Balmir glances at Othdan to make sure he's out of harm's way then steps towards the mouse that is still corporeal. He swings his waraxe at the small creature.
Tam rolls his eyes and simply avoids contact with the enemy.
Mouser withdraws, and the blue rat also becomes insubstantial, and moves into Balmir's space.
The red rat bites Somer, apparently completely ignoring his armor in his current state.
"Milani give me your blessing to destroy these foul rats." Derrik raises his morning start and a pulse of red-white energy radiates out of the Morning Star.
Losing a fight to a rat? So much for being dignified.
Somer concentrates for a moment and enchants his blade in an attempt to counter suddenly feeling weaker.
"We are losing a fight to some rats, any ideas?"
Balmir reacts when the ghostly rat moves so close to him. "Get out of here!" He kicks at the incorporeal menace and then swings his axe.
Both rats resist the full force of Derrik's channel, but the red rat succumbs anyway.
Mouser, surprising even himself, manages to finish off the other.
Mouser seems to have uncovered the remains of a half-orc, partially obscured amid the loose rocks and dirt of the aborted tunnel.
The macabre corpse still wears a suit of sturdy chainmail, and his pockets hold a wand, a fine silver dagger, a red gold unholy symbol, and six black onyx gems.
"Great work folks, Mouser it appears you still have some fight in you dosn't it." said with a smile Never would expect that from a rat."
Somer tugs out the half-orc to examine him(?) and casts detect magic and the rest of the items as he looks at the wand.
It is a wand of cure light wounds with 8 charges remaining, and nothing else radiates magic. But it all looks valuable enough to take with you and sell if you don't need it.
Somer hands the want to Derrik.
'Partial Cure Light Wounds it seems. Derrik, I assume you can use this?"
Let's take leave the body and take the stuff back into the town." Balmir stops to think for a second. "But why another half-orc. I wonder if he was connected to Brinya at all. Maybe that's why Rodrik was down here."
"I can and will use it now yes, who is in need of healing?"
If no one Derrik will put the wand away in his belt pouch for quick access.
"If we head back into Trunau now then I won't need any healing. I think I can sleep off my injuries. Except I am feeling weaker than normal. I might need help with that."
"Agreed Balmir, I am not really injured just sapped of strength."
Addressing the boy
"Could this be the person who held you captive? Maybe we sould bring him/her back to town to be identified if possible."
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Mouser feebly stands up and looks at the others.
"I am usually way luckier than that...it's almost like my luck has reversed and I'm unlucky. This place is cursed! We need to get back to town and rest. I can't investigate any more leads until I take a little time to get this spider poison out of my veins. Can we go back now?"
"If that is the consensus then yes, I will do my best to assist with clearing up the poison."
Othdan says "Nah, this ain't him. "
Still addressing the boy: "Well that is to bad, would have made things easier. Lets get you home."
"Once we return to town, I will be able to help you with riding yourself of that poison Balmir and Mouser. Well I hope I will be able too."
So you return to town and find the kid's family, who is grateful for his return... although it seems he had only been missing one night, and they thought he was just at a friends house.
"So, um, I think we should probably stick together, given what's been going on. What kind of lodging can we arrange that will keep us all in a relatively close space?"
"I agree about staying together. Somer, can we still stay with you?" Balmir looks to the magus hoping that it will work out.
"Oh yes, yes I had just assumed we would use my house.'
After a moment as they walk back. "I was thinking about some of what we have been thrust into as well. We think there is something bigger at work here so I suggest we stick together. Combined we are probably the most effective force currently in the town."
The night passes uneventfully, and you are all feeling much better in the morning. Derrik even discovers that Balmir is suffering from early stages of something called Bleeder's disease, and begins to help treat that as well.
Derrik will pray in the Garden in the morning for his spells. After his prayers he will approach Somer.
"I have a request if I may, would you allow me to plant some roses in your garden? They are sacred to my Lady and it helps me feel more in touch with her."
He will wait for a response then get some food and tend to his patients.
With a good nights rest Somer wakes up feeling fully restored and spends some time on his spell books.
"Some roses would be great, I admit, I have neglected that sort of thing."
Once everyone is up and moving around Somer will begin a conversation about what to do today.
"To my mind we have two goals this morning. First return the hope knife to Brinya and report on what we found, the collapsed tunnel that is."
after a pause
"We should probably sell what we are not going to use and equip ourselves as necessary, I think there is still something afoot that threatens the town."
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Mouser sleeps deeply, hardly moving at all. However, thanks to Derrik's excellent care, the halfling awakens looking much better. Though he is not fully recovered, he smiles wearily.
"Thanks," he manages. "You're pretty good at that," he says to Derrik.
Dressing and equipping himself for the day, he says "I agree with everything the elf said. I think we should first report about the tunnel...that sounds like something that could endanger the town. Maybe they can increase the watch. Then we could go sell some stuff, because gold is pretty important--well, just so we can have what we need to defeat evil and stuff. Then let's take the knife over to Brinya and figure out what it was doing there. Sound like a plan?"
Derrik makes a note of what they want to do.
"So Brinya and the hope knife
The Smith for selling the weapons and armor
The Watch Commander for increasing the guards?"
Derrik will check his gear and eat some food.
Balmir sleeps soundly and wakes feeling much better. After the party discusses the plan he nods his head in agreement and then heads to find some breakfast. Once a small part of Somer's larder is now in Balmir's stomach he saunters out to the garden. It appears to be empty at the moment so Balmir finds an open space of grass. He begins to silently step out the basic form of the Vein of Quartz dance. He has always found this to be an enjoyable traditional Dwarven dance. It is one of the first dances that kids learn. It is simple, but relaxing.
After several minutes he finishes performing the dance in silence. He gathers his equipment and heads back into the house to find the others.
Once Balmir comes back in from his morning routine Somer will attept to get the group moving.
"So it seems like the plan is to go let the town guard about the tunnel. Lets look for Kurst, I guess, for that."
Brinya sobs to hear the news that her love was killed as part of his investigation, and thanks you for helping to bring the matter to a close. She suggests you take the hopeknife to Kurst.
You find Kurst and give him what you have discovered. He is happy to finally know that his brother did not commit suicide (having seen the real hopeknife brought back), and then equally angry that a murderer is on the loose.
"So, do you think these people will return to the Plague house? Did you lay a trap fro them?"
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Mouser considers what they had found at the plague house. He seems to have a little more of his energy back.
"I don't think they're coming back to the plague house," he muses. "I think they were trying to dig a tunnel to get in. They either already got in and collapsed the tunnel behind them, or they couldn't get through when the tunnel collapsed and will look for another way."
The halfling paces back and forth a bit and fingers his new rapier strapped to his waist.
Having explored most of their leads, he says "I'm not sure what else to do...increase the guard, for sure."
"I concur with what Mouser has said, it appears they were trying to dig into Trunau, I am guessing those shadow rats got them like they almost got us. Brinya did you and Rodrik encounter any vermin while in the Plague house?"
Derrik will resort his healing supplies taking stock of his inventory.
"Nothing Rodrik didn't quickly scare off."
Tam seems quite chipper in the morning.
"I feel better about this expedition now that we have made it past so many little... vermin! And made progress! And had a good night's sleep!" he says cheerfully.
"I wonder if Katrezra has turned back up? I don't think we have a lot of leads at this point otherwise."
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Mouser considers their options...they didn't have many leads.
"Yeah, I think we only have a few options to explore. One, we could try to see if Katrezra has turned up. That should only take short time. Second, we could see which buildings are closest to the Plague House. If someone tunneled in, I would guess they would tunnel to a building close to the outer walls to keep their tunnel shorter. We could check all the buildings closest to the wall."
Scratching his head as he thinks, he says "And the last option is...we wait. Maybe more clues will reveal themselves."
"Excellent thoughts Mouser. Personally I like a proactive approach. Lets check the buildings at least. Should we as a member of the city guard to come with us or some such?"
"I would like to talk to the High Priestess as well about all this. Shall we head to see if Katrezra shows up first?"
Derrik will gather his gear to head out.