RP:The Painted Ones
Part of the Rynvale New Dawn Arc
LOCATION: Rynvale Sewers, The lair of the Fermin (rp’d location)
The room was dark and cramped. Ventilation was bad, and the air stank. But, unusually, it was dry. The floor slanted upward slightly from the doorway, keeping the sewage and sludge that covered most of the rest of the sewer tunnels out. In one corner of the room a pile of picks, shovels and buckets leaned against the wall. Currently occupying the room was a small group of Fermin, rat-men ranging from 2 to 4 feet in length, with fur in different colors. None of them were clean, with their fur filthy and matted from constant contact with the water and sewage. All of them bore seemingly random splatters or bands of colored paint across their heads. They also all wore what appeared to be glass bottles hanging around their necks on chains, and inside each bottle was some sort of green goo. In the center of the room a medium-sized Fermin sat, with all the others lounging around the edges facing him. One of the smaller rats was sitting up on its haunches, laboriously reading a crumpled note in the darkness.
Splag eyed the pile of tools as he listened to his scribe read the latest note from the new Governor of Port Rynvale. When the scribe finished reading, the sewer chamber was silent while he thought it over. After a moment he turned to one of his advisors (not trusted advisor, as the Fermin don’t have a word for ‘trust’. The closest they come is a word that means ‘unwary’). “Sigger, tell me, what dids the Washed say abouts us when they walked down here the other day?”
Sigger, a black-furred Fermin with mostly brown, gray and dark green paint splotches on his head, sat up on his haunches and started speaking, his voice raspy and echoing off the walls. “They was three of them- two males and one female. One male was wolf-male, the others was elfs. The elf-male stole the boomstuff… Hex-poor-sleeves, I tink they called thems. Or In-cinder-ease. He stole it and brought it withouts the others knowing it. He was mad lots too. Wolf-male not like us much, but liked being down here less I thinks. The elf-female seemed to be Boss. She not liked not knowing anything about us, but like Scribe say, she think we is Fermin. She want to open up a station down here, mebbe sit one of us in it.” Then he grinned hugely and said, “Mebbe so that he can makes sure that the sewer doesn’t gets up and walk away!” This joke caused the other Fermin to giggle and laugh among themselves for a few moments.
Splag laughed along with them, grinning widely. Once it had died back down he pointed at one of the brown Fermin. “Conna, yous take the younglings and start on the rocks. Break em up and drop em down the chute. No.. wait a sec. Take em as much as you cans and pile em in a side room. We might needs the rock for something later. Like walls or barricades. Give the younglings a … brown stripe over the right eye for it.” He looked over at another one of his cadre, “Jutle, you takes 2 of the younglings and some oozies and clean up the bodies. Save anything edible. Too bad we didn’t gets none of the naga bodies- that would has been tasty. Then gets to work on some of the pileups of dump. Use the oozies to melt em down behind the walls as far as you cans, then when Conna’s group has the rocks outta the way you cans move the rest and toss it down the chute. Takes a yellow blotch on the nose for it, kay?” Then he turned to another black-furred Fermin, smaller than Sigger. “Het, what news from the upworld?”
Het licked his lips nervously. “They has lots of patrols out. Is harder to find food now. We is seeing less loose animals, and the street peoples is being taken away by the guards before we can gets to them. I doesn’t know where else to gets any from, Boss.” He cowered down on the ground, shaking slightly, as the other Fermin looked on.
Splag glared daggers at him. “So yous telling me you didn’t get no food at all, Het?”
Het desperately shook his head, “No, Boss! We got some! A couple dogs, some cats and some birdies. Just not enough for all us and the beasties.”
Splag continued to glare at him, until the unfortunate Het dropped his head back to the floor. After a moment, he said to him, “You gots a choice then, Het. You can goes into the larder yourself, or yous can go out the back exit into the Forest, and find us some food there. Takes you squad with you, but only to helps you carry the food back, or to helps carry you back. You gets it?” Splag waited until he got a nod from the miserable Het, then looked at the others. “All yous others, keep an eye out for more food. If Het can’t find us nothing more than hisself, we is still gonna need more. Otherwise the beasties is gonna get hungry and maybe try to eat us. Check all the tunnels, dig through all the piles, find anything we can feed the beasties. They not care too much what they eat, sos we might get lucky. Conna, start blocking off one of the back tunnels with you rocks. If we has to, we block all the beasties in.” He looked around at the others, his red eyes gleaming oddly in the darkness. “Anybody got anything else I needs to know bout?” Seeing no reactions, he nodded his head toward the exit, “Okay, gets going.”