Hidden Basement

Overview

A storage basement beneath a busy building, filled with tarp-covered crates stacked on rollers. The way in from below is a hidden floor panel, disguised as a light rolling crate, at the top of a crude stone stair that climbs out of the Sewage Discharge Room and appears on no official map. Through a nearby door come the sounds of clinking glasses, shouted kitchen orders, and the whoosh of open flames, so a kitchen or bar sits above.

On the far wall a heavy metal fire exit carries a sign warning that opening it sets off an alarm. Shackleton Magellan pushed it open and the alarm stayed silent. It lets out into an alleyway below street level, from which a climb leads up to the street near the Bamboo Union 103 Lodge.

That evening’s local news credited the Aethel Safety Bureau with dismantling an underground smuggling operation run by The Bamboo Union, its tunnel network found on a routine patrol. The basement is part of that Bamboo Union operation. The corrugated metal sheathing and pipe pieces Shackleton found in the tunnel earlier show that someone else used those tunnels before.

Points of Interest

• The rolling-crate floor panel over the stone stair.
• The silent fire exit onto the sub-street alley.
• The tarp-covered crates on rollers.

Appearances

• Session 9 (Session 09 - Snakes on a Catwalk) — Shackleton Magellan chose the stone stair over the maintenance ladder, came up through the floor panel with Aethel Safety Bureau officers on his heels, and left by the fire exit. See The Sewer Breakout.