Deviation Actions
Description
Their first stop after checking into the Calladonian Arms Hotel was to send out a scouting party to find Amanda Cestus. This would take a little doing. As it was, they knew very little of the real cultures and ways of the Carellonians. They’d manage to glean what they could, use a spell or two here and there, but getting into the underbelly of the Carellonian criminal element, finding a way to get to the underground without being considered Carellonian Securities Directorate (CSD) spies, was going to take some careful planning.
Obviously, they couldn’t just take a cab over to the Black Dahlia, stroll in the front door, and say “hi, we’re from an alternate reality and we’re looking for a Githyanki warrior”. They needed to maintain their disguises at least until they made contact with the underground and had another place to stay out from under the scrutiny of the CSD. That meant that whoever went to meet with Amanda would need to change disguises along the way, i.e. their innate shapeshifters and those with Polymorph spells; Margarite, Crystal, Tana, Kaye and Razer. Margarite and Crystal would change into different men as they went. Razer would Polymorph herself into a male as well. Tana and Kaye would assume slightly different features, and they’d all get a quickly conjured change of clothes. They could duck down an ally, do the presto-chango, and be back on the streets in a matter of seconds.
Then they needed to get into the Black Dahlia and somehow arrange a meet with Amanda. Crystal had seen how Vorhing had signaled the serving girl that he wished to meet with the mistress. Perhaps that method would work for them. More likely, they’d be taken as spies and led into a trap to dispose of them. They’d have to be ready for that. If this Amanda Cestus was anywhere near the powerful Erotic that Queen Amanda was back on A-prime, they’d be hard pressed to charm her into being reasonable. Whether she had seen it in one of her visions, or was just blowing smoke, Crystal was convinced the meet would work. So, off they went to the east side of Calladon.
The high ground was dominated by the center of the city and the tallest buildings. Several miles east, the ground dropped into a shallow valley. Unlike the cities and towns of A-prime, there were no longer any defensive walls surrounding the districts. Removing the constant threat of war had eliminated the need for defending cities from ground invasions. Unlike A-prime, the last major conflict for the Big Three was the War of Tryskellias, over three hundred and fifty years ago. Proxy wars (collectively known as the Colonial Wars) fought by the Big Three had been conducted on Beotharn and Hesterland, a world away. That left the human citizens of Carellon to go about their lives, building and expanding their nations, and settling into a lifestyle that didn’t require constant vigilance. They had turned that over to the CSD. As long as you towed the line, conformed to the national identity and obeyed the law, you were free to go about your business without fear.
As they moved down into the long, shallow depression on the east side, they could see that fear in the eyes of some. Falling into a life of predictability allowed the people to go numbly through this existence. Anything new, different, or odd, caused them confusion and anxiety. Those who didn’t fit in, who railed against the establishment, were easy to spot. The common man avoided such people, for you didn’t want to be around someone like that when the CSD wandered through. That left the Raptors alone to wander the streets with little direction.
As day turned to night, they found that there were two distinct Calladons. The east side started to come to life as the sun dropped down low and all those factory and office workers headed back to their homes. That meant others were heading to the bad side of town. Uniformed CSD officers, seen all over the uptown area, had a lesser presence here. That told Margarite to be on the lookout for undercover officers hiding in plain sight. It meant they would be likely treated the same when they started asking questions. It was also likely that The Guild had more control over these streets than the CSD did.
A chance encounter with a street urchin selling papers finally gave them directions to the Black Dahlia. The sign out front was just as Crystal remembered it from her visions. It was still early, about seven thirty, so the place was understandably vacant. Only two patrons were there, far outnumbered by the wait staff and the dancers. When the five of them entered, they initially got blank stares from everyone, then one of the dancers smiled and wiggled her way across the floor to greet them.
She made a bee-line for Margarite, who had assumed the form of a dusky skinned rake with a tangled mop of black hair. Margarite wore a black tunic and pants, highlighted with bright silver buckles and a set of leather straps across the chest and back. Her/m male features were strikingly handsome, drawing the eye even more than her/m normal female form, and s/he wore a crooked grin and wandering eyes which said s/he was looking to get into trouble.
“A little early darlin’. But you and yer mates can pull up a chair over there and we’ll be with ye as soon as we’ve got the keg tapped.”
Margarite fixed her/m stare and scanned the buxom barmaid from head to toe, undressing her with her/m eyes as s/he went.
“No hurry.”
They moved to the side and took up a table. Margarite, Crystal and Razer took the chairs against the wall, keeping an eye on the room. Tana and Kaye sat with their backs to the room, but their eyes on the door. After ten minutes or more, the barmaid was back.
“Shows don’t start till nine, darlin’, but the bar’s open. What can I get ye?”
Crystal smiled. Her male form was perhaps even more alluring than Margarite’s, though she lacked the True Herm’s sensual aura that drew the eye so readily. She’d opted for a lose silk shirt and a vest, leaving her muscled chest exposed to the navel. Skin tight, red leather pants and matching bracers made her seem something of a dandy, but her dark red hair and green eyes marked her as a foreigner. She latched onto the barmaids eyes with a burning stare.
“I can think of quite a few things,… but we’ll settle for estreya.”
The barmaid looked somewhat blank, “Excuse me?”
Crystal added her best Drow accent to the word, “Estreya.”
The woman blinked and looked at the others at the table, “Sorry,… I, uh,… I’m not sure,…”
She shifted her weight and scrunched her brow as though any attempt to think might cause a blinding headache.
Crystal continued, “Perhaps someone else might know what we’re looking for.”
One of the tall, heavily muscled men stepped up behind the barmaid. He tapped her on the shoulder and they exchanged a glance. She smiled sideways at the table and rushed back to the bar. The man looked down on them all with a disapproving glare.
“I’m afraid we don’t have what you’re lookin’ for here. I’m gonna have to ask y’all to leave. We don’t need no trouble.”
Kaye started to turn and rise. Margarite reached out and took her hand. Kaye looked back. Margarite shook her/m head. Kaye continued to stand and made sure to push her cleavage out in the man’s face as she turned back towards the door. The others rose and followed suit, quickly moving to the front door to leave. One of the barmaids stood by the door, holding it open for them to go. Crystal was the last to leave. The barmaid smiled and stepped closer as she shut the door.
Outside they moved down the street a dozen yards and stopped under an electric street lamp. Cockroaches skittered around a nearby sewer storm drain. Winged insects swarmed around the yellow light above. They stopped and exchanged glances.
Tana sneered at the filth of the city streets, “Well, what now?”
Razer growled in her new male voice, “That was a waste.”
Crystal smiled and shook her head, “Not entirely.”
She produced a piece of paper from her pocket and started to hold it up to the light. Margarite reached out and took her arm. S/he looked up and down the street quickly, then looked back to Crystal.
“Not here.”
Crystal nodded in agreement and the band headed off another few blocks before they found an alley that had no eyes on it. Razer produced a small glowing ball of light which floated up to look like a normal electrical light fixture on the brick wall nearby. All but Razer crowded around Crystal. Razer stood to the rear, watching the street and the adjoining walls. Crystal pulled out the paper again and noted what was written on it.
“973-B Thallford Street, basement door in the back, midnight.”
Margarite sneered, “Does that sound like a trap to anybody else?”
Tana sighed, “Do we have a choice?”
Razer heard someone walking by, reached up and snatched the Glow Bulb down from its spot and extinguished it in her hand. They all crouched quickly, hiding in the shadows of the alley. When nobody passed by, Razer opened her hand and the light floated back over their heads again. Out of the corner of her eye, Tana noted a black cat on a rusty fire escape. When the light came on, it started and bounded off into the night. She didn’t recall the cat being there before. She shifted her eyes quickly and noted magius trailing off behind the feline. She turned to the others.
“If that was someone’s familiar, then we’re being watched. This is definitely a trap.”
Razer bristled, “Fortunately, I have all our weapons and armor. The best way to deal with a trap is to,..”
Margarite held up her hand, “Wait a minute. The best way to handle a trap is to send an Arcane Rogue in to find and disable it.”
Razer sneered, “I stand corrected. The best way to deal with an ambush is to charge straight in with enough armor and weapons to immediately overpower your attackers.”
Margarite shrugged.
Tana kept watching as the thin trail of energy dissipated in the darkness. The cat had been more than just a familiar. There was something about its magic, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. If she’d just had a few spells up when she saw the cat. Too late now.
“So, where is this Thallford street?”
Crystal held up a hand. She concentrated for an instant. Tana’s magius sight was suddenly flooded with subtle hues of rainbow color around her young cousin. Crystal’s eyes momentarily returned to their true color, a rainbow swirled around the pupil, then slowly faded back to the male Carellonian form’s sky blue.
“This way.”
Kaye raised an eyebrow, “What did she just do?”
Tana smiled, “Krell magic. Obviously no more than a point or two of magius. She has the Krell Knowledge spell-power.”
Razer sneered again, “Then why hasn’t she used before now?”
Crystal stopped as she started towards the street and turned to face Razer, “Because Krell magic is the most powerful in the world, and that’s in our reality. That means it leaves a mark, an easily traceable mark,… one that I’m sure the CSD would love to get their hands on.”
Tana interrupted, “It’s like sending up a magic flare for this Blood Corps to follow.”
Margarite looked around the corner of the alley to see if there was anyone on the street, “Then let’s get the fuck out of here before someone comes looking for the source.”
*****
Several blocks away a dark figure slinked through trash cans and empty crates, prowling along behind greasy spoon restaurants and stinky taverns. It leapt from doorway to window sill, from fire escape to roof top. There in the fading moonlight, it emerged on a tenement roof and stopped. Its eyes glowed a strange golden hue, though there was little light around to catch. The glow was internal, a power all its own, not the reflection of the pale street lamps below.
She sat and watched the city, then licked her forepaw and cleaned her whiskers and ears. If one could attribute human emotions to the expression of this cat, she would have been somewhere between confusion, contempt and contentment. The cat heard something and immediately tensed. She looked down and sniffed, then bounded off, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, crossing thirty foot wide alleyways with little effort. When at last she came to a perch on the peaked roof of a church, she crouched and looked down. The five people, three handsome men and two beautiful women, passing by below had her full attention. She watched them for a time and then scampered off down the side of the roof, leaping again onto the next building. As she disappeared into the darkness of the night, she gradually transformed into something else. The shadows did not reveal exactly what that was. A slight glint of moonlight off of gold was all that could be seen. Everything else was utterly black.
*****
“973-B Thallford Street. This is it.”
Margarite looked up and down the tight street. The place was a dump. An old stone basement and a wooden upper floor, shuddered windows and boarded up front door, and the smell of a century of mildew and rot painted this as an abandoned building. Nowhere was there a sign to be seen or a street marker or house number.
“You’re sure?”
Crystal just nodded. She didn’t even seem to be listening to the question. Margarite was none too sure she had even answered what was asked. Before s/he could open her mouth to repeat it, however, Crystal was gone down the tight side alley towards the back of the house. The rest quickly fell in line to follow her.
At the back of the house, the alley opened up only slightly. From a four foot wide path between buildings, there was now a ten by fifteen foot back patio of sorts. Several other tight passageways fed into this opening. Above, the surrounding houses looked down on the spot through dark, menacing windows. If ever there was a perfect spot for an ambush, this was it, yet their Warning spells hadn’t gone off just yet. Margarite moved to the front and gave Crystal a disapproving glare. S/he activated several spells and turned to look at the back door. No traps and it was unlocked. S/he stopped to cast a Silent Portal cantrip before pushing it open gently. Tight stairs, about three feet wide, led sharply downward no more than eight feet. S/he peered down into the darkness, her/m eyes alight with magical sight. Satisfied, s/he motioned for Razer to go first, continuing to glare at Crystal.
In the basement, they found nothing but dust, cobwebs and the heavy stench of mildew and rotting wood. Margarite continued to search, at last locating a secret door in one wall which unceremoniously led to yet another tight, steep set of steps. Out of sight of everyone and not willing to go any further unprepared, they stopped and drew their weapons from Razer’s Dimensional Sheath. Disguises and shapeshifting were of little use here, or were they?
There were two options. First, the note sending them to this address was either from the underground or someone else. If it was the underground, they could be looking to set up a meeting to see who these people were and how they’d come to learn the secret pass code (estreya). Or they could simply be setting them up to be killed. If they were curious, they’d likely have some kind of test to determine if the group could be trusted. Appearing in their true forms might help, or it might make things worse. It would show that they had shapechanging powers and spells at their disposal and that they may or may not have been in their true forms when they dropped by the Black Dahlia. However, if they were in other than their true form when they met, and any one of the underground had so much as a Discern Shapechanger spell, that could be bad too.
Now, if the note had come from someone else, there was the question of who. It could be The Guild. It could be a private party looking to engage them. Or it could be a setup by the CSD looking to weed out anarchists and criminals. Any of those instances would be unaffected by what form they were in at the time. Given all the options, it was very likely they were about to face some kind of threat. It would be preferable that they had all their guns in place to deal with it. Unfortunately, they didn’t have to time to go all the way across town to the hotel and back. They were here, now.
Tana could Teleport to the hotel room to collect the others, but her Teleport was somewhat limited. She could return with only three of the four. V’Lairran had her own spells, but to get to them would be a blind Teleport. Razer could contact her mind and carefully guide her. That would slightly improve her chances of not having a Teleport accident. But the situation wasn’t exactly dire. Their need was not sufficient to risk it. There was no reason V’Lairran couldn’t stay behind to watch their rooms.
A few seconds later, Tana was back with Charisstra, Damaris and Galadon. Kaye dropped all her Polymorphs and Margarite and Crystal shifted back into their true forms. There was a quick changing of clothes, casting of preparatory spells, and off they went down the next set of stairs.
Fifteen minutes later, they entered a section of the underground passages and halls that connected to what they knew as Old Calladon on A-prime, though this section was several miles farther east. The stairs had dropped them down beneath the sewers of the city. That much was clear. Water dripped through cracks in the walls here and there, creating a moldy mess. They tread carefully so as not to step in anything or slip on the slimy floor. Kaye was thankful she’d changed out of her high heels and good dress and into a more revealing corset and boots.
Crystal navigated them through a maze of tunnels and passages, apparently using whatever knowledge she’d gleaned from her previous Krell magic. The others wondered how they were supposed to meet anyone, being led into this dungeon with no more information than the address for the entrance. But their wandering wouldn’t last long.
After an hour going this way and that, Crystal informed them that they’d made it almost back to the center of town. Several had guessed that already. Along the way, they faced a large number of minor encounters with the vermin that wandered the upper halls, but nothing intelligent or really dangerous. Mostly they drove off or killed Giant Centipedes, an assortment of Rat Swarms and Giant Rats, and a few Giant Spiders. There was an encounter with a pack of Carrion Crawlers that was interesting, and some tentacled thing in a large cistern, but they never got a good look at it. After Razer blasted the water with an Eldritch blast of electricity, it disappeared.
At the end of their trek, they finally made their way into a chamber that looked like an old Atheaen temple. The last hundred yards of passages were secured behind several locked doors, no challenge for Margarite. So, the sumptuous luxury of the chamber was no real surprise. Their reception wasn’t really a surprise either. A dozen men in black outfits, with hoods and masks, stood to either side, firearms ready and aimed directly at them. At the far end of the chamber, two women lounged across piles of pillows atop a stone dais. Behind them, half naked male slaves stood in attendance.
Both women were raven haired, sultry and buxom. Neither wore more than a few scraps of clothing, thin veils and jewelry. One seemed more mature and decidedly in charge, though her looks placed her in her early-thirties at best. The other, slightly more slender and younger, seemed more concerned with running her sharp gold fingernails along the silk of one of the pillows than paying the Raptors any heed. The older woman smiled through heavily made up lips and narrowed her sky blue eyes.
“Do come in. Obviously, you’ve been expected.”
Crystal shifted her weight, sufficient to push her breasts out of the hanging folds of her shirt.
“Amanda Cestus. We’ve been looking for you,… but then, you already know that.”
The woman cocked her head and got a suddenly serious expression. It didn’t last long.
“You know me,… but I don’t know you. How is that?”
“We have,… abilities,… you’re probably not used to encountering very often.”
“Abilities?” the woman shifted her gaze towards the Githyanki, the several elves, especially the Drow, and at last landing on Margarite. “Really? Do tell.”
Crystal wondered how to make this work. Amanda clearly had no reason to trust them, and there was no telling what she suspected them of being.
“We’re not from around here, as you can clearly see. In fact, we’re not from this world at all.”
The woman got a perturbed look, as though she was being lectured on something she already knew. The other woman stretched her neck and turned her gaze to Amanda. Amanda looked down and the two exchanged a glance. Razer was wondering if there was some telepathy going on between them, but her psionic sense didn’t pick up anything. When the younger woman looked back at them, Razer was sure her eyes were glowing gold for an instant.
Crystal continued, “We aren’t here to cause trouble. We simply came looking for my friend’s cousin. His name is Vhaellik gul’Kurahk.”
Amanda raised an inquisitive eyebrow, “Another like her?”
“Yes. Well, mostly. He’s rather unique even amongst her people. And from what we understand, he’s been here for about nine years.”
“And why do you bring this to me?”
“I,… have,… seen things. That’s how I know. I know that you discussed him with Albert Zane some time ago. That’s how I knew to look for you at the Black Dahlia and to ask for estreya.”
“Did you now?”
“Yes. Your Majesty,… I,… I’m sorry,… it’s just,… back on our world,…”
Amanda smiled. The younger woman snickered and twisted her back. The younger one had a strange air about her. There was something not quite right there, something inhuman all by itself.
“Yes, I know. Miarra has told me about your world. You see, she’s from there as well. And frankly, she’s the only reason I agreed to take this meeting in the first place. She’s been watching you, haven’t you my pretty little kitty? And please, drop the majesty crap. I’m not your Queen Amanda.”
Crystal looked at the younger woman. Her Krell vision told her the magius was tightly wound about her, strong, but not so strong as her own. Tana interrupted.
“The black cat from the alley. No ordinary familiar,… no,… no familiar at all. A Fellnari,… a Hebat,… here?”
Amanda raised a hand, “I’ll let you all catch up later. But for now, I think introductions are in order, don’t you?”
*****
Indeed, the Hebat was no ordinary Fellnari. She was Miarra Bastet Merenempti, daughter of the High Priestess and Avatar of Bast from the Second Holy Symballan Empire back on A-prime, Tigara Rasha Merenempti. She had fallen during the Avatar War, killed in the asteroid strike,… or so Arrallonian history had read. Apparently she had been drawn through the same planar rift that had brought Vhaellik and his crew to A-47. Vhaellik and his band found her early in their travels in this world and she had joined their cause, simple survival. As the years past, she left Vhaellik’s band of mercenaries and hooked up with Amanda, being of similar appetites and interests.