Episode Twenty Write up

An Urban Interlude Part 6- Rats a Respite and Escape  

Dramatis Personae

Leon – a Brandobian Human Fighter & self styled hero

Nyadryn – a Brandobian Human, fighter

Esme– a Brandobian human, a loud over enthusiastic person, Nyadryn’s girl friend

Siskin – a Halfling Cleric of Chance

Larifus – a Gnome,

Quelsteine– a Gnome

Lori – a Gnome, rescued captive

Briana – a Half Elven fighter magic user 

Aeneste – a Brandobian? Human rescued captive 

Varill – a Brandobian Human the tanners apprentice and rescued captive

Location

Some where in the sewers under the new town of Vayham, across Vayham town finishing off in the containment cells under the Temple of the Caregiver at the Great Hospital

Events

(These take place during episode XV of the main story and they follow on exactly from the end of the previous session of an Urban Interlude)

They had dragged Lori’s nerveless body out of the rat hole and she lay on the floor breathing weakly as Brianne knelt by her and tried to think what she could do, and was at a loss she had never seen anyone this cut up before as she had at least three other wounds besides the rat bite which had finally taken her down it was miracle enough that she was still breathing at all. Whilst all that was stopping them being swamped by carrion eating  centipedes from the Compost heap was the flaming torches being brandished at them by Leon and the tanners apprentice. Every one else almost cowered in the corner of the room inside the circle of protective fire and all where beginning to feel quite ill and almost feverish, perhaps it was the present danger and the cloying smell of the rotting vegetable scraps   and the presence of the flaming brands so close. Nyadryn was fussing over Esme who now she was actually hurt was not protesting quite so avidly as before  and Siskin who was the only one present who did not feel in the least rough was starting to get a bit bored the thrill of striking the killing blow on the rat was fading. Up till now silent in the back Aeneste who had been focused on not succumbing to her own wounds spoke up I can help her she said to Brianne but you will have to be my hands as I am in no fit state to be crouching down working on anyone quite so wounded as I think the she gnome is. Brianne agreed even latter she was not sure why but for all the woman was a filthy street wretch she had the quiet confident tones of one who knows what she is talking about. Brianne followed Aeneste’s instructions to the letter and shortly Lori’s breathing became easier and she began to rouse a little and after she had looked over and dressed her wounds she came round entirely puling herself unsteadily to her feet with the aid of the wall and kicking the dead rat with some feeling whilst cursing in gnomish using words that Quelsteine seldom had occasion to even when curled up into a ball for fear of the red worms and which Larifus with his good upbringing and expensive education had never even heard before though he could clearly imagine his mother or his aunt wanting his mouth washed out with soap & lyre if he did.

Siskin decided to throw the dead rat on the compost pile and did so with a little difficulty, fortunately the beast seemed less heavy than he had expected so he managed to heave it into the midst of the hissing snapping hungry centipedes successfully and they descended upon it with savagery. This distracted the smaller but none the less giant sufficiently to allow the company to make its way around the top of the compost pile and onto the safe route that Larifus and Siskin had stumbled upon but not recognised for what it was when they had first entered the room and which the company had used in all of its previous passages through the room also without realizing it. From there and still not sure why the centipedes had not come at them again once they had devoured the rats body as they must have done in short order, given their number and their feeding frenzy, even if understandably no one in the company paused to watch and confirm this. It was a batter of moments to be thought the door and into the relative safety of the corridor beyond. Here the company drew breath and Quelsteine collapsed in a heap and simply shook for several minutes as the terror of the red worms passed.

Taking stock at this point, did not paint a great and inspiring picture as most of the company was wounded including all of its most effective fighters and all of them except oddly Siskin where feeling decidedly hot as if they where in an oven rather than in the cool dank if not actuality damp sewers and some where beginning to feel the ill effects of a long hard day and feeling distinctly weary and hungry, even if the environment was not one any sane person or even an adventurer would wish to eat in. They needed food they needed rest, they needed healing and some of the company those rescued from the cells or the fighting pit needed even basic gear and there was no opportunity for any of those and all they could press on in the uncertain hope that as Leon said the way out was down the way that the beggars had not  wanted them to go, if only some mumbles they had not paid quite such a price to learn that your enemies do not generally have your best interests at heart nor should what they say be trusted. To make matters worse it was apparent that the numerous torches the company had looted from the complex as they had passed through the first time where beginning to burn low and worse had not been replaced where they had taken them from by their foes. Some what irrationally Brianne could not help but consider this selfish and inconsiderate even form her enemies. So they faced being plunged into total darkness when they burned out as well.

They where in a bad place but having no real choice to do any thing else they decided to press on moving further down the corridor they passed the entrance to the Abattoir and could if indistinctly hear that the place had restocked with rats who would be about the grim business of disposing of the corpses of the victims of the fighting pit, here the company paused again as it crossed their collective minds that there might be some sign or track left by their foes to guide them to the way out they hoped lay further this way. The searched for tracks and found quite a lot may of them clearly their own traipsing across from the Abattoir room to the room with the fighting pit as well as the drag marks left by the victims of the former on their last journey. However this, the company already knew about and was not what they where looking for. What they where looking for where the tracks of the bullies who had ambushed them in the room of stenches and these proved rather harder to find, in amongst all the other traces .

Gap to fill

They moved south past the entrances to the Abattoir room and the room where fighting pit was with the cells beyond and moved further down the passage which continued beyond. The did so with some caution expecting attack at any time and knowing that their being surprised could be fatal for them all. Siskin found this slow pace boring, where was the risk? So he idly trailed his fingers along the lower decorative strip and after doing so for may be thirty feet, any way almost all the way back to the door the room with the fighting pit behind he noticed a disjunction in the design and stopped to answer his curiosity. The rest of the company did not notice this immediately being more intent on the way ahead rather than the two rather morbid relief strips which where everywhere and which had become commonplace. The first one to notice was the Tanners apprentice Varill who was taking his role as torch bearer very seriously and came over to shed more light on the subject.

Gap to fill

Having made their escape they worked there way out of the shack in the middle of the shambles which they had discovered through the strangely deserted cluster of huts, hovels, sheds and squalid lean-to’s  which made up the shambles onto the still unexpectedly empty lanes of the new town. The air was thick with the smell of smoke, a peculiar smell not clean wood smoke but the sort of smoke which hangs over burned out whattle and daub buildings the smell of old weathered thatch burning and the small plaster covered hazel lathe walls burning not a good smell to discover in a town where nearly all of the buildings where built of wood and such plastered panels and thatched. It was the smell of war and civil disaster; in short a delight only to an arsonist and it augured no good as a scant few days before the fighting with the goblins had been much more distant, at arms reach at least, beyond the M’Alvern stream now it could be assumed it was considerably closer to home. No one except Siskin felt at all well, and any hope that the feverishness and muddle headedness was just the result of close confinement in the unhealthy fetid environs of the sewers which would be cleared by fresh air soon passed.  Esme suggested that they all needed to go to her fathers house up towards the great market in the new town but she seemed to be a little disorientated as to where she was and needed Siskin the only one of the company to still have a clear head to lead her until they reached a main road when she could orientate herself.

Even when clear of the shambles and the relative squalor of the new town area and into the usually more prosperous seeming old town the town seemed quiet with none of the crowds or bustle usual around noon, it almost seemed as if it was night rather than day and even the taverns seemed quiet as the company passed. Those few people to be seen where intent on their business and most of the men seen where armed and wearing new looking padded armour which even so showed the scuff marks of recent heavy use, even if the wearer looked more like a townsman or tradesman than a man at arms.

Arriving at Esme’s house the company found it quiet with no sign of activity form the normally busy joiner’s yard across the way. None the less they where let in by a tired and worried looking house servant and taken to see Esme’s father. He was over joyed at his daughter’s safe return even if she was dressed in her brother’s old cloths and seemed to have been wallowing in the gutter. He kept hugging her and calling her Erisemmee, which made her wince quite as badly as the rat bite she was nursing. 

In any event the house hold is happy to put itself at the company’s disposal and offers them a chance to freshen up and a feed up after being half starved for days down in the unexpected sewer. Latter in the day there was something of a celebration and the company got to meet and socialise with Esme’s father, her brothers where notable by their absence as they where all on militia duty an even her father is wearing a rather fine dress sword.

Gap to fill

Detained at the Great Hospital the company had the chance to reflect on their recent experience and also discover the unpleasant fact that Quirrel had doubly dropped them in the mire. First as they had already worked out by being at least in part responsible for them getting trapped in the smugglers lair and associated areas which was in truth something they already suspected but worse by the reasons that he had given for having this done. Reasons which came back to the company via the lesser temple staff and trainee priests who where tending to them in their isolation as extremely damaging to the companies reputation. The tale which came back painted the Company as traitors one and all and Quirrel as quite the hero in the tale as he had single handedly thwarted their evil plots, though details of what exactly those might have been did vary according to the teller. Further variations on the tale and the rumours mill in the frenzied atmosphere of the siege had quite gone to town on it, it had them in the pay of the same Dwarven Sorcerer who was behind the goblins and said that they where going to open a secret passage and allow the goblins in under the walls to murder every one in their beds or worse. It probably did not help here that when Aeneste had finally been tracked down about a day after every one else she had resisted arrest by trying to cast a spell either even if she had by this point been so delirious that the spell had failed and she had collapsed from the effort. So some versions of the tale had her down as one of the Dwarf’s apprentices.

The rumours also on occasion implicated both Larifus’s uncle whose house had been attacked by the mob again on the strength of this thought given that most of the able bodied where too involved in the defence of the town to take part so the mob had been smaller and this riot had been less dangerous with no one was killed on either side, several windows where broken and the house front door sustained some damage when the mob tried to force it. However Larifus’s uncle’s family sought refuge in the keep and according to rumours at least all swore terrible oaths to the true that they and Larifus had had no part in this.  Esme’s father and brothers where also implicated in the plot which caused them to fume some what impotently as the chief priest of the Caregiver would not allow them out of the temple bounds any more than he would those of the company itself. However no one was about to attack the house of quite such a prominent man especially when the Guilds guard where deployed to protect it and several of his loyal apprentices and journeymen where quite prepared to break heads of the romour mongers for the defence of their master’s honour and made this widely known.

None the less it was defiantly true that a warrant had been issued for the arrest of all present in the company by the Count even if the only ones named in it where Leon, Siskin, Larifus, Nyadryn and Esme all the rest where included as unnamed associates. Further the Chief priest of the true had made representations to the Chief priest of the caregiver about handing the company over to his custardy for questioning; thus far he had got no where. That the two men had quite a history of not agreeing on most matters as well as having a lot of other things to deal with at the moment with the siege had likely contributed to this.

To the good there was no outbreak of the wasting sweats in the town with all the cases being confined to the company ant their immediate contacts, there was sickness in the Shambles part of the New Town but it was the lesser black rash which the company learned from their nurse geolers any way is self limiting even if its likely from the same source as the Wasting Sweats as its one of the many deceases to be caught from being around giant rats.