[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h2][color=00aeef][i][b]Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah[/b][/i][/color][/h2][i][b][color=00aeef]Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03[/color][/b][/i] [color=00aeef][i][b]HP:[/b][/i][/color] 24 / 24 [color=00aeef][i][b]Armor Class:[/b][/i][/color] 15 [color=00aeef][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=00aeef][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] Neil & Bobs Public House [color=00aeef][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] History on Were-Rat rumours: 13 [color=00aeef][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=00aeef][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.imgur.com/k1vHhU0.png[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] Were-Rats. The ridges of BlackBerrys eyebrows rose to impressive heights. Giant Rats, he had dealt with. Average sized bandits, he had dealt with. Supposedly, it had just been a matter of time before the Gods decided to slam the two together and throw the results at him. Thinking back on the scene from the market earlier the child did take on a more…ratty appearance, even the noises the child had made had sounded fairly rodent-like. And Sheriff Alberlast had tasked these people to deal with them? Truly, it seemed the group had one hell of a task ahead of them. After watching the others start their meals, (Lady Katheryn inhaling hers with a worrying speed) he finally faced the inevitable and looked to start digging into his own bowl of soup. Tendrils of steam from the warm soup seductively wrapping around his nose with the smell of roasted butternut squash, with hints of the sharp smell of something having been slightly burnt, and something else that he couldn't place. It was a thick soup coloured to a cozy yellow-orange bespeckled by dots of brown pepper and small tufts of something green sitting below the surface. It looked wonderfully smooth and inviting. Blackberry picked up the small bread roll he had been given and broke it into large chunks by digging his thumb in and prising it apart. To his delight the bread was soft and fresh with large, even holes throughout. He dunked a piece into the soup and idly stirred with it. The action was something to focus on as he was lost within Robert's double speak, leading in several different directions only to end up almost exactly where he had started, and BlackBerrys eyes flicked in just as many directions as he thought it all through. [color=00aeef] Marita mentioned Were-rats. Not were-wolves."[/color] BlackBerry corrected Robert, as politely as he could. [color=00aeef]"I suppose that would make them…Rodent-thropes?"[/color] His eyes shot upwards as he hunted through his mind for anything he had heard about them; werewolves were common enough in stories and cautionary tales, but were-rats not so much for one reason or another. [color=00aeef]"Thankfully I have not had any run-ins with the beasts myself."[/color] BlackBerry perked up as the memory came back to him, one from another evening spent in an open house chatting with the locals elsewhere. [color=00aeef]"However, I have heard that a city far north of here; Argentum, had the same issue, repeatedly, even."[/color] He pulled the chunk of bread out of the soup to let the excess drain off and drip, drip, drip back into the bowl. He took the moment to shoot a glance over to Robert, then Daisy and Lea. On the one hand, he didn't want to make them worry, this was their home after all and wouldn't do any good repeating old rumours that may do nothing more than make them worry. But on the other hand, if he had any information that might help then he must have the obligation to share it, just as Victoria had done. He continued.[color=00aeef]"They were surprisingly well organised then; keeping their numbers managed, targeting the less fortunate as their victims, all so that they can stay unnoticed as long as they can, as sad as that is to say. Luckily, however, they mostly keep to larger towns, cities, and the like."[/color] Giving the locals around him an apologetic grimace, he tried to use a more upbeat tone, adding. [color=00aeef]"But, if they are organised then that also means that could be talked to, or even reasoned with. If this is the case then there might be a way to solve this problem without any bloodshed." [/color] The last bit directed at the group of adventures. He liked Lady Kathryn's idea to try and cure the Were-Rats rather than...exterminate them. BlackBerry plopped the now soup-soaked chunk of bread into his mouth and was wonderfully rewarded with the warm and comforting flavour of roasted butternut with sharp undertones of pepper, and no doubt several other vegetables to bulk it out. A minty taste was also in the mix, almost sour, which he figured must be from that green herb he spotted tufts of in the mix. Victoria volunteered to go see Mr Mallard after sharing a bit more information on their current, supposed foe. Following her lead, and nodding vigorously with her compliments to the chef as he had his mouth full at that moment, BlackBerry decided on his next task. [color=00aeef] "Well, if that's the case I would like to volunteer to try and find the Were-Rats. I imagine word has spread of Maritia and yourself regarding your employer after this morning, and any investigations you may have been doing. Other than asking around I have no affiliation with him. Although…" [/color] With second thoughts appearing, he had a spoonful of soup before continuing and deciding he may as well ask for some details at this point. [color=00aeef]"You've been doing some investigation, have you not? With the missing who have returned, how have they been changed?"[/color] He dreaded to think of the answer, and wondered just what befell those who didn't return.