Ulrik charges in. The giant rats barely have time to react and bar their teeth at him before the dorn dergar comes down...and barely misses the rat that he has attacked. The weapon takes a chunk out of the floor though.

(Rolled a '5' to hit. Missed the giant rat by 1...)

The two dwarven rangers have better luck though. Each one picks a rat and drops their target with a well placed shot. The first dies to an arrow and the second to a crossbow bolt.

The last of the giant rats leaps at Ulrik and latches onto the dwarf. It's sharp teeth sink into the barbarian's leg.

(2 points of damage, passed fort save. The party is up again)

Ulrik chokes up on the chain and kicks the rat off his leg before trying to crush its skull.

"The damned blighter bit me!" Ulrik's voice rings out, sounding more annoyed than hurt.

[ooc]
Choking up on the dergar, which is a move I think.
Power attack on the rat.
[/ooc]

Ubba sighs. "Well two down. Looks like your really going to work for your dinner this time."

Still with his bow ready, he keeps an eye down the other passage just in case something new shows up.

Ulrik's voice rings out, echoing through the halls. The sound was soon swallowed up by the darkness, followed by the crash of a dorn dergar smashing a rat into paste. For the moment, nothing seems to stir in the darkness. Now standing over the body of the dead human, Ulrik can see that the man's boots are of a completely different quality than the rest of his gear. Where his leather armor is old, weather beaten, and ale stained, the boots look pristine, as if they had never been worn. He lies face down on the floor in a pool of blood.

The book itself is covered in blood, and much of it is unreadable. It proves to be a journal though. The relevant information is as follows:

"…I warned Kemmrick, the dwarves here were not of sound mind, and their secrets should be left in the ground, but he would not be placated. We’ve already lost Martren, and without his divine guidance we are truly lost in the dark. Monsters lurk in every shadow. They are watching us, I can feel it. But something worse jangles in the deep. I feel its evil from afar, like a blistering heat threatening to melt away my soul. The Dark Smith might be forgotten, but I fear one of his vile servants still prowls
these halls, keeping the fires of Droskar burning...


…their shrieks tore my courage from me and left my heart cold. I don’t know what they did when their blades cut me, but my thoughts jumble now, and my hair falls away in bloody clumps…if
only Martren were here, he would know what sickness ails me and pray for my salvation. The only prayer I can muster is that this plague takes me before that hellish shackled servant of Droskar returns to drag me off in chains as he did Kemmrick. I still hear his screams in my mind...

...…ears wet…thirst so thirst…lost in the dark…tongue gone now…
itchy…face rot rot rot…blood tastes good…fly soon fly."

Ulrik, upon hearing what was written in the journal, stops gutting the rats, stands up, and walks to the fire and puts the blade in to cleanse it of whatever sickness had taken the man without a single word.

"Well this sounds pleasant." Ubba remarks dryly. "Although the Lords would no doubt be worried about this. Plague below Ekrund, right as we mean to take it?"

Curious about the boots, Ubba will remove them carefully. He'll use a scrap of leather off his tunic just to be safe, but he finds it strange that this fellow has such good quality boots but everything else is ragged.

"Yeh, it is worringly to find this now, but i think the lords want us to find out what kind of plague we have on our hands, so we can find a way to counter it better". Bjorn looks around in the room and hope to find something useful.

"I find it strange the umgi have good boots when the rest is more or less just rags, it makes one think, and who is this servant of Droskar?."

"Mad dawi's me guess," Ulrik replies from where he is busy cleansing his knife.

As the party has no way of identifying magical items, all that Ubba can tell is that the boots certainly do look out of place.

Looking around, there is a hallway leading west and the hallway you are in continues north to a circular room. This large circular stone chamber has four massive iron doors in the north, south, east, and west walls. The south and east doors stand
open, while the north and west doors remain closed. At the center of the room a strange stone obelisk rises from floor to ceiling, its surface covered with metal bands and encrusted with deposits of a strange greenish mineral. The floor of this chamber is strewn with headless skeletons and scattered bones (no skulls among them). A dented steel shield and bits of metal armor lie at the foot of the obelisk.

The party can of course, go into the room. Or can explore a different hallway. Of the skaven, thus far the only ones seen were the two slaves that were so efficiently slaughtered by the party.

Ubba sticks the boots in his bag for now, rather then spend to much time messing around with them. "Either of you two lads want to put em on and see if anything happens?" he offers the other two.

After the boots are dealt with Ubba turns to his companions. "Thoughts on where to go from here? No sign of the walking rats yet... I'm surprised. I thought the sound might draw them to us."