I’m told only two types of people visit the Sewer District – those who need to hide where no one will ever think to look for them – and those mad explorers like me who wish to travel to the depths of the city. Most who do visit are never heard of again. I’ve lost two good friends who just never came back. My third friend who did make it back was almost mad with fear raving about the giant rats and forgetting to look up. How he dragged himself up the levels with only one leg is beyond me and a feat I thankfully didn’t have to recreate after my visit.
I had heard rumours talk of toxic waste and deadly monsters but also hidden treasure. Having looked through a fair few of the tunnels, they’re just rumours. Given that there are a number of scrap servicing facilities, perhaps one man’s junk is another man’s treasure but I bet most never find anything in the pipes and tunnels worth risking their lives for.
Despite the danger, the levels are not as empty as people think or perhaps hope. The city still needs its sewers to work so multiple droids keep the system relatively clean and as they don’t taste good, seem to be largely left alone. There were a few bands of desperate people eking out a living on the scrap plus a few of those little cloaked scavengers that turn up and strip anything in the lower levels left unprotected. They were clustered around the scrap processing tunnels and swarming over the junk heaps I could see below.
It apparently takes a certain kind of animal to live in the semi-dark and survive – big and mean! I needed eyes in the back of my head and the top as one tentacled beasty was hanging out of a disused hatch above me. I will have nightmares about that encounter and the sharp teeth gnashing inches away from my head for years! I used up almost all of my heavy weapons making sure that I didn’t end up as dinner. Having finally escaped, just down from there I ran into a nest of sewer rats and they are not those little things that run over your boots – these were easily twice my height and filled the whole tunnel. I am not ashamed to admit that I like both my legs attached so I turned tail and ran down a side tunnel just as one sat up and started twitching its nose in my direction. I didn’t stop running for what seemed like miles before I even dared slow.
After traipsing around countless tunnels, wading through some unmentionable stuff I would rather forget, surviving two encounters with monsters, evading the droids who apparently like to shock or mow down people and sorting through the odd piece of junk I found, I was sorely disappointed. There was nothing of real interest down here unless you are a xenobiologist. One tunnel looks just like another… only the dregs in the bottom changed.
Then I hit the mother lode! Down at the back, round a corner, was a set of three outlets. They let me into a secret hangar that, judging by the dust, no one else had been in for years… but that’s another level and another story.
