Session 7:

 

Rats were crawling all over Silas, clawing at him, biting. Silas was quickly bloodied. Under his breath, he started cursing in Infernal and Gnomish; his voice echoing because he was in a hole in a cave. Silas got out his torch and started burning the rats, warding them off. Illi, rushing to his side, decided her best move would be to throw spices at the rats… (hoping to make them sneeze?). Silas noticed that Illi pulled out her spice pouch.

 

Silas: Oh god. I don’t want to eat them; I want them to die!

 

As Illi covered Silas in spices, it was clear she angered the rats and made Silas tastier to them.

 

Illi: Sorry about that! *blushing*

 

Silas was able to keep the rats away with his shield. Meanwhile, Brinden (actually being useful…) came up by Illi’s side. Brinden lit his torch as well. He dropped down to his knees and put down his javelin for Silas to grab. He looked down and was somewhat blinded by the cloud of spices down there.

 

Illi: Sorry! … :/

Brinden to Silas: Grab my javelin! (T-shirt alert)

 

William and Illi noticed more squeaks echoing through the caves. Illi noticed a rat coming up around Brinden, and William caught one coming at him. These rats were about the size of small dogs (rodents of unusual size). The rat coming at Brinden took a chomp at his ankle.

 

Illi: Look oooooout!

 

The rat which came at William took a bite into his thigh. William started to feel sick and icky. Artemis, noticing that there are some larger animals, decided maybe fighting isn’t the best option. She cast Speak with Animals and started squeaking at the rat.

 

Artemis: Hail and well met, friends of unusual size. I understand we’re in your space, but we don’t mean any harm. Could you please stop gnawing on my friends?

Rat near William: *letting go of William’s thigh* Hunger. Eat food! Us eat! Eat!

Artemis: We have a lot of boar just around the corner that we can offer in exchange for you easing up on the elven, tiefling flesh.

Rat: Eat. Eat here now! Food here, fresh, good, bleeeeeed.

 

William, still freaked out by the rat who bit him, pulled out his quarter staff and started trying to beat on the rat. The rat, noticing the sudden movement, leaped quickly away.  

 

Rat: *sneering* Tasty boy. Eat morsel, eat, eat!

 

Meanwhile, Silas grabbed Brinden’s javelin (heh heh), and Briden pulled him up with one quick movement. Noticing William beating on some large rat, Silas ran forward and burned the rat a little - still angry from the swarm. Illi, not even paying attention to what is going on behind her, had her eyes focused on the rat on Brinden. With a dash and two quick swings, she disposed of it quickly - nothing is allowed to hurt Brinden.

 

Brinden, feeling the rage of battle, thrust his javelin into the dead rat and thrust it into the pit. The rat slapped down onto the floor of the pit, blood splattering. The rats in the pit jumped back at the loud thunk. Brinden turned to Illi and gave her a knowing nod - something connects them, but they’re not quite sure what. He backed up slowly towards Silas, going back to back with Silas, and kept his eyes on the pit.

 

The rat surrounded by Artemis, William, and Silas called out for help. Behind Illi, two rats appeared out of large holes, and one of them ran to help out his friend. As he ran away, Illi decided, nah, he should die, and cut off his rear end. The front half of the rat slid across the floor and came to a stop, leaving a streak of blood. The rat, seeing how his friend was expertly dispatched, turned to Artemis and started pleading.

 

Rat: We talk? Talk now, talk? Talk? Talk?

Artemis: So, about that boar meat.

Rat: Meat, yes yes meat! Not you meat! Not you meat! Other meat!

Artemis: We’re not delicious.

Rat: Meat? Meat? *rubbing his face on Artemis’s leg*

 

Silas, William, and Brinden notice the rat started nuzzling Artemis’s leg. The rat’s friend took a bite at Illi, but Illi just moves her foot aside (nice try bub).

 

Artemis to everyone else: Hold up, everybody. I’m going to try something here.

Artemis: Call off your friends if you want to live any longer.

 

The rat called off the attack, and the rat near Illi backed away. Illi, having some knowledge of how animals behave, noticed the retreat and let it go. The rat swarms in the pit sliced up the large rat Brinden threw in there and also disappeared into holes in the walls.

 

With things calmed down, we all noticed that Silas smelled wonderfully of spices, despite being bloody (mmmm spices). Illi, not showing the slightest care for the bloodied tiefling, ran straight up to Brinden.

 

Illi: Are you okay?

Brinden: I’m bleeding just a little. That rat bit into my leg. Feels nasty, actually (4 points of nasty - T-shirt idea #2).

 

Illi pulled out her water skin, and, as Brinden sat down, she cleaned the wound a little. William started to feel a little sick, unsure of what was happening to him, and sat down as well. Silas relaxed and started to feel better.

 

Rat: Eat? Eat now? Eat, eat?

Artemis: Alright, we’ll get to that in just a second.

 

Illi walked over to the rat she cut in half and started prepping its meat.

 

Artemis: So, have you seen any goblins down here recently?

Rat: Goblins? Goblins… Masters! Masters, lots of masters. Masters brought us here, yes, yes!

Artemis: Mainly, Master Bainx?

Rat: Bainx here. *shudder* Bainx in charge. Bainx raised us. Bainx brought us here.

Artemis: Where is he?

Rat: *pointing deeper into the cave system* Over, he is. Down, down large hole leviathan dug. Yes, leviathan dug. Leviathan, large brother, large brother dug hole for Bainx. Down there, he is.

Artemis: I’ll give you food if you help us get to where this Master is.

Rat: Help you? Help you how? Food? How have food? When food?

Artemis: Right, we’ll get to that in a bit.

 

Silas: … Artemis… What’s going on?

Artemis: We’ve kind of got this one offering help if we feed it a little. Instead of eating us, I’d see if we could offer it a little bit of food and see if we can use their knowledge of the cave. If you guys are okay with that?

Silas: Sure, I would rather have them eat something that’s not us!

Illi: … I’ve got some rat meat over here.

Silas: What about that boar we killed?

Artemis: Right, right. I was thinking we could go back up and get some of our boar jerky.

Silas: I have rations in by back, hold on.

 

Silas gave the rat a portion of rations and backed away quickly. The rat saw it and looked up at Artemis.

 

Rat: Now? Food, good food? Eat, eat?

Artemis: You…

 

The rat started eating the food.

 

Artemis: can eat now; that’s fine.

 

William, still sitting, tried to apply first aid to himself, but his wounds refused to heal. He kept trying but nothing worked. He was feeling quite sick - his wounds kept seeping mucus. Artemis noticed William was feeling sick and not able to fix himself up. The rat saw Artemis regarding William.

 

Rat: Bit him. Bit him, I did! Sick. No heal when sick. Only magic. No heal when sick. No rest.

Artemis: What kind of magic?

Rat: Don’t know. Don’t cast. But no rest. No rest then get overtaken. Then vomit, then eat.

 

Brinden went over to Illi, and Silas was cleaning spices off himself. Artemis walked over to William and cast Cure Wounds on young William. She put both hands on William and tried to make William feel warmth and comfort just like her blanket did earlier.

 

William: *feeling better* Mommy!

 

Illi and Brinden heard the familiar sound of the three loud bell rings and could hear faint voices from down the hall head of the cave. Illi heard three voices in particular, goblin voices.

 

Brinden: *whispering to everyone* Voices in the corridor. Everybody quiet!

Illi: *whispering to Brinden* tell them there are three of them. Goblins.

Brinden: *whispering to everyone* Three of them, goblins. Sounded like maybe the could be getting closer?

 

The rat also noticed the voices of the goblin voices and turned and started running down the hallway towards the voices.

 

Artemis: Wait! You’re supposed to help us you jerk! This is not a dine and dash!

Rat: *running off* Bainx! Bainx! Bainx!

 

Brinden noticed the scurrying enemy and threw his javelin at the moving rat. Artemis noticed that the rat was moving hastily, but she caught a hint of curiosity. The javelin impaled the rat to the ground.

 

Rat: *to Artemis* Wanted to see. Wanted to help. Help and tell if Bainx. Bainx... not know... have food. *dies*

 

Artemis face-palmed at the realization that the rat was going to help. Brinden made his way over to where the rat died and tried to move quietly. When Brinden pulled out the javelin, the rat gave out a loud squeak. Brinden heard two voices speaking in Goblin.

 

Brinden dropped the rat in the pit. Artemis, disheartened by the loss, kneeled down over the pit and performed a blessing for the rat friend. Illi put a hand on Artemis’s shoulder, sensing the pain and loss, and squeezed it. Some rats came out from inside the holes of the pit, and they pulled this one gently pulled the rat away.

 

Illi: That is the circle of life. They will take care of it.

 

William spends his time just holding on to Artemis. Artemis saved him!

 

Artemis: You’re good now!

Silas: *to Brinden* Did you see anything when you went down there?

Brinden: Illi said there’s three of them. They seemed kind of far away. I heard one voice raise up a little louder than the others.

Illi: Can you make an attempt to repeat that?

 

Words Illi made out: Hot Mutton Shank Leg Light Burn Oceanness

 

Illi, knowing that it’s easy to get close without alerting them, went ahead to find out more.

 

Goblin: You ran the bell; we brought you up. What is you need, Master? What is it you desire?

Master: No word from the forward guard. Have you heard from Boobalix and Bancore? They were supposed to go through those fools’ goods. I need to know what else they found!

 

Illi appeared to be shaking a little as she recounted what she read to everyone. With knowledge that the goblins were coming to find out more from the forward guards, we decided to place a trap in this room of the cave.

 

Illi placed a makeshift trap in the middle of the cave. Silas suggested we place one of his cloaks over Illi’s trap to hide it. Artemis suggested we use another over a boar body as a fake human. While Silas went to go boar bodies and left William in charge of getting out the cloaks. Brinden orchestrated where all the traps should go and people should hide. Brinden covered himself in moss, trying to hide his scent and then offered some to Artemis (tactical advice oooor moss fetish?). Who covered herself a little bit with moss, somewhat questioningly.

 

Silas: I know what’s in this bag. If anything is gone from there, aside from the cloaks, I’m going to have your hands. Is that clear?

 

Inside Silas’s bag, William found the two cloaks, and, after looking some more, two health potions and a gem which could restore spell slots upon use. From upstairs, Silas brought down a boar corpse. He noticed there was a young boy ruffling through his bag - more than he should be. Sensing a fight, Illy quickly backed away, not wanting to be a part of this.

 

Silas: Get your hands out of there, or I’m going to take them off.

William: *quickly pulling his hands out and raising them up* I’m not touching anything! I was just getting out the cloaks. See *pointing to the cloaks*, cloaks, right there!

Silas: Okay. *taking his backpack*

 

Silas looked in his bag and noticed everything appeared to be there. Noticing that the boar is kind of huge, Silas brought down his axe upon it with such great force that half of it rolled away and bounced off a wall (critical hit! completely butchered that poor boar). Artemis, William, and Brinden, who had set up to hide themselves by that wall, were covered in boar blood (so much for moss smell…). Silas placed one by Illi’s trap and draped it and the other one in the pit and kind of half threw a cloak over that one. Everyone took their places, and everyone but William heard the voices of the goblins coming down the hallway. (“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”)

 

As the goblins make their way around the corner, Brinden let out the loudest fart.

 

Silas: “FUCK!”

Illi: “Really, guys?”

 

The voices seemed to turn around and go back down the hallway. Silas felt Illi back away a little and almost walk into him. Brinden slid out of his hiding spot, drawing his sword, and set himself up to be a target. Brinden suggested we just go back to down and get some Ale, but Illi reminded him that we promised to save Nord. Silas looked to Illi.

 

Silas: Are you okay? What’s wrong?

 

Illi started playing with her hair a little and looked at him still somewhat scared unsure of what to say. Silas let everybody know that he’s going to make a sound of a body falling in the pit, if he sees anyone come around the corner to get their attention. William turned a little green, super nervous and half-heartedly pulled out his bow. Illi pulled out her bow and prepared for someone to come around the corner.

 

Two goblins approached cautiously from around the corner. Illi lets loose an arrow on one Goblin. Silas casts Thaumaturgy on the pit, and the other goblin looks afraid at the pit. A third large goblin-looking creature came around the corner. This guy was decked out in full armor, and we could see that his pauldron was decked with a wolf head. Some of us noticed that around his belt, he was wearing a bandolier of wolf tails.

 

Bainx: *grabbing the wounded goblin* Fool! Do you want to meet Maglubiyet this day? *pours a health potion down his throat* *to Brinden* I’ve been waiting for guests. Come down, meet my pets. We’ll be ready for you. We’ll tear your flesh apart. Or leave now if you’re smart. Leave this place, forget it.

 

Illi started growling.