[Gavynn]

Like many it appears, I have converses about the “hook” and opening room for the “I smell a Rat” adventure because there does to seem to be a lot that is driving the players but also for other reasons. Here are my thoughts:

1. The cellar of the inn is huge, especially given that there is an encounter map. It seems a shame that it is not used. The battle takes place with the PCs huddled in one corner of the map on the stairs as spiders attack them. Everything else in the cellar covered with spider webs. Why not have an opening encounter where PCs can actually use the space and move around and learn how to use their characters? There can still be spider webs, but I would localize those. Let the players learn to fight by hacking up some giant rats.

2. The PCs are sent to kill rats, but when they get into the basement, there is scarcely a word about rats being down there. In fact Lee says that she is hearing the rats in the cellar. But when the door is opened, the place is covered in spider webs and the PCs find themselves fighting off spiders. How could she have heard the rats if they are all caught in layers and layers of spider webs?

3. The only time the rats are mentioned is to say that after you burn the webs, there are the 40 rat corpse there. It is not clear to me that it was the fire that killed them. It could have been I suppose, but it seems more likely to me that these rats were caught in the webs, drained of blood, and what the spiders had been eating. If the rats are supposed to be alive (and running somehow through the webs) wouldn’t the adventure mention it? Where you really not supposed to fight rat in the basement after being sent to? Why not some up with an encounter that is equally is dificult as the spider thing, but rat focused?

4. Besides a secret door (which it says even our big bad guy does not know about), there is just a pile of junk in the corner with nothing really in it but a passage to the sewers. There is nothing in the sewers when explored if the PCs miss the secret passage. I can completely see the point of others who have written in here, that the PCs could find the spiders had eaten all the rats, and then just find that corner of the cellar needs to be bricked back up to keep out the sewer rats. Task accomplished. I think they need a greater sense of drive than that.

5. I thought that the PCs being locked in the cellar was going to be a major point, but instead, they can get out at any time they want. Wouldn’t actually trapping the PC’s down there increase the sense of dread? I think they need to either be intentionally locked down there or have Lee be killed by someone trying to trap the PCs down there.

I think this adventure can be improved by means motivating the PCs to go down there more than just to get some copper as rat exterminators and also hinting much more strongly as Merle’s involvement in Black Magic. I would also make the opening combat something with rats that uses the space. I am trying to think of ways to make all of that work.

Someone could be missing (besides Merle) because it makes it clear that the cult is sacrificing people down there. Maybe someone important got kidnapped an the PCs must go find them. That would certainly motive the search of the cellar more. Especially if the players thought the person was going to sacrificed at midnight or something and so were on a clock to make the rescue happen.

I noticed that someone else had written that they had a group of crusaders coming into the town because they had heard about some evil that needed to be put down. Why not have the PCs be a group that has heard about the evil here that needs to be put down? That would also make them a bit more heroic that “rat killers” and motivate the search of the cellar more.

I am trying to rework all of this so that all of that can be explained and the game can begin with the PCs staring at the cellar door about to go down. (No need to have them making rolls and everything else to find work and bargain with Lee - I am going to be pressed for time when running this, so I think moving them into the action is better.) Or actually, it could be even more dramatic if the game begins with the cellar door closing on them, locking them downstairs with whatever it is they are about to have to fight.

I love all the secret cult stuff, so I think we need to move on to it.

What do you think? Has anyone done a rewrite that would but some more bite into the adventure?