Recudor: Repaying the debt

"I shoulda known it would have been that much." He says, not quite happy with the pricing and trying to stay frugal as it is.

"I'll just take three then." He says and gives the man the appropriate amount of gold and silver.

He leans a bit closer.

"I hear mention of a girl here?" He says in a low tone.

The guy accepts the money, but jerks a little by the mention of the girl. "A-A girl?" he asks, somewhat surprised. His expression becomes a little sad and he relaxes into a bit of a slump. "I... can't give you any information on her. I'm sorry. I'll be in serious trouble if I help you..."

Sharpe shifts his mouth off to the side and crosses his arms.

"Something's holding you back. You don't fit in with the rest. If you have doubts you should leave. Only the truly desperate hang here. They don't seem like so tight-knit a bunch either, you might run into loyalty issues later on. Shouldn't waste all that time if at some point you might just get back-stabbed."

"Perhaps so... but it's not like I have a lot of choice. It's impossible to make money in this city, and before I've taken care of things here I can't afford to mess up." The guy sighs and gives Sharpe his amunition. "I'm sorry, but I have my reasons for being here and doing what I do. It's none of your business to meddle in our affairs. All I can tell you is she's not in this part of the sewers. Take the main-" he continues but then abruptly stops as the door opens behind them. "Ya bout done, kid?" the thug who initially watched the door says before coming in with an annoyed expression. "I'm going for that supply run, the old man wants you to come with me. So we're going now." he states rather rudely, clearly unhappy with the fact he has to take the younger one with him. He looks at Sharpe and gives him a greeting nod before stepping back out.

"Yeah, looks real pleasant. You were saying the main something? Main what? I passed a room a bit back with some weird scent, and i found another with these two guys, shady-lookin', maybe that's what you meant? Either way man, I need this info, I'm not leaving this place without her." He says to the younger man.

He looks up at where the other man was and his vision crosses back to the lad.

"Answer me that at least before you get going."

The guy takes a peek out the door, making sure nobody is within hearing range. He turns his head to Sharpe and says in a low tone, "the Maintenence ladder" before opening the door fully and stepping out, holding the door open for Sharpe. "Good business, come again if you need any specialties." 
(-2 gold 10 silver)

Sharpe nods to the young man as steps out after him. He mouths a "thank you" to him as he does so.

"Yeah, thanks, good to know there's someone here who can keep me loaded. Was good doing business." He says, and begins walking toward the door. He looks around to make sure the other guy who had let him in noticed his thanks, and he walks out into the sewer again, walking on toward the intersection between the maintenance corridor and the hideout corridor.

Leaving the hideout and the thugs occupying it behind him, Sharpe returns to the intersection. Just like before, there is the sigh to his right. Ahead of him the short passage way to the Maintenence room. And to his left is the rest of the sewer he had previously been to.

Sharpe pokes his head into the intersection to look down the way leading to the rest of the sewers. He looks back and sees he isn't being followed, and he proceeds down the maintenance hall.

Sharpe arrives at another metal door. The design of this one looks different from the previous ones, and is worn down with age just as much as the rest of the place. There is a plaque on which Sharpe can vaguely read the words "Maintenance Access".

He opens the door, carefully, and peeks inside. Nobody here.
Stepping inside and closing the door behind him he finds himself in the rather wide room. There are pipes and machines everywhere, though not a single one of these machines seems to be working. He remembers a bit of history trivia. 

In the very old days, when Protraction was still being developed in its infancy stage, people relied on mechanisms and tunnels of running water to dispose of their wastes and unclean liquids. A lot of the machines similar to the ones down here would regulate how much of what kind of fluids were pumped where inside of the sewer system. Once there were some massive breakthroughs in protraction, people had learned how to purify water over time. So the sewers and machinery were abandoned in favor of drainage tanks that could, by the help of magic, clean and purify the filthy liquids and return them back to the city as clean filtered drinking water. 

These old sewers and machines were now obsolete. No wonder everything is so run down and forgotten. Now the sewers act as an underground highway and hideout for thieves, robbers, and black market dealers. As well as whatever else finds it's way down here...

Returning his attention to the room again; Sharpe finds mostly broken down machinery and rusty pipes and old outdated consoles. There are candles everywhere in the room, keeping it lit well enough to see most of the stuff inside the room. The candles start to concentrate and gather around a little manhole in the ground. The manhole cover itself is off to the side somewhere, but there is a ladder leading down to another room. 

Peering down into the room, Sharpe gets an uneasy and intense feeling. It's very dark and uncanny below.

Sharpe gazes down into the mostly dark room, his eyes attempting to penetrate the darkness, though met with little success however. He looks over at a candle nearby and takes it, then drops it down the hole. It helps to illuminate the room somewhat, but before he goes down, he waits longer still in case it catches someone's... or something's attention.

No movement or sounds come from downstairs. Sharpe climbs down the ladder, checking behind him during his descend to see if any people are in the room. Nobody. 

He reaches the bottom of the ladder, stepping off carefully as not to step on the candle or set his clothing on fire. 

When he turns around however he is taken by surprise, as it turns out someone he somehow didn't see before is indeed in the room. 


The translucent figure is a girl with somewhat wild hair wearing a beautiful crimson and gold dress, crouching in front of another door. She is barely moving and whispering soft words to herself, though when Sharpe is just about to interact with her she stands up from her place and fades away.

As she fades the intense and nerve wrecking feeling that had previously overcome Sharpe leaves with her, as well the darkness that crept across the room. It's somewhat brighter now, to the point where Sharpe can easily make out everything in the room. 

Less surprised as he takes a look past the door and finds Clarent laying on the ground.
He steps close and tries to open the door, but it is locked.

Sharpe reaches his hand out to touch the girl, but then she leaves as quickly as she appeared. He sees Clarent in the cell, and walks over to the door, kneeling down.

"Clarent, are you ok? What did they do?" He says, though it doesn't seem to get through to her. He looks back where the spectre was, mumbling his musings.

"Dahaka?" He asks to nobody, perhaps himself as he goes through his memory. It very definitely could be her.

That's when he notices the door is locked, and considers his options. He could cut through it, though that could risk both the blade, and risking his position. He looks back up the manhole.

"There's gotta be a quieter way to do this..." He thinks, and immediately a key comes to mind. Perhaps the man going on the supply run has it... and a few bruises and threat of getting a blade in your shoulder or a bullet in your brain should suffice if need be.

"Hang on, I'm gonna get you out of here. If you wake up, don't panic." He says to her, and he gets up, rushing toward the ladder, and strides back toward the room with the bridge he saw earlier.

Sharpe makes his way back up to the main catacombs he had been in previously, and over to the room he had seen previously. All the boxes are still stacked the way he had left them to climb out, and it doesn't seem like anyone has come in yet. The door on the far side of the room seems to still be shut, and just like before the mildly pungent smell of grime and sewer waft through the room.

"This might not be it. Maybe they were talking about another room..." He mumbles to himself, and he looks across the bridge to see the entrance to a hallway he didn't even notice last time.

"Huh... I wonder if it's a veritable wonderland somewhere in there, heh." He walks down the hall, hoping perhaps that what he needs is somewhere in that dark.

Sharpe continues down the hallway and eventually finds himself in a room. The room itself is a dead end filled with graves and coffins. In the center of the room is a burnt out campfire and some old and worn out bedrolls, though the ground is covered in the stains of dried blood.

Sharpe looks about the room, filled with little that he hasn't seen before, but notices the dried blood. Must have been a tussle before, or something got dragged off and eaten or disposed of.

"How pleasant..." he remarks to himself, and turns around to try another direction, perhaps that room he saw earlier with the strange scent.

Sharpe returns back to the room with the staircases. Remembering the scent came from upstairs he takes them up. With each step, he slowly remembers something he had previously forgotten about and as he reaches the gate in the hallway above he confirms his suspicion.

The gate is still locked.

The scent however is still strong in this direction.

Sharpe sighs, he's starting to get annoyed, perhaps it was better to just slash through the cell. He goes over the area in his head, and considers the place where he encountered the two men and the box. His bet is the hideout before forcing the cell Clarent is in open. He finalizes his decision and heads off.

Sharpe makes his way back to the hideout as he had previously planned.

Just like before, the inside seems quite lively as the thugs are enjoying the continued cardgame.

Sharpe walks back in again, looking around but trying to stay inconspicuous, and not really approach anything lest he look like he was trying to actively look for something. He moves past the guys playing their card game looking for an office of sorts, or someplace with a desk where keys could be kept.

Like before, Sharpe finds there are four doors, some with actual physical doors, and others with simple curtains to block off view to the next area. He already knows one of the rooms leads to the storage where they hold some of their more actively sold goods. leaving the other three rooms unknown. When Sharpe approaches either of the rooms, he is intercepted by one of the bystanders in the room, asking him for his business or to get out. His lurking about attracts a bit of attention from anyone who isn't taking part in the card game and Sharpe is beginning to the stares on his back as he goes about the room. He doesn't manage to look in to anything without drawing anyone's attention, and people are starting to get suspicious of him.

Sharpe notes that it really would not be in his best interest to go snooping around while they're all in the hideout. In his mind he comes to the conclusion that it would be better to resolve the issue of Clarent's imprisonment with force.

He turns around and walks back toward her cell.

Sharpe returns back to the makeshift cell. Everything is as he left it, save for the candle he had dropped to the ground which has since stopped burning due to its odd placement. The place is not nearly as dark as it was before, but there are no lights either meaning Sharpe can just barely see everything in the two rooms.

Clarent still lies in the back of the room, although she doesn't seem unconscious anymore, made clear by the occasional arm or leg movement as she lies face down on the ground.

Sharpe climbs back up the ladder and takes a candle off of one of the walls, then proceeds back down and walks up to the grate door.

"Clarent, it's me Sharpe, you ok in there? Last I checked you were knocked out."