Realizing that people are using these caves, we think about putting a watch here and either charging tax or kicking people out and letting them know that this place is under new management.

We head to the next area and see evidence of people climbing up the embankment of the gorge. It is quite rocky here and there are other caves above us. Vedasi free climbs up and ties a rope so the rest of us can go in.

Upon entering we see old bedrolls and a circle of stones for a fire pit. There is also a knapsack here with 5 gold and a small dagger. As we are looking around, Jean smells something strange, like a wet musty odor coming from the left wall.

We take a look and see a hidden fissure covered by stones and netting only about a foot wide. The air is clearly coming from the next cave over. We head over there and check the right wall of that cave. It smells much stronger here and gets worse toward the back of the cave.

There is a red flash and Tobruk dodges out of the way as a jagged curved blade comes out of the wall. It is a skaven, a man-rat, and they are wearing black armor and wielding swords. Several of them swarm from other entrances toward us. One has a globe of strange liquid and runs toward us. It explodes and three of the skaven are caught in the blast, as well as a few of our party. Brokk gets a big whiff of it and feels intense pain, vomiting and doubling over. He runs away from the fight, hacking and coughing.

The others continue fighting as more skaven come out, at least ten of them. They secrete a horrible smelling musk when they are scared or injured. We fight them off and one gets away. Before pursuing them we try to heal up, but Brokk completely fails at it, even with a poultice.

Picking through the skaven belongings, in a pouch Tobruk finds three pieces of glowing green rock, three nuggets of it. He is not sure what it is at first, but Vedasi realizes that it is refined Warpstone. It’s very dangerous, but common for skaven to use and even eat.

We head back to the keep and heal up, then sleep through the night. The next day Jean remembers that he took a book on skaven from the house we recently visited. It mentions the way that skaven wage war and an “under empire” which is where they live, including a city called Skaven Blight. They have a large empire underneath the ground. His other history books mention nothing of the skaven at all. Tobruk relates that they are second only to dwarves when it comes to engineering and that at least one dwarven hold was destroyed by the skaven. Vedasi relates that Britonia held back an attack by skaven long ago, and the wood elves fought against them other times as well.

We decide to undertake an effort and check around the keep to see if there are threats around. We take some of the cloaks and swords and spread them around the lower caverns so it looks like they were hit by skaven and this is why the rifles and such are missing.

It’s determined that the skaven are the gravest threat. We start planning a trip to a nearby city to get help in defeating them. We haven’t decided where yet — either to the Boss, Hauptner, or someone else.