3-1: Beneath the Streets

Elysia reaches into the hole and gently pulls out the rotted leather so as to not drop the soiled coins. There are 9 in all. After a few moments' excitement that they might be some kind of ancient collectible, she wipes away enough grime to realize that these coins have probably only been here for a few years: they're regular krugerrands, with the old King's head on one side and the Grayhaven crest on the other. Elysia gains 9 krugerrands. From her time in the city, Elysia knows that the girl queen has not yet decreed new coins to be minted with her likeness.

Morik eats goodberries as the party continues following Eozindra's directions.

The party continues for a seventh hour, through many twists and turns, Eozindra always directing the group onward toward the "location of the Abbey." The stone here is very old, each block carved from a dark grey stone very different from the lighter shades earlier in their trip. The channel is wide and narrow, and the ceiling of the tunnel is so close overhead that taller adventurers would have had to stoop. The walkways have been worn smooth by many centuries of people traversing these same paths, and the weight of history is thick.

After another hour, Eozindra stops them by a break in the wall, where the masonry of the tunnel collapsed long ago. The others eye it doubtfully at first, but the bard insists that there is a passage on the other side that heads much closer to the direction they want to go than the main tunnel, which has been curving slightly to their left for the last half-mile or so.

The party proceeds through the crack and down a slippery scrabble into a lower, perpendicular tunnel that is noteworthy on two accounts: it is made from smaller bricks of a reddish stone that has little flecks of crystal in it, and it is not a sewer! There is no channel here, though the air is close and damp this far underground. Morik and Adran satisfy themselves that they will be able to climb back up the rubble to get to the sewer tunnel, and the party proceeds in the direction that Eozindra indicates for another hour.

As they walk, Ishi speaks softly with Jeffery for a while. Jeffery is very interested in knowing where his next meal is, and what it will be, and wouldn't you like to provide it to him now, please?Having determined the direction, Eozindra covers the light again as the party continues. So it is that twenty minutes or so later, they easily notice the faint glow of lamp light up ahead. This faint illumination is enough to reveal that the texture on the red stone walls comes from a series of small carved plaques with worn, illegible writing on them, one above another, with a new "column" of them appearing every few feet.

As they continue, the party approaches the light cautiously. Still some fair distance away and undetected, the PCs are able to see that there are boxes or other obstacles set up in the tunnel ahead, silhouetted by the lamp light, with a narrow path leading between them. Shadows dance on the walls as mostly-obscured people move in that space, passing in front of the lamp. The more perceptive can hear the low murmur of whispered or muttered voices.

Eozindra extracts one of her eyelashes and casts Invisibility on Elysia with it. ::I keep this up, I'm going to run out of lashes...:: Elysia vanishes, and creeps forward on feet as silent as a cat.

Approaching the lit area, Elysia focuses on the people first. There are eight of them...and they are weird. Not only are they a motley gang of many races - at first glance, Elysia sees a couple of dwarves, a human couple, an elf, a halfling, a gnome, and a dragonborn - but as she lingers longer and longer, each one bears at least one very obvious abnormality: an alarmingly out-of-place animal trait. As she watches, these people carry on a conversation that she doesn't understand, but her familiarity with Celestial allows her to recognize that they are speaking Infernal to each other. This inversion of Celestial is peppered with occasional obscenities from the common trade language of the Greenwold, a dialect of the Imperial Common you all speak. Apparently Infernal doesn't have enough obscenities on its own.

They take no notice of Elysia and continue their jeering, crude conversation. Gradually, the rogue takes stock of other details beyond the freaks themselves: the shadows are being cast by various small structures that these people have constructed for themselves from broken bits of salvaged materials: old crates, cracked barrels, torn sails, crumbling pieces of brick. They're living here in squalor, and the stench rolling off of the eight unwashed bodies reminds Elysia of how much better the air quality is in these tunnels than they were in the sewers. The oil lamp gives off a greasy smoke and flickering light, but it is enough to see that these people have broken into the graves set in the walls to make additional living space (and at least one latrine). That helps her to realize that where the party and these freaks are - these sparkly red-brick tunnels - is a catacomb: each plaque on the wall is the cap to an alcove containing the remains of some long-dead resident of ancient times.

The only path through their camp is a narrow gap in between their shanties.

Elysia is already there at the edge of their camp, no stealth check necessary: they have not noticed her. But if she tries to venture further in, to steal an item, look through a shack, surprise attack one of them, or do anything else that would bring her even closer to them, then she should roll Stealth (and yes, do so with Advantage).

Of course, Eozindra has already received some information about their numbers, so the rest of the party can act, too. Or Elysia could return first and report everything that she's seen (no Stealth needed to just return).

Confident in her invisibility, Elysia creeps forward. The gnome's head swivels on its strange neck, but it appears to be only because he's swallowing a bit of meat. Since they all seem to be gathered around the one oil lamp telling jokes, Elysia slips into the closest stinking hovel and grabs the first (and only) shiny thing she sees: an exquisite glass cup sitting amongst a bunch of trash. But the cup was broken in the past and was pasted together with something sticky: it comes apart in her hand, the pieces cascading down. By the time the pieces hit the ground, Elysia is already gone and heading back toward the rest of the party. The halfling squeals in dismay, rummaging around in the trash for the pieces of his "treasure." The others watch with some sympathy, not suspecting that anyone else was among them.

Elysia rejoins the others.