Raqisat helps Aubrey by continuing to hold the hostage by the scruff of his neck and keeping the threat of throwing him back into the inky abyss alive.  

     "In a nutshell, we want to do some aggressive renegotiations to convince your people we don't care if they live down here so long as it doesn't inconvenience us. Right now they are being very inconvenient.  I imagine we're best off talking to the king?  What is the quickest, safest way to get there?  And remember, you will be the vanguard of the approach!"

"The king... I can't..." the man stammers.  "There is no king.  That's just something Elton and Nicodemus came up with.  They said outsiders can't understand a society that isn't based on kneeling to some arbitrary authority figure, so we introduce them to a 'king' to make them more at ease."

"We all have a say here in how we live our lives... though Nic and Elton are the strongest and probably the smartest... though one of them dwarves is damn clever in her own right."

"The straightest way out is up," he says returning to one of Raqisat's questions.  "We have blocked off most of the paths up, but its usually not more that some bricks or wooden walls.  You can probably break through into one of the basements or wine cellars above us.  Otherwise the main route back will take you right into the rest of the clan."

He looks around at the dead.

"You killed... you killed a lot of us.  I don't rightly know how that will go over.  Some folk might want revenge... others will probably see this as more proof we don't need to be fighting with you lot."

"What the hell are you, anyway?" he asks, looking at the screaming darkness behind him and rubbing the burns on his arms and face.  "That feels like Breach magic."

((Insight check into the prisoner claiming there is no king... 18+4 for 22))

Raqisat:

"Yes, terrifying, isn't it?" Aubrey calmly answers the wererat with a polite smile. "But unlike breach magic, I can assure you this is perfectly under control." He continues, and then the horrific portal closes behind the sewerfolk before the young noble calmly continues. "As for who we are, we are exactly what we told you earlier, an expedition sent by the Emperor to investigate these ruins. We are primarily scholars but with quite enough field experience to handle ourselves in these ruins. I hope you have seen quite enough proof now that there is no point in trying to oppose us." The young noble pauses briefly to give the prisoner a stern look before continuing. "I can only assume then it is Nicodemus that has been playing the part of your mysterious king. We would simply have to deal with those of you who are left, and you can save your brothers and sisters by convincing them to enter a truce with us. As I said we have no interest in killing anymore of you unless you give us reason to, for instance by trying to trick us and lock us up again to be devoured by your many rat friends."

     "And we killed nobody," Raqisat says sternly.  "You all killed yourselves when you decided to try to kill us.  And why?  Because the others would not share blood?  Is that ritual really so important amongst you that you're willing to die over it?"

"Sweetheart, we called fer council wit yer people, many times. We gave plenty o time an' opportunities teh change yer fate." Cosette dusts herself off, correcting her attire. She wrote a song about it. "Not our fault yous retaliate." She shrugs as she proceeds to load a silvered bolt into her crossbow, the silvered rapier which rests at her hip glints in her movement. "We were more then patient. Heck I was even willin' teh enrich these grounds in show o' good faith teh co-exist together fer our mission." The redhead rests her crossbow against her shoulder and has her other hand hover over the hilt of her rapier at the ready. Now she was prepared to train her weapons on foe, near or far, should they show any form of hostility towards her or her companions. "Now we're givin' ya one last chance, eh?".

Grugga reassesses his plan to lead the others to the wine cellar ((green dots post 3086)) and instead waits at the T-junction to the immediate west of the barricades. He yanks on the cord coming out of his backpack, spinning Zap to life. He orders Zap to keep an eye out in the T-junction while Grugga stays nearby in the barricade hallway.

He picks a pebble off the ground, touches a crystal to it, and speaks into it. Then, he chucks it down the hallway to land at the feet of his companions interrogating the survivor. When the pebble comes to a rest, Grugga's voice comes out of it, saying, "The Rats said reinforcements were coming. Expect them from my direction." (Magical Tinkering... can't figure out how to link it in text like I do with spells) Grugga waves his slightly-glowing crystal at the west end of the hallway.

Zap perception: 25 darkvision 60

     Raqisat gets the prisoner moving but still wants to hear what he says about the blood ritual and why it's so important... In the meantime he's leading them in whichever direction Grugga or Audrey or anyone who has a sense of direction points.

"Ok, ok," the wererat man stammers to Aubrey.  "I'll do whatever you want, say whatever you want.  Yeah, Nic got to be 'the king' this time."  

Grugga and Aubrey, Zip and Furvus still confirm there is no sign of any wererats, rats, or sewer crocs coming down the main hall.

"If... if they aren't coming with reinforcements, they probably decided to secure the main warrens instead.  In that case, they'll be holed up closer to the exit."

To Raqisat, he replies, "The sharing of blood makes you more susceptible to the gift.  New recruits get the blood bond oath and then get the bite to indoctrinate them fully into the clan."

As Cosette talks to him, his eyes keep drifting down to her silvered rapier.  You're not sure he listened all that well, as he seems preoccupied with all the things around him that can kill him.

"I think this has all just gotten out of control," the wererat whimpers.  "We didn't realize how strong you all were and now we are stuck in this fight... Nic and Elton just want to protect us and I'm not sure they know how to surrender...".

[So are we heading north up the main path?  Is the destination the wine cellars, or a confrontation with the wererats at the main warren?]

     “Wait.., so I’m going to change?” Raqisat asks, the danger just finally sinking in.  “I did the blood sharing..  And that one…”  Raqisat intends to turn to point at the one which bit him but realizes they’re just a corpse now.

     “Well one of them furry ones bit me!” He continues, concern causing his voice to rise.  “So I’m..  what?  Is it a done dead or..  what?!?”

(Raq going wherever directed… if we slay them all we have an inland base!)

"I, uh... it's hard to say.  Sometimes it takes more than one bite, but thats part of what the blood bond is supposed to take care of.  You'll know for sure at the next full moon."

"But its, uh... its not a bad thing!  Don't look at it like a curse.  Its a gift!"

Aubrey listens to the wererat, having a hard time feeling pity over him for underestimating the young noble and his team. Hopefully for the sewerfolks sake they would now have the respect they deserved from them. He then gives Raqisat a reassuring look. They would definitely find some way to lift the curse that he had probably been afflicted with. He understood that it would seem like a gift for some, especially if it held of a plague like with the dwarves that had seemingly willingly joined the clan, but he doubted the anthropologist viewed it that way. He then motions for their prisoner to take point, leading them back to the remnants of his family, letting Furvus scout the way ahead for any last attempts to ambush them.

The party slowly traverses the long north/south corridor in the center of the map.  The tunnels are eerily quiet.  Most of the torches that line the tunnels have been extinguished, but the torches at this intersection are still lit.  [Black circle on the map]

There is two inches of dark water on the floor of the tunnel here, enough to make is slick but careful inspection shows no hidden dangers.  To the left, the tunnel angles downward.  To the right, there is approximately 300' of dark tunnel before the next intersection, leading up toward the main hub of the wererat colony.

The only sound is your own bootsteps, breathing and conversation.

The young noble calmly motions for their wererat prisoner to lead the team onwards towards the sewerfolk lair, expecting him to understand that his life depends on a peaceful resolution to the coming confrontation. Furvus is still trying to stay ahead of their sewerfolk guide, making sure to warn it's master of any shenanigans.

As the group reconverges, Grugga falls back from the front to talk with the group and the prisoner. "How did you discover that your rat curse held off the plague? Do you have many Dwarves or Elves in your... family?" Grugga hopes that the coming confrontation doesn't end in a fight, but if it does, he knows who will win, and he wants to milk as much information out of these wererats as he can before they get themselves killed.

"Have you had this curse since before the Breach? How do you know what Breach magic feels like? Is there still Breach magic in the city? Where is it?"

Zap stays dutifully in the front with instructions to return to Grugga if it sees anything rat-size or larger moving around.

The wererat answers Grugga's questions as he is marched down the tunnel.

"It's just always been known... we don't get sick.  So when we heard about a plague among the dwarves from some passing tradeboats, well, what with us being low on numbers, it seemed like a natural fit for recruiting.  And I don't think they're complaining none, considerin' the alternative.  No elves, though.  Not sure there've ever been any elves in the clan."

"... Come to think of it, these might be the first dwarves.  We don't discriminate, mind you.  We just don't get many chances to bring folk into the clan.  Most of us were born here."

"I haven't been around that long," he laughs nervously.  "But they say our clan has been down here, under the city, since the days of the first empire.  Dunno if its true."  He casts an uneasy eye at Aubrey and lowers his voice.  "It used to be, little patches of the city had places where the air would get like that...that thing he did.  All black and whiny and awful.  We called 'em thin spots.  Don't see too many of them anymore.  And there are some things that roam the ruins that can cast spells, or things like spells, and they can do stuff like that too.  Nic's magic ain't like that... its just light and fire and..." he blanches.  

"Aw hells.  Look, I'm cooperating, I'm cooperating, but don't tell 'em I told you Nic can use magic.  Assuming we work this out, I still have to live here.  Now you know, but just keep mum's the word on that for me, OK?"

Leelan seems equally fascinated and concerned to learn about the Breach magic. It helps him take his mind off the current tense situation with the sewerfolk. He’s also interested to learn that wererats (if not other werefolks) seem immune to certain disease.

"You wouldn’t happen to perchance know how your clan first developed your…condition?", he asks, trying to remain polite with the prisoner.

     "First thing is first," Raqisat eventually pipes up, loud enough to cut through the other chatter.  "Just when is the next full moon??"

     Raqisat otherwise takes some time to take in everything.  He's shared blood.  He's been bitten.  He could... He might... Maybe even probably?

     "Say most were born in the clan?  But you not been around long?  So you weren't born in...  Tell me, what's the downside?  How have you changed since you become one of them?  Not physically but... You know?  You still you and all that?" Raqisat asks with some urgency.  "You all more or less tried to trick us into everything so there must be a downside?  Tell me!"

     Raqisat's head is spinning.  He could change tonight, what with his total not paying attention to the moon and all.  Or he could have time to stop it, maybe.  If it's even inside him now...  But does he want to?  He's no expert on the shape changers but all tales seem to agree they're pretty hard to hurt.  That doesn't seem all that bad a thing.  Changing on the full moon?  Is that a definite?

     "Even so, is that such a bad thing?" he asks himself, barely aware he said it aloud.

     "If the clan has been here that long I see no reason arrangements can't be made for them to remain..." Raqisat speculates.  "Conditions on both sides, no doubt.  Could help for there to be an emissary.  Someone of both worlds..."  The idea is actually starting to grow on Raqisat with the big ole caveat of what he doesn't know yet...

"I don't really know," he says to Leelan.  "They say there were once a lot more of us, back when the city up top was still alive.  Multiple clans, co-existing out of sight from the world above.  There are some old religious books that talk about some faith the clan's followed, but I can't read.  And nobody much believes in that stuff anymore."

...

As Raqisat becomes more agitated the wererat tries to clarify.  "No, no... I just said I wasn't around for the Breach... I'm not that old.  I was born here.  I've been part of the clan my entire life."

"As far as the change... it seems like its a little... rough... the first time.  Its involuntary and things can get a little squirrelly.  But after that, if you don't fight it, you can control it.  The moon can still force a change, but otherwise you get to control when and how you shift.  And there are perks... you're almost invincible..." he trails off.  "I still don't know how you strangers are so powerful, or why your weapons bite so hard."