Te'rue Wererat Stories - 2
#2 of Te'rue Tales
A first person account of the history of a man turned wererat and of how his fellowship tried to help him find a cure. Tried being the keyword. Enjoy the drama and the humor of events as they unfold. (This is Part 2.)
The thumbnail is from the old 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, back when they made wererats look sexier than they should have. Compared to werewolves, these guys were hot.
**Te'rue Wererat Stories by Ratseye Winesewer October 16th, 2013
2.**
The shrine of the grain mouse wasn't like we thought it would be. In fact, if didn't even look like a shrine nor a temple like anyone would have suspected it to appear to be. There was two golem guards in front of the door which the barbarian easily took out. True, the battlemage of fire shouldn't have placed that illusion of bugs over their heads like that, but we all know how to use the barbarian's greatest fear to our advantage. Once inside, the first chamber had rotting cheese and barrels of moldy barley grain. It was pretty rank and there was nothing of value there. Within the next corridor came that which would change my life forever.
There came a dark corridor some twenty feet wide with almost unseen alcoves every ten feet or so. None of us would even have known they were there. Not even my current rogue skills detected them... until I was pulled into one by accident. Sir Rhodes had just told everyone to stay close and most of them were doing that. The barbarian was out front where he liked to be, and I, true to my art and form... didn't listen to him. I skulked along one of the walls. We were about seventy feet down the hundred foot long corridor when it happened. I had just quietly crept along one of the unseen alcove openings when suddenly a fast though silent ratty glove reached out and clapped over my mouth and pulled me into the alcove, out of sight of the others.
In the darkness facing me was a humanoid with glowing beady red eyes. He had me pinned to a wall with one hand over my mouth and the other with a wet knife to my groin. Normally when a girl threatens my manhood, I do whatever she says. But this wasn't a lady.
"Ah see we 'ave a new initiate," came the Cockney sounding quiet voice, with a dry rasp yet having a slick tongue. "Now Ah can be free, mate, and yas can carry the torch." And with that, he bared his teeth and bit me on the neck while placing some sort of clan mark on my thighs with that knife.
I must have made some sort of noise when this creature attacked for not more than a few moments into the bite and cutting, a massive fireball just barely missed me and set the beasty on fire. And then the barbarian's club smacked the beast in the face and flung it down a hole in the back of the alcove. The priestess was tending to my wounds immediately after that as the red knight held a torch over the hole where he and the battlemage saw a great many more of the creatures below scrambling to climb the old black ladder. Well... they tried, until the battlemage cast her serpents flame tongue spell down the hole. And then the dying screams filled the air like no other.
The priestess cast a light spell in the corridor just in case the other alcoves held similar dangers which she fortunately did just in time as many more creatures shirked back from the light and vanished back down their holes.
"Let's get out of here!" shouted the Firefrosted Falcon. "Nothing is worth dying in the middle of this many creatures! I don't care what the treasure is!"
I couldn't help but to tempt the mage, although I shouldn't have. "What if its a spell book?"
"..." Yes, it made her stop and think about it. Sadly though... "NO! There are safer ways to get new spells! Besides, once we have you patched up, we'll search for the Tomb of the Golden Colt! It only has undead in it!"
"If we can't have this treasure, then I'm gonna make sure no one else gets it either!" And I pulled out what looked like an explosive charge from my backpack. "We'll seal it up so no one else can get in and what's in there... can't get out!"
Then to my surprise, Argos smiled and said, "That is actually a good idea. And it will protect the rest of the city from this menace. Go for it, Te'rue."
I groaned as I felt sick to be doing something NOBLE for a change. But the red knight was right. If we didn't seal it, these things might come looking for me. And so...
BARROOOM!!!
Okay, that explosion wasn't as weak as the vendor said it would be when detonated, but... it sealed the entrance to the shrine of the grain mouse. It would take an army to dig out that rubble. Ironically, we would learn later that we would need to get back in there. And we had just sealed off just one of the entrances. More on that later.
We were both thankful and pained when we did get out of the now smoke filled sewers under the city. If there is one thing that was worse than a sewer smell it would be the smell of cooking sewer fluids. When we emerged outside of the way we had gone in, it was clearly night and when we emerged from the smoke, I saw the moon... and I knew something worse was about to occur.