Metropolis (The World in Waiting) - Chapter One

[Phoenix]

Taran and Ghost set off to backtrack from where the filth is flowing from, Twitchy leading the way.

Walking back the way they came, Taran, Ghost and Twitchy pass the shaft which they had descended to reach this river of filth. The slow moving current slowly drags the decomposing body parts futher and further downstream until after fifteen mines of walking, the river opens up into a lake comprised of crimson brown liquid and bobbing body parts. On this side of the lake (which seems to be easily larger than Taran's light) a old partially rotting boat is moored with two relatively new (but poorly constructed oars) nearby.

 

[Phoenix]

"I don't know what the hell it is, not any plague I've seen. All we know, we coulda caught it by just bein' near them, so you might as well board everyone and yourself in here and set fire to it from the inside if you're that worried. Either that or we could avoid people and take 'em to a temple. We can get ourselves checked while we're there," Ba'aktar reasoned, but his patience was wearing thin, "You wanna take your chances, fine, bgger off. I don't wanna end up like that."

Ba'aktar waved Hentre's unconcious form in the direction of the dead child.

[sblock]Intimdate check (DC 21) +10 - Failure
[/sblock]

Yu'olan looks puzzled for a moment at Ba'aktar's display. He pockets Ulam's daggers and clips the pouch of gold coins to his belt whilst saying: "Y'know Baaky, I think yer gettin' soft on me in ya old age."

Turning his back on the half-orc, Yu'olan doesn't even look back as he walks towards the front doors and calls out: "Once yer ready to work proper again, look me up ol' pal."

 

[Bront]

Walking back the way they came, Taran, Ghost and Twitchy pass the shaft which they had descended to reach this river of filth. The slow moving current slowly drags the decomposing body parts futher and further downstream until after fifteen mines of walking, the river opens up into a lake comprised of crimson brown liquid and bobbing body parts. On this side of the lake (which seems to be easily larger than Taran's light) a old partially rotting boat is moored with two relatively new (but poorly constructed oars) nearby.

"Something looks promising over there. Definately recent activity."

 

[Festy_Dog]

Yu'olan looks puzzled for a moment at Ba'aktar's display. He pockets Ulam's daggers and clips the pouch of gold coins to his belt whilst saying: "Y'know Baaky, I think yer gettin' soft on me in ya old age."

Turning his back on the half-orc, Yu'olan doesn't even look back as he walks towards the front doors and calls out: "Once yer ready to work proper again, look me up ol' pal."

Ba'aktar grunts. He wouldn't be getting any help from Yu'olan, so he had to handle it on his own.

"C'mon wee'uns, you're coming with me," he says, dropping Hentre unceremoniously back onto the floor.

Assuming the children follow him, he starts looking for a temple of a particularly nice faith. One that would be inclined to fix him if he was 'afflicted' and would take the little ones off his hands so he can get back to his own life. He wouldn't be getting any pay tonight, so he needed to find another means of getting through the coming weeks once his remaining coin disappeared.

 

[Phoenix]

Ba'aktar grunts. He wouldn't be getting any help from Yu'olan, so he had to handle it on his own.

"C'mon wee'uns, you're coming with me," he says, dropping Hentre unceremoniously back onto the floor.

Assuming the children follow him, he starts looking for a temple of a particularly nice faith. One that would be inclined to fix him if he was 'afflicted' and would take the little ones off his hands so he can get back to his own life. He wouldn't be getting any pay tonight, so he needed to find another means of getting through the coming weeks once his remaining coin disappeared.

[sblock]Yellow Man damage roll - 2pts, 2pts, 5pts, 3pts, 3pts
[/sblock]

The children looked at the great half-orc for a moment before scuttling about him, a few of them even presing their hands against his legs in the hope that they could stop his tired and bleeding body from falling should he do so. Levaing Hentre on the floor of the chapel of Urbanus with his dead companion, Ba'aktar and the children slowly shuffled out the front door and back into the streets of the city.

Before the front of the chapel Yu'olan lay face first in the mud, his blood trickling into a dirty pool nearby, swiftly beign washed away by the rain. Standing before Ba'aktar (as well as near the slumped form of Yu'olan) a yellow-robed figure with a large yellow pointed mask made from the same cloth as his robes looks impassively at the coming group.

In his hand a short metal rod is already pointed towards the group, one muffled word from the figure causes the end of the rod to glow and, for Ba'aktar, everything goes black.

****​

Time passes, as it is want to do.

****​

Ba'aktar rubs his head, was he dead? Something smelt bad in here, really bad. Gingerly opening one eye he notices that he is wearing little more than rags and is slumped in the corner of a stone walled cell with several iron bars running from ceiling to floor on one wall. The cold was almost unbarable, but not as much as the wailing (chanting? singing?) that seemed to be echoing through the corridor outside his cell.

Where was he?

[sblock]Ba'aktar's hit points restored to 4.[/sblock]

 

[Festy_Dog]

Ba'aktar rubs his head, was he dead? Something smelt bad in here, really bad. Gingerly opening one eye he notices that he is wearing little more than rags and is slumped in the corner of a stone walled cell with several iron bars running from ceiling to floor on one wall. The cold was almost unbarable, but not as much as the wailing (chanting? singing?) that seemed to be echoing through the corridor outside his cell.

Where was he?

Ba'aktar's mind struggled to draw links between what happened last and where he was now. He gave up not long after. This was an unpleasant turn of events, and would not have happened had he not decided to try helping those children. A lesson learned. He rested his head in his hands and tried to think despite the weird wailing that was going on somewhere outside his cell.

Something was bothering him. He could remember it from some time ago, but couldn't place a finger on it because it had been too long... his finger! The ring was gone. It must have been hunger he was feeling. He had had the ring for so long he had forgotten what it was like to be hungry. It had been an invaluable tool, not having to pay huge amounts of money for food which was usually hardly worthy of the price.

Ba'aktar got to his feet and meandered to the wall of bars. He tried to get a bearing on where he was. The man in yellow robes had taken him somewhere, he could only assume, or he was left for dead and picked up by someone else. He'd find out soon enough. Nonetheless he was effectively naked, and feeling worse than last he could remember, and he had been pretty cut up then.

 

[D20Dazza]

Ghost hound Elf bard

"Something looks promising over there. Definately recent activity."

"What do you think? Should we test our luck and use the boat? I'm game if you are"

 

[Bront]

"What do you think? Should we test our luck and use the boat? I'm game if you are"

"I think we should. Probably should be careful, but Twitchy can swim if we need him too." Taran examines the boat to make sure that thit can hold at least his and ghost's weight. Hopefully it can hold Twitchy too.

 

[Phoenix]

"I think we should. Probably should be careful, but Twitchy can swim if we need him too." Taran examines the boat to make sure that thit can hold at least his and ghost's weight. Hopefully it can hold Twitchy too.

[sblock]Search check (DC hidden) +4 - Failure
[/sblock]

Upon inspection the boat looks like it can seat six people easily, more than enough room for Taran, Twitchy and Ghost. With a tentative step, the boat wobbles a little as Taran steps in, but there is no leaks and no sign that the old rowboat will sink under the group's weight.

It doesn't take long for everyone to step in safely, though Taran can easily tell that Twitchy is not interested what-so-ever in swimming in the filth that surrounds the small vessel. The oars are stable as the boat takes its first tentative moves through the sea of severed limbs, rotted organs, and general filth.

For several minutes Taran's spear only reveals the lake, as if the boat was the only thing in this hellish place and he and Ghost were morooned in this abyss forever. Then a small light can be seen through the darkness, and as the boat drifts closer the group can spot an old lantern upon a crude dock where a dozen other boats are moored. Standing near a crate further away from the end of the pier there is a single figure dressed in a dirty yellow robe.

 

[Phoenix]

Something was bothering him. He could remember it from some time ago, but couldn't place a finger on it because it had been too long... his finger! The ring was gone. It must have been hunger he was feeling. He had had the ring for so long he had forgotten what it was like to be hungry. It had been an invaluable tool, not having to pay huge amounts of money for food which was usually hardly worthy of the price.

Ba'aktar got to his feet and meandered to the wall of bars. He tried to get a bearing on where he was. The man in yellow robes had taken him somewhere, he could only assume, or he was left for dead and picked up by someone else. He'd find out soon enough. Nonetheless he was effectively naked, and feeling worse than last he could remember, and he had been pretty cut up then.

[sblock]Search check (DC hidden) +21 - Success
[/sblock]

The hours passed as Ba'aktar paced his cell, searching for anything that would tell him where he was, or who had taken him. His stomache growled and the half-orc remembered that it had been a long time since he'd even tasted a real meal, let alone required to sate his natual hunger with one.

No-one came, though the hideous noise continued to annoy him. In frustration his hands eventually fell onto the bars, way too secure for even his strength to budge, after all these places were designed to keep people like him in. The iron bars were not that old, nor poorly made...but the floor...

On the ground next to where the bars entered the floor was a lot of white dust that had come up out of holes. It may take some time but perhaps he could remove one of the bars from the floor and slide out, or wait for his captors and attempt to overcome them.