Inside 68: Dawn of a New Season (or two)

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

Preposterous. Rope wouldn’t be anything near enough to climb out. You’d need to be able to get it onto the upper level, which would require some sort of hook or loop and throwing power beyond either of them. This sword clearly doesn’t know how rope works.
”The sword. Must be one of those bound spirits. A particularly arrogant one. It wants us to take that route.” G’nichi explains, pointing to the up tunnel. He certainly doesn’t want to go down, or swim again, so that seems like the most reasonable path for now. So this time he decides to follow the sword’s advice without objecting too much.

[Lycan 01]

[Adventure Sewer]

The Drow finally snaps out of her pensive contemplation, before casting her violet gaze upon the dust masks. She regards it with a small scowl, before reaching her gauntlet out and plucking one from the half-orc's grasp. "Strange. You wear them upon your face? To... mask you from dust? Odd." She doesn't seem to want to admit that it would be handy. With a bit more of a scowl, she places it on her face, fumbling with the straps for a moment before finally getting it past her long silver hair and obstructive cloak. "Bah. Uncomfortable," she grumbles. "Let us be on with this then. Perhaps we should play it safe, and kill anything we encounter."

She grips the hilt of her mace more tightly, the leather creaking in her gasp, while flickers of purple flame briefly dance across the silver-engraved weapon. "Or anyone~" she muses almost excitedly.

...she is a good guy right? Maybe that should have been clarified before these folks locked themselves underground with her.

...surely it'll be fine.

[Rebonack]

[Festive Happening]

<Thank you. I am thankful for this meeting,> Bats says once the little blessing is over.

Truly this is the season of thankfulness, right? Being thankful for a blessing is a great thing to be.

In return, Bats offers a cup of hot cider to the paladin. She doesn't ask him if he wants it, though. That's more out of habit than anything else. Whenever a faerie asks if you want food or drink? That's a trap. If they just give it to you (or you rudely take it without any interaction like a savage) then it's safe. Technically that's only a hazard in the Dreamlands, but following the rules is so second nature to Bats that she doesn't even think about it.

<Do not thank me in return,> Bats warns. <It is taboo.>

And that's another rule.

One that applies even outside of the Dreamlands and Enchanted Forests.

Thank a dreamlander?

You owe them a favor.

Meanwhile!

"It would be bloody awful," Tim agrees. Then glances over at the growups. "Ooh, I think they're almost done. We should ask about taking Walter to the orphanage."


[Riftline Hub]

You know what Zee's favorite thing is?

If you do, great! Because Zee really isn't certain what her favorite thing is. She likes lots of things.

But one thing she knows for sure is that snipers are nowhere near the top of the list.

Thankfully she was expecting it this time. The sniper was tracking her, and she was tracking it. In a flourish she raises one arm, a blindingly white arc of incandescent light following it, and neatly bisects the bullet. There are a pair of thumps as the projectile embeds itself in the wall of the train to either side behind her.

Yeah.

That was really cool!

Then she gets hit by a sword.

She staggers away, gripping the wound, and lobs a bolt of searing power back at the sniper bot. He had to reload for each shot, right? Maybe is she flees from the swarmy robots and blasts at the sniper he won't have time to reload?


[Adventure Sewers!]

Lucas likewise puts the mask on, following behind the... umm... maybe sane drow?

Honestly, Lucas, you should know better than this.

You've read enough books to know that drow are, more often than not, some flavor of crazy. That's the kind of relationship that you don't want to get involved in.

The youth raises his torch, allowing flickering light to filter further into the gloom.

[bc56]

Festive Happening

Kothar takes the cider and drinks carefully. He nods.
Achuak says, "Yes, let's go!" and races over to the grownups. "Dad, and uh, Tim's mom, we were thinking, and we want to take Walter back to his orphanage and give them the leftover food." Kothar smiles at his son. It's an admirable goal. "What do you say, miss?" he asks Bats.

Riftline Hub

That is an impressive move. The sniper dodges out of the way of the counterattack, reloading with its two free arms as it does so, although it doesn't seem to pay attention to what type of bullet it just chambered. The sword robots continue to chase Zee. She'll have to keep moving to avoid them. Their silver-armored commander seems to be watching and waiting, with its staff at the ready. It's moved between Zee and the toppled teleport cage.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Intersection Canteen]

After the investigation into the theft of a warehouse, of all things, Michalson is here, nursing what appears to be a massive hangover. Anyone who came to work this drunk would get into some serious trouble, so it must be something else.

[Intersection Canteen]

There's the rather unsubtle thump and rattle of Ithuriel putting her tray down slightly too heavily on the table for the umpteenth time as she sits down beside Michalson. Though in a better state than he is right now, the fatigue of their recent escapades is clear to see on her face. She's looking more than a little run down, herself. "Hey, you holding up alright?" She asks, glancing at him.

[Rebonack]

[Festive Happening]

Bats considers the small lizard person in front of her.

Bats is... kind of scary looking. But just because someone is scary looking doesn't mean they can't be nice, right?

Then she turns her baleful gaze upon tiny Tim. "That so? Walter here is from an orphanage?"

"That's right, mum! The goblins must have grabbed him. Can we take him back? They'll love all the cookies and hot coco we got!" Tim pleads.

The bugbear doesn't reply. Instead, she leans down to the little Thanksmas cart the tree spit out, folds it up, and tucks it under her arm. She strides over to Walter, looming above the child, then extends one single claw to him. The boy looks at her quizzically. "Well, go on and take it. You know the way."

Walter hesitantly grasps Bats' claw in his hand and begins leading our heroes toward the Golden Flock Orphanage.

...which may end up leading to disappointment.


[Riftline Hub]

Dodging!

Dodging is rude.

Except when Zee does it, then it's okay.

The projectile goes whizzing past the robot and splats against the wall behind it, a writhing mass of burning light and crystalline power. Zee makes a jerking motion with one hand, causing the blot of searing light to leap off the wall and go zipping toward the sniper from behind. She hasn't employed this particular trick just yet and she's hoping it'll catch the sniper off guard.

Zee kicks an already ruined door open, hoping out of the badly damaged train and down onto the 'tracks'. If one can even call them tracks. She's hoping the bulk of the train will protect her from further sniper fire (for now at least) while the door acts as a bottleneck for the incoming robots. As soon as they start to pile through, she'll unleash three quick strikes into them. Maybe not enough to destroy them outright, but hopefully enough to cripple. If she can cause a Three Stooges door-jam then that will make her task much easier.

[bc56]

Riftline Hub

The sniper levels the rifle again and takes aim, only to be hit from behind by a glob of glowing gloop.
The robots start to follow Zee out the door, but their supervisor calls them back while she escapes. Looks like her readied punches are wasted.

Festive Happening

Achuak has seen far scarier things than Bats, and lived to tell about it. He can smile cheerfully up at her as he speaks. "Great! Let's go!" He'll follow along behind, and so will Kothar, happy with his son's enthusiasm.

[Morty]

[Intersection Canteen]

"I forgot how bad this potion is," Michalson says, without looking up. "Can't believe... some of those barmy bashers... do this regularly."

[New Inside Embassy]

"This is an interestin' situation 'ere, isn't it." Michalson's voice changes subtly, but noticeably. His thick accent, which he was masking before, returns. "I'm confident that someone in New Inside did have a hand in this meme plauge. The fact that those four soldiers all came 'ere right before it started can't be a coincidence. What you're suggestin' is far above my pay grade to decide. But if I bring it to my superiors, they might decide our goals align. But what can we expect to happen to those responsible if we take this offer?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

Can't think of any clever ways to use a rope with what G'nichi has immediately available for ascension purposes, huh? Lot of work to do with the lizardfellow's improvisation skills. This is another critical heroing skill that is just...unacceptable to slack on.
It's like he's never done this before!

A bit of this displeasure is placated by taking what is obviously the Correct path, at least, so G'nichi can feel good about that.

"...oh, really? I think one of my cousins found a knife like that once. Tried to make him cut up his dog, so he had Intersection destroy it, or something."
The woman is making what amounts to small talk here, which is fine on its own, but what a loaded topic to jump into there huh?
Don't listen to her, not all weapons are like that. That'd just be prejudice.
Granted, there are a decent number of pretty vile weapons...

Onwards!
Following the upward tunnel, is simple. As a passage for maintenance workers, there is no stream of filthy sludge for G'nichi & Rescuee to avoid, just a rather worn down stone floor. Damp and probably generically filthy from the air content, it's not the greatest thing in the world, but it's better than swimming by quite a lot.
It is also blessedly free of opposition, which would be great if it wasn't imminently doomed to change.

Which brings us to the rusty metal door at the end, after turning the passage's corner and walking for a minute or two.
It's not sealed very well (also isn't locked), so it won't be terribly difficult for our scaly hero to hear the sounds of frantic squeaking on the other side, from multiple sources. If any sort of vague guesses about Rattish emotion can be made, it would seem that most of them are rather panicked sounding but there is at least one voice trying to act stern in order to establish order.

Obviously he should charge in and really give them something to panic about.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge of Hive Sewers

There's an urban explorer here. She's a skinny young lady, probably about nineteen, with short black hair and piercing green eyes. She's wearing tight black trousers and a baggy grey shirt, and has a pair of nose-plugs in her nose. She's stalking along very stealthily, without any light. She's also carrying a rucksack she's carefully trying not to shake. She's a thief who came down here after a robbery, and has gotten a little lost. She stops, takes a little bottle out of a pocket and downs the contents. Tin stocks restored, she flares her Allomancy and holds up her hand, trying to feel any slight breeze that might lead to a way out.

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

G’nichi holds up a hand to stop the human lady. Holding a finger to his mouth for a moment for silence, he tries to slowly open the door just wide enough for them to squeeze through. Maybe they can sneak past them without making too much noise?

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

Okay, sneaky reconnaissance isn't a bad idea. Plenty of good heroism can come up carefully positioning oneself into just the right spot, after a bit of quiet moving around and figuring out the lay of the land.
And while not really heroic, there are times when discretion can be the better part of valor, in terms of avoiding fights that one can't reasonably expect a good outcome of.

But come on! It's just a bunch of rat people.
G'nichi can totally kick their sorry tails all over the room without breaking a sweat, if he just tries and does what comes naturally.

Look, it's a pretty big room past here. Still pretty dark, except for all that light coming through that far door over there, and there's only about five rats. Two of them seem to be frantically carrying boxes through that open doorway, while one is snapping something in Rattish at the last two, who are nervously fingering rather crude looking hatchets in their hands.
None of them are looking this way, so he already has the element of surprise. There's probably a way he can timing running out and going for that door over there, but does he really want to risk leaving a bunch of enemies at his back if something goes wrong later? Really?

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

G’nichi can’t really tell what just happened.
He was fairly sure he had been opening the door, prepared to sneak past the rats while their backs were turned. He was certainly not planning on going in there without extensive planning.
So why is he finding himself on the other side of the door, brandishing his sword with a rather dumbfounded look on his face?
Realizing that the rats are doubtlessly looking at him at this point, he tries his best to menacingly point his sword at them.
”B-beware! I am on errantry of the Lord B-Bahamut! Return to your places forthwith, or I shall ab-ab-abolish you!” he shouts.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

Well.
He's trying.

It doesn't look very good and it's still pretty hellishly embarrassing, but it is technically a step in the right direction.
Nice improvisational work with the Bahamut-santioned abolishing. Probably a few more intrinsically threatening actions G'nichi could have presented instead though.
But again. Step in the right direction.

Probably best to ignore the somewhat dumb-founded look from that woman wisely staying back behind the door. It's probably less embarrassment than just having never seen G'nichi like this before. Probably.

The two rats carrying boxes stare at each other for a minute, before quickly dropping their boxes and interposing themselves somewhat between our hero and the other door. At some point, small knives have found their way into little rodent mitts.
These other three rats though, they all shout some Rattish exclamation or another before the two axe-wielders immediately run in on the offensive. They have the barest hint of coordination, in that they're both swinging more-or-less at the same time from opposite directions once they get close enough.

It'll take them a second or two to close, at least.

That third rat has pulled a short, only-mostly-shoddy spear out from behind some more of those boxes that are lying around the ground and is going to be advancing a little more cautiously. Let the two axe-rats make him an opening first.

Excel, Hero.

[Rebonack]

[Riftline Hub]

Darn.

That's the downside to readied actions.

Badguys decide to totally ignore what you were readying the actions for and you end up mostly wasting your turn.

Well you know what?

FINE!

Zee may another way she can do this anyway. She points two fingers toward the downed cage and-

FWEEEEEEM!

Launches a thin beam of incandescent power at it! The wall of the train is rapidly melted through and with any luck part of the cage will soon follow. Hopefully the design of the sturdy teleportation device isn't TOO redundant, otherwise they might be able to grab the thing and scurry away with it before she does enough damage to disable it. Guess we'll find out!

As for that jerk sniper-bot?

The blot that smacked him from behind moves like a living, hungry thing, aiming to eat its way through his armor until it finds something more important to turn to slag.


[Festive Happening]

Off to Golden Flock Orphanage they go!

Getting there doesn't take too terribly long.

But it is... uh... well. It has seen better days.

The place is cordoned off with boarded up windows and doors.

And a biohazard warning sign pasted the plywood nailed across the door. This probably means that Walter can't live here anymore.

Tough.

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

G’nichi almost goes limp as some measure of his brain nearly shuts off, guided by the blade in his hand as he swerves to the side, slicing at the wrist of one of the axe rats as he rolls around it, delivering a thrust to its back as he continues to move, pressing the spear-wielder in a flurry of thrusts that threaten to incapacitate it before it or its fellows have a chance to actually swing at him.
Which is odd because he’s quite sure he has no idea how to do any of that.

[bc56]

Riftline Hub

The beam melts through the train, and into the teleport cage. A shield flares up around it briefly, but quickly collapses and the device is slagged. Simultaneously, the sniper is glooped by Zee's other attack. It's limbs twist around backwards, and it sprays a pressurized jet of holy water from its hands at the slime. That should clean it off before it damages anything important.

Festive Happening

Kothar and Achuak have a brief exchange in Draconic upon seeing the abandoned orphanage. They use the Common word for Biohazard. "What does that say?"
"It says 'Bio...hazard. Keep out.
Kothar's last question is more generally directed, but still in Draconic.
"Biohazard? What is that?" Kothar scrutinizes the building closely. Something doesn't add up here.
Achuak, on the other hand, moves to comfort Walter. "I'm sorry about your home, Walter."

[Recaiden]

Left Fountain Square

Jack's shadow does start to stray, but not too far. Whilst they're moving so fast, it's a little worried about getting lost.

"Oh, I think we're lost. A... dehydrated aquarium? That seems... A little pointless, really." Jack stays put, though, staring around at the rest of the square. She hasn't quite realised that the road behind them has changed so it's no longer the road they used to get here. If she did, she'd be more worried.

As for the dwarf, who knows what they'll get up to? They certainly don't, right now. They have plans, but they're not sharing those plans with their other half.

I guess we'll see about the dwarf when he next appears.

"Maybe it's more like a history museum, but for fish. I mean, I'm just guessing; I've never run across this place before." Anchor picks a stairway on the right and heads up. The stairs take you past a coffee shop, a florist, some apartments, a bank, that same coffee shop, an empty storefront currently being renovated, and a community garden before leading one back to the ground level of the square (although the stairs all went up).

Edge of Hive Sewers

There's an urban explorer here. She's a skinny young lady, probably about nineteen, with short black hair and piercing green eyes. She's wearing tight black trousers and a baggy grey shirt, and has a pair of nose-plugs in her nose. She's stalking along very stealthily, without any light. She's also carrying a rucksack she's carefully trying not to shake. She's a thief who came down here after a robbery, and has gotten a little lost. She stops, takes a little bottle out of a pocket and downs the contents. Tin stocks restored, she flares her Allomancy and holds up her hand, trying to feel any slight breeze that might lead to a way out.

Probably a good idea, that nose plug. Enhanced senses down in the sewers?
There is a faint flow of air, into that hatch on the opposite side of this sewer passage. Just duck under that metal bar, hop across the stream of wastewater, step up into the other tunnel, and you'll be one step closer to...a way out?
Probably she also notices footprints going that same way, where someone (something, judging by the shape) splashed into the water and then hopped out and followed the breeze. Possibly she notices older, fainter footprints going the opposite direction; this was a well-traveled tunnel, once.
There's plenty to hear down here too. The trickle of water, the distant scrape of claws on stone, the creak of hinges, the squeak of bats...

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

Now now, don't go to sleep lizardfellow. Pay attention.
What we have here is your latent potential, a promise of the wondrous glory you have in store for the future.

Probably also going to have to explain some weapon cleaning maintenance after all this rat-blood all over the blade- but you know what, that's probably not super important right now.
More important: that wrist cut does great disabling work, making that rat lose its grip on the axe. The being-stabbed-in-the-lung-from-behind part is a little brutal but that one is definitely not going to be a threat to us anymore.
Bonus points that you're little tumble-stab here has shocked the rat's partner into a moment of inaction! Beautiful.

This spear-rat is trying to use his feeble stick to keep you at just enough of a distance that your thrusts won't actually imperil it, but this is no obstacle to you, right?
He's going to back right up into that wall before he knows it.

Pay a mind to the knife-rats, they'll be closing in soon too, to offer their support. Being in the middle of a four-versus-one circle would be unwise.

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

G'nichi wants to say that he understands what's going on, but he really doesn't. He hardly even feels in control of what's going on in the slightest. Things are just happening, and he can only hold on for the ride and try to keep his lunch down. That's looking increasingly unlikely.
Since he's already knocking aside the spear with the hilt of the rapier and going in with a powerful thrust before going back at the other axe-rat with a fast lunge before they can start surrounding him.

[Rebonack]

[Festive Happening]

"What's a biohazard, mum?" Tim asks. It's gotta be something bad. Just look at that symbol on the door! It's all threatening and prickly and Tim doesn't even know what it means!

Bats isn't familiar with this specific term, but, "Bio's Greek. Means 'the course of a life'. Like someone's story. And a hazard is something dangerous or chancy. So put 'em together and you've got a thing that's dangerous to life."

Sounds really pleasant!

They should go instead and look around. No doubt it'll be a fun time.

"Everything's all sealed up tight with a menacing looking sign on the door. They probably figure anyone who takes a gander at this will get canny to the danger quick," Bats surmises. "Sorry, Walter, this place is trashed. There's no home here anymore."

And then?

Poor Walter begins to sniffle.

Tim pulls at Bats' sleeve. "Maybe we could take him home with us, mum? It looks like everyone has forgotten about him."

Bats looks pained at that suggestion. "I think he'd rather find a family out here in the Waking World."


[Riftline Hub]

Ha!

Success!

Zee starts heading toward Eao with the intent of collecting the robot and getting the heck out of here! She's got a limp, her leg hurts, her wing is pretty sad, and she has more bruises than she would really like... BUT! This was still successful, overall! Now where is that robot at...

The water jet works just fine for dislodging the mass of hungry radiance. Without anything to feed on it quickly evaporates into completely normal light. The harmless sort that that illuminates things and doesn't gnaw off arms.

[Earl of Purple]

Left Fountain Square

"Well, we're maybe stuck here. Or maybe one of the others knows a way out. In other news, at least there's that coffee shop. We went past it twice on the stairs, I noticed. Not just the same company, either, the same patron was sat staring out the window both times." Which was a little odd, since that makes him staring at two or possibly more buildings opposite, which is quite strange. Trog's doesn't have more than one window per street, so it doesn't get quite so confusing.

Jack's shadow will also wander off to spend time with Anchor's, if her shadow isn't currently at Anchor's feet.

Edge of Hive Sewers

Unfortunately, she has no light with her. Not even a candle. Whilst her tin lets her see with less light, it does require at least some light. She's hoping to see a faint flicker of light reflected on a wall somewhere, which is why she didn't bring her own. That and the fact it's easier to hide in the dark without light, and her enhanced hearing would have let her evade any searchers who came down to find her... Unless they're burning bronze. Then they can 'hear' the pulses given off by her own allomancy. Other methods of detecting magic might also be able to do so, but as she's been here for several months and hasn't heard any talk of another Misting, she's confident that she's undetectable.

She feels the airflow, and follows it to the grate, which she can duck under quite easily. But she can't really see the footprints in the dust under her feet, but she doesn't get her feet wet either- the trickling of the water flowing lets her know how wide it is, so she can jump over it. Now it's just a case of following this tunnel in the direction of the breeze, hoping to avoid whatever is making the scraping sounds, and try not to breathe so hard she can't hear the breathing of others lying in wait in the dark.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

Being the most competent rat in the room really doesn't help you all that much when the suddenly weirdly-good-with-a-sword lizard kid pins you to a wall.
In this case, very literally, as the magic sword drives straight through it and bites into the stone behind just a little bit.

But just for a moment, before G'nichi is whirling away to a new target, leaving the rat to slump to the ground in shock, staring at his new chest-hole.

It's as he's going back at the axe-rat that the knife-rats have a suddenly burst of inspiration.
Trying to "properly" fight this lizard is apparently an incredibly bad idea. They're dropping like flies, as evidenced by the axe-rat's incredibly ill-fated attempt to block the sword with his crude axe-blade.

The sword goes right through and past.

So they execute Operation Anti-Duel: both of them just try to tackle G'nichi.

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

Tackling him is quite hard, because he's very suddenly way over there, having rolled out of the way, returning to the rats as they are wildly off-balance and on their way to the floor, throwing them each a good cut. Maybe they'll have the good sense to run away bleeding.
Because some part of him really hopes they do.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

Running tackles are sort of all-in affairs.
This is another good note for G'nichi to pick up. Not only is it a relatively uncouth and dishonorable action most of the time, but it is also grossly risky.

See, they're completely prone for more than enough time to him to swipe a jagged groove across the torsos of each!
Don't think too hard about the little wrist twitches making a subtle Z shape.

Evidently the pain of this particular move is enough that both of the rats just sort of curl up on themselves and whine in a very pitiful manner.
They're out of this fight. But! They have their lives, assuming they don't bleed to death at some point.
Which isn't particular G'nichi's problem at the moment.

So there's five rats smoothly demolished in the span of several seconds.
How does it feel?

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

G'nichi's response is very simple, once the sword isn't guiding his every movement.
He runs into the corner of the room and empties his stomach. Now the taste in his mouth is almost as horrible as the smell. And he has no clean water to wash it out with.
"Oh, ah, Miss? We're done here. Please, let's keep going. I-I'd like to be out of here as soon as possible. That was horrible. I- they're dead." Well most of them are. That's usually what happens when you use a sword on someone.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

Ah well. Not everyone takes their first good fight very well, apparently.
But, one way or another, G'nichi has taken a major step towards his destiny as a proper Hero! Theirs is seldom a path clean of blood and violence.
These things are necessary, from time to time, in the quest to right wrongs.

Don't forget to wipe said blood off the blade. This one may not be capable of rusting, but it is still kind of gross.

His rescued-damsel pokes her head into the room, after being given the all clear and looks very visibly shocked.
Maybe not quite as horrified as G'nichi feels, but there's certainly a lot of surprise.
"You did all of this? I didn't know you were the type. Um. Good...good job?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

Right. G'nichi wipes the sword clean on one of the dirty rags one of the rats was wearing. He doesn't have the heart to look at them while doing so.
"The sword is doing the work. Let's please just go." he says, and immediately goes stomping off in search of an exit without waiting to make sure she's behind him. He just assumes she will be.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

Don't be upset G'nichi, you're doing great!

"The sword is- yeah okay. Right behind you, kiddo."
The woman seems to just go along with this. Why not? Weirder stuff happens in the Nexus all the time.
Daily, in the crummier areas.

So, more good news!
The exit door is right there where the knife-rats have dropped their boxes. This does lead straight into another room that seems to be mostly filled with sacks of foodstuffs, but it's at least devoid of enemies at the moment.
There is another door at the far corner-
"Hey! Are these my tarts? Have these rats been robbing our homes too?"
Oh, alright, guess she's going to be getting upset after looking into one of the boxes.

Anyway. Next door leads to a bit of a hallway, which turns left into an...incredibly long hallway. There are some worn maintenance lights strung into the ceiling, in a dash of modernized infrastructure, but only every third one seems to actually be working.
It's enough to illuminate most of the floor, at least.

After looking down there for a moment, there is a rumbling that can be felt through the floor and walls, and the rest of the lights promptly go out plunging the hall into an unpleasant, claustrophobic darkness.

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

G'nichi shakes his head.
"When this is over we'll get a crew to collect all the goods they stole. Let's keep living for now, please."

And then it's dark. Yay.
"Can you help us out? My friend's probably not equipped to handle the dark." G'nichi asks of the slightly glowing sword. He isn't the kind of lizard that can get on without sight, but he can still act tough about it. It's a pretty flimsy act. But it's a hallway. They can keep going forward either way, right?