Year 25

"Well, what the hell do these folks expect? If they want outlandish theatrics they can pay out the ass to watch a Klyton Gladiator match where the minimum bets are much higher. At least here we have fights where we'll accept a five copper bet." You say.
"Yes, but at the arena, people don't have the deal with the bums they've bet on to puke in the middle of the ring and pass out causing the other to win by default." Zalmora says.
"That happened ONE time." You remark.
"Well there's also the ongoing smell of the sewers that puts people off."
"Yeah, well the Klyton council just increased the city's militia numbers recently and stepped up patrols. So keeping business in the sewers is about the safest place to do all this if we want to avoid sudden raids."
"It might not have been necessary to wallow in the sewers if they had another distraction."
"So you've said many times in the past, but I think things still worked out with me in charge."
"We're doing okay I suppose, but I'm still not sure if bum fight gambling and going back to selling Yellow Devil was the way to go about it."
"Hey we've got whores too."
"Ah yes, those mostly tie into the Yellow Devil trade. I shudder to think about the hopeless cases that actually pay to fuck YD junkies."
"Hey not everyone can afford the high priced Klyton brothels. Look, I saw that the only way we were going to survive is to have steady businesses. The Klyton Council are the biggest criminal overlords and nobody says shit because they effectively legalized everything and control the biggest gang to protect their interests. I mean there wasn't really any way to feasibly compete except offer similar things at lower the prices and cater to the lower class."

Zalmora looks at nearby group betting and getting excited over a giant roach race.

"Pretty sure some of these folks are under the lower class." Zalmora replies.
"Yeah, well a coin's a coin, don't you have a house to break into or something?" you say.
"Always, but I don't understand why you don't come on these things like you used to."
"Because I gotta look after shit around here. I just can't drop everything to go rip off a store. I'm not Tom, I don't just sit on my ass doing nothing."
"I didn't say you were, but you used to be a little more fun at least. Like those first few years when you got here. Remember?" Zalmora says with a bit of a smile.
"Yeah, well I'm not a damn stupid teenager anymore that gets distracted by a pretty girl that wiggles her ass at me."

Zalmora steps back from you a bit giving a slightly perturbed look.

"Okay Mr. bossman, if you hadn't initially taken my advice in the first place you wouldn't even be in this position." Zal says.
"OR if I hadn't taken your advice, I might have been in this position a lot sooner. In fact despite you always bringing it up, I'd say not listening to you turned out to be a lot better " you remark.
"Right, because this is such a great position to be in."
"I'm in charge ain't I? Y'know what your problem is? You thought you were going to manipulate me into doing whatever you wanted just because you threw a little pussy my way. And now you're bitter that didn't happen. If you really want control of the Talons, you could always challenge me Zal."
"Oh no, not me! Never would I challenge your insurmountable wisdom boss. Obviously you've got things under control more than little ol' me could ever handle." Zal says with obvious sarcasm in her voice.
"If you don't want to take over and you don't like how I'm running things, why don't you just leave then? Not like I'm going to try to kill you for leaving."
"Don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind. You know why I'm even still in the Talons? Because deep down I'm actually hoping you know what you're doing. So far you're ahead, but I'm just wondering for how long. Edmond was pretty much running things like you are now. Granted you are less of a violent asshole than he was, but I'm seeing the same pattern."
"I'm not sure what to tell you Zal, I mean we're fucking criminals doing illegal shit. This is sort of way things are done."
"(Sigh) Yeah, I know…guess I'm just starting to wonder why I ever thought this was fun. I'll leave you to your drugs and whores."

Zalmora walks away.

You sometimes forget that Zal is at least around fifteen years older than you now. She's probably starting to worry about age catching up. Probably didn't see herself mucking about through sewers at this age taking orders from someone a lot younger. Weird, because Vaughn doesn't seem to have a problem with it, but then Vaughn's never been one to make waves.

As you walk back to the Crimson hideout thinking about the future, you have to admit, it isn't as bright as you once thought.

All things considered you are doing well right now, but there just doesn't seem to be any let up on the laws being passed to turn this city into a huge prison camp. Part of that you imagine is due to the rebellion in Holgard. You're certainly glad you didn't decide to go there given what you heard.

At one time, you did toy with the possibility of going "legit" somehow. Like maybe buying an inn and running it. Maybe even the one your family once owned. It would sure be a complete circle if you did that.

Of course it wasn't so much going "legit" as it was the idea of having a place to run your activities without it being in an abandoned building or recently the fucking sewers.

Though that's a riskier endeavor nowadays and would result in needing to re-organize things again. Might be better to stick with your current set up. It isn't perfect, but it's working.

You stick with what you are doing

The sewers are good enough for you. If you start trying to set up shop up top, you're just going to bring down the heat eventually.

You've got a good thing going on and nobody fucks with you down here. If worst comes to worst, you're confident that you could easily lose the militia if they actually ever made an effort to patrol down here.

Still, maybe you could figure out a way to make this place somewhat less...well like a sewer. You already have made a base in the best abandoned area you can find though. You suppose you could start manually expanding underground further away from the sewers themselves of course that would be a pretty extensive and expensive undertaking and it isn't like you're familiar with the details of excavation.

Although...

This city used to have a fairly large active miner population once. In fact your family made money serving them at their inn. At some point long after your parents had left the city and the inn closed down, the mining trade dried up completely in Klyton for a variety of reasons resulting in a lot of unemployed miners.

In fact some of the bums in your fights are ex-miners. You wouldn't want to rely on just them though, but surely you could scour the city for other ex-miners down on their luck or working jobs they hate. They probably would work cheap. You suppose if you really needed more you could shell out the money for some outside help, but you'd rather keep the costs as low as possible.

Later when you approach Zal and Vaughn with this idea, they're caught off guard by this plan, but don't seem put off by it. Well Vaughn doesn't at least. Zal of course has her usual concerns.

"Okay, I know that look. Out with it." You say.
"It's just...well do you think this is even feasible?" Zal asks.
"I'm not saying it's not going to take effort, but again this is a long term plan. I mean going up top, trying to set up false businesses and store fronts is just not going to work in Klyton. The place is just too damn repressive, but we all know people still WANT to do illegal shit like whoring, drugs, gambling..."
"Erm, actually all those things are legal in Klyton." Vaughn interrupts.
"(Sigh) You know what the fuck I mean! All that high priced shit is easily accessible for the rich folks, but WE cater to the poor and who needs affordable distraction more than they do?"
"So...wait. Are we defenders of the down trodden now?" Zal asks.
"I didn't say all that, but we ARE providing for them in a way. I mean we can start out by digging ourselves out a proper headquarters where we don't have to be constantly bombarded by the smells of the sewer and has a solid defense, but I'm thinking in time we could just build a whole underground town."

Zalmora and Vaughn look at each other and then you.

"A TOWN?!" They exclaim.
"Well maybe not town in the traditional sense, but a place where we can do our business AND live without even worrying about the Klyton militia raiding the place because we would be so damn entrenched that they wouldn't be able to do shit even if they wanted to. We wouldn't just be the criminal organization that skulks around in the Klyton sewers, we would be a whole separate community...bah maybe I'm not explaining it well, but I envision it in my head!" You say.
"No. No, I get what you mean. I have to say, this is really damn ambitious. I mean I can't say I'm not impressed by your plan...but again I just have my concerns if it's going to be possible...but fuck it, I'm in." Zal says.
"Glad to hear it. So, we're going to need miners and equipment which is the easy part, but we're also going to need a genuine engineer so the whole damn thing doesn't fall on our heads. So anyone know of any?" You remark.
"Yeah, Red Nose Rob." Vaughn remarks.
"Who's that?" You ask.
"One of the bums that participates in the fights."
"There's a bum who used to be an engineer? What the hell happened?"
"He was actually a miner, but he had a natural gift when it came to engineering. Which was good for the company since they just used his talents for creating very sound mine supports and they didn't have to pay for a real one. He probably could have been building new structures in Klyton, but he just didn't have the formal education."
"Interesting. But how do you know so much about him?" You ask.
"He has his lucid moments. Plus, um...we used to...meet up..."
"Ew Vaughn. You fucked a disgusting bum?" Zalmora remarks.
"No! I fucked him when he was strapping miner! Sheesh Zal!"
"Never mind all that, would he be able to do the job?" You ask
"I think so. Probably wouldn't have to pay him much more than we do to fight, but we'd definitely have to dry him out a bit though." Vaughn says.

You start making notes of various ideas as you ask more questions.

"Okay, so we got one potential overseer for this project. You got any more engineer ex-lovers?" You ask.
"Not that I know of boss." Vaughn remarks.
"I think I got a potential suggestion." Zal says.
"Oh? You been fucking engineers too?" You ask.
"Even better. Been fucking dwarves. Grahk Kazek is the one that comes to mind."
"Well that's nice that you're so open minded with your choice of sex partners, but is this dwarf an actual engineer? Contrary to popular belief, I don't think all of them dig big holes in mountains for a living."
"This one does. Or at least he did before he retired. He makes a monthly trip from the Cloudpeake Mountains to Klyton because he REALLY likes the pastries from Stovo's Bakery. Buys up a bunch then goes back home. That's where we met actually."
"Didn't know you had ongoing long distance relationship, Zal." You say.
"Lots you don't know about me, but I wouldn't exactly say Grahk and I are in a relationship, we just had a bit of fun together. In fact I haven't seen him in years. I just know he still goes to that bakery since Stovo has mentioned him a few times when I go in there."
"So would he be interested?"
"He's a dwarf and used to construct tunnel ways in the Cloudpeake Mountains. Fairly certain if we throw enough money at him, he'll be willing to oversee the construction of what we're doing. Besides, I can be pretty persuasive."
"Hmm, don't I know it." You say.

The dwarf sounds good, but he sounds like he's going to be really expensive. At lot more than the bum anyway. Of course the bum might be unreliable. You say you'll think about both as you go ask other Talons if they know anybody.

You don't have much luck though. Your other Talons aren't quite as "worldly" as your top lieutenants. There is one who has a lead though.

"Yeah, I think I might know someone boss. This chick called Madeline. She actually attends Klyton University and she's an engineering student." Camid remarks.
"A student?" You ask.
"Yeah, but she's really fucking smart. Top of her class or some shit. I don't even understand what she's talking about half the time. Of course I'm just staring at her tits most of the time anyway."
"How the hell do you even know her?"
"Oh, she's a little rich girl that likes slumming. Likes to watch the bum fights and get high on Yellow Devil. The usual. Oh and we fuck sometimes."

Of course they do. It would certainly be a strange break in the "theme" if they didn't. The drug bit concerns you though.

"Wait, you say she takes Yellow Devil? How the hell is she not a near drooling idiot yet? I don't need someone melting into a pile of goo in the middle of an important project." You say.
"Don't worry boss. That wouldn't happen." Camid says.
"And how do you know?"
"Because...um...I make sure she doesn't actually get Yellow Devil. I mean she does, but it's a VERY small amount. Almost nothing. The rest of it is cut severely with various common shit I get from the apothecary. She feels good for a little while and feels rebellious and she doesn't get really hurt."
"...You like this girl don't you?" You ask causing Camid to look away a bit.
"(Sigh) It didn't start out that way. First time I saw her, I thought she was so damn pretty that I just wanted a chance to fuck her before she turned into a Yellow Devil mess, so I didn't give her the real shit. But in time...well I dunno shit happened...and I'm probably an idiot..." Camid says trailing off a bit.
"Probably, but fortunately your love sick idiocy has worked in your favor, so do you think she'd help?"
"Oh definitely. She'd feel like she would be a real criminal working for a dangerous organization and all. She'd do it for free too, not like she needs the money."
"Actually she would be a real criminal if she was helping us in this capacity. Good to know about the price. I'll keep her in mind."

Well you got a big decision to make based on your underlings recommendations because unfortunately for you, you haven't been lucky enough to fuck someone with engineering skills.

You red Nose Rob

While you have your concerns about Rob, he seems the most affordable, accessible and most importantly, at your mercy. The dwarf you just know is going to ask for a shitload of money and the girl is just a wild child university student. Who knows what kind of chaos that will invite?

You return to Vaughn with your decision.

"Okay Vaughn, we're going to try your guy, so go tell him what's going on, sober him up, clean him up and have him come see me about further details. I also want you to stress that while he doesn't really have a choice in this matter, he'll be making more money and won't have to be getting punched in the face for living." You say.
"Got it boss." Vaughn remarks and leaves to carry out your orders.

A couple days later Vaughn brings in a man with a lot of messy hair, raggedy clothing, a full beard and mustache and red nose. He also has a few bruises on his face. Must be Rob.

"And at last Vaughn has brought you to me, I trust he's filled you in on the basics of what's going on." You say.
"Yes sir." Rob replies without emotion.
"Good. What happened to your face? Did Vaughn do that?"
"Um, no sir. I was in a match three days ago and the other guy got in a few good punches."
"Oh yes, you were doing that bum fight business. Well, you won't have to be doing that anymore. You'll get to use your other natural talent."
"Yes sir." Rob once again replies without emotion.
"Sort of thought you'd be a bit happier about this opportunity."
"Apologies sir, but I'm still having a hard time being completely sober right now. It's been awhile and I feel sort of weird."
"Hm, okay. I should tell you, I don't actually expect you to go completely off the stuff. I just wanted you sober for today while I speak to you. I also expect you to not drink on the job and generally be a functional human being. Now you're going to have some help in this matter since Vaughn here is going to be personally responsible for you. Making sure you stay focused and such."

Rob just nods.

"Okay I'm sensing something more is wrong than you just not being used to being sober." You say and then Vaughn breaks into the conversation.
"Um, yeah. I think Rob is just a bit nervous being within your presence. You know how you have a reputation and all boss." Vaughn remarks.
"I don't think I can do the job sir." Rob blurts out.
"Ha ha ha ha! He's just joking...he..."
"Vaughn, will you shut the hell up? Now Rob, what do you mean you can't do the job exactly?" You ask.
"I mean Vaughn's told me what you want and I just don't think I can do it. I don't have the skill or knowledge."
"Vaughn told me, you had natural talent and were well respected by the mining company because of it."
"Yeah, well if that was the case they wouldn't have fired me along with everyone else. Look, I don't want to disobey you sir, but I don't want to pretend I'm something I'm not. I mean you'd be even more pissed if you found out I didn't know what the fuck I''m doing."
"Heh, well you're right on that one. I actually appreciate the honesty. However, I've never really known Vaughn to step up and speak so favorably of someone. I mean I understand you guys had something once, but Vaughn's not one to stick his neck out and tends to play things safe. I have to believe he must be telling the truth to some degree. I mean you can't be a complete idiot."
"No, maybe not a complete one, but I'm sure not that smart, otherwise I wouldn't be in this situation...(Sigh) I mean if you were asking me to build simple tunnels and rooms and making sure they don't collapse, then yeah I guess I could do that, but I don't know about building an underground city."
"Okay. Let's stop right there. The underground city is probably a long damn way off. Don't even think about it. We're going to start simple and get more complex later. Tell you what we're going to do..."

You proceed to tell Rob that you're just looking to hollow out an underground area to serve as the Crimson Talon headquarters right now and it doesn't have to be fancy. It just needs to be structurally sound. You tell him by that time, you'll probably have gotten a hold of some other engineers that can help Rob if he doesn't feel up to the more complex task of building that underground city.

Rob seems a little more receptive to this and says he'll try to do his best. You say he's free to go and as he leaves you tell Vaughn to stay behind.

"Vaughn, are you absolutely fucking sure he can do this job?!" You ask.
"Yes! He's just been in the gutter for so long his self esteem is low! I mean once he gets back in action he'll be fine!" Vaughn exclaims.
"For your sake, I hope so. Because I'm not here to hold someone's hand and build up their confidence. That's going to be YOUR job. So you better be giving him pep talks, motivational hugs, or inspirational blow jobs. Whatever it is YOU gotta do, you better be doing it, because I'm going to be keeping a close eye on progress of this project."

With this new order Vaughn is of course totally compliant as usual and takes his leave.

As you're making further preparations for your ambitious plan, Zalmora of course puts her two copper in.

"I still don't know why you didn't go with my guy. Relying on Vaughn and his bum miner boyfriend just seems like a bad plan." Zalmora says.
"Your guy would be very expensive and I'm trying to keep the costs down as much as I can. If it looks like things are going to shit, well then I'll consider your guy again."
"Okay, but won't you have already wasted time and money with this Rob if he turns out to be a failure?"
"(Sigh) Yes Zal, but it's my fucking call and my fucking risk alright? Stop fucking questioning me every other sentence! Here, that's a list of some of the equipment we're going to need. Take some of the boys and go acquire some." You say shoving a piece of paper at Zal who takes it.
"...pick axes, lanterns, shovels, ropes, lumber? How the hell are we supposed to steal a shitload of heavy ass lumber?"
"I dunno, just get it. Go raid a wood mill. Pay for it. Rip out support beams from abandon buildings. Seduce a lumber jack. Cut down fucking trees yourself and drag them back here. I don't give a shit HOW you do it, just fucking do it! You said you were on board with this, well start fucking contributing." You order.

Zal doesn't say another word she just turns away in a huff.

While you aren't deterred yet, you're seriously starting to wonder if this is all really worth it.

You time passes...

Year 27

"Okay, Rob was the better choice in terms of costs. My guy would have still been better though." Zalmora remarks.
"Half an admission of defeat, but probably the best I'm going to ever hear from you. I'll take it." You say smiling.

You walk through the relatively smooth tunnels of the new Crimson Talon headquarters. Lanterns light your way as you look around at how far it's all come. The rooms that were created still need some more detailed work since they're very basic, but for a guy who started out not being sure if he could do any of this, he's done a good job so far. You guess Vaughn was right, once Rob got going he gained confidence. (Either that or Vaughn was giving a lot of inspirational blow jobs, but you'd rather not dwell on that)

"Are we going to brick up the dirt walls of these rooms or something similar? Not that I don't appreciate the work that's gone into this, but right now the aesthetics are more underground goblin lair, rather than secret criminal headquarters." Zal says.
"Yeah, we're doing that, adding doors, adding tiled floors and all that stuff, but that's going to get taken care of later when the basic layout is finished." You say.
"I thought that was complete?"
"It's almost complete. Rob's finishing up the last rooms which are a lot bigger. One of them is going to be the fighting arena."
"Arena?"
"Well okay, it isn't going to be the Klyton coliseum, but it'll be a proper fighting area where we can put a ring and have people watching and betting without them accidentally stepping in shit water."
"Hm, well that would be an improvement. Speaking of which, now that this place is on the verge of being complete are we moving all our operations here?"
"Well I'm thinking the gambling games and the fighting arena will be eventually, but the Yellow Devil lab can stay out in those sewer storage rooms along with the junkies. I'm not having melted junkies mess up the floor when we finally get around to putting proper ones down. Mostly though, it's going to be where we can rest and relax without the smell. See how all the potential sleeping areas were built very far away from the sewer wall that was knocked down for the entrance." You say.
"Yes, the smell is much better in this place. More earthy, less shitty."

As you and Zal are speaking about the Crimson Talon's future, Vaughn walks up to both of you.

"Hey guys, I've been looking for you both. Rob just finished what will be the fighting arena location. You should see it!" Vaughn remarks.
"Oh good a big dirt room instead of a small one." Zalmora remarks.
"Aw come on Zal, he worked really hard on it! He even improved upon the original layout!" Vaughn exclaims.
"Went above and beyond huh? Guess he really is getting sure of himself. Might as well see for ourselves." You say.

You, Vaughn and Zal head to the arena. Along the way you notice that the rough tunnel is sloping downward. Vaughn says that Rob really wanted to impress you since you gave him a chance and in order to do that he needed to expand downward a bit to create the fighting arena.

"Sheesh, did he have the miners dig all the way to Nichan? How deep is this going?" Zal remarks.
"He said he wanted to make it like an underground version of the Klyton coliseum." Vaughn says.
"He certainly went off script for this, but if it's as impressive as you said he's trying to make it, I'll certainly be pleased." You say.

Eventually the tunnel stops sloping and evens out. You walk a little more and already in the dim light you can see the room ahead is going to be bigger than you thought.

You enter the place and find yourself in a large oval room with several long wooden support beams stretching from the floor to the ceiling. The ceiling is actually a lot higher than you expected. If there were seats and stairs encircling the room, it actually might resemble the Klyton coliseum on a smaller scale.

Rob stands on top of a high platform near one of the walls and waves.

"Hey! So what do you think?" He shouts and starts climbing down a ladder to meet you.

"Definitely bigger than I thought it would be. I'm just wondering how the hell did I not notice all the dirt being hauled out and dumped from this endeavor. Apparently I wasn't as observant as I thought I was. Just as well I guess, since this is a nice surprise." You remark walking around and looking upward.
"Yeah, I was trying to keep this part of the project a bit under wraps to surprise you. Really glad you like it. As I mentioned to Vaughn, this part was my way of saying thank you for dragging me out of the fighting ring and giving my real life meaning again." Rob says.
"And they say the Crimson Talons are nothing but a menace to society. We gave this man his life back. Hell, we gave several folks their lives back. How many miners work for us now?" You say with a chuckle.

You continue looking around as Vaughn gives Rob a bit of praise about his work on the project. Meanwhile Zalmora finds something to analyze.

"Um, these support beams. I just touched this one and it doesn't feel secure. Is this place even safe?" Zal asks.
"Oh yes, this place is definitely safe. Most of these beams aren't even necessary anymore, but none of them are going to slip out of place anyway. Look!" Rob and then runs over to a beam and then putting all his weight behind his body, leans hard against it.

You tense up slightly when you see him do this, but nothing happens.

"See? Solid!" Rob says.
"Natural talent, boss. All he needed was the confidence boost. I guarantee he'll be able to build that underground city better than any dwarf could or Klyton university egghead with an over priced edu..." Vaughn starts to say and then suddenly the beam that Rob is leaning against cracks.

Before he can even get off of it, the beam breaks and he falls to the ground as the rest of the beam falls on him, followed by parts of the ceiling.

"OH SHIT RUN!" Zal shouts and makes haste towards the room's exit as the ceiling begins to completely collapse. Vaughn follows suit, leaving Rob who has either been knocked unconscious or killed.

You are unfortunately at the far end of the room and while you try to make it to the exit, you just aren't fast enough and you're crushed by large clumps of packed dirt and rocks. You actually manage to dig a few inches through the dirt before you suffocate.