by Albion, Rex
“I suppose there’s artistic licence in these,” Roxy said.
“No, we take people from the Adventurer’s Portrait Guild down there. They use magic to capture the scene perfectly in their mind’s eye and as long as they can survive, they can paint it from memory completely accurately. Depending on their skill, of course,” Jill said. “These are all real sewer expeditions. Most of the time it’s not nearly so dramatic of course, you’ll see smaller paintings throughout the guild of the other things we’ve found down there. Skeletons, zombies, Crust Jugglers, Gong Spiders, Bile Leeches, Jellied Eels.”
“Jellied Eels? Aren’t they a type of food?” Roxy asked.
“Ew. No, they’re a kind of six-foot-long sewer eel a bit like the Dodecahedrons only more like a tentacle. They sparkle with light because they eat the Glow Fungus, but they eat anything they find that’s dead too. Which includes unwary fighters they can make dead, of course,” Jill said.
“Of course, it does,” said, Roxy. “It sounds delightfully fun.” Jilly frowned at that but was too polite to critique the goblin shaman’s definition of an enjoyable activity.
“Well, this is all fascinating stuff Jill, but what can we do about actually visiting the sewers? We’d like to look around,” Vandal said.
“The next organised tour is in three days. I can book you on that if you’d like? It’ll be a nice big group, plenty of protection so there’s no need to be afraid, even if anything like a Sewer Octopus were found, not that we take people to those areas,” Jill said, hurriedly. “Your safety is our number one concern!”
“We really want to go there today,” Vandal said.
“I’m sorry, we can’t have amateurs wandering around alone.”
Chapter Forty-Four
“It’s important that we get in to see what’s going on in there,” said, Vandal, trying to find a way through this unexpected problem.
“Whatever for?” Jill asked, her face betraying a mix of surprise and confusion. Judging by that look, she really wasn’t keen on the idea, and he was starting to wonder if bribery was an option. If they couldn’t get into the sewers, they might need to recruit some more help to investigate the merchant and his dealings. Maybe Valkerry knew a thief?
“We want to make sure that a particular tunnel is still in good order and safe,” Roxy said.
“A particular tunnel? I’m not sure what you mean?”
“It’s a sewer tunnel that was linked to the town from a country estate,” Roxy explained. “We want to make sure that if we had the same thing done, it would still be working and safe a few years later. We wouldn’t want to create a problem for the temple, I mean, for the property we’d be building.”
Jill’s eyes lit up and her eyebrows lifted. “A new building?” she asked excitedly, just barely managing not to say temple, Vandal was sure. “You mean the tunnel that goes to the Tinshire Pale Ale merchant’s mansion? You want to build something like that for your new… building?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Vandal said. “But it’s extremely hush hush, you understand? We are still in the process of getting everything set up, buying land and so on. There’s no point going forward with the plans we have if the last attempt was a disaster though, and we can’t ask the owner about it, because a clever merchant might buy the land we want and force us to pay more, do you see?”
“Yes, and we are just Clerics of Amoria, we’re not wealthy. We want to bring the worship of Amoria to Tinshire and for that we’ll need to have a temple. But we can’t do that if the price is too high, we’d have to go elsewhere,” Roxy said. It was a little deceitful, but Vandal played along with Roxy’s bluff because it would serve their needs if they could make it work.
“I see, that does make sense. I know the tunnel you mean, but we can’t just let anyone down into the sewers, and you can’t go on your own because you need a key,” Jill said. “That’s why we have organised tours, for the curious types who like to see how things work.”
“Who can go in there, other than on those tours, then?” Roxy asked.
“Well, really just us. We sometimes take rat catchers to deal with a nest of giant rats or generally keep rodent numbers down, or adventurers so they can help us deal with a Sewer Octopus or something really dangerous, or masons to build new things. But we hold all the keys to the grates here at the guilds,” Jill said, clearly proud of the responsibility. “Only guild members can borrow them or have their own.”
“Then, can we become members?” Vandal asked.
Jill blinked and cocked her head. “I don’t see why not. I don’t think an Awoken has ever asked that, let alone a Cleric. If you were guild members, I could take you down myself and show you the area you want to look at. It’s not dangerous as long as you stay in that part of the sewers, and you could have keys to get in and look around yourself in future, as long as you obey the rules.”
“Let’s do that then, shall we? We’d be ever so grateful,” Roxy said.
“You really want to join the Sewer Fighter’s Guild?” Jill gasped, covering her mouth in surprise.
“Why not? It seems like the perfect solution to me,” Vandal replied. “We can learn how to play a useful role in the Guild, help the citizens of Tinshire, understand whether the sewer drainage from out of town works well, and fulfil bounties at the same time.”
Jill’s eyes were like saucers as she looked from Vandal to Roxy and back again. “Yes, that is true, it’s just that I’m so used to Clerics sticking to their responsibilities to their temples and cults. I suppose that’s just another way the Awoken are different from people like me, though.”
“I don’t know if it’s because we are Awoken or just Vandal and I, Jill but we want to help. What do we need to do to join the Guild?”
“If you just take a seat here, I'll fetch the necessary paperwork and we can get that out of the way, it won’t take too long, don’t worry,” Jill said, showing them to a comfortable pub style table with high backed wooden armchairs.
True to her word, she returned in just a few minutes, carrying some forms, quill and ink and a ledger, as well as a small crate, which she set on the other end of the table.
The forms were easily filled in, especially as Vandal and Roxy could both write, which was far from the norm with Sewer Fighters. Then they each had an entry made in the Great Ledger which recorded all the sewer fighters since the Tinshire branch was formed. The fees were small, since they didn’t need to buy any equipment, beyond an official guild lantern and a chain to wear it around their necks.
It was a magical lantern that would keep the way lit, yet was no larger than an hourglass, and only cost ten gold coins each. They had weapons and armour already and didn’t require basic combat training after they showed Jill what equipment they had. She seemed impressed by the quality of their gear, Vandal noted with some surprise. despite being level ten herself. It was the legendary items that awed her, for while they were too low level for her, their quality was vastly better than she’d expected them to have.
“We won’t go to the more dangerous areas, to start with, but your current equipment should last you some time,” Jill explained, admiring their armour in particular.
New Guild: You have joined the Sewer Fighters Guild
New Guild: Roxy has joined the Sewer Fighters Guild
New Acquaintance: You have made a new friend, contact, or ally, Sewer Jill, Sewer Fighters Guild. 50 XP.
New Skill: Sewer Navigation. You have been given a new skill because you joined a guild.
New Map Entry: A new entry has been made to your maps. You now have a Sewer Map of Tinshire: Low Level Areas obtained from the Sewer Fighters Guild. 50 XP
Aside from their lanterns, the crate also contained two copies of a book ‘I Am Rat Man: A Sewer Fighter’s Guide to The Tunnelling Horrors of Tinshire’. It was a slim volume that chronicled the life of a young man after he joined the guild to avenge the death of his parents, a pair of rat catchers who were taken by a mega-rat in his youth.
> Jill made them swear to read it, as she swore that it had saved many a young fighter’s life, to listen to the wisdom of their current Guild master, Rob ‘Ratman’ Fingerson.
Vandal could have sworn there was something familiar about the name but flicking through it, the book was short on text and contained plenty of instructional sketches in panels that showed how to fight the various monsters. It wasn’t going to be a long read.
Finally, they had strange looking masks that were to be strapped around the head. They left a triangle that fitted over the nose and a drop cloth that hung from it to cover the mouth. The nose section contained a posy full of a sort of potpourri of dried herbs and flowers, that helped to mask the scents they’d encounter. Jill warned them that it wasn’t going to be completely effective and showed them the guild’s back yard.
There were some outdoor showers, which were used in full gear. The cold one was free, the magically heated one attracted a charge. Jill recommended the heated one if they could afford it, but warned they’d need one or the other, before any of the inns would let them back into their rooms.
The regular sewer fighters all had their own homes to go to, but she said, many still had to shower before their families would let them back in for the evening, even if they had good bathrooms. It seemed that the sewer fighters had a job that could pay fairly well, but was a major social handicap, even with their friends and family.
Once Jill had gone and put on her own armour, and gathered her weapons, they were ready to set off for their first introduction. There was just one more thing for Jill to show them, the bounty board. There were several types of bounties available on the guild’s board. Firstly, there were bounties that the council of Tinshire paid the guild for. Those were for keeping the number of monsters down so each mega-rat or Sewer Octopus was worth a certain amount of coin.
Secondly there were bounties for bringing in raw materials that were helpful to the guild. The members bought their basic supplies, such as nose masks, herbs, packets of mint, chemicals to deal with Jellied Dodecahedrons and lanterns from the guild. Bringing back the raw materials they needed, attracted rewards so they could earn money by gathering resources.
Thirdly there were bounties for certain types of material gathered from the monsters. Fur or jelly, Glow Fungus, or Gong Spider Legs. All sorts of things had uses for other guilds and the Sewer Fighter's Guild would pay for them. Alchemists could make all sorts of things with Glow Fungus, Jill said, mostly to do with lighting or toys of course but also some magical potions used it.
The jelly from the gelatinous lifeforms that abounded in the sewers could have corrosive properties that smiths could use to etch metalwork, or alchemists could use to mix more potions. The herbalists used some things too.
Roxy perked up at that, and Vandal realised they might be spending more time doing work in the sewers than he’d been hoping. In essence it appeared to be a form of low-level dungeon, where they could regularly return to farm resources and kill monsters for bounties, which would net them experience and money too.
They picked up a number of bounties, mostly so they had them available if they wanted to track their progress, although Jill pointed out that as long as they took the appropriate parts of their kills, they could hand them in for bounties when they had enough anyway. Vandal chuckled to himself at that. A bag full of Boar Rat teeth and Jellied Eel bodies, didn’t sound grisly, no, not at all.
Soon enough they were ready to go, and Jill informed a colleague she was off to show two newbies the turds.
“Don’t cross the streams!” Jill’s friend cried out as they left.
Roxy giggled. “What did he mean by that, Jill?”
“It’s a traditional way to wish a Sewer Fighter's good luck,” Jill said. “You know how actors say ‘break a leg’ but they don’t mean that? Well, if you try to cross the streams in the sewer, it means jumping from the walkway on one side, to the other.”
“And that’s bad?” Vandal asked.
Jill laughed. “Bad is if you fall in the stream. Worse is if an octopus grabs you as you jump and pulls you under.”
Roxy cursed. Colourfully. Vandal gasped at the mouth on her, and Jill blushed.
“What? I don’t want to drown, let alone drown in piss,” Roxy growled. “You’d better not have got me into another fine mess, Vandal Lionheart!”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine, darling,” Vandal lied. He was reasonably confident this was not going to go down as one of the favourite days in his life but was also sure he wasn’t going to try and jump across any rivers of sewage, no matter how easy it might look.
“That’s the spirit! Drowning is to be avoided!” Jill agreed cheerfully.
Chapter Forty-Five
Soon enough they arrived at a small stone archway between two buildings. The buildings were built up above the entrance and if it hadn’t had an iron gate with a big keyhole in it, Vandal would never have realised it wasn’t an entrance to one of them at all. He realised now, that he’d passed several such gates as they went about their business in Tinshire, and he’d naturally assumed they led to cellars or were for deliveries and the like.,
Instead, Jill produced a shining bronze key, and inserted it into the lock. The gate was sturdy cast iron and looked old but well maintained. The lock was well oiled and turned easily and when they turned their lanterns on, he could see the short passageway almost immediately became a spiral staircase that led beneath the streets. They followed Jill into the passage, and when Roxy shut the gate, it locked automatically behind them.
“Lesson one, if you’re being chased and trying to make it to the door, the first person needs to yank the emergency lever right there,” Jill said, pointing to a small alcove in the stonework of the tunnel which contained a sturdy lever, “or you’ll run into the gate, and get eaten by whatever is chasing you. It’s always tragic when the townsfolk report a Sewer Fighter's was within sight of safety and got dragged back into the darkness to be devoured.”
“Devoured?” Roxy asked nervously.
“Yes, everything down here will eat you if you let it. Don’t forget, you can run away but don’t leave your fellow Jacks behind or you’ll be an outcast,” Jill said. “When we say we don’t flee, we retreat tactically, it’s not just covering up our cowardice. We’re saying that if you just run, you and your team are far more likely to get eaten than get away from something dangerous and escape to fight another day.”
Before proceeding down the spiral staircase, Jill waited for them both to acknowledge what she’d said and take note of where the lever was. Around her neck, she had a thick leather strap, which reminded Vandal of the sling you’d put on a modern rifle. Of course, New Albion had no gunpowder, so Jill’s weapon of choice was a crossbow. There was nothing flashy about it. No magazine of bolts atop it, no magical gemstone which powered it.
It was just an ordinary crossbow with a simple release trigger. It was a peasant’s weapon, not an artisan work made for a noble to hunt in the forest. Since she also had a sword and a heavy dagger, as well as a buckler, Vandal assumed she wasn’t relying on it.
The spiral stairs emanated from a wide central column and were each quite shallow. There wasn’t enough room for two people to walk abreast comfortably but you could pass someone if they pressed to the column to let you. The stairs descended anticlockwise, so your left hand was against the column, and a rope was threaded through frequent iron rings on either side of the staircase to act as a banister.
Jill wasn’t hurrying down the stairs, Vandal realised immediately. She had her crossbow ready to shoot, and kept well to the right, giving her the best view of the way forward. “Arm yourselves,” Jill whispered, pausing the descent while they complied. “Stay quiet down here, our hearing is our best way to detect the enemy. If I stop moving, you stop moving. Got it?”
Vandal and Roxy nodded that they understood, and he readied his shield and shortsword in case of trouble. They could hear wet sounds below them now that they’d turned
around the first arc and were no longer in the sunlight that poured through the access gate. Not the sound of a sparkling stream running through a valley, but the type of gloopy sounds that could only be described as moist.
Jill stopped again when they reached the bottom of the turn, which faced into a tunnel. It was lined with stonework, and a stream of effluent ran left to right in front of them. There was a path of sorts, made of paving slabs, on either side of the tunnel. But it wasn’t more than a couple of feet wide on either side, if that.
Pulling her lantern to one side where they could see it, Rose operated a catch on the bottom. A disc of metal detached from the base, pivoting out and revealing a simple compass. The needle pointed north, and Jill indicated with her hand that they’d be going right from here. Vandal checked his own lantern, and discovered it too had a built-in compass. Once he did, a small orange N lit up on his mini-map, which was mostly dark to show that he’d not discovered any of the surroundings yet.
Vandal had to admit that following the Sewer Fighter's was somewhat less thrilling than he’d hoped, having seen the lurid paintings of their epic fights against the denizens of the second-rate underworld. He’d almost been hoping to meet something early on. But it was still tense. Something about the way she held herself warned him against dropping his own guard.
Would they encounter fearsome beasties if they weren’t cautious? What level would creatures down here be? The locals had a concept of levels, but Jill hadn’t mentioned levels for the sewer dungeon and the paintings hadn’t shown them either.
Jill held a hand up, indicating that they should stop, and they drew up tight behind her. Vandal listened and wasn’t sure if he could hear skittering and squeaks above the sound of the gurgling liquid or not. The posy was doing a pretty good job of masking the smell so far, but he was conscious of the fact they were still not in the sewer proper but right near the source of fresh air.
