Rats!

April 4, 2015

PCs Present:
Osirian Silvertongue
Zaya
Fluffy
'Boy'
Alek Redgar (who is surprisingly found wandering the streets of Diafthora)

To Market, To Market


The session continues from last time and the group is still in the market square trying to spend their hard earned (?) money.  They visit Jack's Arms and Equipment and meet Jack a barrel-chested portly man who is loud and annoying and seems to try to gouge the players for as much as he can.  After buying some feyleather, starleather and some elderscale armor from the man (after much failed haggling) they leave to seek out enchanted armor.

They are directed to Moradin's Hoard.  There they meet Moradin, a flamboyant effeminate human who is excited to see such grizzled and tough characters.   Osirian debates whether or not to trade 'Boy's favors for a better price but eventually pays the agreed price for Battleforged Plate armor.  He leaves unimpressed but with a mission to swap the enchantment onto his preferred armor.  So he scours the market for the items 'Boy' will need to perform the ritual.

Not long after, one of the villagers younglings come to find the group and beckon them back to an inn to carry out their duty to protect them through the night.  They are shepherded to to Soldshort's Inn.

Soldshort's Inn
1350 XP

Little does she know it but that maiden will succumb to the wordmastery of Osirian Silvertongue

Entering the inn they find a warm and inviting place where they are welcomed in and fed by Marlone a friendly plump gnome woman.  The place is bustling and the group finds the inn a good place for Osirian to perform.  Osirian easily earns the price of a feast and rooms for the group, and then some.

They are unsuccessfully, entreated to play a gambling game.  Alek gives the 'plinko' type of game, Behir Skull Rattle, a go only to find it a money losing game.

They overhear rumors of:

• The local militia, The Order Of The Thunderhsields are corrupt, running a 'Protection Tax' scheme on business.
• They perhaps used to be noble in protecting the city.
• They are responsible to running the mines in town but many are finding their domineering attitudes hard to work for.
• The mines are not what they used to be.  Many miners refuse to work deep within, fearing it haunted.

One man, a father of one of the newly inducted Thundershield soldiers, takes mighty offence at the discussion and leaves.

By the end of the night, Osirian has successfully worked his silvertongue into convincing a fetching bar maid into giving him special attention, only to have his reward delayed due to an inconvenient interuption

Shortly after the father of the Thundershield soldier left in a huff, a group of vampires enters the building via various routes and begins immediately to kill all the patrons within.  Battle ensues as the group tries to come to the defense of the villagers.  Zaya quickly finds that even with her incredibly damaging blows the vampires seem to heal most of the damage done within a few minutes.

Alek, who had been outside at the begining, hears the commotion and as he tries to re-enter, he is confronted by a vampire.  Alek tries to pass himself off as one of the attacking vampires to gain entry and then kills the gullible vampire.

The group finds they have to pull out all their big moves in order to defeat the numerous vampires. But eventually they succeed.  Soon afterwards, they decide to rummage through the inn and find money among the patrons, cash box and Marlone's private quarters (after Osirian ends updestroying the hidden compartment in the floor where her stash was kept).  Zaya also finds a vial of vermillion colored liquid.

Just as Osirian is about to comfort the comely bar maid, he is interrupted, again, this time by the arrival of a group of The Order Of  Thundershields.  The captain, Jamril Songsteel, seems to quickly assess what has happened and decides to recruit the group to assist in tracking down and killing the offending vampires.  Jamril does express some concern when he looks to Fluff, as the kobold has clearly drank more than his share tonight and seems only to be continuing.

Through The Sewers

1,900 XP

This looks much cleaner than the sewer that the group is in

The large group of vampires are easily backtracked to a sewer grate and down the party goes into the murky black odorous corridors.

They first come across a drain, at which they hear the sounds of, what Zaya quickly figures out to be, a slaughterhouse directly above them.  The multitude of rats also hear the sounds and start to converge on the drain pipe.  The group moves on only to find themselves caught between to of the drain pipes which now start a deluge of blood and guts from above.  

They now have rat swarms, dire rats and finally a carrion crawler who has taken up residence within one of the drain pipes.

The group quickly deduces that the rat swarms are only really damage by area burst or flames and after a concerted effort they overcome the filth monsters and are not too hurt by the encounter.

No one, (not after even the DM specifically asks if they want to) wants to search through the filth to see if anyone perhaps had suffered a similar fate here and perished with any valuables.  Oh well.

A little bit of a short session it seems but fun none the less.