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[SIDEQUEST] The Depths Below Glitch City
| (Welcome, and before ewe begin, get comfortable, I got much to explain and tell anyone interested in a fun time here below the city! You can call me I, it's for 'I Rock!' I'll be explaining what this "Sidequest" is in much details, so don't blink! Basically, this is something that won't affect anything else, no matter what goes down in the depths, no district will get bombed, no ARG will begin or close, get it? It's a sidequest, a way to pass the time and enjoy yourself, now...)
| (Let's be frank here, this Dungeon of mine, it's horrible, a tough, Survival Horror inspired experience, where traps and monsters beyond the realm of mortal eyes exist. In there, rolls will be made and demanded to maintain balance. Crit Fail in front of a trap? Sorry buddy, your life's done for! It's a game, you see? So, if you don't want your PC to just up and die, don't send em' here, I'd recommand making a char just for this and trying to balance em' out...)
| (I'll be GMing this pretty harshly, know that much. If you get shot at, you get shot at, if some monster sends acid at ya, ya' melt. I'm always gonna be fair. So here's a recap: This is your chance to have some easy fun, partake in a story that won't have any incidence in the future and relax a little. The rules are simple, and the only thing I don't wanna see is you brigning along your Mary Sue PC who can cheat death like some Casanova. With that said, let's have a good one! -I)
| >The entrance is plain, just another manhole littering the streets of the midnight district, a rusty ladder is all that can be seen from the open hole, the depths themselves dark and cold...
| I'm just a simple plumber. No, just call me Jack, really. Nobody wants to remember my last name anyways, they want to make jokes about fecal matter instead.
I know this hole pretty well. If you go down there for about 4 steps, you will enter a winding series of pipes. Those transfer the water from the central District 078 system to an apartment space that has a particularly unhealthy concentration of people that like to complain about "water quality", whatever that even means.
| Their complaints are not that unwarranted, though. I have to process all those pipes and fill in the outer hull like, every five weeks, because for some reason, the pipes there corrode extremely fast. The pipes are made of... whatever special alloy they're made of, so nobody can really explain why this happens. Either way, due to the complaints, I am obligated by management to constantly repair these pipes and leave them in top form. Constantly.
| Why they don't just reroute the system to avoid that particular zone, I don't know.
I guess it's easier for them to waste government money and leave ONE FUCKING GUY to take care of the entire thing.
I do have a "favorite" pipe. Oh yeah, I love it. Fourteen steps down the ladder, the middle one to the south. Instead of requiring repairs every five weeks, that particular spot needs upkeep every two weeks, cause My Favorite Pipe rots away even faster than the rest of the structure.
| The thing is, though, it's supposed to corrode, not... disappear completely.
| My pipe is gone, leaving behind a present in the form of a gaping hole. No, it's not the kind of hole that could house another street cat, nooo. It's bigger. Much bigger. I bet if I was inquisitive or suicidal enough, I could technically crawl through it on my knees to see what is beyond the veil of darkness the hole inexplicably hosts.
I.... just kind of stared at it for minutes. I've never experienced this much pure confusion in my entire life. My pipe isn't there.
| For the first time I've been on this job, I've actually spoke. Spoke to myself, or I guess it's the depths surrounding me? Is there a difference? I rose my voice, I made an actual noise with my throat, spawned out of pure momentum, and I said:
"Now where could my pipe be?"
| >A lone girl walks up to the entrance, her arm bloody and a mask on her face
"SHIT SHIT SHIT, SOMEWHERE TO--"
>She cuts off with a pained grunt
"Somewhere to hide-"
>She enters the manhole without a second thought, clenching her teeth
| >Jack hears some rumbling above him. Strange, he thinks, there are no roads here, yet it sounds like two of them just fired up.
>This thinking distracted him enough to be surprised when a lone girl climbs down the hole. She's pale, though who knows if that's because she's pale or because of the lighting here.
>Jack's reaction was a bit slowed down, but he reacted anyways by shouting:
Hey, what the fuck are you doing here?!
| >The girl suddenly jerks at the voice
"Fucking hell, that's my line!"
>She takes out a gun and aims
| E-easy there. I'm a plumber. This is my WORK. And you're the one intruding over here.
>Jack nervously stares at the gun for a bit, then speaks up again, a little less loud and quite a bit more hasty this time. He slowly raises up his hands as he talks.
Weeeell, it's not like I mind, you know? I just don't think there are people that would want to be here for money, let alone by choice, okay...?
| Well, there's a hole right next to me that leads who knows where you could use if you're suicidal enough, but otherwise-
>Jack looks up at the hand holding the gun
OH MY GOD you don't have the gloves on. Can you pretend you have me at gunpoint while you put them on? You'll rot alive here otherwise. Catch!
>Jack takes out a pair of spare gloves from his uniform and throws them up to the girl
| >Jack jumps to the hole and sits up onto the edge of the hole.
Are you the one being chased by the two cars? These things..
| >The hole is deep, and the sound of rushing water can be heard coming from within...
>The streets have long gone quiet, eerily so
| Those were old Motohonda cars, lady. They were "economically built" even during their inception. Today, the only reason someone would want to ride one of these things is if they were a psycho and wanted to run someone over. Now come, I'm hiding with you.
>Jack turns around to crawl into the place where the pipe used to be, still facing the girl
| >Down in the manhole is an old tunnel, to the right of the ladder, a large metal door, it seems to lead to an elevator
>The smell is thick and the tunnel goes two ways for quite a while it seems... the dark is too much to see through
| >Jack first tries to crawl up and stand, but hesitates for a bit.
Hey, lady? Are you following?
>Jack decides to wait for the girl. Concerned over what he saw as her paleness, he starts looking for a microflashlight in his uniform in the meantime.
| >The girl follows, slowly, with a grunt
"It wasn't cars after-me, it was a... thing"
>She says slowly
"Let's just get out before it decides to follow me"
| >>400128
>The tunnel is quiet... besides the exit, the door and the two opposite directions the tunnel leads to, there isn't much else to go...
| >Jack turns around and sheds some light on the girl.
Jesus, you really are that pale- Oh.
>Jack notices the blood all over her right arm.
Is that.. yours? Is there an open wound there?
| Regardless, you still have a bloodied arm over here, and if it's from an open wound it needs to be treated immediately- hey, you don't know where you're going, get back here!
| >>400177
>You move forward into the tunnel
>It seems like a collapse happened, it's impossible to go further
>Large pools of blood litter the floor here, the smell is nauseating
| >>400196
>The girl clicks her tongue
"I guess the only choice is to go down that damn hole huh"
>She backtracks to it
| >Jack, still waiting for the girl, takes out a thermobottle filled with vodka from his backpack and turns it to SPRAY mode.
| >>400548
>There is no hole here, seeing as you are already within the tunnel said manhole lead to
>Seeing as the front way is blocked, this leaves the elevator and the path behind you to be explored
| >As the girl got close to Jack, he sprayed his alcohol all over her bloodied arm.
| >She flinches
"What the hell are you doing, you wanna die?"
>She says, grinding her teeth as her arm gets sprayed
| So you ARE wounded. Christ.
>Jack takes out a pipecutter and breaks it in two. He uses the part that had the small razor to cut away at a lower part of his jeans.
>Jack hands the girl the cloth he tore away as well as the thermobottle. He is visibly angry.
Now finish the disinfecting job and tie your wound up. Don't waste too much of my booze, though, I still got a whole day to go through.
| >Jack's face lightens up a little.
So what's your name and how many bullets do you got left?
| >>400887
"The name isnt important, and I have two mags and third who's half empty"
>She bandages her arm, groaning from the pain
| >Jack rolls his eyes.
Alright, fine, GIRL. How far in are you planning to hide and why can't you solve your "a thing" problem with the gun?
>Jack is feeling chilly, so he walks forward in the direction that the girl didn't take to warm himself up.
| >>400897
"Trust me, if I could of killed that thing I wouldnt of ran down here in the first place"
| >Jack keeps walking.
Mind describing the "thing" for me then, Theodora? Does it really sound like a piece of shit Motohonda?
| >>400912
"It was something that looked human yet wasnt it had glowing eyes and no matter how many times I shot at it, it didnt budge nor bleed"
>She says while shrugging
| >Jack forcefully takes his thermobottle of booze from the girl. Its volume is around a liter, but it can hold 2.5 liters of liquid through basic compression techniques of 204X. The LED displays that it currently holds 0.8L of liquid.
Sure, but what did it sound like, Matthew?
| >>401511
"..."
>She looks at Jack
"Just stop calling me whatever came to mind, the sound was human, laughter"
>She goes to inspect the hole leading into the depths
| >Jack follows behind. He's already wasted enough time today, might as well take a "break" and make up for it tomorrow.
Whatevercametomind, have you ever tried listening to a slowed down recording of a cat meowing?
| >>401584
>Darkness is the only thing to be seen, a small ladder leads down into what looks like sewers...
| >>401656
>The girl thinks and then shakes her head
"No, I haven't"
>She starts descending down the ladder
| >>401662
>The ladder leads into what seems like a sewer, next to it is a door, on it are written the words: 'Glory and riches await, but only for those ready to face tribulations'
>The sewer is dark and cold, you can either go forward or backwards from it
| >Jack takes a sip of his vodka. Forgetting that it's still in SPRAY mode, he sprays it all over his face, getting some in his eyes. He flinches and lets out a small "ow" scream before continuing to talk. Eyes irritated, he now frequently has his eyes closed.
I was given a nanocomp as a birthday present when I was 9. Back then, application use wasn't regulated at all, so I decided to see what it would sound like if I slowed down the audio of my cat Jin purring and meowing.
| >Jack stops his recollections and looks over to the door's writings.
Glory and riches await, but only for those ready to face treebulations.. The fuck is this?
| >Suddenly, there is a light flashing at the two people, the light can be traced to a flashlight attachment of a heavily modified P250 pistol
>The holder was a man in a spec ops uniform,fully kitted with a gas mask and a plate vest. On his back was a AK74 with an ACOG sights, a laser sights and a sound suppressor.He also has a M320 grenade launcher on his vest
"Hello?Theres still people here?"
| >The guy shout into the comm
"Kobra-1 to command centre, Ive reached the site,ready to proceed on the mission"
| >>402180
"What the hell now"
>The girls says tiredly, before turning to the hole, and proceeding deeper ahead
| >The comm channel reply back
"Alright, Kobra-1 you are clear to proceed"
>The guy reply back
"Copy that"
>He proceed deeper down into the depth, holding his pistol out in front of him
| >As he reach the bottom,he holster his pistol and take out the AK-74,turning the laser sights to flashlight mode
| >Jack runs after Kobra-1.
Hey buddy, I think you got the wrong door! The historical warfare recreation club is two blocks down! Christ, I can even hear your comms all the way from here..
| >The guy turn back to Jack
"Im not in that nonsense club, Im here because there is a report of strange heat signal here. So Im here to investigate the matter.Kobra-1 is my ID,but you should call me Barrage"
>Barrage turn back toward the tunnel ahead of him, the flashlight illuminate the place up a little, showing bloodstains on the wall.
| "All these bloodstain, thank the lord I have this gas mask on.This place would smell horrible"
>Barrage shine his flashlight at the girl
"Hey! You okay there? Your arm is really bloody"
| As far as I can tell, that's "Linne's" blood and not someone else's. She should have disinfected and tied up the wound, mind checking if she did a good job?
| >Barrage walk up to the girl and start to inspect the wound
"The cloth is completely soaked in blood.Here,take this first aid kit"
>Barrage hand a pack of first aid kit at the girl
| Why are we even..
>Jack sighs. It's too late for this not to be a day off, it seems.
I don't know who hired you, Barrage, but you might want to know a couple of things about this place. First things first, though... How did you get here? It was through that small crawlspace where a pipe was supposed to be, yeah?
| "Yes, there was a small crawl space"
>Barrage put away his first aid kit
| >>Jack starts telling Barrage and Linne about his job as a plumber and the peculiarities of the pipes' corrosion.
| >As Barrage was listening to Jack's stories, a sudden sound was heard in the distance
"That... Sound like someone is screaming in terror,we should watch out for whatever is in here"
| >Barrage's flashlight reveal some rats feeding on something.The rats shy away at the light,revealing what appear to be a leftover of some kind of cow
"Thats still fresh,but the rats do their job quickly.Whatever is in here probably raid farms for food,that would explain the corpse"
| >As you move forward, you arrive to a large room, there are four reservoirs of water to your left, and to the right is a small stairwell leading up to a catwalk
>The catwalk itself seems to top the room, leading to some sort of office... it's bery dark down here, although having a flashlight helps
>To the front and right of the room, near the back, are two doors
| >Barrage turn on the night vision mode on his AK-74's sight
>Looking through the sight, Barrage can see a heat signal of a strange creature through one of the two doors
| "You two coming?"
>Barrage turn to look at the two behind him
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| >Nobody knows when or why it was built, a massive array of tunnels and rooms under the city itself, yet no sewers ever touch it, no foundations scratch it's walls
>It's there, but it isn't, a hazy place filled with horrors beyond what anyone could imagine... and riches that fit the bill
>The rumours are clear, this place is filled with prizes, but only for those brave and smart enough to gather them and return unharmed
>In the shadow of a large tree, it's entrance awaits...
(Cont.)