Game 3 12/13/19

As usual, we struggled to get that long rest we agreed to take last time. People wanted to search and question and purchase and discuss and carouse but it was like 3 in the morning so eventually, we just had to stop and just let time pass. The next day, after we dealt with some miscellaneous leveling up stuff, we went back into the sewers, starting where we left off last time. We found what appeared to be a guard station with cots for about 6 medium-sized people. They had oil lamps for light but not much in the way of supplies. Or clues. We’re not sure as to what they were guarding exactly. No people, of course. What is going on down here? We pressed on, mapping the sewers (i.e. removing the fog of war) and finding more access points to the surface. We came upon another set of stairs up which lead to a small platform which we figured was under the seedy town bar. 

Again we found stuff that you’d normally find in a bar’s basement. (We need to question these townsfolk since obviously some of them access this underground area that it is fast becoming much more than a sewer.) Someone heard the approaching of more rats. Initiative. It was another battle with giant rats and swarms. Of note: The Monk could not seem to be hit however the Paladin was critted on the first swing. The Paladin threw oil on a swarm which the Wizard ignited with a Fire Bolt. Thankfully it was taken out before it could engulf the Barbarian. The Rogue stayed on the platform with the Wizard and used her new cantrip. Some damage was taken and a few spells and powers used but it wasn’t too tough. After the fight, someone called out in the darkness. “Get out of here or face the consequences.” Or some such. The Paladin raced into the darkness, hoping to draw them out but no luck. We had no choice but to keep mapping. The Rogue hung back as rearguard as we searched and mapped. Eventually she spotted some more rats passing her by but luckily they didn’t notice her. However, before she could warn the rest, she was attacked by another Eladrain Rogue which she did not spot. (She’s trained in stealth but not perception.) There was some argument about whether she should have been surprised and whether he should have gotten his sneak attack dice but in the end, Andy ripped her a new bunghole. The Monk used his Ki power to slip past the rats to get over to help her. The Paladin simply took the opportunity attack to do so and used ranged powers since he wasn’t as fast as the Monk. The other 3 were left to deal with the rats.

So it became mostly two separate fights. The exciting one and the boring one. The Rogue cast her Tashia’s Hideous Laughter on the Eladrain who missed his save and fell prone, unable to act. However, a Dwarf Rogue/caster? came out of the darkness and hit her and dropping her concentration that same round. The Paladin used his channel divinity to entangle the Eladrian who was still prone. The Rogue retreated, down more than half. The Eladiran Misty Stepped away and then saved against the entangle at the end of his turn. He was still prone but since most of us were at range, it was about a wash as to whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. Their Dwarf tried to protect him but the Monk overcame the +2 AC for cover and finished him off. But then another Eladrian Rogue appeared. With a hit and a crit, the Monk was dropped. The Paladin did a lay on hands and the Monk rose again. This time he crit the Dwarf and dropped him and with his bonus action, used his war priest attack and crit the other guy too. So consecutive crits in the same round. It was Paul’s night. That triggered the chase portion. The Eladrian Rogue had cunning action to escape and run fast but our Rogue had the same plus Mobility for an extra 10 feet so he wasn’t going to get away. Someone dropped him.

Meanwhile, the other 3 players took out the rats eventually. They had more wealth and a potion but no clues. We did some more searching but didn’t find anything. The last unknown was a chute down which the water was flowing however it went down quite a ways. Deeper than the sea level this stuff should have been draining? The Sorcerer sent his bat down but at 100 feet, he could no longer remain in contact. He sent it on, telling it to go as far as it could. After 5 minutes he dismissed it and then recalled it. The bat said eventually it ended in some sort of chamber. I believe the plan next time is to go down the chute since that’s the only loose end we seem to have. Plenty to discuss and plan for. I believe we agreed to a long rest back at the inn, figuring we’re not hot on the trail of anything. As usual, some needed to heal and to recharge powers and some were ready to go.

Game 2 12/6/19

We got a late start because Andy had plans. We came upon a large raised platform area that was above the streams of sewage but still below ground. The body of a young hobbit was found. The body had been decomposing for a couple of weeks which matched the timeline of the disappeared rat catcher. She had a couple of personal effects but no other clues. Someone noticed that beyond the light spell, there was an area of dim light in the upper right. We doused our light and headed that way. Brian’s rogue snuck ahead and tried to use investigation to look for tracks. He rolled badly but it was pretty obvious that there were tracks of many rats going from the water to here. About the time he noted that there were some giant rat tracks as well, 3-4 giant rats emerged from the darkness.

Brian’s rogue was apart but most everyone else were together. After a round or two, 3-4 rat swarms also emerged and joined in the attack. Neither had much of an attack bonus nor AC but the swarms did 2d6 which was significant. Just how the positioning worked out, the sorcerer and his 11 AC got attacked several times. Someone got crit in here somewhere and maybe it was him. He got knocked out and his Bane spell ended. The Monk stood over his body and managed to get the swarm to swarm him rather than kill the sorcerer. Luckily the Monk has a much higher AC.

The sorcerer got healed after a couple of rounds. About then an Eladran rogue attacked Brian’s rogue from the darkness but thankfully missed with his advantaged sneak attack. The other rogue moved over to help. The next round, another Eladran appeared. They hit Wade a couple of times with 2d6 of sneak damage and she went out. It was a tough fight and most everyone got hit for significant damage. The swarms were the tough nuts but once they went below half hit points they did half damage, seeing as there were fewer rats in the swarm.

The tide had turned and when the first Eladrian went down, the second put up a fog cloud and fled. No one had even hit that one, concentrating fire on the first. There was much discussion about what that cloud meant to visibility, whether a bat could still see through it, etc but the final word from Andy was that he simply got away. We searched the Eladran. He had some significant wealth on him (for 2nd level anyway) and a worn token. The sailors reckoned it was an entry token for some secret pirate society. When the names of the 3 ships on it were read, the Monk recognized them as belonging to the pirate that took over his father’s monastery.

We took a short rest to heal up, figuring the fog cloud would end when we were done which it did. We searched for the fleer but all we found was a secret door to the surface via another grate. This one was easier to open. There was more searching of that area that came to nothing. At this point it was late. Andy asked if we were going up or staying down. When he mentioned that if we went up, we’d level up, everyone went for that. We took the body back to the sheriff and reported our progress. She, of course, was shocked by the complexity of the activities. This was much more than a rat problem. We cleaned up, took a long rest and leveled up. Next time we’ll be going back into the sewers. There’s another rat catcher to find. Hopefully, we can kill some more rats. We figure the Eladrian is long gone but maybe we can find some clues as to what’s going on.

There has also been an increase in the rat population and reports of very large, dog-sized rats making off with household pets. And there’s a circus in town that was slated to leave in the next day or two. The increase in crime occurred prior to their arrival so that may just be a coincidence. We agreed to look into it. She wanted to meet in her office the next morning but the players were eager to get started. We split up to do some looking into things. Some went to the bar, some went back to her office, and some went to the wizard school to ply their various skills. Some additional clues were found.

She had hired some purported rat-catchers who took her half upfront money and then were never seen again. Skipped town, in on it or dead? The rats are in the poorer south side of town and have been seen coming out of the sewers. Evidently for such a small town, it has quite the sewer system under it. The sheriff is trying to keep this all quiet, so not to panic people. She also probably trying to keep her job. The wizard recalled reading about were-rats that supposedly have the ability to control rats. He thought that magic or silvered weapons would be needed.

We got a bunch of names of townspeople but I can’t recall any of them. But it all boiled down to rats in the sewers on the south side. We fanned out and walked through the streets of the south side. BTO’s Rogue wanted to be in the back and then Lillith wanted to be behind him so we were pretty spread out. Several spotted several swarms of rats. Their swarm nature gave them resistance to normal weapons but their AC was low and their hit points modest. One complication was that they could occupy the same square as their victim but Andy still allowed it to be attacked without harming the friendly unless you were using an AOE.

The Monk got swarmed but with his Shield of Faith going, he had the highest AC and wasn’t hit. The Fighter did get hit a couple of times. But the fight only lasted a couple of rounds. It was noted that the rats had some weird green slime on them that the arcane knowers thought was unnatural and perhaps the key to controlling them. After a bit of discussion, an entrance into the sewers that we could fit down was sought. The Paladin thought we should look into getting silvered weapons before going down but that opinion didn’t get much traction. So he ran off to pursue it alone.

So the Paladin went back to the sheriff who didn’t have such weapons. She thought the local merchant might have the heavy silver candlesticks he asked about as a backup but he was shut down for the night. He’d have to wait until morning. Rather than rejoining, he went back to the tavern. Some of the players wanted to get more flasks of oil after seeing how effective Brian’s Rogue was with his. Several characters went back to the sheriff to see if the town had some supplies that they used to light the street lamps. The lamplighter was found and provided a keg of oil. That was combined with empty bottles from the tavern and we had as much oil as anyone could carry. Not all did. Meanwhile Lillith and Silent Rekh worked on the sewer grate we found.

After a couple tries, the half-orc muscled it open. Lillith went down to look around but then waited for the rest to show up. The fighter did a short rest to heal up a bit while they waited. Into the sewers. The water was slimy and disgusting. There were walkways besides the streams but walking them required rolls to jump from one to another. We made a lot of athletics and acrobatics rolls with the skilled helping the unskilled. No one fell in but it took a lot of time and certainly wasn’t quiet. We saw a lot of nothing. Andy said that we happened to use one of the least interesting entrances. We did get to what we figure was the basement of the tavern or mercantile but no rats or other bad guys. Just lots of water moving downhill and lots of skill rolls. Eventually we started to get into an area that was going to be more interesting but since it was late we stopped there rather than start a fight.