The Hearing in the Sewer

The next move should have been simple. Blastbelle wanted the key. The stash door was nearby. The Rat King was dead. The party had already done the dangerous part, or at least the part with teeth. But CC's warning stayed in the room like smoke. Blastbelle pushed hard. They needed to unlock the vault now, grab the loot, and get out before anyone else arrived. She reminded them that this was the whole reason she had brought them into the sewers: recover the hidden Thieves Guild stash, get the treasure back, and keep her place in the Guild after the failed farm job. CC said she was lying. She did not say Blastbelle was merely greedy. She said Blastbelle was not who she claimed to be. Maine tried to turn the sewer into a hearing. He asked what was actually in the vault. He asked why the timing had suddenly become so urgent. He tried to check old memories against the person standing in front of them, looking for a question that could prove whether this was the same Blastbelle they had met before. The answer came back clean enough to be frustrating: Blastbelle knew details she should know. That did not prove she was safe. It only proved the lie, if there was one, had reached deeper than a bad disguise. Maine tried another angle. He subtle-cast Charm Person on Blastbelle, hoping to tilt the situation toward truth or at least cooperation. The magic failed to give them the clarity they needed. Blastbelle only pressed harder, saying she needed the key, needed the loot, and needed the score before someone else reached it. CC was no easier. When asked for credentials, she gave warning instead of proof. She told them she did not want to hurt them. She said Blastbelle was not who she claimed to be. She did not even need the key herself. They could lose it, throw it away, destroy the opportunity entirely, anything except give it to Blastbelle. Then Maine asked who CC was with. CC would not say. Not because she did not know. Because saying it would make things worse. Naming them, whoever they were, would create a larger problem. She could not give the party the word they wanted, only the pressure of the danger around it. Jonah trusted the mystery more quickly than Maine did. CC had saved them. Blastbelle had mostly pursued her own goals. Victor, arriving in sewer disguise, saw the key as leverage: if the Thieves Guild mattered as an ally, the party could bring the key to the Guild directly instead of handing it to one desperate representative. Dhaz and Ash weighed the same problem from the practical side. Nobody liked deciding this while trapped underground between two people accusing each other. The group stepped aside and chose caution. They would not give Blastbelle the key. They would take it back, verify what was happening, and deal with the Thieves Guild or VQU from a safer position. They knew where the door was. They had the key. The stash was not going anywhere unless someone else came for it. When they returned with the decision, CC warned that the Thieves Guild had already been infiltrated. Maine asked who. CC nearly answered, then stopped herself. If she said their names, the danger would become worse. Whatever she knew, it was not safe to speak aloud in the sewer. Then she vanished in smoke. That left Blastbelle alone with the party, the key still out of her hands, her patience gone thin and sharp. Maine tried one last reasonable line: if there was no true time crunch, they could leave, confirm identities, and return with help. Blastbelle's answer was not an answer. Her body began to change.