78: Rat Attack
So, mum, after going to work all day with the day shift it was time to start my real shift with the night shift. Everyone on the night shift looked a bit scruffier than on the day shift, and I mentioned this to Jacko. He just said that it takes different sorts to run the sewer jacks.
And then I had to get Boy out to show him how the training has been going, but I forgot all the commands again, because Guido did the training and did it in Estalian. So Boy just ran off down a tunnel and didn’t come back for ages.
Then after a bit Jacko unlocked one of the gates and we waited for someone to arrive. He was carrying a huge pack which turned out to contain pipeweed. And Jacko charged him to come through the sewers. The pipeweed smuggler didn’t have enough money in the end, and so I said I would buy half a pound of hurley burley off him, to help him out. But Jacko insisted I got it for free. So that was definitely taking a bribe, and I didn’t even want the pipeweed (but I expect Willow will appreciate it).
Then that was the end of the shift, and I didn’t spend very long at the Regent’s again, after sharing out some of the pipeweed with the rest of the gang I made my way back to the Templar’s.
Meanwhile, everyone else was sleeping in the same room, at the Templar’s, but they were woken up by some noises coming from downstairs. It sounded serious and Willow thought it might be another go at arsoning Erina Eberhauer.
Everyone got up and Willow made her way to Erina’s room, while Guido and Blume went for the front stairs down to the Templar’s common room, and Dreamy made his way to the back stairs.
Willow tapped on Erina’s door and she opened it, and Willow told her that the arsonists might be back, but at that moment they heard a scream coming from downstairs and it sounded like Tiasmara. And they could hear lots of voices that sounded a bit like male voices but they were quite high pitched.
Erina turned her staff into a bright flame and they made their way downstairs. And they could see about six man-sized rat-like creatures had herded up most of the inn’s guests, and one of them was holding a dagger to Tiasmara’s throat. And they could see Uli was tied up on the floor. One of the rats was larger than the others and seemed to be giving the others orders.
Meanwhile Dreamy made his way down the other stairs and he spotted two of the rat creatures heading towards the common room.
Guido charged into the common room and stabbed one of the rats with his dagger, and then he hopped over the bar to get to the club and shield that Uli kept there. And the rat he hit retaliated by stabbing him with a spear.
Willow grabbed a bottle off of a table and smashed it, and then made her way towards Uli so she could try to untie him. Dreamy waited for the two skaven near him to go past so he would have time to shoot one of them in the back, and he got a good hit on it. Blume decided to go back up to the room where she could load her guns. Erina cast a spell on the rat that had Tiasmara, making its dagger too hold to handle and forcing it to drop the weapon.
One of the rats managed to stab Willow, and one had a go at Guido, and a third ran at Erina but she managed to fend it off with her flaming staff. One of the rats climbed up onto the wall and was going through some of the memorabilia that Uli had hung up there. It ripped a map, or something, down and then handed it off to the leader rat.
Then Dreamy took a second shot at his rat and killed it. Willow threw her bottle at a rat and managed to hit it, too. And then she untied Uli, and Guido got the club and shield and fought back against his rat-man.
And it was about that time, mum, that I arrived back at the inn. when I opened the door I was very surprised to see the mad scene, with all the rat-men (I hate them, mum) but I was quick enough to joint he fight and I hit one of the rats with my sword. One of the rats hit Willow and it got a good hit on her and she fell to the ground unconscious and with an injury to her collar bone.
Now that the leader had got its trophy, whatever it was, it quickly tried to make its escape through the kitchen. I was left facing one of the rat men and it stabbed me and left me lying on the floor in pain. Erina cast a fire spell at one of the other ones, and it went up in flames.
Dreamy hit his surviving rat thing and I think he was very lucky to avoid getting badly injured by it. Meanwhile Guido was having a good fight with one one by the bar. It looked like they were all buying time to allow their leader to escape. The rat who had injured me ran at Erina and had a go at her, too.
Guido got a good hit on the rat he was battling with and managed to kill it, and then he jumped over the bar and ran for the kitchen in pursuit of the leader rat. And he tossed Uli his club as he ran past him. In the kitchen there was no sign of the rat leader but there were several doors leading off so it could have gone though any of those.
I had managed to get to my feet, by now, and I joined Erina fighting the rat who had knocked me down, but nether of us managed to hit the thing. Meanwhile Dreamy was still fighting the remaining ratman near him. He go another good hit on it, but it was still hanging around. I think these ratmen were more resilient than other ratmen we had met.
And then Blume turned up. She had finally managed to load her blunderbuss and her two pistols and now she was here to help us with the fight. I think we all got a bit worried when she appeared with her blunderbuss, but luckily she decided to go with her pistols. And she shot the one that Erina and I were fighting, though it still managed to fight on. Luckily I managed to finish it off, though. And Dreamy managed to kill his rat creature.
Then the rat who was fighting Uli was running out of allies and decided it was time to run off after its leader. Guido watched it run through the kitchen and began to fight it. And Blume and I followed it into the kitchen and she shot it dead. Then in Tiasmara’s room they found a small open window with some discarded ratman armour and weapons beneath it, and they deicides that must have been the way the rat leader had escaped.
Erina was left in the common room with Willow and she made sure that Willow was alright. And brought her round to consciousness, just in time for Dreamy to reach the common room. I’m not sure he was too impressed that Willow was hurt and none of us were there to look after her, but we had been looking after her.
And when we got back to the common room Guido made sure that Willow was not too badly injured and he helped the rest of us with our wounds.
So that’s that, mum. The Templar’s Arms got invaded by a load of rat-creatures who it seems were after one of the maps or papers or something that Uli had hanging on his wall. We will have to ask him what it was and why he thinks the rats were so keen to get hold of it.
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