"Ill Met in Lankhmar" is a sword and sorcery novella by American writer Fritz Leiber, recounting the meeting and teaming-up of his adventurous duo, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
First published in 1970 in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, it is a prequel, as Leiber had by that time been chronicling the pair's adventures for thirty years.
[2] One murky night in Lankhmar, Fissif and Slevyas, members of the Thieves' Guild, steal some valuable jewels from Jengao the gem merchant.
They are initially successful, but their disguise comes unstuck when the Mouser's glib story is seen through by Krovas, Grandmaster of the Thieves, and the Beggarmaster.
Fleeing, they return to Mouser's hovel, only to find to their horror that both girls have been killed and partially eaten by giant rats, as well as by Slivikin, a fast-moving evil witch-beast conjured up by Krovas's warlock, Hristomilo.