A large cobbled street, in the dark of night, a few people moving too and
fro, but most carefully tucked into bed. A large sign swinging above a doorway into an inn, the sign reads "The Vulger Monkey Inn".
5 People step out of the inn into the street.
"Aww did we have to leave so soon? Those people were really nice to me!" said
Trageon. In the background of the open door you can hear people yelling their farewells at him, most of them female.
Celeste poked him in the ribs and said "Quiet you, you're lucky we left before
those women started to throw themselves on you." She left no confusion about her thoughts on that topic.
Etharos and Reubis let out a low chuckle while Eldwen rolles his eyes and
sighes.
They walk on towards the Town Hall. As there are not many people out at this
late hour it isn't much of a surprise that a strange looking man stoped over obviously interested with something draws their attention.
Looking at him with a scowel,Trageon snarls " That man is evil to the core, what
is he doing?"
Eyes lighting with a dark fire Eldwen says in a irritated tone of voice "He's
trying to kidnap that young elven woman he's standing over."
The others turn to stare at him out of the corner of their eyes, Reubis says cautiously
"How the hell do you know that?"
Eldwen inclines his head and says "You have to ask?"
Noone did. They didn't have to, they didnt hear what he said with their
ears...
The being, this dark figure, turned its head, hearing the sounds of the group,
and it's red eyes flashed as it turned and jumped into a trapdoor next to it, leading down into the sewers with it's prisoner.
Celeste points and says "He's getting away while you people babble on about
telepathy!"
They follow into the trapdoor and down into the sewers.
There is an inch thick layer of green goo on the ground, but the tunnel is
slightly illuminated by light coming from around he corner. The elves and Reubis see torchlight on the walland hear yipping noises
like voices coming from down the hall past the corner.
Reubis draws his bow, Celeste moves her hand out from under her cloak and is
suddenly holding a glowing blade of energy, Eldwen's eyes glow dark black and his aura intensifies..
"I hear voices, very strange sounds." Celeste says, Eldwen nods and Reubis
grimaces and snorts. Trageon pulls his longbow off his shoulder and nocks an arrow as Etharos' hands glow with unrelaesed magic.
Trageon and Celeste move ahead and around the corner, they then stop in
their tracks. As the others move around also it becomes obvious why, the ground is filled to the end of the 20ft hallway with strange vines that even now seem to be trying to grab at their feet. They see a light in the distance that is suddenly covered and can't be discerned.
"Well, this is going well." says Etharos with a grimace. Eldwen pushes his mind
forward. "I sense the thoughts of 6 beings, very primative and quite vile actually. "
Trageon snarls out "I smell their evil, Die savages!" He lets fly an arrow and
is rewarded by a small scream and an increase in the yipping noises. Reubis lets fly an arrow of his own to the same effect.The torch is uncovered and the creatures are visible, small reptilian creatures with dark brown skin and about 2 1/2 ft tall.
"Kobolds" mutters Celeste, rocks strike the walls to the left and right
but none hit the mark."Stand back." says both Eldwin and Etharos at the same time. The others move towards the wall.
Etharos holds out his hand and from a finger a small blue ray shoots, striking a
kobold in the chest. The creature freezes into a block of ice and is shattered by a rouge stone.
Eldwen extends his right arm and a beam of dark fire erupts into the nearest
kobold, leaving behind only a chared corpse.
Trageon drops his bow and draws his longsword, running through the vines like
they weren't even there, yelling the battlecry of Heironeous, ignoring the rocks pelting off his armor and cutting down another kobold on the other side.
Celeste moves behind Trageon, hopping around so the vines don't wrap her up, and
tosses her blade into the chest of yet another kobold.
As Trageon bends over to check his kill, another kobold comes out of the shadows
behind him and raises its spear. Eldwen's eyes glow darker and shoot out two rays that fuse together halfway and slam into the ground behind Trageon.
A large figure erupts from the ground, encased in black flame, he stands there
as the kobold runs into him and not Trageon. The kobold's scream is cut short as the figure bashes into him with a huge arm and knocks him into a wall ten feet away,
dissapearing before the kobold hits the ground.
The others turn to him staring, he answers there unasked question with "Just a
Construct" and makes his way through the vines. Etharos too does but he hears more yipping to his right so he turns and unleashes a wave of flame which burns down
two kobolds trying to sneak in.
"Warn me next time hmm?" says Eldwen as he moves from being plastered aginst the
wall where he moved to dodge the flames. They look around but see no more
kobolds.
They do hear something down a hall however and they follow it to find a small
alcove covered by a curtain. Trageon slashes the curtain to reveal a decrept looking old man begging for his life.
"Don't heart me please!" he screams. "Were not here to hurt you old man, we just
want to know what you know about this place." says Trageon "I can't, the yipping demons will kill me!" he says back. "You mean these yipping demons?"
says Eldwen holding up a kobold. "You...You killed the yipping demons! you must
be heroes of the highest rank! Thank you!"
"Yeah, sorry about your curtain... " Trageon says embarrased. "Oh no worries
Hero." says the old man. He proceeds to take off his clothes, which
is in actuality another curtain, and hang it up, he then picks up another on
from the side and put it on.
"I was just about to siut down to dinner, do you wish to join me?" he says witha
black-toothed smile as he gestures to a rat carcass
"No thats alright" They all remark at once.
They follow his directions down a hall and after a few uninetesting pipelines
they enter a large room, obviously used for living, with
a bed in one corner and a bookcase and desk in another. As they enter an
unearthly yowling fills the room and they notice a cat there
hissing menacingly. The dark figure walks out from behind the corner , making a
terrible sight in the dark light. A good looking man, but with
claws and fangs inches long and glowing red eyes.
"Welcome to my home. Unfortunatly I cannot allow you to leave alive."
He lunges at them.
His claws catch the knight's armor at the same time as his cat leaps upon the rogue's head, clawing and hissing. The party quickly backs off and regroups as he snarls menacingly. The rogue rips the cat off his head and throws it at the man who moves out of the way as the cat lands on its feet. Trageon draws his sword, Etharos' hands glow with blue light, Eldwen's hands glow black, Celeste's energy sword is back in her hands and her expression becomes a scowel, Reubis draws his short sword. The knight, Trageon, charges the man with sword held high promising holy vengence against this abomination. The demon sidesteps and claws Trageon again sending him sprawling on the floor, his armor clattering the whole way. The sorcerer, Etharos, charges a beam of blue energy on his fingertips and fires it off at the demon with a whoosh of cold air. Where it hits ice forms on the demon's skin, freezing one arm to his side. The psion, Eldwen, draws his bow and with the dexterity of his elvish ancestors, lets fly an arrow into the demons shoulder, as it hits his eyes flash darker and a satisfied smirk shows up on his face. The rogue, Reubis, rushes forward with his sword gleaming in the low light, dodgeing back and forth and manages to get a hit in on the demon who promptly backhands him across the room. With a quick prayer, the cleric, Celeste, charges forward to meet the demon who charges towards the group at the same time. They exchange blows for a few seconds until the light in the demons eyes seems to diminish slightly. He now has a look of fear on his face and as he turns to flee, Eldwen raises his hand and fires a beam of black fire which hits him in the back of the head. The demon trips and flies head over heals forward into the bookcase which topples over on him. Silence prevails in the room again.
"Well, that was interesting" quips Etharos. "If by interesting you mean someone has to carry him now" says Eldwen, gesturing to the prostrate body of Trageon. They make some minor rifling through the area looking for anything useful but don't see anything. Eldwen gestures to the elvish woman lying on the bed and she begins floating beside him, while Celeste and Reubis share the burden of Trageon's armoured bulk. They begin retracing their steps out of the sewer. They bypass an inocious looking corridor that is darker then they remember it. As they walk by the hear a screeching sound and 4 creatures that look like flying black squid with webbing between most of their tentacles fall from the ceiling. One lands on Celeste who lets go of Trageon and gives a yell, cutting her way out with her glowing sword. Another lands on Etharos and a few seconds later it seems to go rigid and shatters into a thousand pieces like ice. One lands in front of Eldwen who draws his bow only to find the string broken, the beast flails at him but he moves and fires off a beam of fire at it, it gives a little whimper and falls down with a burn mark and steam rising. The last squid-thing lands in front of Reubis who wastes no time dealing it a telling blow with his quickly drawn short sword.
"What the hell were those?" asks Celeste. "Darkmantles" replies Eldwen. "Mind the ceilings." "Can we just get out of here now!" says Reubis in a tight voice. "You people's heroism is going to get me killed."
They reach the entrance and exit the sewers without further incident.
The elven women comes to, and thanks them profusely for saving her and invites them to join her at a very select Inn, they learn more about her and it turns out her name is Lilith and she is a minor member of the nobility. She drips part of a liquid in a vial down Trageon's throat and he revives, looks around, and asks how he got there. She explains, and rewards them with a few magical items and then tells them to leave as she is changing.
They all sit down in the common-room downstairs to discuss what happened and where they plan to go from here.
"Shouldn't we head forward to the town hall? That WAS where we were headed in the first place…" says Eldwen "It's closed at this time of night" says Trageon "Besides," says Eldwen with a smile " We are enjoying the hospitality of a charming woman and this upper class inn for free. We should at least stay the night."
They hear a loud scream coming from upstairs and they rush up to find it coming from Lilith's room. They find her there with blood seeping intot he sheets of her bed and the room wrecked with the open window, They see a shape with large bat wings and red eyes standing in the night there before it leaps out. They rush over to Lilith and the Paladin and Cleric call upon holy strength to heal her wounds, which magically close. She thanks them again as she comes to. And decides to move to a decidedly safer location. She takes her trunk into a small bag it should not have fit into and walk away. The group goes back downstairs into the common room.
As this is going on, Reubis is "examining" the others in the common room who may soon "misplace" their valuables… He bumps into a man, excuses himself and keeps walking, with an extra money pouch in his pocket. He lokks over and sees a strange group of people including a human, an elf, a gnome sitting down with a pet weasel siting on his shoulder. Oh, and a halfling, looking like a small child, dancing on the table. All of a sudden a human with two swords strapped to opposite sides of his waist and a bow over his shoulder rushes in and goes directly to the table Reubis was observing. He has some conversation with the group and the halfling's face pales considerably. Reubis walks over.
"Something wrong?" he says. The halfling looks up to him and her eyes widen temporarily then settle back with a gleam. "You are Reubis aren't you?" she says with a smile. "You are known in these parts for not… agreeing.. with the local Theives Guild."
"Yes that's me, why?" replies Reubis. "Well you see I seem to have… 'appropriated'.. something that the guild felt rightfully belonged to them…" she says guiltily.
"I see… and I suppose you want my help? Well I really don't need to get involved with the guild any more then I am right now, but I may be convinced… For the right price.." Reubis says with a smile. She responds with an equal smile "You are talking my language now my friend, I'll see what I can do. But we must hurry, they are coming."
Reubis moves back to his group and apprises them of the situation, although Trageon does not approve of thievery, he does admit to some justice of thives stealing from thieves, plus he is sworn to protect the innocent. The psion and sorcerer are just looking for some fun so they tag along. And Celeste shakes her head and mutters something about everyone getting themselves killed if she wasn't around and decides to go as well.
As they left through the back door of the Inn Etharos turned around. "Ill catch up with you later" he said. His skin seemed to shimmer for a second and suddenly he had a different face and was dressed ina Butler's outfit. He walked into the common room in time to see 2 black cloaked figures with their right hands inside their robes "You there! Butler! Have you seen a halfling, an elf, 2 humans and a gnome in a group lately?" says the slightly shorter figure with a female voice." "Hmm" replied the disguised Etharos, "Why yes, yes I have seen such a group! They are staying in room 6 on the second floor. Why do you ask?" "Never mind butler, move." They say as they push him out of the way and head for the stairs. As they disappear Etharos' disguise fades and he walks out the back door laughing.