By Kevin Kulp

This is the 12th in our series on non-human heroes which has so far covered the spider-like Arakene, the toad-like Chuggut,the Considerata (humans whose souls are contractually linked to gods), Constructs, the fungal Drowned, fey Hidden Folk, Intelligent Animals, Merfolk, Unsleeping Advisors (secret undead), and the actual Serpentine. This month’s Ancestry is a distant love letter to Warhammer’s Skaven, but is primarily inspired by wererats in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story The Swords of Lankhmar. Be sure to read the previously published rules on Non-Human Heroes if you haven’t already.

Rattakan

Ancestry abilities: Ancestry (Rattakan), City’s Secrets, Leechcraft, Skulduggery

• Ancestry (Rattakan) reflects a comprehensive (and reasonably secret) knowledge of your people’s culture, religion, and history, and gives you access to any rattakan special abilities such as shapeshifting.
• City’s Secrets represents your ability to easily picture and navigate three-dimensional spaces such as Eversink’s undercity.
• Leechcraft is how you spread the supernatural disease scabral which creates more rattakan; you have an intimate knowledge of poisons, other diseases, and human or animal physiology.
• Skulduggery is a point of cultural pride within the rattakan, gathering information illegally on humans by any means possible without being caught.

Some rattakan sorcerers have access to different Ancestry abilities; see below. 

You are a shapeshifting rat-folk whose ancestors were cursed by a supernatural disease called scabral (SotS p. 85). Centuries ago your people turned from human to rattakan and survived by clawing out a living below-ground, creating a secret kingdom in forgotten basements and hidden passageways. 

Your folk now embrace their role as opportunists and scavengers who thrive in dark spaces that humanity can’t easily reach. This city of Eversink should be yours, whatever the humans and the Goddess may think, and you’ve been taught to gnaw at its edges until you seize the power and authority you so richly deserve.

The Goddess tries to stop you; when humans are infected with scabral the surface becomes tremendously dangerous to them. But infected rattakan breed true and unless you decide otherwise when creating your Hero you don’t suffer the effects of scabral. There are many more of you than the humans would ever guess. When the time comes, they will find the news… exciting. 

Your forbidden god demands much; will you appease It, or deny It?

Play a rattakan if you want to carry a grudge, be a member of a tightly-knit found family or clan, perform forbidden sorceries and breathtaking crimes, and if you have absolutely no use for the humans’ goddess Denari. 

Investigative ability: Ancestry (Rattakan)

You’re an authority on the culture of the Rattakan, half-human ratfolk who (or whose ancestors) were fully human until they caught the disease scabral. Chances are that you’re an authority because you are a rattakan yourself. 

You have at least a passing knowledge of Rattakan culture, behavior, history, superstitions, art, tactics, and territory.  You speak the chittering and inhuman Rattakan language. 

This Investigative ability points you towards leads and clues that are linked to or associated with Rattakan as monstrosities. You will need to rely on other Investigative abilities to gain leads from specific Rattakan. 

You can sense when you’re about to step into an area sacred to the goddess Denari. You can tell when someone you interact with is infected with scabral or is a rattakan themselves. If you are a rattakan, one or more ranks in this ability allows unlimited shapeshifting from human into a human-sized rat-like form with claws and teeth that act as weapons of Damage Modifier +1. 

Sample spend: Make a Rattakan supporting character particularly like, trust, or accept you as one of their own. Command or pacify rats or giant rats, forestalling them from attacking unless attacked first. Do an extra die of damage on a Warfare attack when attacking from Stealth or when using your claws and teeth. Spend 1 point to shapeshift fully into a rat for the duration of a scene; returning to human size does not require spending a point. Infect a defeated foe with scabral, eventually turning them into a rattakan as well unless cured.

Character Creation Advice

• Rattakan make superb thieves and spies, but there’s no reason you have to play to type. You could just as easily be a freelance mercenary with a secret, a huge and hulking rat-folk who acts as an enforcer, or an alchemist who specializes in poisons for the rich.
• Play on your natural tendency to scare people by taking ranks of Intimidation.
• With 8 or more ranks of Stealth, it’s child play to pop out of a sewer at precisely the right time in a fight.
• Sick people are easier to rob. Use Leechcraft to spread disease and poison.
• Ranks of Wilderness Mastery give you additional opportunities to command rats or to use them to spy for you. 
• Some Rattakan open up themselves to dark sorcery by taking part in a formal ceremony where a sliver of solidified scabral is hammered into their foreheads. Those who do so instead change to the Ancestry abilities Ancestry (Rattakan), City’s Secrets, Corruption (usually with the Animal: Rats sphere), and Skulduggery. You may immediately reallocate your Investigative and General abilities (as detailed on SotS p. 99) with no cost for doing so. It’s up to you and the GM where the solidified disease comes from, what it looks like, and what it does to normal humans who touch it. 
• Tell the other players that you’re a rattakan even if other characters don’t yet know your secret. If one of your fellow players has a rat phobia, consider changing your appearance and nature to an animal other than a rat.

Sample Hero – Rattakan

Sebriel di Salieri

Nervous, ambitious, sly, sycophantic, extremely well-groomed

Drives (what is best in life?): Unearned rewards, succeeding through stealth or guile, conversing with prey 

Defenses – Health: Health Threshold 4, Armor 1 (leather), Health 11 

Defenses – Morale: Morale Threshold 3, Grit 1 (suspicious), Morale 7 

Offense – Sway: Sway 8: Damage Modifier +1 (insinuation) 

Offense – Warfare: Warfare 3: Damage Modifier +0 (poisoned shiv) 

Investigative abilities: Liar’s Tell 1, Servility 3, Taunt 1; City Secrets 1, Leechcraft 1, Ancestry (Rattakan) 2, Skulduggery 2

Allegiances: Ally: Monstrosities 1, Ally: Thieves’ Guilds 1; Enemy: Church of Denari 1

General abilities: Athletics 5, Burglary 3, Preparedness 3, Stealth 8 (Where’d She Go?), Sway 8, Warfare 3 

Gear: Fashionable boots, handmade poisons, wheedling conspiratorial tone, ailurophobia, optimistic view of your own capabilities, collection of useful advice, surprisingly stylish fashion sense, handmade shiv (hidden), nervous tic. 

Sample Adversary – Rattakan

Crielle, Rattakan Alchemist

Rodent-like, giggling, hyperkinetic

Defense — Health: Health Threshold 4, Armor 2 (alchemically-hardened skin), Health 8 per Hero

Defense — Morale: Morale Threshold 3, Grit 0 (suggestible), Morale 5 per Hero

Offense — Warfare: +1; Damage Modifier +1 (gnawing fangs plus Infection)

Offense — Sorcery: +2 (vs. Health); Damage Modifier +2 (alchemical concoctions)

Offense — Sway: +0; Damage Modifier +1 (wheedling)

Abilities: Malus 15

Special Abilities: Infection, Monstrous Ability (cost 3), Shape-Shift (cost 3 – between rat and rattakan), Spellcasting (cost 3 – per effect; Alchemical effects only), dissolve into greasy black vapor when slain

Misc: Alertness Modifier +1, Stealth Modifier +1. Injured or slain by places of worship.

Refresh Tokens: 3

Description: Crielle used to be an alchemist, and her infection with scabral hasn’t done her sanity any favors. She’s now gleefully more rat than woman, creating alchemical tinctures and potions to blow things up, melt things down, and transform things. She started with an eye to engineering a cure, but she gave that quest up a long time ago. She just hasn’t acknowledged it yet.

Crielle appears as a poorly groomed rat-woman, always moving in some way. She seldom shifts into full rat or full human shape unless coerced. Her fur is burned and scaled and stained by chemicals, and she has a manic grin of glee on her gap-toothed maw. By the time you’ve had a chance to really get a good look at her, though, something near you has probably exploded.

Sample Allegiances

Establishing rattakan as a unique faction instead of including them as Monstrosities indicates that their presence in Eversink is known and that they take an influential role in politics, even if they’re doing so secretly. Mind you, they’re probably trying to chew away the societal and physical underpinnings of the city in order to destroy it, but that’s still technically politics.

Having rattakan as Allies means that you’re one yourself, or you’ve helped them in the past. There’s almost no other way to ally with them, although someone who knows their true identity and doesn’t report them might qualify – as might someone who consistently helps them despite not knowing their true nature. Use your Allegiance to learn secrets of Eversink’s Undercity, including their story of Denari’s perfidy and why Eversink continues to sink.  

Having rattakan as Enemies means that the Undercity and the dark of night become more dangerous for you. Rattakan prize the art of ruining their enemies’ lives without ever being seen as directly responsible for the sabotage. Your homes tend to become infested by rats, underground routes you commonly take are likely to collapse, and your human enemies may find themselves presented with blackmail material about you.  

 

Kevin Kulp (@kevinkulp) and Emily Dresner (@multiplexer) are the co-authors of Swords of the Serpentine, out now in hardback and PDF. Kevin previously helped create TimeWatch and Owl Hoot Trail for Pelgrane Press. When he’s not writing games he’s either smoking BBQ, watching dubious shark movies, or helping 24-hour companies with shiftwork, sleep, and alertness.