Quest Journal #3

Sewer Rescue

Shayalyn met me outside the Leaky Dinghy at dawn of our second day inside Stormreach. She looked refreshed and almost happy to see me.

“Shall we head out?” she inquired. Neither of us had mentioned traveling together after collecting The Miller's Debt for Berrigan Enge; it was a silent pact between two people who had endured much together in a very short time.

We made our way to Aspirant's Corner, where I went into an armory called “Hammer and Chain.” Shayalyn visited with the locals out on the street.

The shop sweltered from the fires of the forge and bustled with people. The merchants were too busy to approach me, so I looked around, listening to the conversations of the customers. I knew I'd eventually have to gain enough trust to be allowed entrance into the Stormreach library. Until then, I would have to investigate gossip, rumors, and old wives' tales.

A gruff, balding dwarf with shaggy brown beard was talking to a giant of a man over near a display of shields. The dwarf talked about a woman kidnapped by kobolds and the grieving husband who offered a reward for her rescue.

The account of the kidnapped woman struck me as odd. Kobolds sometimes killed because of their savagery, but they seldom kidnapped without hoping to gain an advantage. The fact that they'd kidnapped a woman of low station told me that they weren't holding out for a ransom.

We'd spent weeks discussing necromantic magic in the Church of the Silver Flame, part of the indoctrination of a new generation of fanatics bent on purging Eberron of evil. Perhaps the kobolds acted for someone more cunning—someone looking for a body with which to practice his macabre conjuring. The disappearance of a commoner would certainly attract little attention from the guards.

I rehearsed my story for Edrun. I was the disciple of the Church, who'd heard of his tragedy through gossip that Brother Augustus of the Wavecrest Inn had reported. The lie included enough names from the local area to sell it, and Edrun would be more trusting with a member of the Church. Sadly, too many people were trusting of the Silver Flame.

I would talk to the man before meeting up with Shaylayn. Then I would need to convince her to follow me into the sewers another time. Her healing magic would be needed if I encountered the kobolds.

Shayalyn waited for me just outside the Hammer and Chain. Damn!

“Ralsu! I'm glad I found you,” she spurted. “I met a man—Edrun Faern. His wife, Arissa, has been kidnapped by kobolds, and I think we should help him.”

I contained a laugh and merely bowed. “As you wish.”

*****

I was first into the sewer this time. I took inventory of our surroundings as Shayalyn descended the rope. I heard no rushing water. In fact, the floor beneath my feet was dry.

“Always the sewers for us,” the cleric said as she dropped from the rope. She rubbed her reddened hands on her hips and drew her mace from its loop on her belt.

“Actually, I think this tunnel has been cut off from the rest of the sewer system,” I explained.

Shayalyn had already moved ahead of me to smash a rotting barrel. She bent down to scoop up some coins. “You wanna get that one?” She gestured to a second barrel situated in an alcove opposite her.

She moved forward and covered her face. “The stench is disgusting,” she rasped.

I had to move forward to get the full effect, and I instantly regretted the move. A pipe to our left issued a wafting breeze of rancid vegetables and excrement. Water no longer flowed through the pipes, but air certainly did!

“It's no accident the kobolds entered this sewer,” the cleric muttered rhetorically.

We rounded a corner to our right and saw a human woman being roughly handled by a pair of kobolds of on the far side of iron bars. I charged ahead, but one kobold closed and locked the iron gate while the other ushered the woman ahead though a shallow pool of muck. I rattled the door futilely.

Shayalyn howled in pain from behind me. I wheeled around to see her squaring off against a kobold. Another was scampering out of one of the inoperable waterways. I focused my magic and began telling the second kobold about the room it was entering. I described a carnival, narrating the whole scene—clowns, freaks, and patrons—and the kobold froze in amazement. It was seeing the images I rendered.

Shayalyn had dispatched her kobold by this time and hefted her mace in the direction of my hypnotized victim. It, too, was down before long. One kobold corpse had a key fixed about a large metallic hoop on its belt. The key opened the iron gate.

The sludge beyond was so thick with refuse that we had to concentrate to prevent losing our boots in muck. We trudged to a solid metal door. Without hesitation, I turned the nearby valve and the door lifted up enough for us to pass through.

The new room was a slender rectangle with two ledges overlooking a pit with several drains below. A metal drawbridge connected the two ledges, and Shayalyn spotted the woman with her captors on the far side. One kobold was turning a valve to raise the drawbridge as the other hauled the woman down a corridor.

My companion soon found a ladder and started down. I heard a hissing noise and saw a flash of metal fly glance off of her backpack. The impact startled her and she fell from the ladder. I jumped from the ledge after her, twisting my ankle.

I looked up to see a pair of kobolds converging on Shayalyn with their backs to me. I hobbled over and began hacking at the nearest foe. The distraction allowed the woman to gain her feet, and she immediately went after the second kobold. In a few moments, both kobolds lay dead at our feet. The cleric's eyes flickered silent gratitude.

Shayalyn headed for a ladder that led up to the second ledge, but I noticed a dead-end tunnel with a chest on the lower level. I opened the chest's lid and heard a clicking sound.

“Ralsu! Get out of that tunnel!” Shayalyn shrieked.

By the time I emerged back into the chasm beneath the ledges, four giant brown spiders, each hissing and spitting venom, surrounded Shayalyn. I had to move fast. I limped up to the closest spider and began slashing it with my rapier until it turned on me.

Then I ran as best I could.

I staggered in a semicircle away from Shayalyn and back parallel to her on the opposite side of a floor drain. I made my way to the ladder she'd used earlier. Safely atop the first ledge, I began encouraging my companion to seek higher ground.

“Shay! Head for a ladder!” I urged, but she was trapped between the three spiders still on her. I sheathed my rapier and loosened my bow, thinking to draw the spiders' attention with a few arrows. I crept as close to the edge of the ledge as I dared and readied an arrow.

Suddenly, a glob of venom splashed in my face—I'd forgotten about the fourth spider awaiting me at the base of the ladder! The arrow flew from my hands and I fell backwards, writhing in agony and trying to ply the stinging goop from my eyes.

“Gone,” she said softly. I saw welts along her face and neck from the spider toxin. She pressed a hand to her face and muttered an incantation. Soon, her face was normal. I looked over the ledge to see four giant spider carcasses with several arrows protruding from their bulbous abdomens. Yellow ichor oozed from their wounds.

Once we reached the second ledge, I turned the valve to lower the drawbridge. If we needed a hasty egress, I wanted that bridge in place. Then I followed Shayalyn down a narrow corridor that ended at another metal door.

After using the valve that opened the door, I dropped down into the stagnant waters below and was greeted by three kobolds. I started casting a spell, and soon two kobolds were enthralled by my magic. We made short work of them and continued though the slush.

We ascended a ladder into a new chamber. An empty chamber.

“I don't like this,” Shayalyn complained.

We moved a few paces forward and then stopped short. I gestured to a series of square holes in the floor. The cleric nodded and stepped forward, careful to keep her body clear of the area around the holes. Instantly, a row of spikes emerged from each of the holes in the flooring.

“No problem,” I shrugged as I squeezed between two spikes and moved ahead of Shay. As I extended my right foot forward, the cleric grabbed my ponytail and yanked back so hard that I fell to ground.

“Hey! The hair!” I protested. Just then, a pair of blades the size of a grown halfling swept out from opposite sides of the room and sliced through the air where my ankle would have been.

“Get up, dammit!” she ordered, heaving on my leather cuirass. As I wobbled to my feet, the spikes shot out of the floor again and receded. The blades chopped through the air ahead a second time.

“We'll have to time it carefully,” she admonished. After the next cycle of spikes, she ran through the hall and jumped just in time to avoid the sweeping blades. I followed two cycles later and we proceeded down another narrow passage.

As we approached a ladder, we heard the fugative kobolds completing a deal to sell the Lady Faern. We didn't take time to see who the third party was; instead we starting climbing the ladder.

Shaylayn reached the top first and was greeted by mammoth humanoid with gray hide and yellow skin wielding a club that could have passed for a tree trunk. “Hobgoblin! Hurry!” she wailed as the hobgoblin laid into her.

I sprang up from the ladder and started chanting, hoping to hypnotize the beast. It spun around and swung its huge club at me. Though I got my shield up just in time to deflect the brunt of the blow, the force still knocked me to the floor.

From my prone position, I saw him swing his club in a backhand arc at Shay. She and her shield held steady, and she delivered a vicious blow to his neck with her mace. The hobgoblin dropped to the ground unconscious and I rose and ran through its neck with my rapier. The cleric looked away in disgust.

Shayalyn rushed over to untie Arissa Faern while I examined a nearby chest. “Are you seriously thinking of opening that?” she demanded.

“It was the hobgoblin's payment for me,” Arissa clarified. “Beware: a hobgoblin cleric went down the far corridor before you got here.”

Once we were sure that Arissa was unharmed, we informed her of the floor traps and bade her head back to the surface while we sought the second hobgoblin. We found him soon enough, and he concentrated his foul magic on Shayalyn until the two of us could overpower him. Then we returned to see Edrun Faern back in Aspirant's Corner.

The sun was high in the sky as we reached street level once again. Shayalyn visited the appreciative Edrun, who rewarded us each with a piece of his family's legacy. To me he gave a pair of gloves that glowed with arcane energy. He claimed they would help mend my wounds during my sleep.

Back at the Leaky Dinghy, Shay and I were hailed as true warriors and treated to some fine drink. I had followed another dead end; there was no powerful wizard or necromancer behind the kidnappings. Thus, I was no closer to finding the lore I sought. At the very least, we were becoming famous for our exploits. If I could convince Shayalyn to stick with me, we'd find what I wanted in Stormreach. One way or another.