1.2.6 - Ratmother

Brelka's people had turned the caves into a trap, and Grettir had left one last monster behind, waiting for a word.

The main cavern roared with falling water that swallowed every other sound. Brelka's wererats had been busy. They had torn down the ladder from the overlook, seeded the moss at the foot of the cliffs with hidden spikes, and set a camp to wait for anyone fool enough to climb down. You came through it anyway.

Deeper sat Grettir's last work: a carrion golem, a thing stitched from rot and dead flesh, finished and standing dormant, its research book open on a lectern beside it. The book held the command word that would wake it. With Grettir dead it should have stayed asleep. It did not stay asleep, because Hanzt read the word aloud, and the golem came up swinging, mindless, powered by the soul gem buried in its chest. You brought it down and dug the gem out of the reeking corpse, its throb slowing to a soft, steady glow.

You did not walk away clean. The fight left its marks under the skin. Gunnar and Brawn both carry the wererat's curse now, and three of you climbed out of the muck with filth fever setting in.

Remember For Next Time

• The soul gem: prised from Grettir's carrion golem, no longer pulsing, its purpose still unknown.
• The curse spreads: Gunnar and Brawn are infected with the wererat curse. Gunnar, Brawn, and Hanzt all caught filth fever.
• Hanzt and command words: perhaps do not read the strange book aloud next time.

Where We Are

Past the wererat traps and Grettir's golem, deeper in the Undercroft, sick and cursed but still on Brelka's trail.