The investigators are not surprised to find the manhole precisely where Victoria Surrette specified. When they enter the alleyway well after dark, the men find it vacant and absent of any activity. Aside from an occasional breeze stirring a few bits of loose refuse across the buckled concrete, the alley is virtually silent, an eerie circle of quiet within a city that never truly rests.

The moon, unhindered by cloud cover, provides thin illumination as the investigators reach a wider space within the alley, the manhole positioned centrally between the rear exits of a laundry and an automat. Shadows pool around the nearby buildings, growing deeper as the narrow thoroughfare stretches east and west. For a instant, the quiet is broken by the skittering of small feet, the black shape of a rodent racing past a pair of steel trash cans, then the quiet resumes, its weight making mere footfalls and whispers seem intrusively loud.

On the way over, his nerves paradoxically calmed a bit, although this was largely with the assistance of a high degree of nicotine. Internally, he felt like a cloud of excited bees.

Arthur stepped forward, looking down at the manhole cover. He looked over at Jake and said, "Well, let's get this cover off."

"Got the pass key right here," grinned Jake, pulling the crowbar out of his bag.

He sets the chisel blade under the edge of the manhole cover and levers it up.

Jake has to put his back into the effort, but the detective is able to lift the thick circle of iron with the crowbar and shift it aside.

A set of iron rungs, brown with rust, leads down into the dense darkness below. Like the alleyway, the underground is profoundly silent.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:45, Fri 02 Sept 2022.

Sully had parked his Chevrolet coupe on Stanton Street, about a half block from the alleyway. His galoshes squeak a bit as he goes around to the back of the car and gets his stuff out of the luggage compartment to distribute things around his body: new pistol in his right hip pocket, a dozen or so shotgun shells in his right jacket pocket; in his left jacket pocket is his blackjack and a flashlight; as always, he has his notebook and a pencil in his outer breast pocket and lighter and cigarettes in the inside pocket. He takes a quick nip from his flask, stows it in his left hip pocket and hurries after the others.

Once Jake has the cover set aside, Sully peers down into the darkness. "Oh, boy," he breathes, his stomach full of butterflies.

"Who goes first, Jake?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:00, Sat 03 Sept 2022.

At the foot of the rung ladder, the investigators find themselves just south of a wide tunnel, the high walls constructed from brick. Although a pair of raised concrete walkways line the corridor, the central portion of the passage, which once served as a route for wastewater, is completely dry.

The smaller tunnel that the investigators find themselves in continues southward, away from the vacant sewer line, into pitch darkness. The walls of the narrow passageway appear to be in notably poor repair, moisture having buckled one of them significantly. A steady dripping can be heard in that direction and a stench, an almost overwhelming combination of waste and decay, wafts through the shadows.

As the last of the men makes his descent, a noise is heard from the abandoned tunnel ahead, the cheerful whistling of a tune that some recognize as ”Blue Skies”. From somewhere down the western end of the unused sewer passage the flicker of a light source, possibly a lantern or a flashlight, can be seen.

"Lights out!" hisses Jake, dousing his own flashlight. He stands still and listens carefully to the other midnight stroller.

Arthur quieted his unsteady breath and listened, and watched, to see what would happen. He crouches at Jake's flank.

Sully stands a bit behind Jake and Arthur, shifting from side to side trying to see past the taller men. His right hand rests on the butt of the small revolver in his hip pocket. He wishes Jake had had time to pass out the shotguns from the burlap sack at his feet.

Jake is able to make out two distinct sets of footsteps as those traveling draw closer. After a moment, the whistling halts. ”How much longer we gonna have to do this?” a voice, likely that of the whistler, asks, ”Every time we make this run, I can’t go anywhere after. I gotta go right back to the flat to wash the stink off.”

A sigh is heard. ”You ask the same thing every time we’re down here. Story hasn’t changed. We gotta move the booze through here so we’re not wheelin’ through Gambino territory and riskin’ problems. Mr. Reina’s tryin’ to find a decent warehouse in the Lower East where we can stash the stuff, but until that happens, this is how it’s done. Better the smell than catchin’ some lead.”

”I hate it down here,” the whistler grumbles, ”Gives me the creeps.”
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:42, Wed 07 Sept 2022.

The professor remained stock still. He wasn't quite sure what he was doing here, and until that moment he heard the other voices, he hadn't paused to fully contemplate his course of action, being pulled along in the whirlwind of events. Strange to find himself relieved that they were merely moving booze, but that could turn dangerous enough.

In the darkness, as his eyes adjusted, he peered about for any places there might be for them to hide.

The footsteps of the chatting gangsters draw closer, the demeanor of the conversation suggesting that neither is especially alert for threats. It seems that both men simply want their assigned chore completed.

Looking at the narrow passageway behind them, the investigators can see that the darkness there is quite dense. Were they to retreat a short distance in that direction and remain quiet, it seems unlikely that they would be noticed.

OOC: This is how I imagine our situation. The manhole has let us down into a side tunnel from the main sewer (running east/west). The smugglers are coming along the main sewer tunnel, just to the north of us, and we can fade back into deeper shadow by going south along the narrower passage. PS: The circle shows the location of the manhole cover above us. The ladder/iron rungs lead up to it.

If this is correct, Jake will touch the others one by one in the darkness and urge them to step quietly southward into the gloom.