5 Phases, 5 Days Part 3.

[winneganfake]

 Time for the third installment of the "5 phases, 5 days," promo that I'll be posting for the upcoming release of The Cog Wars. For anyone new to this, this is all fiction pulled straight from the game, which will be released some time in October. So, for the next few weeks, I'll be releasing apiece of fiction from the game on every Wednesday. These pieces were intended to be color fiction for each of the five main phases that a single campaign of The Cog Wars goes through: Discovery, Disruption, Revenge, Vignettes, and Confrontation.

Now for a bit of background on the game world itself. The Cog Wars is set in the independent city-state of Tiran, a Steampunk capital filled with mad science, alchemy, and adventure. Players can take on the role of Kids, Geezers, or Cogs (living clockwork automata) in a depsperate fight to free the city from the grip of the masterminds that have taken control behind the scenes. In the this phase of the game, Revenge, it's time for the Masterminds to strike back at our bold group of heroes.

 

Revenge

The group set out from Scutters around noon- not that it mattered, since what little sunlight filtered into the Undercity from above quickly faded as they worked their way into the deeper tunnels. After almost two hours of navigating the cracked and broken sewer tunnels, they came to what they were looking for- a human sized break in the sewer wall, through which a series of older, natural tunnels could be seen. The trio quickly descended into these labyrinths, moving ever eastwards, towards what would hopefully be their goal.

Stumbling over a group of loose rocks, Zeke bit back a scream as he came face to face with a pair of empty eye sockets. A deformed human skull perched on top of a wooden pole gazed balefully at him. The rest of the pole was decorated with a mix of garbage and bits of gaudy decorations- fake stones from costume jewelry, child's drawings in bright vivid paint. Molly steadied Zeke with one hand, while examining the pole with a critical eye. “It's a Not-men warning marker. Looks like we've hit the edge of Boilers.”

“Dangerous, I assume?” clicked Smythe as he stepped over the rocks to catch up with the others. Smythe's brass legs and polished feet unfortunately didn't offer him the same kind of traction he was used to in the city above- for once he was forced to a slower rate of speed from the others.

“Very,”she replied, “But we'll be keeping to the outskirts of the area.That should keep us safe. Otherwise, we'd be going off the instructions we have, and I don't want to risk us getting lost down here.” The three continued onwards, entering the edges of the thick mist that filled most of Boilers.

The fog surrounding them began to thicken, until Smythe couldn't even see his manipulator in front of his own optics. And there were new sounds here too- the shuffling of feet being dragged, and incomprehensible mutters coming from all around the group of adventurers. His olfactories were picking up something as well; dark, heavy, and thick- like unwashed flesh and machine oil. “Gentlemen,” he clicked, “I think we may not be alone down here....”