B25 (Kitchen)

Rat swarms are a dime a dozen, and two is simply not enough to feel like there's a serious infestation (not to mention provide a challenging encounter). The kitchen (or pantry) is now home to eight rat swarms. They pour out of the walls two rounds after the party arrives in the room.

The rats are blind, but to avoid trivializing this encounter the only change from normal rat swarms is that they grant combat advantage to all foes for the duration of the fight. A successful attack from the rats exposes the target to Vorel's Phage, which makes up for the reduced difficulty due to the rats being blind. I suggest the following encounter for a party of five adventurers:

• 8 Rat Swarms (blind)

Total: 1,000 xp (Level 5 Encounter)

The kitchen holds a few valuables: a fine silver set worth 500 gold pieces (treasure parcel 6 from level 5) and an urn holding four small garnets worth 160 gold pieces in total (treasure parcel 9 from level 5). The eight hidden bottles of wine in the nearby wine cellar are worth a total of 200 gold pieces (treasure parcel 10 from level 6).