The Wall That Forgot How to Be Polite

Leaving the stash was not as simple as deciding to leave. The party had treasure now, but treasure made every choice heavier. The Bloodstone Void Diamond stayed close to Maine. The red-cap note still waited unread. The Thieves Guild was no longer a clean destination. CC had vanished. The real Blastbelle might be absent, replaced, dead, or somewhere else entirely. So the group started with the practical question. How do we get out? Ash had a new answer sitting on his head. The Rat King Crown worked almost immediately. With it, Ash could speak to one of the remaining rats, a small sewer witness with no name and very little interest in being owned by one. The rat knew the world in rat terms. Town was the place where people dropped food. The fastest route up, for a rat, involved burrowing through a wall for about a week. For people, the normal way out was the way the party had come in. Ash fed the rat anyway. It was a small exchange, but it mattered. After a night of rats as swarm, weapon, warning, and monster, one rat became a conversation instead. The crown turned a former threat into a guide, imperfect but useful, and pointed the party back along their original path. The return route had changed. The little camp near the Rat King path had been disturbed. The fire was out. Items had moved. Books and loose material were gone. Someone had come through while the party was fighting, arguing, opening vaults, and dividing treasure. The sewers were not frozen in place around them. Other hands were still active down there. Then they found Podon again. He was near a wall, touching and testing it with the conviction of someone who had either found a secret or wandered into one by accident. Podon spoke in his usual sideways poetry, but the meaning eventually pushed through: he thought the wall had opened before. He thought little people had come through it. After the red caps, that was worth listening to. Ash checked the wall and saw enough movement to take Podon seriously. Maine brought Mage Hand into the search. The party pushed, pulled, prodded, and debated whether they were in any condition to go looking for more small Fey killers, Graven Scourge, or whatever else lived behind mystery masonry. Jonah settled the question with a hammer. Still ice-strong from the potion, he struck the wall hard enough to knock a brick through. The hole revealed a hidden space beyond and, more importantly, a lever on the other side. Maine used Mage Hand to pull it. The wall opened inward. Podon rushed through at once. Beyond the hidden door, the party saw signs that the sewer had more layers than the stash route. There was another entrance, another lever, and farther in, bodies wearing Graven Scourge colors. Some were dead. One was not quite gone. Jonah crossed to him and used Spare the Dying. He did not turn the man into an ally. He did not solve the Graven Scourge problem. He simply refused to let someone bleed out when he could stop it. Then he left a stone card beside the spared thug, a small marker of the Creator placed in a hidden sewer passage full of violence. The party had found a new route. Podon had found another direction to chase C-Ment. And the hidden wall suggested that red caps, Graven Scourge men, and secret sewer movement had been crossing much closer to the party's path than anyone had realized.