A Sewer Shattering kaBOOOM

Log Info

• Title: A Sewer Shattering kaBOOOM
• Emitter: Solar Flare
• Characters: Delilah, Donna, Ashes, Elyanna
• Place: Alexandrian Sewers
• Time: Monday, January 10, 2022, 8:46 PM
• Summary: The Valethor gang meet with Norrington and Sirri and head into the Alexandrian sewers. The gnome leads the way as the adventurers lament being sent on another sewer mission. As they come around a corner, they're confronted with a truly absurd pile of explosives and a goblin preparing to set them off. Ashes attempts to charm the goblin into waiting, while the gnome and goblin argue. Both efforts fail and the group dives for cover as the mass explodes, blowing a hole that will let them get even deeper.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  Appearing  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Delilah      5'4"     106 Lb     Human             Female    A golden haired human girl in white robes.
Donna        5'4"     106 Lb     Human             Female    A black-haired human girl in black robes.
Ashes        5'11"    177 Lb     Hobgoblin         Female    A somber arvec in grey clothes with a skull face.
Elyanna      5'11"    153 Lb     Half-Orc          Female    A grim, Arvek-blooded woman in raven feathers.                            
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=

It's been a couple of hours since the meeting in the Courthouse; time enough for everyone to get prepared, and meet at one of the entrances to everyone's favorite environment: The Sewers. Because of course the powerful villain of the day is hiding her lair in the sewers.

But really, where else in Alexandria do you hide one?

Norrington is there, naturally. The Knight Captain is present, and is leaning against the wall next to an open manhole cover with his arms crossed, while clutching a small sack that looks like it contains something rather bulky.

The other person present is a gnome, dressed in what looks like grubby coveralls at odds with her vibrant pink hair, and the bright green lenses of a pair of goggles. She's also clutching a bag in one hand, but it's made of brown paper and looks a little bit greasy -- probably related to the half-eaten butter tart she's busy stuffing her face with.

Ashlee stares glumly at the sewer access entrance. "I'm not a sewer witch." She states, more firmly than her usual monotone. Her eyes rove towards the greasy food. Her stomach both rumbles and turns; she doesn't want to eat anything in the sewers, or have anything in there eat her.

She folds up her parasol and binds it tight. She'll be able to poke things with it.

A second set of eyes, golden eyes, appear from within her hair. They're staring straight at Norrington, and accompanied by an eerie warbling, "Whoooooooooooo?"

Steely eyes, however, scan the local environs with a certain intensity, while the feather cloaked figure bearing them stands near the yawning maw of refuse.

Indignity upon indignity, and twice again, it seems.

"This'll be fun." Elyanna mutters under her breath. <goblin-talk>

"Yeah," Donna says, tilting her head to one side, then the other, with a series of crackling pops. "But right now we're *hunting* a sewer witch. ...Or, y'know, next closest thing. So... sewers we go."

Not as utterly sanguine as the Captain appears to be, Donna paces back and forth before the entrance to the sewers, resembling a coiled spring waiting for an excuse to release. "So," she says, looking down at the gnome in their company and raising an eyebrow. "We know where the place is?"

"Nope!" answers the gnome, with the sort of effervescent cheeriness that simply cannot be repressed, even if the light of the sun is itself extinguished. She pops the last bite of butter tart in her mouth, and shrugs. "But I know where the cistern you need is, so I can at least get you that far, and then we'll just have to be nosey buggers and peek into every nook and cranny until we find it."

Norrington, who's been trying to get a word in edge-wise, clears his throat. "This is Sirri," he introduces, "She--"

"Sirri Nightsparkle!"

"...Quite." The Knight Captain ahems. "She will be guiding you at least as far as the cistern, and back again. You'll be responsible for her safety for the expedition." He pauses, and holds out the bag he's holding. "Most of the anti-magic shackles are being sent with Ser Seldan, Merek, and Speaker Silmeria, since their task is to catch Veren, but just in case she eludes them, comes back, and you happen to... not die, here's a set for all of you. Hopefully you won't need them, but better prepared than not."

"Okay." The ashen Arvec says, holding out her hand for the bag. She'll put the shackles in her satchel for now, although she glances at Donna, "You could wrestle the on. Do you want to carry them?"

After which she stares at Sirri Nightsparkle, "Hello." A gnome so bright she might need to get her parasol out again.

Finally, a glance at Norrington, "You're not coming?"

"Best one for each of us," Donna says, rolling a shoulder. "That way if I gotta sit on her, someone else'll have hands free."

Eyes dart to Norrington, one eyebrow rising. "We'll make sure she don't come to grief, Captain." That Norrington isn't joining them surprises her as well, but, the question has been asked, and no sense hinting at judgment by repeating it. "Aight, Sirri. We'll be countin' on you."

"Agreed." the Lady von Diesel replies to the assertion about preparedness.

She reaches out to accept the bag before whistling one of her particular little diddies to see if it still functions so emburdened.

"I'm not coming, no," Norrington replies. "I have my own job to do." He glances sideways at Donna, then looks forwards once more, after handing over the manacles. "I will be at the jails, guarding your sister. If Veren slips by the others, she might go after her. Afterall, if the primary..." he trails off, "We'll call her a witness is dead, it would make a trial considerably more difficult. So." The Knight Captain gestures towards Sirri. "She is an expert guide in the sewers and catacombs, and has worked for us before. You are in good hands."

"ALright, I'm ready!" declares the gnome, who stows her bag of treats and practically bounces down the ladder, disappearing into the manhole. "Let's go! We ain't got all day!"

The Mourner nods, the explanation seems reasonable, she's not about to argue. She touches her hair, making sure her owl is properly situated on her shoulder. She tucks her parasol under her arm and heads to the ladder. She makes her way down.

Stepping off the ladder, she looks around and asks, "We want light?"

Cleaning the hole a bit on a whim as the cantrip proceeds as expected, Elyanna seems content that simply carrying the manacles won't be an impediment to the mission.

She starts to move toward the entrance proper and takes a magically minty breath before she climbs down.

"It announces us, but we two I believe are the only ones who can function in darkness." she replies dubiously, with a glance down toward the preceding gnome, then climbs down after.

Donna catches Norrington's eye for a long look, then nods. "I'm puttin' my sister's life in your hands, Captain," she finally says. "You keep her safe." With that, she follows the gnome and hobkin down the ladder. "Rather know where not to step, inna place like this," she says with a resigned sigh. "Fuckin' *hate* sewer jobs..."

"Your sister will be as safe as I can keep her," acknowledges Norrington. "I take my job very seriously. Now, focus on yours." As the last of the adventurers descend into the sewers, he pushes the manhole cover back into place, sealing everyone in darkness.

At least, up until the moment when Sirri touches a little knob -- one amongst many -- on the side of her goggles, and they flare into brilliance, illuminating everything in front of her like she's gone ahead and borrowed some small part of the sun, just with a green tint.

"Luckily, the cistern you're after is disused, so it should be relatively not full of, well, shit. Unfortunately, we have a ways to go to get there. Follow me!" And with that, she sets off down the tunnel, walking on the ledge on along the side so as not to... fall in. That would be unfortunate.

The Mourner follows, uncaring where she steps. She has solid cavalry boots which she trusts and as long as she stays near the wall of the ledge, she can avoid the centre 'stream'. Although, that's likely not possible for the entire trip.

Chippen, who likes dark, dank, underground, wet places, is out and perched on top of her head like a tiara crown. He peers into the tunnels, antennae waving. Minnie, also, has squirmed out of her hiding place to lurk at the collar of Ash's shirt.

"I think you're using your cisterns wrong." She comments. The ones she remembers from Blar stored different things.

The Keeper continues to follow their guide while trying to keep a look out, her hands curled around the hilt of her weapons beneath the raven shroud she wears, "We end up exploring these sewers far too often." she notes urbanely.

"We do," Donna grumbles, keeping *tightly* to the ledge above the main flow. "Wonder how those turtles're doing... Weren't they like sweeping the place for demons, or something?"

"The demon worms got away." Ashlee says, "into the water supply. Hopefully they haven't burrowed into people in key positions and taken over the city."

Sirri's guidance is expert; she leads the trio of adventurers through tunnels that... well, many of them stink, and there are definitely small rivers of things it's best not to spend too long thinking about, but by and large she chooses a route that is not, in all honesty, utterly disgusting.

And she does, once, point out a sparkly geode that's cared out of the stone wall and left open. It's a big one, too, and would probably fetch a fortune if cut out and moved into a noble's house. "But it's loadbearing," Sirri explains. "And besides, why should they get all the shiney things? Folks down here deserve beauty too."

If anyone's counting, three levels get descended, using dilapidated and creaking but serviceable wrought-iron spiral staircases. And it's after the third one, when Sirri bounces off down a hallway and around a corner, that she comes to a screeching halt.

"What the--"

"WHAT'RE YOU DOING?!" comes a voice, shouted from the distance, with the unmistakable twang of goblin vocal chords. "RUN STUPID GIRL! THE FUSE IS *LIT!*"

Goblins.

"It's yer jorb ta make sur the gobbo's doan blow everythin' up Solder!" Ashes' purple-faced, drill sergeant with the throbbing forehead veins and screaming voice comes back to her. Except these aren't her goblins.

That is her gnome, technically, however.

Ashlee lurches forward, grabs Siri and drags her back down the hall. "Someone should check on that. Maybe. Or duck."

Elyanna is entirely too familiar with Goblins.

It's more the sound of the voice that surprises her than the words, themselves. After all, their cousins' typical answer to three plus six equals BOOM!

The Keeper doesn't waste the calories testing the words for truth, the twang is all the truth she needs, and she is turning to beat feet the way they came as Ashes takes charge of the Gnome, her own interest in the brawler, "Come!"

"What." Donna says, eyes widening. Then, she eases her way to the front of the group, where if anyone takes an explosion to the face, she will first. "THE FUCK YOU SAY?! WHAT THE SHIT ARE YOU *BLOWING UP* DOWN HERE?!"

Sirri is many things, but heavy is not one of them and she's rather easily whisked to safety in Ashes' hands; there's a brief, panicked flailing of limbs, much like a startled cat, but once she realizes she's being rescued she's much more okay with it.

The goblin is another matter.

"Remodelling!" the voice shouts back. "And watch your *language* young missy or I'll come over there and tan your bottom!"

There's a moment where there's a brief silence; and then there's a fzzzzzzt-*pop*.

"...Blast it all, didn't light," the voice complains. "Don't come close, it might still go off."

Prudence doesn't always look glamorous.

Elyanna, in the wake of the fizzle, purses her lips in a bemused manner and turns to follow Ashlee to see what's afoot, unhooking Maidenhead from her belt beneath her cloak.

GAME: Ashes casts Charm Person. Caster Level: 12 DC: 15
GAME: Delilah rolls 1d20+4: (18)+4: 22

Ashes sets Siri down, then runs ahead. It sounds like there's a window and a chance to talk sense into a goblin. This thought replays in her head, and is followed by a swift prayer, "Feiu of the Tears, give my words weight."

She touches her holy symbol, then shouts, "Wait."

A little ways down the hall and into a room there's a goblin busy tinkering with a massive pile of explosives. There's everything from dynamite to those round bombs, even a couple of landmines.

More mass might be needed. In the words, "We want to talk."

The goblin, he's... going to be okay! Just around the corner, a little ways down the hall and into a room there the goblin is busy tinkering with a massive pile of explosives. It's got everything from dynamite to those round bombs that villains have in cartoons to a couple of landmines.

Just in case Ash's magic needs some regular backup, Donna lifts a hand. "Seriously just hold up a sec! We need t'get by, an' it's hard enough to navigate this place without a bloody fifty-foot crater knockin' rubble everywhere!"

"Wait? Whaddayer mean wait?!" The voice of the goblin can be heard from the far side of the explosives pile. "But, well, alright fine, I'll see if I can..." He descends into muttering and grumbling, which lasts exactly a minute and a half before he comes pelting around the corner; a ragged little green creature in filthy rags, moving with a limp on a wooden leg but still managing a decent pace.

"Nope! Fuse is lit! So're the other fuses! Just run for it if you don't wanna join the red mist society!"

Sirri, for her part, isn't going to wait. "Thank you, big wonderful person!" she beams up at Ashes, before she too takes off down the hallway. "Run! Then we'll think about it!"

"I should have used web instead." Ashes says, turning and running and gently grabbing her familiars and pushing them down inside her breastplate. It's well padded in there but not comfortable, but they'll be safe. Remembering the artillery division, she folds her large ears down and covers them with her hands.

"Fucking--" Keeping to the back of the pack, Donna makes certain to keep herself between her comrades and the remodeling efforts.

"I *hate* sewer jobs!"

Elyanna again whirls on her heel and tears off in radiating, wrathful silence.

She's going to take this goblin's face off once the ringing in everyone's ears stops. Clearly, Alexandria has decided to tell her in one voice that this new path is a fool's quest, and she needs to dip more freely into Otilla's activity planner to accomplish her goals.

It might still make her giggle hearing him try to explain himself after her lash has taken his lips off.

Althea may have some words for her at this rate.

It isn't long before there's an absolutely ear-splitting explosion; a thunderous blast that shakes the sewer walls, sprays debris and muck and dust everywhere, and leaves everyone blinded and deafened for a few moments in the aftermath. As it dies down, the goblin is the first to pick himself up off the floor; and after taking a moment to dust himself off, he looks back down the tunnel, assessing the damage that is obvious from here.

"IT WORKED!" he proclaims, throwing his hands up in the air triumphantly. "The Under-Rock Goblin Gang will have a HOME AGAIN! We can build our fortress in this hole and it will be PERFECT!"

He pauses, and looks around. "I hope you all wanted to go about... four levels down. From here. 'Cause now you can."

Once the flash leaves her eyes, and her ears stop ringing, Donna begins to lever herself up to her knees. Blinking rapidly, shaking her head, the brawler takes a moment to clear the last of explosion-fueled disruption from her head, then raises her head to glare over her shoulder. "Motherfucker *are you actually out of your mind?!* Rrrrgh..."

Sitting back on her heels, then hauling herself upward, she leans against the wall to collect her bearings. "You fucking well *better hope* we need to go down buddy, cos otherwise I'm'a bounce you off the bottom of that godsdamned hole."

"We're deputized. We can arrest him." Ashes says, unexpectedly loudly. She's unhappy her ears are ringing. She may need to get some advanced healing for this. There's a squirming in her armour, her familiar and friends aren't coming out. "For destroying evidence."

The Mourner looks at Siri, checking the gnome over, "Are you ok?"

Elyanna is actually a little fuzzy on the status of summary executions amongst this 'deputization', but given the times the Guard have sent mercenaries specifically out for her or her immediate companions, there may be enough wiggle room for her to still be within the rules.

She glares down at the goblin, dusting herself off with her shielded hand, "Your day will choose from several colorful options depending on her answer." she remarks in the wake of Ashes' status check.