It all Started in a Bar

"Someone get this man a beer. His flag is foundering," Merril said with a chuckle, handing him a beer as he sits up on the table.

In seconds the beer is gone and he asks for more.

Joining them around the table Adelaide and Mouse sit together and refreshed themselves as well but a bit more blushing and prudish in the display of their nakedness. Especially Addie who could not even look her brother in the eyes.

"Do you two need help getting to the top, wink, wink?" blatantly asks Merril, clearly wishing to help.

"He, he, he, ahhh, nope," Mouse whispers while blushing. "I think we came more times than you guys. We are just a lot quieter. Like a lot." Addie's blush turned her face beat red and hugged Mouse.

"Wow, good for you," Merril says and salutes with a beer before taking a large swig.

"Using magic, that, that, that is like cheating, right?" whispers Addie to Merril, still unable to look at her brother.

"You might be surprised at what you can do or enhance with some creatively," supplied Went. "A little cantrip here or there. Maybe a minor illusion. Maybe summon a trinket of yeah by yeah." sorta tracing out a cock shaped devise.

"I will have to think of that," Adelaide says at a barely audible level, speaking to the table with a red face.

"And experiment on me," purred Mouse.

"We need to clean this place up and call it a night. I have the perfect room for us."

Mouse, Merril, Bresette, and Went stacked up the dishes and clothing on the table in front of Adelaide, as per her request. Casting a few spells, the dishes and mugs were clean along with the tables and best of all, the clothing with a warm fresh scent.

"All of you need to visit a lot more often," Bresette says wide-eyed. "Follow me for a sec." she leads Addie into the kitchen

After a quick trip to the back, the duo came back out.

"With spells like that, you would think wizards would be the cleanest of people in the world."

"Some of my people are, but the lazy ones, who are too wrapped in their studies give the rest of us a bad name. Septimus is a slob. I am always cleaning up after him followed by where is this, where is that? So lost, so helpless in his sloven nature.

"Look at my brother's people, they follow the goddess of water and life yet some smell like they live in a barn or sleep in a full chamber pot."

"She has a point. Some of them are nasty and even the brothels do not let them in. Imagine what it takes to be turned away from any of the places along Jetty St."

"You better not be going to Jetty St. Infestations abound with those girls. Even with the help of the Sisters of Cuthbert cleansing the workers, the disease is rampant."

"Ewe, no. I have all the women I need here."

"You better, those cure spells are not cheap."

The morning found all of them asleep in Breesette's room. Addie and Mouse are in the smaller kid's bed, naked and in each other's arms. Bresette was asleep with both Merril and Went on each of her sides when the doors to the bar began to bang.

"Shit, I overslept.

"That would be someone wanting to have breakfast. Crap I have not gotten the fire stocked or bread in the oven," Bresette said jumping out of bed naked. "Come down when you're ready. Last night was fun. We need to do that again." she stumbles and hops to the door trying to fit on her boots.

Her voluptuous body was soon becoming hidden under clothing. Casually casting a spell from the child-sized bed, Addie makes her hair for her with a blown kiss in return.

A brief tantalizing tease of large breasts, an ample hourglass shape leading to her waist and hips along with fiery red hair in every place it should be. Last seen hopping out the door trying to get her last boot on.

"I'm cold, warm me up Mouse," Addie pulled the blanket over her head but off her feet. The bed was very small, well not for Mouse, just Adelaide, and it seems the bedding is small too. Kissing and rustling could be heard under the sheets.

"I concur, I'm cold, warm my bones fair maiden,"

Passion and love ensued only to be interrupted later by Flynn bringing buckets of hot and cold water.

After cleaning and dressing, the four descended to the bar. The warm air filled with backing bread and cooking around the kitchen. The bar was busy serving food to a hungry audience. Flynn and his brother Lloyd were moving about serving the patrons.

Warm toast with gravy and sausages topped with once-over eggs were served to the four adventures along with glasses of mulled wine to warm them all up.

"Out with those daggers you two. Let me give them a once over. Make sure that the lieutenant did not give you junk," Merril asked the two smaller girls.

Of course, Mouse was the first, with the flick of a wrist, the knife appeared thrown into the table before the weaponsmith. The crowd got quiet, the sound of a thrown knife is generally the start of a prolonged brawl.

"Gads, really folks? It's just us. Jeez."

Giving it a solid once over, she gave the sturdy blade a clean bill of health and handed it back to the trusted thief. Checking over Adelaide's dagger, it too had a clean bill of health.

"I cannot believe the regent stripped my master of both his weapons and his position along with expelling him. Septimus never went anywhere without his weapons."

Merril drew the sword and recognized the maker's mark of her master. The frog and sheaths were made of fine red died leather and had perfect stitching. Not a nick in the blade, it looked unused.

When she drew the dagger, it was a matched pair. She knew a trick of this style dagger and that the pummel of the hilt was crafted, painstakingly with fine threads. Soon she had the pummel off it revealed a small chamber in the hilt. In it was a piece of paper. With a shake of the blade, the rolled-up parchment fell out.

"It's a noted sheet about four rings. Each one is an element with one here in Courwood, the ring of water. Fire is in the capital Enstad, the air ring is in a gnomish tower west of Fax, and lastly, earth, it's listed as in the Kron Hills. Ooo, there is a small map on the back. Here, put this back. It might prove useful once we start adventuring."

Breselette came out of the kitchen and warmly greet her friends. Merril notices that her corset still was not set right from her rush to get to the kitchens. She called her over, picked her up, and sets the barkeep on her lap. Then begins the task of adjusting the corset. Boobs were adjusted, strings were pulled, and clothing was situated in order.

"Tad da!."

"Thank you kind maiden, the girls like a tight binding," she throws her arms around her and bends in for a long and passionate kiss. Leaning over, she gives equal treatment to Went.

"We will have to have you in our bed again. That was a lot of fun."

"Your bed? Your bed? That was my bed and you both are welcome anytime," jumping for from Merril, the feisty woman mutters as she plunges back into the kitchen.

"We might as well take our packs and get to searching."

Stepping out the door, Merril says "Okay, now what?"

"Well, that last large group came out over there. Let's see where that goes."

The next alley over was slightly narrower than the one they were on. Walking its length, it was a dead end with no spaces between the buildings.

"The other raids were across town, they would not be coming out of these warehouses or shops. This makes no sense," said Merril as she turns around looking at all the buildings built next to each other and hoping to find a passage between some of them.

There was mostly a series of warehouses, all locked up with chains and locks. There was a baker and a living area above it. Lastly, there was a honey and candle maker with a roof covered in hives.

"Nothing."

"Not nothing. There is one thing all of the attacks had in common. They all were in alleyways. Dead-end alleys." said Mouse.

"Okay, dead-end alleys. How does that help us?" Merril said looking up and not at Mouse.

"Well, for one of you, you are missing a whole network below you."

"Yes, you showed me some of the sewers before, Mouse," said Addie.

"So this, over here?" Merril says as she lifts off the grate.

Below them was a stone-lined hole going down with cutouts for feet and hands.

"Let's break out some torches and not dive right in, that smells foul."

The Mouse went in first and disappears into the void.

"Toss me a torch. Umm, thanks guys but how about a lit one? Thanks, guys. Someone was down here, a lot of somethings. Tracks all over and fresh. Come down."

Lowering down the packs, soon the entire group followed down the 20-meter depth.

Sure enough, there were ample tracts leading to the footholds and the sewer cover above.

Like the passage leading down, the sewer line was circular with a low ceiling, less than 2 meters in diameter. It was dank and smelly with limited light coming in through the slits in the drain cover. The tunnel ended at the access tunnel going up. There was a pipe spewing water and waste, likely from one of the roads higher up the hillside behind the warehouses.

"Let's go this way and see where the tracks lead. There is but one path before us." Mouse snickers. "Step carefully sewer tunnels can be quite slippery."

Mouse leads the way followed by the cleric, then the weaponsmith, and lastly the quiet wizard. All but Mouse bending to navigate the cobblestone tunnel. They pasted odd pipes connecting to the line they walked. Some dry, some dripping, and others ejecting things left unsaid.

None noticed the smell after a time and the air was not completely still, there being movements around them as currents, causing the torches to blow around and making the shadows dance about on the walls as they drove onward.

"Here we go, this is one of the main lines in the sewer," Mouse said as they fanned out in the intersection of the larger tunnel. The mainline tunnel was wider and oval at the top with straight sides. There was a stone path on one side of the sewer tunnel that was a meter wide. The channel took up the rest of the width at 2 meters. The depth of the fetid water was not apparent and no one seems to care to know. With the curved roof starting at 2 meters, they all had ample room to stand and Merril stretched her back in joy, as the tallest person.

It was clear the tracks lead from the right as there were no discernable tracks on the left. The flow of the foul water also drained to the right. Marking the wall with chalk, she leaves an odd mark. So Mouse leads them downstream.

It is clear, no one was trying to hide their passage of the skeletons. Clumps of moldy dirt or the odd rag as well on the somewhat flat walkway made it clear they were on the right path. Even a bone or two could be found scattered along the passage.

"Next rainfall, water will rise and wash all this away. You do not ever want to be found in the tunnels during the rain or when the river runs high. Some of the mains are filled from connections to the Amberflow river, keeping the mains flowing even in the dry of summer.

"The main can raise quickly and your only safe escape is up. Even if the water is pouring down the grates, get out. Crabs once did not get out in time. We found him drowned and pressed against one of the main grates, his body beaten and torn asunder. He knew the tunnels better than most but was not spared.

"Hey, check this out," Mouse stops at a weighted barrel that was chained and bolted to the wall. She righted it and rolled it a bit closer to the wall bolt. "There are some secret passages hidden in here and this looks like one I heard of."

Jumping on top of the barrel, Mouse scans the curved arch roof and presses the cobbled ceiling in a few random places. There was a click and a section of the roof opened exposing a tunnel. Small tunnel with a rope looed on one of the climbing rungs.

"This leads into the basement of the Griffin and Ox. Anyone needing a beer?" she chuckles and closed the trap door. The rest just look at her in amazement. All of this was new to them and everyone was impressed by Mouse. None knew of this small world below their very feet.

Splash.

Everyone turns and looks upstream only to see ripples in the water.

"Your not casting spells on 'this' water, Addie?" Went asks. Adelaide just shakes her head.

"There are 'things' in this water," Mouse whispers. "Let's keep moving."

Went draws his mace, Merril her bow, and Addie keeps more of an eye behind them while holding on to Merril's belt. Strength, guidance, and support come from the connection.

"Want me to take the rear?"

"No, I'm good. I have a BIG spell for anything that shows its head," Adelaide boasts.

"My badass wizard friend," whispers Merril.

"AH!" exclaims a started Mouse as flowered vines shoot out and grab her by the ankles. Both Merril and Went grab a wrist and pull on the struggling thief. There seems to be quite a tug-of-war going on with poor Mouse the victim in the middle. Cries of pain bellow down the passages.

Adelaide steps past the trio and promptly casts a spell as veins shoot out to grab her as well. A huge, deafening thunder clad rings forth blowing all the plant life apart and backward from the opening of the intersecting mainline. The rest of the mainline was filled with waving veins, already recovering from the concussion.

"Quick, it will grow back fast," Mouse proclaims, taking the small stone bridge past the opening. The rest quickly followed.

"We should be safe here," a panting Mouse says. "The apothecary shop is up there and upstream of that spot. Strange stuff sprouts out of the water all the time. They dump anything down into the sewers, it has an effect. Never a good one.

"Once, in the summer when the water was stagnant, a hive of giant cockroaches came to be. While not particularly dangerous, they managed to get into a warehouse full of crops. Some very angry merchants sent a small army down to clear them out."

"Like, um, how large? Of roaches?" Merril asks.

"Scared of Roaches?"

"Yes! Not of rats. Roached, they get into things. Like anything. Even into ears. Imagine having a roach stuck forever in an ear, crawling around until it dies. Ugh, the horror." Merril says with a shutter of her whole body.

Everyone just stared at her for a few moments.

"Well, um, the skeletons, we are still on their path," says Mouse. "See all the tracks still come up from downstream. They must have come in from one of the outlets, maybe."

Onward they marched on further along the mainline tunnels. Every once and a while passing grates above and places to climb out with light shimmering downward.

Stopping at an intersection with a stairwell to the right, leading up. Mouse looks around at the filthy ground and proclaimed that the tracks seem to come from the stairs. Slowly, Mouse takes to the stairs. They are super slimy and green with filth and scum along with other tells of the passing skeletons.

Each step was 2 meters wide and a meter per tread. The raise was shallow too, with only 12 centimeters of rise.

Ascending slowly, Mouse checks each step as she goes. She does not get very far up until she gets to a landing 2 by 2 meters wide. With stairs going up to the right and stairs descending to the left. Strange lights danced from the drain cover above and some noises could be heard from above. The wind blew up from the descending stairs in a burst causing the shadows to dance hurriedly. As suddenly as the wind started, with a boom echoing down the raising stairs, the wind ended.

"Quick, someone is coming. Be careful but we need to move."

With that, the group hurried down the stairs.

"Hey, you cannot be here," is yelled down from up the stairs. "I am fetching the city watch. You better be gone before I return with them."

"Be sure to tell Lieutenant Saige of Battery St that it is us. We are still investigating," yelled back Went. "We are on regent business."

Only echoes of questions and confusion made it down the stairs to them but they still moved with some haste away from the voice. They descended the winding stairs. Light and the sound of rushing water drew up the tunnel as they continued onward. Some of the treads in the stairs were normal every meter but in some cases they were often much further apart, slowing their descent.

Coming around a particularly sharp bend sunlight filled the tunnel as they stopped at a bridge.

Below the bridge is the biggest mainline they have seen yet with the roar of many different normal drain lines pouring into it from above. Light poured in from a series of grates on a wall to the right. Each of the grates above the outflow adds more and more light. A great torrent of mirky water plunges out into the light through the massive 7.5 cm bars. The light grates were stacked up from the massive one the deluge of filth below them exited, plunging somewhere into the light.

"This passage must lead through to the dam," Mouse yells above the din.

The bridge was seven meters across of slime and plunged into darkness on the other side.

"Looks like not all of them made it across safely," pointing to bones and skid marks on the foliage. There was even a burnt rootball on the end of a sapling as further evidence of the skeletal passage.

Luckily for the party, there was a chain bolted to each end of the bridge for handholding and stability but each party member took each step with care and thought. Startling the others, Merril kicked the burnt tree from the bridge. It fell to the water and was slammed to pieces as it met the massive durian grate.

"Was that necessary?" Addie hisses above the din. Merril just smiled. A smile of both humor and fear.

No one tried to breathe in the misty fetid water blowing around as they crossed the bridge. Heads down and with a firm grasp on the chain, everyone made it across, and soon the steps began to rise and were much clearer of the slippery moss and spray of the water from the waterfalls. The steps were 2m wide by 1m steps like before and there was nothing but a domed roof and sturdy stone walls. Each of the steps showed signs of rutting from cartwheels. More rutting on the right than on the left

Reaching the top, the pathway widened out. It was 4m wide and every 3m there was an internal wall jutting into the chamber. Each re-enforcing rib still has space for 2m for the other side. They were in the very dam itself.

Odd sporadic supplies were stowed in the chamberings to the sides between each rib. Piles of wood, heaps of stone, barrels of chain, and carts. Some had workshops such as for carving wood or shaping stones. No one was present, the torches making strange shadows dance as they passed.

Walking on a glow of distant light could be seen. Seems one of the ribs ahead was not so vacant and the sounds of people could be heard. As the party drew halfway to the final rib, the noises stopped with a shhh and a voice rang out.

"Oye, who goes there? This area is closed off by the order of the reach wizard Septimus." a loud voice bellows out from ahead.

"It is I, Adelaide, master Septimus's apprentice," Addie says meekly.

"Eh? What was that? I said this area is closed. Return to where ye came from."

"She said 'It is I, Adelaide, apprentice to Septimus," Merril belts out.

An arrow shoots wide overhead. The three break to the left for cover, behind a rib, and Mouse is nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Septimus has been removed as the wizard by the regent and expelled from the territory," Merril yells from the cover.

"Ye needs to leave. I don't want to be putting you down."

"We are under orders by the regent himself. Septimus has been cast out."

More arrows are shot their way, some flying past and shows hitting the other side of the ribbing. No one dares to poke a head out.

"Went, toss an unlit torch over there," whispers, and Adelaide points to the storage area over on the other side. "Then one in the next back."