Chapter 4: The Nasty Pits

Evening of the 21st Day of Toil, 997 V.R.

You don’t know what Lord Bartoz nor the mysterious Tribunal want with the Seals of Astaroth but you're sure their intentions can't be good, so you've decided to thwart these sinister forces by finding the seals first.

You're making your way to the "nasty pits" where you know Bartoz's work crews are also searching. This is a section of Iskandar's sewer system even the Rat Catcher's Guild don't enter. Still, Tilma is in her element here, and Berry's temporarily enhanced vision certainly helps a lot, as does the borrowed driftglobe, which casts an eerie light on the slimy stone walls.

The sluice gates in this area stopped working generations ago. The effluvium that finds its way here doesn't join the rest of the waste water that drains into the bay. The stuff in the cesspools is old, stagnant, and disgusting. Real nasty.

Berry heard the man say "two levels down" but that's misleading. According to Squiddly's map, first it's a spiral staircase 30 feet down, then southeast a quarter mile through a maze of chambers, and then a precarious descent on metal rungs set in a 60-foot vertical shaft.



You've just cleared the spiral staircase. The air stinks but the canaries seem okay.

You head southeast. An iron gate that would've been an obstacle to anyone bigger than Squiddly or Berry looks like it's been forced open by the work crews. The first few chambers are a mess of rusted pipes leaking foul water that pools on the floor. There appears to be some recent damage to some of the pipes and stonework because of the quake. As you pick your way past some of these, another tremor rocks the chamber, bursting one of the pipes, dumping brown sludge which you narrowly avoid. The tremor passes, but more may come.

You come across some major damage, probably caused by the main quake. Part of the chamber is caved in, and half the floor has collapsed into a rubble-filled hole. It looks like the work crews built a makeshift bridge—not much more than a couple of wood planks—over the gap, but the aftershock has partially collapsed it. The near end of the bridge has fallen into the hole and then jammed against the rocks about 10 below you. The chasm is small enough that an athletic person could make the jump, but clearly not the safest route. What do you do?

"I could make the jump and toss some rope over," suggests Berry, rubbing his chin in thought.

"You sure that you will manage? You know, you are small. Perhaps I should jump? I have longer legs." and she puts forward one of her legs.

"What I lack in height, I make up for flexibility and nimbleness-ness," the gnome winks at his long legged friend.

Berry's confident he can make it (DC10). And were his leap to fall short, there's the remains of the bridge down there to break his fall. Theoretically.

"Seems dangerous!", the thin youth stated, as he considered the gap from a safe distance. "Could we pick those planks up, perhaps with some arcane assistance, and use them to span the void?"

Then, looking at his diminutive but brave friend, he added "If you want to jump, I could assist you in more than one way..."

Testing the planks and the rocks with his mage hand, Laurent finds they're wedged in pretty tight. Given time and clever use of climbing gear and pickaxes you could no doubt retrieve the planks and rebuild the bridge.

Or you could climb down there, cross, and climb up the other side.

Or you could let Berry jump.

"Save your energies, old boy, I got this," Berry limbers up, stretching his arms and legs, then taking a run up, leaps...

Noticing repairs would appear overly time-consuming, Laurent turned back to his gnomish friend. "Allow me to bring Niveral's blessing upon you." He began intoning the odd, atonal chant that Tilma and Berry had already heard a number of times. He then extended both hands, as if to softly grasp the gnomes' shoulders.

Berry leaps across the chasm, no sweat! You rig some rope across the gap and make the crossing in no time.

You move on. In some areas the ceiling's so low Tilma and Laurent must stoop as you wade through knee-deep muck. In other areas the high, vaulted ceiling is supported by stone columns with massive, carved bases, and faded inscriptions in archaic script. Some of these columns lie toppled—long ago or in the recent quake, it's hard to tell in the dark.


Berry's the first to see it—a softly glowing object floating amongst the columns in the direction you're headed.

What do you do?

Berry crouches and points in the direction of the glowing thing.

Tilma readies her crossbow and scouts the surroundings for eventual danger.

Laurent seeks to hide himself behind some obstacle, if possible still keeping his eyes on the gently glowing light. He sought to distinguish the specific coloration emanating from the light source: was it green or violet, as the stones from the Seal? Was it immobile?

"Fish?"

It does look vaguely like a glowing fish. But it's hovering several feet above the water's surface. The strange creature warily draws nearer but keeps its distance. Emotions radiate from it and push into your thoughts: confusion, loneliness, and an image of a smiling halfling woman surrounded by birds.

What do you do?