Recap
17th Davor, 1329, Fort Erion in Southern Galanth:

The day dawned bright and clear, and shined all the brighter for our adventures after their first successful mission. Jacob, Kia, Horus and Gemini met up at the Dead Eye Tavern to check to see if any new jobs were posted. They were greeted warmly by the barkeep and the patrons of the tavern, which catered to farmers, hunters and others that spent more time outdoors. Seeing the party's glum faces, Andre, the barkeep, told them that there was some stuff needing to be doing up at the Fort, something involving the sewers. The patrons offered small rags scented to ward off the smell to the party as they headed out the door.

At the gate, the party inquired of anything that the guards needed help with. The guard on duty told them about how the guard had been ordered to clear out a rat infestation in the sewer, but was kinda short handed. He directed them to the Sergeant of the Guard, Angus Granitfist, who could be found in his office.

The four adventures found the surly dwarf trying to collect fallen papers out from under his desk. At Horus' respectful knock, he bummed his head as he emerged from under it. “Whatcha want?” he growled. Sergeant Granitfist is never in a good mood when in his office. Paperwork makes him grouchy.

Upon hearing that the four were volunteering to go into the sewers, he almost smiled. He began rummaging around on his desk for the request. With papers flying everywhere, he stopped to scratch his head as he thought and then saw it come floating past his own nose. Grabbing it out of the air he detailed the job to the party. “We's got four sections of sewers that need to be cleaned out. Me guards are short handed and we can use all the help we can get. Seen' as you are mercs, I will give you 7 gold pieces to clean out the sewer and an extra gold piece for the pelt of any big rats you come across.” The party agreed quickly enough and set off to find the closest sewer enterance.

Gemini dug out and lit his hooded lantern and he and Kai began searching the area for rats. It was hard to find tracks in the muck and the slime, but they could hear the scrabbling of tiny feet in the distance through the tunnels. They headed off in the direction of the scrabbling and soon came across a pair of small common rats trapped in a corner. The rats were quickly dispatched. Farther out into the tunnels they heard the clicking of larger claws. Turning a bend they found a dire rat. Gemini fired his bow at the creature and scared it away. The party took up the pursuit and soon found it in the middle of a near by tunnel. Kia closed in and dispatched the large rat. The monk then carefully removed the rat's pelt.

As they continued on, the party began to notice a lack of rats and rat tracks in a certain corner of the sewer. They came across an odd set. It looked like something large had been dragged down the center of the tunnel. Following the trail, they came to a large room that had a pool of water in it. Venturing further in, the party began to fan out and search the area. All were taken by surprise when a crocodile ambushed the party, taking a big bite out of the dwarf's leg. Jacob, Horus and Kai quickly pounded the croc into submission. Searching the area turned up a bit of gold from one of the croc's victims.

The party bandaged up the dwarf and continued on. They traveled through tunnels that were only about five feet high, causing the tall monk and cleric to travel hunched over. Some tunnels were blocked by debry. Some ended in alcoves frequently populated by remains of humanoids. It seems the local thieves ring was using the sewers to dispose of bodies. Some even still had their pouches. Both the monk and rogue were quickly excited by the treasure they found in the alcoves. In their eagerness to get to these alcoves, they often slipped in the slime and had an abrupt introduction into the slimy walls.

In one alcove, the rogue made a big find. He found a large black pearl. Nibble hands shifted the gem into his pack without the others noticing, but his broad grin tipped off the monk. “What have you found, little one?” Kai inquired. Thinking fast. Gemini said, “I found five gold pieces.” The party accepted his story and Gemini traded a large black pearl for 3 gold pieces.

Further exploration of the sewer led the party to a large central room clogged with junk and trash. As the party made their careful advance, rats emerged out of the piles and attacked the party. The four friends easily fended off and defeated 2 dire rats and 6 common rats.

Continuing on, they racked up a kill count that included 2 more dire rats and half a dozen more common rats. One of the dire rats tore a large chunk out of the dwarf's already injured thigh, before it was slain. They were able to collect 3 pelts and 1 crocodile skin along with the odd treasure here and there.

The party emerged from the tunnels sore, tired and smelly. They separated to bath and eat before meeting up to search out Sergeant Granitefist. Angus was at Rahne's Rest, but accepted the pelts and skins. He handed over the party's hard earned award and told the party that the other 3 sections had been cleared out as well, much to the fours relief. With money in hand, the party went shopping.

Jacob bought new armor. Horus followed him and lent him what extra money he needed. Gemini sold his pearl which was worth 500 gold pieces for 700. That clerk was particularly stupid. Kai search out a shop or smith that could craft monk weapons. No smith or shop had any, but the Fort's personal armorer had heard of such weapons. He had none to sell, but promised Kai if he could find him either a sketch or one he could copy he would craft them for him. By evening the party separated to rest up for the next day.

XP AWARDED:
78 for each rat and 140 for the crocodile with bonus points awarded for good rolepalying.

DM NOTES:
It is taking me a bit longer to get this up since my job changed and so did my schedule. Trying to become solar powered after being a vampire takes a few days. We met up in the small MWR center on our pad, since it had tables and chairs and SGT Rogers had put all the information from ww.d20srd.org onto SGT Leavitt's computer in word documents. No need of Internet, yeah! Or so I though until the battery got low and as we searched for a plug I ran upstairs to get monster stats so we could continue with the adventure.

We were one man or elf down since we could not find PFC Lott. The guys did well running around and stayed in characters. Our best laughs came from the eager monk and rogue for the alcoves. As soon as I drew in an alcove on the map, they were rolling search checks. They had some good rolls. Once the monk found lots o' slime, and of course the rogue found the pearl. I rolled a 99 for random stuff and then like maxed everything out on the darn gem. I swear my dice like giving these guys stuff.

I was a little worried when I threw the croc in the mix. He wasn't in my orginal plan, but saw it as I was scrolling down the animal section looking for rats. I thought back to how they easily dispatched the goblins and wanted to give them a bit more of a challenge. The croc dang near killed the dwarf. Got a good bite in. Thankfully, his friends saved him. The rats were nothing to the party. Poor Jacob had rotten luck. One dire rat got in a diseased bite and he failed his Fortitude save. 2 days later he will get sick and lose 2 con and 2 dex. Why am I putting this here now when my guys are reading this, well...we also have already done the next adventure and Jacob has already had his sick day.