Chapter 1 - Session 3: Where is the Ratman?

Searching the Sewers

After taking a short rest to allow Shudo to recover from his rat bites, the party headed back down into the sewer to search for Rosie Emberhelm and the rumored "Ratman". The sewer was a typical sewer, stone walls and murky water with plenty of chunks flowing slowly down the passages. All of the party with the exception of Erzenei ,"Z" as he liked to go by, are demi-humans and have darkvision. So "Z" was relegated to lighting and carrying a torch so that he was not blind during their exploration.

They explored the exits to the north, south and west to find them all ending in a heavy grate mortared into the walls. The bars were two inch thick steel and even with a herculean effort, they could not budge them. Finally, they headed down the long easterly passage to discover a four way intersection. They peered down each passage and quietly listened to decide which way to proceed. All they saw was more darkness down each tunnel, but while listening down the passage to the south they heard some kind of movement and decided to investigate.

A Slithering Experience

The group quietly moved down the south passage to find that it opened into a 15-foot square collection room. The space had quite a bit of debris collected in it, such as small branches, leaves and grass; very unlike the previous areas explored. It almost looked like some kind of nest was built in the room. There was another sewer grate blocking the only other exit to the south. Suddenly, they noticed something moving in the water, as a giant snake, that looked like a boa constrictor on steroids, moved to attack the party and defend it's nest. Kalain valiantly moved forward to engage the reptile with his longsword, while the rest of the party prepared their weapons and spells. Kalain was able to deal a significant blow, which enraged the snake as it wrapped several coils around Kalain's torso, squeezing him with giant like strength. Kalain's lungs collapsed as he was pulled under the water and fell unconscious from the trauma. Shudo leaped in to save his companion, striking several solid blows with his staff, while Fosgrim sent sparkling magical energy at the reptile. Pork and Z joined in to help slay the beast and free Kalain from it's deadly grasp. Pork quickly utilized his priestly training to resuscitate the unconscious wood elf (Kalain).

Meanwhile, Erzenei decided to take some time searching around the room for anything valuable the snake might have collected from prior victims. His search proved fruitful after finding a large collection of coins scattered around the bottom of the murky waters as well as a couple of gems and a stoppered vial containing a cloudy liquid.

Something is Missing

After taking a short rest to recover from the battle with the giant snake, the party continued their search for the Rosie and the "Ratman". Traversing the remaining paths, they found nothing but dead ends, with no signs of their quarry. Deciding that there must be some kind of hidden door, they began to carefully search the last long passageway they traversed. After spending a half hour or so searching, Erzenei rubbed his hand across the wall and felt an irregular groove. Bringing his torch closer, he could see an ever so feint line in the wall that looked to be some kind of doorway, expertly crafted into the masonry. Now he just had to figure out how to open it. Fosgrim noticed Z tracing the line of the door and went over to help open it. Looking over the area, his dwarven senses kicked in, and he quickly found a subtly different spot near the door and pushed on it, which opened the stone entrance.

The space behind the secret door looked completely different from the rest of the sewers. There was no sludge running down the floors, which were made of some marble like substance. The walls and ceiling were constructed of fine stonework, similar to what you would see in a well constructed manor or keep. The entrance passageway went about fifteen feet and then opened into a similarly constructed room with a visible fire burning in the center of it, smoke wafting through a vent hole in the ceiling.

Who Goes There

Kalain took the lead and entered the hallway, quickly spotting a couple of men wearing red bandanna's around their neck in the room, watching what he was doing. One of them called out, "Who goes there?". Kalain muttered some gibberish about, "he sent me", which of course didn't satisfy the query. The thugs quickly took aim at the adventurers with their heavy crossbows, while the party prepared to return fire. The first thug fell fairly quickly to some well placed missile fire and spells from the party, so the second one decided to get out of there by opening a door at the back of the room. He was dropped in his tracks by more missile fire.

Kalain and Shudo moved into the room, to see what else they could find, and are surprised by an attacker hiding off the side of the entrance. This proved to be a fatal mistake by the rogue as Kalain is able to dodge the attack and return a powerful riposte. The group quickly dispatched this third adversary before he had a chance to react.

After the battle, Z once again decided to start looking for treasure, something he seems to be quite adept at. Some others joined in the search and they were able uncover a sizable stash of coins, a fancy embroidered mask, a carved bone statuette of a demon, and two pair of engraved bone dice.

The Shrine

The doorway led to a passageway that turned right after 15 feet and then ended in a closed steel door down another 15 feet. The party cautiously inspected the door and listened for any activity behind the door. Noting nothing, they opened it to reveal a large and eerie chamber. The room appeared to have been a shrine to some evil deity at some time in the past. Now it was just a dusty, cluttered and neglected space from a bygone era. The walls were covered with defaced compositions of ghoulish scenes. 

The room had three ornate columns supporting the ceiling on each side that had ghoulish carvings, which were also defaced. Towards the other end of the room was a large pentagram in the floor that appeared to be formed from blood red stones. There was a large and old stain in the center of the pentagram, that appeared to be blood upon further inspection.

On the other side of the pentagram stood a large status of a demonic figure with a lower torso of a goat, a humanoid upper body with a corpulent belly swollen with rot. Great bat wings sprang from the statues shoulders, that were partially broken off. The head was like the skull of a goat with the flesh rotting off of it. In one hand it wielded a huge wand made of the spine of a creature but it's end was broken off.

Sitting behind the statue was an ornate podium, that once held foul manuscripts. Clutter was piled up in many of the corners, much of it looked like old destroyed pews. There were some newer containers: boxes, crates, barrels and bags, stored in the corners at the opposite end of the room. A steel door stood closed in the center of the rear wall.

The party searched through the room and debris, but found nothing of interest or value. They cautiously approached the door at the rear of the room and listened at it while searching for traps.

High Priest's Chambers

After inspecting the door, they quietly opened it to find a short passageway ahead that lead to another room. In the room they spotted a moon elf male sitting at a desk on the back wall of the room, seemingly reading from an open book on the desk. As they slowly moved down the passage, the moon elf stood and turned to greet them, "This is a fortunate meeting. What brings you to my humble abode?". Kalain had just reached the end of the passage and spotted a giant rat to one side and a cage in the corner of the room with a poorly treated young woman in it. Kalain said, "We are here to stop you!", as he quickly loaded and fired his bow at the moon elf. The arrow was a direct hit to the moon elf's chest, but as soon as it penetrated his studded leather armor, it stopped and fell to the ground, apparently doing nothing to him.

The moon elf started to change his shape, mutating to what looked like a moon elf rat with long snout and whiskers, a long hairless tail, and fur covering his skin. "I am Kirion Olofir and you have made a fatal mistake wood elf. You and your companions are about to perish!", as he and his pet giant rat moved to engage. The other party members quickly joined in the attack and saw their melee weapon hits produce no wounds on Virion. Virion, on the other hand is able to land a deep gash on Kalain, almost bringing him to his knees. Fosgrim, seeing the dire situation that Kalain is in, tried to hand him a potion of healing. Unfortunately, Kalain clumsily fumbled the hand-off, the potion falling to the ground. Making a last, desperate attempt to get the potion, Kalain was able to dodge a blow from Virion while picking up and drinking the fallen potion.

Luckily, the spell casters were able to penetrate Virion's defenses, while Z and Kalain switched to silvered weapons. The silvered weapons were just the ticket as they were able to deal significant damage, but Virion had another trick up his sleeve as he pulled a vial from his pouch and drank it, healing his wounds. After taking a significant slash to his arm, Kalain struck back with a deep wound to Virion, but the battle didn't look like it was going the party's way.

Shudo and Pork, unable to strike Virion, turned their attention to the giant rat. Shudo had his typical bad luck with rats, as it lunged at his throat and struck a critical blow, and he collapsed to the ground. 

Desperation leads to death or heroic efforts and in this case the tide turned for the party. First, Pork was able to land a heavy blow to the rat, squashing his head with his mace. Then, Z took advantage of the attention Virion was giving to Kalain to score a critical sneak attack with his silvered dagger. Virion crumpled to the floor and slowly changed back into his moon elf shape. The party had won the day and saved Rosie Emberhelm!

Conclusion

After tending to their wounds, the party was able to search Virion and his room, finding a significant amount of coinage; a few gems; two potions; a scroll; some magical crossbow bolts; a magical longsword; and the favorite brush of the ghost of Abbie Wells.

Upon returning the brush to Abbie, on their way out of the sewers, she thanked them and told them of a hidden cache in her room and then vanished. Pork Chop collected her remains for proper burial.

The party escorted Rosie to Sherlen Miller, the Constable of Daggerford. She thanked them heartily for their heroic effort and provided them with their 200gp reward, which had recently been increased by a donation from Sir Isteval, a retired Paladin of some renown that lived in Daggerford. Sherlen was very interested in the book the party recovered from Virion, an encrypted text with information about the 'Scarlet Rats'. Sherlen informed them that the 'Scarlet Rats' were a newer guild of wererats that had recently started causing trouble in the region.

Exhausted from their adventure, the party headed to the Silver Flood Inn to rest and recuperate, but looked forward to their next adventure.