Back in the fish guttery, Roland is greeted by the now-pleased older Hong. "Good work, my boy. Good work. Now, I did agree to tell you who had the artifact you're seeking, so here it is. The artifact was stolen by a temple raider in the employ of the Temple of Su'kal, and has been taken into the catacombs under the city -- for what purpose, we cannot tell." Jian nods. "Thank you for letting me know. Might I know your name now?" "It is danger enough that anyone outside the organization knows where I am and what I look like," he states with a cold glare at Jain, "without that person having a name to go with the face. Naturally, you understand that any name I give would needlessly compromise my operations. I cannot have that, and I trust you will not ask again." "I just feel that if I'm going to be murdering sleeping homeless as well as those with families for some cause or another that I at least deserve to know why." "And you expect to get that why from a name?" His eyes narrow. "It should be enough that you eliminated a Caer Ritaegno ship while in this city's port. Anything more puts us at risk, and any more questions puts you at even greater risk. You may leave." Jian spits on the floor, a good portion of that saliva landing on the man's feet, then leaves. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nodding, Menaria follows Tana out the door. "I agree, we'll tell the others once they return and maybe then we can investigate where it leads." Though she doesn't like not telling the high priestess about the finding, she shrugs the thought away. In time, Tanda, Lannstucht, and Jonahli return to the temple. Roland joins up with them there at the temple, telling them what he found out but not mentioning from where or what he had to do in order to do so. Tana stand quietly behind Menaria after greeting everyone. Greeting everyone and making sure everyone is all right (no need of healing), Menaria smiles. "Tana found a trap door in the store room leading downward, perhaps into the catacombs themselves. Shall we investigate it?" "Into the catacombs, and no wizard in sight." Lannstucht dryly comments. "Make sure we have several sources of light, and some non-magical. That doesn't look like anywhere I want to be without light. It could be gruesome." "Illumination is only one minor detail. However we will need to enlist the permission of the high priestess in order to get our weapons and armor before descending through the concealed egress." Tana adds very quietly, almost as if he were thinking out loud. Adding even quieter, "That is my concern." Lannstucht raises an eyebrow coolly. "True. Best not to do anything now that we're going to egret." "I have means of casting light. We can also probably borrow some nonmagical lighting, whether it be candle or oil lamps, from the priestesses here. Let me go and talk with the high priestess to let her know what we've found and that we are planning on investigating it. I'll ask her about your armor and weapons." Smiling at everyone she walks away to look for the high priestess or someone to help her find the high priestess. Tana follows Menaria out of the room, bowing his head slightly to the others as he leaves. According to the priestess on duty in the temple proper, the high priestess is in the public bathhouse down the way. Menaria thanks the priestess and walks down to the bathhouse to find the HP. As is natural for one of such a high rank at the public bathhouse, the high priestess of the temple is being attended by several handmaidens when she's found. She looks at Menaria and asks, "Won't you join us, Sister Menaria?" Smiling warmly, she nods. "Thank you, I would love too." and she does. After Menaria disrobes and joins the high priestess, the older woman asks pointedly, "You have something that requires my immediate attention?" Blushing slightly she nods. "We've discovered a doorway on the ground in the store room that leads downward. Will it be all right if myself and my friends investigate where it leads?" She asks quietly as she joins the HP in the bathing. "Such a door should not exist in that room. You have Akanksha's blessing, my child." She bows slightly, "Thank you, I will ensure that once we discover where it leads to I will inform you as to what we have discovered." She helps with the bathing as she allows herself to enjoy the moment due to realizing that it might be some time before she can enjoy anything like this ever again. After 30 mins, Menaria gets up from the bathing. "Thank you for allowing me to share this time with you and the other sisters. I will go to the others and see if they are ready to head down and discover where that door leads to." She smiles warmly and dresses. Once done she heads back to find the others. Once Menaria exits the bath, Tana falls in behind her following her lead back to the others. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jian doesn't bother waiting while Menaria is off taking leisure time. At about the same time Menaria is approved to enter, Jian gets impatient and goes down. The only light is the light from above, which quickly disappears as the trap door springs shut once again. Jain is now in darkness, and cannot see a thing. He sighs and goes back up to get a torch or lantern. He is able to get a number of torches, one lit, as he re-enters the trap door. He appears to be in an earthen tunnel, about four feet wide and about five and a half feet tall, with rounded stone walls. The torch illuminates part of the tunnel; beyond the edge of the torchlight, the tunnel fades back into darkness. He treads carefully into the darkness, keeping a hand along the wall as to not get lost in the catacombs' depths. "Oi Roland! We're supposed to wait until Menaria gets back from informing her high priestess. Are you in that much of a hurry to get yourself killed?" Tanda calls down into the catacomb tunnel with a loud whisper. "If we all spend our lives waiting for permission, there would be a wasted year in every second. Come come! This is not Akanksha herself's catacombs." Tanda slaps her forehead in frustration, "First rule of adventuring, don't get seperated while dungeon crawling! What are we going to do, all of us go with you and force Menaria to either wait here or try an catch up by herself? Even so, we'd need to leave someone here to tell her or leave her a message of some kind." Tanda goes on in a kinder voice. "Look I'm as curious and eager as you are to check this lead out, but I kind of want to wait until our healer gets here just in case. Lann, what do you think?" At the edge of the light, the shadows seem to move closer. Jian sighs and moves in. As the light from Jain's torch cuts through the shadows, two large rats come into view. These rats stand about three and a half feet tall at the shoulder, and have a feral, predatory glint in their eyes. Tanda hisses down into the darkness as Jian drops through the trap door. "Roland you fool!" muttering quietly to herself she says, "You're on your own." Scratching from farther in indicates that more of these rats lay farther back, although the exact number remains unknown. Jian continues to hold the torch in his hand with a calm face. He puts himself on the defensive and waits to see what the rats do, preparing himself for a fight. The two rats attack as one, and a third comes out of the shadows in an attack as well. Jian's fists and feet slam into them, sending several flying, but they just keep coming in waves of three. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Jian moves to enter combat with the rats, Menaria and Tana arrive back at the temple. She smiles as she finds the others. "The High Priestess says we can explore the trap door. Shall we go now or wait until later on?" Tanda looks up as Menaria enters and responds to the priestess's query, "We probably should get going sooner rather than later. Roland's gone and done something very stupid. Did you find out if we can get our weapons from the entrance closet to the temple?" Tana deviates from his following of Menaria and retrieves the equipment the party members were required to leave upon entering the Temple. Once Tana arrives back in the store room he drops the retrieved equipment. "As we have received acquiescence, I figure it would be wiser to have arms and armor. Therefore I have retrieved our equipment from the entrance storage." "Fantastic!" Tanda exclaims in a quiet voice, mindful of the open trap door. She quickly gathers up her gear and weapons and straps them into place on her body. Tana dons his own armor placing his scimitar across his back in its usual place. "I am prepared to follow this portal to its destination." Menaria nods and smiles at Tana. "Thank you, that saved us some time." She waits to see if everybody is ready to descend into the depths of the unknown. Looking at the others, she notices that Jian isn't around. "Where's Roland?" Tanda chuckles to herself. "Like I said, he's gone and done something really stupid. He refused to wait for you and went ahead into the tunnel by himself. He didn't even wait for Lannstucht and I to confer about who would go with him, and who would remain behind to wait for you and Tana Mauru." Tanda sighs, "I'm afraid we'll have to hurry if we want to catch up to him before he runs into anything serious down there." She states with an emphatic voice, "I HATE hurrying." She finishes gearing up, and drops down the hole after Roland. Muttering to herself she continues out of earshot of the others, "cause I always end up missing the trap that I trigger." Menaria chuckles, "He is sometimes impatient isn't he? Well let us off then if we're to go." She says to the others as she watches Tanda go down the hole. Putting on her cloak over her clothes then her bracers, she slips down the hole after Tanda. "The only bad thing about going down here is getting dirty...really dirty." She mumbles under her breath. "Someone lower the latern/torch and I'll hold onto it for us if you like." She quietly calls back up the hole. Tana follows after Menaria, handing her a torch, quietly says to her "It is paramount for you to stay within the interior of the assembly." Menaria chuckles quietly as she lightly touches Tana on the arm. "Have no fear, I'm not going to go traspising ahead of everybody else or get left behind. No, not me!" She takes the torch and smiles at Tana. "Remember, I'm a lover not a fighter." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the party finds Jian/Roland, he's positioned himself on one hand and spinning in circles, kicking at any dire rats that come close. He flips into a standing position as they approach; at least fifteen dead dire rats litter the passageway, and he shows no signs of even being bit once. XP: Everyone who posted gets the standard 100 session XP. Jian gets 300 XP for defeating the dire rats, and an additional 50 XP for doing it with a sense of style. Everyone else gets 200 plot XP each.