(Literally Groundhog Day but with Skaven)
The party descends into a rank and fetid underworld of disease and filth. "The vast sewers of Hammerhal are ancient and complex, their dark passages bent and twisted beyond the knowledge of those who dwell above. Only the foul denizens of the city's stinking underbelly can claim any real familiarity with its sludge-filled pits," the Mistweaver notes, as if reciting from a text.
Once the stately lower floor of an upper-class bathhouse, this sunken room has long since fallen into disuse. The old drains now serve as gateways for all manner of filthy vermin to crawl up through. Two skaven warriors do so now, as the party watches!
Yelp review: 0 out of 5 stars
They are no match for the readied weapons of the Aelves, however, and soon the floor is stained with their blood. The Fleetmaster soon discovers a huge rusted lever, and when he pulls it, the drains shut.
Suddenly a movement behind the party causes them to snatch at their weapons. They are astonished, however, to see the bloodied, limping form of their barbarian friend joining them at the bottom of the stairs! "You must be indestructible," The Mistweaver wonders. The Chieftain does not reply, but grins mirthlessly, and bleeds from a dozen cuts.
With barely a pause, the assassin steps next to the Fleetmaster and opens one of the exits to this former bathhouse. A small band of ratmen skitter in the darkness of a sludge-filled chamber. One of them stands in the center of the room, grunting as it struggles to retrieve a glowing green stone from the center of the pit.
R.O.U.S.es? I Think they don't exist
The Shard attacks the Skaven at the door and retreats. The Skaven, wounded and out for blood, follows him into the room, but is surprised by the Fleetmaster on the other side. The Clanrat lashes out, lacerating the Fleetmaster's arm before he is skewered by the Mistweaver's keen blade. At this, the Clawlord looks up from his work and charges into the party, badly injuring the Shard, but in return leaves himself open to a furious assault by the Darkoath Champion, who only by chance fails to kill him on the spot. The king rat is dispatched by a well-placed dagger from the Shard, while the Mistweaver bombards the Skaven in the bathhouse. The Chieftain then charges the remaining Clanrat, who had retreated further into the filth hole, and beheads him.
Somewhere deep in the sewer tolls the gonging of a great sonorous bell. "I think they know we are here," Kyre notes grimly, as he bandages his wound.
The party regroups in the bathhouse. Two Skaven drop from the pipes along the ceiling and attack! Mistweaver draws her sword and skewers one of them, and the Shard, as usual, steps to its side and finishes it off. The other Clanrat, attracted by the smell of blood, skirts around the Fleetmaster and launches into the Darkoath Chieftain, but its blows rain on his armored pauldrons, and the Chieftain just laughs and smites the rat to the ground!
Kyre beckons them back into the filthy hole that the Clawlord was searching, drawn by the green glow deep within. As they turn to search the hole, however, more Skaven appear in the doorway! "Where are these damned things coming from?" Kyre growls.
Skaven inconsiderately interrupting the looting of their home
The barbarian fells the clanrat in the middle of the doorway, clearing the way for the Tenebrael Shard to move in between the other two, bisecting one of them. Before he can turn, however, the other lays a flail into the Darkoath Chieftain's head, with a resounding thock! But the headstrong barbarian just grins and shakes his head, and the Clanrat is almost as surprised at that turn of events as he is at the assassin slitting his throat from behind.
The barbarian wipes rat blood off of his face and reaches into the filthy hole, but snatches his hand back with an angry snarl. "There's something in there," he mutters. "Something with teeth." Undeterred the Mistweaver reaches down, and pulls out a gleaming stone, which transforms before their eyes into a ring. The sorceress smiles and slips the jewelry into her pouch.
Once again the party regroups in the bathhouse, and prepare to investigate the second door when they hear a horrid scrabbling as a swarm of tiny creatures burrow up out of the filth in the next room and swarm towards them. The barbarian laughs. "I told you there was something in there!" he cackles. The Mistweaver and Shard exchange an exasperated look.
Maybe they ran out of big ones
It somehow takes their combined efforts to stomp the swarm into quiescence.
Finally the party finds themselves at the unexplored exit once again. The assassin pulls open the door.
No comments:
Post a Comment