Chapter 1 - Session 2 : Searching the House
The Ground Floor
As the adventurers consider their options while standing near the open door to the house that the thug was trying to escape to, a couple of them notice a man trying to sneak up on them. After their last encounter they are on high alert and immediately draw their ranged weapons, while questioning the human. "I am Erzenei, a local, and only came down here because I heard the commotion of a fight. Are you the adventurers that are looking into the abduction of Rosie Emberhelm?". After introductions are completed, the party accepts Erzenai into the group.
The door stands invitingly open and they can see what looks like a typical living room for the area: chairs around a dining room table; a large fireplace with seats nearby; and a welcoming rug at the entrance. The party decides to investigate the house, to look for any signs of Rosie. The party heads into the house, with the exception of Fosgrim, who took a bit of a beating from the thugs, so he decides to take a little rest right outside.
Shudo heads over to a door in an alcove to the left of the entrance, while the rest of the party moves further into the home. Pork Chop decides to stop at the staircase (leading up) and listen for anything from above. Shudo listens at the door and hears some light scratching from somewhere diagonally from his location.
Kalain and Erzenei look over the furnishing and note that things are not quite right, it looks like things have recently been re-arranged, while there is a light layer of dust across the place. Pork doesn't hear any sounds coming from upstairs and joins Kalain and Erzenei in looking around. Once the trio round the wall past the stairs, they spot something alarming: a kitchen that is infested with rats, including some of unusual size!
Kalain quickly takes to the offensive, moving up to and slashing a giant rat with his longsword, while standing in the archway leading to the kitchen. Pork and Erzenei jump into the fray, launching ranged spells and ranged weapons respectively at other rats. The rats swarm the characters with uncanny intelligence. Shudo quickly moves to help against the pesky rodents. While Erzenei nimbly moves in and out of combat, scoring hits with his rapier, Pork stumbles a bit and the rats take advantage. Fosgrim, hearing the commotion, decides to end his respite to help out.
The rats prove more difficult than any of them would expect, but after a difficult fight the party survives. Pork uses his healing spells to help the guys in the worst shape. Meanwhile, Erzenei decides to look around the kitchen for anything of value. He finds a little stash of shiny coins in one corner, a spot that looks like they were building a little nest.
There is a small wooden door in the kitchen, which they check cautiously. They don't hear anything behind it, so they open it to find a food storage room filled with boxes, crates and barrels. There is also a small trapdoor in one corner, leading to who knows where. They spend some time looking around the room, finding food stuffs and some tracks leading towards the trapdoor.
Carefully opening the trapdoor, the party finds a masoned room that has a markedly lower temperature. It is filled with boxes and crates of good items that require long-term or cold storage. They give the space a thorough search and find a place in the floor that is irregular. Upon closer examination they see that it is roughly square shaped and decide to pry it up. As they open it, they are greeted with the foul odor of a sewer. There is a rough tunnel extended 30 feet straight down with an iron ladder attached to it's side. The space below is dimly lit by a source similar to a torch or small fire. They decide to close the trapdoor and push some of the heavy crates over it, to prevent anyone from opening it from below and go explore the upstairs.
After listening at the door and not hearing anything they open the door to find what looks like the master bedroom. It is nicely furnished with a higher quality of furniture and accessories than the rest of the home. On the right side there is a small vanity with makeup, perfume bottles and other beauty products on it's surface. Straight ahead is a bed with a chest at it's foot. As their senses acclimate to the dark space, they are horrified to see a ghost of an older woman hovering over the bed. She turns to the party and howls displeasure at being disturbed, but makes no move towards the party. The group quickly considers the options, including shutting the door or running away, when the half-orc cleric suggests letting him communicate with the spirit. He asks her why she is here and if he can do anything to appease her, and she answers in a low moaning voice, "The dirty ratman murdered me in my sleep, and had the gall to steal my favorite hair brush. Punish him and return my brush!".
The group decides to try to help the spirit and recedes to the living room. They decide to barricade the doors to the house and sleep until morning as fatigue has set in and it is the middle of the night.
The door stands invitingly open and they can see what looks like a typical living room for the area: chairs around a dining room table; a large fireplace with seats nearby; and a welcoming rug at the entrance. The party decides to investigate the house, to look for any signs of Rosie. The party heads into the house, with the exception of Fosgrim, who took a bit of a beating from the thugs, so he decides to take a little rest right outside.
Shudo heads over to a door in an alcove to the left of the entrance, while the rest of the party moves further into the home. Pork Chop decides to stop at the staircase (leading up) and listen for anything from above. Shudo listens at the door and hears some light scratching from somewhere diagonally from his location.
Kalain and Erzenei look over the furnishing and note that things are not quite right, it looks like things have recently been re-arranged, while there is a light layer of dust across the place. Pork doesn't hear any sounds coming from upstairs and joins Kalain and Erzenei in looking around. Once the trio round the wall past the stairs, they spot something alarming: a kitchen that is infested with rats, including some of unusual size!
Kalain quickly takes to the offensive, moving up to and slashing a giant rat with his longsword, while standing in the archway leading to the kitchen. Pork and Erzenei jump into the fray, launching ranged spells and ranged weapons respectively at other rats. The rats swarm the characters with uncanny intelligence. Shudo quickly moves to help against the pesky rodents. While Erzenei nimbly moves in and out of combat, scoring hits with his rapier, Pork stumbles a bit and the rats take advantage. Fosgrim, hearing the commotion, decides to end his respite to help out.
The rats prove more difficult than any of them would expect, but after a difficult fight the party survives. Pork uses his healing spells to help the guys in the worst shape. Meanwhile, Erzenei decides to look around the kitchen for anything of value. He finds a little stash of shiny coins in one corner, a spot that looks like they were building a little nest.
There is a small wooden door in the kitchen, which they check cautiously. They don't hear anything behind it, so they open it to find a food storage room filled with boxes, crates and barrels. There is also a small trapdoor in one corner, leading to who knows where. They spend some time looking around the room, finding food stuffs and some tracks leading towards the trapdoor.
Carefully opening the trapdoor, the party finds a masoned room that has a markedly lower temperature. It is filled with boxes and crates of good items that require long-term or cold storage. They give the space a thorough search and find a place in the floor that is irregular. Upon closer examination they see that it is roughly square shaped and decide to pry it up. As they open it, they are greeted with the foul odor of a sewer. There is a rough tunnel extended 30 feet straight down with an iron ladder attached to it's side. The space below is dimly lit by a source similar to a torch or small fire. They decide to close the trapdoor and push some of the heavy crates over it, to prevent anyone from opening it from below and go explore the upstairs.
What's Upstairs?
Kalain decides they should check upstairs, so up they go in single file to find...a comfortable loft with a quality woven rug, two comfortable lounge chairs and a small book case filled with several volumes. There are also two doors leading out of the loft on opposite sides of the stairwell. After searching the loft, and finding several interesting volumes, they proceed to the door on the right.After listening at the door and not hearing anything they open the door to find what looks like the master bedroom. It is nicely furnished with a higher quality of furniture and accessories than the rest of the home. On the right side there is a small vanity with makeup, perfume bottles and other beauty products on it's surface. Straight ahead is a bed with a chest at it's foot. As their senses acclimate to the dark space, they are horrified to see a ghost of an older woman hovering over the bed. She turns to the party and howls displeasure at being disturbed, but makes no move towards the party. The group quickly considers the options, including shutting the door or running away, when the half-orc cleric suggests letting him communicate with the spirit. He asks her why she is here and if he can do anything to appease her, and she answers in a low moaning voice, "The dirty ratman murdered me in my sleep, and had the gall to steal my favorite hair brush. Punish him and return my brush!".
The group decides to try to help the spirit and recedes to the living room. They decide to barricade the doors to the house and sleep until morning as fatigue has set in and it is the middle of the night.
Into the Sewers
After getting good nights rest the party returns to the trapdoor in the cold storage room. Kalain takes the lead with Pork following behind him after he gets half way down the ladder. At the 20 foot point, the tunnel opens up into a room and Kalain spots many more rats, including some giant ones as well as a thug wearing a crimson bandanna around his neck. The thug quickly notices him and asks, "Who are you and what are you doing here?". Kalain responds, "We were sent by the leader" and the thug counters with, "And who exactly might that be?". Kalain has difficulty coming up with a viable answer, so the thug loads his crossbow and starts to take aim. Kalain quickly heads back up the ladder, yelling at Pork to do the same. They both get back into the room before the thug can fire his crossbow at them. Several party members quickly load and fire their missile weapons down the tunnel at the the thug, taking him down.
Fosgrim decides to take the lead now, heading down the ladder. He stops at a point that he judges as safely out of reach of the rats and begins exterminating them, while agilely hanging onto the ladder. Erzenei joins him on the ladder to help, hanging just above him, while Shudo heads down next. After a couplee of the rats are killed, Shudo decided to make an acrobatic leap down to the ground and engage the rats in melee. He easily makes the maneuver, only to be suddenly surrounded by a horde of rats. Even with his adept defensive moves, there are just too many of them, so Shudo starts taking some hard hits. Pork decides to come down the ladder to see if he can help, while Erzenei and Fosgrim continue to pick-off the rats.
Shudo is overwhelmed and drops unconscious under the barrage. Pork tries to maneuver on the ladder to get down and help and loses his grip on the ladder, falling ungracefully to the floor, 20-feet below. Ouch, that didn't feel good! Pork calls on the favor of his god to assist them in their dire need and his prayers are answered as the party is able to recover and finish off the rats.
They quickly search the thug and head back up to the house. They decide that a short rest is in order before proceeding. Once they finish the rest, they head back down into the sewers to finish their quest to find Rosie Emberhelm.
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