We’ve been journeying with mouse merchant, Eared Grant, as he arrives at, enters, and explores Rolling Coast, with you voting on what he chooses to do - catch up on the the full story here.
Read on to vote on his next step!
The character names and story elements presented in this post come from the Packratz Hideout module for Rolling Coast (with standard GM adaptation made as necessary).
Eared closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and releases it slowly. This rat doesn’t particularly deserve any mercy, but leaving him here to suffer would be monstrous. He walks over to the rat and cautiously inspects his wounds.
The rat is barely conscious, so the first thing Eared does is take his weapon and tuck it into his pack - he may be helping the creature, but that does mean he should be stupid and take unnecessary risks.
Kester adds a 1-slot d6/d8 cocktail sword to his inventory.
Kester sulkily picks up the sack of stolen food the rat was carrying, and Eared helps him to his feet. They trudge through the streets to the Spicy Rooster and knock on the door to the kitchen. The chef opens the door and is so relieved to see his food returned, that he doesn’t ask any questions and lets them all in.
Eared explains what happened, and the chef is stunned that they took such a risk, just to help him. He is naturally worried about the rat, but he allows them to rest in his room and recover from their ordeal, albeit with the rat tied to the bed so he can’t escape.
A long rest recovers all HP, so Eared and the rat are back at full strength the next morning.
“Right,” says Eared to the rat the next morning, “what are we going to do with you? Let’s start with your name and what you were doing stealing this food.”
The rat isn’t happy about being tied up, but he understands.
“My name is Gendol - I’m a soldier for the Packratz, but honestly - I just look out for myself. Stealing this food was a great way to get some tasty grub and earn a few pips, while managing to stay on Clipp’s good side.”
“Clipp?”
“Oh - you must be new here. Clipp Weezle - he’s our leader. Not particularly friendly, but he currently holds all the power, so I don’t want to cross him. That’s what those rebels led by Freddo are doing - I respect their bravery, but they’re stupid if they think they can take on Clipp successfully!”
“So who else is interested in hijacking this food?”
“There was a one other I was working with - he’s a fool and was depending on me to be the muscle, so I doubt he’ll try it again.”
Eared takes Kester aside to talk in private, leaving the Gendol tied to the bed.
“What are you thinking, Master?” enquires Kester.
“I’m thinking, maybe this rat can be our way into the Packratz so we can try to get our gear back. I wonder if we should try to work with him.”
“That sounds like a bad idea to me. He’s a thug - we can’t trust him!”
“I think we might be able to - he doesn’t seem to hold much allegiance to his gang.”
“What if he’s lying?”
“Maybe that’s a risk we need to take. Or we could let him go free, and then follow him in secret to see what he does.”
“Forgive me, Master, but I think we should just let him go and wash our hands of this whole thing. We’ve completed the job here, and I don’t want to have any more to do with these Packratz.”
“What about our gear?”
“We can find a way to get that back in the future.”
Eared sits back and thinks, unsure of what to do.
Eared needs to make a decision here - what should he do?
Any logged-in user can vote - just click on the option you like the sound of. You can join for free or login here.
- Trust the rat and try to work with him to infiltrate the Packratz
- Let the rat go free and secretly follow him
- Let the rat go free and forget about all of this, finding something else to focus on
