Warsinger James Baldwin (read this if TXT) 📖

hypnotic sensation of Karalti’s body pressed against mine.

“Okay. Let’s search this guy.” Feeling strangely guilty, I peeled away from her and refocused on the scene in front of us. “There’s a story here. The priest was killed with a shiv. I’m betting the pickaxe we saw back there belonged to one of the engineers. We’ve found two armored guys who look like bandits. They’ve got armor and swords… most townies don’t have access to those. They’re possibly deserters. Both of them were killed by some kind of life-sucking incorporeal undead.”

“Wraiths are attracted to dying people,” Karalti said. “Maybe the deserters attacked the priests and engineers, and the fight attracted the undead?”

“Seems likely.” I frowned as a whispering hiss flittered to our ears from the tunnel ahead. “The wraiths chased the last one out of the maintenance tunnel, and then withdrew to wherever they normally like to hang out.”

“Yeah. These guys have both got pouches. You want me to search them?”

“Go ahead.”

I stood back while Karalti pulled the corpse to the ground. She looted [40 rubles], [Journeyman Tool Belt], and [Holy Symbol of Khors] from the priest, then a few coppers from the bandit before she pulled out a roll of vellum from the front of his shirt.

“Ooh! It's a map.” Karalti squatted down, setting the torch on the floor beside her, and unrolled a sheet of spotty vellum. “Uhh, let's see... that's the sewers, alright. There's a note on the bottom here.”

“What does it say?” I leaned over to look, but reading the handwriting was a lost cause.

Karalti's eyes scanned the lines. “Goreg says ‘hang a left at the third grate to get around the sewer line and go in toward the catacombs. Once you reach the cistern, take the left door and watch out for traps’. The University is gone so witchcraft shouldn’t be a problem no more. Don't try and hide anything when you get back. All clothes and bags slit open and turned inside out, or no cut.”

“Guess our Raiders of the Lost Ark here weren't down here trying to help their fellow citizens,” I remarked.

[Quest Update: The World Beneath]

I flicked over, curious to see what had been added.

New sub-quest: The Secret of the World Beneath

The Fol Alugut, Karhad’s ancient sewer line, is backing up and disgorging toxic sludge onto the streets. The filth is leading to outbreaks of disease that have caused your citizens to riot. A maintenance team went into the sewers to try and solve the problem themselves, but itappears they were murdered by looters, who were themselves murdered by something. But what were they doing down there in the first place?

Discover what the looters were searching for in the Karhad Catacombs.

Difficulty: High (Level 20-25)

Rewards: 150 EXP, 10 Build points, ???

“Yep. Looters.” I accepted and closed the menu. “I guess we can follow the directions-”

“Rats.” Karalti scrambled up to her feet, stuffing the map into her breastplate.

“Rats?” I looked one way, then the other, and saw a squealing tidal wave heading right for us from down the hall. “Oh, fuck. Rats.”

Chapter 24

I’d seen chihuahuas smaller than the fat, mangy, hissing [Stranged Rats] surging toward us. There were dozens of them, writhing over and around each other as they boiled toward the corpse Karalti had pulled down off the catwalk. Without thinking, I caught her hand and pulled her away just before the rats fell on it, ravenously stripping cloth and flesh. But as more and more of them piled on, their pointed muzzles turned toward us. Ignoring the corpse that had been drained by the wraith, the rats hissed and bounded forward, swarming the tunnel with nine inches of filthy teeth, fur, and naked flopping tails. I stepped in front of Karalti, spun the Spear around, and let a surge of dark power build through my body.

“Raagh!” When they were close enough, I rammed the Spear down toward the ground. Black energy bloomed through it and burst out into an explosive, frigid cloud. Rats squealed as they froze and burst, shattering as they struck the walls. Umbra Burst cleared enough of a path that we could run through, rats nipping at our heels. Individually, they weren't a threat. But fifty, sixty, a hundred, five hundred... the ones that had been skeletonizing the corpses down the hall were running to join the frenzy now.

Karalti snarled as one jumped up and latched onto her hand. Others were climbing my legs, squeaking and slipping on my armor. Teeth bored into the leather of my boots as I kicked and sent three or four of them flying. I dropped the Spear and pulled a knife, stabbing at them as we broke through the mass and into open air.

[You have killed Plague Rat! 10 EXP!]

[You have killed Plague Rat! 10 EXP]

“EUURGH!” Karalti stomped a rat and then pulled one off my back, hissing when it bit her. The rat squealed as it got a mouthful of mana and fell, sizzling, to the floor of the sewer. We held the line there, stabbing and struggling. When we had enough distance, I called the Spear to my hand. A second Umbra Burst sent the horde scattering, the live rats seizing the dead ones and devouring them like furry piranha.

“Let's go!” Karalti grasped my forearm, her hands still leaking bright blue liquid, and pulled me off into the darkness.

We sprinted around the corner, leaving behind the sounds of ripping flesh and furious rodents behind us.

“Hey, not bad EXP,” I panted. “Ten points here and there adds up, you know?”

“If you wanna go back there and level up, be my guest.” She wrinkled her nose. “They got some disease they tried to give me. 'Filth Fever'.”

Okay: the EXP was good, but it wasn’t worth getting sick over. The corner of my eye twitched. “Are you sick?”

“I'm immune to human diseases,” she replied. “But you're not, and you get freaked out when you get a cold. Come on. There's something big that squished these people in here, and we need to sort it