Riverside 20: Another day, another disaster

[5a Violista]

[Tracking Rats - Holly]

"Right," she says over the phone, trying to rack her brain and see if she can figure out the frequencies. She should've probably prepared this beforehand because of course she would be asked about the frequencies. Since it's all innately natural to her, she didn't have to worry about the specifics and adjust if it's not working.

As a result, Holly needs to buy time so she can find out specifically what frequencies she used.

"So there's actually three different frequencies that were used," Holly says, "and from the specs I read then depending on your set-up there's a bunch of different things you can find out from the signal. I don't exactly remember the specific frequencies, but they should be listed on the spec sheet, so just give me a moment to find it." She tries to figure out the lengths and come up with a way to calculate the frequencies, while pretending to look for a piece of paper.

Buying time, she discusses how different setups can determine different things: "The reason why there's three frequencies is that each penetrates through air, objects and especially water at different rates, so with the right set-up you can compare the wave intensity of the three and determine distance. You can also set up different receivers in a water or gel or something-" in Holly's case, her own flesh "-and based on the direction of the decaying waves you can pinpoint direction. It says here that the signal is patterned which can give you an idea of amount of rats and a direction, I guess, with the right setup." She's almost got the frequencies figured out..."And the three different frequencies penetrate and reflect off stone and walls differently so that's helpful too, I guess."

As she figures out the frequencies, she writes them down. "Aha! I found it! So, the frequencies are: 387.4 MHz which I think is like phones or TVs or something, 2975 kHz which is...AM radio range, maybe a bit higher than that, I believe, and 89.14 MHz which I think is just under FM radio range."
She silently apologizes for whichever government or commercial or private groups that use those frequencies.

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

Amalungak invokes the same power as before with the blindfold, but this time he's trying to focus on the possessed rats' lifeforce as it exits them. Since they're being killed, rather than self-destructing, perhaps he can take a better look at what's affecting them. Where is it going when they die? Can he see where it came from?

[Recaiden]

((Post for rats on previous page))

[Breakthrough Day]

Weather is changing. The heat of the summer slowly cools down and afresh wind blows down from the north. It appears that the change from Summer to Autumn is nearby and this causes some movement in the district. A lot of helpers arrive daily in the religious part of the city and start to work up on the streets. Banners got hung up the street, flowers got set around and some booths rise up out of nowhere. This affects the daily work in the city park and even outsiders might take note of it when their order appears to be delayed.
Everyone who listens to the words will gather that there is a holiday in DMside which appears to be one of the major holidays in the church in general. Trucks with wine, food and other goods promise to take good care of everybody's needs. The name of this holiday is "Breakthrough-Day"

Up from the south comes a visitor to the city, on account of the holiday.
Holidays are great opportunities for information gathering tourism and adventure.
It's the centaur who goes by Alice, who's accompanied by a pair of hovering drones.

She looks about the district, wondering how people celebrate Breakthrough Day? Will it be like the few holidays she saw at home? The ones from the old country that she barely remembers? More like a thanksmas festival? Who knows?

[Shadowcaller]

[Tracking Rats - Holly]

It doesn't sound like Dena is really partaking in this as all her replies are a series of "mhm" and "uhu" as Holly goes on about how the frequencies work. It's not until she actually mentions those frequency numbers that the gorgon seems to actually react. "So if you use those frequencies on a radio, what would you actually snap up? This kind of technology is not my strong suit but I kinda assume you can feed those numbers into some software that would be able to map the rats out." A beat. "What kind of machine are you using?"

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

As soon as Amalungak reaches out for the rats spirit he might get overwhelmed by the sheer number of them.
His astral eyes are clouded by the sheer amount of rat spirits which lingers around them. Refusing to move on.
While cities often become gathering places for the spirits of the dead, this is not normal. Every soul would not linger like this unless something was binding them here and once he gathers his bearings it isn't hard to guess what.

All these rat-souls carry the essence of something else within them. As he noticed earlier, their spirits have been remade into something different which prevents them from moving on and traps their souls here. He can probably through his experience as a shaman tell that they carry the mark of a fey. In a sense, they are part of this fey now, like extensions of it.

[Tracking Rats - Ruby]

The scouts can follow the rats through the tubes, which will eventually end up in Southside. From here, unless stopped, the rats will seek out remote locations that are already pretty filthy and turn them even filthier through their living. It doesn't even seem like they're going after food. It's like they are intentionally spreading filth to these locations.

As for the rest of the group. It's difficult to tell exactly where the rats are coming from as they're using passages that are too small for most creatures. However, they will eventually gain idea of the pests movement and it turns out that neither of those are likely. No, the rats seem to be coming from Westside.

[5a Violista]

[Tracking Rats - Holly]

Holly, of course, answers the first question first. "If you used a basic radio by itself, the pattern's frequency would tell you how many rats are around. If you used something to block or differentiate signals from most directions, it would tell you how many rats are in that direction, and you could switch between the three channels to kind-of judge distance. Or have a better set-up and then get more accuracy. If there's too many rats, though, it'll just be a constant radio-buzz with no way to tell how many are in that direction, so I guess that's a flaw of this. And, I suppose, it can't tell the difference between living and dead infected rats."

"I'm not really a tech gal myself, but, yes, software will be able to map them out." She shrugs. Again, shrugs can't be seen over phones. "I think most tech-people should be able to figure out how to set it up properly to get the best map. How accurate and useful it is is entirely dependent on how good the set-up is, but even low-quality things should be kind-of useful."

But Holly isn't 'a tech gal' so don't ask her to set it up.

Speaking of her setup, Holly needs to come up with a plausible answer for the last question. It is, of course, entirely biological and within her own body so..."I had the same person make mine. Figured it was easier that way. So, it's entirely custom-built. I think it has multiple radio-things in different places throughout some water-filled thing and so it tells me how many, what direction, and how far from me" Of course, Holly is not, as she said, a 'tech gal' so obviously she doesn't know the specifics of how it works.

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

Amalungak doesn't spend much time overwhelmed by what he sees; his will is strong and his purpose clear. Once he feels the mark of the fey on the presence, it becomes even more imperative that he gets to the bottom of this and brings information back to his King. He reaches under his fur coat to grasp the King's symbol he keeps there, letting it fill him with increased resolve. He has no instruments this time, so his next act is one of pure will; he intones an ancient chant of mysticism to reach out with his mind towards the presence.

"Who are you? In the name of the Fairest of Lands and its rulers, I call you to stand and explain yourself!"

[Gullara]

KABAL Rat Hunting- Sewers

"I've got a faster idea." He reaches into his big coat, pulls out a small tin, like the one breath-mints sometimes come in, and opens it. He withdraws a large red lozenge and puts it in his mouth, grimacing as he swallows; it doesn't taste very nice. Then he gags, motioning for Archera to get away. He'll hold up until she gets away, before he spits a thick red liquid onto the bars, where it sizzles and fizzes as the acid he just generated eats through them.

If Archera gets any on her, she'll find it eats flesh as readily as metal, though it doesn't last long; ten seconds at most. When the acid has dried, Flicker kicks the weakened bars to break them and get in. Because the vigilante's likely going to glare at them, she'll shrug. "What? They already weren't stopping the rats, just getting in our way. I'm Flicker, by the way. My associate's named Spewer. I'm a speeder, he's... Usually an empath." Technically true; Spewer's power does affect the emotions, but he can't read them or otherwise influence them except through fight-or-flight terror.

[Sewers - KABAL and Archera]

The grate is melted down by the acid, allowing the two to enter. They will still have to crawl inside though as the tuble isn't large enough to walk through. Inside, they will be greeted by the same aged tunnel system as Archera.

Archera might recall that Malechenar relatively recently made a big show out of upgrading the old sewer systems though obviously this section wasn't a part of that. Mainly north- and westside were worked on in a huge arcitectual effort by Malechenar's part. They likely did a lot of it for the publicity not to mention that the old sewers had become incapable of supporting the city's growing population.

[Sewers - KABAL and Archera]

"Let's get going. I don't want the trail getting cold." Archera turns and leads the way back into the sewer. She's quite terse, though maybe the unpleasant environment can be partially blamed for that? She moves fairly quickly, despite the awkward posture, until they reach the main tunnel.

[Zefir]

[The Grand Hall - Inside]

"My people are already doing their best, I assure you." The voice replies, refering to the suits of armors who are currently working to break up the fighting rat catchers. "This unusual qualities and behavior from the rats is disturbing and give credenance to the theory that they have been created and sent here by the demons who invaded the city not long ago. I must admit that the idea of them showing up again is the main reason we're here. They spread chaos among the order we wish to build up and other rumors suggests that they oppose money making them extremely dangerous. Devotee, you that have managed to catch so many rats, could you seek out if there is some truth to these claims?"

They won't stop her from looking around, but the doors to the inner sanctuary is locked so there is no way Shiva is getting in there.

[Tracking Rats - Fade]

"Yeah, I heard about those exploding rats from Holly. It's super-weird. But cloning rats is not something any MERC-member currently in Riverside is capable off. As for entrances, there is one here at the office. We're keeping it sealed though for obvious reasons. In fact, before we go through the trouble of unsealing it why don't you check out something Holly did? I don't quite get it myself but it you tune in to this frequence she has, you should be able to detect all the rats that she's infected with machine-virus or something. Again, don't ask me but it seems to work." Dena replies.

((5a Violista could probably say something about it.))

[The Grand Hall - Inside]

Keeping Shiva here takes his tall on Karl. So as the situation outside seems to be setteled he unsummons her with a little wave of his hands. This way she just disapears. The ice in that matter remains until it melts away.

"I'm not sure they would go that way." Karl speaks out his thoughts. "They seem to got some pretty big stuff as far as I heared. Going all this sneaky seems a bit off. But you are right whoever creats them is up for now good. Do you got any clues other then maybe the sewers. A typical rat location ? Oh and you might open the doors so I can get out."

[Tracking Rats - Fade]

I guess Dena missunderstood? He suggested to copy the link to keep the rats from exploding, not copy a rat.

"Okay, I'm not a technican myself, but maybe this way we can see where they leak out. With the link coming from down there we only need to find the hole leading down. If we find it I should be able to pass through. That way we won't need to open the seals."

Fade will then proceed to use the radio tools, thought he will need time and maybe Hollys advice to prepare the device he got. If it works he will go and search futher in the sewers. There must be a leak or otherwise where those rat creations come from.

((Post for rats on previous page))

[Breakthrough Day]


Up from the south comes a visitor to the city, on account of the holiday.
Holidays are great opportunities for information gathering tourism and adventure.
It's the centaur who goes by Alice, who's accompanied by a pair of hovering drones.

She looks about the district, wondering how people celebrate Breakthrough Day? Will it be like the few holidays she saw at home? The ones from the old country that she barely remembers? More like a thanksmas festival? Who knows?

[DMSide]
[Breakthrough Day]

The main Festival seems to be around the church itself. The streets around are filled with many booths which seem to be abit off for those who are not firm with this holiday. While there are the typical food booths serving you the newest inventions in the food industry, you can see some high tech booths, with quiet the stock, right next to some booths selling wood and stone for.. firemaking? It appears that breakthroughs are the theme of this going from the very first inventions of mankind up to what we achived today.

A man in robes acompanied by a 4 meter tall robot approches Alice.
"Excuse me, could you please deactivate those drones? We don't allow them today as a safty rule."

[Shadowcaller]

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

The rat spirits suddenly all turn to look at him.
But nothing else seem to happen for a moment except those silent ghostly stares.

Until another soul comes crawling out of an alleyway. This one appears to be human, or at least was human. Now like the rats it seems to have been repurposed and appears like a mix between a human and a rat. He seems fearful for a moment, as if not wanting to be seen, but eventually force himself to continue to crawl up to Amalungak. "I speak for the king..." He mutters. "Who is making demands?" This is not a fey, just another one of its puppets. Unlike the actual rats this one seem particularly miserable. Though perhaps its just easier to tell when they're humanoid.

[Tracking Rats - Holly]

More "ah's" and "uhu's"'s follow.
"Okay, so no special expertise is needed then. Consider it done." A pause. "But what are your plans now? You could technically lean back and let others do the hunting part. We're going to use your findings to zoom in on wherever the rats are coming from and then send in some people to take care of it. So the question is if you want to be one of those people. If you are, you should probably head back to HQ now."

[Tracking Rats - Fade]

Copying the link sounds even harder than copying the rat so MERC wouldn't be able to do it either.

"Hold on. You're not going anywhere alone. For all we know whatever is controlling the rats is moving around, hiding. If you come skulking they might run away and hide again. I want you to come back to HQ so that we can plan ahead. It might be that we decide to just go with your plan but we gotta consider all our options first. Don't want us to go up against whoever the controller is blindly."

[The Grand Hall - Inside]

"If I knew where you should go, I would tell you so I'm afraid, devotee. But... there have been rumors I've been hearing from the rat catchers that come here. Homless people have gone missing here in Westside and it's possible that the rats or their potential masters are behind it. Perhaps that is a lead you could follow up on? The homeless can often be seen hanging around in moth park, but can probably be seen anywhere. Some of them have become rat catchers, which is why they're so desperate about turning them in." The voice explains.

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

"I am Amalungak, envoy of the King in Rags, one of the Gentry," the elf declares. "Who do you serve?"

[Recaiden]

[DMSide]

[Breakthrough Day]
The main Festival seems to be around the church itself. The streets around are filled with many booths which seem to be abit off for those who are not firm with this holiday. While there are the typical food booths serving you the newest inventions in the food industry, you can see some high tech booths, with quiet the stock, right next to some booths selling wood and stone for.. firemaking? It appears that breakthroughs are the theme of this going from the very first inventions of mankind up to what we achived today.

A man in robes acompanied by a 4 meter tall robot approches Alice.
"Excuse me, could you please deactivate those drones? We don't allow them today as a safty rule."

That's quite a tall robot!
"Oh, um, of course." Alice radios the drones to come land on her hands and go to sleep, after which they can be put into her saddlebags.
She refrains from mentioning that the drones are pretty harmless compared to her, because what can you do about that? Nothing really. Or is it for the drones' safety? It is a little disappointing, though. The drones had just gotten working right recently; she had hoped to show them off a bit.

"So these stalls, they have all sorts of inventions from throughout your history?" she asks of the man, figuring that he can explain a bit.

[Tracking Rats - Ruby]

The scouts can follow the rats through the tubes, which will eventually end up in Southside. From here, unless stopped, the rats will seek out remote locations that are already pretty filthy and turn them even filthier through their living. It doesn't even seem like they're going after food. It's like they are intentionally spreading filth to these locations.

As for the rest of the group. It's difficult to tell exactly where the rats are coming from as they're using passages that are too small for most creatures. However, they will eventually gain idea of the pests movement and it turns out that neither of those are likely. No, the rats seem to be coming from Westside.

This isn't right.
Rats may eat garbage and carry fleas, but they keep themselves clean, as much as any animal. There must be something else at play; a disease, a scent that drives them crazy, a devious rat-controller out there somewhere, etc. The littlest scout monster is instructed to keep watch on the rats as best it can while keeping itself hidden. The other two are sent back to their normal jobs. Ruby herself heads back towards where she entered the sewers in Southside. She has a set of recommendations to give out.

---

"Your solution is...better rats?"
Ruby taps on the desk excitedly. A cat hops onto her shoulder.
"Exactly. The city's rats are messed up. What if we replaced them? With cleaner rats. Easier to track. Maybe cooler-looking? Oh, if you could build in a secret weakness? Anyway, they can out-rat the rats at their own game, and then we can drive them down to normal."
"That...would take a while. And probably not work at all. Wouldn't it make more sense to improve these mousers?"
"No, no, cats are too big. Anyway, we're also working on near future solutions. But we both know you want to try it." and Ruby is out the door!

---

"-so you see, we don't need to know why the rats are dirtying the place up, we simply need to keep it clean, just in case."
"Yes, sir, more cleaning crews for the absurdly-spacious sewers and secret tunnels." Rust sighs. They're already short-staffed with setting out rat traps. They're going to have to hire more people.

[Westside - MERC Manor]
Some time later, with their updated rat-management strategy straightened out, Commandant Ruby shows up at the MERC base, riding on the back of a giant eyeless dragon-thing.
The rats are definitely* coming from Westside. Hopefully the local MERC office is on top of things, with the problem right in their backyard.
She heads up to the door.

*the rats could be coming from anywhere, honestly. Who knows how many layers of misdirection they use to cover their tiny tracks?

[5a Violista]

[Tracking Rats - Holly]

"I'll try to be there," she says, "but I have a few things I need to tie up here first. It might take me..." she considers what she has to do: reapply make-up. Call her assistant to thank her. Buy some random object that plausibly looks like a high-tech radio. And then make her way over to the MERC office (should she drive, take the bus, or run rooftop to rooftop?). "...an extra half an hour to forty-five minutes." If she goes by parkour, she could probably make up half of the time wasted trying to reapply the make-up - that's way too much time in front of a mirror, in her opinion. "So if I'm not there in time, feel free to leave me behind."
And then she'll also have to probably explain how the radios ought to be set up to people, too.

"Bye." She'll hang up.

After putting away the phone, she spends a moment to collect herself, before going on to get everything ready.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tracking Rats - Holly]

"Take your time. We're not in any rush here. Those rats won't be going anywhere soon." Dena replies. "Anything else? Otherwise we'll be seeing one another soon."

[Westside - MERC Manor]

Once she gets off her mount she will be greeted by a brown-skinned goblin who opens the door for her. "Hello! Can I help you, ma'm? Maybe I can have someone help you with your mount while you're visiting?" He gestures out the window.

There are a few other people in the vestibule of the manor. All of them MERC members by the look of it, two trolls engaged in a axe throwing competition and a rat-man (woman?) laying on the incredibly fancy couch with some kind of handheld gaming machine.

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

"Rat king." The spirit groans. "Eater of filth... and so on." It lots out a soft moan as if exhausted from just that. "Now what do you want, herald of the rag king?"

[Ruby's Rat Trackers]

The rats do eventually attempt to slip into people's homes. Or rather, they seem to be engaging in trying to find cracks or other weak spots of those homes and if they find them they will go inside and engage in the same behavior as before. They never force themselves inside or go anywhere near well-kept homes. Focusing on buildings that already are worn-down or dirty. It's quite peculiar.

[Zefir]

[Tracking Rats - Fade] -> [Merc Base]

Fade is silent for a moment. He is sure he can take nearly all they can throw at him, but he needs to act proffessional and not impulsiv.

"As you insist." he replies. A moment later he makes his way to the MERC base sliding in as a shadow since that would be his fastest travle speed.He will then go to search Dena and maybe wait for other MERC member to join in. Assuming that is what they are here for?

[The Grand Hall - Inside]

"It's at least a clue I guess." Karl replies. "I just got one other question befor I go off. Can your people assist me in any way? It woud be good to have some backuo if things got south,"

[DMSide]
[Breakthrough Day]

The man nods as Alice follows the rule. It's quiet strange for such a high tech groupe to bann drones, but imagine everyone got there drones out. Just the noise may be bothering not talking of the many crashed or just the overall swarming which makes things feel more wired.

"Yes mam." the man approves. "Some of them are more for design rather then use, but they cover up the most historical inventions. You migth soon notice that the preRobot age was relativly short in our world, related to other worlds we know."

As he mentioned it Alsice migth see that only a fet booths show non robotic inventions. Fire, Wheel, Mills... Those seem to be the root but their world evolved rather quickly. Guess what is in the end?

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

"I wish to know what is happening to the vermin in this city and why," Amalungak proclaims. "My King holds sway over such creatures himself."

[5a Violista]

[Tracking Rats - Holly]

Holly, of course, has nothing left to say. So the phone-call is quickly wrapped up.

...

Nearly an hour later, the Half-Elf^TM arrives at MERC's office. She's obviously got pointy ears, black hair, make-up that covers all blemishes etc, flowers woven in her hair (the flowers go well with her darker complexion), a long skirt, a purse with random assorted objects including a couple fancy high-tech-looking ones, long gloves on both hands, and everything else that she needs to be a proper half-elf.

In addition, in one of her ears she's got an ear-piece that looks like it'll probably fit with elves' ears best.

"So, I'm here."

[Recaiden]

[Westside - MERC Manor]

Ruby looks down at the goblin and gets right to the point.
"Hello. I'm here about the rats."

She glances out the window at the slyzard. "He won't be any trouble, but if you have a place to hitch mounts, go ahead."

[Tracking Rats - Ruby's Rat Trackers]

How very interesting. The rats are definitely up to something, and it's seeming more and more certain that someone else is directing them.
But they'll have to wait to report this.

[Breakthrough Day]

That's true. There would be a huge risk of midair collisions.
"I wouldn't know. I never saw any robots, or even electricity, until I was in the Nexus."
She wanders towards the more modern inventions.

Is the final booth robotics?

[Zefir]

[Breakthrough Day]

That's true. There would be a huge risk of midair collisions.
"I wouldn't know. I never saw any robots, or even electricity, until I was in the Nexus."
She wanders towards the more modern inventions.

Is the final booth robotics?

[Breakthrough Day]

"Some worlds evolve different. Mostly due to the resources and sometimes even related to theirphysikal attributes. Just imagine people with no thumbs they never evolve smartphones in the way we have them." The man comments, but as Alice moves on he will stay behind. The reason is quiet simple, the pair of robot/human appears frequently and they seem to inform people, give them directions and so on.

As mentioned the low tech booths are only a handfull untill it goes to the computer age. Slowly rising vom normal PC to robots (Including body part replacements). The last booth seems to be empty without any sign og something missing. The booth befor is also not really an eyecather as there stands only one person. the sign on that one at least has a writing calling it 'Next gen Robot?'. Thought there is no robot visible.

[Recaiden]

Alice trots along to the last booth, curious.
"Is this for breakthroughs that haven't happened yet? What are the problems in robot research in your world?" she asks of the person in the booth.

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - MERC Manor]

"I'll see what we can do, miss." The goblin promises. "But about the rats, huh? Been instructed to direct all those problems upstairs." He gestures towards the stairs. "So that's the seniors problem. But we got more than a dozen calls a day about that sort of stuff, so if you're coming here in person I'm gonna guess its you actually have information. Otherwise I can just tell you that we're already working on it."

[Tracking Rats - Holly and Zefir]

Dena might have be offended at such assumptions of proper elf (or in this case half-elf) dom!

But either way, the two will be delegated back to Dena's office once more. "Great, so it seems like we're getting somewhere. So from what I can tell from the device Holly made, the rats seem to be centered in Westside which is pretty convinient for us. And based on what Zefir told me, the rats do seem to be coming from the tunnels underneath the city which means there has to be an passage around here somewhere. All we need to do is to find it." She takes up a tablet which now seem to function as a kind of rat-radar based on the frequency Holly used.

"The issue is that wherever the rats are coming from, they don't seem to be going back there so we can't tell where the passage is." She eyes the two behind her sunglasses, which is sorta like nodding while on the phone. "So do you have any ideas how we can find it? Not enough rats are Holly-infected to be able to pinpoint the passages location yet. We could simply just wait but if you have any better ideas then feel free to share."

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

There is a pause and then the rat-creature let's out a pathethic wimper and shudders. "T-they wish to know what a fey of vermin is doing in this city." Now they seem genuinely afraid, though it isn't clear why.

[The Grand Hall - Inside]

"You're expecting grave danger, devotee? I could send some of our servants with you if there is combat you're expecting. However, given what you've already done in here do you believe the rats, or the force behind it, will give you any trouble? Since I believe that our servants might interfere in any investigation you wish to conduct. They are made as guards and don't do well in other areas. Do not worry about there performance in here however. They know what to do."
Outside, the doors are slowly being opened once more now that the rats have been dealt with.

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

"My Lord isn't a 'fey of vermin'," Amalungak protests. "He is a primordial fear and voice in the night. And he is not in this city. I act on his behalf, as his voice and eyes."

[Shadowcaller]

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

The rat-man let's out another wimper as Amulungak raises his voice in protest like a child caught between adults arguing.
Eventually they reply however, coaxed by whatever invisible force that is pulling their strings. "...t-they ask why you are here. W-why do you wish to know..." It looks like they might have more to ask, but the rat creature stops itself. Seemingly waiting for him to answer the questions it already asked first.

[5a Violista]

[Tracking Rats - Holly and Fade(?)]

Holly really needs to get sunglasses.
Then she can do that, too.

Anyway.
They need suggestions on how to narrow down where in Westside they're coming from? Or, maybe, they could find a way to increase infection transmission. "Maybe we could try to narrow down the positioning while waiting?" she suggests. "Like, maybe, drive infected populations around to make more catch it."

That seems like a small-time answer, though, and will just decrease the amount of time they have to wait.
"Or!"

The half-human just had an idea. "Has anyone had time to set up a live map across all of Westside about where the infected rats are? With how quickly the rats seem to be coming, there's going to be a pattern we could find. See, the rats who leave this underground-sewer-place probably aren't going to be infected yet. With how quickly they're replacing the killed rats, these uninfected rats will be in large groups. So, if we find anywhere that has a lot of rats - but very few or none of them show up on our radars - that's probably where they're coming out, just because they haven't had time to be infected yet. At the very least, we could narrow down where we have to look."

[Zefir]

Alice trots along to the last booth, curious.
"Is this for breakthroughs that haven't happened yet? What are the problems in robot research in your world?" she asks of the person in the booth.

[Breakthrough Day]

The very last booth is totally empty without even a person to replyso I guess she asks the person in the booth befor that?

"You ar-e right." the person says. It sounds a bit emotionless and stutters from time to time. "It is like a place-holder for futher breakthroughs. Our r-obots can allways be impr-oved. For example we try to safe r-esources for futher inventions. Also we want to r-educe futher damage to the people and l-andscape hoping to get a per-manent agreement of peace with the other fr-action of our homeworld. But technologie can never stop. It's li-ke evlution and allways needs to be com-pared."

[Westside - MERC Manor]

"I'll see what we can do, miss." The goblin promises. "But about the rats, huh? Been instructed to direct all those problems upstairs." He gestures towards the stairs. "So that's the seniors problem. But we got more than a dozen calls a day about that sort of stuff, so if you're coming here in person I'm gonna guess its you actually have information. Otherwise I can just tell you that we're already working on it."

[Tracking Rats - Holly and Zefir]

Dena might have be offended at such assumptions of proper elf (or in this case half-elf) dom!

But either way, the two will be delegated back to Dena's office once more. "Great, so it seems like we're getting somewhere. So from what I can tell from the device Holly made, the rats seem to be centered in Westside which is pretty convinient for us. And based on what Zefir told me, the rats do seem to be coming from the tunnels underneath the city which means there has to be an passage around here somewhere. All we need to do is to find it." She takes up a tablet which now seem to function as a kind of rat-radar based on the frequency Holly used.

"The issue is that wherever the rats are coming from, they don't seem to be going back there so we can't tell where the passage is." She eyes the two behind her sunglasses, which is sorta like nodding while on the phone. "So do you have any ideas how we can find it? Not enough rats are Holly-infected to be able to pinpoint the passages location yet. We could simply just wait but if you have any better ideas then feel free to share."

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

There is a pause and then the rat-creature let's out a pathethic wimper and shudders. "T-they wish to know what a fey of vermin is doing in this city." Now they seem genuinely afraid, though it isn't clear why.

[The Grand Hall - Inside]

"You're expecting grave danger, devotee? I could send some of our servants with you if there is combat you're expecting. However, given what you've already done in here do you believe the rats, or the force behind it, will give you any trouble? Since I believe that our servants might interfere in any investigation you wish to conduct. They are made as guards and don't do well in other areas. Do not worry about there performance in here however. They know what to do."
Outside, the doors are slowly being opened once more now that the rats have been dealt with.

[Tracking Rats - Holly and Zefir] Fade

Fade nod.
"I got the same idea in mind. If we can also create a map of all rats we should see places with a high number of rats but near no invected. Like sourch of water pouring in. I'm just worried that we won't be able to just look around. The entity controlling them appears to use them for his sight. When I followed the magical link it broke and left only dead rats behind. We need to prepare measures to hide from their sight."

Fade stops.

"Maybe we can at first use the entrance to the lower tunnels and overlap them with our infected map. If there are many infected around we can be sure those paths aren't used yet."

[The Grand Hall - Inside]

"With rats standing up from deadly damage I can guarantee there is danger ahead. Especially in such great numbers. My summons can deal with such minor enemies in no time, but they don't have endless stamina or do I." he replies. "But guess you are right they are more of the holding a camp guys. But do you have potions or something alike?" Those can be bought right? which would be resonable to get from a church that belives in money.

[Recaiden]

[Westside - MERC Manor]

"I'll see what we can do, miss." The goblin promises. "But about the rats, huh? Been instructed to direct all those problems upstairs." He gestures towards the stairs. "So that's the seniors problem. But we got more than a dozen calls a day about that sort of stuff, so if you're coming here in person I'm gonna guess its you actually have information. Otherwise I can just tell you that we're already working on it.".

"I should hope you're working on it." Ruby says, but good-naturedly. Of course they get a ton of rat-related calls. That rat-man mercenary must be having an awful time.
"We've been mapping the rats, and it lead us to Westside.
She nods to the goblin and heads upstairs to find the proper rat-managing authorities.

[Breakthrough Day]

The very last booth is totally empty without even a person to reply so I guess she asks the person in the booth before that?

"You ar-e right." the person says. It sounds a bit emotionless and stutters from time to time. "It is like a place-holder for futher breakthroughs. Our r-obots can allways be impr-oved. For example we try to safe r-esources for futher inventions. Also we want to r-educe futher damage to the people and l-andscape hoping to get a per-manent agreement of peace with the other fr-action of our homeworld. But technologie can never stop. It's li-ke evlution and allways needs to be com-pared."

Yes, I mixed up the last and second-to-last booth.

"Isn't a breakthrough more about new inventions than small improvements like that? A new capability, or a whole new way of doing things?" Alice inquires. The rest of what the stuttering fellow says, she nods in agreement with. "What do you mean about damage to the people?"

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

"It is because my Lord seeks power, in whatever form it takes. To take back what's his. And he is interested in a display of power so close to his own purview," Amalungak replies. "And now I believe it's time to pay for honesty in kind."

[Earl of Purple]

KABAL & Archera Sewer Rat Hunting

Flicker and Spewer bend over and walk into the sewer to follow the vigilante hero. Spewer's grimacing a little and spitting, as the pill he took to alter his power's affect into generating acid didn't taste very nice. Flicker is rather obviously breathing through her mouth, but Spewer seems less affected by any smells emanating from deeper into the tunnels. Flicker's power isn't hampered by the enclosed space, but she stays next to Spewer rather than using it to catch up to Archera. They'll walk quite swiftly, though; they don't want to be left behind. Spewer pulls out an electric torch from inside his coat, but doesn't turn it on yet. He'll wait until they're struggling to see before flicking the switch.

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - MERC Manor]

The goblin blinks. "Wait. Hold on. She's in a meeting right now. I'll, uh, annouce you." He runs ahead, moving up the stairs before Ruby and knocks on the door.

[Tracking Rats - Holly and Fade

"I was thinking the same thing, but right now too few rats are infected for any clear patterns to occur. But we did manage to set up a live map foe the city, look." She holds out the tablet which is indeed displaying a crude map of the city with green areas which seem to indicate the rats. As the map is rather crude it's impossible to tell wherever the rats are on the streets, the sewers, or whatever level that is below them. "Live observation suggest none of the rats are lower than the sewers. Been holding contact with a few members to get a better idea-"

Suddenly, there is a knock on the door and they are interrupted by a voice from the other side. "Boss- uh, ma'm, someone from Southside goverment is here to see you. She says she got information on the rats."

Dena looks between Fade and Holly. "Unless there are any protests... ask her to come in. We were just discussing the rat problem anyway."

The door will open and Ruby will be invited inside the office. "So, miss Ruby, right? What can we do for you?" She gestures at the others. "This is Fade and Holly, they are our top-agents working on the case."

[The Grand Hall - Inside]

"Potions, devotee? Through faith, I can arrange for that if you are willing to give us time. What type of potions do you desire?" The voice offers.

KABAL & Archera Sewer Rat Hunting

So they head through the sewer system, eventually coming to what appears to be a hub where several of the newer and older sewer tunnels are intersecting. It's easy to tell the difference as the newer tunnels are far larger than the older ones.
But as they stand there, likely considering which tunnel to take, they can hear what sounds like someone running down one of the newer tunnels only to suddenly stop when they got close.
A glance down this tunnel will make them just barely make out a shadowy figure just out of their light's reach...

[Tracking Rats - Outside the Eastside Dump]

This question seems considerably easier for the rat-man to answer. "To clean the city. To... eradicate the vermin and the filth which inhabits it. Like me... and the rats..."

[Recaiden]

[Tracking Rats - Holly and Fade and Dena and Ruby]

Commandant Ruby steps into the office when invited and offers to shake the hands of the top MERC agents.
"Hello, hello. We've tried lots to deal with the rats, as I'm sure you have to, but they seem inexhaustible. After we discovered the rats were all coming from Westside, I thought we'd want to work with you all in dealing with them."
She'll go over to point at that projected map.
"The strange thing is that they didn't come directly to Southside. They came through Eastside instead, along here. Given the size of the border, that suggests to me that they're centered somewhere around here."
She waves broadly at the north-eastern Westside part of the map.

[5a Violista]

[Tracking Rats - Holly and Fade and Dena and Ruby]

Holly the Half-Elf^TM waves at the Southside representative as they're introduced, and then shakes her hand.

She looks at the map. "So they cross the river first and then move south from there," she says largely to herself. SHe looks over the map, the north-eastern part of Westside which is very nearly directly in the center of the city, and then at the live radar blips of radio-wave-infected rats. "That kind-of makes sense."

She looks back up at Dena. "So, presumably, the entrance we're looking for should be in that area. Isn't sonar pretty useful for finding underground passageways? Or Ground-Penetrating Radar, I suppose, that might work as well if we just make some tweaks to the current radio-wave devices in that area. Maybe some kinds of magic could do it, too. If we can get someone to fly over and use some of those, I bet we could map out the underground of that area pretty quickly."