Zar'Ahal was a safe enough city, especially by Underrealm standards. It had walls, guards, consistent light, laws...all the things a civilization needed to maintain any kind of longevity.
This was not in Zar'Ahal. This was a cavern, several miles beyond Zar'Ahal's borders. The cave had walls, sure, but they were attached to its floors and ceilings. In place of guards there were monsters and outlaws. Light could only be found in the form of veins of glowing ore in cracks in the cavern's surfaces, or from the bioluminescence of various flora and fauna. And laws, well...the laws of physics were usually respected around these parts, if nothing else.
Here it was that a shadowed form skittered over the rough terrain, over rocks and moss, around corners and between crags. "Imp," most creatures of the Underrealm called her and her lot, though the strange, feminine creature snaking her way though the treacherous underground landscape was far larger than any drow or duergar she'd ever met. "Umbral" was another name they used, and this, she found, fit better. It spoke to where she'd once come from, from a pit of goo in the dark. A creature born by happenstance, without rhyme or reason or parentage. Thinking about such things gave her an odd sense of nostalgia.
The nostalgia was dispelled, however, when the dirt and stone gave way to what the umbral had been looking for: wreckage. Metal and wood scrap, the remains of carts perhaps, or chests. Bodies, too, not yet picked clean. A caravan, likely from the surface, ambushed and destroyed. Tragic for someone. Maybe many someones. Opportune for Curio.
A delighted squeal escaped the six-limbed umbral as she scuttled up to it, beginning to pick through piles of detritus and remains.
"Yeeesss, yes! Unchecked, uncontested, under claim...now!" the Umbral celebrated to herself as she scratched an emblem into a chunk of scrap wood with her claw. Then she promptly began to dig and sort through the mess. "The winds have fallen upon Curio this hour, heheheheee!"
And yet, despite her glee and confidence, Curio was not the only being to have stumbled upon the site of her salvage...
This was not in Zar'Ahal. This was a cavern, several miles beyond Zar'Ahal's borders. The cave had walls, sure, but they were attached to its floors and ceilings. In place of guards there were monsters and outlaws. Light could only be found in the form of veins of glowing ore in cracks in the cavern's surfaces, or from the bioluminescence of various flora and fauna. And laws, well...the laws of physics were usually respected around these parts, if nothing else.
Here it was that a shadowed form skittered over the rough terrain, over rocks and moss, around corners and between crags. "Imp," most creatures of the Underrealm called her and her lot, though the strange, feminine creature snaking her way though the treacherous underground landscape was far larger than any drow or duergar she'd ever met. "Umbral" was another name they used, and this, she found, fit better. It spoke to where she'd once come from, from a pit of goo in the dark. A creature born by happenstance, without rhyme or reason or parentage. Thinking about such things gave her an odd sense of nostalgia.
The nostalgia was dispelled, however, when the dirt and stone gave way to what the umbral had been looking for: wreckage. Metal and wood scrap, the remains of carts perhaps, or chests. Bodies, too, not yet picked clean. A caravan, likely from the surface, ambushed and destroyed. Tragic for someone. Maybe many someones. Opportune for Curio.
A delighted squeal escaped the six-limbed umbral as she scuttled up to it, beginning to pick through piles of detritus and remains.
"Yeeesss, yes! Unchecked, uncontested, under claim...now!" the Umbral celebrated to herself as she scratched an emblem into a chunk of scrap wood with her claw. Then she promptly began to dig and sort through the mess. "The winds have fallen upon Curio this hour, heheheheee!"
And yet, despite her glee and confidence, Curio was not the only being to have stumbled upon the site of her salvage...
