High Hopes and Bright Futures (IC)

[YuweaCurtis]

I'm Gloria. And we didn't relaly do much looking around, we just came down here and noticed the other undead. We should look around though. My best guess it they came from over there." she says gesturing in one direction. "Um, you have a secret base?"

[Merilan]

"G-geez, Kyra..." Rixia approaches with some concern as Kyra picks up the blade, but at least it seems safe now. She stares at it for a few moments. "Yeah, we just arrived here and pretty much got into a fight right away. Uh--"

A pause, as she tilts her head. "... a secret base does sound pretty cool, I admit."

[jamieth]

Kyra HP 27/27 AC 17

"N-not yet", Kyra shrugs with a charming smile, "I was just working on it... thought about the clocktower... wait, no, someone probably comes there all the time... ehh. We'll think of something, I'm sure. Sure can't bring this thing back to the orphanage."

[Jacior]

Cooper HP 21/21 AC 17

Cooper looks at the gathered... well they were all children weren't they? "I'm not sure... why we need a secret base? If you need a place to store things... I have a permanent room at one of the inns... I could keep it there if you wanted." Looking at the pile of stuff, he decided to look through the other bodies to see if they held anything else... he'd been very lucky finding things since he made his deal... no reason to assume he'd lose that for some reason. Of course, saying that he didn't really find anything. "So... I guess... it's our job to clear out the sewers then? Lets get going... I don't want to stay down here too long."

[Esprit15]

Unsure of exactly where to go, Cooper leads the group down the path that the undead seemed to be coming from. You notice after a little while that the path slopes slowly downward. Every hundred feet or so, the sideway raises slightly, passing over water that slowly flows into what appears to be the main line of liquid, like tributaries to a river. You also notice that these miniature bridges appear to be one solid piece of stone, rather than bricks layered together.

After ten minutes of traveling, the way opens up into a massive underground space, the water flowing over a cliff into blackness far beyond what you can see. Much like the walkways over the water, the walls here appear to be one solid sheet of stone that, if it continues as it appears to beyond your vision, would make a massive, underground hemisphere. All over the walls appear to be etchings - some in the local Common, others in Empire Elven, Southern Elven, Red Orcish, Carhart Gnomish, but the vast majority are in a language or languages that you cannot recognize the alphabet for. Those in the local Common appear to be largely things along the lines of "So-and-so was here," though some also include things like "Day 23" and "Never forget the 197th."

Also recurring is "Burn the Empire," in every language that you can recognize, and every variant on the exact phrasing.

Spoiler: Listen DC 20

Show

You catch just at the edge of your hearing a voice... no, two voices. One raspy and very slow in their speech, the other high pitched and weaselly.

Spoiler: Draconic

Show

Raspy: "Yes, the preparations are made."
Weaselly: "And you are sure it will go through - that they'll do it? My superior won't accept another botched deal."
Raspy: "Your superior will be most pleased, I believe... Don't worry, my head is just as much on the sacrificial block as yours... I only hope that my Lady is willing to accept your superior's aid."
Weaselly: "Ah yes, reassuring. Hope. Well ever since the old guard were all uprooted, hope has been in even lower supply than the usual complete lack thereof. Get it done by the close of the week, else our agreement is void. Ilil is breathing down my neck - other deals that need honoring.
Raspy: *chuckling* "I will never understand why devils sell and offer what things they don't already have in their possession."
The raspy voice says nothing.

A sudden crack and red flash of light comes from around 100ft away.

[YuweaCurtis]

Given they were all clueless and Cooper seemed to take the lead, Gloria would follow after, but she would draw her weapons once again so they would be ready in case of danger.

When they show up at the wall, she would inspect it, "Looks like we aren't the only ones to adventure this far..." The sudden sound would snap her out of her musing. She would turn towards it, gesturing in the cause no one else noticed.

[Jacior]

Cooper HP 21/21 AC 17

The young elf stays mostly quiet for the trip, looking at the walls and touching the etchings. "This is a strange place... I don't understand..." He murmurs to himself, wishing he knew how to write. Hearing the snap of sound and the flash of red light, he turns to look at the darkness, torchlight doing nothing to expose whatever made it in the distance. "I don't... think we're alone down here either." He tries to stay quiet, but the light of the torch Alfric still held in one hand would be a beacon down here. Especially cause they seemed like the only light.

[Esprit15]

A raspy voice calls out to you from the darkness, slow and methodical in its style of speaking. Cooper, you recognize it as choosing to speak in Draconic. "Hm... What would children be doing down here, so late at night? The sewers are very, very dangerous, you know."

[YuweaCurtis]

"Eeeh?" Gloria says, raising her sword in a silly attempt to use the light of her weapon to see further into the darkness. "I don't know what you just said, but we aren't afraid. Don't slink in the darkness, come on out if your going to fight!"

[Jacior]

Cooper HP 21/21 AC 17

Cooper looked back at Gloria as she went off. "Maybe don't antagonize the shadows whispering at us in lizardfolk language? It asked what children were doing down here its very dangerous and that was already a threat I think." He spoke to her and common and turned back to the darkened room, switching to the language spoken to him. "We were... led down here. Who are you? What is all this?"

[Esprit15]

Cooper HP 21/21 AC 17

Cooper looked back at Gloria as she went off. "Maybe don't antagonize the shadows whispering at us in lizardfolk language? It asked what children were doing down here its very dangerous and that was already a threat I think." He spoke to her and common and turned back to the darkened room, switching to the language spoken to him. "We were... led down here. Who are you? What is all this?"

"Led? By whom?" the voice asks, slightly closer now. They seem to be standing just out of the range of the light from the torch, even with your elven vision. "I am... a remnant, I guess you would say. A fragment among fragments of what was once a great and wonderful empire - the greatest empire that the world had ever known. At its height, it stretched from the Blue Mountains of the East to the edges of the Great Plain of the West, from the southern shores of the Sonnan Sea to the northern Aarakokran Forest. And yet, now it is nothing - nothing but rubble that you build your huts where towers once stood." As the voice spits the last words, Cooper sees them step into view, though details are still hard to make out. The figure is humanoid, with whispy hair that hangs around what you estimate if they were healthier would be an olive skin. They wear what looks like badly worn armor of light hides, with some sort of symbol emblazoned on it (which appears newer than the armor).

[Jacior]

Cooper HP 21/21 AC 17

Cooper looks at the figure and takes a step back, Alfric moving forward slightly in response. "I... don't know. There was... something in the clocktower... it led to the sewers and we followed." He didn't understand what he was looking at, not really. "Time... moves on. We all have to. People are just trying to survive. I can't... understand your frustration I guess? I never saw it."

[Esprit15]

The figure glares harshly at you as you mention time moving on. She spits. "You speak like one who does not know loss. Who has not seen their people destroyed. We saw millions of our own crumble to dust in an afternoon. And then the gods went silent - recovering our numbers was impossible. You talk of survival, but before the war, we thrived. You thrived. The humanoids were content. They wanted for nothing, and yet outsiders still sought to slay us." The pale woman pulls out a dagger, shaped not like a knife that you were familiar with, but a stilleto, and points it at you angrily. In a language that Gloria recognizes as that of her grandparents, the woman screams. "Don't lecture me on loss! You are nothing but children!"

[YuweaCurtis]

She holds her weapons at ready, "I said if... But what did you say Cooper? You seem to have aggravated her."