“Oh. Hi.” Shaynen smiled.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“We took the wrong door. You said Left on the right. Right?” Shaynen asked.

“We saw a rat.” Odelia pushed Shaynen aside.

“Oh. Did you kill it?” The Governor asked.

“Yes of course!” Odelia said.

“Where is it?” The Governor asked. Odelia paled. Shaynen snickered.

“Uh… Haagut. Ate it.” She coughed awkwardly. Haagut looked up indignant. The Governor looked down to the Goblin man, Haagut looked up and smiled with all his teeth.

“Oh, I see.” The Governor said confused. “All right then, carry on.” He passed the party and went into the kitchen. Without another word the four members of the party went through to the stairs down into the dark. Shaynen could see just fine in the dark, but Cleatus lit a lantern anyway. When Odelia stumbled, Shaynen realized why the lantern was needed.

At the bottom of the stairs were the rats. Nibbling on bags and their contents. They were fat rats, but most were fairly average sized. Cleatus pulled his bow out and nocked an arrow and shot it. Barely a second passed between the ease of movement. The arrow skewered a rat and made the others in it’s large group turn toward the party. Shaynen and Odelia moved out from the sides of Cleatus. Odelia moved first, pulling out a quarterstaff of her own. Shaynen gasped excitedly seeing her use a similar weapon. She ran into the thick of the rats, smashing them into the ground. The rats didn’t take well to it. They turned and hissed at Odelia. Biting and clawing at any inch of exposed flesh. Shaynen ran over, twirling his staff over his forearm and smacked a line of rats away from Odelia.

Haagut brought out a book, he flipped through it and held out a hand. A ball of magic came from his hand. With the sound of a deep ringing bell, a few of the rats gave shrieks and collapsed. Two other groups of rats turned but a large sized rat the size of a five pound sack of flour came running towards Odelia. It headbutted her hard in the stomach. Knocking all the wind out of her. CLeatus drew back another arrow and skewered another group of rats, drawing their attention as well. Odelia recovered and smashed the large rat over the head with her staff, it barely seemed to notice. All around her the smaller rats continued gnawing at her.

Shaynen swatted at more rats. Managing to rid his side of the room of them. Another clang of bells from Haagut. Clearing another group. A second large rat came barrelling out of the stores. This time smashing Odelia hard enough to drop her to the ground. Cleatus Raised his bow as the second of the large rats hovered over Odelia. Sinking an arrow through it and killing it. Odelia started getting back to her feet. Shaynen ducked around the side of her and swiped back all the rats trying to chew through her armor. A loud clang that made even Shaynen’s ears hurt dropped the final large rat where it stood. Then the room was silent.

“Are you all right?” Haagut walked to Odelia. CLeatus helped her up and Shaynen brought her, her staff.

“Yeah. Just knocked the wind out of me.” She snarled.

“Good,” Haagut turned toward the food stores. “Now if you all don’t mind I would like to take a minute and do some investigating. Perhaps while we’re down her we could find some evidence to swing our conclusions.”

“Something about Timothy’s pendant is a little suspicious.” Shaynen said. Haagut had already walked away and Cleatus was leaned up by the stairs.

“How d’you mean?” Odelia asked. Shaynen shook his head.

“I don’t know. I can’t quite put my finger on it. But I’ve seen it in other towns, On other people. It just doesn’t seem like a good luck charm.” Shaynen sighed. Odelia nodded. She wandered off and began hunting through the food while Shaynen sat and tried to think of what the pendant could have been. After a short time Haagut stood and went over to a barrel along the wall. Shaynen had given up trying to think of anything and stretched.

“Well I guess there’s nothing else to do.” He sighed. He scooped up a dead rat by the tail “Shall we?”

“I don’t think we’re gonna find anything here.” Odelia said.

“Then lets head upstairs.” Cleatus said.

“Yes, I suppose so.” Haagut quickly messed with his bag and his way to the stairs. Shaynen looked dejected at his feet and walked up the stairs. On the first floor the Governor was pacing.

Shaynen walked confidently up to the Governor and held out the rat to him.

“Fixed the problem!” He said with a grin. He dropped the rat but the Governor didn’t reach out to grab it. It hit the floor with a soft thud. The Governor was taken aback but he cleared his throat and gained composure.

“Right. Right. I.. uh.” He cleared his throat again.

“This seemed like sabotage.” Haagut pushed Shaynen to the side. The Governor kept staring at Shaynen.

“Oh did it?” He asked.

“Did it?” Shaynen asked.

“Huh?” Odelia and CLeatus both walked up to look at Haagut.

“Indeed. In fact we were approached earlier about it.” Haagut shoved Shaynen over further. Demanding the Governor’s attention. The Governor looked at all the faces. “We were offered… nearly ten times as much as you were offering us. But we agreed that it all seemed… suspicious.”

“I appreciate your loyalty.” The Governor nodded. “Perhaps… there is a potential to earn some more gold.”

“I’m listening.” Cleatus said. The Governor gave each of them a very stern look.

“I believe there is a cult operating in my town.” He said gravely.