Session 1-03: What’s the Worst Rat Could Happen?

General Summary

Year 116 on Firthtag the 11th day of Kalt, Just after Taga.

The group wakes up at dawn to set out. Hella was not around, however, Carillius was feeling better and rejoins the group. The guide makes quick work leading the group back to the cave they staked out yesterday. With caution, they more upon the burrow and start in. The entrance is too small for Tycone the Dragonborn to easily enter, and he must stoop low the first bit of the way. While stooped he does not see a deadfall trap until it is almost too late. Tycone was able to dodging out of the way with minimal damage, however, the entrance to the warren is now mostly blocked. Pushing past the gravel and rocks, Tycone crawls over the rubble pile to find a skaven with a spear being poked at him. The dragonborn’s response was to flame the ratman with his ancestral breath weapon. Forcing the now singed rat to flee around the corner. The first room that the tunnels opened into had been hastily fortified by the Skaven over the last few hours. The barrels had been filled with snow from outside to make a makeshift barricade to keep the intruders at bay and offer three skaven warriors some cover as they shot arrows from short bows at the advancing group of home invaders. The defenses also included a barrel full of rats to swarm the party and slow their entry. This helped but was not enough defiance to find victory this day. All three skaven and the rat swarm were quickly dispatched. As the aggressors pushed into the lair, they worked through a maze of deserted tunnels. They found storerooms, eating areas, refuse dumps, sleeping chambers, and food prep locations. They encountered some magical wards as well. These seemed to be set high on the walls just inside bends of the tunnels that an unsuspecting trespasser might walk past without noticing. The first couple did catch the raiders unaware in an explosive blast. With there eyes now looking for more wards of protection, the interlopers find a tunnel with several wards high on the walls around each of the bends. They however easily defeat the wards by crawling under them, rendering them useless. As the group crawls past the last of the defenses, they, however, find themselves crawling into another ambush of the Skaven. A warning shot from the back of this new large cavern is shot at the first to crawl into the room. Carillius and Sypha are the first into the room and scramble up onto there feet. Carillius a speaker of Savic the language of the Skaven hears them taking in this language. He starts conferring in Savic with the old skaven in the rear of the room. This gives the rest of the party time to enter the room and assess the situation. This larger room at the rear of the warren appears to by a nursery of some kind. Three female skaven and six small young skaven half the size of their mothers stand naked before the group. In the rear, the skaven first seen during yesterdays chase crossbow in hand is standing with a skaven archer. Both these warriors are shielding the older skaven in the room who is talking with Carillius. The Negotiation of the Teifling and the Skaven Skrack knows, much. The old skaven who refers to himself in the third person questions the group's attack on his kith and kin. He indicates he wants no further issues with the group and that they should leave. Carillius the teifling doing his best to hold back the two groups all pointing weapons at each other tries to unravel the situation over the last two days. It is during this tense standoff that one of the young skaven boys, a half-inch taller then the rest begins to urinate on the teifling’s shoes before the mother rats can pull him back. Sypha the follower of Morr, starts to casts a spell which further puts the room at unease; but through the dark arcane arts is now able to speak Savic as well and joins into the conversation. Neither the Group or the Skaven seem to want this battle to continue and talks continue. Skrack indicates the stolen bodies were husks and of no use to the humans who discarded them. That all they were doing was earning coin to survive this winter. It was revealed that the bodies were for an individual named Tarndarc, and for a weekly payment, they were taking him bodies. The Skrack told the group of the meeting location, which was in the same area of the cart they followed the prior day was taken too. That they delivered the bodies once a week on Kuntag each week. As that was yesterday, he would be expecting another delivery on Kuntag the 17th day of Kalt next week. The party agreed to return the payment they stole from the skaven's last delivery; if the Skaven would leave the valley once the pass is reopened out of pine valley. Thus an accord was formed Carillius returned the stolen coin purse and Skrack turned off the wards affecting the parties exit from the caves. Return to Town The part made its way back out of the warren with no further interaction from the skaven. From there they set back to town to regroup and figure out there next plan of action. They reached town a little after untarn. Most of the party made their way to the temple of Shallya. Where Baxtor the priest was waiting and excepted offering to the temple while he healed the group. It was noted that Martha was not there having been sent off to the hamlet of Deep Bank to aid the people, by Baxtor. The group conferred with Baxtor and inquired more on the goblin issue he has been foretelling. Baxtor indicated, that the population of Deep bank has been seeing an increase in goblins around the hamlet, things are going missing and are fearful of there lives. He has been encouraging them to move out of Deep Bank, and into the walled village of Pine Grove for there protection. Sypha, who was not in need of healing, tried to reach out to the local noble of Pine Grove one Samuel Stadard. She was however met by his Captain of the Watch Reece. Reece indicates that Lord Stadard was not available until after untarn tomorrow. With that Sypha headed back to find the group, who were also on their way to see Stadard as well. Disturbance at the Tavern The group makes there way back to the Dead Raven, figuring they would be able to gain an audience with Stadard tomorrow afternoon. Upon entering the tavern, they noticed all the locals inside were giving a wide berth of the female noblewoman. She was sitting at the table closest to the fire, with nobody in any adjacent tables, and her servant just beyond that sitting with his back to her and facing the room of patrons of the tavern. Being respectful of the situation in the tavern, Tycone walked up to the noblewoman and started to talk to her. When she tried to dismiss his advances, Carillius the Tiefling and Sypha flanked him on either side. This caused the noblewoman unease to be further escalated. Tycone wished to sit and talk with the noblewoman. She, however, did not wish to be in the presence of a demonic imp, indicating a clear disgust of Carillius. Her only offer to the dragonborn was for him to knock out the teifling so they could not hear their conversation. An offer Tyrone did not accept. The half-elf guide while this was going on, sat with the angry noblewoman driver. The driver was keeping close tabs on everything transpiring and the guide noted he was clearly more than just a driver. The driver seemed to indicate she could handle this situation herself and answered a few questions of the guide; namely why she seemed agitated by the teifling. The driver indicated that her family had issues with demonic forces during the demon wars of old, and left it at that. While the teifling retreated to the bar for a drink, Sypha and Tycone continued to pester the noblewoman. Her statement to the follower of Morr before standing up to leave was “Why does a follower of Morr, Travel with an imp that worships Samara?” She turns to her driver and says “Bassu, time to go.” With that, she walks out of the tavern with Bassu following behind her into the waning evening light.

Year 116 on Mittag the 12th day of Kalt, near the end of Zunten.

The Next Day The party realizes as they prepare to go see Stadard, that Hella has still not joined them. As Untarn is fast approaching they make their way to the noble of Pine Groves estate to see Stadard. Reece meets them as they come up and welcomes them into the gate of his home. The home itself has seen better days. It's run down and the lawn has not been kept up. While it is winter and snow is on the ground, bushes and the lawn is clearly lacking the grooming one would expect from a noble residence. The paint is peeling on the house and it seems the roof could use a little work as it seems to sag a bit under the snow. Once up to the house, Reece opens the front door and shows them into the foyer, then a sitting room. While the outside was run down, the inside was clearly also in need of cleaning. Not that it was cluttered or distasteful in any way. Just dusty and unlooked after as if it got little use, and nobody was keeping up on chores The party was forced to wait for well over an hour before Stadard came into the room. He did not offer any apologies or seem to indicate his late arrival to the meeting in any way. Simply walked in, sat down and asked what business they had with meeting him They reviewed the issues of the grave robberies, asked if the name Trandarc was known by him, and other events of the last few days. Stadard did not have much to offer them in knowledge on these things, that the party was clearly the authority on as they had just occurred. He indicated he was stuck dealing with the town of Pine Grove and keeping it running smoothly and admitted not getting out for some time to any other hamlets nearby. The talk turned to the goblin threat that Baxtor had listed as an issue. This did get a response from the noble. He indicated that they have investigated the threat sending some hunters to the village to try and track down any signs of Goblins. While some of the villages are sure they have seen goblins, no tracks could be found, or evidence to support the claim. They have been out there a few times with no luck at all. Stadard indicates the last time they had a green skin hoard in the Valley of Pine Grove was 5 years or so back. They lost a lot of good men and horses while pushing an Orc Warband from the valley. He also lost the dwarven leader of this defensive army. Stadard also reported that he has heard from all the hamlets recently except for Pearford. Pearford lies to the northeast. Nobody has been seen from in Pearford for a month or so now. Stadard indicates they might be able to acquire horses or carts from a local farmer named Nortun an hour or so outside of Pine Grove. With that, the meeting winded down and Stadard had Reece show them out to the gate as mid-afternoon, asca begins.