image [https://i.imgur.com/bCe0J3F.jpg]

Fabulosa sighed. “I don’t think using Beaker is going to work. Don’t you have shrink potions? We could raise you up, and you could Magnetize the key to you, no?”

Fabulosa had gobs of good ideas today. The shrink potions we took from Winterbyte’s gnoll would work under two conditions. First, they also needed to reduce my weight. I hoped they also didn’t shrink the range of my spells. Otherwise, the key would be too far away for a 6-inch Apache to Magnetize. I nodded in agreement that it seemed worth a try. “I hadn’t thought of that. We better put Beaker away first. I don’t want him to eat me.”

Fabulosa chuckled. Something I said had given her another idea. She held up a finger. “Wait. Before we bring him down, let’s try something first.” She climbed into the pipe leading out of the room. Even though Beaker stood twenty feet over our heads, I could see his eyes follow Fabulosa. He had the same panicked look whenever she left the town hall.

In my head, Beaker mentally panicked. “Fabulosa is leaving! Why is she leaving?”

I understood her plan and telepathically spoke to Beaker. “Beaker, Fabulosa is gone!”

The griffon ruffled his features and stretched his wings.

“She’s gone, Beaker! Where is she? Wait—don’t fly down. Can you find her?”

He cocked his head to look around.

I pointed to the griffon. “Beaker, Fabulosa is up there! She’s right behind you!”

Beaker swiveled his head and looked directly at the key ring. Again, I saw his head cock to the side as he inspected the “shiny new thing” that had been behind his back the whole time. He didn’t like things above him and hated when people tried to pet his head or touch his back. This shiny object showed the audacity to sneak up on him. He pecked at the offensive key, dislodging it from the metal rod. It fell, clattering to the floor while my griffon trilled in triumph.

Fabulosa crawled back into the room to retrieve the key.

“Fabulosa’s here! Fabulosa’s here!” Beaker screamed in my brain and leaped from his perch.

“No—wait! Beaker, no!”

Beaker furiously flapped his little wings, but they couldn’t purchase enough lift to keep him from falling. He spiraled as he plummeted, midway between falling and flying. Using his wings to slow his descent, he landed with a muffled plop without breaking his wings or legs.

In my mind, Beaker cried. “I flew! I flew!”

“Are you okay?”

The griffon ignored the mental questions. Instead, he focused on Fabulosa. “Fabulosa is here! I flew to Fabulosa!”

When Fabulosa ran to him, he searched her fingers for the treats she often gave upon greeting him in the town hall.

“Chickers! You big turkey! You could have killed yourself!”

When my heart stopped pounding, I realized I should have just dismissed him. He would have winked out of existence without a concern.

I joined Fabulosa in ruffling his chest feathers and gave him a treat. “You’re a good boy, Beaker, but you need to be more careful.”

The griffon puffed out his feathers in a display of pure pleasure. He loved being the center of attention.

Lloyd examined the key. It looked like a triangular bottle opener or a socket wrench more than a key. When he realized he had an audience, he shared a childhood memory. “The lads who hornswoggled this from the engies were heroes to us. Sink me! They gave us their best chase through these tunnels. If they caught you, it meant bad news, so we were fleet.” He clasped the key in his grip and looked up at us. “They’ll be on our tail again, but we’ll haul wind even with 68 refugees in tow.”

I dismissed Beaker. “Where to next, Lloyd?”

Lloyd made a turning gesture with his index finger. “Valve room. We’ll full about and take one of the hatches we passed a ways back.”

“We passed a hatch?” Fabulosa looked surprised.

“Passed lots of ‘em.” Lloyd beckoned us back into the narrow pipe. We backtracked through the pipes and to the waist-high waters of the spillway. We followed until he stopped at a panel I took for a rusted drain grate. He poked a thin dagger through its dark holes, and something shifted against the tip of his blade. “Thar she is!” He pulled off the grate to reveal an empty room. Grates covered the ceiling and floor. Seeing no other exit, we climbed out anyway, stretching until Lloyd got his bearings.

Lloyd’s eyes followed some pipes overhead and rubbed his fingers over the tiles. “I never thought they’d do it, but they updated this section of the Underworks. She’s a new layout entirely—what with Arlington using new aquifers instead of regular ol’ aqueducts to feed its freight canals. That’s why they changed this around. When you reach a vintage as venerable as my own, you’ll see change. Neighborhoods, cultures, and landmarks come and go.” He kicked his toe through a nearby puddle. “Don’t believe alchemists when they tell you water is the universal solvent. No, sir. It’s commercial interest. It yields to nothing and leaves no city untouched. Even down here.”

I refreshed Presence while we waited for Lloyd to make a decision.

At least he broke the silence. “I know the way. Back through the crosscut!”

Lloyd crawled back through the hole, and we all dutifully followed him onto a ledge overlooking a giant basin carved from living stone. It felt colder to the touch than the ceramic pipes or poured concrete mixtures of the tunnels. All eyes followed the sailor to see if he recognized the place.

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Lloyd confirmed my doubts. “We’re lost.”

“What?” I thought his comment deserved a bit more explanation.

Lloyd frowned, but he didn’t look disheartened. “We’re in the right vicinity. The control room is near, but I got mixed up. It’s been so long. Don’t fret, Cap’n. Ol’ ‘Lloyd will steer ye through.”

The more he reassured us, the more nervous everyone looked.

“We must be in the belly of old Arlington. She’s long in the tooth down here. Not swabbed like the streets or squared away like the engineering sections. Nor is it foul like the sewers, but keep your hands weapons-ready down here.”

To our dismay, the ledge concealed no exits. The ceiling had several shafts that disappeared into darkness. I studied the pool of water below with suspicion. The light from Presence reflected on its opaque surface, so none could tell what lay beneath or how deep it went. The chilly air smelled like clay.

The green film covered the ledge, so we took care to walk the perimeter. We surveyed the space from different vantages until Fabulosa spotted a doorway. Judging by the water level, it would be around five feet deep, almost up to the lintel. I found no door, or perhaps it had rotted away. I kicked debris into the basin to see if the disturbance stirred anything inside the stagnant water, but the ripples created the only movement. If submerged monsters awaited, they were patient.

Bernard anchored a rope and dropped it into the inky liquid. Fabulosa and I climbed down. Aside from the chilly temperature, nothing challenged us. Fletcher and Lloyd climbed down next, followed by the dwarves. Bernard perched himself on Fletcher’s shoulders to keep his head above the surface while Blane piggybacked on Lloyd.

Fabulosa and I took the lead as we waded toward the dark doorway. Presence lit the water like a beacon, but since the waterline reached our neck, the reflections and refractions made it challenging to see our hands and weapons extended in front of us. I used Creeper to survey our environment, while everyone else used touch. Luckily, we had terrific underwater mobility because of our Amphibious mandate.

The flooded hallway intersected with another, but Creeper showed nothing in either direction. Lloyd nodded to go straight, but he didn’t sound sure of himself. We passed a tall room in which a cathedral-sized bell lay on the floor. I couldn’t fathom what purpose a bell had this far underground.

We passed by two stairwells descending into water and a bowing wall section. When we entered an octagonal chamber that branched into eight hallways, everyone turned to the sailor for guidance.

“I’m sorry, Cap’n. I truly am. These are uncharted parts. I recognized the basin, but….”

Fabulosa spoke up. “It’s alright, Lloyd. We can always backtrack through the crawlspace if we hit dead ends.” She continued straight when no one objected to a little exploration.

We dead-ended into another flooded room whose floor disappeared into a shaft of black water. Navigating with Creeper helped us avoid walking straight into the watery pit.

We returned to the octagonal room and took another route leading to a barrel-vaulted chamber reminiscent of a library, temple, or church. Shelves, rotted rugs, and waterlogged furniture poked above the waterline, and the flotsam blocked my ability to see underwater.

Fabulosa fanned out to explore the room. Without a means of looking past the surface, she focused her attention on the shadows on the ceiling. When something yanked her beneath the waterline, I swung my spear to assess the situation.

Name

Albino Fisher

Level

36

Difficulty

Dangerous (orange)

Health

3010/3010

Through the floating debris, the darting shape of a white crustacean the size of a limousine retreated. It wore a nautilus and sprouted two big claws, one of which towed Fabulosa by the leg into the murky depths.

Even grouped with adventurers dealing double damage, this creature’s difficulty rated orange. Without a plan of attack, I reflexively dove after Fabulosa, clinging to my spear and trident for their magical properties. The first thing I needed to do involved giving her my trident so she could breathe. She had to be in a state of panic being unable to see.

I deftly moved around and through the underwater obstacles to reach my companion. Floating fragments and wreckage rounded out the corners of the sunken chamber, making it difficult to tell if the original structure remained intact.

The crustacean’s attack struck her for 51 points of damage, but it seemed satisfied to drown her. It moved with no urgency. Using my strong swim speed, I caught up with them as they bottomed.

Fabulosa couldn’t see in the murky water, so she fought my first attempts to grab her, but then I realized I could speak underwater.

I grabbed Fabulosa’s wrist and forced the trident into her grip. “Take this so you can breathe!”

Fabulosa blindly flailed when I touched her, but she reacted to my voice. Everything sounded loud underwater. She stopped resisting me and grabbed the weapon. When I saw her chest heaving, I knew she would be safe. It surprised me to see her cast Restore on herself. The trident allowed her—if someone could speak underwater, they could cast spells.

Fabulosa cast Rejuvenate on herself to help heal. She tried various other spells, but the combat log showed them fizzling. Nearly everything failed except Ice Bolt, which only caused minor damage.

Smaller tendrils from the fisher found their way around Fabulosa, despite her blind, desperate kicking. Once again, the dead gnoll’s shrink potions came to mind. Surely she would be from its grasp if she shrank, but I did not know if the game allowed drinking potions underwater.

I cursed myself for not practicing underwater combat in Otter Lake before coming. I did not know what spells or actions would or would not work.

Before reaching for the shrink potion, a force hit me that caused my ears to pop. The blast emanated from Fabulosa, one I’d never felt before. The shockwave dislodged the albino fisher’s hold on her and sent me spinning. Her attack landed 120 damage, and my combat log reported her using a Shockshell Seed—the peanut she purchased in Grayton produced the underwater version of a Concussion Sphere.

As I swirled around, I caught glimpses of our companions on the surface. They backed into the hallway’s relative safety, for the fisher’s shell looked too big to fit through the door.

I swung Creeper around the room to get a better sense of my surroundings. The bloom of particulate matter clouded my infravision, and the chilly water camouflaged everything beneath the surface. Bones, shells, scales from past meals, and objects laden with metal littered the bottom. Fabulosa’s shockwave had stirred up the debris and a significant amount of silt that had settled on the bottom. Even with infravision, it nearly blinded me, and I wondered if it also clouded the fisher’s vision.

The shockwave uncovered a pair of metal doors. Unfortunately, they looked sturdy.

Fabulosa reached the surface, clinging to flotsam like a lifeline. In an instant, the fisher propelled itself toward her. It moved with such velocity she dropped the trident when it struck.

I retrieved the weapon and cast Restore and Rejuvenate to mitigate her incoming damage. Unfortunately, the blast energized the beast, which no longer contented itself with drowning its prey. Her health fell precipitously as it waved her about like a rag doll.

I jabbed the thing with the trident but only inflicted 59 damage. We had no means of killing a monster with 3,000 health down here.

The monster dragged Fabulosa under the surface once again.

She blindly lashed out at it, but her exertions only shortened her air supply.