The gang awakens the next morning and using the access keys given them by the city officials set off into the sewers of NorthWood on a hunt for Modrons and a Rust Monster.
The tunnels are old and filthy, 30′ wide and arched in the middle. A 10′ walkway on each side with a deep river of sludge, snow melt, and sewage running down the center. Using the map given them by Ingvar (the city worker who is ultimately in charge of the Goblin work crews) they begin to make their way towards the site of the Goblin work camp. Even though they move cautiously they find themselves ambushed by a pair of Carrion Crawlers that were laying in wait in the river of muck in the center of the tunnel. The two massive worm-beasts get the jump on the gang bursting forth from the sewage and lashing out with the tendrils that line their gnashing toothy mouths. Jung succumbs to the venom of the sting within those tendrils and her body goes rigid, the Carrion Crawler presses its attack and digs into her flesh with it’s sharp teeth. Meanwhile the other Crawler has burst upon the rear of the party and catches Torrik as he scrawls a marker on the wall of the sewer for return navigation. Granted, Torrik’s idea of a reasonable mark is a trail of hastily scrawled parts of the male anatomy best left briefly described. Torrik’s reflexes save him from the stinging tentacles but the worm does manage to sink it’s teeth into his shoulder. A heated combat ensues, Torrik manages to get a had on the base of one of the writhing tentacles and drags the massive Carrion Crawler around and away from his friends. Sidron rushes forth and plunges his Scimitar deep into the side of the crawler which then retaliates by launching an all out attack on the Hobgoblin wizard. At the front of the line Jung continues to be paralyzed by the poison from the Crawler and Wolrf leaps into the fray in an attempt to rescue her. Crossbow bolts fly from Magnus and Zattera (to pretty good effect) and Gax holds up two small cannonballs and using his sorcerous powers he twins the Catapult spell and launches a metal murder-sphere at each of the beasts. Soon the gang have pierced, bludgeoned, and magicked the scavengers into the great wormy-by-and-by. During the fray Jung has fallen to the grievous wounds she received while paralyzed. Magnus rushes to her side and prying her mouth open pours a healing potion down her gullet. With a sputter and a cough Jung’s eyes flicker open, “I had it under control,” She says as Magnus looks down on his recently fallen team-mate with concern.
The Curio Company take a few minutes and put themselves back together (in large part due to Gax’s healing magic). Soon they are back on the hunt with wounds healed by the celestial power that flows from their large sorcerer.
After a few hours they come upon a massive underground chamber. It’s a sort of hub for the sewer systems of NorthWood. 450′ across with over a dozen tunnel openings. The streams of filth converge in the center and flow out in a few stronger flows through various other tunnels. There is plenty of flat “dry” ground in this chamber (dry being a relative term in the damp sticky sewer system). This open ground is covered with small tents set up in no particular orderly fashion. Some of the tents are collapsed. Mounds of stone dot the underground landscape, piled up for easy access by the Goblin work crews making repairs and improvements here. To the right a series of orderly bundles lay spaced out in perfect intervals. Whatever they hold wrapped in tent-cloth. Directly across the chamber, which is ingeniously lit by a single well placed grate hundreds of feet above in the city street, two piles of rock have been rearranged. No longer are they pyramid shaped mounds of loose stone; they have been formed into two perfect cubes. Beside the cubes of stone a tunnel entrance that looks totally different. Instead of the dwarvish high-arched tunnel entrance like the rest this one is a perfectly smooth and square entrance way. To the right of the square tunnel is a mound in the process of being transformed into a cube of rock. The gang sees that there are four Modrons deeply engrossed in the work of forming these loose stones into a perfect cube. All four of these Modrons are small round creatures with a large central eye and a set of wings.
Sidron casts Comprehend Languages on himself and the whole gang sets out as stealthily as possible to get the drop on these four workers. They are able to get quite close with few issues as the Modrons are so intent on the work they’re performing. As they approach Sidron overhears their metallic sounding chatter and understands their mysterious language via his spell. He understands that they are exchanging very detailed information about the stones they are moving: Cubic volume, degree of the angles of the edges, surface area of the faces, etc. The Company gets quite the drop on the Modrons and dispatches them into a dusty oblivion before they really even compute what’s happening.
A thorough search of the massive chamber shows that the bundles in the tent cloth are dead Goblins, nearly 50 of them. Their possessions have been burned nearby and sifting through the ashes turns up a decent haul of Silver and Copper pieces as well as a few small gems. A quick debate on the best way to scout down the Modron tunnel ends with Zattera using the Cat’s Eye Marble that Marast had given him. Stretching his awareness out and into the marble he drops it gently to the smooth tunnel floor and sends it speeding away into the inky darkness. The Modron tunnel is an exacting and uniform 30′ wide, about 15′ tall. The center channel is covered with a grating that can be walked on (but not safe for the marble). Unlike the other sewer tunnels the walls, ceilings, and floors of the Modron built tunnels are perfectly clean. About 1000′ down the tunnel Zattera finds that suddenly the tunnel forks. It continues straight ahead and forks off to the right at an exact 45 degree angle. The fork to the right the clean and immaculate continuation of the tunnel the marble is now in. Ahead the tunnel continues straight on but the grate in the center has been torn up and thrown into the channel in the center (which has no liquid in it, the liquid waste having been diverted down the fork). The walls of this tunnel are covered in an odd sort of graffiti scrawled crudely in draconic script. At this point the marble winks off and the gang set forth to explore in person. Zattera retrieves the Cat’s Eye and after a concerted effort the crew discovers that the fork runs about 300′, parallel with the graffiti lined tunnel and rejoins it.
It’s clear that the fork in the road is a detour around something in the tunnel ahead. Sidron translates some of the draconic scrawling on the walls for the rest of the party: “Lick my cloaca metal boyz”; “Metal Men are walking man farts” ;“i pee at the moorans”, and other colorful and crass thoughts cover the walls ahead.
“Kobolds…” a few of the gang mumble at the same time. Then they set off down this section of tunnel. 150′-200′ down the tunnel they come upon one of their goals: Rust Monsters! But the insectoid beasts are tied to the walls with lengths of rope. A careful inspection at a reasonable distance shows that to the left is some sort of natural opening in the wall of the Modron tunnel. Gax begins to unstrap the massive wooden cage that he has lashed to his back and the gang begin to whisper plans to one another…
And then we finished off the last of the snacks, thew away empty coke cans and beer bottles and returned to our regular lives until next Tuesday night! See you next week as the adventure continues!
TOTMrpg 