure through the ages.
"That's quite a door, reminds me of the upper gates," G remarked, his voice tinged with respect. A familiar sensation tugged at him, the same instinctual pull towards safety he'd relied on in the old Area 51 tunnels. Behind this door, shelter awaited.
"Now, how do we open it?" he mused, noting the scratches around the frame. Someone had tried to access it before but had given up. Why?
"Tocai, what do you think?" G asked, seeking his companion's input.
"Your 'Identify Magical Item' skill just increased, though the item remains unknown. Curious how your skills adapt—perhaps it's tied to both discovering and identifying magical items?" Tocai pondered aloud. "Let's see if we can open it."
G studied the door more intently. "Can you decipher these runes with your language skills?"
"They're not part of any recognized language. I do not think my ability extends to magical runes," Tocai confirmed.
G sighed, focusing on the slightly more worn runes. Perhaps they just needed to be pressed together. Behind him, the faint echoes of movement from the tunnel urged him to hurry.
"Fine, let's do this," he said as his ring pulsed. He pressed the three worn runes simultaneously. As he did, the magical mechanism on the door shimmered with arcane energy, emitting a brilliant light that shot downward into the floor. G grinned in triumph.
His grin was short-lived. Without warning, the floor beneath them gave way. As they plummeted downwards, the hatch snapping shut above, G managed an exasperated "Oh crap," as he braced for impact.