The Rats Reveal Their Master Fed Them a Child
Mid-interrogation, the rats reveal their goblin master fed them a hairless child — and the party works out that the human hostages are being fed to the rats. When the pack names a live human as its price, Elaris refuses, pulls her hood down and steps back behind Barzer to let the fight start.
The interrogation Elaris started takes a hard turn. "Our master gave us some child," the rat admits through Speak with Animals. The table's first instinct is to hope for the least-bad answer. "Human child or goblin child?" someone asks. "Hairless little child," comes the answer.
There's no good way to read that. The realization lands in the room a beat later — "so, it seems that the hostages, the human hostages, are being fed to the rats" — and what looked like a straightforward negotiation scene curdles into something much darker.
The rats name their price anyway: a live human, handed over. "Unfortunately, we cannot sacrifice our humans," Elaris tells them, and that's the end of it — though she announces the exit before she makes it. "It's kind of like dramatic flair," she says, and then does it: pulls her hood down over her brow, mutters something unrepeatable, and steps back behind Barzer. "I disengage, and I step back behind Barzer."
"Does that mean we're starting combat?" someone asks. It does.
The Rats Reveal Their Master Fed Them a Child