Tunnel Rat Chapter 156 (Patreon)

Starting up a chunk of chapters to catch Milo up with Ozzy. I want to maintain five chapters ahead on each of the stories now. This one is a little short, but this was a logical stopping point

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Petey and Milo sat in the cave next to Smiley eating jellybeans. Petey checked on Smiley, took his pulse, turned him a bit and got him to swallow a couple of jelly beans and some water. "We need to get him to the Old Healer. This is almost the same as what happened to Bleusnout."

He sat down next to Milo, poured out a bag of jellybeans. To Milo, they looked like they were slightly glowing. "One of the bushes my clan has is old. Like older than cheese kind of old. No one remembers how we got it. Three others are only a couple of decades old and were brought to us by my great uncle. Good job on finding him, by the way. Got rid of some old grudges and relieved some tension in the older folks."

"Anyway, the beans off of that one get some nice effects if they ripen long enough." He made a small pile of six red beans, one blue bean, and three yellow beans. He swept the rest back into his bag. "The reds will keep healing you up. The blue prevents infection, and bleeding, and the yellows are for poison. Frankly, you should be worse off. Char would have been using poison."

Milo took the rest, but handed the yellows back. "She did. I'm more resistant to poisons than she thought. It was her claws that tore me up. I underestimated her. It was the cheese. I had no idea that cheese could give that much of a boost. And when she turned into a fiend? Even sparring with Larry didn't prepare me for that."

Petey smiled at him. "Yeah, but Larry is a sweetheart down deep. He was always a good kid. Charlotte? Sort of the opposite. Spoiled and entitled. But she was also very good. When you spar, Larry isn't trying to kill you. Keep that in mind the next time you get into a fight."

Milo thought about that, and agreed with Petey. Sometimes it wasn't a game. He had fought tooth and claw against Salasha, he needed to remember that more fights would be like that. "So, what does the Hollow's Deathmaster think is going on?"

Petey suddenly had a very neutral and stupid look on his face. "Gosh, I don't know. What does the Scout Master think."

Milo needed to practice that face, Petey did it very well. "I think you spent years making people underestimate you." They both chuckled. Milo looked over at Smiley. "Rifkin is lying about things. His story just doesn’t line up. And if he's lying about some things, he's probably lying about a lot of things. I ask myself why someone would want to hurt Master Bleusnout, and the obvious answer is the person who benefitted the most."

Petey nodded. "Charchar was talking a lot of bullshit, trying to confuse you, but some of what she said sounded true. How 'Rif' wants to change things in the Hollow. I bet that's the argument he used to convince her. I also wonder about that cheese she was eating. Pretty advanced stuff. None of the battle cheese Bleusnout makes could make someone go fiend so quick."

Milo looked over at where the pit was. "I feel bad."

Petey shook his head. "Don't. Or feel bad later. She made some bad choices and followed it up with bad cheese. And don't forget: I'm the one who pushed her in. Not much choice, as she'd have killed both of us, then Smiley, then gone on a cheese fueled rampage into the Hollow. But still, that was my cousin I just killed."

Milo looked at Petey for a moment. "Deathmaster."

Petey smiled. "Damn right."

"I have the twins following Rifkin tonight."

Petey gave him a thumbs up. "I saw that. Nice skulking, you taught them to shut up and stay silent. They have a lot of talent, they just need to take things serious for a change."

The two of them tucked Smiley in and tied him down tight, then lifted the cot he was on, and took him back to the cellar. Petey listened at the door and they moved past the secret door. It was dark and silent in the Hollow. Milo opened and relocked the far door, and they exited the mess hall. Staying to the shadows it was only a few minutes until they had Smiley resting next to Bleusnout and the Old Healer dithering over both of them.

Then he sat and listened to what they had to tell him, going very quiet when he learned of Charlottes fate. He stood and patted them on their shoulders, then pointed at the door. "Go find Rifkin and bring him here."

After they left the old ratkin sat and thought of happier times, playing with his first granddaughter.

The attack on the caravan came in the early hours of the morning. The mostly human raid was well rested and healed up. Six thieves and assassins using stealth and Shadow Walker potions worked their way silently to the start of the ratkin dungeon. Using sign language, they discussed the next move.
"It looks like a circus in there! Pretty festive. And see that herd of draft animals? Those are to pull the wagons"
"Not many guards, but they have decent armor and weapons. Do you think we can thin them down at all?"
"Have about we backstab some of the ratkin feeding the animals, then take their clothing. With disguise and the darkness, I bet we can surprise some guards."
"We need a druid down here. Which one can actually move silently?"
"That's Duskarrow. He's working on a combo of archery and druid for the toxins. Why?"
"The Panic Animal spell. If we get those beasts upset, the guards will focus on them, not us."

Nods all around set the plan in motion. One person went back looking for the Druid, and four others started moving up behind the ratkin who were feeding the lizards and oiling their skins. The last thief told Brannigan the plans and moved the raid up as far as he could.

The players left nothing to chance. Four of them attacked at once against a lone ratkin. One by one they killed the lizard herders and took their clothing. They moved through the animal herd until they were close to the guards. Duskarrow snuck up to the herd. Lizards were different from cows and horse, still, this should work fine. The spell went into the animals’ minds and made them think that a predator was attacking. They'd all run from the imaginary beast, causing havoc in the little circus while the rest of the raid moved into the cavern and set up. As more ratkin came out of the village, they'd hit them with superior firepower and whittle them down.

The spell was cast, the animals looked up in panic and began to move. Brannigan gave the signal for the raid to begin.