Cap looks around at all the warforged laborers. What are they doing? Why are they still working when they are free? Then he realizes that almost half the people are warforged, so the laborers are probably just making an honest living. Much like Kinnik, he longs for the open air and the freedom of up above. He enters the tunnel silently after Copper.

Olen gets out his lantern (Lantern, Hooded) and Tinderbox and lights his lantern so he can see in the dark tunnels.

Olen follows the others into the sewers, checking the map.

"Right, so according to the map, we are at the entrance to the sewer here."

"We have a little ways to go before we find our destination."

Looking up from the map, he adds,

"Oh, and keep an eye out for that group from last night. They are after the schema and could possibly have found info leading down here."

Olen has a sheepish look as he continues,

"Ah, also keep your eye's open for, other, things. I have seen, things, climb out of the sewers down here before. I truthfully couldn't identify them, so, yeah."

Looking back down at the map, Olen gives directions

"According to the map we go straight ahead, past a cross intersection, until the tunnel turns to the left."

After a few minutes of walking inside the sewage tunnel, it is still hard to adjust to the poignant smell of the combined waste of the city above. The dark tunnel continues straight forward like the map describes, until you reach the first intersection. Two streams of waste connect with the one you have been following, adding to it more dirty water. The smell is even stronger this far in. According to the map, the way forward is straight east.

Before you cross the intersection, however, a figure emerges from the darkness ahead. The man is just a little above five feet tall but muscled. He is wearing rags and an old torn leather hat. His body is all covered in hair, but not enough so to cover his tanned skin. His eyes are yellow. He smiles and you can see that his teeth are long and pointy. All in all, he gives out a canine wolf-like air to himself. The shifter does not appear to be holding any weapon.

The shifter looks like he is about to launch into a scummy speech about payment for entering his turf when suddenly his face perks up. He recognizes one of you. You are on friendly terms with this shifter.

"Well look what the cat dragged in," he smirks as he crosses his arms. "What brings you down to the Red Jackal turf?"

(Bad DM forgot who said they wanted to have criminal contacts. This is your criminal contact! Claim him or let others know someone else can know him, but he definitely knows one of you.)

Vasha tried her best to hide from view the whole way. Too many people, too many prying eyes. Can't stay anywhere too long or they find you...

Crossing into the sewers, it's hard to tell if this is any better. You can escape people, but you can't escape a shithole when you're knee-deep in it. When the feral humanoid appears before the group, she can't help herself, "Yep, bad to worse..."

Olen looks between the shifter and Vasha,

"You know this guy?"

There's a momentary pause in which one of Vasha's hands moves to her hip and her coin falls still in the other, "...Nope."

Olen give Vasha a curious look, before turning back to the shifter.

"I'm sorry good sir, but perhaps you have us confused with someone else?"

"If you wouldn't mind, we are kind of in a hurry, if you could just step aside..."

Olen waits for the shifter to respond, his hand is resting on one of his concealed daggers, just in case.

Copper squints for a moment, seeming like some bell at the back of his memory is ringing. “Wait a minute... Vermi... is that you?! Cuz!! How ya been bud, it’s been ages!” Copper pushes past the others to grab his cousin’s hand, bringing him in for a hearty masculine hug.

Olen releases his hidden dagger, noticeable relaxing. He smiles as Copper embraces his cousin.

The shorter shifter accepts this hug but breaks off pretty early. He offers his cuz Copper a toothy grin, "Just scammin' people n' robbin' them. What else is new?" He laughs like he just told a humdinger. "Oh, I've decided to go by my old name, cuz. Thi-Chaik if you could remember it. Hated it as a kid, but now... I find a bit of pride in our heritage.

Say, what brings you down here?"

Kinnik trusts Copper well enough, but... 

Perception (for evidence of anyone else who might be hanging out with the shifter): 18

Kinnick sees only Thi-Chaik.

"Fair enough, fair enough. You'll still always be Vermi to me though." he says with a capricious wink. "These are my buds: Cap, Kinnik, Vasha and Olen. We got commissioned by this bigwig professor to find some artifact or whatever. We've got a good idea of where it is buuut if this is your turf, maybe you can help us out."

Olen steps up next to Copper and addresses Thi-Chaik,

"I'm Olen, a pleasure to meet you Thi-Chaik. If you could indeed assist us, as Copper says, we would be very grateful."

"Anything to help my cuz, but... Huh, you got commissioned to fetch... a schema, I take it?" Thi-Chaik flashes a knowing glance at Copper. "Seems you guys aren't the only ones here looking for it. Well, maybe they died before they got to it. I have work, but I can make sure the boys don't jump ya."

After a few minutes, you seem to be getting used to the smell down here. You turn left and then right before reaching the big open area marked in your map. The place appears to be an abandoned water treatment facility or something like that. There are broken machines near the walls, enormous water vats, and pieces of rusted equipment on the floor. There is another chamber to the south that appears to be identical to the one you are in. Your path to the laboratory continues east through another narrow tunnel.

(Green circle is where you stand.)

As you make your way through the abandoned chamber towards the tunnel on the other side, the faint sound of breathing becomes obvious to you. You look up in time to see a pair of scruffy hairy shifters hanging from the ceiling like bats. As soon as they are noticed by you, they drop down and stare you down with hungry eyes.

"Heel," Thi-Chaik rolls his eyes, "these guys are fine."

"Yeah?" The burlier of the two, a feline shifter, frowns, "They ponied up a lotta coin?"

"Nah," Thi-Chaik shakes his head, "it's a family discount."

"Ah," the other one replies. The two other shifters step out of your way.

(Pausing here in case anyone wants to interact or anything. PS, this would have been a fight and it literally should have killed the other party, but I am a forgiving god and don't let people die in one hit...)

(are they actually bat shifters?)

(are they actually bat shifters?)

(Haha! I wish. Nah, they were just trying to be cool edgelords. The burly one is cattish and the other is wolf-like.)

Olen whispers to Copper,

"You are really saving us a world of difficult Copper, thanks."

Copper grins, fangs glinting in the dim light. "No problem, we can all buy Thi-Chaik here a drink later for his trouble." he says with a nod to his cousin. As he passes the other shifters he winks at them.