Periwinkle wasn't sure what was going on, but mummy and daddy were upset. At six years old, there were a lot of things she didn't understand, but she watched and listened to everything they did. What she could gather was that something bad had shown up in the cellar of her family's tavern, and while daddy had shut and barred the cellardoor, mummy had run to the adventurer's guild to get help. She'd returned a few minutes later, saying that help was on the way, her baby brother still cradled in her arms.

And help did arrive in the form of a half-dozen young adventurers, armed and armored as best they could be, given their inexperience and lack of funds. They were a bunch of fresh-faced novices, the eldest being a handsome young lad no older than seventeen. The young Periwinkle had thought him the handsomest man she'd ever seen. He had fair hair, impressive biceps, and a smile that seemed to go 'ting' when it sparkled. He'd smiled that smile at her and set her up on a high counter, saying, "Just watch young lady, we'll get this taken care of for you." And watch she did.

She watched as the adventurers gathered around the cellardoor. She watched as the leader pushed the door open, that smile still on his face. She watched as a massive black rat the size of a small horse leaped through the doorway and latched its teeth onto his handsome face and ripped it off before anyone knew what was happening. She watched as a dozen rats the size of hounds burst through around their leader, striking the other adventurers before they had time to react. She watched as the adventurers fell to the ground screaming as the rats tore them apart. She watched as Mummy and Daddy tried to run, but a dozen more rats had already stormed into the tavern, falling on them as well. She watched as another massive black rat rushed Mummy, then tore her baby brother from her arms, swallowing him in one bite. She watched as the rats tried to snap at her feet as she leaped for the rafters, trying to get some distance between herself and the beasts. She watched as the rats ate everyone else in the room alive and gnawed their bones. She watched as the two massive black rats, the dire rats, glared up at her with eyes filled with hatred, hunger, and savage cunning, before deciding that she wasn't worth the effort it would take to drag her down and eat her. She watched as three guardsmen, drawn by the sounds of screaming, came into the tavern and saw the hell that it had become. She watched as one immediately ran away while the other two shut and held the door, trying to keep the beasts from escaping out into the streets. She watched as, a few minutes later, an older and more experienced adventurer arrived, and the short, fat, ugly man walked in the door. She watched as he tossed things into the horde of rats, things that burst into clouds of dust that made the rats screech, run in circles and bite at one another before finally dying. She watched as the two dire rats tried to go for his throat as the man, viper-quick, tossed two knives that sank into their skulls and dropped the two beasts in an eyeblink. She watched as the man then finished off the rats still struggling to stay alive, slitting their throats one by one. She watched as he went down into the cellar, and heard the screeching as more rats died. She watched as he came back up, none the worse for wear, and called the guard in to drag the corpses out. She watched as the guard hauled out fifty more rats, including four more dire rats, before it was done.

Periwinkle watched all of that, at only six years old. Something died inside of her that day. Maybe a lot of things had died inside of her, watching all of that.

She had learned later that, when mummy had gone to get help, the staff at the adventurer's guild had not asked for any details, but had simply heard giant rats in a tavern cellar and sent the youngest and least experienced group of adventurers that were available. They had heard giant rats and assumed it was a minor infestation and not a swarm. They had heard giant rats and assumed that it was just giant rats, and not dire rats, which were a much larger and far more dangerous foe, and still common in the sewers beneath the city. They had heard giant rats and assumed it was a non-threat, not a horde that might kill dozens of innocent people before it was stopped.

Had a veteran adventurer not been nearby, already armed, and both ready and willing to step in to help the guardsmen, dozens more people might have died before the guild had sent a force appropriate for the threat in question. It had happened before at least once in the last decade and would happen again a year later.

All because the staff at the guild had heard the words 'Giant Rats' and 'Tavern Cellar' in the same sentence, and failed to take the situation seriously.

It was a common enough story. Now and again, the rats in the cellar turned out to be more than a group of newbies could handle. Now and again, everyone in a tavern would get eaten alive by the giant rodents. Now and again, a family was destroyed by a swarm of vermin. And yet the world kept on spinning, barely anyone even remembering that it had happened. No lessons were learned, and no changes were made to procedure or protocol to prevent such tragedies from repeating. People died, and nothing changed, and so, more people would die from the same apathy and indolence, over and over again.

The worst part was, if all of the veteran adventurers were to band together, they could have wiped out all of the monsterkin in the city's sewers within a week, and the city would be safe from the threat of such creatures forever. Dungeons were needed for monsterkin to be born, and with the only dungeon in the region gone, the only reason that such beasts roamed the sewers was that no one had bothered to wipe them out yet. However, the majority of veteran adventurers thought that such work was beneath them, and considered it something that newcomers should cut their teeth on, not something that experienced monster hunters and heroes should be bothered with. In spite of the evidence to the contrary, adventurers considered giant rats a non-threat, not a plague upon the city. Because of that attitude, Periwinkle's parents had been eaten alive by giant rats. Because of that attitude, Periwinkle's baby brother had been swallowed whole by a dire rat. Because of that attitude, Periwinkle's world had been torn apart in a single afternoon. And yet the world kept on spinning, unconcerned for the plight of a small, newly orphaned girl who'd watched it all happen, and no one willing to do anything that might prevent such a tragedy from repeating itself.

By the time Periwinkle was seven, she understood all of this. She also resolved to stop it from happening again. If no one was going to do anything to stop this madness from happening over and over again, she would make it stop. To that end, she'd tracked down the adventurer who had killed the rats that had killed her family and begged him to teach her how to do what he did.

That was how it had started. Not even the gods could know where it might end.