What Lies Below 5
Pretty much everyone in Nautilin had heard the news of Dorval Bluegabbers violent demise by the next morning. An outsider might find it rather questionable how a city that never saw the light of the sun could have mornings, but its magical lamps were designed to dim at sunset and brighten at dawn. It would seem the kryr had not been able to escape their ancient surface-dwelling ancestors need for a proper day-night cycle in the several millennia since theyd settled on the ocean floor. Either that or this city in particular wished to keep itself attuned to that rhythm in case any drylanders ca to visit.
Speaking of which, Mister Hugh Mungus was deed one of the suspects for the murder of Dorval Bluegabber. An influential citizen bites the big one just as a mysterious rcenary was visiting? It would be foolish to think it a re coincidence. However, testimonies from both Wyatt and Amona confird that the outsider and his entire entourage had alibis for the evening, and neither of them showed signs of being ntally manipulated. The authorities were therefore forced to conclude that the visitor was not involved.
Of course, the main reason for this was because the female guide had omitted the part where shed been too busy fraternising with the Warlock to actually keep an eye on everyone. She personally had no love for the now-dead mobster, and had no intention of getting fired over this, regardless of whether the man was responsible or not. As such, she feigned ignorance and spent most of the next day practically glued to Hughs arm. Wyatt seed to have figured out that sothing inappropriate was going on, but didnt seem to want to get involved.
It would appear that not my problem seed to be the default response whenever a citizen of Nautilin spotted suspicious activity. Though the city was far from lawless, most successful people seed to be running so kind of illicit sche. Wyatt was no different, as a cursory probing of his sleeping mind by Xera revealed he was taking payoffs from a smuggling ring to look the other way every now and then. As for Amona, she was squeaky clean aside from her deviant fascination with surfacers, which appeared to be the main reason shed taken this job in the first place.
That said, the two guides had been a bit more lax in their observation of the visitors during the second day. This was primarily because Jen and Fizzy were given their special permits, which allowed them to roam the city by themselves. The golem used her newfound freedom to go soak up crafting knowledge from the local smithing guilds as she was quite curious how they processed tals underwater. She was disappointed to learn that it was the exact sa process as the surface, albeit within an air bubble and with the aid of pressure-negating equipnt. The locals primarily made gear out of the bones and hides of sea monsters, so talworking was more of a niche occupation.
The harpy was not let off her leash, however, primarily because Boxxy couldnt trust her to not cause an international incident. It dragged her and its familiars along as it continued probing official sources of information for anything that might suggest the presence of a hidden weapons cache. They pored through records, consulted historical experts, and asked around at various adventuring guilds. They found practically zero information regarding their objective, but Boxxy took this to be a good sign that ant this mysterious stash hadnt been discovered yet.
The shapeshifter did stumble upon sothing of note, however. Naly that there appeared to be a branch of the Maleficium guild down here. History claid Tol-Saroth had been a key mber of said organization back in his day, so this was rather promising. A bit of digging revealed that the elven sage had personally visited Nautilin on multiple occasions, though it had been a tiny fishing village at the ti. The guild he left behind denied knowledge of what purpose these visits had, though the fact that he established a branch office here suggested sothing rather significant had gone down.
Xera unsurprisingly had no mory of this, though this was most likely because Tol-Saroth hadnt sprung for diving equipnt for his familiars like Boxxy had.
In any event, the doppelganger had unearthed very little tangible information to go on. This was unsurprising, as it seed unlikely anyone would just willingly hand over sothing like that to an outsider. However, Boxxy now knew where to dig. It was just a matter of getting what it wanted without pissing off an entire city of people, a considerable number of whom wielded heretical practices. The locals stockpile of Demonbane weapons was sothing to be especially wary of, as was the non-insignificant number of kryr Rankers around. These individuals were called deep ones by the locals and were easily distinguishable by the two squid-like tentacles protruding from their upper backs. These extra limbs were every bit as long, flexible, and powerful as their muscular tails, and had enough manual dexterity to be considered an additional pair of arms.
Bottom line was that open hostility with the locals was simply not worth the risk, especially since there was a good chance Boxxy was on a red herring chase. The ex-mimic was nothing if not stubborn, though, so it would not leave until it had exhausted every possible lead. With day two coming to a close, it waited patiently until the next morning before it resud the search. It told its guides that it wanted to check out so shops, restaurants, and maybe a theater or sothing as a change of pace. During this seemingly casual outing, it had Fizzy stop by Fahrenheit Luxury Imports with the excuse that she had so surface-made goods she wished to sell.
After establishing that the solid mithril golem was not, in fact, for sale, the shapeshifting slitherer gave her the information he had dug up regarding the not-a-dungeon he had ntioned earlier. Apparently it was a little-known spot where so adventurers went to train their combat Jobs, about twenty-sothing kiloters out of town, in the active volcanic region. This was promising, though he didnt have an exact location. Mister F did, however, provide Fizzy with the address of a local guide. This individual was supposedly a platinum-ranked unenlightened like the amphibious shapeshifter and an expert on the volcanic region, but that was all the information hed dug up on them on such short notice.
The golem decided to take the initiative and check this out for herself. She wouldve gotten Boxxy, but she had no idea where the shapeshifter was right now. Not to ntion she was quite eager to get this over with so she could get back to the surface. Staying underwater for extended periods of ti wasnt damaging to her radiant fra, but the stubborn colony of deep-sea algae growing on her butt was quite infuriating. With that in mind, she got directions to the address from Mister F and set off. Her passage naturally gathered quite a few stares, as she was the only creature in the entire city to be literally walking across the ocean floor. And yet, as she got closer to her destination, she couldnt help but notice that people were gawking at her considerably less than before.
Fizzy eventually found herself standing in front of a spire of so kind. It was four stories tall and only wide enough to house either an extra-large bedroom or two tiny rooms on each floor. Unlike most other kryr structures, the front door was thankfully at the bottom rather than the top. It wasnt as if Fizzys jet-assisted Assault Mode couldnt make it up there, she just preferred to keep that ability a secret if at all possible. After double checking that this was, indeed, the address she was given, the golem walked up to it and loudly banged on the door with her fist. Several seconds passed before the wooden entrance slide open, and revealed the reason why people in this part of the city werent all that impressed with Fizzys unique appearance.
Standing in the doorway was a creature that was, without a doubt, another war golem. Or, to be more specific, a woman that had been turned into a war golem. She had the sa style of interlocking multi-layered armored fra as Fizzy, complete with various cables visible through so of the gaps in the outer layer. Her face was also just as energetic and lifelike as her visitors, which made it obvious she was just as surprised by this turn of events as her visitor.
That was where the similarities ended, however. For starters, her fra was of a silver-colored tal that could not hope to match Fizzys mithril plating. Another obvious difference was that she was both taller and significantly more feminine than the forr gno, with clearly defined breasts on her chest, a slim waist, and exceptionally wide thighs. She also seed to have once been a kryr given the way she had the sa kind of tail, though the fins on the end of it were now shaped like a double-bladed battle axe. The fins on her forearms had likewise been transford into nacing glaives that were attached to her arms with a pair of hydraulic levers, allowing her to control them separately. Each of her legs had a dozen turbines that differed in size and orientation, and were no doubt the ans through which she moved around in this aquatic environnt.
She didnt seem keen to demonstrate that ability just yet, however, as the first thing she did after the initial shock faded was to slam her door shut.
Hey! Get back here! Fizzy shouted as she pounded on that surprisingly sturdy door.
Non! Allez-vous en! she replied in a panicked voice.
I dont speak your shitty language!
rde! I said go away, connard!
You get that cheap knock-off ass out here or else Im-
Cheap knock-off?!
That seed to hit a nerve as the door flew open once more. The taller golem, now clearly enraged, swung her exceptionally large fist right at Fizzys face. The ex-gno didnt even flinch as she stepped into the punch, headbutting it. A deep gong resounded through the surrounding waters as silver knuckles t mithril forehead. Fizzy then raised her right arm, her wrist swinging open to reveal her Magitech Cannon. The other construct did the sa, though in her case a rather large hole opened up in her plus-sized palm.
Woah, woah, woah! a voice called out to them. Lets calm it down! Dtend tes seins, Nora!
The two golems looked to the side to reveal a frantically approaching male kryr in an outfit almost identical to Wyatts though this one was clearly younger. He started yelling at the native construct in Aquarian. Fizzy had no idea what was being said, but she managed to gather that Nora was apparently this silver golems na. Which, incidentally, was the sa na Fahrenheit had given her, aning this one was indeed the guide shed been looking for. As for this interloper, he identified himself as a local adventurer and one of Noras friends. He claid he had stuff to do and excused himself after calming the situation down, leaving the two war golems to sort things between themselves.
Nora the kryr war golem sketch, by dmaxcustom
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