Rat-Thing
“My oldest Rat-Thing is called Sector A-7. Or was it A-9? No matter. I number them so I never bond with them emotionally. It keeps things professional. Also—it keeps things simple when one of them tries to frame me for war crimes on SolarNet again.”
Overview
Rat-Things are Daemons—Tertia of Envy—bound into rodents, most often common ship rats. The transformation is grotesque and rapid. A Daemon must reshape its anchor so its new body can speak, remember, and manipulate.
The result is a warped creature with:
A shrunk muzzle,
A swollen, bulbous skull,
Frequent bald patches,
A long, scabrous tail,
And a humanlike face—sagelike, wrinkled, always maliciously intelligent.
The Daemon’s envy-fueled hunger for secrets reshapes the rat into a perfect living archive, with the capacity to store—and recall—vast quantities of information with flawless clarity.
A Rat-Thing is not a pet.
It is a walking hard drive of forbidden knowledge, a spy, an archivist, and occasionally a saboteur.
“Personality” & Function
Once bound, the Daemon’s prior memories are wiped. The underlying software of envy remains, but the slate is clean. This gives the new Familiar:
Eidetic Recall: perfect memory of anything it reads, hears, or is taught
Accelerated Learning of language, symbols, codes, and systems
Gluttonous appetite for secrets, gossip, classified files, and arcane lore
Psychometric urges: It hungers for things someone else wants hidden
Masters typically feed Rat-Things:
Grimoires
Confiscated hard drives
Esoteric notes
Ritual journals
Sealed records
Illicit archives
Inspired by the Daemon’s original nature, a Rat-Thing loves knowing what others don’t. It delights in being the Master’s living encyclopedia, whispering forgotten facts or delivering obscure answers in its thin, rasping voice.
Rat-Things can:
Read (if taught)
Operate small devices
Shift pages with tiny, dexterous hands
Mix reagents
Apply powders
Perform minor ritual assistance
Crawl into vents or conduits
Vanish into subspace to avoid capture
Contract, Taboos, & Parasitic Needs
The Contract of the Rat-Thing: “Feed me your curiosity.”
To remain stable, a Rat-Thing requires:
Weekly blood feedings
(the Daemon must drink directly from the Master’s veins—HP loss equivalent to a small vampire feeding)
A steady diet of:
research, experimentation, forbidden knowledge, and answered mysteries
(If the Master stops learning, the Rat-Thing starves—and becomes vengeful.)
Taboo: The Master Must Never Become Content
Rat-Things cannot abide stagnation.
If a Master reaches a point of “I have learned enough,” the Rat-Thing sees this as abandonment.
Consequences include:
Sabotage of rituals
“Accidental” contamination of reagents
Publishing crimes or secrets on SolarNet
Filing official complaints under the Master’s name
Deliberately leading enemies or authorities to the Master
Attempting to cause the Master’s death so it can seek a “better” owner
If the weekly feeding is missed:
The Rat-Thing mummifies—a defensive stasis state.
It crawls into a hidden alcove, curls up, and dries into leathery husk.
This is not death.
A single feeding of fresh blood from a new Master reactivates it instantly, with all stored memories intact.
For this reason, the Rat-Things of long-dead kthonikers are considered treasure troves worth killing for.
Advantages to the Master
Rat-Things are among the most prized Familiars because they provide:
Perfect Recall
Ask a Rat-Thing: it knows.
Forbidden Lore Access
They can store entire grimoires, including the dangerous ones that cannot be digitally archived.
Portable & Hideable Information
They can slip into subspace—taking their knowledge with them.
Esoteric Assistance
Their tiny hands can manipulate alchemy tools, flip pages, or pass ritual components.
Psychometric Insight
They sometimes “smell” secrets on people or objects.
Dangers
Rat-Things are loyal…
but only so long as they are fed secrets and fed blood.
If starved:
They may drain the Master dry
They may swap allegiance
They may mummify at an inopportune moment
They may attempt to fabricate a crisis to force the Master back into research
They may cause legal or social catastrophe to “motivate” the Master
Rat-Things know how to type.
This alone has ended careers.
RAT-THING LENS
(Applied to a rodent Anchor; replaces or enhances its template)
Point Cost: ~95 points
Traits Added or Modified
Attributes
IQ +2 40
(Genius-level cunning and recall)
Will +1 5
Advantages
Eidetic Memory 5
Photographic Memory 10
Single-Minded 5
Compartmentalized Mind 1 (Limited: Recalling Information Only, -60%) 20
Access to Master’s Senses (Telepathic Tether) 5
Tiny Tools Manipulation (racially innate; +2 to small manual tasks) 2
Pattern Recognition Talent 1 5
Subspace Skittering
(Can slip into subspace for brief periods; Only to Hide or Evade, -50%) 10
Disadvantages
Dependency: Master’s Blood (Weekly) –15
Obsession: Acquire Secrets –10
Skinny & Unattractive (Grotesque) –5
Social Stigma (Abomination) –10
Taboo: Master Must Maintain Curiosity –5
Bad Temper (toward secrecy or withheld knowledge) 12- –10
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