Fai woke, to the smell of an aroma she'd caught before at the inns she'd stayed at when she'd come downstairs in the early hours of the morning, but hadn't actually bothered to ask what it was. Uthern was sipping the oddly pleasantly-scented stuff from a metal cup and keeping watch over her and the sleeping Ari. She sat up, and asked, "What is that? Whatever it is, it smells wonderful."

"Tis called coffee. 'Tis made from running hot water through ground beans, much like when you brew tea from ground leaves... 'tis a bit bitter, though, so we usually add honey or sugar to sweeten it up. Care to try some, lass?"

"Sure."

Uthern handed Fai a mug from his pack and after pouring water from a kettle on the fire through a mesh filled with brown stuff into a pot, poured the brown liquid now in the pot into the mug, then handed it to her along with a spoon and a jar of honey. "I use about 3 spoonfuls for a mug that size tae sweeten it, but then ah've got me a sweet tooth."

Fai grinned, thanked him, and tasted the dark liquid, almost spitting it out. "Ugh! So bitter!" She added a spoonfull of honey and tasted it again, this time barely taking in any. "Better, but I think you have the right of it." She added two more spoonfuls, stirred them in, and tasted it again. "Oh! That's much better!"

"Yep. Has a good flavor if ye can kill the acrid part of it. Wakes ye up right well, too."

Fai handed back the spoon and honey, then sipped her coffee. "Thanks, Uthern. It's nice sitting by the fire like this and having a warm drink."

"Good company and good brew is always a pleasure, aye. And you're a pleasant sort," he nodded toward Ari, "unlike a certain little hyperactive smartarse."

Ari mumbled sleepily, "stop your squeaking, sewer rat," and rolled over. Fai and Uthern both chuckled.

They let Ari sleep a while, keeping watch until the sun was up somewhere out there, sharing some rations for breakfast while Ari had her coffee with a bit of a rum kicker.

"Ah, that hit the spot. Thanks, rat," Ari said and giggled as she finished up, and everyone stowed their gear.

"Och, now, don't ye start with me, missy," he said, "we have things to do that are more important than having to extract m'boot from yer arse, aye?"

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Ari pouted, as she collected her things and stood, "Killjoy."

"Good girl. Now, last time I ran into that huge fucker, he was harassing me down that way." Uthern pointed to the corridor he'd been down before finding this room and the two ladies that helped him out of his little jam. "So I suggest we head that way. I can finish up the job, and we can hunt the rest of these bloody things down."

Fai turned from snuffing out the fire, and piped up first, "Sounds good to me. Ari?"

"Kay-oh. Let's do this thing." With that she headed toward the hallway, "I'll scout ahead."

Uthern just shook his head, hoisting his pack and offering a hand to Fai. "That one's too impulsive by half."

"Yeah, but it's part of her charm," Fai replied with a grin as she took his hand up, getting to her feet. "Shall we?"

"Let's."

And with that they followed Ari into the dank, darkness ahead.

--|--

They moved as quietly as they could through the corridors, Ari having scouted a ways ahead, proclaiming it clear... apparently the band they'd taken out at the cistern room was the larger of the bands, but the more disorganized. They ran into a few traps Ari mostly getting them past or disarming them without much effort, though a crossbow trap scared the bejeezus out of them as Fai was nearly skewered on a bolt. Her hearing had caught the whizzing of the bolt just in time for her to hit the floor, the bolt clattering against the stone behind her. Luckily, it missed.

Unluckily, it also alerted something farther up the hallway, and they had no time to make a trap like they did before. They were on their way, and being fairly careful if her ears were correct.

"They're coming," Ari said in a whisper, taking the words right out of Fai's mouth. "Ready your weapons. They'll be here in about 30 seconds." With that, she disappeared into the shadows, and the engineer and the elf prepared for the incoming mini-horde.

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Sniffing the air, the kobolds came toward them from the other end of the hall they were on... moving in a sort of loose formation, the lead kobold pointing out traps to his comrades as he moved forward. These appeared to be much better prepared than the other band, but, Fai swore they'd go down. She nocked her arrow, and took aim just above the face of the lead kobold with her bow... almost got a bead and... she loosed the arrow. It flew true, embedding itself in the wall behind him leaving a hole through the kobold's skull.

A cackle sounded from the back of the horde, and was quickly silenced. The lead kobold was a raised corpse, and being controlled by a shaman... who was just taken out from the shadows by Ari. Uthern used that moment to come out swinging. He pulled out his greathammer, a mechanical sledgehammer that appeared to have some kind of counterweight system on one side of the head. As he swung it back, a flywheel mechanism spun up, and a weight slid from the core of the head out the back, when he swung it forward, the flywheel kept the angle straight, and the sliding weight reconnected with the head of the hammer, adding to the force of the blow, this blow in particular crashing into the midsection of one, who then bowled into about three more, scattering them.

...And that was Fai's cue. She began loosing arrow after arrow at the staggering and fallen kobolds around Uthern, nearly every hit scoring a kill, and Ari swept up the leavings, making sure the fallen kobolds stayed that way. Ari collected the spoils, this time opting to leave the corpses where they lie, at least for now, only taking their trophy teeth and any valuables.

"I have a feeling there are at least a few still that way holding down the fort," Ari said to them, "though I'd wager not many left now."

Fai started to move to the corpses to drag them backto the room with the firepit, but Ari shook her head. "Leave 'em for now. If we have to we'll send someone, but we've spent long enough down here... and we need to get them gone first either way."

Fai shrugged, "Sure. Makes sense. I'd rather not deal with it anyway."

"Tis grim work, for sure, lass. I canny blame ye for not wantin' to get rid of the bodies," Uthern replied, "but let's note where we left 'em to make it easier for whoever we send back for 'em."  He pulled out his map of the sewer, and marked some points on it with a charcoal pencil, then stowed it back in his side pouch.

"Thanks, Uthern."  Fai smiled at him gratefully.

Ari stepped from the shadows, making them both jump a bit, "Shhh!  They're not that far away. Looks like they finally started looking for their missing fellows.  Two big'uns.  Seriously ugly. I think one's a caster."

"Ok, then... how do you want to handle this... you going to get around them again?" Fai asked, "Or are we going to try some new tactics?"

"Well this IS your levelup training, so you should lead the next battle - you'll get the strategy and leadership bonuses that way," Ari repllied.

"I'd suggest perhaps we go after the non-caster, and you do your magic thing, lass, since neither of us have that particular ability," Uthern offered.

"Okay. Ari, you say there are two - one fighter, one caster.  Where are they?"

"Hunting about three segments away, so approximately two corridors and two junctions between us, at last count."

"So we'll be fighting them in the halls not in a room this time... so a bit more of a restricted space... Let's use that stealth of yours to box them in. You each take a shot at them, and I'll fireball the side of the hall next to the enemy, and then we can duck to each side to let the heat of the blast pass, rinse and repeat. Thoughts?"

Uthern nodded. "Sounds like as solid a plan as any I can think of, lass."

"Nice," Ari beamed, "Way to use that pretty head of yours, Fai. Let's do this."  With that she faded into the shadows, and they followed her marks toward the enemy.

Fai ended up hearing them before they saw them, grunting and sloshing footsteps making them easy to track once close... she motioned to Uthern to turn the corner to the left, but hide against the opposite corner of the northern passage, as the growling dogmen were off to the east. She prepared her spell, and he readied a throwing axe, as she knew Ari prepared her knives at the far end, both awaiting her signal. Once her near-silent incantation was ready, she nodded to both, and two weapons flashed in the darkness, Ari's knife finding it's mark in the head of the mage, Uthern's clumsier throw hit the kobold's arm, making it spin about, just in time for the fireball to hit the wall beside it, engulfing both creatures in flame. Howls erupted from them as they burned, flailing about as the unquenchable magical flames wreathed them, making them easy targets for all three to finish off.

"Well done lass!" Uthern patted Fai's head as Ari stepped out of the shadow next to them. "Yep. Nice job." Ari grinned as much at Fai's embarassment over having her head patted like a child as at her success.

"Thanks you two," she said, still blushing, "Shall we get out of here? It'll be too soon if I never see - let alone smell - another sewer."

"Aye. Let's go get cleaned up and have us a beer while we choose our levelup options.  I managed a couple levels, so I'm guessing you at lower experience tae start should have made a few at least in the last couple days, no?"

Fai mentally checked her status. "Oooh, yes I have. I'll have to consider carefully! Let's go!"

They climbed up the nearest ladder, Uthern knocking open the sewer cover with a headbutt that let out a huge CLANG!  The guards nearby came running, and Ari grinned at them, simply saying, "The puppies that gave you so much trouble are gone."

Uthern pulled out his map. "Aye. you'll find we took care of about half of the bodies but there are some here." He pointed to the markings on his map.

"Uh... we'll find it, thank you, brave adventurers!"  They then marched off, apparently to notify someone to hand out new orders.

The three went back to the inn to level up and celebrate Fai's first real adventure.