A Dirty Task

The party reached the Guard barracks and got in to see the Captain, to ask about any tasks they could handle. He advised them that he did have a problem that required a small and select group to handle, but first he wanted to assure himself of their competence. Two of the city guilds were having problems in the sewers and were after a capable group to sort out the issue, they were willing to offer a reward as it wasn't a task particularly suited to the City Watch and Guardsmen. Rulathon gave them directions to the guildhall and asked they return later, once they'd proved their ability.

Reaching the guildhall, the party obtained a meeting with the guildmaster, Hilithimm Turnstone; he explained that a couple of his crews were being prevented from completing necessary maintenance by unknown creatures. He got a crew in to explain further and their evidence implied the sewer was troubled by some sort of serpentine creature, that appeared fairly aggressive. He got the crew to take the party to the nearest access shaft and give them directions to follow in the sewers tom reach the problem area; once thay handled the problem (or not), he asked they return to take on the lesser problem further north in the city.

Arriving at the access shaft, they descended into the sewers and followed the directions they had been given. Travelling down the main sewer, they came to a junction and took the smaller branch pipe as they had been directed. A few hundred yards down they caught sounds of movement both ahead and behind them, so preparing they waited until they caught sight of the cause. In only moments oversized bugs scuttled into view and advanced quickly towards the party. The sewer walkway made for a tight battleground and the party were hard pressed as bug swarms advanced along both walls and ceiling, as well as swimming in the turgid waters, to engage them. The fighters took a lot of damage, but did repulse all the bugs at length, before taking time to recoup from the exertion.

Moving on again to reach the sump end of the sewer pipe, it wasn't long before they neared an exit to the pipe which implied thay had reached the sump chamber. The cleric floated a magic light into the chamber and the rogue edged forward someway behind it to observe the chamber and any occupants. He caught sight of a large multi-legged creature on the left, an oversized beetle to the rear of the central pool and a patch of thick green slime on the roof above it. Creeping back he advised the others and they decide to press on and try to tackle the creatures individually.

Reaching the chamber the first three branched right along the walkway and attacked the beetle, whilst the other two went left towards the second creature. A stiff fight developed, toughening as large worm like creatures appeared from a smaller right hand pipe to engage the party. Holding their own, the right hand group spotted a large swarm of vicious acting rats swarming from a rear pipe and run towards them, whilst the slime patch had slowly crept towards the pipe entrance and although spotted managed to drop and smother the mage.

The party did eventually defeat the creatures and took a few trophies to prove their actions whilst resting again. Gathering at the rear of the chamber they investigated a moderate pipe that was unusually encrusted with old blood and had a noticeable pile of limbs and bones on the walkway below and at the pool edge. The rogue scrabbled up the pipe until it ended at a narrow vertical pipe leading up to street level. Returning back to the sump, the party then decided to return and check with the guild if the pipe exit could be located in the city; the suspicious residue in the chamber needed investigating to determine its source.