Completed Play-by-Post: In Search of the Sorcerer

[nikolokolus]

Burdened as the two men are with Nightingale's limp form, it proves easy enough to catch up to them about half-way down the dark, narrow alley.

One of the men turns and looks over his shoudler at Rhenmyr and sighs, "Still there eh? So be it. I can't say the old man is going to be much pleased to see you; if you knew what was good for you stranger you'd go a different way. Don't say I didn't warn you." He turns back around and continues humping along but curses, "Bel take me! where did those bastards put their key?! This is taking too long."

 

[Siveon]

"Mate we just risked our lives for a girl we met yesterday. Might as well see the whole thing through."

 

[Grimgravy]

OOC

Someone just retrieved a key from a Seeker. Does it look the the key from last night? If not, it may be the one the thieves are looking for.

 

[nikolokolus]

You'll have to refresh my memory. It doesn't look like any other key you've seen before, but for the life of me I wracking my brain to remember what key from the night before you are referring to. Do you mean the key you nicked from the Hyperborean at the Ferry?

 

[Grimgravy]

No, I've got the Hyperborean's key. Nighingale had a key she used to unluck the passage to the sewers. I was wondering it that was the key recovered from the dead Seeker.

 

[nikolokolus]

No. It doesn't look like Nightingale's large, clunky iron key. This is a smallish brass key designed for a much smaller lock . . . a lock of high complexity.

 

[nikolokolus]

So unless I hear otherwise I'm assuming everyone is following the footpads?

 

[Grimgravy]

No one seems to to have any better ideas.

 

[nikolokolus]

The alleys between the warehouses here are cramped and fill of garbage - discarded packing crates, broken urns, rotting garbage - and the way through proves slow going with Nightingale burdening the two men carrying her. Eventually after several twists and turns, you come to what appears to be a dead end. One of the men carrying Nightingale sets her down on the ground and strides over to the stone wall, deftly moves his hands over it and depresses a small protuberance and a portion of the wall about 3 feet high and two feet wide gives way making a heavy scraping sound.

The man turns to you and says, "Look. I'm going to need you to hand over your weapons before I can let you in. I'll try to vouch for you, but I don't know you and I can't risk you doing anything stupid - it's my arse if something goes wrong. If you can't do that, then my best advice to you is turn around and get the hell out of Odessos as quickly as you can. That guard that got away (and who knows who else from the mob) saw you lot as clear as day - Foreigners of your height and bulk and armed as you are going to stand out like a sore thumb. After that clusterfuck in the square, they'll have more than just The Watch shutting things down. The entire battalion of Imperial Legionnaires are going to be turning Lowtown inside out before nightfall once they put two and two together.

If you need the name of a ship, find the Sea Snake and talk with a Captain Dadagos. He's Stygian and an old friend; tell him Ampelios sent you."

 

[Grimgravy]

"I'm not too keen on turning over my weapons, but it seems a reasonable request under the circumstances. I think most of us still have business in town. So, friends, do we try to gain the favor of these men and their compatriots or try to disappear somewhere else, the sink perhaps?"

 

[ERYFKRAD]

"We might as well see what is to be said here, you can have my maul, but keep it well."

 

[Siveon]

"Alright, I'm game. Perhaps these folk might know of my father. He wasn't one to do illegal business, but I'm sure I'll have a better chance here than handing out parchments on the streets."

"Here's my two. Do try and take care of them both... one is a hand me down and my uncle would just kill me if I lost it."

 

[Grimgravy]

ooc

Gah, I'm picturing the scene The Two Towers where Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas turn over their weapons. I'm carrying altogether too much hardware.

"Do you want all this here or is there someone inside to take it?" Rhenmyr asks indicating the great-sword, spear, hand-axe, daggers, and bow.

 

[nikolokolus]

The man calling himself Ampelios detaches his broadclock and lays it out on top of a crate, "Just lay your kit here and I'll make sure nothing untoward happens to it." Meanwhile, his companion is fiddling with the lock to Nightingale's manacles. "Gods be damned Ampelios! This is a fiendish lock. We'll never get Oofa through the door with these damned stocks round her neck and hands; she won't fit."

 

[Grimgravy]

"Marcán, perhaps the key you found on the Seeker we felled will set Nightingale free." Rhenmyr says turning over his weapons.

 

[nikolokolus]

Ampelios wrinkles his face and smirks, "Nightingale? Is she still trying to make that cockamamie name stick?" He pauses and strokes his chin, "Well, I guess if I had the misfortune to be named Oofa I'd probably do the same. Enough of that though. What key? Let me see - quickly!"

 

[nikolokolus]

One by one you drop your sharp pointy bits and various instruments of death on to the broadcloack. Ampelios wraps it up and tucks the bundle under his arm. "Help Pwyll with Oofa's bonds if you can and then get into the passage quickly, I doubt the watch will busy themselves with the alleys first, but we haven't much time."

 

[Helly]

"I have many questions for you, but first let's help Night- i mean 'Oofa'. Heh. "

 

[Siveon]

"Oofa?" Marcán struggles to not blurt out a laugh. "Oh, I'm not letting her live this one down. Oh boy."

Marcán then takes out the key he pilfered off the guard and tries it on Oofa's restraints.

 

[nikolokolus]

The brass key slides into the lock easily and with a turn gives a satisfying *snick* sound. The lock holding the stocks falls away and the man called Pwyll pulls the unconscious Oofa/Nightingale out of the wooden stocks. Pwyll then ducks into the low passage and drags Oofa/Nightingale by her heels into the darkness.

Ampelios looks around all of you, craning his neck to see down the alley. "Alright in you go, but keep quiet. This passage goes under the floorboards of a warehouse whose factor doesn't even know this tunnel exists and we'd like to keep it that way." He looks Sokrates and Borric up and down and shakes his softly. "You hulks are going to have to duck and maybe even crawl on your hands and knees for awhile and there isn't going to be any light to speak of until we get to our destination and it can't be any other way. So keep your mouths shut, keep crawling until you can't, and don't worry it only goes to one place, so you can't get lost or anything. I'll be coming up behind you because I've got to reset the door. Everyone got it?"

 

[ERYFKRAD]

"Aye, we do. Now let us crawl through quickly, before I or the Big One get stuck in the passage and block your way."

 

[Grimgravy]

"Oh joy. Another dark passage. In we go."

 

[Siveon]

"That does make two now, doesn't it? Hopefully we don't see any unholy monstrosities on the way there time, eh? "

 

[Grimgravy]

"Whoever named her 'Oofa' could be on the other end. That would be two for two. Grab that lock by the way. One of that quality can't be easy or cheap to come by"

 

[nikolokolus]

The dark passage is impossible to adjust your eyes to as you crawl into the passage and when Ampelios follows after and shuts the door behind you, everything goes completely black - you could hold your hand an inch in front of your face and see not even the hint of it - looking backward from whence you came won't even reveal the outline of the door against the outside. Ahead of you all you can hear is the soft scrape of Oofa's inert body being dragged behind Pwyll through the darkness.

The way forward is painfully slow as you all grope ahead of yourselves along the cool, musty earthen floor of the passage, for what seems like hours, but is probably more like ten minutes or so. Suddenly Pwyll Breaks the silence and whispers back to you, "Left turn. Half way there." And he continues ahead of you dragging the diminutive thief behind him. The floor changes from bare earth to smooth stone, and continues on through the pitch black. Eventually Pwyll stops in front of you and you hear some sort of metal-on-metal noise, like the turning of gears and the creak of a dry hinge. A rush of cool air floods the passage and moment or two later, light erupts from a sparkstone in Pwyll's hand and an oil lamp set into the wall flares to life. "C'mon, quickly. We need to seal this passage and Ampelios is going to need to fetch somebody. You'll wait just inside." You look past him and see a cramped room with a wooden ladder set into the middle of the room leading to a trapdoor overhead.