Catacombs Under the Library

[Alex]

"If head talk was that cut and dry I wouldn't have much of a problem, now would I?"

She walked forward still, not looking at they Fey or Vampire.

"Telepathy is never that simple. Anything that I'm thinking about will show up as 'talk', unless I check it. It's a pain in the ass, really. Something I don't want to deal with, especially because what I'm doing down here is my business and only mine. And if you insist I'll have to start telling you about the demon tendency to eat pixies and lesser demons. If that doesn't work I have a couple hundred stories that could probably do the trick. Or I could just let some memories loose on you, little Pixie."

[Pip]

Denzel shot looks out of his eye over his shoulder at the demon and the pair of fey. He gave a sigh and returned to his map.
They were drawing deeper into the underground beneath the city. He knew that getting an end to his own personal means, he might /actually/ require the aid of the demon, and possibly the fey.

"So....Demon...never did get your name...anyways...What exactly kind of book are you looking for down here?"

[Alex]

"I go by Rae, mostly." she answered, finally turning to look at the Vampire.

She walked backwards along the narrowing tunnels, studying him as they moved. She walked slower backwards, checking her steps along the uneven cobbles. Her eyebrows raised a just noticeably when her sight passed Denzel's pendant. Her mouth twitched, as if to ask a question, but then she turned back around and continued on.

"Just a book." she said."and I didn't catch your name, either."

[Pip]

"Just a book eh? I somehow doubt that"

He gave Rae a quick look down, before turning his attention back to his map. He stopped mid step as they approached the next split in the path. His eyes showed confusion, and a hint of dissapointment.
The path they had approachhed broke off into 5 other different paths.
He looked around, back at the map, and then gave a great sigh sigh.

[Alex]

"That's an interesting thing to call yourself. And yes, it is just a book. Somehow I doubt it could be of any use to you."

She looked back at him as he heaved a sigh, and rolled her eyes.

"The original path is this one, Of course, unless it's that one"" she said, pointing to the second on the left, then the one to it's immediate right."They both have the old stone. I guess we should pick on and see where it goes."

Her eyes flickered over the pendant again as she looked back at the vampire.

"Well?" she asked.

[Pip]

Denzel looked down both of the two stone paths, back at the map, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had absolutly no clue which way to go from here. This deep his sense of direction wasn't too strong, and he knew he'd have to pick one of the two that the demon had pointed out.

He just hated leaving things up to chance, but this time it seemed like he didn't really have a choice.

"I say we go down to the right, and before you ask, No, im not sure. Im just guessing considering the route I want to go is roughly in this direction. Following is up to you."

[Alex]

The woman shrugged.

"It doesn't matter which way I go; it's always safer to travel in groups in here, oh nameless Vampire. It doesn't matter who or what you are and I can't leave without the book."

She headed down the right path, once again running her hand over the wall. Her which-light a glowing ball in her other hand; it illuminated the walls brightly, then let them fade into the onyx blackness. Soon the light reached the ever nearer ceiling that seemed to settle only inches above their heads. The air turned cold, and the passage turned damp. Soon a small rushing sound grew from their footsteps, and then emerged mature as a thundering roar as they came upon an open cave, half filled with a roiling underground river. It's inky water shone sickly on the witch-light. The light revealed a narrow and rail-less path across the falls.

[Pip]

Denzel stared at the woman as she walked down the right path, and then he shook his head and followed behind.

"Fine then, but I doubt we'll find any books down here" He said,"And as much as I like the 'oh nameless vampire' bit, the name is Denzel"

As the smell of cold air reached his nose, his eyes wandered around the tunnel. Something didn't seem quite right to him. He'd expected to see some form of resistance by now, the entrance guards aside, and yet they'd encountered nothing of the sort.

The demon's light illuminated the cave, causing a reflection of the river to ripple in Denzel's eyes. He slowly observed the cavern around him, still wary of a possible guard ambush.

"You have the same feeling I do?" He asked quietly, as he slowly wandered towards the overpass.

[Alex]

Rae shivered as the vampire neared the water.

"This is the wrong way." she said."There's nothing but empty tombs here, and things I don't want to think about. We should leave b-"

A snicker from the shadows cut her off. The sound of scampering claws off to the right of the waterfall was followed by silence, then more scampering. Small red pinpoints reflected off Rae's which light, before blinking out.

"Knackers." whispered the Demon hoarsely.

A squat, earth-black being with small horns and a tail protruding from it's round body stepped fully into the glow of the which light for a second. It smiled, the spitting image of a child's nightmare, before disappearing back into the dark.

"Run." Rae said, starting to move back toward the man made passage."Run, run, run!"

As her voice rose with the sound of her footsteps the scampering matched it. The Demon raced back up the hallway to the split in paths. She paused for a second to check the cobbles, then took the path she had previously rejected. The Knackers' eyes glinted around the edges of the which-light, and they whispered unintelligibly as they followed through the widening passage. Grimacing, Rae reached into her pocket before slamming into someone.

The suit of armor fell over with a clatter, and the man inside cursed. His Lantern clattered across the stone floor. Rae paused for one more second, before grabbing the Paladin by the chest plate and heaving him over her head.

"Duuuuck!" she screeched at anyone who might be behind her.

She threw the poor sentry over her head into the shadows behind her, and continued to run. His agonized screams reached as far as the torch-lit sentry post he had abandoned, where Rae sat herself down against a wall to breathe.

[Pip]

Denzel hurried after her, resting a hand on one of his swords on his back. He gave a smirk, finally excited for some action. His free hand snapped to his belt, and grabbed one of his steel whips.

His eyes snapped forward as he saw a giant hunk of metal and noise flying towards him. In a moments reaction, he dropped on his back, rolled up on his shoulders, and gave the Paladin a 2-foot kick, sending him flying backwards into the darkness of the pursuing Knackers.

He rolled to his feet, and rested a hand on his sword again. That moment's pause may have cost him his running lead, and he continued on his dash after the Demon.

[Alex]

The screams got worse before they got better. A rising crescendo peaked and slowly tapered off into gurgling nothing. Denzel reached the sentry room as they faded, and Rae put her hand over her eyes.

"You know, they're all going to freak out when they see that pendant of yours. Perversely enough, the founder of this little Paladin order is the one who had it crafted for himself. Must have been at least six hundred years ago, now. He had us search the whole order when it was stolen, but this was back when people sort of trusted each other. How else could someone like me pass for both male and human?"

She sighed.

"This shit makes me feel old."

[Pip]

Denzel clutched the pendant in a hand, and stared down at it.
"My mother gave this pendant to me..." He spoke, lightly."She gave it to me the same night my home was ransaked by the Paladins"

"That would explain why. They must have come looking for it." He released his grip on the jewel around his neck."I always felt ...something from it. If it has some form of power, I wouldn't be surprised why the Paladins would want it back."

He drew his blades from behind his back, and spun them once in his hands."If they want it back, they can pry it from my hands when i'm good and dead"

"You know the way to where your book is? Im a man of my word, and i'll help you find it"

[Alex]

"Was that before or after you became a Vampire?" asked the Demoness as she hauled herself up on her feet."Or are Vampires a breeding race, here? Uhg, I can't keep anything straight these days..."

she swatted the dust off herself and turned towards the lit passage in front of them.

"If we take the stairs on the right that'll lead down to the tombs."

The walk was long and winding, as if the crypt Rae searched for was hidden away even from the Order. The torches on the wall were long unlit before she finally stopped in front of an arched doorway. The door itself had long rotted off, or been removed. The air inside the room was sulfurous and dry. A stone casket lay with it's lid broken across the floor while dust gathered on the other violated stone boxes set into the floor.

Rae walked around the scattered pieces of the lid, to an equally decimated box and rummaged around in the rubble.

"It's gone." she said."We'll have to check the skeletons on the way out... they might not have got far with it."

[Pip]

"I honestly couldn't tell you", the Vampire chuckled to himself, as he followed the Demon."As far back as I can remember I've been like this...", his voice suddenly turned cold,"...but i'll never forget that night".

Denzel walked through the room, observing the stonework of the casket, leaning down and drawing his fingertips across the lid of the casket."You had the option of the honor of resting in peace, good sir" his whispered to himself.

Another piece of parchment beneath some rubble caught his eye. He rummaged until he could successfully dig out, what appeared to be, a scroll. On that scroll was some writing, in a language foreign to his own abilities, but that was not what had caught his eye.

His main attention was the drawing at the bottom of the page. A drawing on an amulet, identical to the one hanging around his very neck.

[Alex]

The Demon looked bemused as Denzel spoke his dead prayer over the casket.

"Well, he never went to rest. See, this is my own tomb. In the old days, back when people trusted one another, remember? How do you think I knew the book was gone so quickly?"


She did, however, start when he fished the paper out of the rubble. She was on her feet in seconds, practically climbing over the vampire's shoulders to see. Still letting him hold it, she glanced at the drawing, then at his amulet. Letting out a hiss, she stared at the writing. Then she cursed.

"I think it's in Gnomish... or a Dialect of Hell... We're fucked if it's from Hell. There's too many odd denizens with their own languages and... sss... very few people would know more then four."

Rae fidgeted for an minute, then looked to the Vampire.

"Well, we have nothing more to do in this room..."