With the party fully geared up and ready for anything they decide to investigate the granary at night in hopes to catch the thieves in the act. The plan works perfectly, as soon as they open the door to the granary they catch a small rat person stealing a bag of grain and smuggling it down a hidden tunnel. As he sees them his eyes go wide with panic, he begins to ring an old rusted bell, and shouts "we've been discovered!" The party immediately draws their weapons and prepares for a fight, even as the ground beneath them begins to rumble. They take out the first ratfolk easily enough but then the floor beneath them erupts in rats, hundreds of rats spill out of the floor boards, dozens of giant dire rats mixed in with the swarm, and even more vicious rat people leading them. The party struggled against them as the rats endlessly flooded the granary, even spilling out through the door and attacking the party members outside. The ratfolk had nasty poison that they used against the adventurers and the swarms of rats crawled and clawed all over them but in the end the party won out! unfortunately in the process of slaying the rats they had set the granary on fire and were unable to put it out before it was left a smoldering ruin, with all the grain inside destroyed.
The party, knowing that the rats employed hidden tunnels underneath, plans to dig out the ruins and venture forth into those tunnels to make sure that none of them remain and hopefully recover any amount of food for the town of Baybrook...
They descended into the tunnels, unsure of what they would find, or what they would encounter, but certain that they would find the stolen food. The party found a network of tunnels leading all over the town, that's how the rat folk must've stolen everything, but one tunnel only led deeper underground, deeper into their lair. In the heart of the tunnels they met some sort of dark wizard rat-man leading this clan of vermin. He threw spells at them and tried to hoard what remained of the stolen food but the party wasn't having it! They resisted his poison attacks, overcame his spells, and put him down, ending the theft and food shortage of Baybrook. The party found much of, but not all, of the missing food, the rats must've eaten it, the party also helped themselves to a few handfuls of snacks as a reward for a job well done. Dr. Petyr also found an odd, glowing, gemstone on the body of the rat wizard. Attuning to it immediately he felt his body wither, his speed falter, but his mind expand with new ideas, new possibilities, new inventions he had never even thought of before...
After a brief rest and bringing the food back up to the surface, the party heads back to The Maiden's Mug for a proper long rest and celebration. The revelries would have to wait however, for as they approached the tavern they could smell smoke on the air and see the glow of still smoldering embers. They rushed to help Bornga & Molly but it was too late, the tavern was destroyed, and Bornga & Molly burned at the stake. A note by the Golden Hand was stabbed in the wooden statue of Griselda, a warning to any who would aid or sympathize with the undead. Before the party could even mourn the lose of their friends a Paladin of the Golden Hand revealed himself, waiting for someone to return to the scene of the crime. The paladin accused them all of being undead, or at the very least, sympathizers and thus sentenced them to death. Tempers were hot on both sides, emotions were high, and the paladin unleashed his full might on the party, engulfing them in radiant fire! While the party was left weak and wounded they overcame the paladin and ended his life for the heinous crime of murdering their friends. Remembering the skills of Dr. Alfden Flamme gathered up the bodies of Bornga & Molly, stole the Golden Hand's horse and rode off to get help. The rest of the group followed as fast as they could, but time was of the essence for Flamme. When she arrived at the bandit camp she skipped the pleasantries and urged Dr. Alfden to help her, remembering her earlier friendship he promised to do everything he could but he needed the proper materials. Luckily for everyone, Flamme had just what he needed. Dr. Alfden proceeded with a necromantic ritual, magic outlawed by the Golden Hand, and was able to restore Bornga & Molly to life. As they breathed air back into their lungs the entire party sighed with relief, and as the new day dawned they finally went down for a long rest.