[color=C9A0DC][center][h3]Udo Koro Kai – Cistern[/h3][/center][/color]


The torrent of offensive spells proved more than enough to dispatch the wretched sewer creature.  Its flesh sizzled and melted beneath the combined might of Potentia and Ignis, and with a final gurgle it ruptured like a salted slug.  The remains slid back into the water, and without a source the poisonous cloud dissipated to harmless levels.  Kai watched soberly, speculating a relationship between this colorless monster and the amorphous being that nearly drowned him.  His thoughts soon strayed beyond the short encounter, however, as his attuned senses picked up new sounds from one wing of the junction, the one that sloped uphill.  [color=C9A0DC]“There is...some sort of commotion that way,”[/color] he murmured, closing his eyes to focus his hearing.  [color=C9A0DC]“Dim shouts...human shouts, and faint echoes of magic.  There are denizens of the sewers that form their own micro-communities, yes?”[/color] he asked, addressing Aron, the resident cistern expert.  [color=C9A0DC]“Perhaps they might be able to give us guidance.  But it sounds as if they are in trouble.  Idou!”[/color]  In a flash, Kai stood at the head of the group, poised to sprint toward the source of the noise.  It is as much of a lead as we can get.  [color=C9A0DC]“Watch your footing and keep an eye on the water as you move.  Let us make haste!“[/color]

[h3][center][color=BFC1C2]Depth Plumbers HQ[/color][/center][/h3]

Whether assailed by bronze blade, ice magic, fire magic, or bucklers, the slimy dwarfs did not last.  After they crumbled beneath the team's panic induced-attack, they fortunately exhibited no tendency to reform, and merely lost all cohesion until the carpet was soggy with mundane water.  Though brief, the brawl had been furious, and what the slime beings lacked in survivability they made up for in brutality.  When still alive, they could stretch their limbs and harden their fingers into stabbing points, a trait they used with gusto on the weakest fighter in the building: Helvetica.  Before the combat was over, the mage had been pierced a half dozen times, and now she lay bloody on the ground.  Neither she nor Joshin were dead, but clearly their physical wounds -not to mention potential psychological damage- would effectively keep them from continuing in the quest.  Only the germina's kitten had escaped unscathed, though sodden and badly frightened.

Mancer, though not seriously injured, was as majorly shaken as the cat, if not more.  He shivered as he watched the last vanquished slime dwarf dissolve completely, and stepped with light, nervous feet as he left the living quarters, picking up the mewling mite on the way.  The team reconvened in the hallway.  Eresa, Levi, and Malte didn't seem permanently worse for where, although the afflicted mage had no notion of where Kadoodle might be.  Dane had regained his feet, though the necessity of someone guiding him made it clear he had lost his sight.  Helvetica had yet to be helped up, but Mancer didn't think he could support her weight.  [color=BFC1C2]“Figures that the healer gets incapacitated,”[/color] he complained, trying to make light of the situation, for he couldn't begin to explain it.

There was a slurping noise, far more vast than those squelches emitted by the slime dwarfs, toward the hallway's other end.  The room there, large, gray, and well-lit, looked to be the plumbing control center.  If any individuals were to enter it, they'd find a chaotic tangle of pipes, valves, and basins, and a murky liquid beginning to pour en masse from one of the more expensive-looking linkages.  No people, gelatinous or otherwise, occupied the chamber.