The party wakes up, or returns to their room, or steps away from their table at the inn, and something is missing. It doesn’t take long to figure out what happened. Wererats are known to operate beneath this city, and the evidence points straight down. A grate in a nearby alley sits slightly ajar, and the smell coming up from below isn’t just sewage. Someone was down there recently, and they left in a hurry.
The sewers beneath the city are a maze, and the wererats know every inch of them. The party doesn’t. Navigating the tunnels means dealing with bad footing, poor visibility, and the persistent feeling that something is tracking them from the dark. The wererats won’t fight fair, and they have the advantage of terrain. Silver weapons help considerably here, and a party without any will need to think carefully about how they engage.
What was stolen matters, and the DM should make sure it’s something the party genuinely wants back. A key, a document, a personal item with sentimental or magical significance. When the party finally reaches the wererat den, they’ll find more than just their stolen property. How big the operation is, who the wererats answer to, and what else is hidden down there are all details worth developing, because this hook has a way of becoming something larger than a simple retrieval job.
Party Level: 3-6. The sewer environment and the wererat stat block both fit this range well. A party without silver weapons will need to improvise, which is half the fun.
World: Any
Rules-set: Originally designed for 5e but can be adapted to any, especially Shadowdark
Note: When I ran this a few years ago, I threw in a twist that the party discovers the wererats are working for the city’s ruler. – SW
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