Nervously waiting in line at the port terminal, I timidly hold out the “Tranas” token with both hands when my turn comes. The porter looks me up and down skeptically, maybe debating whether to immediately turn me away. Is there some other invisible criteria I must meet beside the tribute?
“50 copper,” he finally says after a long, thoughtful pause.
Standing somewhat defensively, he seems to be expecting a fight. However, I quickly pull out a pouch from which to slowly count out the coins one by one. It’s fairly awkward to do with these thick gloves on, and I have to restart several times. Eventually, I figure it out and triumphantly hold the tribute up to the porter in reverently cupped hands, the action causing him to visibly relax.
“It’s customary and polite to precount porter payments ahead of time,” he explains, somehow softening to a nearly friendly tone. “Next time. Congratulations.”
Confused by his words but unwilling to seek any explanation given the invitingly opened tear, I step through to the other side. This time I keep walking in the aimed direction until completely outside of the terminal and clear of other incoming customers. Good. No more immediately falling down and getting trampled upon arrival. Hmph, that’s real progress.
Taking my pack off, I slowly count 50 more copper coins into a free pouch on my belt. Mission accomplished, next up is to check the sewers. Need to verify that they’re safe here if potentially setting up another haven in addition to Vastra. My clunky spear and bow at home to avoid suspicion, the knife and daggers will have to be enough for self defense and hunting right now. Luckily, I practiced both while feeding the slime, so I’m feeling fairly confident.
A convenient rat hole by the terminal provides me easy access underground. After slipping inside, so far there’s no obvious threats. A few sludge scampers are hiding in the flow, but luckily nothing the size of the giant in Central City. More rancor rats. There’s probably more awakened slimes as well, but they’re ordinarily too good at hiding to catch. Eventually I find a ladder going up to a manhole and read the signs.
DANGER! Watch for rancor rats, sludge scampers, and ten-legs. Enter at your own risk.
That’s a new one. I pull out the bestiary and look for the appropriate entry.
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The insect commonly referred to as ‘ten-legs’ is an elongated anthropod typically found amongst large collections of biological refuse. The ten legs of its namesake can each take a dextrous grip of their prey or, more surprisingly, tools. Many larger ten-legs have been found using sticks, rocks, or other found items to better dissect their meals before consumption.
That doesn’t sound too bad.
Their size typically ranges from pebble to house cat, depending on its age and success at locating food. Usually not a threat to a grown adult. However, watch out for small children or if sleeping alone without keeping watch.
Drat. That means that if I wish to sleep here, then I’ll need to secure a structure to keep these out. A problem for later.
Continuing to explore, I follow the flow towards the sewage output. Tranas being so much larger than Vastra, it takes far longer to reach the exit. However, the scene outside is otherwise very similar. Cliff side drop down to a river. The wall is rocky enough for me to easily climb. Rich open fields above far from the town gates for me to collect from.
Sadly, there’s no forests nearby as an additional collection source. The maps I stole show Tranas as isolated away from all its villages in perfectly flat, uninteresting territory. On the other hand, its villages all project deep into wildly different environments. Forests, mountains, jungles, deserts. There’s no rhyme or reason to the constant change in biome. In the map’s depiction, it almost resembles the slime. Tranas is the safe, main body while each of the villages extend out as probing arms, exploring for something. Testing the wild surroundings.
Not finding any dark night herbs outside, instead I collect a wide variety of new ones for later research before heading back inside. Fast marching the full length of the tunnel, I quickly check the intake as well, just in case. However, it’s only more of the same.
The rest of the day is lost to methodically walking every side tunnel and poking my head outside the rat holes to see what’s above. However, one new strategy for my exploration this time is the inclusion of the paper and ink that I brought with me. I’m going to create a map of my own!
It’s not great, but it does help remember the sprawling web of offshoots branching from the main tunnel. Recording any landmarks that I see above when checking the holes is also valuable. This way, I’m exploring and mapping above and below simultaneously. Genius!
This town of Tranas is so much larger than all the villages. It’s hard to wrap my head around it. Given how much bigger Central City is than this, my head hurts even more trying to fathom the scale. It’s at least as much bigger than Tranas as Tranas is from the villages. Probably far more. How could anyone possibly keep track?
About to call it for the day and head back, I recognize the familiar soft sounds of heavy breathing far down the main tunnel. Instantly, I smoothly throw myself flat under the sludge to hide as noiselessly as possible. The sound gets louder, almost definitely approaching me. Holding my breath I wait, carefully leaving a single ear and eye out to monitor.
A brilliant idea suddenly occurs to me, and I channel energy to my eyes, focusing hard into the distance of the tunnel. A wispy cloud is steadily moving in my direction from far off in the darkness. The cloud floats in odd, stumbling jerks, so something might be wrong. Is it injured?