I saw a...

Thu Aug 16, 2012 10:15 am

Mission Name: I saw a..

Rank: B

Type:

Character Requirements: investigation

Word Count Requirements: 800 words

Repeatable? Yes

Reward: 600 ryo

Task: Reports have come in on something or someone lurking in the sewers, investigate to make sure everything is alright.

http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t10582-few-missions

Umtari rarely ventured into the filthy underbelly of the village. It was unpleasant enough in its own right but it was also an alien thing to Umtari, it was the most urban thing he could imagine and he was a country dweller at heart. But, it was for precisely this reason that he accepted the task. He needed to push himself out of his comfort zone at every opportunity if he was to grow more capable.

Before heading down there he invested in a pair of torches and he made sure to have his gas mask attached before jumping down. He knew all sewer systems had a reputation for stink but apparently the ones beneath the leaf village were particularly bad. Once he was down there he could practically feel the thick stench as he walked through it and found himself grateful for the clean air inside the mask.

Most of the sightings and reports of strange noises had been coming from the southern end of the network, so following his compass and a handy sewer map Umtari ventured that way. It was a long time before he saw anything of note, so long that Umtari was worried he had become lost in this literal rat run. His first clue that he was heading in the right direction was a dead rat. Of course dead rats were almost as common as the muck that ran like a river down here but this particular corpse was interesting.

Picking it up Umtari inspected the creature more closely. It had been half bitten half crushed to death. Whatever had done this had a large enough mouth to fit the whole rat in and had powerful enough jaws to crush it’s bones. But the creature, or man, had no appetite for the rat. This made it less likely to be a person down here. If it was a man desperate enough to kill a rat with his teeth it would only be because he was hungry enough to eat it, plus human teeth could not have inflicted these injuries.

As Umtari pressed on he started to hear deep rumblings from down the tunnel, it could just have been the workings of the sewer network, valves opening and closing and the like, but Umtari doubted it. Odds were that it was a big animal of some description. This was a problem, a big animal was likely to kill anything that got too close to its lair including sanitation workers, and for that matter Umtari. Still though, Umtari wondered what it could be, big animals were hardly native to the sewers, the food supply was inadequate and it clearly was not eating the rats.

As Umtari drew yet closer he could see claw marks on the walls and many more cast away rat bodies. Realising that he may need to use his crossbow imminently Umtari took some duct tape and taped one of his torches to the underside of his weapon, wherever the crossbow pointed there would be light. It of course made Umtari stand out like a sore thumb but in these tunnels hiding from the beast was not a valid option. As it turned out the beast saw him, or rather saw the light at the end of the tunnel, before Umtari saw it. He could hear the thud of the creature as it advanced, the scrapping of its shoulders against the walls. Whatever it was it was huge and coming to investigate. As yet though the beast was not charging.

Loading his weapon with his favoured poisoned bolts Umtari cautiously continued, purposefully trying to provoke the creature now. If he could get the beast to charge him head on it was as good as dead, and in these tunnels the option for flanking was severely limited. Eventually Umtari could feel the thuds of the footsteps quicken as the beast lumbered into a charge. Hearing this Umtari dropped to one knee and readied to fire, waiting for the light to illuminate the creature. When it did hove into view Umtari could see it was a massive bear, one of the largest he had ever seen. No matter, it would die. Loosing a bolt, which promptly embedded itself deep in the creatures shoulder, Umtari then ran up the sides of the tunnel and lay flat on the roof, letting the bear sail under him.

The bear started to turn, with some difficulty, but as it did so an adverse physical reaction came over it. It’s breathing became laboured and it became sluggish. Soon this developed into acute pain and the bear stumbled and fell down in the filth, limbs occasionally flailing and froth starting to corrupt it’s lungs. This continued for some time before it eventually died, in agony. Umtari could have left things there but he wanted to find out how on earth the bear got here so as to be able to prevent repeats. Tracking the bear’s obvious trail back to it’s lair Umtari discovered a number of animal carcases, chiefly cows, in various states of decay and consumption and no sign of any larger bear family. The cows had been dead when they were brought here and a trail of blood led to the sight of their original slaughter. Following this Umtari eventually came to one of the sewer exits, here overflow filth was jettisoned out from under the village and into a vile corrupted bog. A sturdy grate with no door had been placed here to guard against animals coming in but something or someone had broken the grate, allowing the bear access. Noting this down Umtari headed back through the sewers and up to his commander’s office, without pausing to clean. He reported the mission’s success but also the break in the grate. Partly so it could be hastily repaired and partly because it could just have easily allowed hostile ninja access as hostile bears. If anything the former was more likely, bears did not have a reputation for cutting through grates and he doubted the claws were strong enough to slash thick metal bars.

((WC 1015))