"I joe'een guid."
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Guid. I joe’een.”
The woman stared at me like I had worms crawling out of my ears. Getting stuck on the Sawtooths wasn’t exactly ideal. Not that I had been given much of a choice. I sighed and unfolded the paper I had been given. I tried once more reading the phonetic letters. Oh. I was mispronouncing it. “I, Jo’in, gu’ild.”
“You want to join the guild?” The girl asked like she had just been thrown a lifeline.
“Yes. He tel me. I jo’in Gu’ild. Ad-ven-tu-rrr.”
“Right, okay. Here, hold this. Don’t move.”
The device in my hands looked rather fragile. The copper plate was sturdy, but the complicated array of crystals and strange moving fiddly bit stones looked like it would fall apart at any moment. The woman behind the counter scratched numbers on a piece of parchment. The next 30 minutes was a headache inducing game of charades. As far as I could tell. I was in the guild. Very low ranked. And had a quest to kill rats. At least I'm pretty sure that's what the woman was trying to tell me. Next came exchanging my collection of coins for local currency. The receptionist's eyes grew wide when I dumped what was basically half my worldly possessions by weight onto the counter.
"I, well I, ummm." The woman stammered.
To be fair, I didn't have the slightest clue what half of these things were worth. She marveled for a moment over a jade coin with a square hole, sorted a few steel coins with round holes, eyed a piece of onyx, and frowned at a very large coin with four smaller holes that very well could have been an oversized and overstyleilized button.
"I'm Ah, going to have to get these appraised." She looked at me like I was a problem she didn't want to deal with right now. I smiled up at her. I had no damn Idea what she just said, but I knew it was a really random assortment of coins, probably problematic. The woman sighed and started writing.
***
Sewer. That was the word used to describe what I could only assume was a storm drain. And a rather large one at that. The water marks on the side walls made me a bit uneasy about going in, but the sky looked clear and I was only going in for an hour or so. The tinderbox was a bit infuriating. I'm not sure if this country was just so backwards that they didn't know what a lighter was or if the stock pile I had been given access to was made up of shot that should have been thrown overboard. Regardless, I managed to light the torch and delve into the unknown.
It kind of stunk, the walls had a slimy ooze like mold that gave the tunnel a heavy musty odor and the stagnant water was putrid. I stopped at the first intersection, hesitant to continue. I wasn't sure what exactly a Dire Rat was, but if it was anything like a bilge rat, particularly a starving bilge rat, I didn't want to get surrounded by them. A little further in should be fine as long as I kept an eye out behind me. The second intersection though, I was about to turn around when I noticed something metal shining in the dim torch light. I checked the tunnels to the left, right, and behind before moving forward cautiously. The metal turned out to be the boss of a light wooden shield laying on the hard stone. It was a bit wet, but I was certainly willing to take it. It didn't take long to find why it was just sitting there though. A pile of shredded rags and shattered bones lay not too much further. The Rats had picked the corpse clean leaving only a discolored smear on the stone. I decided to leave quickly. This place was a death trap. Why the hells would they send new, unclassed kids in here? That was just cruel and cold. I'm not going to just walk into a trap and die. Where would I find a butcher?
***
I didn't find a butcher. The layout of this city is perplexing. I assume, based on what I've been able to see from certain places, that the city is divided into five or six tiers or giant terraces. The lower terrace has the guild and the docks and a bunch of trade stuff. Oddly enough the second terrace seems to be the poor district. Got a lot of weird looks walking around up there. Not sure why I thought of a butcher right away though. A sack of fish guts cost a whole two of the little round copper prices and that would probably work better anyway. I left the fish bits at the first intersection and wandered off to get another torch. A lantern was high on the "to buy" list.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Will there be a rat when she returns? 2. Extreme yes.
"Holy fucking kraken tentacles!" I swore as the two large rats stopped fighting over the bag of fish guts and stared at me with their beady black eyes. I wasn't particularly afraid of a single bilge rat, but multiple bilge rats grew ever more concerning with numbers. Dire Rats on the other hand, were apparently on a whole new level.
(Save vs fear. DC 11. Rolling… 8.)
I had fully expected a rat the size of a small cat, but this? This was way more than I was willing to deal with. I was in a dark hole, alone, facing down not one but two rats the size of a small dog.
I ran.
Combat Starts…
Initiative:
Injung: 18
Rat 2: 17
Rat 1: 15
Injung swings torch at Rat 1. 4. Miss
Rat 2 bites Injung. 13. 2 damage.
Injung Fort Save. 13. Saves.
Rat 1 bites Injung. 10. Miss
Initiative:
Rat 1: 14
Injung: 8
Rat 2: 6
Rat 1 bites Injung. 3. Miss.
Injung drops the torch and stabs at Rat 2 with dagger. 16. 4 damage.
Rat 2 Morale Save. DC 15. 16.
Rat 2 bites Injung. 11. Miss
Initiative:
Rat 1: 11
Injung: 8
Rat 2: 5
Rat 1 bites Injung. Nat 1. Miss.
Injung swings shield around and stabs at Rat 2 with dagger. 18. 1 damage.
Rat 1 dies.
Initiative:
Rat 1: 22
Injung: 19
Rat 1 bites Injung. 15. 4 damage.
Injung Fort Save. 8. Infection.
Injung readies shield and stabs with dagger. 19. 3 Damage
Initiative:
Injung: 17
Rat 1: 6
Injung stabs with dagger. 10. Miss.
Rat 1 Morale Save. DC 15. 7.
Rat 1 tries to run, provoking an attack of opportunity.
Injung stabs with dagger. 13. Miss.
Initiative:
Injung: 17
Rat 1: 15
Injung throws dagger at Rat 1. Nat 1. Miss.
Rat 1 disappears into the darkness.
Combat ends…
XP Gained… 203
I might not have been brave enough to face the monstrous rodents in the dark confines of the sewers. However, sunlight spilled into the tunnel not far away and with the salt brine air of the sea and light of day around me, my courage returned and I turned swinging the torch around at the giant fucking rodents that I was sure were chaseing me. One backed off with a hiss, the other unfortunately went for my foot. I dropped the torch as pain shot from my foot up my leg and into my spine. I retaliated by jabbing the cold metal of my dagger into the thing’s sickly hide. It screeched and I yelled. I stepped out of the way as it lunged. The other rodent tried to bite at me, this one more cautious than the other, I swung the shield off my back, but failed to catch the handle. Stabbing forward with the dagger, the steel made contact again and dug into the rat’s body. I snapped my arm back as the thing twitched. I think I got it.
Unfortunately my silent self congratulations was interrupted by a sharp tearing pain in my calf, I jabbed down with the dagger, impaling the giant rodent with the sharp knife even as I managed to finally take hold of the shield. It screeched, I flailed at it with my weapon as it ran, before it disappeared into the dark of the tunnel, I took aim, and threw the dagger at the stupid rat. The sound of metal hitting stone told me I missed.
“Damn.”
I checked my leg and foot. Apart from the punctures where the teeth sunk into the skin, the bites didn’t look that bad. The blood had already stopped flowing and I could still walk, albeit with a limp. I picked up the torch and wandered into the sewer looking for my weapon. It was pretty dinged up. I hope it won't cost too much to sharpen. Now. What was I supposed to do with the rat?