The Sewers

[~The Bystander~]

Deyis really did not want to be escorting this poor excuse for a "Wizard" and his friends through the sewers of the Outskirts towards their meeting point. And she reallllly didn't want to be tracked down by Envy, ruthless general that she was. To be frank, the Mage was not entirely sure that what the half orc had seen was indeed Envy. But... she doubted that anything else but that.... Dragon... would have given the warrior such a burn. Well, it was quite possible that it had simply been one of Envy's subordinates. Not much was known about those... Pursing her lips, Deyis tapped them with one finger, deep in thought before choosing a path in the fork she had just come to, choosing to take the right way instead of the left.

She was carrying a small purple crystal that emitted light, and thus was able to see fairly well. Belatedly, she wondered if perhaps she should have waited for all of them to follow her before walking off. She might not be fond of anyone that hadn't fallen in directly with the resistance, but she had been tasked with delivering them... None the less, Kryth at least would be able to follow her. Probably. Sighing to herself, she came to a stop. It wouldn't hurt to wait for them, she supposed. It isn't like I have better things to do... she thought sarcastically. Hopefully they wouldn't have too many questions. Even if it was her task to answer them, she wasn't going to be happy if there were a lot of them. Though, she knew Kryth would just assume make her unhappy if given the choice. Sighing again, she turned on the spot, looking down the tunnel towards the direction the rest of the party should be proceeding and crossed her arms.

Not happy at all...

((Feel free to start a new post order! And there shouldn't be anything following us currently, in case you guys are wondering....))

[Khan]

Khan's eyes opened to a blinding, white light. He got to his knees, shook off the throbbing pain, then began to take in his surroundings. He was completely alone, and every direction was simply never ending white nothingness. He felt strange, and as he looked around he came to a startling conclusion.

"Am I...dead?" He said to himself. His voice seemed to echo forever through the white halls.

"No, Khan." An enchanting voice answered from behind him. He turned quickly to see a shimmering figure approaching him. As the shape came closer, Khan recognized it as a human woman. Her skin was milk white, her eyes a jade green, and her auburn hair swayed gently across her face.

"M...mother?" Khan muttered, quizzically. Freyja looked down at the beaten orc and smiled. "No...no, you're...you're dead. You've been dead!"

Freyja continued smiling in silence as she reached out her arm and placed her hand on the smoldering cut across the orc's back. Immediately, Khan felt a certain sense of inner peace sweep over him. "Every man has his time, my son." She said. "This is not your end." Khan hung his head. "Look what they did to me, mother. All this, for what? A petty insult?" He sighed and looked back at his mother. "Why doesn't the company just shackle us at birth? Why not just toss us in cages? Why give us hope?"

Freyja smiled again. "You had hope, once. But you let them take that away from you. My poor son." She knelt down, and put her hand on the orc's face. "You're still just a little boy, aren't you?" Khan looked away, embarrassed. "But you hear, it, don't you? Your destiny awaits you here." Khan looked back. A look of confusion washed across his fate. "It is the destiny of the company to attempt to control these people. And it is your destiny to oppose them, Khan. You must seek out the resistance. You must fight."

Khan shook free of his mother's grasp, stood up and began to walk away. He let out a heavy sigh, then turned around. "Why should I, mother?" He paused. "I loved these people. I wanted to be one of them. And all they've ever done is treat me like a monster. Why should I care whether they live or die?"

Freyja stood up. "Because events have been set in motion that cannot be stopped now. And one day very soon the people of this city will stare into the faces of true monsters. And they will need your help to survive."

Freyja turned and began to walk off into the distance. "Goodbye, my son. We'll see each other again, someday." Her voice began to trail off as her figure disappeared into the white veil. Khan reached out his arm, but couldn't move his legs. "Wait." He whispered. "WAIT!"

Suddenly, purple veins began to crack through the omnipresent white. A burst of color flooded the orc's mind, and he felt himself being sucked back into his body.

Khan awoke in a sewer, lying in a pool of his own blood. He groaned as he lifted himself to one knee, then turned and spit flecks of black liquid onto the disgusting sewer walls. He felt the still warm burn on his back with his fingers and winced from the pain. "Another scar for my collection. Excellent." He muttered. He looked up to see several grey shapes huddling around an odd, purple light. He stood up groggily, and began to limp towards the group. "Hey, wait up!" He said as loud as he could. The group turned back to stare at the half dead mass that stood before them. Khan stopped and look at the elf who held the glowing crystal. "I know I'm not in the loop, here." He grumbled. "But I'm 'gonna need some answers RIGHT NOW. Like what's going on? Where are we going? What was that thing with wings that just blew up an entire city block? And most importantly," He pointed at the elf. "Just who the hell are you?"

[Merrick]

Merrick was tired of waiting for the moment to strike. He had been watching the whole group from the shadows and had manage to stay far enough behind without being seen by the group but fast enough to not be caught by the Steam-Forged. As soon as the words were done emanating from the Orc's mouth, Merrick quickly dropped a noose from the ceiling made of pure shadow around his neck and pulled back as hard as he could. The struggle was all in vain, as the grey orc snatched the shadow noose and wrapped it around his arm and gave the cord a quick pull that sent Merrick flying into the sewer wall. The sheer force of the swing caused the weak sewer walls to crumble and collapse, causing rubble to fall from the ceiling and block the path of the sewer. Merrick and the now aggravated orc were trapped behind the mound of rubble that separated him from the others.

((Merrick and Khan's part of the story continues here. (Click me!) Kryth and Ash's story continues on this thread.))

[Allule]

((Moded Merrick's post to include the link to the new thread, instead of a new post by Khan. It's neater that way. ))

Kryth turned just in time to see the rubble to fall into place, neatly stacking itself in such a manner as to prevent the Half Orc from joining them. Frowning, immediately, Kryth turned to the rocks, staff aimed at them, ready to demolish the sudden barrier. However, Deyis stepped over to him before he could complete his attack and shoved the staff out of the way, breaking his concentration by saying "You could kill us all by blasting a hole here. These sewers are unstable at the best of times. Obviously this section is a little worse than the others."

"But what about the, ah, rest of our party, so to speak?" Kryth asked a little nervously. He neither liked nor trusted Deyis. She might be part of the resistance, after a fashion, but that did not entirely ensure her trustworthiness in his eyes. She turned to face back down the tunnel, giving him a contemptuous glance as she did so and threw back casually "I'm sure another one of our operatives will find him and direct them to where they need to be headed. Your concern is the task at hand, Wizard. You will not find it easy, I assure you." However, something was still nagging at Kryth... "What...." He said slowly "What if he run into whatever it was that attacked Khan outside?" Deyis stopped; she had been walking slowly forward, waving Kryth forward. However, this question caused her to look over her shoulder, out of the corner of her eye at him. "Then" she intoned matter-of-factly "He is doomed."

With that she swept away, blue cloak flowing about her as if it was merely water. Frowning at her, Kryth followed, making careful note of the path they were taking. It would take them a little while to reach their destination, he was sure, and he wanted to make certain he could backtrack if need be. And he thought the Dark Elf might have a question or two himself. After all, he hadn't even fully introduced himself. Perhaps that was something to question, but if Deyis wasn't worried, then he shouldn't be either. After all, he might not trust her, but he knew her judgement, and the Resistance's judgement through her was sound.

Or so he hoped.

Redoubling his efforts, he managed to just catch up with the long striding high elf. Along way to go indeed.

[Ashador]

Ashador was reluctant to follow the couple at first. However there were to many variables he didn't know or understand to many questions left unanswered, and the only way they were going to be answered was to go with them. So pressing a small button on the side of his eye patch he switched the viewing mode to night vision to help him see and moved onward to catch up with his new companions.

As Ash approached the two he began to think of something to say and he didn't really know where to begin since things had gotten so hectic so fast. He was never really good at starting conversations though so he figured he might as well start with their names and asking about what was going in general since none of them had been properly introduced yet "Soooo," he began "what was all that about back there, what did you two do back there to warrant all that anyway? Oh and uh my name is Ashador by the way, most people just call me Ash. What are you names?"

[~The Bystander~]

Deyis merely through another contemptuous look over her shoulder, this time at Ashador, at the mention of "names", but the second question quite perked her interest. "Yes, what exactly did you do to get one of the Generals of the New Day company to come after you, explicitly, Kryth? I knew you weren't terribly intelligent, but that even for you, is quite a feat." She paused here. There was yet another crossroads in the sewer pipes they were traversing. There were five different ways to go, but rather unswervingly, Deyis picked the second from the left and began following it.

Some of the urgency had left her step at this point. After all, there was now a layer of solid rock between the three and anything that might be following. "The resistance is seeking heroes, in case you are wondering why I was looking for you two. I was sent to find you, especially Kryth, though I can't say why.... Mostly because I can't think of a reason for it. None the less, we'll be hitting a check point soon enough, and we may have some other, ah, "Heroes" joining our party. However, your friend, the big grey one, he'll probably end up at a different check point then us. So if you want to see him again, it'd be best to simply continue to our final destination. Apparently there will be a good number of self proclaimed "heroes" there. I certainly wonder what could warrant a gathering in such numbers though..."

[Allule]

While most of what Deyis had said was obviously meant to give the pair some information, at the last she seemed to almost have forgotten they were there, talking more to herself then to either of them. Kryth, however, had not forgotten the earlier questions.
"My name is Kryth, Ashador. And this one," he gestured irksomely at Deyis "Is Deyis. She works for the resistance. I trust you know what the resistance is... If you don't, suffice to say they do what they want when they want too, though their primary confessed goal is to combat the New Day companies tyrannical rule over this city.

As to what we were doing on the surface, I am not entirely certain myself. That half orc, who's name I did not catch, apparently said something about the companies "leadership" near one of the subordinates. That didn't go well, and I decided to help him fight the company in his own way. Even if killing a damn subordinate won't do much but get them angry in the long run, It's always a good way to vent some steam. Didn't count on there being more of a fight than that one though... No one used to care about a death or two in the Outskirts, but it appears that someone has decided to up the security, even in a place that no one cares about... Something big must be about to go down. I would guess that that's also why we're being carted off to the Keep... At least that's where I assume this will all lead to."

Here he lapsed into silence, thinking. That was more than he had said in a long time.

[Ashador]

Ashador listened to what Kryth had to say and agreed with him "Hmm, your right that doesn't make a lot of sense even for New Day." Ash pondered aloud "They don't usually resort to these kinds of tactics for an insult. There would have to have been some other reason they were here in such force, that was just the spark that set things in motion. Maybe the little lady can shed some more light on what that was really all about?" It was at this point that a large rumbling could be heard and felt throughout the tunnel emanating from behind the group. Ash stopped for a moment and turned back toward where they had just come from. "Boy things must be really heating up over there. I'm kinda jealous I hate missing out on all the action." Ashador paused for a moment as he once again caught back up to the group "By the way," he continued "have either of you seen Bubz, the bartender? I didn't notice him in the bar before I jumped down here but I didn't see him once I got down here either."

[~The Bystander~]

[Deyis]

"The reason you were attacked was because the patrols in the city in general have been upped." said Deyis simply. "Wrath, the over all gate keeper of the city for the Company has decided that the "safety" of his subordinates is more important now then ever. Why this is the case, however, is not for me to say. I'm sure you shall find out more when we reach... well, when we reach our final destination. As for Bubz, he should be safe enough. I put him to sleep in a cupboard after throwing this one," here she jerked her thumb sharply back at Kryth, who rolled his eyes a little at Ashador in turn "Down the hole. Don't worry. He'll be well paid for the use of his... establishment."

Shortly, they came across a sharp turn. Taking it in stride, Deyis lifted the crystal and continued walking. "We should be nearing the check point I spoke of earlier, relatively quickly I might add. I would imagine one of the forward sentries is already aware of our presence. As such, your friend should be found rather quickly. He's causing quite a commotion as it is. Let us just hope it's one of ours that finds him and not one of theirs. We'll find out soon enough, I suppose."

Here she stopped and stepped much closer to the pair. "Be on your guard you two. There are spies everywhere, even within the resistance. The Company has been picking at our defenses for a long time from the inside... Some even say that they breached us many years ago. So, guard your tongues and your lives carefully, or you might loose both."

Then she was on her way again, as though she hadn't stopped at all.

((By very soon, i mean the next time the NPC posts. Also, the new annotation at the top is representative of who the NPC is playing, in case there are multiple characters that need playing in one post. ))

[Allule]

Kryth only sighed as Deyis explained that she had thrown him down the hole. He should have suspected that that was the case. No one else, that he knew anyway, would have used the bar tender for such work. And the speech about possible moles worried him to a certain extent. It wasn't that he didn't suspect a few on the inside. Or that he hadn't heard the talk before, and from Deyis herself, no less. No, it was more the urgency that she spoke it with, as though she thought they could be anywhere listening.

It was paranoia, to be sure, but that didn't mean that it wasn't possible. Kryth also wondered what they would find at this "checkpoint", and why they needed to go there. He knew that in times past the sewers had had buildings in them, buildings in pockets of huge caverns that were below the city. He could only assume that one of those was the "check point" that Deyis had spoken of. But the fact that the Resistance felt the need for such check points was worrisome. Perhaps they had good reason, but Kryth couldn't help but feel that this incursion might just be the start of something big.

Regardless, there was no where to go now but to press forward.

[Ashador]

Ashador didn't really know what to think anymore things were all so confusing and happening so fast. Being a neutral party up to this point he didn't really know if he should be working with the resistance or not he had never really been openly opposed to the Company before, he never really had to since they usually stayed out of his part of town. He had also never done anything to warrant being part of the resistance until today he needed more time to think but he wasn't sure how much of it he had as they were quickly approaching their first destination. Hmm, he thought to himself. Maybe I'll try and get a little bit exposition out of these guys before I decide on anything major.

[~The Bystander~]

[Deyis]

As Ashador finished his last thought, Deyis motioned the group to a slow stop. They had come to a dead end in the tunnels or so it seemed, the ceiling sloping down in a wide arc to meet both the sides of the stone passage and the floor. However, Deyis seemed not to be phased by this sudden turn of events. Frowning and muttering to herself about something or another, she produced the purple staff seemingly from thin air and tapped a few bricks, seemingly at random with it. As she did so, the bricks made a hollow sound, clinking with in tune and time with the staff, and the wall suddenly appeared to not exist.

What did exist was a huge gaping cavern, a large circular dome that enclosed a building that was perhaps two or three stories tall, which sat itself on a thinning pillar of stone. The stone in turn was surrounded by a large drop, perhaps 50 or 60 feet, with water at the bottom. The group was standing at the entrance to a small plateau of rock, one of perhaps 5 or 6 stationed at odd intervals around the cavernous room and connected to the main pillar by rope bridges, which at a glance seemed sturdy enough to walk across.

"This" said Deyis simply, a note of obvious pride lingering in her voice "Is the Hub. One of two major checkpoints in these sewers. Not an easy place to keep hidden, to be sure, but we do have our ways." Here she stepped out on to the platform and from there to the rope bridge, motioning her two compatriots to follow. As they stepped away from the platform the stone faded into place behind them once again.

"There are at least 2 guards stationed at every bridge at pretty much all times" Deyis said, not missing the beat with the slight swaying of the rope bridge, and holding the purple staff high as she continued monologuing "They'll kill anyone trying to cross without one of these. So don't get any ideas" Here she turned to throw a particularly nasty grin at Kryth who shrugged nonchalantly, before she continued walking.

[Allule]

As Deyis stepped off the rope bridge, she passed what might have been metal statues standing next to the bridge. Kryth might even have assumed that that was what they were, even with the guard speech, if there hadn't been a similar pair standing next to every end of the rope bridge within eye site. Quickly stepping off of the bridge, Kryth looked around for some sort of entrance to the strange building, only to spot Deyis quickly striding towards a large wooden door set in the stone of the building
"We had our Geomancers make this, you know. Here in the sewers, especially so far out, the Company doesn't really know the lay of the land. We use it to our advantage whenever possible." said Deyis, fiddling with a mechanism on the door.

"But... Even so... How do you keep this place a secret?" Kryth asked, staring rather awestruck at the size of the place. "I mean... look at the size of-" here, however he was interrupted by the door swinging inward and Deyis saying slyly "Trade Secret" before winking at him and throwing the doors open. Inside the place was unlit, a fact that Deyis took quick care of with a wave of her staff.

However, the light did nothing to ease the slightly worried look that had appeared on her face. "This place shouldn't be empty...." Deyis muttered to herself, turning to the other two. "I was gone for a time but they weren't supposed to leave without me. None the less, they must have gone on. After all, the lures of Court are far and beyond what entertainment is here..." she trailed off, obviously talking to herself once again. "Well!" she said after a moments silence, making Kryth jump a tad. "We shall press on! They can't be too far ahead of us!"And with that, perhaps overly hearty exclamation, Deyis walked out of the building, closing the doors behind her, and choose the path to the right most of the door, the path leading further away from the city, Kryth thought, if his sense of direction was any good. Frowning, and a little hesitant, he turned to follow her.

[~The Bystander~]

[Deyis]

The trio began walking again, headed towards another hole in the wall, along with another bridge, but this one made of stone instead of rope and wood. Crossing that, they came to a small gold gilded gate set in the cavernous stone wall. Carefully motioning the other two back, Deyis once again touched the purple staff to their doorway, this time not in a seemingly random pattern, but where a keyhole would have been. The gate swung open, revealing something of a dead end. The gates opened onto a fairly large, completely square slab of stone. All in all, the room looked much like a symmetrical cube. Humming softly to herself, Deyis ushered her pair of companions onto the smooth stone and, stepping into the room herself, closed the gates behind her.

Once the travelers were completely sealed off, there was an audible click, and the stone room began moving, though the only real way of telling that movement was occuring was through the rapid motion occurring beyond the bars of the gate. Presently, there was another click, and the movement came to a stop, the gates popping open of their own accord. Beyond, there was a small, well lit hall way, with a lone exit. Turning only slightly to look slant ways at her companions, Deyis said "Beyond that exit over there is the Broken King's Court. Mind your manners, and remember what I said earlier." With that, she smoothed her robes a little with both of her hands (the purple staff having mysteriously disappeared again) and walked the few short paces to the exit, and out of the tunnel into a day which was just freshly breaking. "We may be just in time for this "meeting" I've been talking about." she called back. She could only hope that these two would be up to the scrutiny that would meet them when they climbed the hill into the actual Court.

[Ashador]

Ashador began following Deyis once again down the corridor but then suddenly bananas.... well one banana one REALLY big banana, like a seven and a half foot tall banana burst out of the wall just ahead of him and blocked his path. He was taken aback for a moment as that isn't usually something that happens every day. It wasn't actually doing anything so he got closer to it to investigate, he stretched out his arm to touch it but just as his hand came to it the banana began to rumble and squirm like something living was inside of it. He took a few steps back again to be safe and no sooner then he had done so the peel of the banana burst open folding down as if it had just been peeled. And out of it came four people two of them Ash recognized, the half-orc and the halfling that attacked him earlier, the other two were new to him. Only one of the four was standing now as the others had somewhat fallen out of the banana, but there standing in the middle was this strange man in ornamented robes and long grey hair put up in a samurai style pony tail holding a very plain, very straight staff in his left hand "Come on you daft bastards you act like you've never used banana travel before!" Tumen yelled looking down at the adventurers laying about on the floor. "I'm pretty sure no one has besides you." said Ash mildly bewildered by this strange newcomer. Tumen turned toward Ash with a John Cleese ((who i am now basing his personality off of if you couldn't pick that up already.)) style look of astonishment on his face "Who in the name of sweet McGuffin Jesus are you, and what in blue blazes are you doing down here?" "Names Ashador," he replied "I came here with Deyis" he motioned down the hall she had just gone down. "Ah, good we're in the right place then!" he said turning and walking out of the banana peel down the hallway stopping for a moment and turning toward the group. "Well come on then you lot hurray or we're gonna miss it." "Miss what?" asked Ashador. "Well the exposition of course." he said as he turned back down the hall and began walking again.

((probably going to take the time to make a character post for Tumen to kinda define him a bit. not a whole lot but just a bit.))