It turned out everyone except me had leveled up. Mike and Stew got to level 3 with Meagan hitting 4. Meagan only got 1 Attribute Point so it seemed pretty official after the one I remember and this one that after the third level we would be getting fewer points, meaning Titles had just jumped in importance. While they were taking care of that I decided to put in the points I needed to master the Average Title. While it would only give me 15HP for ten points it would also make the stat gains, including HP, permanent. I thought it over and decided since I had Shattered equipped constantly for ?Shadow Sense? I figured instead of waiting for enough points to master it I could just work towards it. I couldn't make it work. Not only wouldn't it work I could find no indication on how to access the higher level bonuses at all. Since just the first bonus had been so useful I had hoped for some really nice ones above it. With everyone else ready I decided to shelve that issue for later. We quietly moved down the hallway until we arrived at a junction. It looked like the layout of the keep was a passage that went around the outer edge with the rooms in the center. Peeking into the nearer rooms we saw piles of rubbish and broken items. We decided to break up into two groups, Stew and I would go left where there were two Rat Men while Meagan and Mike would go right and deal with the three down there. If the passage did just go around the edge then we would meet back up on the other end, if not then we would meet up at the exit. We started off and Stew immediately began giving me a running commentary about what he found while looking into rooms. "Dave this is the weirdest thing. This room is filled with empty boxes with pictures cut out. Oh, here they are in this room. Nailed creepily to the wall." It sounded like these Rat Men had some real issues. When we reached the first room with a Rat Man I tried to quietly lift the bar sticking through the door, I hoped it was acting like a latch. It wouldn't move and a furious chittering sounded. We stood prepared for an attack. It must have just been the equivalent of "Occupied" because we waited a moment and nothing happened. I gave Stew the go ahead and he rammed the door with his shoulder. The latch seemed much stronger than the rest of the door, the hinges snapped and the door folded around the latch. Stew went right for the startled rat and finished it with one blow. I walked in. The whole room was blue. Sheets had been tacked up on the walls and a nest had been made with what looked like every vaguely blue thing it could find. I saw sheets, blankets, pictures, even a few Rubbermaid totes. Stew was using his bat to shift around in the pile. "You must be close to level 7 with the XP these guys give out." "Not really, they're only 50XP." "Bummer for you. I'm getting 100XP a pop." "Stew. Do you feel bad about killing these guys?" Stew stood up and looked at me. "I thought you said they were summoned by this Rat King guy? So they're made out of thin air or Mana or something, right?" "Yea, I guess so. That sounds about right." This one had really liked blue though. As Stew and I advanced towards the back of the building I noticed that the other two weren't having any trouble, their Rat Men disappeared from my ?Shadow Sense? steadily. When we turned the final corner our two groups saw each other and hurried to join back up. The back passage only had three rooms. The ones on the edges were what seemed to be the armory, most of the hand tools as well as cutlery and a surprising number of garden tools, and the other was some sort of workshop where they had been trying to modify some wagons to be pulled by slaves. The room in the middle was filled with a squat looking spiral staircase. We quietly shut that door and discussed our options. We hadn't found anything that we really needed, like diapers or instruction manuals on sword fighting. Stew seemed to think that upstairs would just be another pushover rat and a bunch of weirdly arranged storage rooms. Mike was becoming the voice of pessimism, he figured anything that could be ruined would be as well as us having to deal with the Über Ratte. In the end we decided to try to get ready for a quick getaway if we needed it while hoping to find more storage rooms upstairs. We managed to salvage a wagon and a few carts out of the mess in the 'workshop'. We then filled them with a variety of items we found in the armory. While going through everything I found a hatchet with a sheath that I threaded onto my belt. I also grabbed a hammer and shoved it in my pants. With my crowbar already hanging off my belt I was feeling decidedly awkward. "You look like you're about to get serious about that summer construction job." Stew said. "I'm tired of not having a weapon proficiency. I figure either an axe or a hammer will give me something and I still have my crowbar if it comes down to it." I said. "Like combat carpentry?" I grabbed the hatchet off my belt and shook it at him. "More likely chopping." "It seems smart to have something in case we lose our main weapon. Did you see another of those hatchets?" Mike asked. "Here." I grab one out of a pile of crap by my feet and hand it to Mike. "Seems like a good idea to be prepared." Meagan picked a crowbar up off the floor and slid it through her belt, she winked at me. I grinned at her and continued to pile stuff in our carts. I felt pretty good about how our group was working together as we lined everything up next to the exit and headed back towards the stairs. We again move silently, this time up the stairs. Oddly the stairs seem to be sized for humans rather than Rat Men, we don't have any trouble making our way up. At the second turn we come into sight of the second floor. There isn't any storage in sight. The second floor is one open room with a small dais at the far end. On top of the dais is our target. ‡ Lvl(6) Rat King ‡ "You guys are seeing this right?" I ask without moving my eyes. The Rat King is four feet tall, thinner than the others and wearing different clothes. A red cape(Superman), a crown(Princess Sophia), and sitting on a throne(cheap looking rainbow lawn chair). "You mean Little Miss Disney over there? Yea I see it. Why does he have a bunch of cups?" Stew answered for them all. I had been so surprised at the plastic tiara I hadn't noticed that the Rat King was busy fondling a set of beaten copper kitchenware. I shook my head slowly. "Let's just get this over with." I said. The Rat King must have finally noticed something because that's when it jumped up and looked at us. It began yelling, in a voice that reminded me of The Chipmunks. "How dare you intrude on me! What do you want? This is my gold, you can't have any! Why haven't my men dealt with you?" Suddenly it had a staff in its hand that it brought down sharply on the ground. With a dozen puffs of smoke all the Rat Men we had encountered appeared spread out around the room. Stew looked at me. "See? No big deal." "Let's go. That might not be all he can do." We started running towards the Rat King. When he saw the bodies the Rat King screamed and struck his staff on the ground. Another puff of smoke and one of the bodies disappeared to be replaced by a living one. Stew bashed it on the head. His eyes lit up. As it fell Stew grabbed my shoulder, pulling me to a stop. "Wait! Dave, we can do some grinding." "What?" I was distracted as The Rat King continued steadily rapping his staff on the floor, one Rat Man every two seconds. "Grinding Dave. He summons mobs that give decent XP that we can one-shot. It's a gold mine!" Mike nearly chopped a head clean off one while Meagan beat two, one after the other, with each end of her staff. I didn't feel confidence in his idea since I doubted that the only thing it could do was summon one rat at a time. I guess The Rat King didn't like what it heard either. "You dare demean my loyal subjects with talk of using them as mere practice? Feel the true might of our Rat Kingdom! Mass Summon!" This time instead of cracking when it was brought down it's staff the sound was like a thunderclap. All the fallen Rat Men disappeared to be replaced with perfect replicas. No more of that, I thought to myself. I brought my crowbar up in both hands and hurled it at The Rat King. ‡ Improvised Weapon Proficiency is level 3, +1 Skill Point. ‡ It was dead on, center mass. Striking his invisible magical barrier my crowbar stopped midair and fell, ringing, to the floor. "Stew, I will fucking kill you!" I yelled. MIKE GRIZZLE - AVERAGE

ATTRIBUTES Mike Average HP(Regen) 62 (1.6/15Min) Str 7 Int 6 Per 5 XP Human Level 3 MP(Regen) 23 (2/Min) Dex 11 Wis 5 Cha 5 40/300 18 Job --- Stam(Regen) 23 (2.1/Sec) Vit 8 Res 5 Lck 3 16 Skill Points Buffs: Average, Attack +5%, Defense +5%, XP +5%

SKILLS Skill Level Martial Art Level Martial Art Level Basic CPR Mastered [Analyze] 5 [Dodge] 2 Throw 3 [Inspect] 4 [Swing] 2 Running 2 [Sprint] 4 [Sneak] 2 Carry 2 [Stomp] 4 Carpentry 2 [Jump] 3 Spell Level Basic Cooking 1 [Leap] 3 {Mana Bolt} 1