[Anders]

WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR I SMELL A RAT

Session Length: Four hours.

The characters arrive in Kross (or already live there and are kicked out to make a name for themselves), not knowing each other yet, and they look for a job. Soon they come across Ragnhild Sauðring, who is looking for capable people to clear the basement of the Golden Tankard from giant rats. She is willing to pay eight coppers for each giant rat head they bring her. Her uncle, Thorbjörn Sauðring, recently deceased, had owned the Golden Tankard and had apparently neglected to leave out the humongous mousetraps you need to keep the scavengers out of the basement.

When they arrive, they discover that things aren't exactly as they seem. First of all, the door to the basement is very sturdy - far sturdier than you would expect for such a mundane task. Second, there are several unusual circumstances surrounding the death of Thorbjörn Sauðring. Where is the corpse and why is not readied for burial? Third, the basement floor and walls are covered with four inches of spider webs. That seems... excessive. And where are the rats?

Hrafnar uses an air jet to probe the web, and soon several huge spiders emerge from various dark corners and approach the staircase where our heroes our standing. Asfrith makes a spectacular leap and lands on one of the spiders, planting his knife in its head and killing it instantly. The other heroes attack the spiders with axes, spells, swords and staves while Asfrith is attacked by two other spiders and is badly wounded - he has to play dead to survive.

After a brief fight, the heroes prevail and start clearing the basement of cobwebs. They discover a huge pile of junk and dirt in the southwest corner and a secret door in the southern wall. Upon further inspection, it seems that there is a tunnel behind the junk pile and Ulfgrim, Asgrim and Hrimnir start clearing it out while the catfolk lounge lazily behind them and Asfrith tries to pick the lock on the southern door.

As soon as they place their hands on the junk pile, the three heroes discover to their horror that it is covered with nearly invisible spider webs. From behind the pile appears grandfather spider, a monstrous beast well over 6' in diameter (including legs). Fortunately for them, the beast turns out to be no match for the combined might of the Beastlanders.

After the fight, Hrimnir decides that this is no way for a wizard to behave and uses Shape Earth to move the junk pile (it's mostly piled up dirt) and promptly collapses in a heap (turns out that there was more there than he bargained for). Behind the heap is an amateurishly dug tunnel (not up to OSHA standards) which leads out to the sewers. Since Toril and Katla have a minor breakdown at the thought of entering the filthy water the group decides to try their luck with the other door.

The other door leads into a small smuggler's den, empty except for a strongbox made from strong iron and with a hefty padlock. The box contains a sealed silver flask and is marked with the Thieves' Guild's seal. Ulfgrim senses that it contains something dangerous and after a brief but intense discussion they decide to give the flask to the local temple and the strongbox and padlock to the Thieves' Guild (and tell them "it was empty when we found it"). A door to the south leads to the sewers.

Asfrith, reasoning there must be some reason why the tunnel leads to the sewers, decides to look on the other side of the sewer and discovers a secret door. They locate a couple of sturdy planks and manage to get the catfolk across the sewers without incident.

To be continued...