[Knight] The day is shining and new

Terilith was a bit bored.

He joined the Shields because it was the right thing to do, because he thought that would be best for his life purposes, because having nobody in the whole damn world made your transition to Shields easier, because... The list goes on. He wasn't particularly an energetic, "have-to-do-things-all-the-time-or-I'll-get-mad" type of person but still, in a city with so much glory and luxury, with so much richness there is not much thing to do in the long-run for a Shield. He turns to Kaez, his trusty partner as he thinks how he has noone left. Yeah, she can be counted as one. They met during duty, she was his first partner. Probably what drew them close was the fact that both of them were loners. Their reaction to that loneliness lied on opposite sides, though. Terilith was a quiet, calm person who thinks his was through things and he rarely showed extreme emotional changes. Kaez, on the other hand, just LOVED talking. She constantly talks, sometimes complaining sometimes just expressing her opinions. At first her attitude made Terilith distance himself from her but in time she grow on him, in fact now he found her behaviors very sincere, intimate. Another common line was their passion for martial arts. When they first figured that out, for days and days they sparred on the field, practicing their fighting skills, whenever they found the time from duty. There was a bit of distance lately, between them, though he was too clumsy for such a communicative act, meaning asking her "How the hell are you?".

"Look at them. This city's liveliness never wears out." says Kaez as she was looking around. "All in all, I guess there is nowhere I'd like to be." Terilith agreed with that, showing his approval with a slight nod, a gesture Kaez has gotten used to by now. Once you're in, you're never out. "Let's continue down this road before turning back." he says as he deflects a few unwanted glances.

Terilith observes the little runner for a moment, like frozen in time. He and Kaez share a look, they already know what to do. As Kaez starts running towards the thief at full speed, Terilith prepares himself for a quick spell. He takes a deep breath, positions himself so that he can see where the thief is headed and executes the spell. An ominous, god-like voice saying "STOP!" originates from right in front of the kobold, attempting the knock his balance so that Kaez can catch up.

"Damn, that used to work. Have we started to age?" Terilith asks Kaez. Then he listens to the kid as he explains what he found in the sewers. When the urchin tries to walk down the street, he grabs his arm. "Easy, mister. Here's a lesson from this city's protectors. You don't just point out something bad and run away. Show us the way and explain a bit more on the road. What exactly did you see?"

"Yes, we're coming." says Terilith to the boy as he follows him down to the sewers. He gives a quick look to Kaez, their familiar look when they meant to say that "be on the lookout, this seems fishy". He starts sliding down, followed by Kaez. Wall writing are one thing but pipes filleed with skulls? He is a bit lost in his thoughts as he follows the boy.

Terilith observes the bars. "Well, unless you can turn into a little squirrel, we're not likely to pass through those." he says. He knows Kaez too well that she doesn't have such a talent. "Hey, kiddo. Are there any other way through there that you know?" he asks to the urchin. He then turns to Kaez. "Well, we do have torches, right? Let's heat one of the bars to make our job easies, then smash it with our swords. If we double opening, we can get through."

Shields follow the boy's directions, although a bit complicated and the ugly smell of the sewers definitely not helping them. They eventually find their way and reach the boy, who leads them to the even stinkier part of the sewer. As they get close to the scene Terilith taps into his divine sense, checking the surroundings for any signs of fiddly things.

Terilith was just about to shout when the ooze quickly engulfed her, squeezing her. He hears Kaez’s scream, it pains him that his companion is suffering. As he draws his greatsword, carefully carrying it two-handed, he attacks the creature, attempting to loosen its grip on Kaez.

Terilith was really bummed that he couldn't hit the ugly, slimy monster. Good thing that Kaez was able to free herself and get a little bit better. Terilith understood this from the flickering of air around her. Without thinking much he attacks the creature again with his greatsword, this time with more rage. He's still not able to hit though, ooze was more agile than he thought. It was dodging every move of himself.

In the meantime Kaez was preparing herself with her longsword. She shouts and attacks the creature, rushing through it. Her feet slips on the way, completely knocking her balance and causing her to almost hit Terilith instead of the ooze. She barely holds onto her sword, preventing Terilith from hurting.

Terilith feels the sudden cover of the creature around his body, grappling him all the way around. He doesn’t even bother to try breathing as he quickly understood it’s not going to work. He tries to break free but the creature must tighten its grip after Kaez’s escape. He fees the world around him spinning for a while but manages to stand.

Kaez was a bit frightened by the scene but seeing Terilith helpless like that she charges to the creature. Although it’s hard to hit it while Terilith was right in the middle, she tries. He manages to damage the creature but Terilith also seems to feel the effects of the damage. After that Kaez moves away from the creature for 10 feet, hoping that it might have to drop Terilith before charging at her.

Terilith is trying to catch his breath after that tedious, tiresome fight. Still gasping for breath, he asks Kaez "Are you alright? What the hell was that thing?"

"Yeah, just need to rest a bit. Well, it was an ooze but I don't think that's what you were asking. I don't know how it got here or was it the cause of all those other supposed dead bodies." Kaez answers.

In the meantime Terilith checks the area to see if the boy is still around. He was too occupied with the ooze that he's forgotten him. Was he a part of this? he thinks to himself.

"We're here, we're here. Hey, kiddo. Did you happen to see any creatures while you were lurking around here? These sewers are dangerous, you know. Try not to wander alone. Now let's see this skulls you've mentioned." Terilith is not going to tell the boy about the near-death experience they had if he didn't hear it already. Plus, he was now very suspicious of the boy. He wonders if he's sincere.

"I'm sorry, boy." says Kaez. "You cannot go home because these sewers are dangerous. We are protectors of this city, which means we are protectors of you. Just wait here until we get this thing done. Do not wander off."

Terilith was once again impressed by their chemistry. He was about to suggest a similar thing when Kaez has taken control. Again tapping into his divine sense for possible evil, he, alongside with Kaez, carefully approaches the skulls and look around.

Terilith takes a step back, trying to regain his mental balance. No, no! You were over this! Kaez realizes the intensity of the situation, taking a look at the skulls herself. "Why? Why just tieflings?"

In the mean time Terilith was trying the dismiss the unpleasant thought occurring in his head. You are a strong, independent man now. Nobody can scare youu like that anymore. Nobody. As he slowly regains his confidence, he takes a very deep breath and confronts the skulls again. This time, although very hard, is a bit easier to handle. "I don't know Kaez but something wicked is going on here."

"Are you seeing that, too?" says Terilith pointing out to the cleaner and faster stream. Kaez nods. Terilith then carefully follows the water as much as his armor allows him, check if he can understand why the water is flowing fast.

"Well, I wish we had a smaller sized adult with us. You're right though. We can check in with the city administration or sewer workers." Terilith then looks around to see any indications as to where they are. Maybe some number, some code to describe a certain place. "You see some writing on the walls? Like the name of the sewer? I don't want to come back here with more people, especially when oozes are wreaking havoc here."

After some looking around some 10-15 minutes, Terilith finds distinctive numbers over the openings in the room. Every opening has an alphanumeric code. With these numbers they should be able to find this room again on a propper map

"Alright, Kaez. Let's grab the kid and head straight to a place we can find the plans for the sewers. Maybe there were other disturbances reported in sewers as well." says Terilith as he stands up with the confidence of a man who has a plan and starts to walk back, picking the kid on the way.

"Take care of yourself!" Terilith shouts behind the boy. He has little to no hope for this kid becoming a healthy and productive member of the society but it would kill him if he injures himself on those sewers. "Where should we head first?" asks Terilith.

"So we need two things: the plans for the sewers and any disturbance reports, right? We can head to our main office for the second one. Then we can get a clearance or that sort of thing to access sewer plans. We can head to the city hall after that. Sounds good?"

"Alright, ma'am. Lead the way." answers Terilith and they start to move towards the head office.

Terilith and Kaez already knew that once the captain starts shouting, it's best to let him pour everything he has collected inside. Once the shouting is done, Terilith respectfully enters the conversation again. "Yes, sir, we will do that but we meant disturbance reports coming from sewers. I'm sure other Shields are investigating those horrible incidents you mentioned but isn't there anything related to the sewers that we can use? This is really serious." He and Kaez are at their best behaviour now to get the captain convinced. This was really important and his obsession with procedure should not interfere with this situation.

"Hello, Archiver Lackshmist. We'd like to take a look at your reports dating at least months back. Two things we're looking for: were there any reports of tieflings gone awol? Not necessarily related to sewers, just missing person reports. Second, were there any dead bodies found in the sewers? We've located a pile of skulls, presumably intentionally murdered and collected there." says Terilith. "Oh, I was about to forget. Do we have blueprints for the sewers in the archive?"

"Alright, sir. Thanks for your information. We'll come back tomorrow to check on you." says Terilith and him and Kaez leave the office, nodding to the Captain as they do. When they're out in the street again, Kaez says "Next possible course of action is to the council halls, I believe."

Terilith agrees. "Yeah, otherwise we'd just have to wait and I can't just stop and wait while those things are there, sitting like a testiment to the evilness of this city." They walk towards the halls as they chat on the way.

When they leave the council hall with all the information, Terilith and Kaez stop for a few minutes to discuss their next course of action. After some fierce debate they decide that their best shot is to get as close as they can to their destination above the ground, then find a manhole to get inside. As they walk around the city, Terilith tries to construct a mental map of the area so as to properly find their way.

"Careful." says Terilith. "I smell food. Somethings living down here." He then carefully approaches the origin of the smell.

"What the--" says Terilith with surprise. Although they've already been caught, he was still whispering. "You think you know a city when you've wandered its streets for years. What is this?" He goes and investigates the remaining food. He didn't get a good look of the residents but they seemed like intelligent creatures. What were they eating?

In the meantime Kaez listenst to the sewers. There were a lot of people when they got here, all of them cannot act that stealthy under these circumstances. She thinks se should have hear some things, murmurs or whispers.

After a quick sharing of information, two Shields discuss what to do next, whispering. "Rats?" says Kaez with utter disgust in her face. "I remember them clearly shouting 'Shields!' as they noticed us. I assume they are intellectual people, not some savages living under here. Then, this begs the question. Why the hell were they eating rats?"

"I don't know." says Terilith. "But we're not here for some secret, fiddly business. We need to make sure that we are not hostile. Come." As he was about to finish his words he starts walking in the direction Kaez went earlier. When he reaches the barred opening, he raises his voice. "Hello! I know you can hear me. I'm Terilith and this here is my friend Kaez. We're not here to investigate you by any means. Though we're curious of your presence, we came here to investigate a pile of skulls clogging the way, just ahead of this stream. We only want information on this, nothing else. If you will be of help to us, we won't even mention this to anyone."

Kaez adds. "Yes, in fact we would like to help if we can. We are not only the brute force in this city, making sure everybody is comfortable and well-off."

Terilith turns and whispers his realization about the pools to Kaez. Then turns back, raises his voice. "I understand. We did not meant to accuse you of anything. We just wanted to know if you have any information on the issue. Do not antagonize us. Did you notice any unusual activity in the sewers lately? You may not know anything about the thing we mentioned but as the residents of this place you absolutely would have some info on what's going around this place. Please, this is really important. It may be something that eventually will affect you as well." As he talks to residents Terilith also checks the surrounding on how to observe the stream leading to the skulls.

"Alright, Kaez. Let's do this. I know it's hard with the armor but let's try to be more stealthy this time."

"Wow. Hey big fella. I doubt you can understand me but yeah, we mean you no harm unless you mean us any harm." says Terilith with great caution. He and Kaez will slowly reach out to their swords and get ready for any immediate attack from the creature.

"I think it’s safely trapped in that container, genius." says Kaez, slowly approaching it. "Still no clue on the skulls. What’ll we do?"

Though Terilith was bummed about Kaez’s initial comments, he agreed with her. Following her, he approaches and taps to the container.