A More Perfect Union

A group of Freelancers had just returned from dispatching lions raiding Ophelia's cattle, and Elwin, a Cloud elf who'd recently joined Freelancers, was one of them.  He'd just started down the road to artificery, finding the fiddling with tools and maker activities very absorbing.  He'd also found the Freelancers mission interesting, and wanted to go on another one.

Thus we find that Elwin had persuaded 4 Freelancers much larger than him to also go on a mission, including Peb, who had returned from a visit home sporting colourful tattoos depicting a bold story very much at odds with Peb's affable manner.  Anyhow the 5 of them filed into Arnari's office and picked a place to sit.

Arnari's office seemed the same as it ever was, with her mahogany desk that was never tidy, with a big bear rug in front of it, and her twin rows of innocuous-looking, uncomfortable chairs.

Elwin sat on the bear rug, having figured out the chairs were all uncomfortable.
Peb, the big Rock sagani druid-barbarian, sat next to the bear rug, patting the head.
Bock, a tall redheaded human with a glaive in hand and a shield on his back, sat in the centermost chair.
Beck, who was Bock's twin, walked up to Peb, and checked the ears on the bear's head.  Concluding they were fuzzy, she sat next to Bock.
Carmen, a firbolg in brigandine, sat gingerly in the sturdiest chair in the back row.  It creaked ominously, but held up.

Arnari looked at the seated group – she noticed the blade of Beck's glaive was damaged – actually, both Beck & Bock were wearing severely damaged plate armour, with some signs of recent repair – and pulled out some papers; 3 of them were dog-eared, and 2 were pretty crisp.  She hesitated, then put one of the papers away, murmuring, "Perhaps needs more experience."  She raised her voice.  "There are…"

Hippogryph eggs for House Aldous.  They will pay you 100 eagles per egg, or trade 10 eggs for 1 trained hippogryph.  If you find eggs for fancier ones, they may pay more.

Pollution cleanup.  While other Freelancers recently confirmed that the wizard Gwidion was not generating more alchemical effluent int Pirates River, the effects of it are still felt along Pirates Dream river.  Go there, find something unnatural, and make it not be there anymore.  This will pay 100 eagles + an uncommon potion each.

Third and final mission, investigate– well.  [Here, Arnari flipped the papers, scanning them.]  There's two.

• Investigate and guard around Kowiri Music and Tavern.
• Investigate where the rats that have been vandalizing it originate.

Arnari finished and looked at everyone expectantly.  Conversation started slowly.

Peb:  Ah'm interested in tracking down the rats
Carmen:  how would we track them, without guarding the tavern?
Arnari:  Nahele tracked them, a bit
Peb:  between the two of us, we can hit up the local services, as it were.
Carmen:  this rats thing seems like a trivial matter to solve
Beck:  sounds like you are the right firbolg for the job!
<Carmen raised an eyebrow, trying to decide if Beck was expressing sarcasm.>
Peb:  so, you two are pro-rat?
Bock:  rat investigation, not rat prevention.
Carmen:  are these the same person?
Arnari:  yes
Carmen:  and these are the same pay?
Arnari:  yes; but pick one or the other.

An argument ensued.  How can they track rats that were last seen a full prime ago?  But guarding a tavern seemed boring to all of the group.

Arnari:  so, Nahele… trailed a normal rat, to the western side of the Trade District, then lost it.
Peb:  why is this special?
Arnari <pulled out a journal>:  the rats seemed organized, and there were big ones in charge.
Carmen:  have they come back?
Beck:  they must have.
Carmen:  well, we aren't going to track a 9-days-old trail of a rat in a city!
Peb:  make friends with the local rats, and ask around
Carmen <reluctantly>:  that could work
Arnari:  if you ask at the tavern, they will get you guarding, when you want to be investigating.

Peb went down to the kitchen, to buy some cheese.  When he returned, Beck noted that it was gouda cheese.  Surprised the big human knew about it, Peb handed the gouda to Beck.  <Narrator voice:  now I want some gouda cheese.>

They decided to go to where Nahele lost the rat.  Arnari waited until they were entirely out of her office before she sat there, elbow on her desk, face in palm of her hand.

Peb got some more cheese then pulled out their mule, Mary Jane, and cart.  Then the Freelancers, with Peb on the cart, headed the 3-4 blocks west of Freelancers Tavern to where Nahele lost the rat.

The area was full of buildings with shops and crafters on the 1st floor, living space on the 2nd floor.  None of the store fronts were closed.

Carmen:  should we look in an alley?
Peb:  it's where to go.  Let's see where the food shops are an find a dumpster.

They found some food shops and headed into an alley to look around.  Beck, though, decided it might be a good idea to have detect magic going, and started a ritual cast of it.  She should have perhaps told the others, as they left the cleric behind and she had to stop, and run to catch up.

The other Freelancers were looking around in the alley.  It was behind food shops, and there was food in barrels of dubious quality, and thus there were rats.  A bit aways, there was a bakery trying to make pies.  The door opened and a baker's assistant came out to dump apple cores into a barrel.   Nearby, but not close enough to be kicked, many rats were waiting for this treat.

Carmen and Peb looked at the rats, and each other, then started a ritual cast of speak with animals.  They did patty-cake with call & response of Āhua facts, to the intense embarrassment of the other Freelancers, who quickly busied themselves with other activities.

Bock poked around for basement entrances.  He found some but they were locked up tight.  Beck looked at Mary Jane, Peb's mule, to see she was not upset at all by Peb's behaviour.  So the cleric started looking for any unusually large rats appearing.  She found a couple places for absurdly large rats to hide, but saw no rats.  She pointed these places out, and Elwin cast snare in front of the most likely place.

By this time Peb and Carmen stopped playing patty-cake, and the baker's assistant was long gone.  They looked at the rats enjoying their apple cores:  some were aggressive, and the others were either shy or too hungry to hold back.

Peb:  you wanna, or should Ah, or…?
Carmen:  ask the shy ones.  I'll ask at the barrel.

They walked over, and the rest of this dialog is in, well, rat.

Aggressive rat:  fuckoff.  our applecores.  you don't eat them anyhow.
Carmen:  not tryin' to take your food, tryin' to talk to you.
Peb:  we can make it worth your while <displays the bag of cheese they brought.>
Hungry rats:  enh!  that [the apple cores] looks better
Aggressive rats:  we saw it first!
<Peb and Carmen dropped to their knees.>
Peb:  it's not about who saw it first, but who can help us the most.  Are there others who have been actin' weird?
Carmen:  also, is there a big rat leading some on adventures?
Rats:  a bit north, there is weird rats, we don't go there.  we stay here, great bakery.  there, the rats are weird.
Peb:  they ever seem like, the rats that go up there, do they change and get strange too?
<The rats conferred, without yielding apple cores to each other.>
Rats:  not sure.  but they're weird.
Carmen:  what kind of weird, interaction.
Hungry Rat:  too organized, man!  every rat for himself!
Carmen:  this goes with apple.  <Put out some cheese.  3 rats rushed the cheese.>
Peb:   there's a lot more where that [cheese] came from.  It's a big city and easy to get lost.  Can you guide us to where?  Then you can have as much of this as you want.  We'll keep you safe.
<The rats conferred again, as Peb asked Mary Jane to help by keeping still & chill.>
Rats:  half up front!
Peb:  who's volunteering?
<The rats, wanting the cheese, swarmed on Peb, none wanting to be left behind.  So Peb transformed into a dire rat.>
Carmen:  what are y'doin' man?!
Peb <to the rats>:  oi!  What the fuck you kids doin'?

The rats scattered, crying to each other in alarm, "it's the fuckin' giant rats from the north!"  Beck tried to grab one but it avoided her.

The other Freelancers looked at Carmen, and he looked at them.  "This is how they tried to convince the rats they're chill," he said reproachfully.  Then he explained what the two of them had learned, that there were "weird rats" to the north, which apparently look like dire rat-Peb.

Dire rat-Peb climbed on top of Mary Jane, who was chill with it, and sat astride her like they were a human.

The Freelancers headed north, with Carmen leading Mary Jane, and dire rat-Peb riding the mule.  Beck and Bock shook theur heads.

Beck:  no way that can be comfortable.
Elwin:  we're comfortable on the chairs in Arnari's office
Beck:  but, look at that

They kept walking around, unsure what they were looking for other than big, weird rats.  Weirder than Peb?  Carmen, preoccupied with leading the mule and cart through unfamiliar streets, looked around less than the others.  But he managed to avoid dead-ends, getting trapped, or getting into a fight.  After a while, dire rat-Peb got down and started sniffing around.

The Freelancers crossed some invisible border and saw a change in the kind of refuse on the street, noticing that it had been picked through methodically.  In the alleyways, it was clear the rats in this area were prioritizing high-value food targets and were methodical.  A side effect of this behaviour was the rotting food smell, ubiquitous in crowded city alleys, was greatly diminished.

Dire rat-Peb didn't really smell anything weird, but noticed the lack of the rotting food smell.  They could smell the other rats, but that was everywhere in the city.  Then again, this area seemed to have a lot of rats.

Carmen:  I wonder if I should scatter food, and see what happens.
Beck:  seems like an idea
Dire rat-Peb:  or, find the next place of food getting left out.

Nobody understood rat, since Carmen's speak with animals had worn off.  But Beck really did start a ritual cast of detect magic.  They drew ritual emblems in the dust and dirt, perhaps resembling an orbit, then poured out some water.  It solidified, and then Beck dropped the ritual, and magical items were lit up.

Beck saw Elwin's infusions and Freelancer's badge; Carmen's shield, healing potion, and cloak of elvenkind; and Bock's badge.  She also saw fading abjuration magic against fire.

Dire-rat Peb was sniffing around for food, and smelled a butcher shop in the next alley, so they took off for there.  Carmen followed them, then Beck, then Bock.  Elwin tagged along. Thus they went another alley to the northwest, where they found a number of food shops (well, the backs of them anyhow):  a butcher shop, a tavern, a flower shop, and a barber shop.  Also, there was an ice cream shop, where the cold was preserved by use of a frozen stone.

<Narrator voice:  the GM called this a "shitty coldstone".  David and Shari called it "Ye Olde Ice Creame Shoppe" and the GM got mad.>

Dire rat-Peb smelled:  a fresh green smell, standard tavern smell, butcher smell, and, of course, Ye Olde Shitte Colde Stone.  The Freelancers moved down the alley towards it.

As they approached the refuse bin behind the ice cream shop, Beck's detect magic lit up with the transmutation magic on the cold stone.  But that was a secondary observation to the two lines of rats that for all the world reminded the Freelancers of ants.  One line led into the refuse bin, the other out, carrying stuff.

The Freelancers who were not-Peb looked at each other.  "Let's follow this," suggested Carmen, to which Beck replied, "Yes, lets."  Carmen flipped up his hood, and they tried to look like they were not following the rats.  <Narrator voice:  but actually, Kylie rolled a nat 1 on stealth.>

Dire-rat Peb, on the other hand, tried to chat up the rats.  "Nice operation you got goin' on," they opened, "Is there room to share?  Can I get in on this?"  The rat roundly ignored them; it was plain they heard Peb but were not interested in talking, they did not care about this new big rat.

At this point Beck stubbed her toe, as that part of her plate mail was not repaired, and cursed roundly.  The rats turned and looked at the big cleric, and while they were not phased, a couple at the end of the line into the refuse bin turned and scurried back.  The Freelancers who were not-Peb noticed them going into a storm drain.  Dire-rat Peb, however, had other ideas and joined the line of rats.

Elwin, whose head wasn't in a metal bucket, heard the rat that went into the storm drain squeaking angrily, and told the others.  Carmen immediately cast speak with animals, to hear the rat in the drain calling out, "i think they're onto us, bring out the big ones."  Dire-rat Peb, in the line heading toward the storm drain, could also hear it.  The rat squeaks were diminishing with distance, but Carmen could hear, "near the icecream shop" and a response, "yeah we're comin', let's get'em"

At this point dire-rat Peb disappeared into the storm drain.

Carmen <alarmed>:  we should back up
Beck:  you think Peb is got by the pied-piper?

Carmen shook his head, as the rats in the line leading to the refuse bin fell out of line and started forming into a swarm.

Elwin, remembering how difficult the rat swarms were at Kowiri, cast faerie fire on the rats in the alley.  The food-carrying rats heading for the storm drain started to glow, but the swarms did not.

Bock did not like rats at all, and stepped up to one of the swarms, swiping with his glaive.  He missed, but followed up with the butt of the haft.  That took out a couple or three rats.

Beck invoked the blessing of Tikanga on themself, Bock, and Elwin.  They authorized Bock to make another attack, and thus empowered, Bock carved through the rat swarm with his glaive.  The cleric then moved to flank the diminished swarm.

Carmen was stil listening to the rats.  These newly formed swarms were different than the rats he'd heard declaring "we're comin', let's get 'em."  The rats were poorly positioned for him to do any good at all, so he cast toll the dead on one of the swarms.  The tiny silver bell tinkled in the alley, but nothing else happened.

Two big rats charged out from the storm drain:  one black, one brownish grey.  Meanwhile the three rat swarms in the alley crawled all over Carmen, Bock, and Beck, biting firecely.  The swarm on Beck was the one Bock had been attacking.

Elwin also cast toll the dead, targeting the swarm covering Beck.  The cheerful sleigh bells resulted in rats succumbing to necrosis, and the swarm was less than half its original size.

Bock:  I'm covered in rats
Beck:  fireball, centred on self
Bock:  I've not mastered that, despite bad breath

Bock slashed the rats swarming on him – carefully – then knocked more off with his glaive.

Beck stepped towards Bock, saying "was hoping not to have to do this," and cast inflict wounds on the swarm.  They all dropped off her twin, having succumbed to necrosis.

Carmen saw that the remaining rats were all surrounding him in the alley.  He boomed in his deep voice, "We are all Āhua's creatures, so be friends with Āhua's chosen."  Everyone, including all the rats, looked at the cleric.  Carmen smiled, and went down on one knee.

"Gather here, my friends, and tell me what is going on," he said in rat.  All the surviving rats dropped out of the swarms, and gathered in front of the big firbolg in a partial ring.

The rats explained to Carmen about "the rat people," who had explained to them how to organize.  It sounded like a union or guild, to Carmen.  In exchange for this information and help, all the rats had to do was attack the music tavern once in a while.

Surprised, Carmen asked, "What does musictavern have to do with this?  you are doin' just fine with these icecreams etc."  The big rats replied, "in exchange for having helped to grow so big, the rat people asked us to help.  the musictavern offended them, we don't understand, but it's a fair trade."

Carmen looked at the big rats.  The black one did not look well.

In the storm drain, as part of the line of rats bearing food, dire-rat Peb quickly found themself in a broader line, although not as noisome as an actual sewer.  Charging past the line, in the opposite direction, were two other dire rats, one black, one brownish grey.

The black one looked unhealthy:  eyes bloodshot, a rope of yellow drool.  Dire-rat Peb studied this rat carefully.  Clearly it had some disease… appeared to be a wasting disease, nothing unnatural.  <Narrator voice:  Seamus rolled a nat 20 for a nature check.>  The black rat, unhappy with the scrutiny and not recognizing this new big rat, gave dire-rat Peb a side-eye as it ran past.

The food-bearing rats did not break discipline, however, and kept marching down the drain line, until it opened up much bigger, at an intersection of the drain and the sewer entrance.  There were fluffy, clean rat nests, organized food storage, and the whole area was cleaned of droppings.

Amazed, Peb loved it.

Elwin, having never seen Carmen's ability to mass charm animal, watched both the Nature cleric and the rats carefully.  Beck, having new-come into cleric abilities, leaned on Bock, catching her breath.  As for Bock, he was watching Carmen and the rats, glaive at the ready.

Carmen asked in rat, slowly, "What kind of people are these rat people?  are they rats?  are they people?"  The rats all nodded as one.  "sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes a little bit of both."  Carmen's eyes widened.

"Do you know where they came from?" he asked, and the rats conferred.  The black rat remembered when the rat people first talked to them, but not where.

At a loss, Carmen realized with a start his fellow Freelancers were watching, and relayed the conversation to the others.  Beck asked wearily, "Where can we find them?"  Carmen nodded.

Carmen:  where can we find the rat people
Rats:  they live in this area, but not sure.  they come to us
Carmen:  do you think they would talk to us
Rats:  why would they?
Carmen:  we want to know how the musictavern people offended them so

Carmen relayed this too, and Beck suggested, "Tell them we'd like to meet them at a location of their choosing.

Carmen:  we would like to meet the rat people, but only to talk.  if there is location where everyone feel safe, it would.  how would you get answer to us?  should I come backhere?
Rats:  we can bring you a note!\
Carmen:  how quick could you bring it back?  we could wait here.
Rats:  not that quick

Again Carmen relayed this progress, and Elwin suggested to use shadows on the ground as a way rats would know the time.  Carmen pointed at the shadows on the ground.

Carmen: we can come back when the shadows are like this.
Rats:  that could work, but might not have it tomorrow
Carmen:  we can keep comin' back.
Rats:  ok
Carmen <after a pause>:  as a gesture of goodwill…

Carmen reached out and touched the black rat, declaring "Āhua clear away this impediment!" Thus he cast lesser restoration and the disease fell away from the rat.

But, at that moment, the energy from Āhua that fueled the charm wore off.  The rats snapped out of it, and while they were disinclined to resume attacking, they did not want to stick around.  They did not scatter, but ran back down the storm drain.

Dire-rat Peb went with the other rats to bring food to the central area of this amazing place.  They put the food there, then looked around for whoever was in charge.  They realized quite rapidly it was the other 2 big rats.  They wandered around, checking all the entrances.

After a couple or three minutes, the big rats returned.  As soon as they noticed dire-rat Peb, they started to posture.

Dire rat-Peb:  everything go okay upthere?  you need some help!
<The other two big rats flank dire-rat Peb.>
Brown rat:  who helped you get so big?
Dire rat-Peb:  um, ah.  I didn't have a lot of help?  I had good family?  a lot of other rats scared of me?  try not to be scary.  <pointed to the rats from before>  They invited me in

The other rats had reorganized into lines, going up a different storm drain, to get more food.  Dire-rat Peb joined them, to learn they were raiding a bakery garbage bin.  Afterward, they came back to the two big rats.

Dire rat-Peb:  I wanna help, I got me stash around the corner.
Big rats:  if you have food, we'll take it.

Dire-rat Peb ran up one of the storm drains, then fell back into normal Rock sagani shape, which via the magic of the shapeshift had hidden the bag of cheese.  They then dropped back into dire-rat shape and scampered back down the storm drain.

Dire rat-Peb:  listen, I can be like the big bipedal guys, and get stuff and bring it back.
Big rats:  great, there are other people who are sometimes rats and sometimes people.
Dire rat-Peb:  would love to meet them
Big rats:  well, we're gonna have them meet other people.  maybe not meet all at once, big people can be strange sometimes.
Dire rat-Peb:  alright.  well, I'll come back, with more food.

Peb scampered off before they could be questioned anymore.  By this time the other Freelancers had exited the alley and were waiting on the street with the cart.  Once Peb rejoined them, they all went back to Freelancers Tavern, and gave Arnari the strangest report she'd had in a while.