Sunday, October 25th, 1671
Lichfield, England

Word had gotten out that the village of Lichfield was looking for rat catchers. Notices went out throughout the area, and by chance, a group of travellers seeking that job found themselves on a small road leading towards the village. Five had answered the call: Alphonze Kirga, a dirty-looking and hardened traveller and Nicholai Romanov, a sinister looking robed man, both hailing from Russia , Regidiah Windsor, a well-armored traveller from London, Jack Cooper, a young adventurer who had travelled from Ireland and Al-Hassan, a turbaned warrior from the Ottoman Empire stopped in the road and acquainted themselves with one another.

All five had travelled separately to the village seeking the work for their own reasons, but decided then and there to work together and split the profits that came with the job. After all, for such a petty job as killing rats, the reward was more than substantial.

As they approached the village outskirts, they stopped and lingered by a hastily erected barricade. It was obvious that somebody didn't want any visitors in Lichfield. Their suspicions arisen and the sun setting behind them, the small group continued past the barrier and ventured towards the village.

No sound, save that of their feet and horses broke the air as they approached the small gathering of houses that made up Lichfield. The horses startled as they came closer, and the group was forced to tie the beasts to a tree and make the rest of the short trek on foot.

The village itself was no better. No lamps lit the windows, and there was no sound to be heard. Not even a single chimney was lit, and the whole experience began to fill the newcomers with dread. Where in heaven's name did everyone go? Jack called out softly as he spied an overturned wagon in the middle of the town square. Slowly, they approached and as they came near to the vehicle, a small group of large black rats poured out from the shadows and attacked the group.

Each fought well against the rodents: Nicolai struck at them with a dagger, while Jack and Al-Hassan fought them off with swords and Regidiah stabbed wildly with a large trident. Truly disturbing was Alphonze, who threw his whole body into the fray, punching and kicking the dire rats, seemingly without fear of being bitten.

The small colony killed, the adventurers began to investigate the houses themselves, finding them all filled with rats, both mundane and horrific. Several houses were destroyed as Regidiah employed small bombs to try and kill the large amount of rats without bringing a swarm down upon the group.

As a single unit, the adventurers fought against the rat swarms, killing those they could and desperately trying to survive the seemingly endless onslaught. Finally, they were able to break into what they assumed to be the mayor's house and came upon a horrific discovery.

Inside the large building, amongst the swarms of rats, the party found a powerful creature, made up of several rats fused together by a mass at their tails. Nicholai had heard about this legendary beast; powerful of mind and sinister in thought: a rat king.

The battle against the rat king was hard fought: with Nicholai revealing that he knew dark magic that he could call upon, throwing blast after blast of magical energy at the creature. Regidiah too had a secret she had not yet revealed as she called upon the powers of Brittania to smite the rat king.

The rat king itself was not without protection, and it used powerful psychic abilities to hammer at the adventurers, but in the end it was not enough, and the beast was slain.

Wordlessly, the party gathered up the corpse of the rat king in a large sack and left the village of Lichfield to burn, lest some rat creature survive and begin the infestation again. The nearest city was Manchester, only a couple of days away. The heroes left in the night and did not make camp until they were far away from the horror that they had witnessed.