Swyvers – Feta’s Revenge, Pt I

Summary

Maisie’s Miscreants felt the city turn against them. Word spread that Tolman Toby had been found butchered in the rickery and, at the tavern where they usually met, Mr. Tweed, a severed human ear was nailed to the door with a message in blood: Gimme sprog or I feast on the rest of Tweed tomorrow by midnight. Rattigan, too, was whispered dead—found completely dry, no blood. Faced with a choice between delving into a rumored crypt or confronting the threat in the midden, they chose Tweed and Feta.

They slipped into the sewers by day, skirting patrols and shin‑deep filth. A rotworm surged from the muck and nearly dragged Krusty under before Nobby rammed his halberd down its maw and split it open. In a side passage, they found a dead‑end dormitory; three sleeping ratmen never woke as throats were quietly cut. Nobby, ever practical and appalling, tore off a rat leg to use as a shield, and the crew sifted trash for a few useful trinkets before moving on.

A lone rat scout spotted them and fled. Krusty gave chase through black water, but the alarm was raised. The tunnel opened into a lit chamber that looked more like a crypt than a sewer. Five ratmen scrambled to arms as a rotted coffin creaked open. Out rose Feta—pale, vast, and speaking as if he’d been waiting for them. Beside him, Cordella sat up with a cocked crossbow, her face drained of life.

Battle erupted. Cordella loosed a shot and, with a curl of disgust for the party’s rags, chose flight over death. Feta barreled through the fray and sank his teeth into Jasper, chilling him to the marrow; the cutpurse staggered back and fled before the thing could drain him dry. Maisie smeared moldy herbs on steel, Clementine caved in a ratman with his iron, and Krusty tore another down. Then Nobby stepped in and, with a brutal sweep, took Feta’s head clean off. It rolled across the stones, and the surviving ratmen broke, vanishing into the dark.

They pressed on, found Tweed alive but battered, and cut him free. In the aftermath, they scoured side rooms, uncovering curious reagents tucked with playing cards, a heavy boss’s cleaver, and a pair of diamond piercings likely stolen in earlier depredations. They kept Feta’s head as proof, talked of burning the body, and slipped back topside—loot fenced poorly through Black Mary, Tweed saved, and Lucky all the more determined to raise his stolen sprog, little Chuck, while the rumor of a deeper crypt beckoned next.

OUTLINE:

Blood on the Door, Choice in the Dark

• News spread that Tolman Toby was found murdered and beloved by the poor.
• At the tavern, a severed ear and a bloody note demanded the return of the sprog or Tweed would die by tomorrow at midnight.
• Rumors said Rattigan had been found completely dry, without blood.
• The party chose to confront Feta in the midden rather than pursue Linzor’s crypt—Tweed first.

Into the Midden: Stealth, Worm, and Silent Knives

• They approached by day; the old secret door was boarded, so they found a main entrance.
• A rotworm ambushed them; Nobby killed it by driving his halberd down its throat.
• They located a dead‑end barracks and slit three sleeping ratmen’s throats without raising an alarm.
• Nobby fashioned a disgusting rat‑leg “shield”; the crew scavenged small finds from trash.

Alarm Raised and the Crypt Beyond

• A rat scout fled; Krusty pursued through water, but the alarm drew them to a lit chamber.
• The room proved to be an old crypt absorbed by the midden, with five ratmen inside.
• A rotten coffin opened; Feta rose pale and composed, Cordella beside him with a crossbow, also pale.

Fight with Feta, Flight of Cordella

• Cordella fired a bolt and fled with open disdain for the poorly dressed party.
• Feta bit Jasper and drained his strength, forcing Jasper to retreat.
• Maisie smeared moldy herbs on weapons; Clementine caved in a ratman; Krusty killed another.
• Nobby beheaded Feta; the remaining ratmen fled the chamber.

Aftermath: Tweed Freed, Spoils Tallied, What’s Next

• They found Mr. Tweed alive and cut him free.
• In a side room they recovered a boss’s cleaver, two vials labeled via playing cards (Eye of Newt and a dissolved fossil), and diamond piercings likely from prior thefts.
• They kept Feta’s head as proof, planned to burn the corpse, and fenced loot through Black Mary’s poor rates.
• Lucky affirmed he would raise the stolen sprog Chuck; the crew eyed Linzor’s crypt for their next venture.

NPCs:

• Black Mary: A tight‑fisted fence who buys hot goods for a pittance and asks few questions. Useful when coin is urgent and time is short.
• Cordella: Feta’s consort, newly bloodless and armed with a crossbow. She loosed a shot, sneered at the party’s rags, and fled rather than die beside him.
• Feta: The pale, massive rat overlord of the midden, who rose from a coffin like a lord of rot. He taunted the Miscreants until Nobby’s blade took his head and ended his reign.
• Jasper: A threadbare cutpurse roped into the job as Nobby’s self‑styled attendant. He fought with a sharp shank until Feta’s bite chilled his blood, then wisely fled to live—and thieve—another day.
• Krusty: Maisie’s battle‑bold hound whose jaws turned the tide more than once. Fearless in the dark and first to chase, Krusty dragged more than one ratman down.
• Mr. Tweed: A rat‑catcher ally and tavern contact who vanished when Feta struck back. Found alive in the depths and freed, he owes the crew and knows every squeak and shadow in the gutters.
• Rattigan: Former rat boss of the tunnels, whispered found ‘completely dry’ with no blood left. His fate foreshadowed the truth about Feta’s hunger.

ITEMS:

• Big Boss Cleaver: A brutal, long‑hafted blade taken from Feta’s trove, heavy enough to hew through bone and bravado alike.
• Chuck, the Sprog: A ratling infant stolen in an earlier raid and now claimed by Lucky as his son, Charles “Chuck” Entertainment Cheese.
• Crossbow: A scavenged arm and Cordella’s chosen sting; in tight halls, a quarrel speaks first.
• Diamond Piercings: A matched pair of stolen glints, illicit history glittering in each facet.
• Dissolved Fossil (6 of Spades): A viscous, ancient solution labeled with a card; valuable and likely potent in the right ritual.
• Eye of Newt (2 of Clubs): A glass vial wrapped in a playing card; an alchemical staple with a whiff of old magic.
• Halberd: Nobby’s favored polearm that split a rotworm and, moments later, a tyrant’s neck.
• Mint Hatchet: Maisie’s keen little killer, made keener yet with a smear of grave‑mold and grit.
• Shank (Mint): Jasper’s quick blade that drew real blood before fear of death sent him running.
• The Stolen Crown: The glittering prize from the Miscreants’ last heist, now more trouble than treasure as the city seethes.

LOCATIONS:

• Junk Rooms: Heaps of scavenged goods—pots, chests, oil, oddments—where patience pays and filth hides fortune.
• Nursery Barracks: A cramped sleeping nook where three ratmen slumbered and never woke, the floor strewn with trash and cast‑off gear.
• The Crypt Chamber: A rotted coffin room absorbed into the midden, lit and fouled, where Feta and Cordella rose to meet the intruders.
• The Midden: A warren of sewage tunnels and ratwork beneath the city, from nurseries and junkrooms to a long‑forgotten crypt where Feta made his bed.
• The Tavern: The crew’s usual meeting spot, where a human ear and a bloody ultimatum were nailed to the door.

FACTIONS:

• City Watch (Peelers): Thin blue lines of law and lash, quick to raise a gallows when blood runs in the streets.
• Ratmen of the Midden: The sewer‑born clans that nest, raid, and rule beneath the city’s feet. They followed Feta until his fall.
• The Family: Shadowy patrons with an occult library and colder appetites, bound to the crew by a wary truce.

QUESTS:

• Linzor’s Crypt: Pursue the lead of a deeper crypt promising coin and curses below the city.
• Raise Chuck: Protect and provide for the stolen sprog now claimed as family, teaching him to read and survive.
• Rescue Mr. Tweed and End Feta: Track Feta to the midden, save Mr. Tweed from his clutches, and stop the vampire rat’s reign.
• The Stolen Crown Fallout: Lay low or redirect suspicion as the city howls for justice after Tolman Toby’s death.

PLAYER CHARACTERS

• Clementine: Fresh out of prison and short on coin, Clementine carries a heavy beating iron and a stubborn streak. Practical and strong, he waded into the crypt fight without armor, a scavenged helmet on his brow, and the will to bend metal and fate when needed.
• Lucky: A stubborn, street‑hardened scoundrel who claims the stolen ratling as his own son and will not yield him back. He keeps to the shadows when trouble flares but steps forward when family—chosen or stolen—is threatened. Lucky named the sprog Chuck and swore to raise him literate and sharp.
• Maisie Faye: A quick‑witted survivor with a nose for oddments and the occult, as comfortable in a midden as in a musty library. She fights with a keen hatchet and stranger tricks, smearing moldy herbs on steel when the dead refuse to stay down. Loyal to her own, she moves decisively when innocents like Mr. Tweed are at stake.
• Nobby: A loud, swaggering brawler who dresses a touch too fine for the gutter and loves to brag about past capers. He favors long steel and brutal solutions—be it halberd through rotworm or a vampire’s head rolling across stone—and will use anything at hand, even a rat’s leg, as a shield.