Cleaning Duty

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Tunnel 110 is the last tunnel being excavated in the deeps beneath the imperial city, apparently it leads to an underground aquifer that could be used to provide the feed new mushroom farms, which would mean a lot of cheap food for the lower city. Unfortunately, about a week ago, the workers and tunnelers ran into some issues in the tunnel and were forced to pull back up into the city. A three man cleaning crew was sent in shortly afterwards, but was not heard of again. A new cleaning crew needs to check the entire tunnel and make sure it is secure before the workers can come back down. Bonus pay is offered if they can figure out what happened to the previous crew and account for all three of them.

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Kanta and Harun, two Majai, are being led into Tunnel 110 by Dakai Steelheart. The trio have a long, slow trip down to the tunnel on the lift that bears the same name. As they get further down, it gets hotter and hotter, until all three are sweating profusely. The elevator hits the dock at the very end with all the grace of a sack of wrenches, which shakes the trio around a fair bit. Only a small galvanic light next to the elevator lights up the area around the lift. Next to it there is a small metallic box and a chute, no wider than a man's head, heading all the way up along the lift. Air seems to be flowing from it into the tunnel, slightly cooler than the air in the tunnel itself. The chute continues further in, probably providing the rest of the area with oxygen to breathe. Some fifteen feet from the lift, the three notice a human like figure slumped against the wall. Its leg looking like a mangled mess, there's a trail of blood leading to it from deeper within the tunnel. Harun and Kanta don't seem surprised or upset by it, however, simply looking to Dakai as if expecting orders.

Dakai was immediately on high alert, the air taking his breath for a second as he tried out make out the scene before him(notice, listen). "Harun, be careful and approach slowly, see if you can make out whats going on right there. Hold out your hand if you see anything alarming. Kanta keep your eyes the other way in case there is anything lurking ill watch your backs, eyes in a 180, keep our backs to the lift and wall no blind spots." He whispered instinctively, clutch his wrench tight.

Unfortunately for Dakai, he could not hear anything in particular coming from the tunnel other than the light humm of air being pushed through the metal vent and the small area lit by the galvanic torch. Kanta seemed to sigh with relief when Harun was instructed to go further in instead of her. Harun seemed not to move at first but after a few seconds he took a couple of insecure steps forward, probing the ground with his sandal before stepping out of the lift. He kept his back to the lift as instructed and approached the shape slumped up against the wall, turning and glancing at Dakai and Kanta before he turnned his sight back to the slumped shape. "Uh... why'd you send the mute scouting ahead?" hissed Kanta, barely audibly as if she was telling Dakai a secret, with her back almost pressed against his.

"Big guy with the big weapon, if we see him swing we know to jump into action and help, that and he is intimidating as hell, most people would think twice to even say hi." Dakai whispered back knowing she had a point. With his back to the wall The gear head approached the scene giving the big guy a pat on the shoulder. "Guys keep your eyes open let me take a look here." He examined the body as best he could (search).


Harun remained silent, as usual, turning his back to the slumped figure and towards the tunnel depths. Kanta simply acknowledged Dakai's words with a grunt, holding her tiny knife with both hands and staying close to the elevator, her back to the wall. The dead man was a kkala, his clothes were reminiscent of Harun's, he was bare chested but had a length of cloth draped diagonally across his torso and over his shoulder. He was very thing, had a gaunt face and dark skin. In his hand, the dead man was tightly clutching a long, thick knife with a square tip and a carved bone handle and a clean blade. If he had tried to defend himself at any point, he certainly had not hit anything. The man's right leg had been gored by something. It'd been torn to shreds from the mid thigh down and his femoral artery had probably been ruptured. It seemed he had dragged himself from deeper inside the tunnel, leaving a trail of blood behind him, while trying to get to the elevator. He had bled out, slumped against a wall a mere dozen feet away, probably unable to stay awake through the blood loss.

"Some kind of animal? Maybe knee high? What kind of animal could rip a mans leg off?" He mumbled to himself, but after the previous day hell it could be anything. "Guys, I dont like this, stay sharp, what ever it is can take a limb off, it doesn't look like a clean rip, like a machine." He whispered to his group trying to remember anything in the tunnels that could do something like this with his limited knowledge of the undergrounds(Memory). He reached out to take the knife.

As most Daguerrians, Dakai had never had to spend much time in the lowest reaches of the Royal City. Engineers usually went there only once more expendable laborers had made everything safe for them in the first place. He knew the little livestock the Royal City counted on were usually moved to underground farms and fed on mushrooms, lichens and other stuff of the sort. But this was a newly breached ground, even if it was a wild escaped pig or something like that, it would have had no way to each here. "Why would a machine do that?" hissed Kanta, turning to Dakai for a second before she fixed her gaze on the depths of the tunnel once more. "Foreman said he sent three men.. where are the other two?" she asked as she held her little dagger with both hands. Harun, in the meantime, lifted his nose up lightly, as if sniffing something. All Dakai could smell was a mix between sweat and a sickly sweet smell blood. "Zulydre." said simply Harun, his voice impossibly deep, before he turned to face the tunnel once more.

"It wouldnt, even something along the smashing lines for mining would pulverized a limb before taking it off. No what ever this is, its trouble." Dakai turned to face the darkness with his group as the other two spoke. He clenched the wrench in one hand and the knife in the other. "I know the small of blood though, and its thick here, my guess is this guys is the only one who managed to crawl away from his companions. Lets keep out backs to the wall and weapons forward and ready, slowly follow this trail of blood." He whispered. "Wait whats a Zulydre?" He asked before letting the group move on.


Post here

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