Descent into Darkness [Harps]

[Old Gobbo]

Amherst didn’t much like the layout of Corvistowne. It was too dense, too packed. He felt confined, almost like he was in a cage. And it wasn’t like it was only dense on the surface. Rumors existed that there existed miles and miles of underground labyrinths underneath the city, many in use, but many long abandoned, long forgotten.

Amherst wandered the region, looking for the right address. He’d never met the Card he was supposed to see today, and in fact had only received a name and address. The name was Joel of Corvistowne, apparently a student of sorts from what he’d been told. The Card needed Amherst’s help. Apparently, the Card was venturing into some unknown, possibly dangerous territory and wanted someone with martial skill just in case.

Amherst would be happy to oblige, providing the money was good. Being a mercenary wasn’t exactly what Amherst wanted, but it was hard not to be when he had such limited skills. And money was getting more and more tight recently. Amherst’s generosity was his greatest enemy at the moment, and he needed work to replenish his losses.

Amherst stopped walking and stared at the building to his left. The address matched the one he was given. Could it be? Had he found his destination? There was only one way to find out. Amherst took his halberd in his hand and rapped upon the door.

[Harpsdesire]

The door opened almost immediately to Amherst's knock, revealing the very card the guardian was looking for. He greeted his visitor with a wide, infectious grin, obviously excited about the days undertakings, and ushered him in. "Hi! Guardian Amherst? I'm Joel. Come on in, I want to tell you a little about what I hope to accomplish today. Can I get you a drink or anything?"

Joel was probably younger than most of Amherst's charges, a strongly built boy in his early teens. He rummaged cheerfully in a pile of papers, news clippings and assorted junk mail until he fished out a crudely hand-drawn map. The lines on it were shaky, and the ink blotted and smudged in a few places, as though it was drawn by unsteady hands. He spread it on a clear section of the table, indicating that Amherst should take a look. A glance at the page would reveal little, for it was not much more than an outline of a veritable maze of tunnels and rooms, marked here and there with a smattering of unsteady handwriting that indicated the names, or perhaps contents, of the areas. "This is where I want to go. I wouldn't ask you to do this without telling you all I know of the place and its risks, but whether you decide to take the job or not, I'd appreciate if you could keep what you see here to yourself. It's not a secret exactly, but there's... proprietary information involved, you could say. Is that something you can agree to?" Joel looked just the slightest bit uncomfortable about asking the stoic-looking bird to keep quiet about the lab. Secrets and sneaking around just weren't in his nature, and it felt weird to demand Amherst's silence. Still, he stood to lose quite a bit if any other corvie beat him to the place and cleaned out all the documents, and there was the potential to advance his line of research tremendously with the information hidden in the underground lab... if it existed.

If luck was with him, and the discoveries he made today advanced his knowledge of the practical matter of growing exoskeletons as much as he hoped, well, the price of an afternoon's protection would be tiny compared to the benefits. If not... at least he still lived with his parents. He'd be going without new lab supplies for a while, a minor setback. As usual, Joel was optimistic about the day's outcome. He hardly doubted the lab's existence, and he was sure that if it did exist, it would be very, very cool. Also possibly dangerous, but that was where Amherst came in.

[Old Gobbo]

Amherst looked over the document. There was no scale to the tunnels and rooms, but the way it was laid out suggested one very important thing. Close Quarters Combat -- or CQC, as it was sometimes abbreviated -- may be necessary in those tunnels. It looked like the place was built to put as much room in as little space as possible. That suggested another thing. It was underground.

Damn, he was going underneath Corvistowne.

"Joel, I will agree to silence upon one condition. If I see anything down there that causes me to want to call in the authorities, such as a cage full of kidnapped children or anything like that, I will alert them. Outside of that, any knowledge you gain there is safe with me."

He circled around the table and looked the Card up and down. He was young, but not too young. Strong, but not too strong. Excited, but not too excited as to be incautious. Yes, he could do business with this lad.

"My standard fee for short-term work is three silver per day. Is that acceptable?"

[Harpsdesire]

"If there are any kidnapped children there, it'll be too late for the authorities to do anything." Joel stated this as a reassurance, then a strange look crossed his face as he realized how ominous it sounded. "I mean, no one has been there in some time." He amended sheepishly.

When Amherst brought up price, it gave Joel pause. Was he supposed to haggle with the Guardian? Would the man be offended if he did? If he didn't? After a moment of unsure silence, he said "That's acceptable." He smiled and smoothed his paw over the map.

Watching Amherst for his reaction, Joel began to explain his intention in more detail. "This map shows the lab of a man named Bauch, a brilliant researcher into the genetic properties of insect cards. He made amazing progress in strengthening and extending the hard outer shell insects have naturally, and grafting such shells onto other creatures. His lab is said to be... extensive. When he died, it was a great loss to science, and since he didn't ever take on a student or have any kids or family, his house and the lab underneath was just boarded up."

Joel hesitated before he continued, looking slightly nervous. Was the noble guardian going to turn down this dubiously legal endeavor once he had the full story? "No one has been down there from years, and his research is just being wasted down there! Nobody else really wants it, and the whole property is starting to wall apart from neglect. I just want to go in and get back his notes... and maybe some experiments that remain. And, uh, this is where you come in. Some of the scientists who live in the neighborhood have heard... strange things coming from underground. I'm afraid some of Brauch's experiments might still be alive."

Joel had to take a breath, unused to saying so much at a stretch. He looked at Amherst hopefully, the childish hope warring with burning corvie obsession in his expression.

[Old Gobbo]

Amherst gave the teenager credit. He was right. If anything once needed rescuing down there, it would not need rescuing any longer.

Still, the card had agreed to pay and so Amherst was hired. He looked down at the map again. "There might still be experiments alive down there? Ones with shells grafted on them? And with insects, they might be able to detect ground tremors, such as when we step." Shells meant armor, and Amherst's sword was not meant for stabbing. He'd have to look for joints.

He looked down at Joel. "Tell me about the supplies you have, and any training in combat you may have received. I need to know from what position I'm working from."

Thoughts flew through Amherst's head. Would they have to worry about cave-ins? Was there electrical damage that may have to be bypassed? Well, he supposed he would find out...

"And after that, you can lead the way. I am at your service, Joel."

[Harpsdesire]

"Yeah, I suppose that's possible." Joel hadn't even considered that the experiments might be able to sense them coming. It was a sobering thought. At least he felt reasonably well prepared in the supply department. "I'll show you what I have so far, and if you think we need anything else we can pick it up on the way."

Joel indicated a pile that stood a little apart from the general mild clutter of the room. There was a sturdy backpack, two lanterns with closable shutters, a long coiled rope, a notebook and pencils, a first-aid kit, and several empty canvas satchels that were intended to hold the rescued notes on the way back out. A canteen, matches, a compass and what looked like a hearty bag lunch rested beside a miner's headlamp, the sort used by animal-forms who were not easily able to carry an ordinary light. A few other assorted odds and ends completed the pile. It was a substantial amount of stuff for a single day's exploration... good thing Joel was unusually bulky and strong for his age.

"Ah, combat training, heh." Joel's whiskers drooped bashfully. "That's not really covered in Corvie schools. I'm not bad with explosives, though! I could mix up a little something before we go." He sounded a little too excited about the prospect of bombs, and seemed to already be glancing eagerly around the room for anything in the way of ingredients. He froze, remembering something. "But I want to leave the lab and experiments as intact as possible. So maybe not the explosives. Um... I'm good at wrestling?" This was true insomuch as he was able to easily beat most other children his age. He wondered with a flutter of nerves how well that would really translate to grappling with a mutated crab-monster. Maybe not so much.

He smiled at Amherst again, rather a goofy grin as he was feeling a little sheepish about admitting how useless he would be in a fight. Any more realistic person would at this point be wondering if going into an underground lab full potentially full of monsters was really a good plan at all. Joel the optimist was thinking about what additional supplies would be needed if he happened to catch one of the mutated experiments and wanted to bring it back to his own lab for study.

[Old Gobbo]

Amherst was not surprised by what he’d heard. The boy has rough-housed with the other kids when he was little. That was no surprise, especially among the canine breeds. But no real combat training meant one thing. “Well, if something comes at us down there, I want you to make sure I am between you and it. Less chance of accident, that way.” But, it stood to reason that whatever was down there was not too threatening, else it might have escaped already. Or maybe it was trapped, unable to escape. Still, it would do no good to worry the kid. “But if there is anything down there, it most likely will not be instantly hostile. If it’s intelligent, we can talk to it. If it’s not, then we’ll treat it like a wild animal. We won’t upset it or make sudden movements.”

Amherst looked the equipment. He took a lantern and tied it to a sash on his belt, took up a satchel, and filled it with some of the other equipment.

“Shall we get going?”

[Harpsdesire]

Joel nodded. With the amount he was paying Amherst, he trusted that the man knew what he was doing. The idea of hiding from danger behind the older man stung his adolescent pride a little, but he wasn't about to argue. "Got it." He wasn't sure if anything down there was going to want to chat, given how limited the supply of food must be. Come to think of it, it was strange that anything could survive down there without much light or any source of nourishment... but the stories he had heard were fairly credible-- something was moving around down there, making sounds that filtered faintly up through the metal-grated ventilation ducts that emerged all down the street where the underground labyrinth sprawled away from Bauch's ramshackle house and weedy front yard.

Well, he supposed that when they got there he'd find out for sure what lurked in the underground lab. He tossed the remaining gear in a satchel, strapped on a headlamp and headed for the door. "Let's do this!" He grinned.

By the time they arrived and jimmied open the rotting wooden door of the late scientist's house, Joel was practically vibrating with excitement. As they made their way towards the hatch that lead to the basement, dim sunlight through dusty windows made weird shadows of the broken furniture and scattered lab equipment that littered the space.

"Right here." Joel seemed to feel compelled to whisper by the near silence of the dim, empty house. He was familiar with the location of the basement door from a few previous cautious forays into the space, but this would be the first time he actually descended those creaking wooden stairs into the winding depths of the lab below.

[Old Gobbo]

Amherst reached down with his left hand, while his right hand held onto his sword in its sheath. It was a position he felt very comfortable with, being the same stance used when bracing his halberd against a cavalry charge. Not that he had ever had to do so, but he’d been trained well in the stance.

He grabbed the handle for the trap door and pulled. The door was heavy and didn’t move for a second. It was hard to lift with only one hand. Then, with an effort, the door shifted and slowly swung open. Old dust came up out of the hole in the floor like a cloud and a musty, old smell immediately reached Amherst’s nostrils.

He lifted one finger to the Corvie indicating that he should wait for a second and then leapt down the shaft. It was a short drop, 6 feet or so, and his wings helped him land easily. The hole led to a corridor of earth, held up by wooden posts every five or so feet along the wall. His short sword drawn, he walked forward slowly. The ground was dirt, unusual for a Corvistowne house, or so he’d heard. And the corridor went straight for a while, slightly sloped downward. Well, easy enough so far.

He went back to the hole and looked up. “Looks safe. You can come down.”

[Harpsdesire]

Joel shivered as the trap door opened, but it was with excitement more than fear. He had a strange and unsettling sensation that what he was looking down into wasn't so much a trapdoor as a portal into some strange disembodied portion of the past; a separate chamber of reality. That was an unusually fantastical notion for his mostly-scientific mind, and it made him rather uncomfortable. He cleared his throat softly as a puff of moldy-metallic smelling air wafted past his face.

At Amherst's signal, Joel leaped lightly down into the hole, landing almost silently on his unmatched feet. "So far, so good!" He remarked cheerfully, although still in a near whisper.

There was little to see in the tunnel thus far, but Joel lit his lantern anyway. What little light made it through the boarded windows in the house above quickly faded a few feet from the trapdoor, and the passageway before them stretched into the silent, dusty darkness. He briefly unrolled a copy of the brittle old map he had previously shown Amherst and scanned it, tapping a paw lightly on the place where he assumed the trapdoor and connecting tunnel to be. "So, straight on until we reach the 'Decontamination Room', then a left through there into this one, possibly an office. Assuming the map is correct and none of the rooms have caved in. Heh. Well, onward and downward, I suppose."