The Spicy Rat Caper

**The Spicy Rat Caper** is the 1st Oxventure episode, in which the the Guild unite for their first adventure.

## Synopsis

In this first episode we meet the party: a ragtag group of adventurers brought together by their desire to make a quick buck.

Prudence (Jane Douglas) is a Tiefling Warlock with an uncomfortable devotion to Cthulhu; Dob (Luke Westaway) is a half-Orc Bard armed with the soothing lullabies of the Venga Boys; Merilwen (Ellen Rose) is a Wood Elf Druid with an affinity for nature and chatting with animals.

Meanwhile the dread pirate Corazón de León (Andy Farrant) is a Human Rogue who has always been a fearsome pirate, why wouldn’t he have been, there's no secret backstory here, stop asking.

## Summary

### Part 1

The story begins in the town of Casterfalls within the kingdom of G'eth. Four adventurers - the human pirate rogue Corazón de Leon, the tiefling warlock Prudence, the wood elf druid Merilwen, and the half-orc bard Dob - see a notice being nailed to a post, stating that adventurers are wanted to find a missing person. They decide to work together to complete this quest, though Prudence seems reluctant.

The group travels to the Mayweather residence, where they are selected from a crowd of would-be adventurers. They meet with Arlo Mayweather, who informs them that his son has gone missing rather suddenly in the middle of the night. Having noticed a rat scurrying out of the room, Corazón asks Merilwen if she could speak to the rat in case it saw anything, and she agrees. Mayweather, however, is not entirely on board with the plan, appearing bewildered at the prospect. Corazón catches the rat and gives it to Merilwen, who conducts a ritual to speak with it, learning that it is Mayweather's son. She tells Mayweather this, who does not believe her and, angry, kicks the guild out of his house. They bring the rat with them, whom Dob uses Prestidigitation on to clean and spice.

Outside the Mayweather residence, a woman approaches the guild, telling them that her husband has vanished, similarly to Mayweather's son. They agree to investigate the scene, and she leads them to her house. While in the house, a chicken starts pecking Corazón's ankle over and over again, and he kicks it across the room in frustration, upsetting Merilwen. Dob discovers a small bottle with a label saying "M. Channail's Miracle Elixir: The 'M' stands for Miracle". The woman says she has seen that being sold in the market and gives them directions. On their way out, Merilwen speaks to the chicken and confirms that it is the missing husband, and his transformation occurred after drinking the elixir.

### Part 2

At the market, the guild easily finds the vendor peddling this elixir. Merilwen pretends to be sick and steps up to the cart to buy a bottle. She pretends to drink it and Wild Shapes into a cat to simulate the transformative properties of the elixir. The rest of the guild, who had been lined up behind Merilwen, begin to question the vendor, attempting to get him to confess to his crimes. Intimidated, the vendor tells them where he gets his supply from in exchange for his life, and the gang destroys the remaining elixir. They take the cart, Dob pretending to be the salesman while the rest hide in the back, and head in the direction of the crypt.

Dob disguises himself as the vendor using his Disguise Kit as they pull up to the crypt, talking to the security guard to convince him that he needs to speak with Channail. The guard is a little suspicious, but eventually lets him in when Dob pays him off. He walks through the door and casts Hideous Laughter on another guard, momentarily incapacitating him. In this moment, Dob runs back to the first guard, attempting to knock him out as well using the hilt of his rapier, but doesn't quite manage to render him unconscious.

Corazón, having heard the ruckus, jumps from the cart and ties up the guard incapacitated with laughter. Merilwen attempts to nonlethally shoot the guard Dob is attacking with her bow, but she misses. Prudence rises from the cart and casts Eldritch Blast at the same guard, disintegrating him like a charcoal after a barbecue, reducing him to a red smear on the floor. The rest of the group is aghast at the horrific violence, which Prudence defends, and though they decide to move on, she remains huffy. Corazón interrogates the tied-up guard, using Prudence to threaten him, who tells them where Channail is brewing more elixir. As they descend the crypt, they find a door and decide to investigate. Dob shoulders open the door and discovers a treasure chest, from which they fill their pockets before continuing on their way.

### Part 3

Corazón sneakily enters the next room to scope out the situation. Within, he discovers two guards and a gnome, the latter of which is stirring a large cauldron. He returns to the stairwell to converse with the others, and after a moment of discussion, he once again stealthily creeps into the room, positioning himself behind the gnome. While Corazón grapples the gnome, restraining him, Dob casts Sleep on the guards from the doorway.

With the gnome restrained, Corazón calls for the rest of the party to enter the room. He begins tying the gnome while Merilwen ties up the sleeping guards. The guild begin questioning the gnome, whom they have deduced must be M. Channail himself, and who claims to be unaware of the fact that his elixir was turning people into animals. Instead, he says that he is simply brewing a scam cure-all regardless of his poor druid skills to make a quick fortune. Despite his ignorance to the animal transformations, he agrees to attempt to create a cure, particularly when Corazón proposes they just leave and take all his gold with them. Under the threat of being Eldritch Blasted if he tries to run or deliberately sabotages the antidote, M. Channail creates a concoction he is fairly sure will work. To test it, Dob feeds one of the guards the elixir, turning him into a pygmy goat, who he then feeds some of the antidote, which fails. Exasperated, Channail works once again on creating an antidote.

Dob grabs the second guard and feeds him elixir, turning him into a lemur, and then gives him the antidote, which works this time. They decide to wait to turn the rat back into a human to prove to Mayweather that they were speaking the truth back at his manor. Corazón and Prudence start bottling the antidote while Merilwen speaks to the rat to explain the plan and Dob cures the pygmy goat, turning him back into a human. The guild release Channail, allowing him to keep what remains of his gold while planning to blow the crypt up using the elixir, which turns out to be flammable, and Prudence's Eldritch Blast to light the spark. Upon exiting the crypt, they notice their cart is gone, and a voice reaches them through the wind, saying "You haven't heard the last of Channail!" Prudence blasts the crypt, exploding it, before they all begin walking back to Casterfalls, which takes about a day. When they reach the Mayweather residence, Dob, having grown attached to the rat, reluctantly feeds him the antidote, while Mayweather watches as his son reappears. They passive-aggressively explain the situation to Mayweather, who pays them 96 gold coins each. Corazón, Prudence, Merilwen, and Dob celebrate and elect to continue adventuring together, officially forming the Oxventurer's Guild, before leaving to turn the chicken back into a man.

## Notable Events

* The founding of the Guild.
* M. Channail is established as the Guild's running nemesis.

## Notable NPCs

* Arlo Mayweather
* Spicy Rat Boy
* M. Channail

## Guild Hijinks

* Dob makes the rat boy smell spicy, hence naming the adventure.

## Behind The Scenes Trivia

* Because this is the very first campaign they had done, there are a few moments of error either in remembering each others character names, or names of locations. Though, in the case for Corazón, it's appropriate.
* Mike was unavailable during the filming of this episode, and as such Egbert was not present during this adventure, making his official appearance in the second campaign, A Spot of Bother.
* The first iterations of what their characters looked like is remarkably different than the more recent episodes, as after this, they approached artist Bendix to make their D&D character portraits.
* The names of the episode parts on YouTube are "Meet The Party", "Showdown at The Crypt" and "Exciting Conclusions: Gnome Fight".
* Andy accidentally skipped the boss fight with M. Channail. Johnny didn't realise that all of M. Channail's attacks involved using his hands when they allowed Corazón to grapple and restrain the gnome, and as such was unable to make him retaliate and had to improvise.
* The entirety of the Oxventure was supposed to be a one-shot of 'wouldn't it be "faintly amusing to see people who don't understand how D&D works play D&D"' (which is why it wasn't a major issue that Mike wasn't available).

## Navigation

1. ↑ Luke's interview on Conpulsion Grimoire https://youtu.be/cX-yYZeHQTM?t=109