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[Pegasus]

Plot Point!!

When Arlo checks, there's a cup on the windowsill, just above where the dog was sleeping. It has a key in it and that key? Well, as the flames lick around you both and the place really starts to turn into an inferno... the key opens the cellar door.

[Tio Silver]

For all his faults, Tio had never been the type prone to gossiping. Yet even he had to admit that he was finding it surprisingly tricky not to blurt out what a fuckwit Mr Smith was for getting so high and mighty over papers that contained nothing but lies. The urge to call his out was surprisingly powerful, but fortunately the thought of how much sweeter it would be to only reveal the truth when Smith's world came crashing down around him was even stronger. So for now Tio grit his teeth and waited, keeping his true thoughts hidden behind a mask of indignation as Smitty continued to taunt him. Patience was the key to this battle, and with his freedom on the line loosing was not an option.

Although no sooner had he entered the kitchen the battle took a turn for the worse. For whatever reason Mr Smith suddenly decided that it wasn't worth keeping them around anymore, and had one of his cronies, who it seemed was also a defier, set the room on fire while Willy was still inside it with them. By the spirits this guy was completely off his rocker! How had he managed to get so many henchmen if this was how he treated them?

While his relationship with the element of fire was fairly positive, Tio didn't believe it was a deep enough friendship for the flames to leave him unharmed when it was burning so fiercely. If there was one thing to beware of when dancing with fire after all it was that fire's hunger was endless, and no amount of fuel would ever satisfy it. Only it's kin did it respect enough to pass over without so much as a nibble. He started to get seriously worried as the inferno grew larger and larger, encroaching on the little free space available to them and jealousy guarding all the exits.

All exits bar one that is. The mutt that'd been in the room when they arrived started pawing at the ground, and while Tio would never trust a dog even when trapped in a burning building Arlo at least was trusting enough to check it out, and revealed that there was a hidden trap door disguised in the flooring. This would have been great, except that the door was locked.

However just as all hope seemed lost Arlo muttered the word cup for some reason, and looked around until he spotted a cup on the windowsill. By some miracle the cup had a key inside of it, and that key just happened to be the perfect fit for the lock on the trapdoor. The second he heard the lock click open Tio moved over to help lift the door open, and hopped down into the cellar down below.

"Wow, good job Arlo! You must be the luckiest son of a beach in Scalvoris! That or psychic." Tio exclaimed with relief. "How'd you know that there was a key in the cup?"

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[Pegasus]

14th Cylus 718

The key which Arlo found was a small, silver key and it fitted the lock perfectly. It really wasn't a moment too soon as the flames continued to surge and the pair of them, all three of them, would be coughing and spluttering from breathing in smoke. If they didn't go down the stairs which the door in the floor opened on to, and close said door behind them, then they would die in here and there was no doubting it. So, thankfully, Arlo remembered the words that the fortune teller had told him and, maybe, Tio did too. So, the three of them and the dog made their way down the stairs and William, Willy to his friends (and Tio), turned around as Arlo closed the cellar door behind them.

What in the Beneath?!" William spoke, furiously. Gesturing towards the cellar door as they arrived in the pitch black room, he suddenly seemed to regain his ability to speak and he was not happy. "I've been loyal. Haven't I? We were all there when he tortured Shania, we were and then we all took turns to... heh, maybe not what you two wanna hear." He looked at them and as though he realised that he was admitting to torture and rape, that they had been prisoners of him and his bad guy chums who were selling them into slavery moments ago, he raised his bow again. "Now, I was never for it, you understand. If you two are thinking about fighting, I'm a victim of this but I'll fight you. One at a time, honour code and stuff."

He had a glint in his eye, then, as he realised something. "But I know stuff. Like, who Mr Smith knows. Who the enemies are. Who he's already sent after your woman," that to Arlo. "He's got magic and he shows off a lot, but he's prepared. Soon as he saw what you'd written, he dispatched some of the people from the Logging Consortium, they'll be killing your girl. Eventually." He couldn't help himself, it seemed and his grin was completely genuine at the thought. Although, it faded slightly, as he looked at Arlo and then Tio. "So, yeah. I could help you. Screw them over, like they did to me. Or I can fight you each, one at a time." He gave his best charming grin, illustrating without doubt that he was an utterly charmless man. "You're not going to just kill me in cold blood, are you? Not your style at all."

The room they were in was a small, damp cellar and they might reasonably start to worry that they could still end up dying down here. It was a small room and there was an inferno above them. There were shelves against one wall, a wine rack and a few bits and pieces here and there. The dog ran over to the shelves, scratching at them with its paws and whining, plaintively. "Those are our tunnels," William said, pointing towards the shelves. "I know the way back. Shania and her bunch of do-gooders, they don't even know about them. That's got to be worth keeping me alive for innit?" Should one or both of them go over there, there was nothing unusual to see, but there was a definite feeling of the brushing of wind against their face as they stood and looked and, should they investigate well, just moving the shelves a little revealed that they were on hinges and opened into... somewhere else.

[Arlo Creede]

The key. That was it! The suggestion of a cup looming large in his future wasn't just an analogy at all. There was an actual key in a cup, and it reminded Arlo in the strongest of terms, considering that he and Tio could be burned alive the two of them in just the next few bits, of the dangers of thinking entirely too much. A key, that fit exactly into the lock, that opened up the portal to a handy escape. Or at least he hoped it would be just that. Otherwise they were done for. "Fortune teller," he said when Tio asked, as he pushed William to go in ahead of him, then dropped down behind him. The dog seemed perfectly able to do it on his own. If the animal had needed help, Arlo would have done it. On the other hand, he had a very strong compulsion to leave the man behind, and block the hatch door in their wake. Would serve him right before having been a part of it all.

In the meantime he'd held his pistol crossbow in reserve, when he'd surrendered his sword and shortbow. And he kept it pointed at William's back as they went. William groused. But did Arlo care that the man had been betrayed? Not in the least. In fact, the more he talked, the more Arlo was tempted to just put the man out of his misery. Arlo's and Tio's misery, not William's. In fact when William began describing what would have happened to Vega had they all had their way, it took all he had in him not to pull the trigger on his bow. And why shouldn't he? Even though he'd managed to warn Vega, it didn't mean she was out of danger. And it didn't change the spirit behind what the men had planned.

"You know nothing about my style, plainly," he said with a particular gleam in his eye that wasn't a friendly one. Ordinarily? He'd never consider killing an unarmed man unless his own life or a loved one were in immediate danger of being killed themselves. But these weren't ordinary circumstances. The only logical reason to have brought the man along was that he and Tio might need him. But more and more, Arlo was coming to think that they didn't. "Why would we need your help? You've already, just now, told us what we need to know to identify the rest of them," he reminded William, who seemed to have a knack for running his mouth.

Still, they were in a cellar with no immediately clear way out. Soon enough it would fill up with smoke, in spite of the door being shut tight behind them. Except that the dog, apparently, knew the way out. So the question sprung once again to the forefront. What did they need William for? "Shut up," he said, tempted to put a bolt between the man's eyes. Except that William was right. It wasn't really Arlo's style but he didn't need to know it. "You're only marginally useful at best right now. And the more you yammer, the faster you're wearing out your usefulness."

So far as Arlo was concerned, William's usefulness was simple, though Tio might have other ideas. A canary in a coal mine. He and Tio could rely on the dog to show them the way out. But there was no telling what pitfalls laid between here and there. Sending William in first then, with a bolt at his back, had a certain appeal. At any rate time was ticking, and they'd best push those shelves aside and get moving. "Logging Consortium," he said, muttering to Tio as they worked. "Same one involved in the derby, weren't they?"

[Tio Silver]

The room beneath the floor was a far cry away from comfortable, being nothing more than a tiny, damp cellar, but it was undeniably better than the inferno upstairs. Too bad that half of the company trapped in here with him was less than desirable. The dog was bad enough, but when Willy opened his mouth and started whining about how unfair it was that he'd been double crossed Tio couldn't help but roll his eyes. By the spirits, talk about digging the hole you're in deeper! Had this guy kept his mouth shut Tio would have assumed he was a mute and left him be, but now that he knew how much he'd run his mouth digging him for information was a given.

"Now that you mention it... yeah, I think they were the ones who funded the return of the Derby." He whispered back to Arlo. "Don't know where a bunch of lumberjacks would have gotten that kind of money, but if they're a front for a slave market that makes sense. I don't understand why they'd need to set up a front at all though, it's not like slavery is outlawed around these parts. Could they be involved in something worse?"

Seeing as Arlo was pretty angry right now Tio decided that the best way to get Willy talking was if he played the good guard to Arlo's bad. As loudmouthed as this thug was he'd been correct about one thing: killing just wasn't his style. Even so, just because Willy was right didn't mean he knew it. Pulling a thin smile up onto his lips; one that didn't quite reach the corners of his mouth and not-so-subtly suggested some darker intentions, Tio sauntered forwards towards him. Then with an altogether too casual air for the situation he slung his arm around the man's shoulders.

"Now now Arlo, let's go easy on the poor guy. He's promised to tell us everything we want to know and more, right? Let's be nice and civil, talk about this. After all I'm sure that Willy here understands that if he lies to us, or withholds information that we want to hear..." He pointed his cutlass a little bit closer towards Willy's private regions. "Then his name is about to become really ironic."

"So, questions. Let's see now..." Tio began. "One: Smith can control the elements and teleport, but what else can he do? Two: Other than the screwed up brain we've already seen, has his magic made him mutate in any way? Three: That other thug who started the fire upstairs, was he Smith's student? How many more mages does he have under his command? Four: Who are the Logging Consortium really? And five: Where can we find Mr Smith?"

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[Pegasus]

14th Cylus 718

Willy looked between the two of them and when Arlo told him to shut up, he did. Briefly. Because then Tio asked him a series of questions. William considered, carefully, just for a moment. It was an important moment for him because he was making the decision whether to betray Mr Smith or not; no matter what Mr Smith had done to you, he took betrayal very personally and Willy was in a position which was not at all enviable. Depending on how well they read him, they might recognise that William was afraid. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair; his expression was tricky to read, but then he started to speak. "Mr Smith? I don't know, I reckon he's an Immortal or one of their mortal born children, because he can do everythin'. it's like he knows." With a shrug he tried to explain what he didn't understand, "your thoughts and your feelings, he just knows. He always knows. Mutations? I.. I don't think so, no. I mean, he's very private, always sleeps alone. Any whore he has we have to kill or, if she was real good he just has us take her tongue, but I know he can perform, like." Yes, he said, moving away from the tendencies of the group to share what they considered to be the spoils of war. Yes, there were a number of them who were Mr Smith's apprentices. Three. That was the number, three of them. Willy didn't know who were mages and who weren't, Mr Smith didn't allow them to discuss it. And if you did, he always knew. Always.


It was when Tio asked about the Logging Consortium that William looked concerned. Truly concerned. "It's not.. nothing goes on in Scalvoris that they don't know about, you catch my drift?" He seemed almost concerned that they might hear him here, his eyes moving. "Every dodgy Element, everyone who's involved in anything, they're with the Consortium. If they're not, they're dead. Shania, she's getting in the way. Couple of do-gooders in Scalvoris town, too, they'll be coming for them soon and then? Then boys like me get a taste," again, he realised who he was talking to and about and he shushed.

Still, they moved things and the dog scratched and the shelves pulled open like a door. Exactly like a door, as it turned out, because that was what they were. "It's how we got here. Shania's well cautious, but the Consortium knows more than anyone else. There's no one they can't kill." He looked at Arlo and shrugged slightly. Ah well, he seemed to be saying.

But the door opened up into a tunnel. It was long and dark, but they had the supplies where they were which allowed them to light some torches, if they needed to. And down it went - it was long that tunnel and dark and winding. It was a natural thing, there was no doubt, and it led off into the darkness.

It was tall, wide, large and sprawling and as their eyes adjusted and the dog wuffed slightly, one or both of them would notice that there were footprints which backed up William's story here. They told of the group of people coming in here, recently and in about the numbers that there were upstairs.

And in the distance, the tunnel wound on.

Off Topic

Sincere apologies for the delay! Please feel free to describe a bit of cave exploration if you go down the tunnel. Basically, congratulations, you two have discovered a series of catecombs underneath Scalvoris. The tunnel goes on a long way and we have adventures awaiting at the other end!

[Arlo Creede]

Arlo had been in a lot of cramped, dark places by now. For any number of different reasons but the fact remained that he didn't like it. But it paled in comparison to his lingering concerns of Vega's safety, and that of her family. So long as the men who'd threatened her were on the loose it would remain that way. He needed to get out of this place and back to the boat. That was all that mattered and dead or alive, if he had to go through Willie to get there, he would.

He wasn't sure yet whether dead was better, or not. Which meant that Tio had a better chance of convincing him not to silence the man's taunts at the pointed end of a bolt from his bow. But yeah, they were probably involved in something worse than slavery. At any rate, Arlo had no probably with playing the part of bad guy, while Tio played at the more reasonable one. "I can be plenty civil," he quipped, and kept his bow aimed at the other man's back. "Until Willie here gives me reason not to be."

Of course he couldn't care less if this...Smith could perform well or not. But was he an Immortal or mortalborn, or just a mage of some sort. None of those diminished the danger that the man posed to Vega. And that was enough for him. There were three though, and that was important. "What are their names?" Their real names, he meant, and implied that he'd know if Willie was lying. And it sounded like this Consortium needed to be done away with completely.

When the door opened, Arlo pushed Willie in first. Canary in a coal mine, that was him. And assuming that nothing came of it, Arlo followed, groped around for a torch and lit the thing in hopes of better than what they were seeing already. So which was the way out? The dog probably knew. On the other hand there were plenty of signs that there were others who passed through this place fairly frequently. Dropping to his heels, Arlo examined a number of the prints, trying to get an idea of how many different individuals might have passed this way recently. Every human, or otherwise track was different. And those that were more recent, headed in the opposite direction might give him an idea before they went on, how many had traveled this way in the last trial or so, heading up into the inn itself?

[Tio Silver]

So Smith was either some kind of very powerful mind-reading magician, the child of a god or perhaps even a god himself? That was not a good list of options to choose from. While Tio doubted this maniac was really an Immortal, the fact that he could be mistaken for one meant that he was almost certainly a master level magician, which meant that fighting him head on with his own powers was ill-advised. That didn't really leave a lot of options on how to take him down without flat out murdering him in his sleep, and no matter how psychotic he was Tio wasn't willing to resort to assassination. Could they capture him somehow? His knife was coated with Rubberlegs poison, but Smith hadn't needed to move a muscle to start those fires earlier and could presumably teleport without moving his body either. Perhaps he could cut him off from his magic? Ozbourne had the ability to negate the effects of other magics with a rare spark he called Abrogation, but he'd claimed that Tio wasn't ready to be initiated into a third magic just yet and by the time he went to get him Smith's trail would have gone cold. There had to be some way to take him down, right? Something he was overlooking.

"So if he takes the tongues of prostitutes he likes we can assume he's trying to ensure their silence, meaning that there's a weakness they discover by getting up close and busy with him." Tio theorized, stroking his chin as if he had some kind of long, curly beard. "A physical deformity would be most likely, but then again with magic who can say? Maybe he talks in his sleep and cries for his mother? Or maybe there's some sort of ritual or habit he has to complete each night?"

He looked over to Arlo. "I think we can both agree that Smith needs to be brought down. He thinks we're dead, which gives us the advantage of surprise, but if this consortium is as powerful as Willy here's made it out to be it wont be long before he learns otherwise. We only have a very limited window of opportunity in which to act. I happen to know a very good alchemist and doctor couple who might be able to do something about a missing tongue, so how about we find one of these prostitutes, preferably one who can write, and see if she'd tell us his secret? If it's something we can exploit we might be able to hand him over to the Elements without having to take him on head on, and maybe without drawing the attention of these consortium people."

If Arlo agreed with his plan Tio would command Willy to lead them through the tunnels to wherever they could find one of the prostitutes Smith kept alive, and as they traveled asked the traitor more questions about how far these tunnels stretched and if the key to this door would grant them access to all the other entrances. A secret network of tunnels could end up proving very useful to someone in his career...

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[Pegasus]

14th Cylus 718

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"I don't know," Willy said when Arlo asked him for names. The man looked at Arlo with anger in his eyes, fear being replaced now by that feeling of having been kept alive and therefore, somehow, being invulnerable. "I told you, he don't let us talk, an' he always knows if we have, so we don't. But there are three, or so he says." He eyed Arlo suspiciously. "It's not me that's ordered yer girl dead, is it? Nor me that gave them her name to begin with. Put that away, we're all in it together now." Willy's Winning, Lucid Arguments Inc was obviously a fledgling business.

Tio's questions about Mr Smith's night time antics with ladies of dubious moral virtues, though, had Willy looking at Tio as though he was a bit dense. "No, look. Once he's had his fill, he passes the whore to us an' once we've got bored of her, or she's too broke to be any fun, we kill her. The ones that are good, we take the tongue and sell them on. Taking the tongue means she don't talk about us. Who we are, where we come from, see?" Wasn't that what everyone did, Willy's tone seemed to imply.

Arlo's consideration of the tracks, though, that might well prove interesting. There were a lot of them - maybe a dozen, coming into and out of here. Judging the best he could by size and shoe and so on, they were more or less the same people back and forth. And they had been for trials.

As for where said tongueless prostitutes could be found, Willy shrugged. "We sell them on. Not here, we ship them to places where slavery is illegal cos we get a premium for them there. Mr Smith's got contacts all over the world," The more he spoke, the more obvious it became that the Consortium was a global, enormous and powerful faction.

But then, there were the caves. "Buggered if I know," was Willy's response. And as they made their way forward, just a little, Arlo and Tio would discover that they were in a massive, truly massive, underground system of inter connected caves and tunnels. There were some places with steps carved into the wall others had torches on the wall, albeit not burning. But they were in the kind of cave system which could take days to explore and still not get them out. The dog was no help now that they were actually out of the Inn and it seemed, all things considered, like they might be rather lost down here.

It was difficult to tell how much time was passing, but it certainly was. So, our erstwhile adventurers found themselves with a dog and a criminal called Willy lost in a vast expanse of caves underneath Scalvoris. They could explore or try and find a way out; there were certainly a lot of interesting looking caverns - things laying around, the odd chest here and there, that kind of thing. Mostly shapes in the darkness, but depending on how large the place was, they could be down here a long, long time, exploring.

Or they could try and find a way out.

[Arlo Creede]

"Either that, or he just wants to make sure that nobody knows where to find him," Arlo suggested, as part of the reasons for separating the prostitutes, aka victims, from their tongues. He wondered, did the man ever consider that one of those women might know how to write. Or might learn to sign? It wasn't worth asking William. The man seemed to be growing bolder by the trill, more eager to taunt and so on, under the very false assumption that Arlo had backed off even a hair's breadth of being all too happy to send a bolt flying into the middle of his back. He didn't say as much, and let the man have his delusions. All the better to keep him running his mouth, and telling them what they wanted to know.

Tio made a good point. This Consortium and their ringleader needed to be brought down before anyone else was harmed or killed. It was a powerful temptation though to reach into his pocket and use the gift that U'frek had given him, the last time they'd met in the dreamscape. A portal that could take him back to Vega in a heartbeat. But if he did it, then the threat the man posed to her would go on and on. "Lyova," he said. "I need to know if Vega's alright. Check for me?" he said through the silent link the two of them shared.

"If we can close enough, I've got a little trick that might immobilize him long enough to get hold of him." The ring he wore, Arlo didn't say aloud, no so long as Willie had ears to hear with. Willie's Winning, however. With a deceptive smile, Arlo clicked off the safety on his pistol crossbow. "You sure about that?" He didn't put it away. "There's a dozen or more of them," he told Tio as he examined the tracks. "In and out...for a number of trials by now."

The place was a maze. It would be all too easy to get lost by now. Arlo's special compass would help quite a lot, and presumably the dog knew where he was going. Or maybe not. Maybe he'd only decided that he liked Tio and himself better than his previous company and had decided to stick around. So, did they explore or did they find a way out? he could follow the tracks or other signs, and presumably those that traveled through this place would exit into the open at some point. Or some might split off and opt for other locations down in the tunnels. For now, so long as they were headed in the direction that many others had passed before them, Arlo was willing to carry on forward.