1 - A Tavern Most Fortunate

A local tavern filled with jostling noise and heavy drinking. The smell of alcohol fills the air and with every whiff you can almost taste the drink of the day. A bartender stands behind the counter, and notices the adventurers walk in and look around no doubt searching for their next glorious bounty.

The band of miscreants is comprised of your everyday band of gold hunting adventurers. Assblasted the Bard, constantly humming and playing on his lute. Erevan Holimon, a drow rogue of mystique with a dark presence. Borkivik Pisacar another rogue, quiet but with a happier presence than the former. The three of them form an everlasting trio, hopping from town to town in search of the next payday.

“Hello my dear fellows, care to have a drink?”, the barkeep asks.

As the party approaches, he regales them with the news of the day. He tells them of the many in need, but it is one in particular that catches their attention. That of the Wizards Tower Brewing Company on the outskirts of town.

“They have been having a bit of a problem, and none of the folk here are equipped to handle what it is they need. You might head on over and see how you can be of assistance!”, the bartender says jovially over a tankard of ale.

The party talks amongst themselves and eventually decides that this is the most fitting task of them all. They pick up their belongings and travel to the outer perimeter of the town in search of this brewing establishment.

2 - A Helping Hand

As they near the building, they are met with a massive grey stone obelisk of a wizard with drinks in both hands. The building itself looks extremely old at the base, but fairly new stone sits atop it as if rebuilt at some point.

With a knock on the locked door, they are met quickly by a gnome. He is dressed in a white shirt with light black trousers held up by fraying suspenders. His face sports an impressive beard; the exposed skin weathered from long hours of work.

“Can I help you?”, he asks the party.

“We were told by the barkeep in town that you had a certain problem that you were having problems finding someone to help with”, Borkivik Pisacar says. “We wanted to see if we could help with this problem!”

“OH! Good, good, please come on in!”, the gnome says hurrying them into the building. “Yes, we have a certain problem. Please follow me this way!”

The entire building is infused with the smell of hops and beer. He leads the party past many barrels and vats of bubbling liquid being tended to by various humans and halflings. The overall atmosphere is one of calmness and a general work day.

Arriving at what looks like a built-in bar in the corner of the brewery, the party sits down and the gnome introduces himself.

“I am Glowkindle, the owner of this fine establishment. We provide the local city much of it’s different ales and magical drinks. If you’ve had a pint anywhere here, it’s most likely one of our patented brews!”, he says with a prideful demeanor.

Glowkindle offers pints of their finest ale, accepted only by Assblasted and Erevan. Borkivik refuses and sits down at the table alongside the party.

“Well, the business has been doing very well; so much so in fact that we have been looking to expand our operations to provide another local city our fine assortment of refreshements. To do this though, we needed to expand the beer cellar. So we hired some local workmen to go down and dig out an extra room when they happened upon an old wall - they described it as a remnant of some long forgotten ruins.”, Glowkindle said describing the situation. “I think they were curious, and that led them to breaking a hole in the wall only to be attacked by black rats the size of dogs! Big dogs too, not poodle sized for sure!”

“They were all able to escape with a few cuts and bruises, thankfully, but the cellars are currently completely unusable! We need to get production going as soon as we can, and that is where you, our new adventurer friends, come in to save the day!”, Glowkindle exclaimed happily. “I am willing to pay you twenty-five gold pieces if you can rid us of this infestation”

Assblasted immediately quips back, “I will do it for no less than thirty-five!”

Glowkindle thought for a second. The cost would be well worth the future gains! He accepted the terms and led the party to the cellar entrance.

3 - A Descent into Darkness

It was a hatch in the floor, easily opened by the gnome and he ushered the party down the stairs bidding them good adventuring. As the party descended the stairs into the cellar, they could hear the creaking of the wood and were met with a dry air that smelled of beer and damp fur. In the darkness in front of them they could hear scrabbling noises.

Immediately the bard runs into the darkness only to be met with the sight of five massive rats. He sang out a vicious mockery, spewing out hatred for the rats leading to one noticeably reeling backwards from the sonorous attack. The bard ran back to the group, followed closely by the rats attacking in a drove force. They bit hard at the bard and rogues, but ultimately the rogues were able to get deep stabs in on the rats leaving behind piles of corpses.

Borkivik jumped over a small set of barrels and was able to deal a finishing blow to all but the last of the rats with carefully timed back stabs. The last was finished in similar kind by Erevan as it attempted to gnaw on Borkivik for it’s last supper.

With the rats in the room dealt with, the adventurers could hear more scrabbling in the hole left behind by the workers. Looking through he hole, they could see a dusty stone corridor with the floor lying about a foot below where the cellar floor stood. Down the corridor to the left they could just make out the start of a staircase that was blocked by massive blocks of rubble. To the right, they could see a glowing writing on the wall.

4 - Murals of Pyre

The party approached the glowing writing, noticing a mural painted on the ground around the corner with the faint glow of the writing illuminating just enough of the ground to see it. At the end of the mural the party can see the remnants of a giant rat splayed in two laying just past it.

It reads:

    “Dawn breaks with stirring air.
    As sun shines down on new day fair


    “Midday blaze bakes earth and grass,
    The former waits for heat to pass

    “Evening cool brings water, wine,
    Drink and laughter passing time

    “Night see shining, roaring fire,
    as wood and coals burn on the pyre”

Before being able to make out the riddle on the wall, the bard shoots off down the hall across the mural. A massive saw shoots out of the ground clipping him in the back as he runs across. He screams in pain and falls to the ground just past the rat’s carcass. The two rogues attempt to jump across the final piece of the mural, with Borkivik barely making it past the blade as it rises up again for another go across the hall.

5 - Here Be Monstrosities

At the end of the hall, they see two doors, one on the left and one straight at the end. Borkivik quietly opens the door to the left and peers inside seeing the charred remains of books, furniture with random blaze marks adorning it, and piles of ashes strewn about. All around are scorch marks and signs of countless small fires, and the air is filled with the smell of smoke and burned meat.

It appears to be a library or lab of sorts, or at least at one time it was. A moldering desk and the shattered remnants of alchemical glassware sit near the door, while the center of the room is dominated by a set of tall bookcases arranged back-to-back towering over everything. The rogue is able to make out a small skittering noise coming from deep within the room, along with webbing hanging from the ceiling, and quietly closes the door to alert the party.

The bard opens the door at the end of the hallway and steps into what looks like a well room. There is a massive stone well in the center with rotten remnants of a heavily frayed rope that descends into the shaft of the well. In the far right corner, the ceiling has collapsed slightly, and a narrow shaft of light shines through a narrow hole giving just enough light in the room. To the far left, a plain wooden table sits, encrusted with years of dirt and dust. It is laden with old plates, buckets, and other strange pieces of tableware.

Assblasted rushes in playing his instrument loudly and singing a drunken tune. As if out of nowhere, three giant centipedes ascend the well shaft and attempt to grab the bard and drag him down into the depths from whence they came. He gleefully jumps around, still playing his lute merrily, refusing to be detained by the creatures. As they move to attempt again, he zips back through the door and the party is able to close it forcefully behind him. Bangs at the door occur over and over as the centipedes attempt to knock it down with force.

At this point, Borkivik decides to check the room on the left again. The door quietly opens, and the rogue trips and crunches down on the charred remains of what looks like a giant rat. Stealthily moving deeper into the room, Erevan follows suit by entering the room and investigating, only to hear the same skittering noises and seeing the burnt webbing hanging from the ceiling.

As Borkivik nears the opposite side of the room, she notices a book that looks unnaturally undamaged given the shape of the rest of the contents in the room. Borkivik picks it up and learns that it is a spell book containing old dictations that must have belonged to the wizard who lived here long ago.

Just as she finishes skimming through, the bard bursts in singing another drunken incantation. A massive inferno spider drops from the ceiling between the party, splitting Borkivik from the rest. The bard attempts to lull the spider to sleep, but seeing the spider glare at him he bolts out of the room yelling back to the other “See ya!”

Borkivik notices a door in the corner and is torn between attempting to enter it to escape the wrath of the spider or making a mad dash across the room through the entrance door. After a slight hesitation, she runs quickly, passing Erevan, through the door. Erevan follows suit and the two pull the door closed tightly. As they hold the door, the heavy iron knob begins to heat up slowly starting to burn their hands.

6 - The Escape

The bard rushes across the mural trap, getting hit once again, and is followed shortly thereafter by the rogues gracefully jumping across the blades. As the pair make it across, suddenly the door at the end bursts open followed by a sweltering flame disintegrating the door they attempted to hold shut. The spider makes its way slowly into the hallway, effervescing everything around it in a gale of fire.

The trio are able to make it around the corner with only the slightest amount of their hair getting caught by the flames erupting from the end of the hallway. They run back to the cellar door, attempting to push it open but it is stuck. Desperately pushing on it, it eventually gives as Glowkindle opens it up, apparently having fallen asleep on it.

7 - The Lie

“OH GOOD! You have made it back!”, he exclaims. “How did everything go adventurers?! Is the rat problem dealt with? I am so very excited to get the cellar back in working order.”

Erevan and Borkivik put their arms around his shoulders, and the trio pushes him along quickly towards the entrance. The bard tells him “We did indeed, all the rats are dead!”.

“Oh, very good! Well, here is the gold for the deed then!”, Glowkindle says handing them a bag of gold pieces. They happily take the bag from him, and as they near the door the bard starts playing a song to lull everyone in the room to sleep. They drift off into a magical slumber and the three rush outside.

As they quickly walk away from the building, they look back to see the entirety of it engulfed in flames. There are no screams, no gasps, no sounds aside from the roaring of the centipedes and the monstrous spider as the adventurers move onward to their next calling.