Much earlier.

Smorgengrog's city council always prided itself on it's industrial civil engineering, the place even had such luxuries as indoor plumbing, if one could afford it that is. Where it all goes, no one quite knows, but at least it keeps the city clean... Still, it was an impressive feat of brickwork, and quite a bit of magic to boot. Despite all of the magic and the mathematics that went into it, the sewers were seldom ventured into as they became known as a place fraught with all manner of dangers. The upper levels of the sewers near the surface were where the wretched poor and home to many of the dregs of society made their homes, while the lower portions of it were outright filled with monsters and the occasional conspiracy here and there. Many an adventurer would wander down to the lower sewers seeking gold, treasure; perhaps even experience what it was like to adventure before tackling on dragons and rescuing maidens and whatever it was that adventurers do. Too often though would these proto-knights and mage apprentices wander down into the depths to never be seen from again with our rat friends probably having something to do with it...

The sound of rushing water reverberated through the dimly lit tunnel, the clear smell of decomposing waste wafting up from the babbling river of excrement and filth. There was a channel of sewage running at an impressive pace between two outcroppings of stone. Along the inward sloping walls were torches that provided a warm glow of light that lit the pathways.

"These disgusting surface top dwellers keep dumping these their slimy stick trash garbage into the sewers!" Said Skringret as he was dragging along a burlap sack filled with some sort of ooze along the ground. The bag left a clear trail of slime as he walked forward. A faint unholy glow emanated from the trail.

"Sqeak! I'll give you five coin metal to go have a taste lick!" Sjvenk said, poking fun of his colleague.

"No no! It stink smells garbage, why does master want us to find these things!?" Skringret complained as they were walking down the tunnel, his whiskers wriggling through the air as his nose was being assaulted by the stench.

While the sewers were a stinky tidepool of nastiness, this collection of slime and festering liquid was clearly something else. Both the ratmen continued on, poking fun of the foaming stinking non-Newtonian fluid in the sack as they dragged it along, daring one another to eat it. It went on like this for a while when the sound of voices down one of the corridors could be heard. Their acute ears could pick up that they were human voices. One of their party seemed to have been in distress though. Silently Skringret pulled out his dagger and Sjvenk readied his spear as they slowly approached, bag in tow.

The voices became louder as they slowly made their way towards the humans. It sounded like they were arguing about something, treasure or what-not. As the ratmen made their way through the corridors, rounding a corner, a soft blue light could be seen flickering ahead. There were three humans, two who's backs were turned, clearly attending to their colleague who looks to have been half devoured by a mimic, still halfway stuck in the box of what was supposed to be treasure. The humans were all wearing tunics, solid blue with fringes of bronze. Some sort of a crest, and a hodgepodge patchwork armor. One of the humans had a staff, and the other two had short swords, though one of the was laying on the ground. A soft blue flame emanated from the staff. Clearly two sword men and a mage of some kind.

"Get me out!" Said the poor man being eaten, "I can't feel my legs!"

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"Careful! the blasted box could be playing dead!" Said the mage, as he weaved his staff over the mimic, the fwooshing of the blue flame trailing the path of the staff. "I've seen't it with my own eyes before" He said.

"You did not you lying piece of dragon shit! How'd you talk us into going down here I'll never know" Said the swordsman disapprovingly.

"I seriously can't feel my legs, it hurts, get me out!" Said the man who's legs were currently engulfed by a motionless box.

"Well if it hurts, that means you can feel them, ya donce!" Said the mage.

"Listen, what if I just..." The swordsman said as he pushed his sword slowly in-between the mouth of the mimic as a tool to try to pry the box open.

Suddenly the unmistakable crunching sound of the breaking of bone exploded through the sewers as the box closed even tighter. This was followed by the howl of the man, tears running down his face. "I don't wana die! It hurts!" He sniffled as mucus ran down his nose, he pleaded for his compatriots to help him.

"Oh shit oh shit!" Said the mage, clearly in a panic.

As the ratmen silently snuck up behind the two preoccupied men, the disheveled man stuck in the box caught glimpse of them and in a sheer terror with eyes wide and face white as a sheet screamed out. "Aaaahhh".

"Quit screa..." said the swordsman just as he found his feet fall from under him, knocking him down.

Sjvenk had swiftly kicked the man's feet out from under him with his spear in one very awesome maneuver. At the same time, the mage found himself also prone on the floor but with the full weight of Skringret on him as he began stabbing and stabbing and stabbing and stabbing. It all happened so violently and so quickly that they didn't get any chance to react. The blue light dimmed out as Skringret continuously stabbed at the mage's back and neck in an intense flurry of knife strikes. The blood quickly dribbled out from the mage's mouth as he lay there in shock, blood pooled out from under him as his wounds seeped with blood, the dagger strikes making quick work of the mage. The only illumination left was from the bag of ooze.

Meanwhile, Sjvenk was having a bit more of a difficult time with his prey. They swordsman did indeed have some armor on which had prevented the spear from making it through, in fact the spear had completely broken in two, and now the ratman and the human were wrestling for leverage as they both fought for their lives.

"Die Die!" Yelled Sjvenk as he clawed at the man's face.

With the element of surprise now gone, the swordsman managed to get a solid punch in across Svjenk's face which sent him reeling, but with the mage thoroughly dispatched, Skringret was now able to join in on the fight. He jumped on the swordsman, but only to be thrown off as the human elbowed him off with his forearm. The swordsman rushed to grab the sword on the ground, while the ratmen tried to get their bearings. Svjenk, still reeling from the punch slowly got up, his head was spinning, and a sharp pain shot throughout his sensitive snout. He hissed at the human before being violently rammed through with the sword, clean through his torso killing the ratman outright. Skringret, in a move of brilliance took the sack of ooze while the swordsman was distracted with Svjenk and quickly doused the human in the nasty liquid. The human began to scream as the ooze ate away at his skin, getting in between the gaps in his armor. So immediate was the effect that even Skringret was surprised. The man's body rapidly began to decompose as the slime did its work eating not only the skin but through bone, tissue, sinew. The man's eyes quite literally melted out of his head as his flesh began to become incorporated into the ooze. It was gruesome sight for sure. It wasn't long before all that was left was bone and the glow of the putrefied gelatinized ooze, now with a bit more mass from the human.

Skringret let out an exhale as he took in the scene before him. Svjenk was dead, the short sword had practically impaled him nearly cutting him in half. The mage had bleed out, the blood from the many stabs soaking through his tunic. The swordsman was thoroughly and unequivocally decomposed, and that only left the other swordsman who was quietly sobbing stuck in the mimic box.

"Please, I don't want to die," The man said shakily in a hushed tone of voice. Svjenk simply glared at the human for breaking the silence...