Sir Silvershield stares lost in thought for a moment as his eyes fall upon a disgusting smear on the wall near Pickwick. He shakes himself from the recent distraction and answers, "I have a package with everything you will need for the mission. They are mostly maps of a path drawn out for you and to the building where 'Jimmy the Fish' will be. I've never dealt with him before, but I would suggest the direct approach. Everyone knows that the criminal element is normally cowardly and dumb. It should be a cakewalk. Start off late in the afternoon and try to make it to the location by an hour after nightfall. Take this package to Artemesia, as she can look it over and help you plan in case you are unsure of yourselves and want to avoid the direct approach." He says the last part with barely contained arrogance and slides a large, sealed envelope to you.
The group leaves after excusing themselves and heads back to Artemesia's office. You notice that another move has occurred on the white and black chessboards. Artemesia is beating her opponent on the black game board, but losing on the white.
She upends the maps and a large coin from the envelope and you as a group lean over to look at the items. The large coin has a picture of a black bird on each side, and you recognize it as the magical token that Silvershield mentioned, which will signal him if you are attacked by the mob boss and need him arrested. The maps lay out the paths you must follow in order to reach the hall under the Slums.
"A cakewalk he says? You're going to need to purchase some equipment and plan well for this. This pathway looks to be the quickest and perhaps only way to reach the meeting place without running into any guards. It closely parallels the walkways that pedestrians will have to travel in order to move back and forth from the slums and to this large room. Hmmm... if I remember right, this room is actually and ancient, sunken meeting hall from a few hundred years ago. The slums are built on poor ground that has a tendency to sink slowly over the years. This path is only a couple miles long, but it takes you past three obstacles you will have to overcome."
"First, you will be travelling mostly through one of the smallest of tunnels: a sewer ventilation duct. Not a problem for a Sewer Rat, except for this gap where an aqueduct runs through. The duct openings are about twenty feet above the aqueduct, but the aqueduct walkways will likely have a lot of foot traffic since it sounds as if there will be a lot of movement between now and the time of the meeting. Firing a rope or getting a ladder across might be a solution. So might be climbing down one duct exit and climbing up to the other duct's entrance, but stealth will be a must since there are likely to be guards and workers going to and fro at random intervals."
"Second, you will have to leave the ducts and enter and descend a vertical shaft to the second sewer level. The shaft is 30 feet deep, measured from where you will enter and to the bottom. This is an old shaft used to collect and run off rain water and other questionable matter from the slum gutters. It will likely be quite slippery and is lacking in steps and handholds. It is almost perfectly circular. If you do slip and fall, you will plunge into the flow of Pipe R-4-X, which is a swift flowing expulsion pipe, pushing out material out of the city and into the bay that leads to our docks."
"Which takes us to your third obstacle, Pipe R-4-X itself. It seems as if Sir Silvershield expects you to gently enter the water-filled piping and work your way through it and underneath the Meeting Hall. It looks as if Pipe R-4-X is entirely full of water, except every fifteen feet, where there is grating underneath the walkways to the Meeting Hall and eventually into the Hall itself. Each grate is about two feet square, which might be able to fit up to two of you at a time so that you can catch some air and use the metal bars of the grate to hold on to so that water in the pipe doesn't sweep you away. If you are swept away, I hope you can hold your breath all the way to the docks. It seems there are five grates in between the vertical shaft that drops into Pipe R-4-X and the sixth grate, which leads into the Hall where you are to deliver the summons. Hmmm... you'll need something to waterproof those documents. At the sixth and final grate, you will somehow apply enough force to lift the ancient, corroded, and heavy grate up and to the side, while at the same time holding onto same said grate and while floating mostly submerged in fast flowing water. An interesting physics trick, but if you can pull it off you will have an entrance into the back corner of the Meeting Hall where you can deliver the summons."
"Finally, most of this piping and duct work you'll be travelling through is only three to four feet in diameter. You'll be going through one at a time, though there should be enough room to switch places when needed."
![[OMENRPG]Ben](/data/avatars/m/6677/6677983.jpg?1565264961){kind=avatar}
