Chapter 3 - The Sewers

[Tusk, Thieves Guild second in command]

"Yessir," the man replied, standing stock still, knowing he was being looked down upon.

"You are one of the best we have Krak, why did you run off and leave the others to die?" Tusk spun on his heel and stared hard at Krak. "They were your brothers."

Krak snickered loudly. "Brothers only in name. You know I liked them not, nor did I agree with this 'assignment'," he stressed the word. "Their deaths are upon your shoulders."

Tusk glared at the hardheaded fool. "We both know that if Lian finds out about this, it will be your shoulders that bear the weight. Not mine. You still haven't answered my question though." He picked up a dagger from the desk and examined it carefully. It was a well-tended, serviceable piece of metal, although nothing special.

"I was told, very directly I might add," Tusk's head snapped up from his examination of the dagger. "'Accident wants to speak with my boss.' That was the entirety of the message and from the way he eliminated Bruiser and the guys, I think he was very serious and knew what he was doing." Krak caught a sign that Tusk was nervous. He couldn't blame the man. He was now caught between a pair of very sharp daggers. Lian on one side and this 'Accident' fellow on the other... not an enviable position.

Tusk sat heavily at his desk, still twirling the dagger Krak had brought back from the incident in the alleyway. It was no wonder the man was second in command in the guild. Krak watched the dagger flash one way and then the other, its well balanced body never wavering in the man's hand. He seemed unaware of his actions. The blade sped thru his fingers so quickly that Krak had a hard time following its movement.

"I'm guessing this hothead is new to town and either wants a job or wants to usurp someone else's turf. That makes it not my issue. I'm going to pass�" Tusk stopped and looked at Krak, "on second thought, you will deliver this message to Lian directly. I'm giving you a letter of recommendation that you be advanced back to the Night Shift. But," again he paused and the dagger stopped, buried an inch into the wood of the desk, "one more screw up and you are done forever. Good or not. Understood?"

The remainder of the trip to the sewer excavation site had been uneventful. Their path took them up out of the squalor of The Gully into the gilded heights of Overlook Park. The contrast between the two neighborhoods, separated by a scant 200-yard climb up a winding road, was nothing short of amazing. They kept to the outskirts of the area and soon had made their way to the cliff that gave the Park its name.

[Griffin]

It was a scenic view from the cliff. Looking out over the guard rail at the top, Griffin could see the Meandering River make its way peacefully westward. The cliff face here was fairly steep, but a stairway had been carved into the rock to allow access to the area below. The stairway was roped off now and signs had been posted forbidding passage down the cliff to the dig site. Griffin stepped under the ropes and started down the trail.

It was a good 100 yard walk down to the entrance to the construction area. An impromptu dock had been built to allow access to the site from the river. A small stretch of beach fronted the dark opening that marked the entrance to the dig. This too had been roped off and signs warned of disastrous consequences to those who tried to enter. As testimony to the validity of the warning, the bodies of several bats lay strewn across the opening. The hair of their bodies was singed and blackened grooves scarred their wings and heads.

Griffin scooped up a small rock and tossed it at the opening. There was a hissing spark as the stone hit the threshold. A rippling energy field appeared briefly and the sharp scent of ozone filled the air. The rock was thrown violently backwards. It clattered to a halt near the dead bats.

"It looks as if the warding is still fully in place."

[Davian]

On the scramble down to the job site, or at least the opening to the site, Davian had been searching for signs of tracks. There were some, many of them small like children's steps. Booted mostly, which meant they were probably from the affluent part of town sitting above them on the hillside. The tracks wandered, but generally, so Davian felt no real concern there.

Watching in interest as Griffin bounced a rock off of the barrier that sizzled on impact, Davian said not a word. He wouldn't even bother trying to pass that barrier unless there was some dire need. Given time, he could probably find more entrances or cracks to climb through since it was partly natural, partly an existing sewer system. Taking another look around as the glare of the midmorning sun broke the cliffs above, Davian squinted and looked for signs of other people. He saw nothing obvious, but then the sun was making it very hard to tell shades from shadows. The heat of the sun radiated through his dark clothing making him break out in tiny beads of perspiration. He wasn't about to stand here all day waiting, but he held his tongue and waited for Griffin's answer to entering the site.

[Griffin]

"This will take a few minutes."

Griffin shifted his perception, letting his inner sight come to the fore. The magical barrier blocking the dig entrance sprang into existence before his eyes, a woven wall of energy anchored into the very fabric of the rock. While he was very limited in his own ability to create and manipulate magical energies, Griffin was well-practiced in observing and identifying such forces, from the contrived energy that made up the barrier to the innate magic present in all living things that manifested itself as a person's aura.

Auras were Griffin's particular specialty. He was so adept at reading auras that he could often intuit what people were feeling and thinking from the subtle variations he witnessed while viewing their auras. He was able to shift his own aura at will, causing instant changes in his emotional and sometimes even physical condition. Adapting his aura made him particularly good at undercover work. When he was undercover, he not only acted _in_ character, he _became_ that character through carefully orchestrated auric manipulations. It was this skill at changing his aura that would serve him in this instance.

Whenever a mage casts a spell, he leaves a piece of himself in the energy matrix of the working, an auric fingerprint. Mages weaving wards often work a barrier so that it recognizes the mage and allows him to pass freely. This condition frees the mage from the tedious task of dismantling the barrier and erecting new wards each time he needs to pass into the warded area. Griffin had once heard Temkin refer to such a condition as a 'rear gate'. It was through this rear gate that he intended to pass the ward.

Griffin studied the ward's energy for several minutes, picking out the auric signature necessary to bypass the barrier. His task was made easier since this particular ward had been erected by Temkin. He was fairly familiar with Temkin's signature and had even mimicked it on several occasions. He did so again now. His own aura shifted and changed until it was a mirror of the ward's creator. He then held out a hand to M'rearoux.

[Davian]

Turning and watching with interest, Davian stood and watched Griffin as he seemed to relax. Nothing else happened though. No sparks, no fancy light show, nothing. It was all rather disappointing.

"Take my hand. We're going to pass through the ward. Don't let go until we've passed the barrier or you'll be in for the shock of your life."

"Take..." Davian started to ask but then held his tongue. He barely knew this man and he was asking him to hold his hand for some purpose? The hunter stood for a moment in indecision. Deciding that as long as Griffin attempted whatever it was he was going to attempt first, that he'd be ok, Davian stepped over and grabbed Griffin's wrist, just above his hand. It gave him more freedom to move away if he had the need.

"Lead on brave magi." Davian's comment was rather sarcastic and a measure of his nervousness. He had seen some nasty magic in his years and understood very little of it.

[Griffin]

"Seems to me that you're the brave one," Griffin replied. "You're the one who's trusting a virtual stranger to lead you through a ward powerful enough to flay the skin from your body."

He stepped into the ward then, keeping a firm grip about M'reaoux's arm. Energy crackled over him, but recognizing the auric signature of its creator, the spell let him through. He pulled the vampire hunter through after him and noticed with some amusement that once past the barrier M'reaoux was quick to release his grip.

It was dark in the cavern, the light from the entrance failing to illuminate much of anything beyond the first five feet.

"And I'm not truly a mage," Griffin continued as if there had been no break in the conversation, "At least, not like Temkin is. I know a small bit of magic, but it's nothing spectacular."

He spoke a word of command and a small globe of blue-white fire sprang into existence above his palm. He set it to bobbing above their heads. He concentrated for a moment and the globe grew brighter, but it still failed to light the entire cavern.

"Sorry," he said, "that's the best I can do."

[Davian]

Griffin's "best" magic was certainly a great deal more than he himself could perform. He understood how to work around or through some forms of magic, but it was an elusive beast, shifting its form and intent with the will of the caster. Even worse was clerical magic. Davian suppressed a shudder spawned from awakened memories.

Even while his brain was busy inside his own head, Davian was already reading the signs inside the dark cavern. Griffin's light would be more than enough to search around with, so he kept his precious powders safe for the time being. He could see the sign of men's feet scuffling along the floor, the heavy tread of work boots obvious. A few other prints, these from softer boots were also present, but Davian surmised that they were from Temkin and his lackeys as they overlaid the rest. The tunnels even smelled of dust and rock, not the typical wet mold of long rest.

"Nothing here, we'll have to move deeper. Or even find our way into the existing sewer systems." Davian didn't cringe at the thought, he had done it many times before, but he still didn't care for the sloshing around in human stink. "We're looking for sign of vampire or lycanth presence. Blood, gore, torn limbs, deep scrapings in the rock, anything you would normally not associate with sewers. Oh, that and the lack of pests like rats. The rodents are too smart to stay around where there are larger predators."

Davian took the lead, pulling his cape-like cloak behind his back to give himself easier access to his weapons.

[Griffin]

Griffin followed M'reaoux into the left-most of the three tunnels that exited the main cavern. This tunnel was much bigger than the other two. It was evident from the foot prints that it had been well-traveled. He sent his light globe ahead of them, lighting the man made passage.

"Temkin said the murder occurred in the main dig room at the end of this tunnel."

They emerged from the passage into a second large cavern. This one wasn't as large as the first, but much more work had been done on it. Scaffolding stood along the left hand wall, reaching to the cavern's ceiling. The wall beside the scaffolding was considerably smoother than the other walls of the chamber. A great pile of dust and chucks of rock littered the floor at the scaffold's base. A great number of tools, mostly hammers and chisels, lay scattered across the floor and on the scaffold proper.

The other side of the chamber was riddled with openings. Two of these were level with the floor. The rest were located at various heights in the wall. Some of the openings led upwards, some led down. This was obviously the cave system referred to in the case notes. Griffin recalled that the tunnels at floor level had been explored. Both led back to the main chamber they had just left after a series of twists and turns and included a number of side tunnels that stopped in dead ends. The sole exception was a deep tunnel ending in water that most likely led to the river.

Griffin gestured at the scaffolding.

"The murder occurred at the base of the scaffolding. The body was laying across that group of rocks there."

The piles he indicated had been marked by a cloth diagram indicating the position of the fallen body.

[Davian]

"It doesn't make sense."

Davian didn't bother to explain himself, he continued to look around the room, glancing at all the portals of entry. He searched and searched and found nothing aside from the booted feet of men. No signs of struggle, no signs of spilled blood. How would a body have landed where it did? He glanced once more around the place.

"I think we need to go a bit further, this makes no sense. That body was put there, and if it was put there, someone had a reason to do so."

He blocked out the sounds of Griffin's boots scraping the loose soil and debris in the cavern and quieted himself. He knocked his breathing rate down and slowed his heart to better hear. He sniffed slowly, but with long, deep breaths, smelling the earth and searching for hints of more.

It was there, extremely dim, but there. The residual odor left behind by those not human. Humans have a very distinctive odor about them, but this was different. Very subtle, or old, but it was there. Shifting his position, Davian slowly rotated in place. His boots crunching as they ground the pebbles left behind by construction into dust. He noted Griffin's scent, the slightly sweaty smell of a human and turned the full circle.

"Its very old," he said quietly, allowing his mind to once more attend his body. "There," he pointed at a natural cleft a third of the way up the wall, not under the scaffold. He squinted at the cleft, he could squeeze through, but it would be a tight fit and a good climb to reach it.

Turning back to Griffin he asked, "Are you ready for some spelunking?"

[Griffin]

It seemed for a moment that M'reaoux had gone into a trance state. When he slowly turned in a circle, however, Griffin realized that the vampire hunter was actually smelling the air. He hid his surprise when M'reaoux pointed at the hole in the wall. The man could actually detect a trace scent days old? His respect for his partner grew again. Griffin wondered what other surprises this vampire hunter had in store.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Griffin walked to the scaffolding and surveyed the tools. He selected two heavy hammers, some iron spikes and several coils of good quality rope that had been left behind by the work crew.

"Nice of them to leave us supplies," he said, offering a share to M'reaoux. "You should probably go first so that I don't hamper your sense of smell, though I'd be happy to take the lead if you'd prefer it."

[Davian]

Davian gave Griffin a peculiar smile. He then selected a rope and instructed Griffin to drop the rest. "Unless, of course, you want to carry a wooden stake around." Davian said it with a stoic face, but the humor was in his eyes.

[Griffin]

Griffin smiled as M'reaoux turned away, but he didn't drop everything. He thrust a hammer through a loop on his belt and put a couple of the iron spikes in a pocket. M'reaoux might be supremely confident in his ability to climb walls like a spider, but if they had a need to ascend or descend a steep chimney, Griffin wanted handhold, even if he had to pound them into the wall himself.

[Davian]

Moving to the wall, Davian slid the rope over his arm, then began to climb the rough wall. A near fall made him grunt in aggravation as a chip of stone fell away, but he scrambled unceremoniously up to the cleft and wedged himself through into the darkness. The odor was still so faint he had to concentrate to even detect it. Slipping the rope from his shoulder, he tied it in a loop, then stepped into the loop, securing it around his waist. "Up," he said aloud and braced himself as Griffin pulled his way up the rope.

"Much less noisy that way, just in case." He then turned and began to wander along the broken and jagged formations left in the rock due to ages and ages of water seeping through. Griffin's light cast shadows that seemed to dance as it slowly followed Davian along the tunnel. The scent had still not grown enough to make a difference. Davian was beginning to second-guess his decision to take this natural tunnel when he turned a corner and the stink of animal nearly made him cough. There was a strong upward draft of cold air billowing through a crossing tunnel and heading up toward the surface. The scent came from the cross tunnel, this one looked natural, but had scores of what appeared to be claw marks all along the floor and walls. The passage even appeared wider in places, the formations torn down in chunks. Davian pointed to the grooves made by short, strong claws. He figured Griffin had already seen them, but indicated they should remain quiet.

The chamber they found some few meters later was large. Large and filled with animal fur, scattered bones, and other debris from the world above. A pit in the center was scorched from recent fires, but cold. The chamber appeared abandoned. There was a vertical crack the height of the wall, but too thin for a man to pass. That was the source of the cold air, emerging from deep underground. After searching the cavern thoroughly and finding nothing but scraps and signs of presence, Davian spoke again. "Lycanthropes." He indicated the fur along the floor. "Vampires wouldn't bother with the firepit either. Perhaps this is why the body was placed here, so that we would stumble upon this lair?" He was thinking aloud, but wanted Griffin to add anything he could. Davian kicked over a half rotten piece of cloth, probably once a piece of clothing. It reeked of animal. "Amazing that these are people of a sort, isn't it?

"I'd dare guess that whomever uses this chamber doesn't live here. It looks more like a sanctuary. There is no excrement, no fresh scents." He filed the thoughts into his head, more fuel for a fire he was determined to snuff out. "We'll get nothing else here."

[Griffin]

While M'reaoux searched the room with his physical senses, Griffin looked the cavern over with his inner sight. Being underground made the task more difficult. Unknown or unrecognized by most people, Ifreann herself was alive. Her aura - and it did have a distinct feminine quality about it - was strong, especially when one stood within the body of the planet itself.

Griffin concentrated on any anomalies in the constant glare of the earth aura. After a moment he detected what most would never have been able to see: a discoloration. He walked past the hunter to the crack in the wall and bent to study a spot on the floor.

"Actually, we'll get one more piece of information." He pointed at a place on the floor. "The murder occurred right there. The intense negative energy of the vampire's life drain left a mark on the earth aura. It's like the event was imprinted into the life force of the stone."

He reached a finger toward the spot, then hesitated. He had encountered an imprint like this only once before, also underground. The dirt-floored root cellar of a wealthy landowner had been the scene of a horrific rape and murder. He hadn't known what to make of the strange stain in the earth aura, so he had touched it. The vision he had seen still woke him in sweats some nights.

Still, this was the only clue available to them here. Though his hand shook at the thought, he really had no choice.

"Watch me. I'm not sure exactly what will happen."

Griffin took a deep breath, put up his limited mental shields and placed his hand on the mark.

The jolt of lethargy that struck him almost overwhelmed his defenses. He staggered, falling forward, but unaware that he did so. He could feel the fangs in his neck, could sense his life force leeching out of him even as his blood was drained. He struggled, but even his enhanced lycanthropic strength was insufficient to break free of the vampire's steel handed grasp. After what seemed an eternity, the vampire released him and he was falling into a dark abyss. The last thing he saw was a head of dark hair and two red eyes and then all was black.

[Davian]

Davian just stared at Griffin as he fell forward. He had no idea what exactly Griffin had just done or triggered or not, but the man was out cold." Watch me," Davian grumped under his breath. He moved over to the prone man once no threat materialized and nudged him with his boot. Nothing, not even a change in breathing. He felt Griffin's neck, it almost felt inflamed on one side! As though it were damaged... The soldier's heartbeat was there, although feeble. How odd.

Davian dragged Griffin over onto his back and lifted an eyelid, all the while keeping a wary watch on the cavern. His eyes looked asleep at least, not hypnotized or drugged. Messing in his little packets, attached underneath the cloak to rigid leather belts, Davian pulled out a small packet. In the light it would have been red, but since the cavern had slowly gone completely black when Griffin's light went out, he could only tell by the shape of the packet that he was right. He poured a little bit into his palm, then did the same with a second packet. He then deposited it on the ground beside Griffin and spit onto the pile. It immediately sizzled like roasting flesh and then blossomed into a shockingly bright light and billowed rancid black smoke. He coughed once. Even knowing the stuff stank horribly didn't help when it hit you like a lead weight. He used the concoction to drive back animals that had sensitive noses, it also blinded dark adapted creatures. This time he just wanted it for the light, but as the smoke passed, Griffin gave a racking cough that made him groan pitiably. Davian pinched Griffin's cheek, hard, then stepped back, as the ingredients that belched the smoke still fizzled quietly on the ground.

"Wake up soldier!" Davian instructed, hoping to penetrate that thought down into Griffin's bound-to-be-groggy head.

[Griffin]

A sharp pain in his face and a loud shout startled Griffin back into consciousness. He gasped, breathing in a lungful of the acrid smoke. He coughed hard for several seconds. He sat up, or rather tried to sit up, but the movement jarred his weakened body so much that he dropped back to the stone. He coughed once again, feeling a sharp burning pain in the side of his neck. What had happened to him? He had no strength.

It came to him then. The memory of the vampire's attack flashed in his mind and comprehension dawned. His aura was reflecting the energy drain. The effect was similar to what happened to people under hypnosis. Their aura changed, affecting their bodies in a very real physical way, though the damage was merely psychosomatic . He used a similar technique when he disguised himself. He used that technique now to repair his altered aura to its natural state. His body reacted instantly. His energy level increased dramatically and the pain in his neck disappeared. The acrid smoke still caused him to cough, though.

"Ack!" he said. He spit, trying to pass the awful taste of the stuff from his mouth. "What is that stuff?"

[Davian]

"Light." Davian's answer certainly wouldn't satisfy the man well, but then, Davian kept his secret ingredients to himself. He might reveal more later as they came to know one another... that is if Griffin had a need to know about such a thing. He turned and listened to the chamber again, verifying that they were alone.

"What exactly did you just do?" He turned and faced Griffin where he sat on the cavern floor, squatting to get more to his level. "Did you attempt to summon that bastard vampire back here? I certainly hope not..."

He noticed Griffin's hand rub his neck and some pieces of the puzzle fell together, although he wanted to hear it for himself.

[Griffin]

Light? That may have been what M'reaoux was using the noxious stuff for at the moment, but it certainly wasn't its main purpose. Or, if it was, M'reaoux was a glutton for punishing his lungs. The answer was simply more evasion. Griffin could play that game, too.

He got to his feet and dusted himself off then conjured another light globe.

"Call it a psychic echo. I saw the murder through the victim's eyes�as well as the murder's face."

He started for the tunnel.

"Let's get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps."

[Davian]

Watching to make certain that Griffin didn't have some form of relapse, Davian stood and waited a second until Griffin began moving away. He took a pinch of something off-white from another pouch, the smell nearly making his stomach growl and tossed it onto the burning pile of ingredients that had provided the light. A rush of flame followed the trail of dust toward his hand before expiring suddenly and with a huge rush of garlic odor. The darkness was palpable, even with Griffin's magical globe hovering in the air. The smell of garlic would linger for days, even with the cool breeze eeking up from the deeper caverns beyond.

The two managed to find their way back into the tunnel that started this mess and were scuffling along, not attempting to cover their sound or tracks when a distinct muffled growl sounded ahead of them. Davian whipped out one of this enchanted blades and rushed past Griffin. He would not let some bastard lycanthrope ruin his secrecy.

Griffin's light kept just to the edge of his vision as he ran, following the sounds of clattering claws on rock and muted grunts as the werebeast ran along the uneven passage. The smell of fresher air taunted Davian's nose as he ran, the smells of the earth fading quickly. It was odd that the beast would track back to the surface in the middle of the day, certainly it would transform back into a humanoid in the daylight. It sounded panicked though, so maybe it was beyond useful thought. A sudden squeal of fear and thump told Davian they'd reached the gap where they'd climbed from the construction site up to this level. He skidded to a stop, Griffin hard on his heels. Griffin's light now wasn't needed as the sunlight radiated into the magically protected opening of the man-carved chamber. It looked just how they had left it, the only difference was the wererat scrambling on what appeared to be a broken foreleg toward what it perceived as freedom. Davian didn't know whether the barrier worked in both directions, so he grabbed the lip of the cleft and dropped to the floor in a sudden puff of settled dust. He turned to pursue the cretin just as a powerful surge of electrical, or maybe magical, energy rent itself into the chamber. The corpse of a young man, perhaps even still a boy, flew past Davian's head and landed with a bone crunching splat against the back wall. The barrier did indeed work in both directions and rather effectively.

Hearing Griffin land beside him on the floor of the open cave, Davian turned. "I see the barrier works in both directions." He took the two steps to the corpse and bent over it. It looked to be little more than a street urchin. Probably some homeless kid who had stepped too far into the caves or into a society he knew nothing about. The question that begged itself though was, why? Why would the lycanths turn a street urchin to their family if he had nothing to offer? He asked as much aloud, not really expecting an answer.

[Griffin]

M'reaoux pulled his weapon and was past him so quickly that Griffin had to scramble to keep up. Amazing that someone so big could move so fast.

He foresaw the magical disaster before it happened, but was powerless to stop it. He winced at the sound of the discharge and slowed his pace. The smell of ozone and burnt flesh filled the air.

Griffin approached the corpse and looked over M'reaoux's shoulder as the hunter posed his question. His answer froze in his throat.

"I know this boy!"