Date is Sul the 13th of Therendor, 998yk
Game begins at 8am
Torion and Daellin are to meet for their weekly lunch at The Gray Sword. Before he goes Torion examines his pockets and finds them quite lacking of coinage, with only one gold piece to his name. So he decides to see if he can get a loan from his house. He heads to the Wroann's Gate House Vadalis Outpost and unfortunately the person working, Bennet ir'Vadalis has a bit of a history with him. It seems that Torion had, days past, had more than a few sexual relations with Bennet's daughter. So when Torion asks if he might have a loan Bennet pretends to file through some papers and then tells him that he can't give him anything now, as his request will take a while to process, and to come back in a few days. So Torion, empty-handed, goes to The Gray Sword to meet up with Daellin.
Daellin had gone to the tavern early and talked to a few of it's patrons learning the local rumors and recent news. He learns that the Goblins have been becoming a bit more brazen lately in Sharn, particularly over in Dura, but their insolence has been spreading. They've been getting quite bold with shopkeepers and goblin graffiti is becoming popular. Also a rat infestation has come over High Walls and Tavick's Market.
Torion enters the tavern shortly before noon, and not far behind him is Nevimelk who has come to High Walls with plans to map it out. Cylia, the barmaid, comes to Nevimelk first to take his order, and noticing that he appears to be from out of the area, asks him where he's from. He responds that he came from Middle Dura, and her eyes light up, but when she asks what he does for a living and he responds with "making maps" she appears disappointed and goes into the back kitchen. Daellin seeing an oppurtunity, asks if he's got any maps of warehouse districts, which he does, and he buys a map of Precarius from him. When Cylia brings Torion and Daellin's meals to them by she asks what they're up to for the day. To which they respond with something along the lines of "A whole lot of nothing, looking for money." She brings out Nevimelk's meal, but it's not the right kind of meat, lamb instead of pork, so he sends it back. She grabs it an cursing and swearing in the backroom prepares the right meal. Wary of what she brings back, never upset your waitress, he gives the meat to Torion's owl to peck at.
When they're finished with their meals Brasco calls them over to him, and asks if they could do him a favor to repay all the free meals he's given them. Nevimelk asks if he could help for a few coins, which he agrees to. It seems that The Gray Sword is not an exception to the rat problem and he wants them to go into his backroom and catch the rats back there. When Nevi asks him why he doesn't just get a cat to do it, he sheepishly admits he had done so and the rats ate it.
So the three of them descend into the basement, which is half lit by a wall torch, and packed near to the 12 foot ceiling with crates. They aren't investigating long before several rats appear near the edge of the light, in the middle of the room crawling on and around the crates. Torion, his owl, and Daellin go to the center to engage the rats, while Nevimelk stands guard near the stairs. Torion tries to keep one alive in order to question it later. After a short time fighting the rats they find out what ate the cat. A feral rat, covered with bony ridges, a lightly glowing tooth and about the size of a large dog, comes barreling out of the far end of the basement to attack Torion. Daellin and Torion attack it, while his owl takes care of the remaining mundane rats. Nevimelk attempts to blast the creature with his mind, and Torion attempts to calm all the rats using his spells, but all attempts fail. Finally Daellin and Torion strike a good blow each, and fell the beast. Nevimelk harvests it's organs, while Torion attempts to determine the magic on the tooth, which fades before he can determine the school; however he is certain that it was enchanted.
Nevimelk decides to go back up and tell Brasco the job is done but when he's half way up the stairs a loud crack comes from the stairs and he plummets about 15 - 20 feet down into a hollowed out cavern below the basement. He is injured but still conscious and he can hear quite a lot of ratlike scurrying in the dark. So he backs up to a wall and pour an oil flask out around him, lighting it on fire with a torch dropped down to him. He sees a monstrous swarm of about 300 young rats heading towards him as well as a visibly diseased rat. Torion ties a rope to some crates and then lowers it down to him, as well as sending his owl down to intimidate the rat swarm. Daellin figures that he'll go across the railing of the stairs to the main dining hall of the taven and get some sandwiches from Brasco one to throw down and distract the rat swarm and the others for Torion and himself. He gets halfway up however and his foot slips, he tries to regain his balance but fails and plummets into the cavern below, narrowly missing Nevimelk. He is still conscious enough to try and climb up the rope, which Torion is also holding onto for extra support. He gets 10 feet up and the knot on the crates fails and lets go, the sudden weight also rips the rope out of Torion's hands dropping Daellin on his head, knocking him out this time.
At this point the diseased rat attempts to jump the flames only to catch on fire and begin roasting. The swarms rolls over it, and a great number of the rats inside die on the fire, but they still manage to make it to Nevimelk. The remaining rats swarm over his boots, biting but not able to get through the tough leather. Torion gets his owl to swoop down with one of his flasks and dump it on the rats, Nevimelk jumps out of the way nimbly avoiding the splash, and a stray spark lights them aflame, ending the rat threat. Torion then starts to rappel down but loses his grip as well and falls nearly knocking himself out as well. When he regains his composure he heals himself and Daellin, and then once the fires die down the explore the cavern.
They find a dirty set of clothes, some silverware and a bluestone necklace, and silver earrings. The ceiling is also riddled with ratholes, and the cavern is much too big to be only under the tavern so they surmise that the rats had also been getting at the surrounding businesses. A long tunnel, about goblin sized, heads westward off the cavern as well. They find the hole to the basement which the dire rat must have used, and looks large enough for them to crawl through. They make it back upstairs, build a makeshift bridge across the gap, and then go speak to Brasco, who tells them that their meals are free from now on. After some negotiating he also gives them each 5gp, and an extra 15gp to Nevimelk as agreed. He also lends them use of one of his two guest rooms upstairs for the night.
When washing the clothes Nevimelk comes across a note that reads: : ====== help ==== ===== thanks for ===== ==== ==== plague ===== towers ==== ======= ======== , Son of Winter : ======s Tarkanan
He tucks it away with intentions of finding out more about it.
It is raining heavily in the morning as they sit down to breakfast and notice Brasco and a stranger having a heated argument. The stranger leaves and gives a menacing glare to the three of them as he goes out the door. They learn from Brasco that the stranger was a member of the Boromar Clan and he was trying to extort Brasco for protection money.
Session ends
Party gains 250 exp, Each still have 5 AP to use.
Next Session is Mol 14 Therendor 998Yk.
