Chapter 1 - Session 2

Rats in the Cellar, Riddles in the Dark

The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLlDtQZ-vvk

<- Previous | Next ->

Events and Actions

The session began at The Crow's Nest inn. Noddy spoke with the inkeeper about a vermin problem in the cellar and was tasked with dealing with it. Partway through the conversation a bowl of gruel vanished from the counter without explanation, and moments later a cleaver, a giant knife, and a huge wooden spoon appeared on the counter that had not been there before — offered up, along with a broom and a candle, as tools for the job. When Noddy asked whether the vermin trouble reached the attic as well, the inkeeper's answer was oddly evasive: "no, no vermin upstairs... oh, you'll get into trouble" — one of several small signs that the inn was not behaving quite normally. Other PCs (Riu, Knick Nab, Werner De Rendal, Cosimo Cellini Scivio (Silky), and Manuel de Barret (Mani)), driven by their own reasons or overhearing, also decided to investigate the cellar.

Infurious Montesigna (Riu), before heading down, encountered a mysterious, powerfully built stranger in the inn's common room, straddling a chair backwards to keep his sword clear, dressed in an ornate leather cuirass, tall boots, a wig, and an elaborate hat set on the table before him, with a small book, quill, and inkpot at hand. He identified his profession as a Chronicler — Randolph the Chronicler, as the party would come to know him — and pressed Riu repeatedly on whether he was "interested in the truth," noted the ink stains on Riu's fingers as the mark of a reader, and wrote down Riu's account of the inn's vanishing gruel and cutlery with obvious interest. At one point he grew suddenly emphatic, thumping the table before catching himself, and sent Riu on his way with the observation that "the answers do not lie here... I would seek the answers elsewhere." Riu also noticed a smaller oddity of his own: the door on the cliff road he had described earlier now had a curtained window beside it that had not been there before.

The PCs descended into the inn's cellar, initially unaware of each other's presence or exact locations, though they all arrived at the bottom of the stairs around the same time.

As they navigated the initial corridors of barrels, crates, and sacks, lighting torches to see by, they became aware of each other. Knick Nab, drawing on a lifetime spent around ships' holds, judged that whatever was down there could gnaw through rope or wood but not stone. A sack of rotten fruit was found and taken from among the stores.

The group, now loosely formed, was set upon by a first wave of aggressive rats. Noddy set his broom afire to fight with, though his swings kept missing, and he failed twice to scramble up onto a stack of barrels for safety before giving up and retreating to a table. Werner De Rendal's thrown knife scored the party's first solid hit of the night — a deep cut to a rat's hind leg that left it bleeding and hobbled before it died, still pinned by the blade. Silky (Cosimo) followed with a knife-throw of his own that punched clean between the bones of a rat's foreleg and killed it outright, though not before the rats bit through his socks — twice. Knick Nab fought with a wooden spoon and sweeping strikes, earning himself the nickname "the Rat Slinger" from the onlookers, while Mani used a string of powerful kicks, one of which landed so solidly it ruptured something vital, killed the rat instantly, and sent its body flying out of an open window. Riu wedged a barrel between himself and the rats for cover. Several rats were killed, and the party gathered the bodies, along with Werner's now-broken knife, into a sack.

Beyond the corridor, the party found a larger room built around a central pillar, with a second doorway blocked by a flimsy barricade of tables and chairs; Knick Nab pulled it apart with little effort, concluding it was "an inkeeper's idea of a barricade" that would never have stopped a determined rat. Mani paused to say a prayer to the Mother and Father before lighting a pair of torches to see by.

Retrieving a thrown knife from a rat he had already killed, Werner noticed the corpse begin to move on its own, dragging itself across the floor to spell out a message in its own remains — "WHO R U" — witnessed first by Noddy, who alone made out what it said. Werner and Mani, on hand a moment later, wrote "WERNER" and "MANI" in blood in reply; the rest of the party was present or nearby to see it happen. After a pause, a response appeared on the floor spelling out "WERNER" and "MANI" back at them. Mani later tried to continue the exchange by carving into a tabletop that had been dragged around during the fighting, without any result. Knick Nab missed the whole episode — he had already carried Riu's jarred squid up to the inkeeper, who had no idea what to make of it ("that's not mine... maybe he'll come back for it") but offered to fetch ale to celebrate once told the rats were dealt with. A second, smaller ambush of rats near the source of a faint greenish glow further down the corridor gave the party one more round of fighting before they could investigate it in peace.

The now-cohesive party investigated the source of the glow: a hole in a wall where a stone had come loose, with glowing water trickling out. One by one or in pairs, with the others waiting their turn (Noddy, then Silky, then Knick Nab, then Werner & Mani together, then Riu), the PCs crawled through the hole into a small, hidden chamber, each finding it in what played out as an almost private, individual moment rather than a shared exploration.

Noddy went first, finding his own Medallion on the remains and opening his box in turn for his Coins of Fate. Silky went next. Examining the remnants of clothing on the skeletal remains inside, he judged them to be many decades old. Studying the chamber's bricked-up archway, he determined it had been sealed from the far side, not the cellar side — the mortar was neat near the floor and sloppier higher up, consistent with someone working from beyond the wall — and that the little chamber itself was of far finer, more deliberate construction than the rough-dug cellar around it. Scratches on the wall, which his knowledge of Divine writing let him read as prayers to the Mother and Father, akin to fragments of a litany, told him that whoever carved them had knowledge of the Divinity beyond his own. Knick Nab followed, squeezing through the narrow gap; he hesitated briefly over the idea of taking a necklace from a corpse — it felt like a small desecration — before deciding it had to be done, and was told, once he opened his box, that the Coins of Fate represented something more, to be explained in a future session. Werner and Mani went in together: Werner examined the remains first, learning little beyond that they were adult and skeletal, retrieved his Medallion, and crawled back out to report to Mani — only for the two of them to realize they each already had, or had just found, an identical necklace, and spent a moment trying uselessly to fit the two together, since the gap in each sat in a different place. Neither could remove his own Medallion once it was worn — every attempt left the wearer distracted, doing something else entirely — but Mani was able to remove Werner's for him when asked. Werner, visibly unsettled at carrying a magic item he didn't understand, resolved to keep it hidden and unworn rather than risk drawing attention to it; Mani, trying and failing to remove his own the same way, simply tucked it under his clothes. Riu went last. Before turning to the glow, he glimpsed a second storage chamber through a doorway, its chests and crates full of more stores. He found the loose, cracked stone and the trickle of glowing water, judged the gap beneath the brickwork to be rat-sized only, and packed it with sacks of flour to seal it before crawling through. Inside, he could tell no more of the remains than that they were an adult, found his own Medallion, opened his box for his Coins of Fate, and tried without success to place the Medallion's markings against what he knew of the region's lore.

Towards the end of the session, with the immediate cellar mysteries explored, the party made their way back upstairs.

NPCs & Creatures

  • Inkeeper (Burlyman): Proprietor of The Crow's Nest inn. Distracted and confused throughout — food and cutlery appeared and disappeared around him without comment — and gave an evasive answer when asked about vermin in the attic. Later baffled by the squid jar Knick Nab brought up, and offered to fetch ale to celebrate once told the rats were dealt with.
  • Inkeeper's Wife: Briefly interacted with Noddy, providing a broom.
  • Randolph the Chronicler: A well-dressed, inquisitive man found in the common room — powerfully built, wearing an ornate leather cuirass, tall boots, a wig, and an elaborate hat, with a sword worn at his back explaining why he sat backwards in his chair. Carried a small book, quill, and inkpot, and pressed Riu on his interest in "the truth" and the inn's strange happenings before sending him off to "seek the answers elsewhere."
  • Rats: Aggressive rats encountered in two waves within the cellar. Knick Nab recognized their behaviour from a lifetime spent around ships' holds, and Noddy had encountered similarly vicious rats before in the ruined districts he grew up in; both found this pack notably more aggressive than ordinary vermin.
  • Deceased Individual: Skeletal remains found in the hidden chamber, wearing one of the Medallions. Appeared to have been immured behind a doorway bricked up from the far side.

Locations

  • The Crow's Nest Inn: The common room (where Randolph was met), a side room (briefly explored by Riu), and the cellar.
  • Inn Cellar: A series of corridors and storage areas containing barrels, crates, and sacks. Included a larger room built around a central pillar with its own barricaded doorway, and a second storage chamber glimpsed further in, packed with chests, crates, and food stores — before, eventually, the source of a mysterious glow.
  • Hidden Chamber: A small chamber, noticeably finer and more deliberately built than the rough cellar around it, accessed through a narrow, water-carved hole in the cellar wall. Contained skeletal remains, a bricked-up doorway sealed from the far side many decades ago, and evidence of glowing water trickling in. Divine prayers were scratched into the walls.

Conflicts

  • Combat with Rats (first wave): A pack of rats in the storage corridor. Werner's thrown knife crippled and killed a rat with a deep cut to its hind leg; Silky's knife-throw shortly after punched clean between a rat's leg bones, killing it outright; Mani's kick killed a third rat instantly and sent its body flying out a window. Knick Nab and Noddy fought with a spoon and a flaming broom respectively; rats bit through Silky's socks twice in the process.
  • Combat with Rats (second wave): A smaller ambush of rats near the source of the glow, fought through before the party could investigate further.
  • Mysterious Communication: A dead rat's body moved on its own to spell out a message on the floor; Werner and Mani wrote their names in reply, and the unknown presence answered in kind.
  • Tense Dialogue: Riu's conversation with the enigmatic Randolph the Chronicler, who probed him about his interest in "the truth."

Learnings and Discussions

  • The Crow's Nest inn has a rat infestation and a generally strange, possibly illusory, atmosphere: food and cutlery appear and vanish unexplained, and the inkeeper's own answers about the place grow evasive when pressed.
  • Randolph the Chronicler is a new, significant NPC with an interest in truth and observation, who believes the answers to the inn's strangeness "lie elsewhere" — and grew strangely emphatic on the subject before catching himself.
  • A hidden chamber exists beneath the inn, containing ancient remains and a bricked-up passage. Silky's examination showed the chamber itself was of much finer construction than the rough-dug cellar around it, and that the bricked-up doorway was sealed from the far side, many decades ago — divine prayers were scratched into its walls by someone with real knowledge of the Divinity.
  • The Medallions found on the remains (one per PC, from their boxes) become invisible when worn and cannot be removed by the wearer — every attempt leaves them distracted instead — though another person can remove one for someone else, as Mani demonstrated on Werner.
  • The Coins of Fate were acquired by each PC upon opening their boxes after finding their Medallion; the GM confirmed they represent something more significant, to be explained in a future session.
  • An unknown entity or force can communicate through writing on the floor — it first spelled out a message using a dead rat's own body, which only Noddy witnessed happening.
  • Riu tried and failed to place the Medallion's markings against his knowledge of regional lore; their meaning remains unknown.
  • Knick Nab's years around ships' holds and Noddy's experience with vicious rats in his old, ruined neighbourhood both informed the party's read on the vermin they faced.

Items Gained

  • Knick Nab:
    • 1 Medallion (material and properties unknown, becomes unseen when worn, cannot be removed by the wearer, though another person can remove it for them)
    • 10 Coins of Fate (from personal box)
  • Werner De Rendal:
    • 1 Medallion (material and properties unknown, becomes unseen when worn, cannot be removed by the wearer, though another person can remove it for them)
    • 10 Coins of Fate (from personal box)
  • Infurious Montesigna (Riu):
    • 1 Medallion (material and properties unknown, becomes unseen when worn, cannot be removed by the wearer, though another person can remove it for them)
    • 10 Coins of Fate (from personal box)
  • Noddy:
    • 1 Medallion (material and properties unknown, becomes unseen when worn, cannot be removed by the wearer, though another person can remove it for them)
    • 10 Coins of Fate (from personal box)
    • Broom (later lit on fire), Candle (from Inkeeper)
  • Cosimo Cellini Scivio (Silky):
    • 1 Medallion (material and properties unknown, becomes unseen when worn, cannot be removed by the wearer, though another person can remove it for them)
    • 10 Coins of Fate (from personal box)
  • Manuel de Barret (Mani):
    • 1 Medallion (material and properties unknown, becomes unseen when worn, cannot be removed by the wearer, though another person can remove it for them)
    • 10 Coins of Fate (from personal box)
  • A sack of rotten fruit was found among the cellar stores (not eaten).

Items Lost

  • Werner De Rendal: One knife left pinned in a rat; a second knife was bent/broken during the fighting.
  • Noddy: His broom was lit on fire and used as a weapon; its condition afterwards is unknown but likely damaged or consumed.
  • Cosimo Cellini Scivio (Silky): His socks, bitten through twice by rats during the fighting.
  • Various light sources (torches, candle) were consumed.