*Splash* I felt the water (and that was being polite calling what I stepped in water) sloshing up next to my boots. The smell was incredibly awful, the lighting was poor, and the skittish trooper I'd been assigned was waving his rifle around so much I was worried he'd accidentally shoot me. I was still shackled, though they had allowed me my sword, but the troope was told to shoot me should I attempt to hack my way free (I guess killing him and then hacking my way free was just not supposed to occur to me). Outside of the sword my only other defense was an oil lantern, I guess to scare something with the power of light.
Me and the skittish soldier were in the underbelly of the city. The sewers/catacombs/stinky lair of awful. We were down here to search out reports of Rebels still in the city. Rojove thought if I was down here I might remember a place the ambassador had visited and we'd flush out some rebels, though with keeping me shackled and the choice of my escort I figured he did not actually think there was much to find. Still I wanted to show I was trustworthy and potentially get the ability to leave Dunlok while I was still breathing, so I accepted the offer, and into the sewers we went. It had been a couple hours, the heat was starting to rise up and with it the smell. I hadn't so much as seen anything recognizeable, but being perfectly honest I wasn't looking too hard either.
"You see anything?" The soldier whispered to me, I could hear the wavering fear in his voice.
"I see a lot of shit everywhere, and dirty walls." I shouted, startling him even more, ok ok so I do take a little joy in picking on people.
"Quiet there are things down here, scary things." His whispers took on the mysticism of the perrinially stupid. That kind of folksy awe that dumb people get when they talk about things they don't understand.
"I'm pretty sure the only thing down here is waste water, filth, and things that eat filth. And since we are not filth, congratulations they won't eat us." My scientic analysis of the situation didn't seem to make the soldier any less jumpy. We continued on down long forgotten tunnels probably dug way before the plumbing that now flooded them with filth were even considered. I was about to ask the soldier (he had a name I don't care to remember it) when we'd actually be done "looking" over the sewers when something emerged from beneath some water in front of us. I want to say it looked like some kind of pack animal about the size of a small horse, but it had scaley skin, one eye, and huge tusks. So unless you were a crazy person you'd never load anything on this beast. It had been laying in the filth of the water, but the mouth with teeth didn't speak carrion eater to me (so slight addendum to my theory earlier, filth, things that eat the filth, and things that eat the things that eat the filth).
"SHOOT IT!!!!" The idiot had almost shot me many times and now of course he panics and runs off. The rifle splashed in the water as he fled. Against my better judgement I put my hands in the float shit and withdrew the rifle, I wasn't exactly versed with shooting things, but given my options were either shoot it or try and stab it, I went with the safer option. Safer of course being relative to the situation. I aimed the barrel at my enemy and pulled the trigger *click*. The beast stared back at me not really sure of what to do, I paniced trying to mess with everything on the back of the rifle. I pulled the slide which loaded a new round in and dropped the previous un fired one into the muck, thinking maybe that was my problem I tried to fire again, *click*.
I'll admit at this point I was more than a little paniced. The creature I think caught on that the thing in my hands could prove lethal to it, it reared up its head, snorted and charged. I dropped the useless rifle and dove for the wall of sewer, dodging the creature, but landing in the filth (a fate worse than impalement). The good news was the creature seemed to have knocked itself out (take that not planning your move out) the bad news was I doused my lantern and now was in a tunnel of filth in the damn dark. Made worse by not exactly knowing where I was at all. I did know I didn't want to be around when the tusked monster awoke so I made off in the direction I thought I came from, hoping to run across the brave soldier who abandoned me in the sewer.
In retrospect hanging from a chain buck naked, actually better than being lost in the sewers in the dark.
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