Burrow of the Ratman, or My Feeble Attempt At Doing A 1E Rat-Themed Adventure (part 2 of 3)

(Part 1 here.)

Happy holidays, and good continuation as we say in Sweden.

Looking back at old posts on this blog, one thing becomes clear: it's very easy to start things, but harder to finish them! So I thought I should do just that, starting with that rat themed adventure I started thinking about over a year ago, thanks to JB's contest that I suppose is finished by now.

So this post will just wrap things up, because I reckon that a finished thing is more valuable than something half-eaten (unless you're a king and you've been given a poisoned apple and your cup-bearer is off vacaying because he had saved up on his days and you yeah you get the picture).

(UPDATE: the previous paragraph is a bloody lie, which you'll find out at the end. I'm just warning you.)

A short recap

In the first post I pinned down some things that wasn't very clear to me - the AD&D mindset, rats, coins as weight, treasure, archaic language, etc. - which basically boiled down to everything. But I had two things I wanted to try:

1. Treasure in clear sight
2. The weight/value trade-off (e.g. lesser value, easier to carry, and vice versa)

 

A short recap of that ugly sketch

This was a quick and dirty and ugly sketch I did of a treasure scenario:

The idea was that the treasure is in clear sight (that bird statue thing next to the number 1), it is very valuable but extremely heavy. Some sort of deep water flow separates the treasure and the players (I assume the should enter across the water). Maybe there's a broken suspension bridge there.

In my head that's a reasonable way of thinking, maybe? It's like: hey the treasure is right there, it's not a trap (though it would be if it was DOOM 3), but you'll have a hard time transporting that across the water, and potentially out of here.

I never mentioned number two

See that two up there? Next to the vial? At the bottom-left in the picture? That was a variant on the weight/value trade off that I also was thinking of: instead of heavy and valuable, you could replace heavy with fragile, e.g. a glass vial that easily breaks, that contains something valuable.

So how to proceed

I'm thinking that I need to employ some sort of WHY-thinking here, because the scenario above doesn't make sense: why would someone put a bird statue, near impossible to carry, of that value, across a bridge, deep down somewhere - and what does it have to do with rats?

I do recall me doing some WHY-thinking in an older post...hmm...oh here it is.

(TL;DR if you don't wish to read that post: state a fact about the world, then ask "WHY is ...", take a book and look up a random sentence, interpret it as an answer, repeat.)

And since it is the season, I think I'll pick "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, using random.org to give me a random line number, and so on (I've truncated the text so it doesn't contain all the Project Gutenberg preamble). Happy days. Remember, we're not trying to win a contest here, just finish what we started.

Questions nobody asked

I have some questions floating around (some from the first post) that I'd like answers to:

1. Why the bird statue?
2. Where is the bird statue located?
3. Where are the rats?
4. Is a vampire commanding the rats?
   
5. Where is this place located?
6. Is this place old?
   
7. Why hasn't this been plundered years before?
8. Where have the previous owner(s) gone?

With three or more "WHY" questions/bullet item above we're looking at at least 24 questions, which is more than enough if I want to get to bed before the new year. I'll write the line number in parenthesis after each question, followed by the quote (e.g. the complete sentence that can be found there), and a new line containing my interpretation, and so on.

Let's get started!

1. Why the bird statue?

(927) "Rise! and walk with me!"

The statue is a magical device for necromancy; it can be used to bring back the dead, turning them into equals (e.g. not blind followers).

1.1. Why does the bird statue bring back the dead?

(2519) It gave him little surprise, however; for he had been revolving in his mind a change of life, and thought and hoped he saw his new-born resolutions carried out in this.

It can only bring those back that truly felt they should have lived differently, and that they in some way even planned for it.

1.2. Why should they have lived differently?

(31) If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot--say St. Paul's Church-yard, for instance--literally to astonish his son's weak mind.

Because they were meant to do remarkable things, but life (and then death) got in the way. Somehow they always knew this, but couldn't put their fingers on it; a small time burglar missing out on the really big hit; a wizard thinking about that great potion she'll never brew; a paladin not getting around to ending the world.

1.3. Why couldn't they put their fingers on it?

(2250) The brisk fire of questioning to which he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal, a live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and lived in London, and walked about the streets, and wasn't made a show of, and wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in a menagerie, and was never killed in a market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a bull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear.

Because a being that can talk and walk but is neither man nor animal has the power to prevent such wishes.

2. Where is the bird statue located?

(2359) As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley, and, lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming like a mist along the ground towards him.

Nowhere and everywhere. Every full hour, it turns in a mist for ten minutes and travels slowly in a direction closer to its draped and hooded creator, but never reaching it.

2.1. Why does it travel closer to its creator?

(2073) They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas-day, with homeward hopes belonging to it.

It's longing for bygone days, when it was first created, but also revenge, since it has been abandoned by its creator.

2.2. Why was it abandoned by its creator?

(500) Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses.

The creator saw what the bird statue could do (e.g. bring back the dead with a caveat), but didn't want to believe it, because it wasn't the effect it sought. The statue can't be destroyed, so it had to be buried, so that its creator could find peace again.

2.3. Why can't the statue be destroyed?

(3256) That was the thing he had set his heart upon.

It is a reversed soul relic, containing half its creator's heart. Being a reversed soul relic, it can't be destroyed unless its creator is destroyed first.

3. Where are the rats?

(1681) But soon the steeples called good people all to church and chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and with their gayest faces.

A church has attracted them.

3.1. Why has the church attracted them?

(2515) He looked about in that very place for his own image, but another man stood in his accustomed corner, and, though the clock pointed to his usual time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of himself among the multitudes that poured in through the Porch.

The rats are looking for more of its own kind, but found only humans at the church.

3.2. Why are the rats looking for more of its own kind?

(3285) He had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it, holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help and a strait-waistcoat.

They are looking for help with overturning and defeating a caped and hooded being that is neither man nor animal. If they can't find more of its own kind, they will accept help from other beings, such as humans.

3.3. Why do the rats want to defeat this being?

(1901) "A merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!"

Their God - a bird statue that sometimes travels as a mist - has commanded them to kill this being, in exchange for a promise that this will set off events that will bless them for all eternity, finally bringing forth the reign of the rats.

INTERMISSION

I think we've done good work here! But are lots of information up there, and my arm hurts because I got my fourth covid-19 shot today, so I think we need to compile what we know so far.

• Why the bird statue?
• The statue is a magical device for necromancy; it can be used to bring back the dead, turning them into equals (e.g. not blind followers).
  
  
• Why does the bird statue bring back the dead?
• It can only bring those back that truly felt they should have lived differently, and that they in some way even planned for it.
  
  
• Why should they have lived differently?
• Because they were meant to do remarkable things, but life (and then death) got in the way. Somehow they always knew this, but couldn't put their fingers on it; a small time burglar missing out on the really big hit; a wizard thinking about that great potion she'll never brew; a paladin not getting around to ending the world.
  
  
• Why couldn't they put their fingers on it?
• Because a being that can talk and walk but is neither man nor animal has the power to prevent such wishes.
  
  
• Where is the bird statue located?
• Nowhere and everywhere. Every full hour, it turns in a mist for ten minutes and travels slowly in a direction closer to its draped and hooded creator, but never reaching it.
  
  
• Why does it travel closer to its creator?
• It's longing for bygone days, when it was first created, but also revenge, since it has been abandoned by its creator.
  
  
• Why was it abandoned by its creator?
• The creator saw what the bird statue could do (e.g. bring back the dead with a caveat), but didn't want to believe it, because it wasn't the effect it sought. The statue can't be destroyed, so it had to be buried, so that its creator could find peace again.
  
  
• Why can't the statue be destroyed?
• It is a reversed soul relic, containing half its creator's heart. Being a reversed soul relic, it can't be destroyed unless its creator is destroyed first.
  
  
• Where are the rats?
• A church has attracted them.
  
  
• Why has the church attracted them?
• The rats are looking for more of its own kind, but found only humans at the church.
  
  
• Why are the rats looking for more of its own kind?
• They are looking for help with overturning and defeating a caped and hooded being that is neither man nor animal. If they can't find more of its own kind, they will accept help from other beings, such as humans
  
  
• Why do the rats want to defeat this being?
• Their God - a bird statue that sometimes travels as a mist - has commanded them to kill this being, in exchange for a promise that this will set off events that will bless them for all eternity, finally bringing forth the reign of the rats.

 

So in short, we have some sort of not-man-not-animal person that creates a bird statue, that is actually a magical device. He or she or it puts half its heart in it, therefore activating its magic, hoping it will do Thing A but it actually does Thing B instead.

The not-man-not-animal person gets mad, but realises he or she or it cannot destroy this magical device without destroying themself, so they bury it instead. Not the best plan, but who am I to judge?

The bird statue, unearthed somehow (by the rats?), sets out for revenge in a sort of love-hate relationship. Although it always seems to know the bearing of its creator, it can only move for ten minutes every full hour, and then only in mist-form.

Meanwhile, a pack of rats (or more?) has been harassing local churches, hoping to find more rats (because of the "Their burrows honeycomb many graveyards, ...", and churches and churchyards, two peas in a pod and all that, and the rats put two and two together), but will settle for humans if no more of its own kind can be found BECAUSE: they want to kill this not-man-not-animal being, and they've been told this caped and hooded person/thing is NOT to be underestimated. And who told them? The bird statue.

Hmm, I'm actually liking where this is going, and its all thanks to a text written 179 years ago (and maybe my brain in some part).

 

It was all a bloody lie

Yeah, as stated in the preamble, despite being presented as a text to actually FINISH STUFF, this doesn't conclude or wrap things up at all.

I actually started to like where this is going, but it's nearly midnight here (that's also a lie, unless you round up by an hour), and I want to go to sleep, so we'll have to wrap this up next time instead.

Until then!