For Hooves the Bell Tolls - Chapter One

Strange things Happen in Taverns

Quthbert, Volmak, Marinus, Malbrix, & A.G.R.

653 Post Maelstrom

Malbrix and Marinus arrive in Oldetown weary from many days on the road and find an inn to settle into for a time. After a short chat with the inn keeper at the Creaky Floorboard - Inn, they came to an arrangement that they’d do a quick task for the innkeeper, clearing some rats out of the inn’s cellar.
The innkeeper turned towards the kitchen. “Hey, Tommy” he shouts cupping his hands around his mouth “get out here and help these two down into the cellar!”
A lanky young man comes out and awkwardly directs the pair down a hallway, past the kitchen, to an old door at the back of the inn next to a worn grandfather clock. The door creaks loudly as it's opened and the light from the hallway illuminates old well-worn stairs down.
The stairs aren't very wide, not allowing more than one person down at a time. Cobwebs and dust coat much of the stairwell on the way down, it looks as though people have been avoiding the cellar for a while, except for one pair of footprints heading down into the darkness.
Marinus heads down first with Malbrix close on their heels. At the bottom of the stairs Malbrix creates three blue-green orbs that illuminated the area around them. The cellar is long quite long stretching on into the darkness with barrels of ales and wines stacked against the walls. Just at the edge of the light was a bunch of sacks and crates shoved together to create a makeshift barrier.
“The rats are mostly trapped back here” said Tommy as he hurriedly walked past them towards the barricade. Without another word Tommy leapt over the barricade into the darkness.
Marinus and Malbrix followed a bit more cautiously, with Malbrixs lights trailing after them. As they walked towards the barricade the light began creeping over the edge, but Tommy didn’t come back into sight. Marinus turned to Malbrix with a shrug and leapt over the barricade with Malbrix following right on their heels.
The pair landed with a sickening splat and realized horror that the room was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of rats. Marinus began laying about with their trident while Malbrix attempted to gust the rats away from them.
During the chaos Tommy, who was sitting cross-legged on a crate in the middle of the room, began cackling like a mad man. Just as Malbrix and Marinus began making some space for themselves, Tommy jumped up and kicked the top of the crate causing the side panel to fall revealing two slimes trapped inside.
“Feed my children” Tommy choked out between fits of maniacal laughter “Devour them and grow!”
The Sewer Slimes began to slither and goop over the rats as they crawled toward Marinus. The rats screamed as the slimes crawled over them and their flesh was left shiny white porcelain. Like dozens of perfectly molded rat statues.
Marinus and Malbrix fought hard, but just the sheer number of rats was overwhelming without even considering the slimes. In a panic the pair began to fall back over the barricade headed for the stairs going up.
As the pair turned to run, Tommy took the opportunity to jump down from his crate and ran deeper into the darkness of the cellar screaming “I am the Slime King” between fits of insane laughter.
Marinus and Malbrix desperate to get away, bounded across the cellar and up the stairs. Marinus flung the door open at the top to find the grandfather clock had been leaned against the door as a trap for whoever opened it. It crashed down the stairs pulling Marinus and Malbrix down with it, trapping them under its weight.
*** Quthbert, Volmak, and AGR are still sitting at the inn discussing their recent escapade. When they hear a sound that sounds suspiciously like a grandfather clock falling down a flight of stairs. The bartender yells “All good back there, Tommy?!” as the innkeeper gives a panicked look down the hallway before darting into a side room.
The bartender shrugs, but the trio decides to go have a look at what the noise was. They walked down the hallway in the inn to find a partially broken door hanging on by one hinge dangling open over a dusty flight of stairs down into a dark basement. One of the steps looks freshly broken and there is a soft groaning, like someone or something, is wounded at the bottom.
The trio decide to head down the steps and find two unconscious adventurers trapped under a well-worn grandfather clock. AGR and Quthbert immediately begin trying to shift the clock and Volmak gives some good berries to both of those trapped.
As Marinus comes back to consciousness they mumble, “He’s gone deeper into the cellar.”
Volmak up on hearing this whipped off his apron, the only article of clothing he was wearing and immediately runs for the barricade attempting to leap it. Unluckily for Volmak his foot got caught and he face planted on the other side with a terrible shriek as he realized he’d just landed on nothing but a swarming mass of rats.
AGR and Quthbert are able to free Malbrix, but they couldn’t shift the clock off Marinus. Leaving Marinus for the time being AGR, Malbrix, and Quthbert assist Volmak. While the fighting rages on Marinus is finally able to shift the clock off and rises to help the others. Marinus leapt the barricade and moved in to help defend Malbrix, just in time to take an attack headed for their companion, but the poison from the slime was too much. Marinus fell unconscious again, but this time with the sickening porcelain whiteness creeping across their body.
The party was finally able to eliminate the Sewer Slimes and push the rat horde back. They clambered over the barricade again dragging Marinus behind them. Volmak is competent enough to stabilize Marinus, but they are still unconscious and in need of a true healer.
AGR scoops Marinus up and they head back upstairs. The party finds the inn eerily empty. Even the innkeeper and other staff are gone. Noting the oddness, they decided they still need to get to a temple to get healing for Marinus. The party headed a couple of streets over to a temple that some of them passed earlier.
The temple was a large golden hued building. Not the grand cathedral at the center of Vulanti, but a magnificent work of architecture regardless. The party carried Marinus up the steps into the front chamber. The clerics there are assisting the less grievously wounded, but upon seeing marinus the party is directed deeper into the temple to speak with a more practiced physician. The person the party was assigned turned out to be a particularly rude wood elven sun cleric healed Marinus and resuscitated them. The party wouldn’t tip the cleric since he was being such a dick and the cleric stormed off annoyed at the party for not paying him for his service.
Returning to the inn the party found another tragedy. Not only was the inn entirely empty still, but now their mounts and everything they had left with them were missing. Quthbert searched the sable and managed to find a note, left in Thieves Cant, directing any thieves left behind on where to head next to meet up.
Solemnly the group decides on what they must do. The plan is to rest in the inn overnight before AGR, Quthbert, and Volmak are required to meet with the guards. Then they will head into the sewers in search of their missing companions.