(Alella) The Sunken Sewer - RP

Wandering through the Marketplace in Stormreach, Alella passed a woman in the alley across from the Rusty Nail.  Rather than entering the pub, she stopped to introduce herself, hoping to make a new friend.

"My name is Aurla Courson.  Rumors are swirling about a powerful troglodyte who has taken up residence in the Stormreach sewers, and who has somehow convinced the kobolds to follow his orders. The last thing we need is love and goodwill between trogs and kobolds.  Will you hunt down this troglodyte and kill it?"

Alella nodded.  "I will try".

"Thank you.  Watch your step while you're down there."  She pointed to a nearby sewer hatch.  "The City Guard set hundreds of traps back in the days when the sewers were boiling over with evil and the good folk of Stormreach were few.  Those traps are now more dangerous to adventurers than to the monsters who've learned to avoid them."

Alella nodded again.  "I will be careful.  I'll be back soon!".

She headed to the hatch and lifted it.  Waves of noxious odors floated up.  Holding her breath, she grabbed the rope ladder and slid down.  To her right was a metal gate, and to her left was an opening through which a nasty colored stream flowed, emptying into a grate in the floor at her feet.  Well, it was a sewer after all.  Trying the gate and finding it locked, Alella climbed up the rubble to the left and struggled through the swiftly flowing sewage.

After a short trek, she found a dry passage, shook herself off, and headed on.  Rounding a corner, she found herself ambushed by a trio of kobolds.  It wasn't much work to defeat them.  Finding nothing of use on their corpses, she moved on.  It didn't take long to find the first trap mentioned by Aurla.  Vents spewed noxious fumes into the tunnel, and there didn't seem to be a way to disrput their flow.  Ducking her head, and wrapping her hands in some of the rags the kobolds left behind, she ran as fast as possible to the end of the hall.

Although the fumes burned, it was bearable.  Discarding the now useless rags, she twisted the lever that opened the closed hatch in front of her.  On the other side of the door, a confusing maze of passages and bridges presented itself.  Rather than dealing with that, and the kobolds on the other side of the bridges, she decided to retrace her steps and try the locked door.

Dealing with the sting of the acid once again, she made her way back, and kicked the gate open.  Simpler than trying to pick the lock.  Another stream of murky water around another corner.  At the edge of the running water, she could see a blade sweeping from the ceiling into a slot in the floor.  Dodging yet more acidic vapor steam jets, she timed the blade, jumping across the slot just after the blade descended.

On the other side, spiderwebs filled the passage.  Knowing full well that spiderwebs meant spiders, she readied her mace.  As she crept down the passage, the sound of spider chittering came to her ears.  Spiders the size of small dogs came out of the webs and tried to corner her, but her mace made a pulpy mess of them in no time.

Working her way through the passage, other than a few more kobolds, there were no more troubles.  Eventually, she came to a wide room.  In the center of the room lay a placid black pool.  In the center of the pool, a platform stood, surrounded by a metal grate.  Seeing as there was only one way to the platform, Alella took a couple of deep breaths, and dove into the inky water.  Aiming for the platform, she felt the edge, swimming deeper and deeper until she found the bottom edge, and then followed the bottom of the stone until she found the entrance in the middle.  Lungs straining for air, she swam as straight up as possible.  She broke the surface, gasping, heedless of the stench surrounding her.  She grabbed a rung of the ladder attached to the center of the well she found herself in, and steadied herself until she felt able to continue.

At the top of the well, across the platform, she could see a chest - obviously bait, as no one leaves a chest unguarded. Knowing it was a trap, and suspecting the trap was set by the trog she was hunting, she hefted her mace again, walked over to the chest and flipped the lid open with a foot.

Sure enough, the overpowering smell of 'troglodyte' assailed her nostrils.  It brought a trice of scorpions with it as well.  Doing her best to split her attention to the scorpions that tended to attack from the flanks, and the trog who was just focusing on bashing her skull in, Alella twisted, turned, rolled, and even asked for a little Divine Favor to survive.  She managed to wear the trog down, and then it was just a matter of smashing and bashing the scorpions until their chitin could not protect them any more.

Feeling more than a little worn, and in quite a bit of pain, she sat down next to the trog's chest, and prayed for a little bit of light healing, just to keep her on her feet to leave the sewer and report back to Aurla.  Rummaging through the chest, she didn't find much.  A few bits and baubles, a bundle of throwing daggers that she might be able to sell to a reasonable pawnbroker, and a few small pieces of gold - nothing that would cover the cost of repairs to her armor she knew she was going to need.

Sighing, she got to her feet, and dove back down the well, swam back to the surface, and made her way to the rope ladder that led out.

Meeting Aurla, she could see her visibly flinch at the stench she brought with her.  "You killed the troglodyte?  Thank you.  Every monster we slay brings us a little more time before the sewers erupt into open revolt."

Alella bowed her head slightly.  "It was my pleasure to have assisted Stormreach.  Now, if you will excuse me, I need to find a place to wash away the sewer".

Aurla laughed. "I fully understand!  As a token of my appreciation, please take this old chain shirt of mine.  It should more than replace the damage done to the armor you have on now."

With a bow of thanks, Alella accepted the bundle, and headed to the Rusty Nail, hoping they had a room with a private bath available, and hoping she wouldn't get thrown out before she could ask.