Chasing Down The Rat (A Crystal Blade Quest)

Descending into the sewer, the first thing he noticed was the desperate, fleeting footfalls of Qu-Li. The rapid splat-splat-splat sound echoed faintly down the broken corridor of the sewer, the sound disappearing into the darkness deep to his left. A short landing of stone broke the thin, stunted tube that was the Radasanth sewer system. An ankle deep river of water flowed towards the general direction of the owner of the Rat, which he supposed was incrementally better than running upstream.

Brutal. Two hundred and eighty crown coins and I literally run through shit. F*ck this guy.

Breaking into a smooth, seamless run, the wizard couldn’t help but be sickened by his surroundings. The thin layer of slime which coated everything about Storm Veritas sent a chill skidding up his spine. The mildew held a stale, rotting odor, and the darkness was broken only by intermittent lamps which burned dimly roughly every hundred feet. Whatever collection of rat, rotted food or waste floated down in the ebony water was a mystery the adventurer sought not to unearth. The wizard focused rather in keeping his eyes focused for any turns, bends, or alcoves where Qu-Li may have chosen to lie in wait. Following a run of no more than eight hundred yards, the path branched in three directions, with no discernible marker indicating the path of the man fleeing him.

Son of a bitch, he’s f*cking –gone-. How didn’t you know this? Why didn’t you chase faster? You stupid ass, all this work, wasted…

The networked maze of Radasanth’s warm, filthy underbelly no doubt broke away like limbs on a tree as it approached the residential sector; picking any path to pursue was to tie his fate to a glorified lottery ticket. Conversely, any sort of wait would no doubt give the cowardly Qu-Li ample time to find a ladder to safety, up and out of the sewer system.

Gazing down, the pungent odor of the sewers hung heavily in the air, and the horrible, warm flow of water covered the tops of his expensive antolin-hide shoes. They were very likely ruined, the high and fine polish gone once and forever. Aside from his fury at missing the target, the fate of his fine shoes was simply too much to bear.

“WHORE!!!” With a guttural shout, Storm unleashed a wild, unfocused blast of energy radially from him. A thick bolt of white found teeth in a metal pipe bolted into the floor of the dark channel, a hard crackle sounds of boiling water and the generation of bubbles as energy raced under the water. The hard white burn of lightning snapping down rapidly in every direction through the chambers, glowing the hallways light and green as the color of the awful water stained the light produced by his mighty blast.

The buzzing, burning szz-zzt! sounds were broken by pops of screws torn loose and the pipe shaking as electricity raced down the pipe in every direction. A handful of innocent rats floated belly up to the surface of the water, caught in the crossfire of a furious villain angered by his own incompetence.

From a corner two short turns from him, the foolish outburst led to a serendipitous response.

“God, shit!”

His blast had found some footing, albeit a weak hit.

The corpse that sprawled out before him marked the end of the road, save for another murky stretch of river. There was no chamber, no apparent way forward and only a black expanse before him.

Then, something glinted beneath the surface. A sudden spark, perhaps. Or was it a reflection of his own light?

After the edgy blackness of the cavern, the water was so rigidly cold that the Telgradian had to clamp his teeth so as not to gasp against it and drown. To make things worse, he only had Enpera’s fading light to guide him in the churning water. Enpera held the rope fast within his jaw but paid it out too slowly, so Shinsou came up for air and silently took some more slack, breathing out all his carbon dioxide and taking in another lungful of air. With that, he dipped his head under again. On a good day, in a river with the sun overhead, Shinsou could hold his breath for about three minutes. With these underground temperatures, he hoped for maybe half of that. He had an idea, and barely enough breath to test it. He instructed Enpera to send the line of his light due west, past the churning edge of the water to where the swirling currents cut alcoves and potholes in the rock. Shinsou could see nothing but white; white water, white rock, white light, so that only textures made them separate from each other and only his hands could be trusted.

Still, the idea burned, and, more than that, was the sense of something waiting for him, almost welcoming him. It whispered him onwards. It asked him to have courage, and sent fire into his very marrow to battle against the terrifying cold. Three times he came up for air. Three times the swooping eddies pushed him back before he could reach the place where an anomaly of the current held the water still and the white rock lay round and wide as a cauldron. Shinsou’s rule was always to try at something three times, and then stop. It had kept him alive in situations where ‘one more try’ would otherwise have become ‘ten more tries’ and the exhaustion of failure would have left him too tired to get out of that situation.

This time, he had to keep going.

“Enpera, light me up one last time! I need to see ahead of me and Stygian’s light is too weak!”

The jaguar nodded, and without question obeyed the command. A brilliant light once again filled the cavern.

The Telgradian was ready to stop now, but for the whispered encouragement, the promises and the urgent insistence that made him take more rope from his stalwart partner Enpera and duck down again and kick forward hard enough through the wall of white turbulence to the black space beyond. There, in the dizzying luminescence of their last flare, was the lip of cavitied rock. The Telgradian grabbed it with both hands and signalled for Enpera to tilt his magic to spill its light down inside.

Shinsou Vaan Osiris had come looking for a crimson bladed sword, one that looked like a demonic weapon. What lay in the black water before him was the tip of something red, covered in blobs of chalk. Its shaft was a lumpen, misshapen stalactite with barely a shape to suggest the blade within. Even so, to his eyes, it was beautiful. He balanced on his waist and leaned down to reach it.

The Goat!

As he touched it, a blinding intensity of scarlet flashed through the water. Shinsou gasped, his heart almost leaping through his chest. He lost a mouthful of air and choked, coming to the surface in a flurry of panicked coughing.

“Shinsou, you’ve been in too long. Come out. No object is worth dying for!” Enpera was at the water’s edge, leaning in against the pull of his three line belay.

“No!” Shinsou waved an arm high over his head. “It’s there! I can get it. One last time…”

Once more he ducked down into the black water, kicked back to the cauldron’s edge and watched as Enpera sent light into it once again. Stiff with cold, his hands reached down into the churning dark, to the treasure that was beyond price – The Goat.

The red glare was less intense a second time, and he was waiting for it. The sword, its blade now glowing through the moist chalk, came to Shinsou’s hands.

It sang its welcome with a song of light.

This time, the gambling wizard would afford his prey no benefit of hesitation. As soon as he heard the reaction down the sewer channels, he quickly moved towards it, his incredible speed driving him in the general direction with the long, bounding strides of a large cat chasing wounded prey. The splash of his own feet was not unnoticed, and in a feared reaction Qu-Li began to run on his own. He attempted to toe the edge of the sewer, striding outside of the waters on the slippery stone surface. It bought him a few strides and a corner before a foot failed to find purchase, sliding without any friction beneath him and sending the terrified tycoon splashing into the sewer. When he arose, he turned back looking up, his wide eyes tightening to focus on his pursuer. Winded, he rolled the gleaming blue blade beside his face, a firm grip on the finely wrapped leather hilt.

“Please, no more. This sword has been in my family for generations; I don’t want to kill you with it. You can keep your coin, and I know how to forget a face easily enough…” A tepid confidence crept into his voice as he poised himself in a crouch, ready to strike.

Oh, Qu-Li, you dumb shit… You surprise me! Didn’t think you had the balls, but I did credit you with more brains than this.

Now wet to the knees with putrid waste, Storm showed empty hands as he sneered at the fool standing apart from him. Qu-Li had not been challenged in years; the luxury of wealth had insulated him from reality. Had he not witnessed the carnage only moments ago? What gave him such idiotic bravery? Striding forward, the electromancer spoke with a cold, cruel dose of reality.

“You don’t understand how this works. Your best bet was to leave the sword in that display case and screw; I might have thought about letting you go rather than chasing you through this shit. Now, it’s time to pay the river man. Now, it’s time for you to f*cking die, little man.”

Qu-Li stabbed with anger and desperation, watching with disbelief as the scoundrel easily dodged the thrust with a simple side step, and slapped the swordsman across the face with an insulting bare palm. Two more slashes followed in a quick up-down motion, both missed wildly, and were followed by a thunderous punch to the cheek that knocked him back two feet. Merciless, Storm Veritas simply walked slowly forward, closing on the inevitable through the sludge.

Like a mongoose, Qu-Li hopped from foot to foot, bounding laterally about the sewer. In his tight fists, the Rat began to glow bright blue and hum with an anger of its own. The tunnel was tight, a hollow cylindrical channel only some ten feet in diameter, but gave him enough room to use his brilliant speed. Bounding off the side wall, he drove his hands from his knees to his head with a dramatic upward arc. Amazingly, the blue energy of the sword flashed outwardly as the foot-deep water rolled at Storm in a wave of filth and fury.

Oh, shit, didn’t see that coming.

The wave hit Storm headlong, a hard riptide pulling his feet as the white-capped wave of awful hit him squarely in the chest. Like a hammer, it knocked him square on his ass, his shoulders rolling back as he kept his eyes forward. Without hesitation, Qu-Li bound in for the kill, leaping for an overhanded deathblow. The swordsman’s face twisted from rage to confusion as his sword refused to listen, stuck in the air as if locked in stone.

“It’s still a metal blade, you stupid asshole.” Storm’s hand was raised before him, a powerful wave of electromagnetic energy suspending the weapon in its place. With a simple gesture of his outstretched palm, Storm lifted the sword higher in the air, Qu-Li dangling from the hilt like a monkey on a tree branch. Eyes wide with disbelief, he swore at his attacker.

“What horrible demon are you?! You fight as a coward, with sorcery and deception.”

Undeterred, Storm Veritas smiled, amused by the gesture as he raised his second hand. A soft hum of white, and a rolling orb of blue-white plasma formed before his palm. Aghast, Qu-Li released his grasp on the sword, falling in a heap as the wizard pivoted, pushing the orb into the chest of the fallen man. There was no cry or shriek; only a singular wild, viciously arching back as the energy raced through the body of Qu-Li, instantly stopping his heart and sending him to his grave.

terr-ching-ching!

Abandoned, the Rat fell harmlessly to the stone perimeter of the water-filled tube, its blade slowly sliding into the putrid waters. For a moment, the soft, cooling scent of ozone briefly replaced the vile odor of the room. With a deep breath, Storm Veritas laid claim to the mighty blade, his eyes razor-thin as he sought to summon the magic from within the now-dormant weapon.

He would learn to use the blade, a mighty, waterborne compliment to the lightning magic which made him famous.

He would learn to use the blade, but that was another story.

Name of Thread: Chasing Down The Rat (A Crystal Blade Quest)
No Judgement
Rewards:
Shinsou Vaan Osiris receives:
835 EXP
0 GP


Storm Veritas receives:
935 EXP
0 GP

Note after:

Forgot to add spoils. Please award each participant a crystal sword worth 150GP. Amounts of Experience and Gold adjusted accordingly