Sewer Rat

**Out of the frying pan, into the fire.**

## Synopsis

Juniper and Amaryllis use the void tunneler to open an entrance to the sewers. Amaryllis removes a component from the soulcycle to prevent anyone from following them on the machine. Juniper is concerned about the souls in the soulcycle's tank, and they decide to put the souls back into Amaryllis's glass jar instead of letting them slowly fade away in the tank.

Juniper leads the way through the sewers, void tunneler in one hand and the fire of Aarde's Touch in the other. They navigate by following a trickle of water upstream in the hope of reaching some kind of water treatment facility within city limits. The pair chance upon a decomposing, mangled rat corpse, despite the fact that the necrotic field effect of the Risen Lands should have animated the rat after its death.

The red eyes of some necrotic creature flash by a distant split in the pipes. Juniper and Amaryllis carefully round the corner, preparing for combat. Juniper shoots the creature with his void tunneler, and sees that it is composed of many hundreds of rat corpses stuck together. The monster closes the distance and scratches his hand, giving him the ***Rat Rot*** affliction (END -1, CUN +1). He kicks the creature to knock it back, but his foot just sinks into its flesh and he loses his shoe trying to free it.

Amaryllis shoots the monster with her void rifle, giving Juniper the chance to get back up and attack with his sword. The rat colony lands another hit on Juniper, giving him another affliction—***Blood Loss*** (END -1)—but his attempt to block with his sword increases ***One-handed Weapons*** to level 4. He counterattacks, but ***Blood Loss*** increases to level 2 (PHY -1, END -1) and he wavers. Amaryllis punches deep into the creature with a void grenade, finally defeating the ***"Umbral Rat Zombie"***. As she mops up the individual rats left behind, Juniper's ***Blood Loss*** hits level 3 (PHY -2, END -1, MEN -1, SOC -1).

Amaryllis cauterises a cut vein in Juniper's arm, heating a screwdriver with her own application of Aarde's Touch. Juniper notices that his hitpoints are now at ***1/8*** and that his blood supply is at ***61K/75K***. They discuss the possibility of Juniper being healed by his next level up, which needs to come soon for Juniper to stay alive. Amaryllis thinks her hand may be infected.

Juniper receives level 2 of the ***Hungry*** affliction (PHY -1, MEN -1, POI -1). He asks for Amaryllis to pause so that he can look at his character sheet, and confirms that having some of his stats at 0 does not mean that he is dead or crippled.

Eventually, the pair make it out of the sewer tunnels and into a water treatment plant, only encountering the occasional undead rat, which Amaryllis deals with. Amaryllis decides to leave Juniper behind, telling him that she will bring food and medical supplies back to him if she finds them, and that the plan is to meet up at the twenty-first floor of Sorian's castle where the teleportation key was left.

Juniper checks the "helldiver" option in his settings menu and sits in silence, not even using Aarde's touch to light up the room. His hitpoints and blood are at ***2/4*** and ***59K/75K***. He waits for notifications from Amaryllis killing things, but none come. After half an hour of waiting, Juniper decides to continue forwards. He makes the excruciatingly slow journey through the industrial complex and out the doors to the outside. He sees the six improbably immense castles of Silmar City—and a monstrously-tall Zombie Voltron, towering over three story buildings. At that point, he completes the quest ***Out of the Frying Pan***—***Level Up!*** The golden glow of the level up heals his wounds and afflictions, even his hunger, and feels more ecstatic than previous level ups. Juniper, having accepted the new quest ***Into the Fryer***, goes off to find Amaryllis.

## Featured characters

* Juniper Smith
* Amaryllis Penndraig

## Quotes

“So how in the hell did this rat die?”
“That’s not a question that I think we want to find the answer to.”

—**Juniper** and **Amaryllis** are disconcerted by the sight of a dead-for-good rat in the sewers.

“We have contact.”

—**Juniper** pretends he's in an action movie.

“Did you punch that thing with a grenade?”
“Shut up and don’t move.”

—Post-battle dialogue between **Juniper** and **Amaryllis**.
## Notes

### Real-world references

* When he uses a railing in the sewer to support himself, Juniper sends a silent prayer of thanks to "whatever Silmar City's version of OSHA was." OSHA is an acronym for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a US government agency that attempts to minimise workplace injuries.