Kaddon - The Story

[Myrdraxxis]

Rashid narrowed his eyes at the Champion thoughtfully for a moment then nodded. "Right." he declared and walked towards the tavern. "First catch of the day then."

Rashid stepped back inside the tavern, the familiar smells and sounds settling over him as he glanced around. His gaze came to rest on the table in the far corner of the room. Sure enough, Yarrick was still there, wolfing down a meal with considerable gusto.

Patrons stepped out of his way as Rashid closed in, more than a few growing quiet as he passed. Most of the people here were regulars, just like Rashid. And they knew what to expect when he walked into a room. He could actually her the bartender sigh in exasperation and fought a grin.

"The nerve of that bastard" he heard Yarrick mutter between frustrated bites. "Who the hells does he think he is-"

"You shouldn't eat so fast, you'll get indigestion." Rashid said. Yarrick's head snapped around and the man glared at him.

"Decided to come crawling back eh? Couldn't find any 'better' work?" he said, an arrogant smirk forming on the small man's face.

Now Rashid did smile, an unsettling wolfish grin that made Yarrick's own smile falter.

"Funny thing, I actually already found another job."

"Oh yeah?" Yarrick glanced around nervously, noticing that patrons were edging away from his table.

"Yup." Rashid was a blur of motion, grabbing Yarrick by the collar and tossing the man to the floor. Yarrick let out a panicked cry as he went tumbling. Shakily the man got to his feet, glaring at Rashid murderously.

"You just made a hell of a mistake, sellsword." Rashid raised an eyebrow at the statement...and fought a groan as Yarrick whipped out a dirk from his sleeve.

With almost lazy ease he sidestepped the man's charge and batted the small blade out of the man's hand, grabbing Yarrick's wrist and then clamping down hard. Yarrick let out a cry of pain as Rashid heard bones snap.

A moment later and Yarrick's body went flying out of the front door of the tavern and landing in a pile in the street.

Rashid strode casually out. He reached down and grabbed the man by his collard, and dragged him over to Eva and the others.

"Got one." he declared over Yarrick's pitiful whimpering.

[Calefrun]

Kaiyan tensed and clenched his fists, just noticing the Blackblade for the first time. "Wait a second... when Rashid called you 'Champion' earlier, he meant that Champion?!? And you want us to work for the king? Look, I'm a good, normal, law-abiding citizen who just happens to carry a sword, and..." he glanced at Rashid as his partner brought over the pathetic-looking drug dealer. "Rashid, are... are we really doing this?"

Shifting his gaze around uncomfortably, he saw Mygdon up in the tree. "Mute, huh..." he muttered awkwardly, "What a weird kid."

[Mizagium]

"Well well well," Eva observed, impressed. "What have we here?" She looked him up and down, noticed the broken hand and smirked. "Where's my healer? Ah, Vyn; I'm going to need you on hand, so to speak, in case this one doesn't feel like cooperating."

She patted the side of his face. "Rashid here tells me you've shockweed connections. Now, our employer doesn't much like the business you're bringing to the surface. So I'm gonna give you a fair chance: Who do you work for? And where do I find them?"

[Damien]

"I suppose so," said Vyncent. "Although..."

Vynce stopped speaking when he noticed Kaiyan looking up and behind him and Eva. He turned his gaze to see Mygdon up in a tree, holding a blade of some kind and appearing ready to jump and attack.

"Lady Eva," he said, "I believe that the mute child is preparing to attack someone. Maybe more drug dealers and smugglers?" Vyncent turned to fully face in the direction that Mygdon was and began to pull in æther, preparing an earth spell.

[Sariel of Tevet]

Good, looks like someone is finally paying attention to me. Here goes nothing.

Mygdon pulled a length of rope from his pack and tied it to a tree branch, and then to looped the other end around his ankles. He leaned over the edge of the tree and swung down behind one of the henchmen on the edge and cut his achilles as he swung by and back up to the tree.

The henchmen fell to the ground and let out a cry and the other two looked up at the tree and spotted Mygdon. He untied the end of the rope that was attached to the branch and then loosed the loop around his ankles. He lassoed the neck of one of the remaining two, grabbed the free end, and jumped out of the tree to use himself as a ballast. Both of them were off the ground now, swinging from the tree.

The remaining man from the group tried to grab hold of Mygdon, who was now flailing about helplessly.

[Mizagium]

But Eva crossed the distance in record time, slamming her shoulder into the third man, sending him crashing into the nearest facade. "It must be my birthday," she muttered as she helped Mygdon down from his rope swing of death. The man with the severed tendons continued to writhe in pain and the hanged man was unconscious, but alive.

"Someone do something with these two," she shouted as she went after the third man, who struggled to his feet. She kicked him in the gut, which sent him back down. The Champion seized him by his shirt and threw him across the street, towards Rashid, Kayain, and Vyn.

"Alright, you piece of shit - either of you - someone start talking. Whoever gives me the most information about shockweed gets to walk away with most of your bones in tact."

[Myrdraxxis]

"Yes, Kayain, we really are." He shot the younger mercenary a look that said they would discuss it later. In private. Rashid knew what Kayain was thinking. Truth be told the thought of working almost directly for the Crown made him sick to his stomach, but at the same time an idea was beginning to for. Nothing would come of it if the payoff wasn't worth it, but Rashid wasn't about to waste the opportunity presented to him.

He knelt down beside Yarrick and almost lazily drew his dagger. He traced the air with it for a moment, Yarrick's eyes following the blade fearfully then flinched as Rashid pointed the tip at his nose. "You heard the lady Yarrick. I'd suggest you spill it."

"I-I don't..." Yarrick gulped. "I'm just a distributor. I get my product from-"

"I know that." Rashid growled. "But who and where do you get it from?" He jabbed the knife lightly with each emphasis.

"They'll kill me if they find out." Yarrick wailed.

"I'll kill you now if you don't tell me." Yarrick stammered for another moment before coming to a decision.

"The Undercity!" he yelped. "I don't know anything about this lot," he glanced over at the thugs their mute friend had apprehended, "But I get my stuff from the Hound Carta."

Rashid grunted and stood up, sheathing the blade.

"I've heard of 'em." He turned to the Champion. "Mean sons of bitches, they control more territory than half the other undercity gangs combined."

[Calefrun]

Kaiyan, who had moved to and was now leaning against a nearby wall, merely nodded in acknowledgement of what Rashid was saying. He had heard of the Hound Carta as well, but he didn't know anything that Rashid couldn't tell this "Champion" himself. Besides, the idea of doing anything that would help the Crown bothered him. Having nothing better to do, he decided to practice his "intimidating glare" on Yarrick.

[Mizagium]

"The Crawl," Champion Eva muttered. "Should have known it would be the Hound Carta - they've been giving me and the...ah, I mean - There's a stairwell a few blocks down that will get us to the Crawl." She moved closer to Yarrick and Rashid. "That just leaves one question: What to do with poor ol' Yarrick? Once the Carta finds out it was you...well. Won't be good."

She paced a bit. "Turning you over won't be much better. His Majesty already thinks you're scum. Hmm. Maybe we'll think of something on the way. I've got some...friends in another Thieves Guild down there. I think they can help us out." She waited for the others.

[Damien]

Vyn let the æther dissipate rather than keeping it stored. He still didn't have much control when it came to his green magestone, so he'd prefer not to risk "overfilling" it.

"As much as I hate associating with the likes of thieves and other lawbreakers," he said, "I'd put that dislike aside to put a stop to all this drug trafficking. I'm with you, milady."

[Calefrun]

Kaiyan raised an eyebrow. "Lawbreakers?" he did his best to sound insulted, but failed to keep a hint of sarcasm out of his voice. "My good sir, aren't you jumping to conclusions a bit? There are none here but us honest, hardworking citizens. And a mute."

[Damien]

"Oh, my!" said Vyncent, shocked. "I didn't mean...what I meant to say was...oh, wait...that was sarcasm!" He chuckled and gave a sigh of relief. "You knew I meant the lawbreakers in the Crawl the entire time!"

Obviously, Vyncent had a lot to learn about social interactions...

[Sariel of Tevet]

Well I guess we won't really be needing to talk to these two now that we have...a plan? I guess.

Mygdon picked up the two henchmen's head by their hair and smashed them into the ground, knocking them out cold. He grabbed one by the leg and began to drag him over to Yarrick, stood, looked back at the other drug dealers and just shrugged, before taking his place at the champion's side.

[Mizagium]

Eva gave Vyn a curt nod, hopefully conveying as much gratitude as possible. Then she watched the mute kid as he silently joined her. Well. He seemed handy. Unsettling, but useful.

"Looks like you two," she said to Rashid and Kaiyan, "have a personal stake in this matter, so why don't we all head out, eh? Someone is going to realize three or four mooks missing. Maybe not right away, but eventually."

[Myrdraxxis]

Rashid shrugged. "Maybe. Poor sods like Yarrick get shanked all the time. Regardless, we should get moving. I'll follow your lead for now Champion." he nodded towards Kaiyan, the implied being that BOTH of them were on board.

[Damien]

"After you, m'lady," said Vyncent.

[Calefrun]

Catching Rashid's nod, Kaiyan shrugged. "Personal steak? Sounds delicious. Just lead the way, I guess."

[Mizagium]

The Crawl was not a place you wanted to end up in on purpose. It was a second city, a dank and gloomy expanse of poverty festering underneath Kaddon like a fungus beneath an expensive carpet. Without a sky and with only a few aging magelight lanterns, the vast majority of illumination was provided by the various species of bioluminescent moss and fungus that grew on just about any surface. Of course, said fungal growths produces spores in order to procreate.

Fungal spores and human bodies don’t tend to play very well together.

The physicians on the surface called it an invasive fungal infection and, unless detected early, will eventually suffocate the victim as the fungus grows in the lungs and trachea. In extremely later stages, the glowing fungus can be seen in the back of the victim’s throat when he or she opens their mouth.

To the Crawlers, it was known as “furry lung” and, more commonly, the “deathlight”.

A common saying goes that every Crawler is born with the deathlight in them.

Eva wondered if she had the deathlight yet as she lead her impromptu party down a nearby stairwell to the Crawl. Once upon a time dozens of stairways had connected Kaddon and the Crawl – but that was before the Humans had set up shop in the bones of an ancient civilization. Since those days long ago, various kings and organizations had destroyed them, leaving only four commonly known stairways. Eva knew of three others, two of which even the city guard hadn’t discovered yet. This was one of those.

“Seriously,” she said the others. “Don’t tell anybody. We don’t need any deathlit running around on the surface.”

The first appearance of a patch of glowing moss heralded the final steps and the opening to the Crawl. They emerged from behind a large rock in a relatively uninhabited sector of the “city”. She waited for a few minutes, giving everyone’s eye time to adjust to the lower light levels. A few shambling buildings formed something of a lane and a few Crawlers shuffled along a path smoothed into the stone by years of foot traffic. Deathlight moss covered most of the roof. The wood used to construct the building looked so damp, it might have just been fetched out of a river.

“Don’t touch anything,” she warned them, “especially if it glows. Don’t talk to anyone – and if you do, keep your hand over your mouth and your head turned to the side. Don’t eat any food unless I tell you it’s clean. You aren’t like to catch the deathlight from a few hours down here, but it’s been known to happen. We’re going to the headquarters of the Thousand Blades guild – I have some contacts there and they should be able to help us with our shockweed problem.” She could already taste the stale moisture in the air.

She started to walk, stopped and said, “Breathe as little as possible until we get to the Thousand Blades.” She smiled wryly and slapped a hand over her mouth. “Let’s go.”

[Damien]

Vyncent caught Eva by the shoulder.

"If I may, milady," he said, "I think I have an idea that might make it easier than having to cover our mouths all the time down here." Vynce, through sheer force of will, brought forth the magic from his green magestone that would cause the spores in the general vicinity of the party's mouths and noses to stay away, almost as if the group were wearing invisible gas masks.

"Now then," he said, somewhat wearily. "We should be able to breathe normally now. There's magic preventing the fungal spores from entering our mouths and noses. I'm pretty sure our ears will be fine, but I'm sure we can figure something out if any of us start growing mushrooms out of our ears."

He nodded to Eva to let her know that the group may proceed.

[Calefrun]

Kaiyan let out a sigh of relief. "Hey, you're not so bad after all... um... guy. I've only been here once before, and I had to stay quiet pretty much the entire time! That sure was a pain, eh Rashid?" He gave his partner a cheeky grin as they followed after Eva.