The Secret Room

It was fairly late by the time I arrived back at my place. Even then I was still up early the next day for Raginhard to let me back into the sewers through the door in the basement of the Union. I left what I had collected the previous day for him to cash in for me. The marker that Floriana indicated was on the northern side of the Unions complex. I believed that there's a bunch of row houses in that area owned by the Union.

There were a few monstrous rats along the way but it didn't take me long to get to the marker. The area looked just like the rest of the sewer I had been in. Wanting to trust her abilities, I made a thorough search of the stone work. This part of the sewers seemed to have suffered a number of renovations over the centuries. All of it was old enough that a casual glance won't be able to tell but my closer inspection showed differences in stone and mortar.

After nearly an hour of pressing the walls looking for a secret compartment, or something hidden in the water, I was about ready to give up and move on to the next marker when I saw an ordinary rat run through a crack. Inspecting the crack I found differences in the stone work. The mortar between parts was broken and didn't connect the stone properly.

I could probably break part of the wall down but what would that do to the stability of this section of tunnel? Would it affect the street above? But whatever was behind there could be valuable? Maybe not in terms of coin but in experience, the kind that heroes in stories needed inorder to progress. It was supposed to be a fateful encounter after all.

It was a bit frustrating knowing there could be something important here and I just couldn't get to it. No matter how I looked or prodded the area I couldn't find a way to open it. It was possible that I had to come in from the other side, but then I'd have to figure out which building was above here.

Not wanting to waste my day staring at an unmovable wall, I started to check the map to find the most efficient route to the next set of markers. Then a chill ran through my bones as I heard a scraping sound come from the wall. It would come then go, come then go very faintly but increasing in sound. It sounded like someone scratching the stone work from the other side. Raginhard said that undead should be rare but they weren't completely out of the question.

With my aura running through my veins, I could hear it slowly getting louder and louder with my enhanced hearing. It then stopped. The stone work remained unmoving.

Plop.

I looked at a normal rat that had jumped into the water and was swimming to the other side of the tunnel. There, where it had come out of a small hole, was the glint of a metal object. Picking it up, I saw it looked like ordinary brass. Circular in shape with parts cut out, leaving the image of a bird as near as I could tell. When I held it up to the wall, a number of runes along the edge of the miss matched stones began to glow.

With a rumble the stone door slid inward. The light from the bright stone showed a decent sized room in a heavy state of decay. It had to have been at least a century since someone had been here. A number of crates and chest were broken from wood rot, remnants of grain sacks sat next to them. There were a few shelves and racks that contained weapons that were falling apart. All of the metal was rusted beyond any practical use.

In the center of the room was a table and a few chairs that held up surprisingly well compared to the rest of the room. In three of the chairs were skeletons, some of their bones only being held up by their decrepit armor. A bottle of wine covered in cobwebs sat in the center, a cup in front of each of them. My brief inspection of the bodies and the general area led me to believe they were all poisoned. Whether they drank knowingly or not, I don't think I'd ever be able to tell.

The letters on the table seemed to be written in a code, making no sense to me. A ledger contained numbers that might have been times and dates. The few words in the ledger were also in code. The last item on the table was a map that looked similar to the one I had of the sewers. Four other locations were marked on the map with the same code written on it.

I pulled the papers into my storage ring. It was doubtful that anything other than the map would be of use. It did contain a few tunnels not on my Union map but it was over a hundred years old, so they might not be accessible nowadays.

With nothing else catching my immediate attention, I moved towards the heavy wooden door on the far end of the room. It had been bolted from the inside with a large beam bracing it. After opening the door I found a small stone circular staircase leading upwards. At the top of which was a small ladder that led to a stone hatch.

It took some effort but I was able to lift the stone slab. I found myself in a dusty basement with a few discarded pieces of broken furniture. These items seemed to be maybe a decade abandoned. This pointed towards the most recent inhabitants having no idea there was a secret room below their house.

At the stairs I didn't hear any sound coming from above. I rotated my shadow mote into a spell to lessen noise around me as I made my way up. The stairs led to an abandoned kitchen. The amount of dust around helped me to relax. I wasn't about to walk in on a family going about their day.

There were three doors leading off the kitchen. The closest to the stairs had a cracked window that looked out into an alley. I could see through one door that had fallen into a dining room. The last door opened into the main hall, with the front door on the far end.

I continued through the ground floor finding an empty library and an empty sitting room. I took the stairs leading up to find four rooms and a few cupboards in the hall. Only one of them had a broken bed, the rest were completely empty. The next floor had the same layout with nothing in the rooms. The stairs then led to the attic. There were a few chests that contained various worn linens but nothing usable.

Before I left I peeked through the moldy curtains in the front of the house in hopes that I would recognize the area from the outside. Back in the basement, I moved some furniture around the stone slab to better hide it and used my air mote to stir up the dust throughout the basement. There was no way I was going to be able to hide where the slab had distrubed the dust on the floor. Better to disturb the whole area in case someone comes down.

Back in the secret room I compared the two map. While this room didn't have anything of use, these markings could indicate where I could find something of value. I cross referenced the places I needed to go from both, making the most efficient game plan I could. Hitting these new places would add another two days to this quest. That assumed that the tunnels on the map I just found still existed.

I rolled up the maps and was about to leave, when I saw a glint coming from the sword on one of the skeletons. The state of the scabbard and the leather hit led me to not inspect it. But as I pulled the sword out, I saw that it was still in perfect condition. I sent the magic from my mana core to the metal and sensed that it was enchanted. And since its two enchantments were familiar to me, I knew what it could do.

The Reinforcement enchant made the blade incredibly difficult to break. While the Sharpness enchant made it so the blade cut more easily and never needed to be sharpened. They were the two most basic weapon enchantments. The blade my father gave me to train had the same enchantments. I'd have to keep the blade hidden for the moment as any item found in the city would need to be turned into the Union and I didn't want to explain this place.

I wonder what my father did with my sword?

After stowing the weapon, I closed the secret room with the brass medallion. I decided to only hit one more marker for the day since I had spent so much time looking for that room. As luck would have it, a bunch of monstrous rats had set up their nests right under the marker. My new blade cut through them with ease. The leather of the hilt would need to be replaced but the rest would work out nicely.