When no apparent threat appeared, Einor eased his armored form through the doorway and squinted down the narrow hall, picking out two more doors at its terminus. He was a bit surprised by the lengthy extent of the cellar's layout. I guess this won't be a simple in-and-out after all, he mused. No wonder Rogthrin didn't handle this himself. The sudden mental image of the overweight dockmaster attempting the physical exertion necessary for this task made Einor chuckle. Quickly resuming his former silence, the dark-haired ranger passed by Tazennin and approached the labeled door to the south. Pushing it open, he peered inside half-expecting to see rows of weathered barrels filling the room.
As Einor pushes open the door to the Drink Storage he is pleased to see he is right. The room is filled on all sides with large wooden barrels holding the towns supply of ale and wine. You can now recognize the old wood smell from earlier as coming from these types of barrels. The room is empty, here also the dust has settled and you see no obvious signs of life.
It is not until Einor opens the far door that any signs of this infestation are seen. The room you open into is a large well lit room. A staircase goes deeper into the cellars at the south wall. Two doors flank the wall opposite from you and signs label them as "Food Storage". The rightmost of these doors seems to be under attack, a large rat is raking the door with his claws continuously trying to get in. The rat itself is a disgusting sight, almost three feet tall with large claws and fangs it is obviously a dire rat, but apparently there can be hard times for rats too. The rats ribcage shows through its dirt covered fur and its mouth is covered in spittle from hunger. As the door opens, it turns to you with maddened eyes, and seeing a possible respite from its hunger, leaps towards the party.
So, order of Initiative
1. Rat
2. Tazennin
3. Askar
4. Oberst
5. Helod
6. Einor
7. Tommar
Of course if you succeed at the sense motive check, you get to act before the rat.
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I positioned myself second, so if Einor succeeds in his Sense Motive check, I'll delay my turn until after his, then, if it yet lives, move in and fire.
If the rat lives and attacks, five-foot step if necessary and fire another shot:
Due to the expectation that the rat will die after one round of the ambush (Flat-footing a dire rat generally means killing it), Askar sort of chuckles to himself. "I doubt these are the only ones in the food storage - these are pack creatures. As are we . . ." Stepping further into the room so everyone can look about, Askar will point to himself, Helod, and Tommar and then to the closest door (W4), indicating that they'll take that door, and then to Einor, Tazennin, and Oberst, pointing to the door at (W8).
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Due to their previous knowledge of the vermin infesting the storage, Taz isn't surprised to see the giant rat. He moves up to S4 and fires his nocked arrow.
If Askar already took the rat down with his own shot, Taz will follow his lead and position himself at T8 arrow nocked and peering in the direction of the door at W8.
EDIT: Forgot to add my +1 for PBS, making my attack a 19.
The party kicks open the door and a hail of arrows meets the rat, turning it into a living pincushion. It kicks and whines a little feebly before dying in a pile of its own spit and blood. You quickly move to flank the two opposite doors, but nothing seems to be emerging.
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Taz nods in Oberst's direction.
"Yeth, letth. I think we are all eager to be done with this tathk tho we can move on to more important matterth. If only I could manage to be a bit more thtealthy, onth we find the netht, I could thneak into range and throw a bomb on it and be done with it." Imperceptible to the rest of the group, once Taz mentions the idea of using one of his bombs, there is a bright glimmer in his eye.
As the group opens the doors that the rat was scratching at they are greeted by a room filled with food storage. It seems that the infestation has not quite reached the upper levels and barrels of pickled herring and salted meat greet you in the room. No signs of life are in this room either so that not all of the towns storage has been destroyed.
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Askar makes a quick scan of the food storage, then follows along with Oberst's movements and pulls out his ear horn to listen to the southernmost door at U16.
If he hears nothing at this point, Askar will more thoroughly consider Tom's desire to use his gun. It could compound well with all of the unopened doors, after all, and help them clean this up faster. "Come to think of it - Tom, next rat we see, shoot. I would like to draw the rats to a big, open room like this, especially where we can hold down all the doors they may come through." He indicates U16, R14, and Q4.
"Hear anything, Oberst? If we can find where they're coming from, it would make this extermination a great deal faster." Askar tosses Oberst his ear horn to help him out.
Helod silently followed, and nodded to Askar, as he took a position in front of the door at V4, and waited for anything to come along, and continually stayed alert for any possible enemies. Throughout the silence he thought back to the days where he had to stay quiet for days upon days, and the fasts he did without food or contact, back when he was just a lad at the chapel.
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Taz agrees with Askar's suggestion. "I applaud that idea ath well. If we can create a bottleneck by attracting the ratth with your gun fire, then my bombth thould do the retht."
Taz moves up to U14 so he can get a bead on both doors. He still has his bow nocked, but is prepared to drop it at any moment so he can quickly whip up a bomb if the situation presents itself.
Oberst quietly moves up to the door and with the use of Askar's ear horn listens intently at the door. He doesn't hear much but a faint patter of something rather far away in the distance, it sounds almost like rain upon a stone street, or the patter of smaller feet.
That would be Askar, by a longshot.
Unless of course Oberst really does have a 23 flatfoot
The room Tommar opens the door to is large and packed with materials. Large beams and piles of wood lie in organized stacks across the floor. They rise about 6 feet into the air, making miniature corridors in the room. It is however hard to pick out anything very far away. For the first time in the cellars there are no lights in this room, it seems as though whover has been tasked with keeping the lanterns lit hasn't made it this far. All of this was picked out from the lantern hanging in the room behind you. As for rats, the room seems empty and silent, although in the distance you can still hear a faint pattering.
Stepping forward, armour and equipment clinking softly in time with his uneven gait, Severn moves into the room. "Thanks for the lights Oberst, now I can get in there. I'll find the vermin. Wait for me here." Greatsword levelled at the ready, he proceeds down the crowded aisle before him.
The light from Oberst illuminates the room a little better, shining light on the piles of wood and the room. You can now tell with more distinctness that this wood is used in ship construction, you notice mast beams and the beginnings of longboat walls being made. This light also illuminates the distinctive signs of life to Tommar, small droppings cover the floor and tooth marks are notched into the wood. Tommar however doesn't see any of the rats he suspects must have been here. However as Severn walks forward there is a loud pitched squeal from inside one of the piles of wood. This is followed by another squeal from the next pile of wood, and then another, and another. Dire Rats leap out of the piles and upon Severn, mangy and starved from lack of food, they have gone mad at the prospect of something to fill their belly.
Initiative
So that would be Severn, Tazennin, Rats, Tommar, Oberst, Askar, and Whurly.
As the rats are inside the piles of wood right now, they cannot attack you until they get down to the floor. You can attack them, but will be at a -4 to hit. If you are small, an acrobatics check will allow you to get in the wood pile too, and a climb check could get you to climb the piles if you would like (although you still would take a -4 to hit).
When the giant rats reveal themselves, Severn reverses course. He stops in the doorway he left just a moment earlier, slashing at one of the critters as it emerges from its hiding spot.
"That was quick!" he exclaims to Long Tom.
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Encumbered by all the armor and the equipment, trying to fit through all the piles of wood in the room, Whurly is very slow to react. Once he finally notices what us happening inside the room, he moves past his comrades, having faith that his armour will offer him ample protection against the critters in the room.