Deuce Traveler's Sewer Rats

[Deuce Traveler]

Chapter 3: Ratcatchers

The next afternoon you go to meet Mr. Sabatini in the Slums, having to go through the whole ritual of asking for him among the meat sellers first. The goblin is looking quite jovial when you appear and you notice that he is surrounded by a number of bustling workers with rolled up posters and cans of glue. At your curious look he says, "I'm making my appearance to court today, but I have a bit of a surprise in store to go along with my appearance. My men are too busy with the surprise for me to send them in collecting the final giant rats for the farm, which is where you come in. We have captured three of these mutated creatures, one female and two males, but I feel we'll need more in order to properly start breeding them. I've six folding cages for you to take down to the Red C-7 section of the sewers. My men did some searching and found some large rat deposits down there, so that's our best guess of where the remaining giant rats can be found. Capture me at least three more females. I will pay 50gp to each of you now for agreeing to help, and 50gp a piece for each giant rat you bring back. I promise that you'll get the full amount. There are no special clauses here in the Slums. Each cage should hold one giant rat each. When you fill all six, kill whatever remaining giant rats you find. I'll pay 10gp each per giant rat tail proving that you've killed one. We don't want to have an epidemic of giant rats breeding under the Slums and pouring into the city, so you're killing them should curtail that threat or eliminate it completely if we get lucky."

OOC: Make a DC 13 Sense Motive check.

 

[Fenris]

Fergus nods as he listens, knowing his tracking skills will be helpful here.

"Will we need porters to haul them out? Or can we carry a cage or two ourselves?" asks Fergus

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Mr. Sabatini shrugs, "I can't afford to give up any men right now, so if you need porters hire them using the funds I fronted to you. You are hardy lads though, and a cage and rat shouldn't weigh more than 15 pounds apiece. If you get a couple of 10 foot poles, you should be able to put three cages on each pole with enough room to place each end on a shoulder. That way two of you can easily carry out all six cages. The poles should easily fit through the openings of the cages. A ten foot pole can be quite handy."

 

[ghostcat]

Hardnose studies Mr Sabatini all the time he is speaking, trying to determine if he has an ulterior motive in hiring the Sewer Rats to hunt rats. Although Hardnose likes Mr Sabatini, he does not trust him.

Pausing to allow his fellows time to comment, Hardnose finally says "Well if everyone has no more question, lets leave Mr Sabatini alone and get going."

OOC: Mr Sabatini has supplied cages, has he also provided the poles?

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Hardnose and Fergus
[sblock]
You both sense another motive for him to want you to round up or kill all the giant rats. Mr. Sabatini is hoping to create a monopoly with his new venture and hopes to keep others out, most specifically the guilds.
[/sblock]

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Needles kept quiet for the most part, simply listening and watching the guy. He seemed ok, but something about the others and their devotion to him was just sitting uneasily in his stomach.

"Catch some rats, kill the rest, sounds easy enough." he mumbles, checking the cages.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

The group of you walk away, heading towards tunnel entrance 2F6, a small, oval-shaped water drainage pipe that you should be able to squeeze through in order to reach the Red C-7 section of the sewers easily enough.

As you travel, a warm, drizzling rain begins to fall from the white, cloud-filled sky, worsening your mood. This would be good weather to trail someone in, and the two oafs you notice doing so might have been able to pull it off in any other section of the city. But the tall half-orc and his slight human companion stand out in the Slums dominated by gnomes, halflings, dwarves, goblins and kobolds. The human looks a bit rough, with a scar along his cheek and a shock of red hair. His half-orc companion has no pronouncable features except his overly large muscles and unintelligent eyes.

You are still walking along the main roads towards 2F6, and these two men are following at a distance of about 70 feet. What would you like to do?

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Speaking to the others, Needles can't help coming up with diabolic ways to end their pursuers being a threat. Some of them has permanent implications, but he knew better, for the most part. Maiming, on the other hand, was perfectly legal.

"You know, there are only two of them, and three of us. They can't follow us all, so let's give them some headaches. We all know where we are supposed to meet. I say one of us stays with the cages while the other two split off in two directions, doubling back, wild goose chase, whatever wild chase you want to run the guys on. Whomever is not followed can become the new follower, trying to find out just who these people work for. I don't like this Sabatini guy much, but I don't care to being followed and having another job screw up."

"Unless anyone else has an idea?"

 

[Deuce Traveler]

OOC: I just want to confirm, then, that players' plan is to split the party.

 

[ghostcat]

"Seems to me that these are probably part of Mr. Sabatini's rivals. If so they will just follow the person with the cages then stake out the sewer entrance waiting for us to come back with a load of rats. I think our best bet would be to ignore them for the moment and use a different exit on the way back."

OOC: Hardnose doesn't want to split the party.