ACT ONE - NOVITIATES
CHAPTER 1: RATS
The guild of adventurers was bustling with life in the Red Spire, the capital of the nation of Colfer and the home of the adventuring guild.
In the bustle of the guilds daily ongoings stood a Cassius Perconta on his first day as a newly made adventurer, ready to do his duty to the world. Excited to get going he strode confidently through the masses of people in the packed reception to get to the assignment desk where he proudly showed his shining adventurers badge, a small leather wallet with a small coin embedded into it depicting a lion and a griffon wielding a shield and sword in front of a heater shield with small ornate flowers and vines. The well dressed man behind the desk adjusted his spectacles and a small sheen of purple shone from them, then the man reached under his desk and brought up a neatly bound leather binder with all kinds of parchments and papers, some of the edges stained in different colours of ink and wax. Some strips of linen cloth mark different parts of the binder. The receptionist grabs one and opens up the binder to a page with one four edged star. He put his finger down onto the page and pointed to the star.
“The assignments are ranked, as explained in your interview. Due to your rank the guild will only provide you missions considered safe alone or safe with a group. You can take any ‘solo’ assignment alone but any group assignment you will require a group, you may accept a ‘solo’ assignment with a group. As this is your first assignment I will assign one for you suited for your skills and the guild's needs.” his voice lulled with a tired rehearsed tone to it. “We endorse new members to prepare properly before going on the assignment. The assignment you’ll be given is a extermination assignment, you are to go to the northern sewer gates and talk to the guards stationed there.” he handed Cassius the parchment scrolled up with a seal from the guild and motionend for the next one in the line for the assignment desk. He took the scroll and turned towards the door of the guild. Before reaching the door he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw a young woman's face. She wore large round spectacles, a brown cloak and an ill-fitted green robe. Her face was round and her eyes brown, and a dainty little nose. She couldn’t have been much older than him.
“You’re a new member too right? Seems like there’s a lot of us. I’m Zoe, Pleasure!” She shot out a hand, talking faster than what Cassius could keep up with. He reached out to shake it. “Did you already get your assignment? What did you get? I got patrol duty. Snore! You wanna switch, reckon they would find out huh? Oh well. Oh I’m sorry I never caught your name.”
“Cass.” He was stunned at the speed that she talked, he didn’t even register that he responded.
“Nice to meet you Cass! Is that short for something? Cassiopeia? no that's a girls name isn’t? I mean I have a friend who’s name is Roy but she spells it like a little different–” she continued without taking a breath in between sentences.
“No… What? No, it’s short for Cassius”
“Oh Cassius! Of course, why didn’t I think of that, it's so obvious. Anyways, Would you like to gang up, reckon we can split the rewards and it’ll be less lonely!”
“I– yeah, sure, why not.”
“Oh great, finally I have someone to talk to, they keep putting me on patrols, I don’t think the receptionists like me very much.”
“I can’t fathom why.”
“Me neither! I’m a delight, they’re just stuck up. Either way, what's your assignment, you didn’t get patrol right? That would be a shame.”
“Right, no it’s an extermination request. Not sure what it means but it's what I got.” He said as he left the guild, he took a left down to Parade Avenue, a massive street going from the inner gates up to the gates of the council forum, the old Palace.
They got to the northern sewer gate after an hour of walking, to the side of the massive cast iron grate leading into the sewer stood a small squad of guards, clad in the red hues of the city watch, one with a set of spaulders given to sergeants of the watch. The duo approached the guards and Cassius brought out the scroll with the unbroken seal and handed it over to the sergeant. The sergeant, a burly middle aged dwarf with a massive beard black beard with white streaks running through the thick hair.
“Ah yu’re the advent’rer… the guild said there’d only be one of yus. We’re not payin’ per ‘ead y’know.” The dwarf said, inspecting the two of them.
“I’m aware, guardsman. Could you tell us what we’re exterminating?” Cassius said, noticing that Zoe for the first time didn't blabber. Being oddly quiet.
“Aye, yu got lucky, boy. It’s only rats, we’d do it ourselves but we’ve just got our shoes polished, yu’see?” The dwarf pointed down to his broad boots a thin sheet of metal on the toes and going under the sole, dirty as ever and dented in a few places. Cassius frowned at them and yanked back the scroll after getting the signature from the sergeant.
He entered the sewers after the guards opened the grate, Zoe close behind him. She doesn’t have a weapon. A mage perhaps? He thought to himself. As looking into the dank, hollow darkness of the sewer he regretted his life choices briefly before rallying and reached into his bag and brought out a flint and steel tongs and a lantern. He pressed the tongs together a few times until the sparks lit the burnt lantern fuse. The darkness gave way to a dull orange glow coming from the lantern and revealed the walkways in the middle and the sides, in between sewage and dirty water laid still, as if not moving at all. The only things connecting the walkways were sparsely spread wooden bridges. They passed such a bridge to the middle walkway, the creaky boards sounded as if it were going to give in at any moment.
“I regret coming, why did it have to be the sewers! I mean if it wasn’t enough with the patrol duty but now sewers!?” Zoe groaned, wafting her hand in front of her face, which itself was contorted with disgust. “I'm starting to think the receptionist really didn’t like you.”
“Be quiet, I am trying to listen. If you don’t like it you can leave or go buddy up with the guards!” Cassius hissed back. Zoes smile drooped and she fell quiet. He tried to keep a stern stare at her but felt guilty. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings…”
“It’s– It’s okay, really , I get it.”
Cassius looked at her, the open and happy girl suddenly turned into a shy drawback girl. He felt really bad, so he turned around and kept walking.
A chittering could be heard a little further ahead of them, he could see glowing eyes in the darkness, it looked too big to be a rat. He drew his broadsword and raised it, ready to meet the animal. Staring at it for a few seconds it sprung into the light. A giant rat threw itself onto Cassius, screeching and trying to bite him. He panicked and stumbled backwards, losing the grip of his sword. He frantically kicked at the rats head trying to create some distance between them. It tried to bite at his feets, more agitated with every kick until it managed to get a hold of his foot, its teeth buried deep in his foot, having gone through the shoe completely. Cassius screamed in pain and terror. He realised that he feared for his life. It scratched and gnawed at his foot, making more wounds and bitemarks, hearing the snapping of tendons, sinew and bone. He started kicking the rat with his other foot, desperately trying to get it off him.
Zoe looked on in horror at the scene, she froze, not knowing what to do. She had never been in battle before, and she had never seen a monster before. She didn’t even have a weapon, she thought this was going to be a routine patrol in the sewers. She felt tears streaking her cheeks as she heard the screams of Cassius and the gnashing of the rats' maw. She heard the screams and snapped out of it and ran to grab the sword Cassius dropped, just a few feet behind the rat, she lifted it up and clumsily lunged at the rat, the weight of the sword doing more damage to the rat rather than her technique. The sword stuck in the rat's belly. She tried to yank it out but it was stuck in the rat. It started to writhe in pain, trying to get the sword out itself to no avail. She threw herself onto the rat and instead of trying to yank the sword out she started to move and twist it around making sure the wound bled more. Gushes of blood shot out and struck her face and stained her green robes.
Cassius saw what Zoe was doing and grabbed a loose stone and threw himself onto the rat’s head and started to bash it repeatedly with the stone. He heard its skull crack, then its nose, then its eye burst. For every bash the rat slowly stopped moving. He saw a little twitch and filled with rage he raised the stone above his head and brought it down with all his might, caving in the head.
Blood from the rat pooled beneath it mixing with the slimy and dirty floor. Cassuis took a few steps back, breathing heavily, having momentarily forgotten about the wound on his foot. He started chuckling that quickly turned into a relieved laughter.ä
“We’ve got giant rats… We’ve got giant rats in the sewer!” He said in disbelief, still chuckling in between words. Zoe looked at him and she almost keeled over when she started to laugh as well. “They meant to send a brand new adventurer to deal with a giant rat rat problem… in the sewers!”
“I’m really starting to think they don’t like you at the guild.” She said in between breaths and laughter.
“I’m starting to think that too. But at least it's not patrol duty!”
They burst into another fit of laughter.
“We should get going.” Cass said after he applied a healing unguent to his foot and wrapped it with a ripped piece of cloth and further covered it with leather wrappings before putting his boot back on. “The faster we get through to their nest the faster we can get out of here.”
“Agreed… Could I ask you a favour just really quick?” she said awkwardly, with a guilty grin.
“What?”
“I don’t have a weapon.” She gave a rueful chuckle, massaging her neck. “You don’t happen to have a spare sword with you?”
“Aren’t you a spellcaster?”
“I wish! The temple had me tested. But I reckoned it was good that I wasn’t proficient–”
“Wait– You’re not a spellcaster?! And you’ve no weapon either! Why in the duality did you join me if you were unarmed?”
“I had no idea it’d be this bad, when we entered it was already too late!”
“What do you mean ‘too late’? You could’ve left anytime, shit, you could leave now.” he sighed and reached into his bag and brought out a small dagger. “This is what I got. Don’t lose it.” He glared at her for a second before relenting and threw the back pack on his shoulders again.
Her eyes glinted with relief in the darkness. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! Of course I wont lose it! You have my word on it.” She waved her hands about losing grip on the scabbard and frantically tried to catch it before finally managing to grip it awkwardly at the pommel. She chuckled ruefully again. “Sorry.”
He groaned, picked up his lanterns and fastened it at his belt. And began walking at a limping pace, taking care not to slip in the green and brown slime coating parts of the cut stone bricks.
“So you’re not a mage, good to know. But how come you don't have a weapon then?”
“Well I could never afford one and the guild didn’t seem to care whether I had one or not.”
“So you joined the guild without even a knife…”
“Yep. Though I could do something that didn’t entail fighting so I could save up for a decent sword, they’re mighty expensive nowadays. Either way I never managed to get close to enough money to get one, most of it either goes back to the temple or food and lodging.” She started off on a tangent about how food was expensive and innkeepers are cheap. Cass wasn’t listening fully and didn’t care much for Zoe’s complaining.
The walk felt like hours until they reached what seemed to be stairs in the middle of the tunnel. leading further down underground. He could hear the chittering again coming from down the stairs. He took a look at the stairs and saw that they were covered in that greenish slime, there was no guardrail to hold onto. One misstep and he would fall down with no comeback. He took another look around, hoping for another way down, but the platforms of the tunnel didn’t follow down. He really didn’t want to fall.
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“You sure you don’t know any spells?” He said, knowing the answer but still hoping for her to say yes.
“Sorry.” She shrugged with indifference. “It’s not that bad, I mean it's just a really big slide… a really rough slide, but a slide nonetheless!” She took a careful step on the ledge, her foot sank into the slime with a squelch. “Ew!” her face contorted with disgust and regret before taking another wet step, slowly and deliberately walking down the stairs.
Seeing Zoe walk down he just as carefully followed her footsteps down, moving slowly downwards. He suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his foot, his wound was aching every time he put any weight on it. The shock made him lose his balance and he hastily put down his other foot into the green slime and slipped. Tumbling down the stairs and towards Zoe. He heard a yelp before he collided with her and they both now entangled, tumbled down the stairs, both trying to tuck in their head. They landed on something softer than the expected stone floor. Both groaning, Cassius clutching his foot, attempted to massage away the ache. Zoe tried to look but the light from the lantern was gone, she tried to find it when she spotted the familiar dull orange glow coming from halfway up the stairs. She groaned. “I don’t reckon you got something else to light the way with?” she turned to where she thought Cassius was.
“No– Why… Oh.” He saw nothing but the distant glow from the lantern. He stood up after he felt better and tried to brush the slime off his armour, dismayed to find out it was really hard to get rid of, even more so in the dark. He relented and squinted his eyes in a futile attempt to see in the dark. “Kinda wish we had brought spare torches.”
“Maybe we can climb back up and grab it?”
“I dunno, reckon being covered in the slippery slime isn’t gonna make climbing the already slippery stairs any easier.”
“We won’t know until we try it.”
“By all means, give it a whirl.”
Zoe approached the stairs in the dark slowly, feeling with her foot for the first step. She bumped her foot on the step and carefully crawled up the stairs on all fours, reaching the tenth step she felt her hand slip from under her and the rest of her body follow, sliding down again to the bottom where Cassius stood waiting. She felt the mocking gaze he gave her.
“You don’t need to tell me.”
“But I really want to tell you.”
“Please don’t.”
“I told you so.” Cassius sang before giving a slight laugh when he heard Zoe groan loudly.
They heard the chittering again, closer than what Cassius was comfortable with, without the safety of light and sight. He looked around, his left hand on his sword, the other trying to help Zoe up from the floor. He thought he spotted another source of light further in. He searched for the light at the stairs and again searched for the other light source. Another torch? Was it there when we got here? He took a few slow steps towards the light, trying not to fall off the ledge of the sewer platform. Is that light getting brighter? The light seemed to be approaching the corner of the tunnel, glowing brighter. He heard shuffling of wood on stone, incomprehensive muttering echoed throughout the tunnel.
“Zoe, get up, somethings coming.” He whispered, searching for her collar and yanking her up. He drew his sword again.
“What was that? Is someone down here?” a raspy, tired voice called out followed by a cackle Cassius imagined hags and witches made. “Oh Burick your ears making noises it shouldn’t, oughta change em by now.” The voice burst out in a cackle again. The shuffling resumed coming closer, they saw a figure appear from around the corner, neither Cass nor Zoe dared move, stricken with fear when they saw the figure's appearance.
At first glance, the figure looked like any old man, frail and thin. But at closer inspection they could see his ears, they seemed to be rats ears, patches of grey fur covered the man's body, a long leathery rat's tail poked out from his long tattered tunic. He walked closer to the stairs when he could see the two of them and he froze as well.
“You’re not supposed to be here children. The sewers are a dangerous place.” He scolded, the frown he tried to make quickly turned into a wide grin, showing off his teeth, they looked rotted, except for a shimmering metal tooth and his bucked teeth, the man looked like half a rat upon a closer look, even one of his eyes were a big black bead. “Is a very dangerous place, yes. You could slip and no one would ever find you, lost in the sewers, rat food then rat pellets then slime!” he pointed to the slime on the ground, then cackled again looking at them. They were covered in the slime, Cassius less covered than Zoe. Cassius looked at the slime and saw small little black specks and shuddered with disgust by Buricks suggestion.
“We’ll be on our way, but you don’t happen to have a spare light? It's awfully dark down here.” Zoe asked shakily, her hand on the dagger.
Burick looked them up and down and handed them the torch he was holding. “Take mine, I have no use for it, an old habit. Good ol’ eye here shall help me see.” He pointed to his black beady eye. Cassius heard a pop and saw Buricks eye had fallen out. He shot his hand up to catch the eye and put it back into its socket. Cassius gagged at the sight, Zoe held her hand up before her mouth and tried to swallow what came up. “Oh don’t be childish! It's just an eye.” he scolded the two, now looking green. “Take the torch now, I need to go!”
Zoe grabbed the torch and Burick walked off into the darkness whence he came, resuming his muttering.
“That… was something…” Cassius said, dumbfounded and disgusted as he tried to forget the popping sound.
“Only one way to go unless we want to go back.” She said looking back up the stairs. “Maybe not, let’s find another way out.” She grinned halfheartedly.
“Hm, maybe. Let’s not forget the way through, I really don’t want to be stuck down here longer than I have to.”
“Fair.” She agreed.
She turned around and started to walk in the direction Burick walked. The chittering had stopped but they felt eyes on them, the only sound in the tunnel was the current of water running besides them.
They walked for half an hour before the chittering started again, now behind them. They kept walking trying to ignore the deafening noise when they came upon a small mound, lying across the stone brick floor. The smell of decay hit them like a wall. They took a closer look, seeing small sharp protrusions in the mound. Cassius took out this sword and tried to put as much distance from the trap as he could and motioned Zoe to take a step back. He poked the mounds' protrusions. When he put enough force behind it the protrusions shot up into the air revealing it as a sharp bone that heavily clacked together with another set of bones. The bones didn’t seem to break and retracted into the ground and tunnel ceiling. He waved the sword above the mound and nothing happened.
“It seems to be activated by pressure… or we just used its only charge if it's magical.” Cassius said and tried to appear as knowledgeable.
“Makes sense.” She replied, and took a careful step over the mound taking care not to touch it without issue. Cassius followed in a less careful approach and backed up and charged at the mound, jumping just before hitting the mound. “That was a bit unnecessary, don’t you think?” She adjusted her spectacles. Cassius was a bit surprised that she managed to keep them on through the tumble and all.
“Yeah but better safe than sorry. Would rather not stand above a bone spear trap thing for longer than I have to.” he grunted to her and kept walking down the tunnel.
They got to a crossing in the platform, two bridges joined to meet the platform, crossing to two reinforced, although rotted, doors. Cassius walked up to the one on the left and tried opening it, then pulled the door handle, causing it to come off the door with a wet snap and the door slowly opened inwards.
“I think it's a push, not pull.” Zoe's snarky comment made Cassius blush with embarrassments.
“I knew that, I was just testing the doors…” He paused for a moment. “ I was testing the door's integrity– obviously it hasn't met the standards and should be replaced– yes.” He quickly threw the door handle to the side, into the murky brown water. The splash echoed through the caves. “Mind handing me the torch?”
She handed him the torch allowing him to see inside the dark room. A small rat skittered across the floor towards them. Cassius raised his food.
“Wait!” She hissed at him. He stopped his foot. “We could follow it. Maybe it’ll try to go home. Like where its nest is, no need to go looking for it.” she turned and quickly strode after the rat, which had out on the platform standing in the middle of the canal.
“Right.” He followed her, trying to keep up with his injured foot. Every step reminded him of the aching pain.
The rat had skittered down the tunnels, turning at crossroads, with precision, knowing exactly where to go. Zoe followed it, solely focused on where the rat was. Cassius attempted to memorise the winding turns, wanting to be able to find his way back.
They finally came up on a large empty cistern, the sound of rushing water drowned out their footsteps, they stood near the top of it. They both looked down as the rat climbed down one of the pillars lifting up the catwalk that crossed the cistern. They followed the rat with their eyes down to a 90 foot drop, to a lit bottom. Grated mouths in the wall allow the sewer water to run off before even rising to the raised platform in the middle of the cistern floor.
“Woah. That's quite the drop. Imagine falling down that, I mean either you just go splat and–” Zoe exclaimed trying to talk over the rush of water hitting the bottom of the cistern.
“Zoe– Please stop.” Cassius looked down and quickly looked back up, his face had gone pale as a ghost.
“What? Why– O, you’re afraid of heights? Really? Not what I had expected of you.”
“I’m not afraid of heights… I just get nauseous.”
“Yeah, okay. If that’s what you believe.” She gave him a coy grin and turned around facing the right wall. She could spot what seemed to be some kind of ladder. She walked over to it, it was a corroded iron ladder going all the way down to the bottom, it wasn’t covered in the green slime, a contrast from the rest of her surroundings. She could hear Cassius huff and whimper behind her. “Reckon you could get yourself together enough to climb down? How’s the food by the way?” She gestured down at the grimey boot with a thumb sized hole in it that Cassius wore.
“It’ll be fine, just some aches.” he said looking down at the boot and back up at Zoe, meeting her eyes in the glow of the torch, the flame being reflected in her spectacles. “I’ll be alright, can we just get going, I’d rather be down there than up here.” he gulped. “Ladies first, right?”
“Right.” She rolled her eyes and turned back around to the ladder and gripped the rough, wet metal ladder and climbed down the ladder, she reached the bottom and saw that Cassius was barely halfway down and shivering like a leaf.
When Cassius finally came down they saw the lit chamber and the plateau in the middle, covered in what he could only hope was mud. A wide set of gates stood opposite of them, wooden but reinforced with steel and all crevices filled in with tar. They tried approaching the gate but heard the chittering again. It was deafening. Then a swarm of rats climbed out of the grated holes in the wall. It charged at them, Cassius swung the torch trying to keep the small swarm at bay before he could drag out his sword a few tried to scuttle closer to him. He stomped around trying to crush as many rats as he could, only managing a few before he jostled the sword free from its scabbard and Zoe had stepped in to help stomping and cutting with the dagger he had given her, he swung wildly as did she, attempting to hit as many rats as possible.
“Ah, get off me, ew.” Zoe flailed about her body trying to get to a rat that managed to get through, “Ow, ow, don’t you da– ow.” She managed to get the rat that was biting through her robes.
Having a rising pile of dead rats around them, the rats withdrew. They turned around and ran back into the holes in the walls. Waved his sword after them in a taunting gesture. “Yeah! That's right, and don’t come b–” The large door swung open with a loud clang and creak reverberating throughout the room. In the doorway stood a familiar figure, surrounded by four giant rats, although no smaller ones. They recognised the figure as the old man that they ran into earlier. Burick stepped out into the muck on the ground looking concerned at the dead rats surrounding the two.
“Oh no… Children, what have you done to my young? I told you to leave, I even warned you not to delve deeper– yet I find you here, at the doorstep of my sanctum. You come here, you come and slaughter my young!” his face deformed into rage, his wide smile now a frown. a tinge of uncertainty struck the two when they looked at Burick.
“We didn–” Zoe stammered.
“‘We didn’t’ what? Think? Care? Know?” He glared at her spitting out the words. She took a step back hiding behind Cassius.
“These… things are yours?”
“Things!? They’re not things! They’re my young, my children! Their blood is on your hands, you will pay with yours.” Burick growled at them.
“Back off, they're just rats! Burick, be sensible.” Cassius tried to deescalate the situation. Burick just glared at them, then he clapped his hands together and the four giant rats deformed, their bones audibly cracked, their tendons snapped and skin bulged in areas Cassius thought unnatural. Their fur slowly receded in many areas, and four fully grown men, with patchy fur and wild looks in their eyes stared at them snarling. They extended their hands and fingers. Cassius could see sharp black claws protruding from the fingertips of the men. Their faces were sharp like rats and their facial hair was similar to a rat's whiskers, their mouths had an overbite and buck teeth. They stood beside Burick only a crudely sewn loincloth made out of ratskin, some of the heads even remained on the skins, like small ornaments on the disturbing clothing choice.
“They’re not JUST rats, my dear boy. To us they’re more than that. To us they’re our children and our sustenance. You sundwellers just trot on in and kill our kin, no remorse, no mercy. Why should we show you any in turn?” Burick said erratically gesturing at the half-naked ratmen and the surroundings before pointing at Zoe and Cassius. “I say… Kill them.”
The ratmen sprung into action, two charging up the front as the other two ran around on either side. Effectively surrounding them and putting their backs to a wall.
Cassius readied his sword and Zoe raised her dagger. The ratmen charged at the two. An arrow struck one of the ratmen from the shadows, the other ratmen stopped and hesitated for a second before another arrow struck another ratman and a deep roar emerged from a shadow and a giant silhouette following it. The silhouette charged in at one of the flanking ratmen and lunged at it with a gleaming war axe. The ratman dodged the first blow from the axe and was ready to counter, but before that a large hand grabbed a hold of its face. Cass could hear faint cracking before a loud crack and the head was crushed in the giant's hand. Burick and the last ratman having assessed the giant as the bigger threat threw themselves on him, Buricks hands glowing with a faint purple light surrounded by a black miasma and pointed it towards the giant who is fending off the other berserk ratman. Three orbs of a similar purple light and miasma shot towards the giant, a faint smell of ozone pushing through the putrid stench of the sewers. Cassius and Zoe yelled out to the giant trying to warn him. The giant looked up from the ratman and as soon as he spotted the orbs he threw himself to the side, when the orbs landed a loud boom and a bright purple flash blinded them and threw them to the ground at the other end of the room.
When Cassius regained consciousness his ears were ringing, his eyes were blurry and spotty. He shook his head and tried to look around, seeing blurry outlines of people. One large person lifting another smaller person. The bigger one let go of the smaller one and it fell limp to the ground. A heavily muffled voice spoke into the darkness. Cassius lost consciousness again.