Akash awoke with a start. Residual sewer water was expelled violently from his lungs as his vision adjusted to see Gnoll's hulking body stood hunched over him, hands glowing with divine light.
"Cut that pretty close friend." Gnoll said, extending a hand down to help Akash to his feet. "We almost lost you."
"What happened?" Groaned Akash.
"You got dragged under by that thing." Gnoll answered, gesturing to the demon's corpse, now slowly floating away down the sewer. "We managed to kill it before it could finish you off."
"Well shit. Thanks for the save." Akash shakily stood, leaning heavily on his staff. "I'm ready when you guys are, not too fond of these sewers anymore."
After a brief moment to gather themselves the cohort made their way through the remainder of the sewers as directed by Nessie. Eventually, they came upon a massive open nexus of the sewer. A dozen tunnels radiated out from a central access platform with an iron ladder that led to a barred grate affixed to the roof. Late afternoon light streamed through the grate.
"Alright. Who's climbing that to scout topside?" Asked Charles. "I think we would normally send Akash, but I think we can agree that he's not in the best shape to do that right now."
"I got it." Said Hal, as he grabbed the ladder. Clambering to the top he poked his head through the grate, and up into a deserted courtyard. The flagstones of the courtyard were curated by a thin layer of exceedingly fine white sand. At the far end stood a looming archway, filled with a swirling mass of dark energy that appeared to be the source of the white sand. Just as he was about to duck back down into the sewer the portal pulsed and a pack of six dretch led by a fox-headed individual draped in fine robes carrying a wooden tablet. Hal's breath caught in his throat as he recognized the demon as an arcanaloth from the tomes they scoured in the kobold's library. The arcanaloth and their dretch entourage turned to walk out of the courtyard along a neighboring street. Hal watched as one of the dretch accidentally stepped on the hem of their master's robes, and without looking up from the tablet it was reading the arcanaloth casually reached a hand down and vaporized the offending creature. As the light gray dust mingled with the pure white sand Hal hastily retreated down the ladder to his companions.
"Well?" Asked Charles.
"It should be clear now. We're going to need to be really careful here. We're going to pop up into a courtyard, when we do, make sure we all head for the same building so we don't get separated."
The cohort made their way up the ladder one after another. Hal popped the latch at the top with a dagger from his belt and carefully lifted the grate free. Head on a swivel he helped his companions out of the sewer and directed them to the nearest building. Once they were all free he lowered the grate back into place, but after he got one edge slid into place he dropped the rest of the weight with a loud CLANG! Wincing at the noise he sprinted to join his friends inside. Fortunately, the noise seemed to fail to attract any further investigation.
The building they found themselves in appeared to be a long abandoned tavern. Round tables were scattered around the open floor plan, large wooden mugs still placed at nearly every table. A thick layer of dust and cobwebs coated every surface.
"Guess nobody is home." Said Charles, swiping a finger through the dust on one of the tables. "It's getting too late to properly scout the city, but we can at least keep an eye out from here. Akash and Hal, would you mind going upstairs to find us rooms with good vantage points? I'll help Gnoll and Naivara check the cellar for any usable supplies."
"Yeah, sounds like a good plan." Replied Hal. Akash followed him up the well worn stairs in the far corner of the tavern.
The stairs led Akash and Hal to a dark hallway lined with the doors of the tavern's many rental rooms. Several remained closed, but many hung open and empty. As they walked down the hallway in silence Akash caught glimpses of travel bags, discarded gear, even the odd fragment of armor left behind in whatever rapid exodus occurred from this place. At the far end of the hall there was a slightly larger room that occupied the corner of the structure. Given the nature of the room's location the two windows that adorned the walls provided excellent views into both the open courtyard and the main road leading up to the stone keep that overlooked the city.
"Well, I would imagine that's the best view we're going to get." Said Hal, peering out the windows.
"Yeah. Check that out." Said Akash, pointing at the keep. Several of the windows of the keep had begun to be illuminated as the sun dipped below the horizon. Silhouetted in one of the windows was a pair of individuals, at the distance it was difficult to make out much detail, but one of them was a elderly man with a beard, and the other was an arcanaloth. "That might be our fake baron."
Hal followed Akash's direction, "I am inclined to agree." He squinted to try and make out more detail, and as he did the figure assumed to be the baron turned his head and appeared to stare directly at the two members of the cohort.
"Shit!" Akash quickly ducked down. "How in the hells did he know we were here?"
"I don't know!" Replied Hal, taking cover alongside Akash. "The keep is like a mile away, no way he could have heard us."
"Regardless, we need to let the others know that we have to leave." Akash slipped out the door back into the hallway, Hal close behind him. Descending the stairs they rejoined their companions who were stacking crates of supplies next to the trapdoor to the cellar behind the bar.
"I hope you guys feel rested, because we have to go." Said Hal.
""What do you mean? Did you see something upstairs?" Asked Charles.
"Well, we saw some things, and something, or rather someone, saw us." Responded Hal. "I'm pretty sure we found the fake Baron Eldbridge, but I am also pretty sure he saw us somehow. Thus, we need to go. Now."
"Dammit. Gnoll, get up here, we're leaving." Charles called down into the cellar. Quickly gathering their gear, and what little supplies the cellar team had managed to sort, the cohort left the dusty tavern.
As they made their way across the courtyard returning to the sewers Gnoll paused for a moment, and started at the yawning portal. The dark purple energy that enveloped the archway seemed to absorb what little light remained in the day as the sun lingered on the horizon. "I need to know where it goes." stated Gnoll bluntly, drifting away from the group.
"Gnoll!" whispered Hal harshly, "What are you doing? We have to go!"
"No…" Akash stood up straighter and began to trail after Gnoll. "Can't you feel that too?"
"Uh, no?" Hal looked over his shoulder to Charles and Naivara who both shrugged. "Should we be feeling something?"
"The portal…it's humming…" Said Akash listlessly. "Just a quick peek, then we can go." He and Gnoll were nearly halfway to the portal. With a roll of his eyes and an exasperated sigh Hal, along with Naivara and Charles followed Gnoll and Akash towards the portal.
Up close the white sand that spilled from the portal accumulated into a miniature beach within the confines of the cobbled courtyard. Gnoll strode right up to the archway and began inspecting the runes carved into it. "This is old magic." Gnoll murmured to himself. "See this here?" He asked, turning to the others while pointing out a series of characters that made up a compound rune. "This format hasn't been used in centuries, we found a much more efficient way to accomplish this same effect some time ago. Whoever bound this portal was either following a very old spell, or has been practicing magic far longer than any of us have been alive."
"I'm not sure I like the sound of that." Said Charles, walking up to stand beside Gnoll. "Regardless of which one it is, we need to go. Come on."
"Just one more thing…" Gnoll said, and before any of his friends could stop him he thrust his head into the portal. Charles and Akash leapt forward, grabbing at Gnoll's shoulders pulling him back from the portal.
"What were you thinking?" Asked Charles.
"I just wanted to see what was on the other side. It's just a rock tunnel, not much to see honestly."
"What if you got sucked into it and couldn't come back?" Asked Akash incredulously.
"Based on the runic configuration I knew that wouldn't happen." Answered Gnoll, shrugging their hands off his shoulders.
"Well. A little heads up would have been nice. Now come on, we need to leave." Commented Charles, turning his back to the portal.
"I am afraid that is no longer an option for you and your little friends." A voice that sounded like a blade being drawn across a sheet of slate emanated from the shadows of a nearby alley as the arcanaloth stepped into the light. "My lord would like a few words with you."
BANG! A shot rang out, catching the arcanaloth in the shoulder. In the moment of silence that followed everyone turned to look at Naivara. "What? Were we actually going to go with him?"
"Insolent insects." Growled the arcanaloth, grasping at their shoulder. "You will come with me to see my lord, whether you like it or not." An arcing bolt of electric energy leapt from his outstretched palm. The bolt struck Naivara, then in a chain reaction it continued to arc between the other members of the cohort. Akash felt as if every single nerve in his body fired at once causing him to spasm for a moment.
Hal cast a spell in retaliation and a sphere of absolute stillness came into being around the group. The arcanaloth attempted to say something in reply, but as his mouth moved no sound came out. Letting out a silent laugh Charles nodded to Hal then rounded Buck with his heels and laid a charge at the arcanaloth, driving a devastating strike into its chest. Gnoll and Akash followed up with mace and staff strikes respectively.
The demon ducked and ran for the edge of the bubble of still air, raking his claws along the flank of Buck. Just before he broke free of the bubble Hal intercepted with his sword in hand. Laying a second hand along the flat of the blade he shoved arcanaloth back into the bubble of silence. Naivara's shots rippled through the air striking the arcanaloth twice more. Globules of blood were expelled from the arcanaloth's lungs as he heaved silently, panic beginning to set into the previously cold and calculating gaze. He scrambled forward once more, foregoing his claws to gain an extra on his assailants. With a final strike Charles struck down the arcanaloth, its body falling limply to the ground.
"Sewers, now!" Called Charles while he spurred Buck forward after leaning over to grasp the demon's corpse. Abandoning pretty much all sense of stealth the cohort sprinted after Charles and slipped back into the grated sewer.
Upon reentering the sewer they quickly made their way into the network of tunnels taking turns at random to try and throw off any pursuers. After what felt like miles the cohort finally came to a stop.
"Okay, I think we're in the clear. For now at least." Sighed Charles. "The next time we need to leave can we just leave?" He continued exasperated. "It feels like everywhere we go something catastrophic happens and we get chased halfway to the hells when we could have just left and avoided it all."
"Well, I think this time was a little different." Answered Akash, "For one, we are intentionally in a city full of demons, and secondly, that portal had some strange magic about it. Now that we are further away from it my mind is clearer, but while we were in that courtyard I felt drawn to it. It's hard to explain, but it felt like I had to go to it.
"Fine." Came the curt reply of Charles, "Let's all just keep it in mind please." He then walked to the rear of Buck and slung the arcanaloth's corpse off the rear of Buck's saddle and laid him on the cool stones of the sewer walkway. "Before we go any further I figure it's a good idea to search this thing for anything useful and dump the body."
"I was a little curious why you brought that with us." Said Akash as they began picking through the gear of the arcanaloth. Tucked into an inner pocket of the flowing robes Naivara found the tablet that it was carrying when it first emerged from the portal with the dretch. Other than the tablet its possessions were fairly limited, as it carried no coin, and its only jewelry was a golden chain and a pair of silver bangles. After the brief stop the body of the arcanaloth was unceremoniously dumped into the stream of the sewer.
After a final hour of trekking through the sewers the cohort broke to the street level once more. Taking advantage of the darkness of night they slipped into an alley and broke into an abandoned cellar, and were finally able to slip into an uneasy rest.