Halfling thief Terry Grey woke up with a terrible headache. He remembered he had gone to number 14 Ratslop Avenue alone and that a large flying figure had grabbed him. He looked around groggily discovering he was in a large half sunken temple lined with water eroded statues. The air smelled of sewer. After trying to move, Grey realized he was chained to a stone alter and Hershel Cohen was chained beside him. A group of men (recognizable as the road crew from the sewer dig in Green Circle) worked in the shadows nearby. One saw he as awake and introduced himself as John Mandrake.
In the following conversation, Grey found that Mandrake intended to summon the spirits that the Romans had bound to the temple in ancient days, and use them to make the sewers more efficient. Mandrake embarrassedly informed him that Hershel and he would be used as a sacrifice to aid the summoning.
Across London, gnome mage Eric Smith and wolfman consulting detective J. Wolfington III took the seriously wounded Porter to a hospitable and got patched up themselves. The two investigators scrambled through the clues they had collected, discovering the correlation of the drainage map with areas in London that had sewer digs, and realized that Terry had gone to the Ratslop Avenue House before them. They decided to search for the epicenter of the maps markings in the heart of London called “the Square Mile”.
The investigators used both of their maps and descend into the sewer outside of a financial office called Apollo Holdings and assets.
After a short search they found a portion of brick wall that had been bashed in. Behind the wall a short tunnel of much cruder design led away into darkness.
Back in the sunken Temple, Mandrake continued apologizing, explaining that he found this temple and a scroll explaining how to harness the souls of sacrificed Iceni warriors killed by Roman priests, and that Terry’s death would help him make the incantation successfully that will use the spirit’s to clean London’s water supply and help the water flow more efficiently. The Halfling stalled the incantation from starting by getting Mandrake to explain his plan in languorous detail.
Going deeper into the tunnel, the wolfman and the gnome heard voices. Eric cast stoneskin on J. and himself before reaching the end of the tunnel. Peeking around the corner they saw the sunken temple where Terry is talking to Mandrake, Hershel is chained, and a group of men prepare the room for a magical incantation.
Wolfington called out to the men, drawing their attention despite Eric’s objection. Mandrake sent three of his thugs to deal with the newcomers, as Terry manages to escape his shackles.
Eric ran forward vainly using his magic chime to no effect, as J. fought of the thugs, but was wounded in the process.
Mandrake started the incantation, despite Terry’s attacks with a chain. Just as the wolfman finished the last thug, the spirits of the sewer began to manifest as water beings controlled by Mandrake.
The party fought off the spirits, despite their painful burns from the now boiling water of the room, but just as they disperse, Mandrake’s incantation summons even more than before. Terry tried to choke Mandrake but he fails and the ritual completed. The room filled with spirits. Wolflington was overcome, and Eric started to drown inside a large water spirit. Terry drew an unnoticed shiskabob skewer and stabbed into Mandrake’s face killing him. Lost without direction, the souls pull back.
Terry stopped the wolfman from dying and searched the room for loot, finding a box of silver coins and two statues.
The spirits began talking in a language the group cannot understand. Eric uses the translation in the ledger book to talk to them, and with Hershel and a couple guildmen’s help, frees their souls.
Grateful again, Hershel invited them to another party, and Eric was invited to give an address to a guild symposium about his adventure. Overcome with shyness, his speech did not go well, but Terry made a fair sum selling the coins and the statues.
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