In orderly fashion, the five of you follow the western ledge north only to find there's no way to cross one of the openings. Karadlon happens to be looking to the wall beside Olo when he notices something there, under a patch of mold.
“Hey, I found something.”
It seems that Run, in a hurry to get out of the stink, overlooked one of the markings. You head west down the canal and continue following the markings. When you hear the sound of fighting past a corner, you close the hooded lantern Anna's carrying and take a peek. It's seven knights of the rack and they're fighting a huge Otyugh. It has two other knights in it's tentacles and uses one of them to bash another knight into the canal. This knight quickly sinks from his armor weighing him down and the otyugh submerges the other held knight. The one still above the water in it's grasp soon meets it's open maw as the creature bites into the knight, tearing his upper chest plate free and swallowing his head, helmet and all.
Andre! No! you hear one of the knights yell.
The otyugh then drops this limp body and lashes out at the knights again. It's an intense struggle as the creature seems to have them boxed in. That's not your issue though. You're just feeling glad you hadn't run into this thing. You continue on, following the markers when they appear and turning when you need to. The intersections are marked with placards giving the street names above but none of you are familiar with this part of the city. You only know you're heading into a more abandoned section.
Soon enough, but not as soon as you had hoped, Keider spots a marker pointing up. There's six iron rungs in the wall and an iron grate above. You begin to climb and slowly push the great free.
You're standing in an alley now. To the west is a street and to the east the building comes out in a semi-circular structure. The alley wall is filthy. Splitting up, those checking to the east find that the alley extends past another building about twenty feet from this building. It leads to another street eventually. There's no activity at this end. To the east, you look and the street is empty. You see to the south, a small flight of three steps to a set of tall doors. The buildings here are in need of work. In the alley, the building south of you has a double door. Examining the door, you find, ever so faintly, the etching of two swords crossing in a "X".
With a moment's hesitation, Keider knocks on the door. After a moment, you hear a latch click and the door opens, barely. You see Jan peeking through. She smiles and opens the door to let you in. Inside, you find the temple is nothing like it indicates from outside. It's clean and well maintained. She notices you noticing this and responds.
“Leaving the exterior to match the other buildings keeps this unremarkable, and gives no reason for others to be curious. Because of laws forbidding the looting and selling of things from temples and shrine, all of them, the hellknights, and others, have no reason for entering and never have yet.
What took you so long though? When I left, you had them zombies well managed. The way I went was much longer. I expected you to beat me here.”
You begin telling her about the otyugh and the knights and she just smiles.
“Laggie. She's been there a long time. That's one of her favorite spots. We steer clear of that canal at all cost. I understand the curiosity, but next time, it's best you not stay to watch and just keep moving unless it's a fellow resistance fighter.”
Making a face after picking up the smell from you, she adds,
“Come, get changed. You can wash up yourselves and your gear and get something to eat too. Let me introduce you to the others.” Everyone! Come meet are newest recruits! A small group of people begin to gather and one at a time she introduces you to them. She then promptly shews you off to freshen up.
OUT OF CHARACTER
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| Time to level. You should all be second level with 2400 XP. 3rd level is at 3300 XP. |
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