Game log for New Years Day 2017: Rats!

Dramatis personae

Caleb, wizard
Mayhem, barbarian
Kim, thief
Ash, squire
Kôštē, cleric (NPC)
Villûdē, guide (NPC)

Quid occurrit

Caleb woke up the next day, still weak. Kôštē slugged a potion, and Caleb went looking for herbs to help her. He found some horehound, and cast Create Steam to help her lungs. Mayhem moved the camp a mile away, and the gang gathered food all day.
They started walking to the south the next morning. They soon saw a beast as big as an ox, with shaggy red fur and a bald head. Caleb gathered this was the santer, which Villûdē said was right. "The banter won't do anything to you if you don't do anything to it."
Kim perked up. "So can we touch it?"
Villûdē said, "That might count as doing something to it."
It bolted away after a few seconds, but Mayhem picked up its trail. They followed it all that day and the next. While they were camping on second night of following its path, they heard some howling to the southeast, albeit from afar. Nothing came for them, however, and they picked up its trail again the next day. At midday, the santer did come near them, but bolted again.
The morning after that they came to the wreck of a tower. Kim found a big stone in the floor that had a slim gap around it, so Mayhem and Ash lifted it to show a trapdoor. It was not locked, so they opened it and all went down after tying up their horses.
They went down the stairs under the trapdoor, and at the bottom was a jaw trap, which Kim saw right away. There was enough room around it to keep from stepping on it, so everyone did so, and found himself in a triangular room with a hallway to the left, one straight ahead, and a door to the side of the hallway straight ahead. Kim led them left, and after a short walk, they found themselves in a room with old spoons, broken knives, and a shattered pot. The wall on the other side had some metal pipes on it, and there was a door on its wall, and on the wall next to the hallway through which they went into the room.
They picked the door next to the hallway, and went down it, into a room with books. Most books were ones they couldn't read since they were in Old Erstokkese, and there was another in a tongue nobody knew that had clean writing and awesome paintings of men in shorts, some other men in armor, some holding sticks, others holding big round things. The few women in it were mostly wet. The one book in Mannish was Things Said to Me by Sages by Klévos Algídes. Sadly, the sages didn't have many good things to say, mostly useless advice. There was one door out of this room, which opened to a dusty room with no other doors.
They walked back to the kitchen, and went through the other door. They followed it down a hallway that turned a few times, when Kim saw a thin wire on the floor. She got down and looked at the walls, and saw a small hole in it, at about the height of a man's heart. She cut the wire, and nothing happened. Thus, they walked past to another door. They opened it, and saw a crypt lined with coffins. As they started walking towards the coffins to open them, a dozen giant rats came out of the gaps and some of the coffins and struck.
They fought back, and won, after both Caleb and Kôštē fell from bites. They looked in the coffins, and Kim found a small chest. She picked its lock, and found 110 copper farthings and 69 silver pennies in it. Kim took the money, and Mayhem and Ash put the sleeping Caleb and Kôštē each in a coffin before opening the one other door in the crypt. The gang followed the hallway, which went back into the triangular room.
Kim opened one of the doors in the triangular room, and a smell hit them. Both Kim and Villûdē started puking from the smell, while Mayhem shut the door upon seeing another ten giant rats standing before a toilet. After Kim and Villûdē stopped coughing up their breakfasts, Kim opened the other door. The room beyond it was eight-sided, and there was a stone table in the middle, with broken glass all over. There were two doors—one on the wall straight ahead, and another to the right.
Kim opened the door straight ahead, and they found themselves in another eight-sided room. This one had a white alabaster altar on a dais in the middle of the room. The altar had a small idol of an owl, two incense holders, a pewter decanter, and a goblet. Under the altar was a small chest. Kim went for the chest, and found it unlocked. She opened it, and felt a sudden need for more danger. In the chest was a deep amber potion, which she took, along with the idol, incense holders, decanter, and goblet. Bolder, she pushed past everyone and led them back to the first eight-sided room.
There she was about to go through the other door when many swarms of rats came out of the walls. After making them skitter, Kim got on the floor and stuck her sword in one of the ratholes in the wall. Mayhem grabbed her by the scruff, and they went back to the crypt to get their spellcasters and the books they found before going.
Mayhem knew they weren't going to last much longer without rest, and asked Villûdē where they could get some. She said they could make it to the peat farm in a few days, so they set out to go there. The next day, the casters awoke, and Kôštē healed the others, before slugging her last potion the day after that. Kim, however, had a cough, but it wasn't nasty. The third day was the fall equinox; Kôštē wanted to be helping with the harvest, her first since becoming a full cleric. On a fourth day of trekking (22 Brugés) and a slight cough from Ash, they made it to the peat farm, whose farmers was amazed to see them.

Res aliae

Caleb was still down HT from the witherweeds, which I shouldn't have had him be as much. Looking back, HT should have come back at a point a day. So now he has it back at the peat farm. He still needs to deal with having sewer rot from a rat bite, however.
They will get to rest up at the peat farm, and I'll grant them some character points next time. Seven, from my quick count. It seems I need to flesh out the peat farm more, as they keep coming back to it.