What D&D campaign doesn’t have the party fighting a rat swarm or dire rats sometime early in the game?

As they approached the place the farmers said the rats were, Foster called a halt and sent Lyp on a head to scout.  As the halfling disappeared in to the tall wheatgrass, Foster turned to look at Keelie. “Now remember, the Druids won’t let us kill them all.”

“Do you have to spoil my fun?” the gnome groused, and pulled out a greataxe almost as as big as she was.

“So long as they aren’t psychic rats,” Zhen said, brushing her forehead where her wizard’s glyph twisted and flowed.

“Psychic rats?” Ormond scoffed. His white cleric’s glyph pulsed, too, in readiness for what was about to happen.

“Yeah, psychic rats,” Zhen said. “I was reading about them in the vault. Some sort of pre-cataclysm monster.  The more of them there are the smarter they get.  A full swarm was a powerful wizard, not to be trifled with.” She glared at the cleric. “Like most wizards.”

Ormond chuckled, and waved dismissively.

Zhen was about to respond when the wheat rustled Lyp stepped through.  “Huge swarm,as well as several larger rats around the perimeter. And Zhen, ” she paused. “They didn’t seem to be casting any magic.”

She sputtered a bit, “You heard that?”

“All I can say, ” Lyp replied, “is that when we’re facing intelligent opponents, maybe you could be a bit, I don’t know… quieter?” Lyp drew a quick outline in the floor, and Foster bent over it.

“Keelie, Lyp, you flank and take out these two big rats.  I’ll shoot the one on this side.  Zhen, you know what to do.”

“Burning hands the whole lot,” she said holding out her hands and wiggling her fingers.

“What about me?” Ormond asked. “Stand back and heal?”

“That and make sure she doesn’t catch everything on fire.”

Ormond laughed.

Zhen shook her head.  “I’m never going to live that down, am I?

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Note:  These Adventurer’s Leauge posts are some idea of what sorts of things we might be doing near the beginning of our adventure, if you’d like to join us. We are still looking for a Few Good Adventurers.