Xebbert Dürbann
Greetings, I’m Xebbert Dürbann, the city rat-catcher.
Hello, what brought you here?
Could you tell us something about Riva?
For a port city, Riva is remarkably clean. Normally, rats breed extremely fast so close to water.
But the city took up several of my suggestions on expanding the sewer system, and it pays.
Are you afraid of an imminent orc attack?
The big armies have shoved off to the south, and the orc tribes of the area left only a very few warriors behind. I wouldn’t know what orc force could attack us any time soon.
A lot of people think the holberks are behind the orc uprising.
Ha! Of course they do! First they’re sen to deal with the orcs, because no one else wants to do it, then they’re branded traitors for it! — Apart from their blind fear of the blackpelts, the most significant trait of the townspeople is their sheer stupidity!
Say, what gave you the idea to catch rats for a living in the first place?
You see, I’ve been interested in alchemy for a long time. In the course of that, I discovered — by pure coincidence, but it was the only thing I ever discovered — an odiferous agent rats find irresistible. Since then, I’ve been a rat-catcher. There’s a real need for them, you know. I’ve even had callers from several other cities trying to lure me away with their offers!
What sort of stuff do you use to lure the rats?
I’m sorry, but I’d like to keep my professional secrets. Who knows what sort of profit I can make from it! Anyhow, it’s hardly noticeable for humans, but rats simply can’t resist its pull!
And what sort of strange machine is that you use to herd the rats?
It’s my own invention, though I needed dwarven smiths to manufacture it for me. It’s workings are another thing I prefer to keep to myself, but I can tell you the flames are fed by Hylailic Fire.
You know your way around the sewers, don’t you?
Of course I do! After all, I spend most of the day down there. I could tell you in some detail where there are plenty of rats and where they’re hardly any left… But I very much doubt that you’d be interested.
Do you know anything about the guild or the tradesmaster?
At the start, the guild was nothing but a loose band of beggars, thieves, and other scoundrels. With his wealth Ui Chearghail had no trouble buying the whole lot. These days, the gand is so well organized, there’s many an army could take lessons!
Do you know anything about the guild or the tradesmaster?
Lothur Ui Chearghail became a bit too successful. His competitors banded together and conspired against him, but he escaped the hangman by going underground. Within weeks, he’d become the lord of all the city’s lowlifes.
Within half a year all the traders involved in the plot were ruined, and not a few of them commited suicide — and word has it the tradesmaster gave at least some of them a hand with that as well.
They say guild members retreat into the sewers when chased.
And so they do. I meet guild members every so often down there. We tend to keep apart as much as possible and not get in each other’s way. Every now and then, I have to lead a guard squadron down there, but those yokels make such a lot of noise the guild members are long gone by the time we get anywhere. — So the guards never find anything!
Doesn’t anybody notice you’re covering for the guild?
The corporation knows all about it. The councillors know I can’t afford a fallout with the guild, not if I want to keep doing my job. So I have to lead a guards squad through the tunnels every now and again, purely to save face.
Do you know a certain Tarik?
The whole town knows of Tarik. He’d been active as a thief and fraud fro years until someone managed to prove his crimes. Since his quite peculiar trial, he’s been working for the judge. At the same time, he still has excellent contacts with the guild. — So he’s deinitely a double agent. I leave it to his superiors to decide which side he’s on for real.
There’s a lot of talk about you in town.
Yes, I know! I’m a werewolf, training demons down in the sewers and eating the rats I catch! — Grr… Grrn… Groarr!
The face the ratter pulls for his impression of a werewolf is much more impressive than his growling. — He grins:
I guess I need more practice.
Do you know anything about the pirates?
They have six, maybe seven vessels. And by now it’s fairly certain they’ve got a base on Sorrek island. - Anything else you hear about them are just rumors!
What do you know about the judge?
I haven’t seen him more than two, maybe three times. So all I know about him are the rumors going around: There’s people that say his sentences are hard but fair, and others that claim they’re totally arbitrary.
He’s said to be sexually attracted to both men and women and use his power to coerce people into his bed. Others say, he has no interest in sex at all and hasn’t had any lovers for years, and then there’s those that claim it’s a change that only came over him after he’d recovered from his illness.
So what’s the story on the judge’s illness?
That was two or three years ago, I’m not quite sure. It was a strange disease all right, in that he was plagued by cramps and severe fevers for weeks and no healer could find anything wrong him they’d ever heard of. People were fearing for his life, but then he suddenly recovered, just as abruptly as he’d fallen ill. - And that’s about it!
Have you ever seen one of the creatures down in the sewers that people in town keep talking about?
Xebbert Dürbann puts a hand down his collar and pulls out an amulet vaguely resembling a sun disk.
I haven’t met any spooky creatures yet, but I’m wearing a consecrated charm that keeps all unnatural forces away.
Haven’t you heard anything else about these creatures?
Sure I’ve heard about them, but I’ve never seen them myself!
Pardon me, but there’s work to be done!
Delousing
“That’ll be one silver each!” the rat-catcher says.
HERO tries to bargain for a discount, but the rat-catcher stays firm.
“I make hardly any profit as it is,” he explains. “I need the money to buy the necessary ingredients.”
After convincing Xebbert Dürbann to recalculate the amount of ingredients needed, HERO finally manages to get a discount of one heller.
Xebbert Dürbann builds a remarkable contraption: with a small hand pump, he draws some fluid from a big cauldron above an open fire into a hose that leads to a shower head. A second, smaller cauldron contains clear water for rinsing. The shower head is set above a wooden basin with a lot of holes in the bottom.
“The solution mustn’t stay on the skin for too long, so it has to be able to flow straight out,” the rat-catcher explains.
The rat-catcher pulls a curtain around the shower and the basin underneath.
When HERO has sat down in the basin, Xebbert calls out: “Close your eyes, until I tell you to open the again!” and starts pumping.
The fluid is itching and stinging on HERO’s skin, and it is also far too hot — hopefully, the vermin feels the same about it.
Shortly afterwards, the stinging subsides, lukewarm water flows from the shower, and the procedure ends.
While HERO towels off, Dürbann asks for his clothes which he first beats out carefully and then dusts with a small atomizer. Then he beats them out again and hands them back through the curtain.
After HERO has pulled back the curtain and stepped out, the rat-catcher gestures toward the basin.
“Next, please!”
The whole procedure is repeated until all of you are clean.
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