Jane stepped into the hallway, leaving behind the small room that now made his home base. He looked in each direction, shining the flashlight down each hall, the bright LED struggling vainly to reach the end of either path.

"Well, left is right I guess.” Jane stated blandly, picking a direction at random. He closed his eyes, focusing inwardly on his newfound water sense. His awareness spreading around him in a bubble. Unfortunately, rather than giving him a clear awareness of potable water somewhere nearby, it only allowed him to feel a vague sense of the varying densities of water within some of the pipes around him, the skill itself fading out at about 30 feet.

Jane was certain that one of the one half-inch copper lines in his hideout held pure, cold, drinkable water, but he was hesitant to cut into it. He had no way to regulate the flow of water out of the pipe once he opened it up, and the last thing he wanted to do was flood his new home.

He advanced cautiously, his flashlight held tight to his shoulder, like a boxer on guard, with his pipe wrench in his other hand, cocked back and ready to swing at the first sight of trouble. He walked like this for some time, occasionally stepping over pipes running along the floor, or ducking under pipes hanging low overhead. The hallway never turned. His hands slowly lowered, until eventually they hung at his side, the flashlight casually illuminating the area in front of him from waist-height. He noticed the hallway was gradually sloping down, leading him deeper underground, or possibly even towards ground level. He had no way of knowing his elevation or even the time of day within the sweltering confines of the industrial labyrinth.

He stopped walking, leaning against the pipes forming a nearby wall. He had been walking for about fifteen minutes, and hadn’t seemed to make any real progress. Then he heard it. A soft, vague, scratchy whisper, coming from behind the pipes he was leaning on. He listened carefully, focusing on the sound, trying to make out what was being said, then like a final puzzle piece completing a picture, he heard it.

“Beer-thirty.” the voice moaned in a low whisper. “Don’t talk about work.”

Tongue of the Riftwalker activated

Language gained: Ghoul

free languages remaining: 2

Jane recoiled from the wall he was leaning on, spinning around to shine his light on it while dismissing his notification. From between the pipes gleamed the telltale yellow and white sheen of a vest, much like the one he currently wore. High-viz. A figure shuffled back and forth on the other side of the wall.

“Hello?” Jane asked in his new language, raspy guttural intonation straining against his vocal cords. The shuffling stopped. A ragged grey arm found room between the pipes. Oil soaked fingers with cracked dirty fingernails wormed their way through the gaps, grasping around the copper like a prisoner’s fingers around the bars of his cell. A single cloudy grey eye peeked through the gap, unfocused but full of malicious intent.

“I don’t want to be here!” the thing rasped, shaking the makeshift grate, barring its way. “Another day, another dollar!” In a frenzy, it tried to get through the pipe wall, like an animal trying to escape a trap. Jane took a step back, watching the ghoul try, and fail, to reach him. It looks like he can’t get through. I’d better not stick around, though.

Jane turned to continue down the hallway. Suddenly, the piercing sound of a steam whistle resonated through dungeon, stabbing into Jane’s ears, and shaking him to his bones. Then from down the hall, Jane watched as, one by one, hundred foot sections of hallway flickered with bright fluorescent light. Finally, a shrieking sound of twisting metal filled the air as pipes of all shapes and sizes moved, creating walls where there had been empty hallway, and doors where there had been wall.

The way back was blocked. The ghoul was free.

“Shit.” Jane swore, once more turning to face the ghoul. The thing shambled forward, its gaze maintaining its slack focus on nothing. Drooped in one hand, a pipe wrench much like Jane’s, hung limply, like the vestigial organ of a long forgotten apex predator. “Good morning.” It wheezed, suddenly rushing forward, pipe wrench swinging around in a wide arc on a collision course with Jane’s head.

Jane back-peddled, putting himself out of reach of the improvised club. A low pipe caught the back of his heel, sending him to the ground, the back of his hard hat smacking the ground with a loud crack. The ghoul jumped on him, swinging down with its pipe wrench as it leaned over the pronated plumber. Jane pulled his wrench around to block the descending strike, bracing it with his off-hand. As the two wrenches collided, Jane struck out with his foot, booting the ghoul in the shin. It collapsed on him in a heap, the brim of its hard hat striking Jane hard on the bridge of the nose. His safety glasses softened the blow, but did not completely stop it.

Jane threw his leg over the dessicated ghoul, rolling himself on top of it with surprising ease. He choked up on his pipe wrench, punching it down into the face of the ghoul. Once, twice, again, and again until it stopped moving, then until he lost count, until he was unable to raise his wrench.

Jane sat back, still on top of the ghoul, and looked at what he had done. Beneath him lay the body of the newly re-dead zombie, a mass of bloody hamburger and bone lay where its head had been moments before. He looked at his his shaking hands, his knuckles scraped and bloody. He turned to the side and threw up, his stomach unable to purge the sickness he felt in his mind. He stood, his legs shaking underneath him. A blue box appeared in front of him.

Combat log

Plumbing ghoul (Apprentice) slain

XP gained: 300

Improvised weapon (lesser) +17%

Looking down at the corpse, he saw it quickly dissolving, leaving behind a pipe wrench and a small leather pouch. A black stain remained for a moment before fading into the floor. Jane reached down to pick up the pouch. Opening it, he found it contained various pieces of plumbing hardware, as well as several small copper coins. Upon touching the coins, they vanished.

System credit acquired

Opening account

credits: 6

Placing the pouch inside of one of his vest pockets, Jane looked around. The way back to his hideout was thoroughly blocked, and the hallway he was currently in only ran about 30 feet in either direction before turning. He quickly stowed his flashlight and picked up the second pipe wrench, examining it.

Steel pipe wrench (18 in.)

An uncommon tool used for threading pipes, its steel construction makes it heavy, and unfavored by most plumbers.

When used as an improvised weapon, it is more durable, and does more damage than an aluminum pipe wrench, but at the cost of both swing speed and stamina usage.

Switching the aluminum wrench into his left hand, Jane gave the steel wrench a couple of test swings. Yep, just like it says on the tin. He looked at the new paths that lay on either side of him. I want to find a way back to my hideout, but I still need to find water. "Getting back to my stuff is my top priority. Hopefully, I can find water along the way." I shouldn't have been so quick to leave. He chose the path that led back in the direction of his hideout, hoping that it would somehow connect to it.

As he walked, he thought about the fight he had just won. I shouldn’t have won that. Jane checked his health. 368/416. I really shouldn’t have come out of that unscathed. He remembered the few blows that had glanced off his hard hat and safety glasses. “PPE coming in clutch again,” he chuckled, thinking about all the times the items had helped him avoid bodily harm previously. He stopped, setting his pipe wrenches down, while he examined his hard hat and glasses.

Hard hat

A protective helmet made of hard plastic, this piece of protective equipment has been protecting trades workers since 1919. While not resistant to all forms of damage, this piece of headgear is able to cause blunt damage to glance off of it, away from the user's head.

Always wear your hard hat, safety is no accident.

Safety glasses

Made out of impact resistant plastic, these glasses shield the most vulnerable parts of the human body from light to moderate damage.

Carol never wore her safety glasses, and now she doesn't need them.

"Safety Mike would be proud, I wonder if I can file a near-miss report between dimensions."

Jane continued walking. The hallway he had chosen made several twists and turns, almost seeming to travelling in a circle around his hideout. He rounded a corner and almost walked into another high-viz clad figure.

The ghoul looked at him with a focused intelligence that had been absent in the other zombie. It looked him up and down, frowning, then spoke with a guttural rasp. “What are you working on?”