[RiDragon]

Foria stared down at the sewer entrance, her eyes burning like embers down into the dark as if her stare could destroy the whole thing.  Going into a sewer, why didn't she pay attention to that lady?  Sniff?  Ness?  Whatever.  All she knew is that she was about ten steps away from getting literal [redacted] on her nice faux leather shoes.  Why must there always be a sewer level? she lamented to herself.  Treasure hunting was supposed to be in castles and tombs, not the (literal) bowels of the city itself.  She considered for more than a moment to simply turn around and be done with the place, screw the job, but then she might be crossing the wrong person, or missing out on something very good.  

[RiDragon]

She took a few steps forward and hesitated again, but the Jirbii on her shoulder chittering in annoyance pushed her to continue.  Imagine having that thing think that you were a coward, hell no, she was not getting upstaged by her pet.  She took a moment to look through her bag to be sure everything was in order, if she had to leave to resupply she'd probably just stay at home instead.  Flashlight, rations, rope, extra batteries (learned how necessary those were the hard way), water--

*Bonk*

Her Jirbii had given her a knock to the head.  Of course, it hadn't hurt, but it was enough to get the message across. Stop stalling.

"Fine, fine."

[RiDragon]

The adventurer gagged at the moist air as she descended into the bowels (heh) of Aldrect, watching her feet nervously in fear of slipping and getting a mouthful of...  Yeah.  

"Guess it goes to show ya, no matter how high and mighty they act, they're always still gonna sh-"

Screeching and yelling interrupted her vulgarity, and she looked up to see ugly little amphibian (she didn't really care about animal taxonomy much.) things swarming around her.  She stepped back only to sense them behind her as well.  She cursed under her breath, trying to look for an escape as they cheered about their new fresh meat.

[RiDragon]

She took a breath, trying not to choke on the air and gathering herself before calmly leaning against a nearby railing (she regretted this instantly.)  "Oh man, it's too bad we're gonna get eaten before we can taste the best meat ever we were looking for."  She said, keeping her voice cool and indifferent.  The Jirbii caught on quickly, and put on an act of being more sad than scared.

The creatures tilted their heads, their curiosity winning over their hunger.  "The bestest meat ever?"  One asked, looking at another besides it.  They murmured amongst themselves, and Foria could just barely keep herself from sweating.

[RiDragon]

Got them.  "Oh yeah, why else would people from the surface be here?  It's for the best ever meat.  But...  We're going to be eaten now, and we can never share the joy of trying it out.  I'm really sad because no one else knows where it is, so now it'll probably rot away into dust."

One of the hydrolisks wailed at the idea of such good meat being wasted.  The apparent leader of them stepped forward, silencing the pack as it spoke.

"We want!"  It growled, slashing at the air.  "Want the bestest meat to eat with pack, where?!"

"Hmmm...  I guess I can show you, but you have to promise not to eat me, okay?"

"Yes yes, we want bestest meat!"

"Bestest Meat!  Bestest Meat!"  The pack cheered in unison as a bead of sweat dropped down Foria's neck.  Her Jirbii perched on her shoulder chittered at her, as if saying, "Well, now what?"

"I'll think of something."  She muttered back underneath the "Bestest Meat" cheering.

[RiDragon]

Part 2: Twisting Tunnels

She continued through the sewer, trying to grasp for ideas for what the hell to do now that they had a convoy of lizard-people following them.  At least they were safe from being eaten for now, right?  Unless they decided to get antsy again...  Which was completely possible.  Maybe she could pawn off some rock as the meat?  No, she didn't have the time or space to make an escape while they tried it out.  If only she wasn't stuck in this damned cramp place, she's been in tombs with more room than this for Gods' sake!  No where to make a quick exit or to hide until the coast was clear, just her, this tunnel, and a bunch of lizards.

[RiDragon]

The Jirbii clinging to her shoulder started chattering excitedly, climbing to the top of Foria's head and sniffing at the air.

"Gigi?"  She was confused for a few moments before realizing what the little creature was so excited about. Fresh air!

She quickened her pace before slowing back down again, realizing she may trigger some sort of predatory instinct if she ran.  Yes, yes, maybe she could get out of this damned situation after all?  Heck, if it was a direct line to the surface, she may just up and leave, no matter how much the Jirbii complained...  This place was not worth whatever the hell was at the end.

[RiDragon]

The adventurer stopped suddenly, almost causing her companion to fall off her shoulders.  The renewed vigor she had felt moments before at the thought of the surface draining out of her all at once.  Flooded.  It was all flooded.  Of *course* it was all flooded, why wouldn't it be?  

"Cold-water." The comment snapped her out of her frustrated glaring at the murky depths.

"What?" She stammered, having forgotten that they were being followed.

"Outsider bring to Cold-water. Bestest meat is here?"

"Wh-. Oh yeah, according to my uh, special secret knowledge, it's somewhere beyond the... "Cold-water," as you call it."

Another of the reptiles chirped to itself in thought. "Smart of meat hiders, clan does not go to clear water.  Cold and clean, do not like."  Murmurs of agreement echoed among the others.

[RiDragon]

Foria took a moment to sit down on the first clean surface she had seen in a while, realizing just how much her legs ached from the trek.  The lizard-people were busy murmuring among themselves.  She had tried to listen, but they seemed to be talking in their own guttural language she had no familiarity with, though she occasionally heard "bestest meat" among the jibberish.

She took a long drink from the bottle she had taken, and reached for some of the dried meats she had brought with her.  Actually, perhaps not.  She thought as she glanced at the bickering reptiles.  Wouldn't want to trigger a feeding frenzy, or make them think she was hiding the meat...

[RiDragon]

Finally, the leader of the Hydrolisks approached her, leading a frail shape by his tail to her.

"Elder give magic.  For outsider to in water."  He scrunched up his nose at the water, as if it was the unclean sewage rather than what they had come out of.  "We follow, worth for meat."

Foria looked at the hunched figure that tottered over to her.  It appeared smaller than the other reptiles, though perhaps it was because the shape was hunched.  It was almost entirely covered in a grubby and patched together cloak.  It lifted the hood and revealed milky white eyes and an aged face.  (As aged as a reptile could look, at least.)

*Bonk*

Before she had time to react, the elder had hit her with the rounded end of a large stick.  It tingled, but mostly hurt.  "Can be in water now."  It said, voice vaguely female.  It turned to look at the Jirbii.  "Oh, this one too."  Gigi was bonked as well.

[RiDragon]

No turning back now.

She waded into the freezing pool, though it was a nice change from the sticky humidity of the sewer.  She considered taking a moment to wash some of the filth off of her, but a glance at the waiting lizards made her decide to carry on.  She finally dived into the pool, hesitating to breathe in the water on instinct, though she eventually forced herself to.

For a moment she thought she was tricked as she choked on the water.  Of course it was a trick, all it did was hit her with a stick!  Now they'll get a nice popsicle adventurer.

With a start, she realized she probably wouldn't be able to think so clearly and for so long if she was actually drowning.  Though extremely unpleasant, she was indeed inhaling and exhaling the water without issue.  She looked at the Jirbii clinging frantically to her hair and shrugged, before continuing on through the maze of underwater tunnels.

[RiDragon]

Part Three: The Choice
#2, The Server Room

After what felt like an hour dodging mouthy fish and trying to ignore the skeletons, Foria finally breached the surface at the end of the horrible tunnel.  It took a few moments of sputtering to get all the water out of her lungs and take a breath of air. Awful experience.  Would not recommend.  One out of ten at least I lived.

Stumbling forward a few steps, she nearly walked right into a large metal door.  "Well, at least it was easy to find."  She mused, fishing around in her soaking wet backpack for the keycard.  Well, there go the emergency flashlights, guess I should of gone for the waterproof ones.  She threw the useless flashlights aside before pocketing a few flares in case it was dark inside, luckily those usually worked when wet.

The door slid open much more smoothly than she thought it would after she swiped the card, and a feeling of danger crept over her.  This place can't be abandoned, it looks so...  Lived in.  Though after a closer look she could see the signs of abandonment, leftover food, cups of coffee, overturned chairs, and some cobwebs beginning to form in the corners of the ceiling.

[RiDragon]

Foria and the Hydrolisks filed into the room, all of them looking around hesitantly.  Foria noticed immediately how they avoided the left side of the room entirely, the few that ventured close to it rearing back and scurrying away after a few sniffs at the broken glass.  Naturally, she approached the left side, perhaps this was a way to shake the reptiles?  She peered in and took a few steps forward, she could tell that Gigi was nervous by how her claws dug into her shoulder.

"Bestest meat is there?"  The lizards looked at each other.  "No, bad place, cannot go.  Meat there is bad."

Foria grinned and went to go down the path, before seeing some blobby movement in the distant darkness.

Nope.

To the opposite side it is!

[RiDragon]

Dealing with the lizard men were worth it compared to dealing with some hell-bound abominations from failed (or maybe even successful) science experiments.  She'd rather not melt into a pile of acid today, thanks.  Hell, being ripped apart by angry lizards sounds nicer than that!

... Of course, the nicest thing would be to not die, like, at all, even if it was a super pleasant death.  Not dying was always going to be the goal.

...  Which makes her again question why she took this damned job in the first place if she wanted survival to be the goal in the end.  To be fair, it didn't sound as dangerous as it was starting to become...

[RiDragon]

And so, she entered the surprisingly cold hallway to the server room.  The door behind her stayed open just long enough for the last Hydrolisk to make their way through it as if it wanted us all to be there before it shut tight with a dreadful click, signalling that it had locked.  Right, why the hell would the security systems be off?  The place still had power after all.  Perhaps she was hoping that in the hurry the previous denizens had forgotten to arm it?

She froze, feeling naked in front of all the cameras.  What a rookie mistake, being caught on camera...

The message the machine had said was odd, something about it felt more than just prerecorded, but she had no time to consider this as the...  Creatures came out of the dark, twitching unnaturally and approaching with hunger and malice in their eyes.