Using their combined might, the adventurers heave the heavy manhole cover aside. A ladder disappears into the blackness. Thoradin stretches out his arms and mutters a few words, making Londer’s Great Khan and Miss Moss’s sword, which she now realises she hasn’t named, illuminate. Londer leads the descent.
Underneath Yartar stinks; the air is dank and heavy with millennia of slow-moving human waste. The gang reach the ground one by one, peering around in the dim light. They can sort of see, some better than others, a pathway on both sides of the sludgy stream. The stonework is much older than the Yartar above. The gang see an iron gate on one side and an opening ahead, some distance away to the east. The ground is incredibly slippery, treacherous. The gang must tread carefully.
It seems very still, besides the sound of running water, and very, very dark. The gang set off, turning left into a corridor where they think there’ll be more tunnels, but they find a closed grate. They enter a small room off the tunnel, workers’ quarters or a control room. A skeleton, in work clothes, is slumped in the corner. Slime covers all the walls.
There are wheels and hand levers, four of each, attached to the wall. There seems to be a colour code but it is not immediately clear what it means. Miss Moss inspects the levers and wheels, drawing her mind back to Thundertree, and believes if they spin all the wheels it will let water into the sewerage system. Pulling the lever would likely drain it out.
The gang debate pulling the levers or not. Lia suggests pulling the lever now might be a bit destructive; Leshanna muses about where the water goes (does it flood Yartar?); Londer blinks and doesn’t say anything; Thoradin isn’t too keen, and Miss Moss is itching to pull the lever.
Thoradin says he doesn’t think anyone should be turning anything on or off unless they know what is going to happen. When Miss Moss says she’d like to just give it a little try, Thoradin says, “Alright then, everyone draw your swords!” Miss Moss drops her hand, and after some discussion, they decide no pulling levers just yet, but maybe later if need be.
The gang look around the small room finding rags, which after being shaken, deliver four gold pieces and 11 of silver. Thoradin pockets some masonry tools.
Facing back to the tunnel, the gang realises that the Tressym can maybe help them out now by going ahead to see what’s around. Leshanna allows Rillix, her familiar, to fly out ahead into the dark. Through Rillix, Leshanna can see the catwalks surrounding a small pool. Inside the pool, the water is noticeably cleaner. There is a pathway going to the east and a collapsed area above.
Suddenly, a creature jumps out of the water and Rillix is entangled in a net and pulled down into the water. Leshanna now sees fish faces. Leshanna yelps, shocked and worried at the quick catch of Rillix, and calls out “Charge!” Londer charges out of the room first, warning everyone to be careful as he slides around.
As the gang start to migrate to the door of the control room, to follow the direction of the Tressym, the slime surprisingly starts to move on the walls, coming together to form a dark glob of ooze. There is no indication of this glob being conscious or able to talk, but they do sense it is trying to hurt them.
“We’ve seen one of these before…”, says Thoradin.
“Yes, at Wave Echo Cave, I remember being quite flummoxed!” Lia says. It’s similar to their other slimy encounter, but grey, not green, and smaller.
Leshanna, eyeing the slimy glob and thinking only of Rillix, tries to dash out of the room after Londer, but slips straight down onto the slimy ground, one leg tucked under the other awkwardly. Lia swings her longsword at the ooze, hitting it; it squelches. It’s not clear whether the glob is injured, but bits of ooze have fallen off it. Lia runs out of the room, also immediately falling.
A human-size fish person comes over and starts making a series of noises that Lia can understand. It sounds like broken English, “Catch the cat! It’s coming!” The fish person jumps out of the water with a net and a pincer-like spear with spikes on it and starts running towards them.
In the distance there is a splash and another one of these fishy-man creatures jumps out and starts moving towards Lia as well. They are calling “Takesit the cat!” The two other unseen fish people are making noises of agreement. These are Kuo-toa.
Miss Moss calls to Leshanna, not able to see, asking, “What is going on?”
“There are fish people! They want Rillix! Or maybe Gunther, but I’m mostly worried about Rillix!”
Miss Moss eyes the slime then carefully steps towards it and swings her greatsword. The sword squelches into the ooze, but once she pulls it out, it looks the sword is corroding. It glows in her hand, seemingly leaving the glob unaffected.
Miss Moss is sick of the slow-moving and useless slime and prepares to leave the room (carefully). She peers into the darkness but can’t see the fish people. Suddenly, to her surprise, she feels psychic energy coming from the direction of the ooze she had just attacked, in the back of her skull and behind her eyes. The pain and pressure in her head drops her, and she crouches down with her head between her legs, breathless and overwhelmed. She calls out to the others, “Guys, I’ve just had a psychic attack in my brain from that fucking blob!”
Thoradin rushes over to Gunther and tries to throw him toward the exit, but the throw is rather a dud. (Seven-foot cat, dwarf, short throw by any index.) Thoradin runs as far towards the exit as he can, slipping past Gunther, who then, panicking, returns the favour and picks Thoradin up and hurls him as far as he can.
Londer sees Miss Moss is in pain and throws some of his healing vibes her way. She immediately feels better, and thanks Londer. Londer then tries to spring towards the sound of the chattering fish people but as he leaps, he slips a bit, skids and – not that anyone can really see – looks pretty cool, sliding to the end of the wall, holding his position with his outstretched arms. He quickly draws his crossbow and lands a beauty shot on the fish person, straight into the chest. The fish person falls back into the water.
Looking through the eyes of the Tressym, Leshanna can see that the tiny cat is about 50 feet from Londer, being carried forward in a net, away from them. She instinctively casts a web, and it descends upon the two captors, covering them. One of the fish people is completely caught up, the other partially, and poor Rillix is now double netted.
Lia stands up and casts a Hunter’s Mark, pulling out her longbow and aiming for the fish person’s eye. She gets him, but it was a weak shot. Lia is pissed at herself, but Londer woops at the hit. The gang is celebrating the smallest of triumphs down in the sewer, like not falling over. Everything feels like it’s in slow motion.
Gunther would like to do vicious mockery of the ooze but reconsiders, moving into the open, using his claws to offset the slippery slime. He can see two fish people, one struggling out of the water who looks quite hurt, Londer’s hit. One has the staff with spikes on it and looks like he means business, while the other two are covered in web and stuck to the concrete. The big ginger cat thinks of speaking to the animals, but reconsiders again (so indecisive today) and pulls out his crossbow. He aims at the injured fish person. It’s a rather damaging hit, with the fish person still on his feet but clearly in considerable pain.
The fish person who was submerged climbs up towards Londer. He calls out, “For Usuth, for Usuth!” The fish person launches his spear at Londer, but misses. The one in the distance comes over, the mean one, and starts calling out a series of incantations. He casts a holy light that surrounds his compatriot, bestowing a shield around him. The webbed fish people try to escape, but just get more tangled up. Leshanna is, relatively speaking, pleased with her handiwork.
Double-netted Rillix starts chewing at the net, and in the shadows, he can see something pretty big lurking. Leshanna can’t quite make it out.
Miss Moss leaps over the water easily, sliding on her landing into the wall, holding on safely. She turns and draws her longbow, piercing the nearest fish person. He spins around and looks at her. She raises an eyebrow, and attacks again, another sweet slash, and the staring fish person is visibly wounded. Miss Moss smirks.
Thoradin can hear a squelching sound behind him. The dwarf casts a sacred flame at the fishperson with the spear and an arc of holy light makes the whole tunnel visible. The gang can now see the shapes further down the tunnel, and in the water.
Londer attacks the nearest fish person with his the Great Khan but, to his shame, misses by miles. He tries again and misses again. Everyone sees.
Leshanna casts her signature move, the ray of frost, for once missing absolutely everything. The frost bolt just fizzles and foams impotently in her hand like a primary school volcano of baking soda and vinegar. She is crestfallen.
Lia places a hunter’s mark and aims her bow at the wounded fish person’s eye. He’s clearly on his last legs, shaking, with ooze and fish blood is coming from his wounds. She moves, staying miraculously upright on the slippery path.
Gunther pulls out his scimitar and swings at the fish person, amazingly slicing his head completely off his shoulders. The body slides back into the water and the current moves it, and the separated head, along, bobbing.
The speared fish person calls out again, “For Usuth, For Usuth!” and brings his pincer spear down on Lia, holding onto her neck and grappling her. He brings his disgusting smelly mouth down on her flesh and starts to bite indiscriminately. Lia is so disgusted it gives her extra fight, but alas, even the hard-to-elicit disgust of a wood-elf is not enough to get Lia free. She is trapped in a cloud of putrid fish breath.
Both of the other fish people finally rip themselves out of Leshanna’s web, calling out in victory. They grab the net with the Tressym again and walk it through the water to the north.
From behind the gang, they can hear the unmistakable squelch of ooze.
Thoradin again casts sacred flame at the speared fish person, but as is the way today, completely misses. Miss Moss takes aim with her sword at the arm clutching Lia, right on the joint. Slicing the forearm off didn’t really take that much effort after all and blood spurts out of the arteries. Weak joints. The fish person bleeds out within seconds, falls, dies, and Lia is freed. Lia makes a face at Miss Moss, muttering something that sounded like “Eugh, brush your fucking teeth once, dude.”
Londer makes the huge leap across the canal to join Lia and Miss Moss, but he just misses, his fingers grimly catching onto the slimy edge like a scene out of Floor is Lava, his feet dangling in the sewerage. He manages to pull himself up.
Even though their sight is compromised, Miss Moss and Londer can see the two fish people carrying the Tressym moving away from the gang, but that’s not their only problem.
Now, emerging from the roof, the gang see an enormous monstrosity with three legs – grotesque tripod type – with eyes on stalks and rubbery tentacles reaching out to find surfaces – or creatures. The tentacled blasphemy moves easily in the slime towards the netted Rillix, then turns its enormous head, looks at the adventurers and lets out a massive roar. The fish people begin murmuring excitedly while the gang is taken aback and afraid for Rillix.
Londer, not wasting a moment, launches a javelin towards the monstrosity. The massive creature spins towards Londer, but as he does, he hears a deep voice inside his head that says slowly, “Really shouldn’t have done that…”
Londer had a really good comeback, which he’ll have ready for you next time.