King of the Rats

This an adventure for PCs of experience levels 4-6.

The PCs are employed by a wealthy merchant whose warehouse has being broken into and its contents spoiled. This raid threatens the merchant with bankruptcy, and he will pay the PCs well to discover who is performing these acts of sabotage and prevent the culprits from committing any further dastardly deed s against his other warehouses.

The raid on the warehouse was all part of a plan hatched by Kelas, a wererat priest of lncabulos. Kelas desperately needs more money to continue his research into using birds as carriers of virulent strains of disease. On a recent adventure he discovered an extremely powerful set of pipes of the sewers and, counting on the aid of his rodent brethren, hit on the plan of extorting money out of merchants by holding their warehouses and goods for ransom.

Involving the PCs

By this stage in their careers the PCs should have established a reputation as adventurers of some skill and ability. They will be approached somewhere in the Free City, either at their place of lodging or at the inn or tavern that they commonly frequent, by a well-dressed merchant by the name of Morton Hammel.

Morton is an extremely worried man. For many years now he has run the trading business left to him by his father from his three warehouses in the Foreign Quarter. Morton ships foodstuffs (fruits, grain, and corn) from Nyrond and cloth from Furyondy for sale in the Free City. Last night one of his warehouses, which had just received a fresh consignment of perishable foodstuffs for sale this very morning, was broken into. The watch man was found asleep at dawn and the entire consignment had been ruined as if a giant swarm of famine-crazed rats had suddenly been loosed upon it.

What's more, a note was found among the debris that threatened a further raid against another one of his warehouses unless a ransom of 10,000 gp in emeralds is paid by midnight tonight. There is absolutely no way that Morton can raise the cash, but he will pay the PCs 500 gp apiece if they will guard his warehouse against attack tonight and bring down the scheming villain behind this outrage.

Morton would avail himself of the protection afforded by his membership in the Merchants' and Traders' Union but is afraid to do so. A few nights ago he beat Ren o' The Star at cards down at the Wheel of Gold. Ren, who was extremely drunk, accused Morton of cheating, and Morton believes that Ren would be most unlikely to look favorably upon his petition for aid in this time of need.

The Mission

If the PCs accept, Morton will lead them to the threatened warehouse. This warehouse is stacked with bales of cloth, unspun cotton and crates of kara fruit. The watchman of the warehouse that was attacked the previous night is still fast asleep, and all attempts at waking him have so far failed. A dispel magic will awaken him, though, and if questioned, he will remember nothing of the night's events except hearing the skittering and scratching of rats before he abruptly remembers no more.

The PCs may wish to make themselves comfortable and wait for something to happen. If instead they suggest deliver ing a fake ransom to the appointed place (a small, dark alley on the edge of the Foreign Quarter), Morton will remind them of the value of the goods in the warehouse, and how his very livelihood is staked on its safekeeping, and that he would rather they stayed and kept guard. If the PCs insist on going to the appointed spot, the bag containing the "ransom" will be approached by a giant rat who will grab it between his teeth and bolt for a nearby sewer grating. The PCs may be able to prevent its escape. in which case it will fight to the death, but whatever else happens they will not be able to follow it once it vanishes through the grating in the sewers.

Back at the warehouse , just before dawn when it seems that the night's vigil has passed without incident, the door to the warehouse is suddenly smashed open by a zombie, animated specifically for the purpose by Kelas. This is immediately followed by an enormous swarm of rats, mainly normal sewer rats but with a few of the giant variety mixed in, which pours through the warehouse door and falls with relish on the cloth, cotton, and kara fruit. A speak with animals spell will do the PCs no good, since there are so many rats here and they will not stop to pay attention.

If the PCs start attacking the rats, the 12 giant rats in the group will attack them back, while the rest of the horde continues gnawing through the cloth and devouring the kara fruit. Once six of the giant rats have been killed, the rats will swarm back out through the door of the warehouse and down an open sewer manhole in the street. The PCs will probably try to follow them down the man hole, but once in the sewers the rat pack splits up into numerous small groups and vanishes off in all directions down the tunnels.

As the PCs are pondering the direction their pursuit will take, they will be interrupted by the arrival of the first shift of the day's Sewermen's and Street cleaners ' Union work detail. A head will peer down from the street above and say, "Excuse me, gents (and ladies), but you really shouldn't be down there! " The foreman of the work detail will brook no argument; either they vacate the sewers or he calls the City Watch. The PCs should be persuaded that trying to follow any of the rats would be futile, and that leaving the sewer would probably be the wisest thing to do.

If the PCs manage to capture one of the ordinary rats, a speak with animals spell may be very helpful (although the rat may be very scared if the PCs have killed many of its kin). From such a rat the PCs might learn that the rat was "instructed" to enter the warehouse, and felt itself compelled to do so by the music (piping) it could hear.

Once the PCs are out of the sewers, they will find that the men in the work detail are actually quite friendJy. They already have a kettle on the boil and sugges t the PCs might like a cup of tea and explain what they were up to. If the PCs tell the foreman that they were chasing a huge swarm of rats that attacked the warehouse, then he will offer to help them on the grounds that "We don't particularly like rats on their own, but swarms is another thing altogether," and suggests that the PCs might like to wait for a bit while he sends for someone who may be of help to them.

A few hours will pass before the foreman comes over to the PCs and tells them "He's here," and leads them over to the open manhole. He tells the PCs that he must insist that they be blind folded while he and a few of his men escort them to the meeting point down in the sewers. If any of the PCs refuse, then they will not be allowed to go anywhere else in the sewers.

Once down in the sewer, they will be poled down the stream on a small skiff to a junction where another small branch sewer joins the main course. Here squats a man in waterproofed clothing, clutching a staff and with a spindJe-shaped ioun stone whirring above his head. The foreman introduces the man as Samrad Bevrain (see Chapter 5) and adds that "He probably knows most of what goes on down here."

Indeed, Samrad knows rats intimately from his long period underground but has never known them to swarm so purposefully as described by the PCs. He has no ticed greater numbers of rats than normal in a section of the sewers not far from here, and has also heard curious piping and weird humming chants recently in the same area. If the PCs are interested, he will draw them a rough sketch map to the area but will not accompany them, since he "has a lot of work to do yet before nightfall."

The DM may wish to throw in a few random encounters or events on the way, but the PCs' progress to the indicated spot should be relatively straightforward. There are indeed quite a few rats here, but no signs of any piping or chants. There is a secret door in this section of the sewer that leads to Kelas's hidden shrine to lncabulos. This secret door is protected with a glyph of warding (16 points fire damage, save vs. spell for half damage, plus cause disease). The magically caused disease is a feverish pox, which develops after 12 hours and kills in 36 hours unless cure disease (or heal) is used.

This secret door can be discovered by searching (which will take quite some time) or in two other ways. A detect magic or find traps spell will reveal the presence of the glyph, and thus of the door. Alternatively, a speak with animals spell can be used to quiz an ordinary sewer rat running around. In return for a scrap of food, the rat will tell the spell caster that many rats, including giant ones, dwell in a chamber in such-and such a place-and the rat indicates the presence of the secret door with a flick of its tail.

The secret door opens onto a narrow passage that leads to a small chamber, in the center of which is a raised stone slab bearing the verdigrised bronze eye of protection symbol of Incabulos. The shrine is guarded by a wight (see stats at end of this adventure) and the remainder of the giant rats that escaped from the assault on the warehouse. Both the wight and the rats will immediately attack any intruders.

Two rounds after the wight and the giant rats are dispatched, an especially large giant rat will scamper up the passage toward the shrine. The second it spots the PCs it will turn tail and flee back into the sewer and up a small pipe in the wall. The PCs will be unable to follow the rat, but if they backtrack carefully to the nearest manhole and trace their route once on the surface they will come to a drain which would appear to connect with the pipe the rat disppeared into.

As further proof, they will also discover a detail of streetcleaners here at the entrance to an alley, looking visibly shaken. The streetcleaners will exclaim that they just saw "the biggest rat you ever did see" scampe r out of the drain and down this alley. They were convinced they had it cornered, but it had simply vanished by the time they got up the courage to venture in after it. They will ask the PCs to make sure that it really has gone (it has), and once assured of this will carry on with their sweeping.

The alley is a dead end, and there are numerous doors leading into private dwellings on either side. Much as the PCs will probably want to rush down the alley conducting a systematic search of these buildings, they should be advised that such action will undoubtedly summon the attention of the City Watch, and trespassing carries a sentence of up to two years hard labor. The PCs will just have to watch the alley and wait.

The DM can use a number of clues and events to help the PCs pinpoint their quarry:

1. An elderly lady will tum up to clean one of the houses. The family that lives there is away on vacation at the moment , and for a small consideration she will allow them to keep watch on the alley from one of the windows in the house.

2. The streetcleaners remove a large crate from outside a house at the end of the alley, and will be heard to remark : "Look, another load of dead pigeons. Must be the third time this week !"

3. A barrow-boy pushing a small hand cart will deliver a large crate marked "Fragile" to the house at the end of the alley. The crate will be left outside the door (as per the delivery boy's instructions) and will, if investigated, contain an assortment of alchemical equipment.

4. Various residents and their visitors will appear from time to time (but the house at the end receives no visitors at all). They will say that Mr. Arden at the end is a hermit, and they suspect every one else in the alley is probably a member of the Thieves' Guild.

The DM should feel free to add extra events either as red herrings and or further clues.

Finally, when the alley is quiet, an unusually large number of rats will appear and scavenge in the alley. Casting a speak with animals will allow the rats to reveal that the "ratman" lives at the end.

Short of spying around the house at the end of the street, the PCs will not actually gain any conclusive proof that therein lies their quarry. If the PCs discover a means to peer into the attic of this building, they will see Kelas in human form conducting his experiments to infect the pigeons he has caged here, surrounded by an array of bubbling and foaming beakers and tubes.

Since the PCs cannot be sure when or how Kelas will leave home, they must assault the building. The actual plan of the building should be drawn up by the DM, but the place is a pretty shabby affair. Kelas will most likely be in his laboratory in the attic, but will come down cautiously to investigate any noise or disturbance downstairs. If encountered downstairs he will attem pt to flee back to the laboratory.

In the laboratory he will hurl beakers at intruders before scampering through a secret exit, pulling equipment down in front of pursuers to effect his escape. These beakers contain a bewildering array of unpleasant strains of disease. The secret exit leads onto a thin spiral stair case that opens into the cellar where a manhole leads directly into the sewers.

Once in the sewers, Kelas will read his and summon 2d6 giant rats to slow down pursuit and hamper spellcasters. This is Kelas's home territory. He will not stand and fight, ducking at great speed down branch tunnels to appear behind pursuers, using his necklace of missiles to attack the PCs from a distance. Another trick he will use is to cast a prayer spell and, using his pipes of the sewers, summon a rat swarm to harry the PCs.

Kelas will be a very difficult opponent to catch, he will avoid face-to-face confrontation if at all possible, and if he has to fight he will use his sleep and other touch spells first. If given the chance, he will run away to fight again another day. The PCs had better watch out! If the PCs slay Kelas, the DM can determine additional treasure in his house as he sees fit. The house itself, however, is of no value; Kelas has completely mortgaged it to pay for the escalating costs of his experiments.