A Land Down Under

Players: Hilal, Gavisa, Mel, Vennan, Angrid, Zalara, Fiona, Jessa

Title: A land down under

Summary: A trip to the sewers. Oh dear.

Log

Splut. Splut. Splut. Splut.

That's the sound that is made with each step as you work your way through the sewers. Hired, as you all have been, to do the work that nobody else wants to do.

The recent merchant battles and more has left some more ordinary tasks by the wayside. Like this one.

"We've got an overflow in one section of the sewers. As usual, something is blocking it. Probably something horrible, and I don't mean horrible smelling. Whenever something gums up the work down there, all the horrile things you can imagine are usually the result. First, there's what you'd imagine. Then everything else accumlates on top of that, and that brings out all the horrible monsters. The otyughs, the carrion eaters, and more. That's where you come in. We've had a block for a while that none of the workers want to go near, and so that's your job. Go down there, clear the blockage, and then let us know if anything interesting is there once you've dispatched the horrible monsters that are sure to be feasting upon the awfulness."

And so you're down in the sewers. Splut. Splut. Splut.

"You know. I really don't like sewers," Jessa says. In case people were wondering. She is staring down at the ground with a look of vague horror but then, she is much closer to it than everyone else. "There are no parties to accidentally stumble upon with delicious drinks down in the sewers."

Mel smirks at Jessa's comment and agrees, "Yeah, that last job was a lot less smelly, too. I was sure you'd get into some kind of trouble for being so familiar with the client's booze and such, but no one seemed to mind. I'm still not clear on how that works. If I'd walked into someone's house and started drinking their drinks, I'd get arrested." He's got a rag tied around his nose and mouth, and he's got a long pole for poking things, in case that helps. Hopefully he's somewhere near the middle of the group.

Hilal is far less grumbly than everyone else. And quieter, at least verbally. He does make a note though. "At least I'm working with some familiar faces this time. Hopefully, nobody in the party will wish to try and bash my head in with a mace this time around?" He looks very pointedly at Zalara then before he asks Jessa, "Would you rather I carry you, priestess?"

"You know. Being a Muse gets you a -remarkable- amount of leeway." Jessa is making horrified sounds but then, the halfling is sinking up to her knees with each step. "I....cannot tell you how much I appreciate your extremely kind offer, my sweet, but it is too late already."

Zalara narrows her eyes over at Hilal as she brings that up, "Well hopefully someone can follow the plan and not have to win even when he's supposed to lose so we can get the job done." She looks at Jessa, "If you like I could build you some stilts for adventures like this."

Fiona chuckles. “If you don’t like them.” She starts out and winks at the halfling, “Drinks in the sewers.” Fiona frowns and shakes her head, “If its brown, Don’t drink it down. IF its yellow, Leave it to mellow...” She warns, “Over all No...You don’t drink anything down here. “What if you lose a boot?” Fiona wonders as she sinks down and frowns, “I am not diving into the muck to save your shoes.”

"Why do we even need sewers?" Gavisa muses in a thoughtful tone of voice. She taps her chin. "I visited a village where they just threw their crap on the street. It didn't smell very good, but it didn't have monsters under the village either. I'm sure that's a pretty good tradeoff." She reaches into her cloak and takes out a bottle of expensive brandy, opens it, and retrieves a scarf. She soaks the scarf, corks the brandy, and puts it back into her cloak. "I mean, what could really go wrong with that?" She drops the hood of the cloak, ties the scarf around her head bandit style, and slips the hood back on. "Mmside fnom th' nimconvenens," she adds in a muffled voice as she adjusts the scarf.

Angrid pauses, peering down. "Hm. Thought I saw a meat pie. False alarm." He paces onward, dwarfishly trying to ignore the scents and sounds around him. He really can't blame the others for being disgusted. "'Tis the wave of the future, lass," he calls back to Gavisa. "Of course, dwarves do it better. We use high pressure water to clean out the pipes."

"Oooh STILTS." Jessa likes this idea very much but then? She would. Then she eyes Gavisa. "You have never spent time in the hospitals of places that throw things in the streets." She points to Angrid. "That sounds....well. Wait. What if you fall in the water?" She frowns then has a moment of panic when one foot pulls out of her boot. She jams it back in. "Stilts."

“Sewers are needed, so we don’t have crap in the streets.” Fiona states matter of factly. “The question is, why don’t we have someone we pay to clean up the crap on the streets.” She points out. “I am sure someone would make a good living cleaning up other people’s filth.” She stops and looks down at her feet. “Silts would be good for you. Then you could pretend to be a human once and awhile.”

Hilal grumbles, "Unfortunately, people do get paid to clean out the crap down here...Us." He winces a bit as Jessa loses her boot but recovers, but the wince had made him lose his slight blush. Nobody ever called him 'sweet' before. "I vote that we hurry. I'd rather not be down here long enough to become ill."

Mel shrugs about the need for sewers. "Someone does make a good living cleaning up the filth," he points out. "That's us. We're going to make more for this than most families earn in a year. In several years. That's why we're here." He holds an everburning torch up to light his way, using a long pole for balance where the footing gets tricky.

"Ew. Why would I want to pretend to be a giant freak?" Jessa mutters. "You people are weird and oversized." She leans down and tightens her laces as carefully as she is able to without actually touching anything bad. "Yes. We need to get out of here sooner rather than later."

Gavisa reaches into that handy-dandy cloak of hers, and retrieves two short swords. Angrid receives a skeptical look. "Mnot sure I tnust water with phressure." She glances over and down at Jessa. "Good idea. The smell hwould scare 'way th' sicknness." She follows the valiant champions.

As someone who is actually bigger than most "giant freaks" Hilal just slumps his head down some, dejected.

Angrid continues to stoically march ahead. "Just don't go swimming in it, lads and lasses, you'll be fine. Once we're done we'll get someone to dump buckets of water on us to get the filth off, then it's off to a nice hot bath."

Schloop!

The sheer build up of... well... *crap* and not just of the kind that comes out the wrong end of a human being is clear evidence that you're getting to the right place. The walls are slick with slumey water and moss.

The sewers of Alexandria are an interesting place. They are one part real sewers, well build and constructed, one part ruins that were incorporated INTO the sewer system, and one part repair work that tends to bridge the gap between the two. This creates a somewhat schizophrenic looking design, at least as far as aesthetics and sewers that can be said to have them goes.

The stench, by the way, is nearly as overpowering as... well... actually it pretty much IS overpowering. Thankfully, your senses of smell are presently disintegrating anyways.

Zalara hmms, "Well my father is working on an automated cleaning machine for the sewers, but the city council won't hear him out. And there are the otyughs that eat everything that's organic which is most of the waste anyway." She sighs as the waste is built up and she looks around, "I don't think I've been down this far before."

"Last time I was down here a tentacle thing tried to eat me," Jessa says philosophically.

“OH yeah.” Fiona says and smiles. “What are we charging for this again?” She looks at the others and then chuckles quietly. “Hey we may be weird, but we are not oversized, You are just undersized.” She sticks her tongue out at the halfling. “Well then keep pressing forward.” Fiona states and points forwards. “OOh...watch out for wheel of cheese..I think its moving on its own. Well why aren’t there more things to eat this crap, and less tentacles to eat us?”

Mel wrinkles his nose, though that's hard to see under his makeshift mask. "I think there'd be plenty for the otyughs to eat, but something's got them scared off. That's why we're here, yes?" He smirks at Fiona, and says, "Enough to eat well for several years. Or, y'know, a few potions, or maybe a downpayment on a magic sword."

Angrid shrugs, armor clanking. "Don't ask me about economics, that's a subject for the priests." He pauses again, stopping to peer at some of the moss growing on the wall, raising his helmet visor to study it intently. "Hmmm."

Gavisa saves her breath for now, pushing forward. Even with the scarf reeking of brandy, this is decidedly not fun. It's all iiiicckkkky.

Jessa gives Fiona a blank sort of look, especially when the tongue appears. "You -do- realize we are not just strange human children, don't you?" Shaking her head, the little priestess squints up at Gavisa. "Do you have more of that booze? It may have to do for a refreshing drink down here?" Maybe being slightly drunk will make the stench not so bad. Then she drifts over by Hilal and gently pats his knee, beaming up at him.

Hilal would likely be blushing at being recognized more, but something about suddenly being surrounded by moss and well...other crap really unnerves him. Instead, his shield comes from his back as he becomes on edge. He doesn't try to get away from Jessa so much as move to be covering her from anything that may come from in front of them. "This can't be natural..."

Fiona looks at Jessa, “You’re a child? I thought you were an adult.” She offers actually confused. “OF course I realize you are not a human child. You ar a half folk..” She shakes her head, “That doesn’t make you any less odd..” She seems strangely confused by the little woman. “Seriously though, we are not going to be eaten by a tentacle monster are we?”

Gavisa looks down at Jessa, blinking sharply. She raises her hand, slowly due to the sword with it, and pushes up the scarf a mite with the back of her palm. "You're going to drink down here?" Pause. "How about food? I have an egg and shrimp paste sandwich, if you're interested."

Zalara hmms at Jessa, "Of course you aren't a strange human child. I am a strange human child." She continues to look as she hmms softly before she starts to look around for what's clogging the drains.

Angrid shakes his head at Jessa. "Let it be, lass." He lowers his visor again, tightening his grip on his axe and shield before continuing -- trying to breathe through his mouth. At least his beard acts as a sort of filter for the stink.

Mel groans at Gavisa's comment, but says generally, "You people are all sick and wrong." It's not nearly muffled enough by his rag mask. He tries to remain alert for whatever is going to happen next. It's his first time here, he has no idea, though based on rumors, he expects it to be bad. And gross.

Hilal has no idea what's going on either. No, he just has a bad feeling. Bad enough feeling to draw his sword as he presses forward. Jessa contemplates that in all seriousness, studying Gavisa. "No. No, I think just a swallow or two. I'd rather taste that than the air." Perhaps the Muse operates best slightly inebriated? "Something on the ceiling tried to eat me last time," she points out far far too cheerfully.

Fiona frowns at this. “Well then.” She offers and looks up, “I guess its a good thing to be the shortest..” She glares at the ceiling like its going to betray her at any moment. The cheer in the comment is either not caught, or ignored. “Lets move faster! The faster we find the pile of poop that is clogging this, the happier we will be I am sure.” She yucks silently as she moves through the muck. Yeah lets just call it muck okay.

Gavisa carefully sheathes her right sword, and reaches in to retrieve the bottle, which she then offers to Jessa. "Got sticky, fermented beans too," she states, a little louder and more clearly than necessary. Possibly for Mel's benefit.

It's harder going now. The build up is definitely, well.. building up. The level of goo begins to rise untill it's at most people's knees. This makes it even worse for the shorter people amongst your numbers.

Up ahead, though, is the blockage. It's within sight at last. The moss is thicker here, but so the level of debris and, oh hey. it smells even worse.

That is because prat of the blockage is at least composed of bloated, liquifying human remains that appear to all be stacked against the plugged, blocked up gate. The man in charge said that there should be a lever somewhere nearby that you can pull that'll *open* the gate and should shake the debris loose. In this case, human being debris. Five of them.

They're not all that's causing the problem, of course, but...

Mel hears Jessa's comment, and looks up so fast he hurts his neck. And almost falls over. "Owowowow." Holding pole and torch in one hand for a moment, he rubs his sore neck and tries to keep his footing. Gavisa gets a pained look once he can move without hurting himself. Looking forward, he's nearly sick, though he opines, "Is that the last group that tried to clear this out? And ... if we unblock the flow, are we going to get swept away in the torrent?"

Zalara can even smell the scent though her re-breather. She hmms, "I'll have to strength this when I get home." She shakes her head, "Oh of all the ways to die I think this this way would be the worse way to die...killed by poop."

It is just as well that Jessa has taken a loooong pull on Gavisa's brandy, thanking her and passing it back. By the time they get to the blocked gate? She's in up over her waist and operating with a grim determination. One that is broken with a low "Eluna's tits, that's revolting" when she spots the remains.

"This is your fault. All of this is your fault somehow." Vennan grumbles to Jessa, trudging sullenly along behind the group.

A rat crawls out of the eye socket of one of the dead bodies.

Just so you know.

Angrid winces. "It could be worse, Vennan. We could have a gnome along." He shakes his head at the ruined remains, and rumbles, "Not sure if they died of the stink, or something else. They are... pretty crumbled." He cautiously begins to advance on the pile. "Jessa, stay back lass, I'm not sure how deep it is here."

"Something always does." Vennan grumbles, eyeing the disgusting mess ahead of the group. He may be taller than Jessa, but that certainly isn't tall enough to be sufficiently far from this horrible goo. "... Why does the Guild keep putting me on these assignments? Have I offended someone?"

Fiona frowns and looks at the bodies. “Um. Why are there bodies down here?” she asks and looks at the group. “Is it normal for bodies to be in the sewer...” She stops and looks at the group she is with, “Is it normal for dead bodies to be in the sewer.” she amends. “OR should we tell someone...”

Gavisa slips the brandy back into her pocket, and draws her second blade again. Just in case. "Uhm. There was a lever, yah? Or can one of the big, strong men pull them loose?" It never hurts to ask, right?

Jessa sidles over to Vennan and hisses something at him.

Zalara hmms, "Look at it this way we are helping people if this blockage wasn't cleaned the waste would come up through the sewer grates and everyone would get sick." She hmms, "Unfortunately, probably, there are bad people in Alexandria."

"It's my fault, Vennan. I begged them for anything that didn't involve gnomes. My luck with them has been... poor, of late." Angrid actually -shudders- at the memory, before prodding at the half-rotted corpses with the business end of his axe, seeing how securely the blockage is.

The bodies are rotted and look like they've been hre for a while. They are excessively chewed on. A lot of soft tissue on all of them is just ... gone. More rats scurry and swim along. One of them brushes Jessa.

Just so you know.

Jessa smiles sweetly at Vennan, nods. "Almost." Then she peers toward the ceiling. Supiciously. Then she makes a gagging noise and sidles away from the rat, eyeing it balefully.

Mel will move forward to try and help find the lever. "We'll move it up a bit at a time, but try to keep to the sides. The main ... blockage will come through the middle, and will be under the water, so it'll trip us up if it catches us in the feet."

Fiona shakes her head slowly. “no we are going to get sick and seriously why does everything revolve around dead bodies. Either they are coming back to life or clogging shit up.” she starts to look around for the lever that they were promised was nearby.

Vennan whispers something back to Jessa in harsh tones, his eyes narrowed. Then he looks over at Angrid, momentarially upset. He sighs heavily. "... I suppose I cannot judge you too harshly for that. The logic is all too understandable."

Vennan eyes the surroundings for a moment, then sighs heavily when his eyes land on something in the pile of bodies. "Oh, Daeus. It's... it's there. The lever." He points towards one of the corpses. "... I am going to have to pull it, aren't I?" He says with a sad, resigned tone.

Hilal says, "I can take care of it, if you are unable."

Jessa is too busy staring at yet another rat that appears to be eyeing her. "Please get us out of here?" she asks suddenly. She isn't afraid but there is an uneasy edge to the halfling's voice that is not something usually heard from her.

Gavisa sends both Vennan and Hilal a big smile. Of course, she's wearing a scarf, so they can't really tell. But, uhm. Her eyes are smiling. Or laughing. Something positive and endearing like that. Sure. "Great. That is so brave of you, gentlemen."

Mel tries not to get sick, but he'll move forward to help with the lever-clearing. "The war was never this bad," he mutters as he tries to use his long pole to move the body off the lever, but will reach in with hands if he needs to. If he really needs to.

Fiona stands there and nods to Vennan. She motions the man to the pile of dead bodies. “I am going to stand...Over there.” She motions off to the side and starts to head that way. “As soon as he pulls the lever...”

Hilal nods to Jessa, making sure that his amber eyes lock with hers before he does so. "Ok. I'll get us out of here." He moves closer to Mel and his pole, "I can get it." He says as he sheathes his sword and slings his shield over his back again. "Get the lever once I move him." He goes to move the body with his hands.

Angrid uses his axe to hook away bits, dragging them aside. "Sorry, friends. I'll commend ye at the temple once this bit of black work is done -- and after I've gotten three baths." He grunts, and his axe comes up with an arm stuck on it. "Dammit."

Zalara hmms as she starts to look around for the lever, "I don't see anything." She looks over to Jessa, "We'll get out of here as soon as we can."

Mel nods to Hilal since he's taken charge, and with the body moved away, he has a look over the lever and gate to make sure there's nothing amiss, not that he's a huge expert on such things. In fact, it's really kinda gross to look where the body just was, so he doesn't take a very careful look. Wrapping another rag around his hand, he'll stand to the side of the flow, then reach down to try and pull the lever.

"You have an arm on your axe," Jessa says gravely to Angrid. Then she's trying to stand on her tiptoes.

Angrid shakes the axe briskly, the arm falling off as Vennan finally locates the lever. "Stand fast," he advises, casually putting himself within arm's reach of Jessa. Perhaps he's just being overcautious, but if this does what he thinks it might...

Gavisa steps off to the side too. Fiona definitely has the right idea.

Vennan sighs with the infinite weariness that only an elf can muster. "No, no, I'll handle this. Who else would?" With a shudder of revulsion, he bats away the corpse and tries to pull the lever as swiftly as possible. Thank goodness for gloves.

Zalara moves off to the side and she goes to look to see what's going on. "Careful."

Crnnk.

Crrrrrnk.

At first, the lever doesn't want to move. Vennan really has to put his back into it. Then the gate opens.

Of course, what happens when a blockage and buildup suddenly is done away with? Why, a *sudden release* of pressure begins. And all of you are swept along in the current. Fun!

You are literally being flushed through the sewers at the moment.

Mel shrugs, gives way as his help is apparently not wanted. "Well, -I- would, I was doing so, but go ahead. Take charge," he says sourly to Vennan, and himself steps out of the way of any debris that might rush out under the gate. Which does precious little good as the torrent proves much stronger than he'd expected, and he's flushed away downstream. It takes all his willpower not to cry out, because opening his mouth would be sooooo bad.

Tiny little halfling? It probably is not especially surprising that she gets easily smacked around into walls and dwarfs and horrifying horrifying debris.

Zalara fingers something to hold onto, "Whoa!" She clings to the sewer walls as she tries to keep her balance and manages to do so. She looks around, "Everyone okay?"

Vennan bounces and jostles off various unpleasant things as the current carries him along. He somehow manages to do all of this with the same weary frown that he nearly always has. Like he expected all of this.

Angrid realizes he's got a problem when he starts sliding despite still being upright. He swipes at Jessa once, trying to grab the halfling, and that makes him lose his balance. And with a sound like a smithy collapsing, he goes crashing and clattering down the pipe, propelled by the torrent and thinking one khazdul profanity after another.

Having definitely not thought of it before, Hilal's amber eyes go wide when he realizes just what he's about to be hit with. It's not like he has long to think though as he's swept up in it. Having been close to a wall, he is dragged along it, taking a few jutting rocks directly to the face. "GRAB JESSA!" he tries to shout, but finds that it comes out more "GRAB gurgle...spit...jessa..."

Fiona frowns as someone goes to reach for the lever. Then it happens, she is flushed down the sewers. A mental groan happens as well as the sudden and utter feeling and need to take a bath. Oh and burn these clothes. She reaches out for the halfling woman as she starts to bounce off the wall through the sewers. “Screw Jessa...Grab me! I am a bit flushed...”

Zalara hmms as she reaches to pull out her goblin army knife. She points one end at Jessa and she puts the button. A line of rope springs out of the knife and heads towards Jessa, "Grab hold!" She waits til Jessa grabs hold before she presses another button to try to whirl Jessa in.

Gavisa clings to the sides, breathing heavily in case she goes under and has to go without for a terrible, terrible while. Who claimed that honest work is worthwhile? Because that guy might end up with some steel in his kidneys at some point.

Bang! Kerplung! Bang!

It's just not a great day. At some point, there is the distinct sensation of free fall as you're dumped into an opening. With all the debris. And bodies.

That are falling with you. On you. Around you. SPLOOSH.

You're all able to come to the surface eventually. In a manner of speaking, but dear gods, you might wish you'd drowned yourselves instead. Dim mana lights are afied to the walls here and it does not take you long to reach for the rim and climb out of the cistern, bit by bit, bruised, battered, and... gross.

Gross is the mild way to put it. Definitely gross, though.

For long chilling moments, Angrid does not surface, until finally he plods upwards out from the deep end of the cistern... covered in muck, dirty water, and looking downright offended as he rises out of the nastiness. "I am going to kill someone," the dwarf announces in a flat voice.

There's an almost desperate flailing from beneath one body and Jessa's trying to get SOMETHING out of her mouth. "PLEASE TELL ME YOU DID NOT LOSE THE BRANDY." She starts to pull herself up out of the muck. She...is not strong. This may take a while.

Needless to say, Vennan is completely and utterly filthy when he emerges. He seems to have avoided injury, but this does little for his mood. "... Your city is a terrible, filthy hole." He mutters.

Mel does scream as he somehow ends up in freefall, and then he's clawing, crawling his way to what passes for air here. And ... lights. He crawls out of the muck as best he can, looking back to see if there's anyone that needs his help. He'll help if he can, once he gets his bearings. "Ugh. What is this? Where are we?"

Fiona makes her way out, “I am done. I quit.” She states simply. “I don’t care how much this job pays, and they will pay me.” She points out to everyone, “I am -never- going into the sewers again. “I need to kill someone. No not someone. Just who ever caused those bodies to get there, so all of this got plugged up. So we had to come down here, to unplug it and get plugged into the pit of disgusting, Oozey shit. Who cares its probably covered in filthy, disgusting...” She grumbles.

For a big guy who has just taken quite the beating from a pile of crap and dead bodies, Hilal is pretty good at getting himself out of the muck. He laxidasically moves over to Jessa to pick her up out of it and put her back on her feet. "Well. It wouldn't have helped if I had been carrying you, it seems." He tries to shake off what he can from his hands. Just in case. "Don't lose it yet, everyone...we're not done here."

Not quite yet, no.

See, as you clamber out of the cistern, the cistern is already draining. Guess what that leaves? The bodies. Sitting on the bottom of the cistern. Along with some of tha debris. It looks ripe to plug that little drain down there. For the time being. Isn't life grand?

Zalara can't hold on as the water grows too strong for even her grip and she's soon sucked down. She manages to avoid getting hit or hitting anything. She falls into the water with a splash. She comes up and pulls off the re-breather. It wasn't made to handle being underwater and has filled with brown water. She coughs and throws up a little as she gets out of the water. "Reos save me."

Gavisa climbs out. Slowly. Carefully. She doesn't want to fall again. She removes her soiled scarf, and uses the less filthy parts of it to wipe her face. Then she walks a bit away from the rest, and spends some delightful quality time being ill. Noisily too. Might as well give a show.

Vennan is fine with getting himself as far as possible away from the bodies and the debris. That sounds like a splendid idea in face. He does so, glaring at everyone and no one in particular.

Jessa is gasping for breath and looks up at Hilel, smiling brilliantly at him. "Thank you." Then she peers down into the cistern and starts to swear in a variety of languages. Very inspiring. "Could we just...you know. Set them on fire or dissolve them with alchemial acid or something?"

Angrid removes his helmet, shaking it futilely. Even his beard looks spattered with dirty water as the dwarf glares at the cistern. "Who designed this? Even -humans- don't screw things up this badly! Ach, that came out bad..." He sighs. "We'd need dwarven firegel to ignite them, lass. Better to just break them down -- or retrieve them."

Moving to plop down Fiona huffs lightly. “I ...told you that you were not a human child.” Fiona states to Jessa. “You are the most brillant woman in the world. I say we burn the bodies. Get rid of them, done gone no more bodies, We should make a new religion where that is what we go around and do. Just burn bodies. That way necromancers are out of a job.”

"Gotta keep from having to come back here again..." Hilal says as he starts to climb down into the drained cistern. Being a Man of Action is shitty work. Pun intended. He draws his sword as he gets closer. "Maybe that everburning torch? Can that light these?"

Mel blinks at the thought of destroying the bodies, and objects, "Hang on, hang on. We're bringing them back up, right? I mean, it's hard to get any more disgusting than we are right now, but whoever they are ...were, their families will want to know."

Angrid calls out to Hilal, "Wait lad! Let's take some precautions." He opens his filthy backpack, extracting a coil of spidersilk rope, and wraps one end several times around his arm. Then he tosses the other end to Hilal. "Tie that to yerself, so we don't lose ye."

Vennan looks even more sickened than he did already. "Do you Alexandrians have no respect for the dead? We should alert the proper authorities so that these unfortunate souls might be given a proper burial." He eyes the disgusting, putrid pile. "... Authorities other than ourselves, obviously."

Jessa doesn't bother to look at Fiona, tuning her out as she inspects the cistern. "Well. I have spells that can cause fires and all. But. Could we even manage to match all the different body parts to the right bodies?" She's right back to matter of fact.

Zalara looks over at Hilal like he is dumb and she shakes her head, "Everburning torches don't give off any heat." She looks at Fiona, "Let's not burn the bodies, why don't we try to find a way out of here and tell others that they are down here. We've done our job and cleared out the blockage."

And that's when you see it.

There is something down there. Admist the bodies. Something that glints just so in the light. Sparkles.

Fiona looks at Mel, “It could go in your mouth.” She states simply. “I am not an Alexandrian, I say we find something that identifies them as them, turn it into the city watch when we leave. I mean I hate to say it but...how are we going to get pieces back up..,” She winces. “So you guys are saying we are done. Lets just leave them be, head back up, tell the town watch oH by the way there are some bodies and go home for baths?” she asks the grounds with a few nods. “Sounds great.”

Gavisa returns to the group, feeling a bit lighter. "No respect for the dead, indeed." She nods to Zalara. "Either that, or we can fish them up. We would just need a rope and someone... light." She studies Jessa carefully.

"OH OH OH LOOK AT THAT." Jessa is like a little magpie, getting all excited and pointing. "THERE IS SOMETHING THERE." And then she's being eyed and she gives Gavisa a suspicious look. "What?"

Zalara holds up the rope that she has from her goblin army knife and she starts to wring it out, "I've got some rope too."

Mel shrugs about matching parts with parts. "That's what priests are for. I'm sure someone from Vardama's temple could sort things out." Fiona gets a puzzled look, then he sighs, "I did mean it rhetorically." He nods, though, at what Zalara says. "This is true. We've done what they asked, and now it'd be nice to get out. If we can bring them back, it's good, but we really need to bring -us- back." He pauses. "Hey, what's that?"

"Something that someone else should fish out an examine." Vennan replies to Mel, now sulking. "I was the one who had to pull that damned disgusting lever. It is someone else's turn."

Hilal doesn't mind being looked at as if he's dumb. He is dumb afterall. "Well ok then, I guess we take these things up." He shakes his head as he retrieves his own spidersilk rope, tied around his body, and starts to tie it around the bodies in a sort of hay bale. A really gross hay bale. He turns to drag them off of the drain so everyone can see whatever it is that's shiny and causing their attention.

Fiona looks into the mud, “Something shiney..” she states and looks around, “so yeah...we gonna pick it up?” Fiona looks around for who is going to volunteer to go find the shiney. She watches Hilal work and knots her brow. Looking green around the gills she swallows lightly. “oh man.”

Mel frowns to Vennan. "Don't play hero with that, I was going to pull the stupid lever and you all but pushed me out of the way and demanded the right to do it." He'll help out in whatever plan evolves, though. "Soonest done, soonest out of here."

"You are doing very well, very abnormally tall giant!" Jessa is going to encourage whatever means she doesn't get lowered down on a rope, yes. "WHAT IS THE SHINY THING DOWN THERE TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME!"

Gavisa smiles at Jessa. "Nothing. Nothing. Just thinking of contingency plans." She steps over to look down at Hilal instead. "You never know if the big guy there needs some help." She pauses for a moment. "Or gets eaten by a tentacoo, like you all mentioned."

Jessa eyes Gavisa. EYES.

Zalara looks at Jessa and salutes her, "Good luck." She gets out her death ray and turns it on to make sure it still works. Good thing she waterproofed it.

"What the sewers is a tentacoo?" Fiona asks and watches Hilal work.

The bodies take some time to be moved. They are...goopy. And bloated. And gross. And have rats inside of them still.

Eventually, the shiny thing is revealed. It is a single, moss encrusted gem. Enough of its surface is visible to still glint appropriately, but the garnet is definitely held in a simple gold casing that has several runes inscribed on it. One doesn't haev to be a wizard to recognize arcane runes much of the time. Especially when they occasionally glow lightly.

And glow they do. Incidentally, those bodies look to be getting moss covered *awful* fast.

In fact, the moss seems to now be growing at an incredibly rapid pace down here.

All over the bodies.

Which have begun to move.

Mel acks as the things start moving, and his first reaction is to get his teammate out of there. He'll grab onto the rope and start hauling away, reeling Hilal back out of the cistern and away from the moving bodies and strangely aggressive mold.

Hilal blinks. "Oh cra...." But before he can get the words out of his mouth, he's hauled up and out of the cistern. "Thank you." He says to Mel as he holds up the shiny gem, seeming like the source of their problems. He drops it at his feet, able to be kicked into the cistern if necessary, but out of his hands. Then he draws his sword and readies his shield. "Someone look at that, see if they can stop this."

Angrid blinks as Mel hauls Hilal out of the way even before he can. "Huh, well done lad," he rumbles with a slight grin. He drops his end of the rope, sweeping his axe out and making sure he's got a sure grip before taking up a ready stance, shield in front. "And what've we got to deal with THIS time, hm?"

There is a rippling feeling of divine magic as Jessa chants out a spell in the halfling tongue. She points at the gem. "That thing is eminating conjuration magic. KICK IT."

Gavisa reaches into her soaked, foul cloak and takes out some almost as foul swords. Spotting MossMan climbing up, she stabs down at him. It. O, to have a more impressive weapon.

Fiona blinks as the bodies come a live. “Burn them, burn them now.” She screams as she starts to take a few steps back. “What the hell is it with this city that the dead like to stand back up.” She goes into a tyraid of cussing that would make many sailors blush. Drawing her rapier and dagger she shakes her head and mutters. “Alright. Bring it.’ She glares at the undead, moss covered creatures, “I am NOT going to die in a sewer.”

Angrid is a bit startled by how quick the damnable things come scuttling upwards, and he has to check his swing to keep from dropping his axe. "Blast... I told ye they need to use high pressure water to clean these things out. Mix in some good dwarven holy water, too, to keep it from freezing." He spits on the ground. "Blast, I bet my pipeweed's ruined too."

Bodies. They are moving.

The ropes were designed to keep them together. Make them easy enough to push or pull along. They were secured fairly well. But the bloated corpses appear to have a not isngificant amount of strength. Once one bursts a side of the rope, they all stagger to their efet and begin shucking and uncoiling what was left off, more as a matter of happenstance of dealing with what was restraining them than any intellectual desire. These things are not much more intelligent than regular zombies, it'd appear.

The missing bits of their bodies, of their flesh, appears to've been filled with moss. Moss pours out of their ribcages, out of their eye sockets, growing and breaking off them at an alarming pace. They vomit up still more moss. Horrible moss that sends these 'zombies' staggering up to the walls. They climb out based on motor memory and emereg to the lips of the cistern where the waiting adventurers and hired hands simply a ttack them. Gavisa's most succesful strike causes them to leak even *more* moss.

Zalara pauses of half a moment to activate her titan armor. The octagon metal backpack lights up and the thin metal strips move out to cover the vital parts of the artificer. She feels her reflexes become faster as she brings up her death ray and she takes aim at the amalgamation of zombies. She fires and hits them hard with her death ray. The zombies don't like the cold as their joints start to freeze up and they can't act as they normally would. She hits the recharge button on the death ray and it lets out a whoosh of brown steam...maybe it's not as waterproof as she thought.

Vennan takes time out of his busy schedule of scowling and grumbling unflattering things about his fellow adventurers to draw his longbow and ready an arrow. "Knew this was going to happen." He mutters, taking aim at the nearest zombie and solidly lodging an arrow in it.

Mel blinks at Jessa's declaration about conjuration magic on the strange gem, and while she advises kicking it, Mel's got a goblin army knife in his pack, and it probably has just the tool for the job. "That may take a bit," he realizes, considering the time it would take to fumble out the evil-gem-crushing tool, and instead opts to haul out his shortsword and try to bash it with the pommel. This is easier said than done, with all the zombies and growth and moss and such, and he just barely avoids cutting Hilal's foot off. "Sorry about that!" he declares.

Hilal blinks as the things break through his rope. He paid money for that rope. He wades into the battle, avoiding Mel's shortsword while Mel smashes the gem. "Just kick it in!" He shouts before his sword, glinting in what little light it has finds it's mark and cuts into one of the zombies. It comes out still shimmery and nice on the other end, despite spilling more...moss?

"Ceinara, inspire my companions to kill the hell out of these bodies that are already dead so that they stop trying to kill us please and thank you!" Everyone can feel the rush of divine energy rush from the tiny halfling priestess, filling them with blessing.

The creatures have poured out of the cistern now, yeah, and the moss is still growing. What injuries they've suffered so far appears to be being recovered in the moss! Like it's just replacing the bits and pieces cleaved or sliced off with more of itself. Yikes!

Angrid and Gavusa both get punched, hard, but it doesn't appear to be in recognition of nay threat they possess. Rather, it's more that they're... there. And in the way. Like they're operating on some sort of pre-created set of rules.

Fiona reaches out to stab someone. Moving quickly, with rapier and dagger she stabs at the mass of dead bodies. The rapier hits, poking into the mossy fleshy, “I hate undead.” she tells the trouble. “Apparently they are everywhere, In our ships, In our sewers...someone really really needs to do something about that!”

CLONK! Gavisa steps back, dazed. She purses her swollen lips and spits blood, then steps back into the fray. One blade sinks into the... thing, but is quickly withdrawn. The other rakes across it, forming a shallow gash.

Angrid rears back as one of the moss-covered zombie-things belts him, and he glares. "Bugger off, ye filthy little..." He slams his waraxe into its chest, staggering it backwards and spilling more of the moss down around its feet as he snarls, "This is like hacking at weeds!"

Vennan is really not enjoying this particular outing. All the rotted corpses, putrid smells, and horrible dank tunnels really aren't his cup of tea. He sighs, loads another arrow, and fires wide.

Zalara takes careful aim at the universally known weakness of the undead...there head. She times it just right and pulls the trigger on the death ray. The frosty ray of coldness hits the undead's head and talk about brain freeze. The brainpan is made of ice now and as the undead falls over onto the ground. It smashes into the floor and little bites of chilled zombie brain go all over.

Mel blinks as Hilal suggests kicking the gem away. "But then this will just happen someplace else," he says as he tries to smash it one more time. Raising the sword again, he slams down, but the stench is so bad his eyes are watering, and he winds up nailing his thumb instead of the gem. He backs away, clutching his thumb in pain. "Owowowowowow!"

"Fine!" Hilal snorts as he turns back towards Mel. He puts his boot on Mel's shoulder to shove him away from the gem just before he brings his longsword down, smashing it to pieces with a mighty roar. "There." He turns back around afterwards to re-engage the zombies. Just in case.

The gem *shatters*. There is a pulse of magical energy radiating outwards. The moss on the bodies *immediately* stops growing, no longer 'healing' them by replacing the bits with, well.. *more moss*.

This should make things easier.

"MY HERO!" Jessa shouts with delight at Hilal. But there are more important things to do. Raising her arms up, she concentrates and murmurs to herself in the halfling tongue. As she does, a rush of energy sweeps over her companions, healing their wounds.

With the moss no longer growing, Hilal becomes target number one. A sudden savage, moss encrusted fist *punches* him hard enough in the chest that it makes his heart skip a beat and the sternum crack. Hard. Along with a few ribs.

Gavisa gets hit again, as does Mel for the first time. It all sounds (and looks) very painful. But at least there's pnly four of them now, right?

As things start to get bad, there is that happy feeling again. That feeling of butterflies and rainbows and good touches of healing from some divine source. Fiona lets out a soft flutter of ahhing as it flows over her healing her wounds. Of course as soon as it hits, its crushed by the need to get back to work. A firm, flowing motion from the human. Her rapier and dagger swing again. Flicking through the air they take absolutely no purchase on the mossy flesh.

Gavisa gets slugged once more, the blow rocking her body. She manages to retain her balance, although one desperate slash of her blade passes harmlessly by the monster. The other, no less desperate but just slightly more coordinated, drives deep into the mossy fellow. It falls. She blinks. Oh. Right. She meant to do that.

Angrid is startled, first by the flash as the gem shatters, then by the healing pulse that causes bruises and cuts to knit and fade. As a result, his axe hisses past the zombie's face, as he grumbles. "Oy, I need eyes in the back of me head to tell when you lot are going to do something strange..."

Zalara reloads and she continues to fire her frosty ray at the zombies. It hits and it staggers the zombie that it hits freezing it and slowing down it's movements.

Vennan seems to run basically on autopilot in these situations. Just as soon as one arrow is loosed, another is loaded, and aim is taken. This one hits the mark, but only manages a glancing blow. The elf glowers in irritation.

Mel is suddenly in the melee! But at least he's got his sword in his hand already. He staggers back upright after getting the foot from Hilal, and shakes his head for a moment to clear it. The thing doesn't seem to be very fast, and it's pretty mangled as it is, allowing Mel to choose his time. Paitience ... he lets it sway one way, then moves in and hacks it down with a swift chop.

Jessa continues to concentrate on the energy coming from her, rolling out in waves of fiery-gold healing energy and healing some of their wounds.

The last two of them punch and swing away at Mel and Hilal with some success. Both of them are hurt. They don't seem to be doing much else, just standing there at the ledge, now that the moss isn't growing. They just...attack.

With a healing feeling and encouragement from Jessa, Hilal was riding high on his near victory. Too bad for him the zombie had other plans as it takes his wind from him, mid battlecry. It nearly brings him to his knees, but with a flash of his amber eyes, he cuts into the bastard deep.

Fiona moves again to attack the one in front her. She growls as one barely hits again and the second attack doesn’t do anything. “So going to replace...” she mutters about the dagger. Her Rapier though, tears off a chunk. Its vital chunk apparently as the creature falls.

Moss men dropping everywhere! Gavisa spots one still standing, and steps up behind her. Her blades lash out, but even though she's being all underhanded and cowar... err, tactical, those blades fail to dispatch the beastie. As she draws back the swords, having left it with ventilated kidneys, she pauses to consider that maybe it doesn't need those anymore. Well. Live and learn.

And then Angrid is there, clearly tired of this walking-dead monstrosity's attitude. "And -stay- down," he growls, his axe smashing the creature's skull to shards and sending it down permanently. "Damnation, they need to clean the whole sewers out with fire."

Zalara whews softly as she sees the last zombie go down and she nods, "Yah they do, but that'd injure the poor otyughs."

Fiona blinks as the last one goes down. “All in favor of going home?” She asks of the group. Giving a glance around as she slides her weapons back into their sheaths.

Gavisa looks down at the fallen enemy. "Uhm." She leans down and peers at it closer. Then she wipes her blades on the moss. "Dad would combat moss with a rake and some lime." She stands and sheathes those swords again. "Let's go home."

Hilal takes a second to breath in and discover just how difficult that really is before he stumbles back against a wall. He slumps down, sitting on his ass and shaking his head. With Fiona's question, he raises his hand, agreeing with her.

Vennan is readying another arrow, only to see that the enemy has been felled before he can fire. He sighs heavily, weapon lowered. "... I don't care for this city. But the worst part... the absolute worst part... is the sewers. No question."

Mel nods grimly about killing the sewers with fire. He raises his hand for going home as well. "Yeah." "Home and a bath. Five baths."

Angrid wipes off his axe. "Agreed. At the very least, we need to let the guard know there's something nasty brewing down here. They may want to send us back... although if they do, I vote we hold out for more money. Blargh."

Fiona nods, “And Brandy, Brandy and Baths...I am going to open a store. Brandy, Baths and Beds..Maybe it will be an Inn.” she nods slowly. Pointing to Jessa. “Tomorrow...” she states firmly. “You must tell me where to find your temple to morrow. Your deity aided greatly, a tithe should be given as thanks.” She nods firmly to this. Apparently good touches, mean much to Fiona.

The halfling priestess doesn't answer the others at first, concentrating and sending out more healing energy. Then she huffs out a sigh and goes and touches Hilal on the leg, murmuring a prayer and sending a surging and intense healing spell into the man. Looking up at him, she nods in satisfaction when the sees that the spell has done its work then she nods agreeably to Fiona. "It is outside the city's gates."

Well.

With the mysterious gem's remains shattered and the dead moss men, you have quite4 a story of the Guild. A story that they definitely want to investigate. What's up with the gem? And the men of moss? They want to find out. And they let you know that they're *going* to find out.

...after a long bath. For all of you. And money. You definitely get money.