Porter grins malevolently.  ”They's afraid of us.  And hungry.  But more afraid.”


OOC:
Keep knife out and ready.  Follow behind Thorg.  Leave 1 hex of space so that Thorg can back up if he needs to.  When I reach my fallen sword sheath the knife and pick up the sword.

If it helps drag the dead and dying rats out of the way so that if a hasty retreat is needed we wont be tripping over bodies.

Aldous follows Porter down the steps, lantern held high.

"I wouldn't want smoke down here unless you could make it stay near the floor.  Thorg, you coming?  I can see more rats, or at least their eyes."

In reply to Aldous Hack (msg # 88):

Throg is in the lead, almost at the end of the creaky stairs, with Porter midway down picking up his blade, while Adolus is at the top of the stairs with the lantern.

The lantern light is -3 for Adolus, -4 for Porter, and Throg is at -5 and he needs to make a per check, (at -5) followed by a DX check.

Thorg is having an issue seeing down here and the people above him blocking the light don't help...




[Private to GM:   19:12, Today: Thorg rolled 15 using 3d6.  Perception.   Ummmm no ...
19:12, Today: Thorg rolled 10 using 3d6.  DX .    by 2 ]

In reply to Thorg (msg # 90):
The next stair was gone, and he just managed to keep from falling through!

Scheißdreck!  Watch it, a stair is missing here.

With his spear point already low, he uses it to tap each following stair to avoid falling, assuming there are additional stairs.

"Watch your step down there.  Take a fall and those rats will be on you before you can bounce."

Fisher takes his time, emboldened by the grace of his comrade who managed not to fall.  He makes note of the missing step but the consuming relative darkness is more concerning.  He turns his head half way and calls back.  ”Hey.  Can we get some more light down here?”


OOC:
Black is asking the bar folk if they can loan us more light.  When we get to the bottom I assume there is somewhere we can hang a lantern from the rafters, or a high place on a wall, or a shelf?  The more light the better.  Black isnt a fan of fighting in the dark.

"Here. Mind ye don't break it, or we'll have to charge ye for it."
Sven takes a lantern off a shelf behind the bar, and hands it to Aldous, since he is at the top of the stair.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 18:37, Tue 29 Oct 2019.

Kazimir nods his approval.
a fine smell begins wafting through the place, as onions and garlic are being sauteed.
"We'll see you later, for dinner. Good luck down there."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:09, Tue 29 Oct 2019.

Aldous quickly sheathes his knife to free a hand and takes the offered light.

"Thanks, Sven.  Here, Porter, take this."  Aldous sidles down far enough to hand over the second lantern, then, still holding his own light high, draws his large knife again.  "If you can spot a second peg, I wouldn't mind hanging mine up as well."

Once Porter is off the stairs, Aldous will finish the descent, feeling carefully for the missing tread.

[Private to GM: 17:48, Today: Aldous Hack rolled 8 using 3d6.  DX for missing stair tread.]

In reply to Aldous Hack (msg # 97):

The lower level of the tavern is huge-the ceiling is supported by beams about two feet thick and a foot wide, and is about four yards from the floor below.  The additional light reveals a seething carpet of rats of various sizes, lured by the scent of the food being cooked above, the swarm toward the steps, of which three more continue pastbthe broken stair.

Thorg stabs at the first one coming up.


[Private to GM: 19:13, Today: Thorg rolled 8 using 3d6.  Spear Thrust. By 8
 19:13, Today: Thorg rolled 5 impaling using 1d6+3.  Spear Thrust damage.  ]

"We may need something more than individual knives and spears."  Aldous takes a low swipe at the leading edge of the mass.

[Private to GM: 05:19, Today: Aldous Hack rolled 10 using 3d6.  Knife, roll to hit (13 -1 for SM).
05:20, Today: Aldous Hack rolled 5 using 1d6-1.  Damage (cutting).]

With his shield in hand Black does his best to take the offered lantern from Aldous but finds the only way he can is to sheath his regained sword.  The man lets out an audible growl as the swarm of rats surges.  It was more than he expected.


OOC:
The way I see it is shield is in left hand and lantern is in right.  Time to ditch the shield.

The rat swarm, are most of them normal size with just a few dog sized?  The three rushing for the top are they dog sized?  If the swarm near us is mostly normal sized Porter will just kick at them with his boot to knock them off the stairs.

My goal is to end up with sword in my right hand and the lantern in my left, as expediently as possible while not putting myself in heavy danger.

Clearing these with weapons will take a long time... there are a lot of them. we need to find a better way.

"Okay, then let's secure the door.
Let's put our heads together..."

"Come, I'll bar the door again."
Sven, axe in hand, moves to the door, ready to do as he said, once the others are back in the bar.

"We need a wizard with air spells...and a smoke bomb of toxicity, or one that brings sleep. We drop the bomb in the enclosed area, and the wizard uses their spells, to contain the smoke, and keep it from rising, until it's cleared...Then, you can go down there and just spear them, and stomp them, at your leisure!"
Nana suggests, she she finishes mopping up the mess, and having levered the two dead rats into a large burlap sack, with a meat hook.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:05, Thu 31 Oct 2019.

Perhaps easier if he just creates something permanent they don't like and they leave on their own.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:19, Thu 31 Oct 2019.

"That's an excellent idea.. Some sort of ward, or talisman. Hmm...."

"I don't know magic, but I've got a pretty good handle on rats.  Make a poison for them and mix it with something they eat, and soon you only have rats that don't eat what you mixed the poison into.

"What is in the cellar that attracts the rats?  We must remove that."

"We don't rightly know..They were here when, we moved in. We've been unable to use our cellar, but I suspect the place was well stocked with foodstuffs, before the plague. Wheels of cheese, sacks of grain that have long mildewed, and set..They're living off something!"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:00, Thu 31 Oct 2019.

Makes sense... they do not generally like bright light either, so another possibility.

At the sight of the swarm along with a few more larger varieties Black is only too happy to leave the uncertainty of the basement and watch as the bar is lowered once again securing their safety.  He follows along with the rapid fire of suggestions.  Being a man of muscle and steel he's never known a sorcerer personally but he's seen them and heard of their work.  That or some kind of simple smoke could be effective too especially if it were some sleeping agent, he thinks.  Not to be outdone Fisher offers another suggestion.  ”We could just burn them out.”


OOC:
I'm assuming Porter has his shield on his back, a lantern in his left hand and his right hand is empty.

[Private to GM:
Playing up my 9 IQ.  I'm used to playing chars with around 12 IQ so this is a nice change.  Porter doesn't always think things through before speaking.  He isn't accounting for the fire growing out of control.]