PERCEPTION ROLLS vs 15:
As L3VII approaches the upturned train car he can hear raspy voice muttering somthing. Anyone who can understand old common can make out the some of what the voice is saying. ,
"four... south... two Humans... demon..."
The tone is low but clearly very rushed and panicy, The train car has enough rusty holes in it, so that L3VII can find a hole to peek through, There L3VII with his darkvision can see a single rat with some sort of device in his hand, muttering into it, He pauses for a second, then you hear a crackly voice answer back in the same language.
"...Sending many... don't kill humans"
Is all you can make out from the crackly voice.
Mia surrounds herself with arcane force and pushes the door open.
"You there! No sudden movements!" she shouts at the hooded figure while pointing her staff at it. "I would prefer not to blast you to smithereens!"
The door bashes open, sending the furred creature jumping to his feet, you also hear a dozen raspy screeches, as a cage to you're left. crammed full of pale furless rat men starts screeching at you, pushing against the bars of their cage.
"Don't, no! I'm Not enemy, not enemy. I won't attack"[/"
says the rat man speaks broken common making his speech seem odd. He stands there holding a hand up open, his other one clutching a bit of charcoal.
Mia looks at the caged creatures with a mix of pity, suspicion and disgust.
"Who are you? What are you doing to these creatures?" she asks without lowering her staff.
"They scabies, They eat too many rats and go crazy, I keep them to do tests, look I show I show."
The Ratman becons you to follow, as he shimmies away from you over to a door.
"You first... And don't get too close." Mia says. pointing at the door with her chin and keeping her staff directly pointed at the rat-man.
He leads you into the next room, The room is crammed full of old machines, medical equipment, and plastic boxes, so cluttered that the stacks of boxes reach the roof in some places and the room to walk is limited to tight trails more fit for the small ratman.
He leads you over to an area in the corner of the room that has been cleared out into a work area, In this area there is a table with assorted chemistry equipment as well as several beakers and vials filled with black and red fluids, A Metal washtub full of an oily black fluid, A Box with buttons on it and wires running out of it up the wall, And an operating table with one of the "scabies" on it, clearly dead as his chest has been cup wide open.
"They stupid and only eat, They have poisons that make the other scabies go crazy, Animals. So see, No people, I not hurt people, Promise. Sooo, Why you here?"
"Because it is raining death outside." Mia says. "What are you trying to find out here?"
The ratman sighs a little
"How to explain...Ah ok."
He shimmies over to you and points at your ears.
"Ok look, Me and you are same, Not like same same but same, In the before all people Human no rats no cats just human, but some change self become Elf and Cat people others become others. Some become rat but not in right way."
He stumbles for a bit, struggling with the language barriar, Then he turns around to grab a black vial.
"This holy oil, Not really holy but it called that, There a lot under temple, It's what make rat, I take rat, and make rat human again, that plan. I sick, all rats sick we change wrong. Understand? Today is lucky day, big changes in tunnel today, You help? I can reward"
Your knowledge rolls means you know relevant information.
Your elysian upbringing means your knowledge is more grounded.
You know that many years in the beforetimes there where only humans but once they learned how to genetically alter themselves it became common practice. The Term used is Metamorph mainly to differentiate them from Mutants, people who changed due to exposer to genetic altering material or radiation. Mutants are typically plagued with health issues, deformities, and small life spans. Sounds like he's saying that they are Mutants and he wants to undo the mutation somehow. This all checks out from what you know.
As for his sanity, his weird speech seem to be the result of the language barrier, this whole time his speaking has been broken up with wild hand motions and rat like squeals. For all you know he could sound like an affluent genius in his tongue. You find it hard to tell what behavior is the result of his potential lack of sanity, and what is just normal for a mutant rat person. Nothing he says sounds overly insane though.
"If all rats are wrong, then what is wrong with you?" says Mia without lowering her staff. "And could you not first try to fix their brains, rather than vivisecting them and effectively genociding a whole race? If you do this, who is to say others will not attempt the same on other races?"
He sort of looks confused about your question.
"What? you not understand."
he starts to speak slowly, like how some people do when dealing with people with people who speak anotherl language.
"I... Fix... Rats... No Kill... I... make.... rats.... back.... to human..."
he points at the decrepid pale rat on the table
"This not rat... Well is rat but not same..."
He goes on a long confusing rant about the difference between rats, rats, and rats.
There are Scabies, pale blind basically feral ratmen who attack anything that's not a "normal" ratman or a Scabies, unless they are extra starving.
There are "normal" ratmen like him, who have not gone feral, despite his somewhat deranged appearance they can be reasoned with and are intelligent.
And to make things even more confusing there is a third rat, he calls them Oily rats and brings you a dead one to show, They look like regular rats about the size of a small dog. Apparently eating these is what drives the scabies insane.
You get the impression from how he talks about them that there are a lot of Scabies, more then regular rats.
And your understanding of the situation as he puts it, He's trying to reverse the mutation that made them ratmen, He tests on captured Scabies, He considers them too far gone to be considered more then animals anymore.
L3VII crashes into the room.
"Stop Rat! Call them off or else!"
"You may not be trying to kill them, but if you turn all of them into humans, you still effectively killed their race."
You bursts through a door, realizing that the inside of the train car is bigger then it first seemed, they Rats having dug a large alcove into the wall.
The rat spins around. Throwing the speaker aside.
"Aaa, Too late, can no undo"
The ratman looks at you and your companions who clearly out number and out muscle the malnourished rat.
"I sorry, no can... No kill, I help I help if no kill!"
He says panicked.
He sighs again.
"You just no understand, we all sick we... Gah! stupid to argue, Look no mind that, You want reward? or you want help other surface people? Other people in tunnels about to be hurt bad."
He walks over to the box stuck to the wall and turns a knob on it. It starts to make a static noise but it quickly clears up into multiple voices talking over each other. It's a little hard to make out because of that, but you do hear common phrases shared between all of them: "Humans, Four surfacers, Capture bring to temple." seems to be the common theme.
"All Clans know now, listen, they hunt for humans and others, they sacrafice humans and trade rest to Txzu Clan for to make slaves, You want this? I no want, more sacrafice means more Scabies. we can save and I show how!"
He seems done with debating with you about where the line between mutant deformidies and a new species lies.
Zacharia sees L3VII rush forward and then yell, so he does so too.
"What's going on? More hostile rat creatures?"
The rat man wheezes a bit.
"Yeah yeah yeah, Lots of ratmen, Endless ratmen, All five clans come to get you, then they will give your humans to Temple for sacrifice, and the rest they give to Txzu... Well no, Not if I help, I know place they will never find you!"
20+ : You doubt he actually cares about your safety in the slightest, More like he's just saving his skin long enough for his kin to find you.
"I will help you... But you better pray that I do not ever find out that you or anyone else is using any version of this creation of yours on another race." Mia says with a threatening tone. "I am holding you personally responsible."
"Good, no more talk about that, Look let me show you map”
He goes to a shelf and pulls out a dusty old broshure, spreading it out and taking a pen, drawing on the map.
”There 2 ways to get here, one go right through Temple, the other go through Bright and King tunnels, Both dangerous but Temple more, Hundreds of Scabies there no go ever...”
He starts circling things on the map and marking territories, drawing a big line down the tunnels he intended you to go, and writing in where there are blockages in the subway tunnels. His Common writing is good.
“It’s straight here, Warn them of temple, Quickest way to here goes there.”
Finally he circles a spot near his location but slighty off the map.
”Now this, this is big old place, It’s reward, It full of old technology and books but machines there attack all people exsept humans, Machine told me. With that I can finally get books I need, you and others can take all else, many stuff valuable to surfacers I think.”
He looks at you and holds out the changed map. It feels like he’s given you more information then was nessisary, But better too much then too little, Right?
”Questions?”
"Machine?! What mach..." Mia shakes her head slightly. "Nevermind. Just lend me a torch or whatever else you have to help em get there and I will be on my way."
The Rat smiles.
"I got more then tourch, Come come let show."
The Rat leads you out a metal door into what looks like a big depot of some sort, the only thing of note in the room a elaborte Handcar on a set of tracks, the Handcar has been altered a bit, metal used to add a plow like metal cone on the front and back.
"Heh, This is my mover."
He said clearly proud of it.
"It let you move real fast, I show how use."
He goes over quick instructions on how to use the Handcar. It had a left right leaver for turns, a back forword leaver for what direction it will go, And how you move and brake it.
"You need go fast, so just crank like crazy, it loud so others will hear from long away and get out of way thinking it me, you not stop still you find humans and others else other rats may attack you."
He walks up to a fast sized hole in a metal garage door oppisite of the entrance and looks around.
"I see no scabies, you should go now!"
He takes a sack off a table and places it on the handcar, and starts to pull on a metal chain, the metal garage door creaking as it lifts off the ground and opens up to the dark tunnel.
"Remember way to go, and good luck"
He says, letting you off.
In the bag he gave you are:
-2 torches
-Some purple mushrooms that he claims are perfectly edible at least 3 meals worth.
-And a jug filled with a dark brown oil, he claims the oil is extracted from scabies it makes you smell like them and will help you hide, He advises you use it if any of them manage to infect you.
Mia sighs and rolls her eyes at the prospect of making heavy physical labor.
"Ugh... Could you not have spent less time on vivisections and instead focused on building a self-propelling cart?"
She steps on the handcart and begrudgingly starts cranking its lever, aided by her Ghost Servant.
"Stupid tunnels..." she murmurs to herself as the cart starts to move.
You and your servant pump away at the cart, It's metal wheels make a hell of a lot of noise as it scrapes down the old tracks, a loud cringe inducing screeching noise, sending up the occasional shower of sparks. Despite the obvious friction though the cart starts picking up speed. easily reaching 20mph. Once you hit that speed you hardly need to touch the pump to maintain it, especially with the help of your spectral assistant.
After 20 minuets you see lights ahead, there torches and braziers lining the track, surrounding several charred bodies lashed to the tunnel wall, the crucified burned husks of ratmen. You cross this type of feature multiple times. At one point passing by a dozen or so ratment who move aside to let you pass, only to let out curses when it's made obvious to them you're not one of them. Though you easily out move them on the cart.
You come to the first turn, The braziers and crucifixions stop at this point, you make it down the long tunnel and pull the lever prepared to turn left. You reach the turn, You can hear the faint sound of voices screaming down the right tunnel
You go down the left tunnel, and just becomes dark, there are no sounds and lights besides your torch, You can make out drawings on the walls in the flickering light of your torch, Amateurish mosaics depicting men and rats and ratmen in various scenes of battle with and against each other. Detailing some story you don't have the time to work out.
You've been riding for nearly an hour, You're in the location that you where told they might be, assuming they didn't out pace you or go down another tunnel.
"If you don't lead us somewhere safe, then you'll just be another dead rat in these tunnels." L3VII brandishes his blade aggressively.
Mia arrives the set location and takes a quick look around for signs of trouble or movement , then she sighs and proceeds to use the Prestidigitation spell to clean her fur of as much sweat and dust as she can.
"Stupid tunnels..." she grumbles under the flickering light of her torch.
The Rat man cowers a little.
"Yes yes I show you way to safety, come come!"
The rat directs you outside and then down the tunnel Ken had directed you to go down.
"It's this way. safe place yes very safe."
What does the main party do?
L3VII binds the ratman's hands behind his back and makes him lead on.
"Any tricks and you're a dead rat."
The Ratman is pretty reluctant to get tied up but seeing how he has no choice he accepts it and leads you along the tunnel, walking ahead of you for a little bit, occasionally you hear a distant shrill noise that sounds as if someone is scraping metal against metal.
Perception Rolls: DC
At one point while leading you, Zacharia notices the rat walking strangely, He's clearly trying to not call attention to his steps but you can tell he's taking larger steps over specific spots as to avoid stepping in that spot, when you look at the spots he's walking over you can see indentions the dirt as if the ground has been disturbed in some way. Traps!
Iniative Rolls
Everyone has one turn to react before something happens.
Mia Auset As you're cruising along down the tunnel, you can make out distant torchlight, At the speed your going you'll be on whatever it is very quickly.
Mia sighs and keeps cranking the handcart's lever.
"Everyone watch your step! The rat is trying to lead us into a trap! That's...ironic, I think?"
The Rat knows he's been caught, and he tenses up, prepared to make a mad dash. He does not have the time to move before L3VII gets a chance to act, but you can tell he's about to run for it.
L3VII pulls hard on the rope to catch the rat in his own trap.
So the rat first tries to pull away, using his strength to tug the rope as hard as he might.
The rat is unable to resist L3VII's tugging is pulled back. His foot falls back into the indention on the ground, His foot collapsing into the ground up to his knee. Panicked he struggles and tries to pull himself out
But he fails and wails in pain as something clearly hurts him. In response to his wails of pain several rat folk appear across the field of traps two seeming to just pop out from the ground wielding crossbow, Clearly they had been waiting for an ambush.
Initiative Order:
-Trapped Rat
-The Party
-Crossbow Rats 2
-Crossbow Rats 1
The Trapped rat can't attack because his hands are bound, He just keeps trying to pull out of the trap.
Party's Turn
There are 4 ratfolk about 60 feet in front of the party in a line taking aim with their crossbows, there is also 1 stuck in a Punji trap directly in front of L3vii. In front of you there is a field of Punji traps buried in the Dirt, There is no rhyme or reason to their placement and even though you know they are there you can't be sure that you've spotted them all.
You can also hear some odd screeching noise that sounds like metal rubbing against metal from further down the tunnel, And see a torch light that appears to be rocketing towards you at a very fast pace.
Mia Auset: You'll be approximately 1 round before you enter the battle, You actually can't see the Party ahead of you in the darkness but you can hear the wailing of the ratman.
A field of randomly placed traps designed to trap people who walk through it and hold them in place. It stretches 50 ft in front of you down the length of the cavern.
-You could spend the time looking over the section of cavern to spot each trap but that would take a couple minuets of spotting.
-You could carefully walk across the field to avoid stepping on any traps, This requires you to move at half speed.
-If you move across the field at full speed there is a 50% of falling into one of the traps, If you run or charge this increases to 75%
-If you attack while on the field there is a 25% chance you fall into a trap.
Slide 3 is Current combat.
L3VII carefully makes his way through the traps.
Zacharia uses his swift vampire reflexes to carefully, but quickly move through the trapped field.
The rats draw up their light crossbows and let fire. Two of them targeting L3VII the other two targeting Zacharia.
After the rats take their shot they all reload ready to shoot again.
L3VII see's that the ground in front of the Crossbow rats is covered by a a pair of metal sheets that have been covered in dirt to disguise them.
The trapped rat tries to wiggle himself out of the Punji Trap again.
The Rat slumps over, bleeding out.
You hear the screech of metal against metal as the torch from town the tunnel comes rocketing toward you guys. Assuming Mia Ausset actually stops with the help of her unseen servant it's easy enough to bring the cart to a stop before it risks barreling into anyone.
Zacharia stalks forward, whipping his blade out to cleave two rats.
"Tidal Blade!"
"Look out Zacharia, there are strange metal plates the rats have in front of them!"
L3VII continues his slow advance, finally reaching the rats.
Finally... Mia thinks to herself with some relief.
The quicker she can get rid of these disgusting creatures, the quicker she can find relics... And the quicker she can find a relic, the quicker she can leave this filthy place and be back in her pristine room at the university, drinking coconut water and eating filet mignon.
As the handcart approaches the battle, she aims with her staff and fires a lightning bolt at the nearest standing "scaby".
Even avoiding the plates they still stir, When Zach moves in-between them they start to stir, The metal plate lifting up slightly, Just enough for two spears to thrust out POWERFULLY at Zach..
The plate then drops back down, You get enough time to see into one of the holes before the plate covers it back up, and you see two rat men, One simply holding the plate while the other holds the spear.
-------------------------------------------------
Zack's weapon slashes through both rats and they drop instantly wheezing and bleeding on the ground, still alive but dying.
The Tunnel rats pop their heads back up again, Since they have Zack flanked they decide to thrust at him again and since they lack the element of surprise now they decide to go for the less POWERFULL but more precise attack
The two crossbow rats despite seeing their comrads cut down instantly, Resist their cowardly nature and don't run, rather they drop their crossbows and each draw crude axes made from twisted metal, both of them sticking close to the plates where their other comrads lie, Both taking a defensive stance.
Mia Auset From what Blacktail told you The rats you see here would be just the ratpeople, The scabies are the bald feral blind ones who act more like animals then people, These ones are far less decrepit and at least smart enough to set up ambushes and use weapons.
"Nice work Zacharia! Keep it up! I've got your back!" L3VII shouts as he hacks into the rat closest to him.
Mia Auset From what Blacktail told you The rats you see here would be just the ratpeople, The scabies are the bald feral blind ones who act more like animals then people, These ones are far less decrepit and at least smart enough to set up ambushes and use weapons.