Posts tagged RAWR

Having finished at the shrine we decided to finish exploring the area. All we found were dead ends and empty tunnels; so we decided to go back and see what was behind those two doors we hadn’t opened.

Back at the first door, we listened carefully to hear if there was anything on the other side. We heard some funny noises and figured out it was a bunch of kobolds being boisterous. We quietly opened the door and managed to surprise them. While the fight was over fairly quickly, some of us had to spend a while picking dice out of our clothing. Because he’d been surprised, one of the kobold slingers hadn’t had time to get our his sling ammo, so he used the dice from the game he was playing. The resulting grapeshot was more annoying than actually dangerous. After thoroughly searching the area and obtaining some loot we continued on our way.

The second door was quite simply massive. Since we hadn’t really encountered anything too difficult up to this point, we decided to simply slam the door open and rush in. The room was a sort of sanctum, and it was occupied by a wererat and his rodent swarms. We tried to talk to him, but he attacked before we could say anything of substance. This was our toughest fight yet, but we pulled through without any serious injuries. Searching the area, we found the Rat King’s journal; it was quite revealing.

This wererat used to be a man called Gord. The one we encountered earlier is Dralliw; and, before he died, the ghost was a man named Terrius.

Dralliw had hired the other two to help him in a quest. They discovered the aqueduct and looted the place. One night, while still in the underground, Dralliw kills Terrius in order to get his share of the loot. Gord was pretending to be asleep and plans on killing Dralliw later on. The next day, Dralliw bites Gord and runs off. Apparently he had very sharp teeth.

Gord spends the next few days looking for Dralliw. During this time he slowly starts to change into a feral looking creature with a craving for cheese. Also, on a few occasions, he hears playing a flute that he found and he notices the the rats seem to react to the sound. At one point he sees another adventurer exploring the aqueduct. But this man dies soon after; the victim of a pack of zombies. Of note was a fancy ring on his finger.

A little over a week after entering the aqueduct, Gord catches up to Dralliw for a little while and manages to connect the dots.

Dralliw is a wererat. Terrius’ child had recently been killed by a rat-like creature; it was probably Dralliw. (Terrius’ wife is in mourning at the church of Ilmater in Candlekeep.)

Dralliw came to the aqueduct looking specifically for the flute. He hired the other two because he needed their help.

Two after entering the aqueduct, Gord realizes that he’s become a wererat. He accepts his fate and declares himself the RAT KING. He plans on defeating Dralliw and getting the flute. To that end he allies himself with a tribe of kobolds who live in the aqueduct.

After reading the journal, we took a long rest in order to recuperate our forces.

After resting for a while (short/extended?) we were ready to continue with our quests, so we went through the N door.

On the other side we found the ruins of a gallery that led to an ancient temple. The whole thing had once been on the surface but was engulfed by the earth during the spellplague. Access to the temple is cut off by a large chasm. The gallery floor was littered with corpses that were suddenly reanimated. We easily defeated these zombies continued through a door on the E side of the gallery.

We found ourselves in another part of the aqueduct. The layout of this aqueduct is so complex and so many things happened that I can’t give a step by step account. I’ll simply provide a rundown of the results.

We found some rooms/doors. Two of the doors we encountered seemed important, so we left them closed and continued exploring the tunnels. We found 2 plain doors that led to an empty room. It was in a relatively isolated part of the aqueduct complex and would serve as a good resting place. Not far from this room Ezmereth discovered a secret door that led to a small storeroom. There was a tall ladder that led to a trap door in the ceiling high above. We did not check out this door either.

We also had some more combat encounters. In one case, one of the zombies we killed (or is it re-killed) had the silver ring that Orfunix the librarian asked us to retrieve. The other major encounter was with the blackscale kobold wyrmpriest and his henchment; one of which was a drake. They were performing a ritual at an altar. Although these were the toughest enemies we’d yet faced in this part of the aqueduct they went down in a manner of seconds. I then disabled the dart trap hidden in the altar.

Now we simply have to decide what to do next.