Iron Crisis Pt3 IC

[RandomWombat]

Cheerful Sam | Grepha Half-Dragon Warlock/Bard | Imp Warlock AC: 11 HP: 36/55 | AC: 16 HP: 16/26 PP: 10|13 PIv: 15|12 PIs: 11|13 --- | Raven Form, Mage Armor The Sewers Picking up the star chart, Sam looks it over. The significance is realized almost immediately; the writings at Candlekeep are many, and among them those relating to Bahamut always drew the lion's share of his poor attention span. As someone in such a unique position, matters of heresy are far from Sam's place to judge. One thing is clear though, the rats do not seem like worshipers of either Bahamut or Tiamat. So the rat-demon skull acting as an object of worship would suggest. So, the chart may have been looted from one of the cult's followers, or one of their followers may have been turned into a rat. Either way, the cult's presence in the city may be a point of interest. And they aren't shy about spreading propaganda, which may yield a trail. "I can follow only one tunnel," Grepha points out the obvious flaw in the plan to have her go poking around in them. "Even if I could somehow see the rat, it would be a shot in the dark. We would have more luck trying to track the one whose direction we did see," she motions her head towards the pathway formerly occupied by the otyugh, and the grates beyond where the rat had vanished. Still, finding one rat in the sewers... "I have a better idea," Sam and Grepha both announce at once, as the half-dragon stands up with the skull in one hand and the chart in another. "What was your idea?" "Well," with a caw to clear her throat, Grepha explains, "Wererats do not simply materialize out of thin air. Lycanthropes infect others. That means they had or have names and identities above ground, as normal humans. Or whatever they were." Hopping over to the last wererat killed by Anri, she suggests, "This one would have seen the other escape to the south, and all of them likely know their plague's leader by name and title. With a couple of carefully worded questions from Senna's Bells, we could question the dead rat on the survivors' civilian identities and have one question leftover to expand on one of those." After a pause, she looks at Sam expectantly. "And your idea?" "Oh," he holds up the skull. "This is the skull of a low-ranking rat demon. It's either being used as an altar of worship, or a symbol of their leader's authority. It's not the kind of thing he'd want to ditch behind. So," Sam waves around at the lair. "We can leave him a note here with a time and meeting location, where he can ransom back his prized skull. He might not answer the summons, depends how prideful or sentimental he is. But I'd like to question him about a few things." "Wererats are natural spies and infiltrators. They could easily be connected to thieves' guilds and other ill-reputable organizations. He could have useful information on one or more of our quarries," Grepha agrees. Turning to the rest of their group, Sam smiles and then immediately closes his mouth tightly when too much of the stench creeps in. "What do you guys think?"