From the Dungeon to the Sewers

A nerve-racking eternity later, Kyla and Nysqwen returned. They had explained all we knew to master Khalid, including our encounters with the hags in the swamp and the curse laid upon the daughter of the lumberjack. Nysqwen’s superior had hypothesised that this Lystramon still had to be somewhere within the city, potentially accompanied by some cultist. If this plague was in any shape connected to the demon whose summoning had been attempted, no one could know at this point. Our mission would be to find out where such entities might reside, to that end the city guard might help us by telling us where the rats had attacked more frequently. This should aid in narrowing down the search radius. Furthermore, the two had received a sending stone that should allow for quick communication with master Khalid if need be.
As the main guard station within the city was within that inner government palace, and thus still inaccessible, we went back to the Winged Wyvern bridge to speak with the stationed guards. The three men stationed there looked up at our approach and began hailing us over frantically. Before we could present our plea, they exclaimed that our group resembled one that was currently wanted by the city guard of Neverwinter. The accusation was that a half-elven woman had attacked an orderly citizen out of nowhere, with her accomplices threatening the man and his friends. These cursed fools attempting to cleanse the temple! Kyla asserted that she had not raised her hand against the man in question (which I suppose is technically true), as we explained our version of the story. The guard seemed not fully convinced by that however and bade us follow him to the garrison as this matter required further investigation. Since we were headed to someone with more authority anyways, we followed them with no resistance.
 
We were led to a building on the docks that thus far I had tried to avoid as much as possible – one of the more fortified bastions of the Neverwinter guard. They brought us before a man in his forties, his gaunt face framed by a long grey beard, sitting behind a massive desk covered in an organised chaos of parchment rolls and papers. Captain Ramas looked definitely older than at our last encounter though if I had done my job correctly, he should not have seen me back then. The lack of recognition in his expression calmed my pulse down slightly. He repeated the charges already stated by the guards earlier and once again Kyla responded with our version, adding that we were here on behalf of the Lords’ Alliance to help the city and that this certainly was not the time to waste with such nuisances. Grum indignantly added that he was quite disappointed in the city guard to bring such allegations against him as a member of the brew masters guild, while I chimed in that the priests of the temple of the Mother of all Magic could certainly help back our reputation somewhat after what we had done on their behest.
Captain Ramas still insisted that this matter would require further investigation, the Lords’ Alliance would be contacted, and our denouncers had to be questioned more in detail. In the meantime, he saw himself with no other choice then to take us into temporary custody until this matter was resolved. We were brought into a small chamber where another guard behind a counter took all our weapons and armour, insisting on Voithos as well, whom Archie had tried to hide underneath his shirt. It was quite painful to see the desperation in the young human’s eyes as he had to give up his small friend, albeit for a hopefully short while. At least he would not have to spend the time in an individual cell but would be amongst us. Nysqwen’s attempt to hide her throwing axes by contrast was more amusing, although she seemed almost as sad as Archie to part ways with her weapons. When the guards seized Archie’s staff, he pointed out they should take extra care with the red button on its side.
Next, we were brought into a dimly lit cell, the only light coming in through a barred window. We were locked inside, yet at least they did not bother to lay us in chains. After carefully avoiding ending up in this place for my entire life, it was sobering to finally end up in this place for something as stupid as this. The irony almost made me laugh out loud. Upon being asked, Archie explained that the button he had pointed out caused a sonic condensation within the shaft that upon release would shatter any glass or fragile stone around, while being quite unpleasant to any creatures in the vicinity. With nothing better to do, Grum began imitating a variety of animal noises for us to guess. His seagull was so convincing that indeed a yellow beak appeared through the bars of the window.
 
Two hours later we were free to go. A message from master Khalid validated our claims, the Lords’ Alliance influence in the city was not to be underestimated. After gathering all our belongings, we came before captain Ramas once more. Discussing now our real reason for coming here, he apologised and assured additional safety measures would be taken for the temple of Lathander. The proclamation of the mob before the palace had indeed caused a great deal of worry within the bodies responsible for order in the streets. Ramas further explained that the rats for the past days had been less of a problem throughout the day but had wreaked havoc in the nights. If things continued as they stood now, food storages would run out quickly in this lockdown thus time was of the essence. The northeast of the city was still tight in the grasp of the orcs and there were no reports how things stood there. The south-eastern districts surrounding the chasm also were problematic due to their size and the usual strange activities around the maw, leaving many of the more superstitious guards with a burning desire to stay as far away from there as possible. Still, rat attacks seemed to concentrate somewhat along the new eastern wall segregating the chasm region from the city proper, yet it was difficult to say that with certainty. The guard’s strategy thus far had been to eliminate the huge black rat leaders, in his opinion just killing enough of those should stem the onslaughts somewhat. Kyla interposed that it might be prudent to catch one of these devil-rats for questioning, perhaps they would know more than our old friend Ratty McRatface. The main problem here would be their notorious teleportation if things grew too dire. A problem the guards had experienced as well and they too had failed to find a suitable solution as of yet. Kyla asked if there might be some kind of anti-magic chains for magically endowed criminals that might be used if one could hold the rat down for long enough. Ramas affirmed that and handed us two pairs of these shackles although these properties only worked reliably against very simple forms of magic, something as powerful as these hellish spawns may not have any issues ignoring their properties. He also assured us 25 gold pieces for every fiendish rat we would slay, as long as we could provide evidence. Teynos wanted to know if attacks at the very beginning of this plague had already accumulated in the east, which indeed was true if the captain recalled correctly. A request for potential backup by soldiers he had to turn down, as the guards were busy enough with their own patrols, but he agreed to let his men know that we were to be allowed entry into any areas our research would lead us to.
 
With this knowledge, we said our goodbyes to make our way towards the inner eastern wall of the city. I truly hope this was my last time in such a cell, this was more than enough already. On our way, we suddenly heard the splintering of wood and furious voices shouting. Shortly after, we saw another group of people breaking into a warehouse, probably searching for food. As Kyla shouted for guards, their attention shifted to us and a few dozen men and women started angrily charging at us, simple clubs, some pitchforks and torches raised high. Alas, they had not planned on us putting up much of a fight and within a few heartbeats of casting spells, the sudden appearance of a large roaring bear and fire being spewn over their heads by Nysqwen, Ori and Archie, the anger turned very quickly into fear and then confusion as Kyla stepped forth and created food and water from thin air in the barrels around us. We urged them to not be stupid, take the provisions gifted to them to their families and let us do our job in finding a long-term solution to the problem haunting the city. First hesitantly, then with increasing greed the townsfolk gathered as much food as they could carry and quickly vanished from sight, before Nysqwen’s still quivering nostrils would unleash a second torrent of dragon’s flame.
Shortly after, basically just in time, the guards, Kyla had called for came jogging around a corner. Upon hearing what had happened, they thanked us for our swift acting, murmuring that it was now beginning, the madness that can only develop in a city in lockdown was spreading its cancerous arms. Kyla told them what she had done and recommended that the temples in the city should be approached as most of the clerics there should be able to make food and clean water for at least some people or a few days if distributed properly.
 
When we eventually reached the city wall, we began looking for possibilities how the rats might get into this part of the city if they indeed originated from somewhere around the chasm. Multiple entrance points to the sewers posed one option, the rough stone comprising the wall a second. However, hundreds of rats scaling and descending the structure regularly would probably have been noticed at this point. Some of the roofs though were close enough to the wall that jumping these would be another alternative for the larger specimen, especially as the same held true for the other side as I knew far too well. The old ways might have found new purpose.
The alleys around us were disturbingly silent for this time of day, all windows barred and some of the doors featured a large black X indicating for the priests of Kelemvor that the resident would require relocation to the fields of the Lord of Death. We knocked on a few doors, many of which remained shut. The common notion we gathered from the few that were willing to speak to us was affirming much we already knew. Yet a younger lady and an older gentleman were convinced they had heard the faint sound of an enticing flute melody. While the former was unable to pinpoint where that melody had emanated from, the latter described the sound wandering through the streets in a northward trajectory, passing closely by his window. He was happy to grant us access to his home for the night as evening was upon us and we wanted to stay in the area in case the melody would return. His modest home reminded me a lot of Chant’s place, although a little larger as it could accommodate all of us. Thus, a strange feeling of home came over me when we settled around his kitchen table, sharing food and stories.
Teynos told us how his mother after being unable to provide for him had given him to the monastery when he was still too young to remember. Since then, he had lived a life dominated by books and work in the service of the community, yet he always had been different from the others. He never sought much company, preferred his books and reading about the world around their secluded place. Until one day reading was not enough anymore, and he came to the conclusion that this life should have to offer more. He escaped one night and had been on the road before he eventually ran into us. Unfortunately, in all his lessons a few had been left out, amongst them how to deal with money and that most everything in the world was selfish and would either use you or kill you.
Kyla spoke off her family, and the small town of Woodsmid. With much warmth in her voice, she referred to her parents and siblings, whatever they were up to these days. And the temple. A large sanctum to the Raven Queen, surrounded by a conglomerate of other smaller shrines that had spread over the years as all faiths were welcome in this place of acceptance. She once again talked about the vision she had received from her patron, confused as it was the fate of her older sister Killi to become the next high priestess and as such to be in closer conversation with the Queen. There was no doubt however on the veracity and the importance of the message which had her immediate departure as consequence. Now she was wondering what the greater plan behind this might be or if her purpose was more to heal those that crossed our paths.
At some point, Archie discovered a bookshelf in a neighbouring room and feverously opened one after the other. All of them contained beautiful drawings but to his disappointment only small passages of text telling tales for children. When he noticed this, our host joined our friend and enthusiastically showed him more and more intricacies. This was his life’s work; he illustrated these books for a living and to provide joy to those that would read them. Archie listened to everything with patience and unfailing courtesy, although he visibly lost interest as soon as he understood the simplicity of the texts in front of him.
Our group was truly a wonderous one, this many different stories and characters having found one another to found this unlikely bond. Tested as it may be at times, it had hold strong indeed up till now. Let’s see if it will be able to resist the literal forces of the nine hells tearing at its strands violently. I pray all of us will find the strength to push against these threats so that the bond may not only remain but grow tighter, incorruptible.
 
For the night we distributed watches amongst ourselves. Archie and I had the final one, I spent the time laying the foundation to a new song that perhaps can contribute to lifting spirits once all this madness hopefully will be over. We noted nothing out of the ordinary throughout the night, although the overall mood in the city continued being dampened to say the least. We thanked our host for his kindness and left him with some of the food Kyla had created during her watch. As we had no better leads, we chose to try our luck around the chasm and made our way to the southern gate.
The guards stationed there opened it after recognising us – apparently, they had been informed to grant passage to our little hard to confuse group. The men informed us that unfortunately there had been some arson at the temple of Lathander during the night but thanks to the heightened security measures after our report, the flames could be doused before anything major happened and there had been no injured in the incident. Much more unexpected was the arrival of orcish hunting parties from the north, scurrying through the streets and exterminating any rat swarms they could find. They were much less squeamish about jumping into sewers to give chase and thus rather successful in their endeavour. Their leader, an orc woman only few citizens have ever seen must have struck some kind of a deal which indicated that the green skins are having very similar issues to ours and they understood that this was a common enemy who demanded cooperation.
 
Denizens of the chasm district these days were poor souls at the best of times. Circumstances like this plague was bringing things to a state that bordered uninhabitable. We saw even less people than usual on the streets, the few that were sneaking around were nervously looking around constantly, almost sprinting through the streets to not be exposed for too long. Multiple times we passed by two or more people having arguments over food. A quick glance over the area that would be across from where we were looking for tracks yesterday revealed no more insights than we already had, but our attention constantly drifted to the poor folk and their misery around us. Kyla initiated setting up a soup kitchen of sorts, from where she distributed what food she was able to make to the greedy hands all around us. Filled with gratitude, the people lamented about what had happened to them. They told us of countless deaths, dwindling food and water and even people disappearing. Being faced with such misery, one could almost sympathise with some of the chants of the mob the other day. Where was the fairness that was praised by our dear Lord Protector so much? Was there truly no way for the city to help these people?
Here, the rats had not yet resorted to only coming at night. It was a constant threat, looming in every shadow, every small opening. Most of the men and women around us told us they heard this strange flute in the nights although it was impossible to pinpoint from whence it emerged. Steve was the last to vanish, he was last seen at a well and then suddenly was gone. We were guided to where he had his makeshift camp in the ruins of an old house. A blanket was put up to make for some sort of cover, behind which we found some piles of rags, a firepit and some mouldy bread. It did not appear that someone had left with the intention to stay away for long but there were no signs of a skirmish and the only rat shit Teynos could find was of the normal size. Perhaps he had been taken somewhere else. Or he had gone on his own volition, which was an eerie thought.
We followed our guide to the well where Steve had last been seen: a dark hole of at least ten paces. Archie asked Voithos to scout ahead on our behalf and after a while told us there were two passageways just above the surface of the brackish water. Both led a few paces into opposing sides before bending away from a straight path. There was no choice but to once more climb down into the underbelly of the city.
 
The tunnels directly branching off from the well shaft had a very strange texture to them as Grum pointed out. Other than the sewer system we had made acquaintance with before, these were not lined with brick walls but had a strange smoothness to them that was not of humanoid origin. Grum knew of a variety of beasts that inhabited the ground that are quite capable in digging elaborate tunnel systems. Alternatively, it might have been caused by some other forces of nature, although neither of us had any real experience with such things. And one of the two at least ended up leading back into the familiar sewage system.
We have now wandered its disorienting twists for multiple hours, this system must stretch the entire area of the chasm district. Two times we have found an abrupt end to the tunnel we were following, as it ended in the broken cliff that is the maw in the earth and we hasted back the way we came as quickly as possible both times. We have taken a brief brake now, catching our breath allaying the hunger that spelunking brings with it. But if we will not soon find something, we might be forced to come back tomorrow. Spending the night in these tunnels seems to be just about the worst idea I can imagine!