Session 5: More of Meletis Report

General Summary

After returning the ingredients to Theo and learning that she'll be out of town for a few days, they decide to talk to Filippa about the Returned they encountered as the apothecary. They learned a great deal about the Returned as a whole from and did see her make a bit of a face when they mentioned Theo. They don't know why. They also got some food and rest at the Brass Basilisk and decided to talk to Perisophia about the attack on Krimnos and asked about what might be going on around town.   Perisophia updated their quest log and they decided to start off with the rats infesting a new, local tavern.   Rats in the Brew A local tavern is reporting huge rats in their underground basement.   A rumor going on around, especially circulating inside the other taverns, is that a new up and coming establishment- the Sailor's Respite- has been dealing with an infestation of rats. Worse yet, the rumors say the owners are so incompetent that they haven't been able to deal with the issue for several days. Located somewhat near the Different Sign and close to the harbor, the Sailor's Respite has a temporary cloth hanging over their sign that says, "closed until further notice." The owner, Yorgos Vlachiades, can be seen laying small traps around the property as you walk by. If the PCs stop and talk to him, he seems nice enough and says he started the tavern because he used to be a sailor and is retired and wanted to bring a little joy to the people he used to work with. He is offering a small reward for anyone who can help him because "the last one I found was way bigger than I think they're supposed to be."   The rats are coming up from underneath his tavern from a small cave-in. It leads into the underground aqueduct and sewer system that stretches under the entire city. However, a trail can be followed by rat blood from the one he did wound. It leads to a nest of giant, disgusting rats. They get bigger and bigger as they get closer and the "mama" or "queen" rat is horribly infested with disease and garbage and massive. It appears that this "army of rats" has been growing and needs to be dealt with before things get out of hand. Additionally, their burrowing has caused the walls of this tunnel to become unstable and damage to them throughout the fight will lead to their collapse once the battle has ended.   Fleeing the tunnels as they collapse initiates a skill challenge for their escape back to the tavern's basement entrance. The PCs only need to avoid getting 4 failures to avoid something bad happening to the tavern. Each person can fail and suffer bludgeoning damage or potentially become diseased by a smaller rat also attempting to flee, though regardless of individual failures they will reach the tavern's basement. However, if all four attempts at fleeing fail, the collapse may be too strong or the damage caused during the fight and/or exit might make the ground too unstable and the tavern will fall into the ground. This will create a small enemy in the tavern's owner and the reward for defeating the rats will not be given. (See how they like this mechanic and if you should add it to other events.)   When they return successfully from the fight and skill challenge, Yorgos will be so happy to be able to open again that he'll give them the 200 gold he was going to spend on another cask and more traps.   The legendary rat was a bit of a challenge but they were able to escape and the tavern was still standing. Huzzah!

Rewards Granted

200 g