The Rat Warrens

You recently inherited a large estate from your late uncle, built far away from civilization and deep in the serene mountains. It came as a mystery to you, honestly, as you never knew much about your uncle. He only visited on occasion, and seemed to always spend time alone in solitude at his mansion. He never even married from what you recall. What you didn't expect to find was an entire other civilization living within the depths of those mountains.

You've been digging in the backyard, trying to dig up an old decrepit well your uncle had. You figured doing some yardwork in the back would help you break the place in while you figured out what exactly to do with it. Your uncle was always very secretive about this place for some reason, like he was guarding some esoteric knowledge. Turns out you may have found just what he was actually guarding.

As you dig through the soft ground, you expect to hit rock at some point - only, that's not exactly what happens. The ground gives way and caves inward beneath you, sending you sprawling on your back. You slide down a tunnel of mud and grime, slipping and sliding until you land on your ass atop a large mound of the same dirt you've been digging. You slide down it, coming to a stop with a thud against..... a METAL wall? It takes you a long moment to get your bearings. Your clothes have been torn slightly in the ensuing fall, but other than a few small scrapes you are relatively unharmed. A ray of sunlight shines on you through the hole left behind from the cave in. Right now, as you shake your head and look around at the landscape before you, you realize that's actually the least of your concerns.

Many, many pairs of eyes stare back at you as you turn your head and place your back against the wall. Bright yellow eyes with blackened pupils. They're rats. But they're walking like people, on two feet! They're standing - wearing gaudy clothes, and staring back at you like you're an alien. Some tilt their heads, others squeak quietly amongst each other. Around them, walkways of stone and metal line the streets between crudely-fashioned underground buildings. Vibrant neon signs light up and flicker against rusted sheet metal, scavenged brick, or stone walls. All the while, crudely-fashioned pipes and wires line posts above the paths. It's like a scene out of some gaudy 80s sci-fi flick or something...

Two of them have stopped what was clearly some intense make-out session against the wall of... (is that a BAR?) to look at you. You can make out one consistent word squeaking out between the surprised crowd: "Human."

You recently inherited a large estate from your late uncle, built far away from civilization and deep in the serene mountains. It came as a mystery to you, honestly, as you never knew much about your uncle. He only visited on occasion, and seemed to always spend time alone in solitude at his mansion. He never even married from what you recall. What you didn't expect to find was an entire other civilization living within the depths of those mountains.

You've been digging in the backyard, trying to dig up an old decrepit well your uncle had. You figured doing some yardwork in the back would help you break the place in while you figured out what exactly to do with it. Your uncle was always very secretive about this place for some reason, like he was guarding some esoteric knowledge. Turns out you may have found just what he was actually guarding.

As you dig through the soft ground, you expect to hit rock at some point - only, that's not exactly what happens. The ground gives way and caves inward beneath you, sending you sprawling on your back. You slide down a tunnel of mud and grime, slipping and sliding until you land on your ass atop a large mound of the same dirt you've been digging. You slide down it, coming to a stop with a thud against..... a METAL wall? It takes you a long moment to get your bearings. Your clothes have been torn slightly in the ensuing fall, but other than a few small scrapes you are relatively unharmed. A ray of sunlight shines on you through the hole left behind from the cave in. Right now, as you shake your head and look around at the landscape before you, you realize that's actually the least of your concerns.

Many, many pairs of eyes stare back at you as you turn your head and place your back against the wall. Bright yellow eyes with blackened pupils. They're rats. But they're walking like people, on two feet! They're standing - wearing gaudy clothes, and staring back at you like you're an alien. Some tilt their heads, others squeak quietly amongst each other. Around them, walkways of stone and metal line the streets between crudely-fashioned underground buildings. Vibrant neon signs light up and flicker against rusted sheet metal, scavenged brick, or stone walls. All the while, crudely-fashioned pipes and wires line posts above the paths. It's like a scene out of some gaudy 80s sci-fi flick or something...

Two of them have stopped what was clearly some intense make-out session against the wall of... (is that a BAR?) to look at you. You're a stranger in a clearly strange land. This was all beneath your uncle's estate? Did he know? Surely he knew...

It has been three whole weeks since your entire understanding of the world shifted beneath your feet... literally. It started with the death of your late uncle and the inheritance of his estate. For some odd reason you were on his will to inherit the place, despite knowing so little about each other. Turns out - your uncle had quite the secret buried beneath his estate.

The cellar door creaks as you push through. Your uncle always kept his wine cellar clean, and for obvious reasons. The smell of large oaken barrels mixes with something emanating from even deeper within. It's faint, but you know exactly what it is: the distinct, musky scent of those rat warrens below. The entrance your uncle hid - the same one Don Cheeseman, or 'The Big Cheese' showed you after your initial meeting - is situated behind an old teak shelf along the far wall. It swings open with a soft creak from its hinge. Your uncle had maintained this passage well, but the time passed since his death have rusted the hinges slightly.

The passage is narrow, and you have to hunch slightly to get through. It's clear this was initially a hasty effort on part of the rats that had been more carved out with time. Your feet eventually meet the metal flooring lining the underground walkways with a resonant CLANG. It echoes through the small tunnel until you reach the exit into a much larger tunnel. Neon lights spill out from around the corner ahead, with hues of pinks, blues and greens against the crude walls of metal and stone. You can hear the distant sounds of everyday activity: chattering, squeaking, the soft pitter-patter of rat feet along those walkways, all accompanied by some kind of music playing from somewhere deeper in. This is it - the place you've been growing more and more familiar with over the past month: The Rat Warrens.

A female rat with matted brown fur rounds the corner, carrying a basket full of something you can't identify. She freezes for a moment, then relaxes as she simply nods. A casual acknowledgment that you're still getting used to. The first few days, every rat you encountered had stared at you like you'd grown a second head. It's only natural, you suppose - you are, after all, only the second surface dweller to ever interact with them, after your uncle.

The tunnel opens up ahead into the main thoroughfare. Establishments have their metallic doors propped open as usual, inviting customers inside. You think you can see silhouettes moving inside some of them, but their windows are too scuffed and caked with grime to make out details. A neon sign flickers outside what looks like a bar: DRINKS & STUFF

The underground world is yours to explore today, it seems.