"And burn down our tavern!? No, thank you!"

Kazimir and his son exchange incredulous glances

The is a slight knock at the door and it creaks slightly as it opens to let a skinny man in who looks like he hasn't eaten in quite a while and could use a bath and his clothes washed as well.

Do You still seek help ...  hope?

"Yes, we have a very large rat problem in our cellar. These three have just gotten started, but we're going over strategy, now. Come in! Come in!"

Rats ?!   I hate Rats!  Scare the crap out of you running around and over you.

Nana lifts one of the huge rats partially out of the burlap sack on the freshly mopped floor.
"Yeah? Look at these! Think you can handle it, stranger?"

Svendegard pours the newcomer a cup of kvass, and hands it to him. "You can bunk in the stables with Boris, and these three, you can have three harder drinks on the house, and join us for supper. There'll be coin in it, and you can probably sell these carcasses to some goblins, or the guild kitchens for extra. I'm Sven, This is my sister Nana, Dad, and Ma's in the kitchen. What's your name, stranger?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 23:13, Thu 31 Oct 2019.

I am called Sparky Dubane ... mostly just Sparky by my classmates as I made a lot of sparks before getting create Fire down.

He looks at the rat  Nana holds up ... I can kill it readily enough.

"Dad! These people are going to try and burn down our house!"
The girl folds her arms.

Kazimir shakes his head.
"No fires! Do you know any other magic?"

"The last thing we need is somebody lobbing fireballs and such...I hope you got something else, Sparky."

Sparky Laughs I'd think fireballs at rats was a bit excessive, even if they are that big. I do know a few other things that may be of some use ...

He takes the profferedKvass and sips it, then looks at the cup  What is this?

"Kvass! My wife made it. It's made from fermented bread. In Shevnia, we drink more of it, than water."

"Нана! Приходите, помогите маме!"

"I've got to get back to peeling these potatoes. See you all later."
Nana heads back into the kitchen, to help her mother prepare dinner.

"See you, Sis. Tell Ma, we have another guest, will you?"
Sven turns back to Sparky.
"Don't get me wrong, I've always liked to burn stuff..."

Definitely Different ...  he sips it again.  Then he shrugs.

So how bad are these rats?

"Pretty damned bad.. They're like a carpet down there..."

Fisher lowers his head slightly when the owners and workers comment that they do not want their business to go up in ashes.  ”Ohh.”, he remarks, apparently having not thought of that possibility.

But moments later when a new applicant enters and says he is a fire mage Black thinks he is being made fun of.  He listens and follows the conversation without comment.

"Yeah, fire isn't that great in a cellar with only one exit.  If you have a way to use it without setting anything else on fire, though, it might be useful.

"What we need is something that kills a bunch of rats all at once.  The three of us poking at them with our knives and such would not only take days, it'd either end with us being buried under the swarm or with most of them just running out through their holes and coming back as soon as we take the lights away."

"Hey Dad..You reckon we could cement up masonry, and tar up the holes in the woodwork, like they do in ships? Then, we could hit 'em with smoke, and let these fellows do the rest?
I mean, we'll have to do all that anyways, to keep the rats, from getting back in."

"You have a point there, son. We could do the repairs first, in order to trap them, and keep them inside...but we'd need to all vacate to the stables, during the smoke-out. We can stay in the wagon for a night, if we have to. Either that, or we find some sort of talisman that will repel rats, like a gift that keeps on giving!"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 14:06, Fri 01 Nov 2019.

Well, as pointed out, Rats do not care for light and that I can create, so I make something very bright with the continuing Light spell, and they should seek darker places, THEN we patch the cellar up ... though Rats will gnaw through most anything to get to food. For that, a cat or two in the cellar might be useful.

In reply to Sparky (msg # 134):

The broad and knotted planks of the tavern floor have a few gaps between them; plugging it might be expensive. Beating the rats away from the stairs might help,  and killing the bigger ones might scare off the smaller ones.

Also, you could check with the neighbors about how extensive the problem is on the block...

"Sven, I'm going to talk with some more of our neighbors, and see how bad their rats are, compared to ours. We could end up pooling our resources, to help each other. The baker was out getting supplies, so I'll see if anyone's returned yet. It's nearly supper-time, so i'll try again..."
Kazimir takes up his lute, a drinking set, and bottle of elderberry wine with him.