1. Organizations

Bilge Rats

Crime Syndicate

A vicious gang that dominates the Harbor district. Their name comes from their fondness for trained dire rats, and for having said rats chew off the faces of anyone who crosses the gangs.

Stormreach has more than its share of criminal guilds and gangs, the most dangerous of which is the Bilge Rats. This group has loose connections to the Boromar Clan, one of the more notorious criminal guilds in Sharn. The Bilge Rats enrich themselves by mugging passersby, running protection rackets on local businesses, and stealing goods out of ships and warehouses. 

Five years ago, one of the Bilge Rats was infected with lycanthropy. Since then, the disease has spread through the upper ranks of the organization, and nearly all the accomplished burglars and thieves in the guild are now wererats. The Bilge Rats are reluctant to spread the disease too rapidly, and they infect only those they are willing to let into the guild’s inner circle. They are also very careful about using their hybrid forms anywhere they might be seen. The Bilge Rats have an understanding with the Stormreach Guard, but the thieves know better than to draw down the wrath of the Silver Flame.

The Bilge Rats are led by Cartha (NE male human wererat rogue 5/assassin 3). Other critical members include Hes (NE male changeling wererat adept 7), a priest of the Traveler, and Little Del (NE female halfling wererat illusionist 7), who uses her spells to hide the gang’s activities. The other members of the gang are low-level rogues or experts, with a few warriors and barbarians mixed in.


There is a saying in Stormreach: “Everyone is afraid of someone.” For many in the city, “someone” is the Rats. As members of one of the oldest and most powerful gangs in the city, the Bilge Rats have run the Harbor district for decades. No one does business along the waterfront without giving the Rats a taste, and nobody crosses them on their home turf and gets away with it. Every couple of years an up-and-coming gang makes a power play against the Rats, and every couple of years a bunch of well-gnawed bones get dumped in the harbor.

The Rats plan to grow stronger through aggressive growth. They are working to strengthen their ties to the Boromar Clan of Sharn. Head Rat Cartha intends to become the Boromar’s counterpart in Stormreach, eventually controlling the entire city’s underworld.

The Bilge Rats’ secret to success is simple—the Rats are monsters in every sense of the word. The gang’s higher-ranking members are infected with lycanthropy, which they refer to as “the Gift.” They are wererats, feral and cunning creatures with an instinctive feel for the shadows of the city. Dealing with most gangs in Stormreach means facing off against some young toughs. A sit-down with the Rats means confronting creatures that would just as soon gnaw off your face as cut you a deal.

The Bilge Rats keep their disease hidden from the general public. The Silver Flame has little influence in Stormreach, but knowledge of the presence of a powerful and dangerous group of wererats at the heart of a major city could be the bridge that mends the gap between Stormreach and Flamekeep, and the last thing the Rats want is a sudden influx of templar rat-hunters. At the same time, they let enough gruesome rumors circulate in the underworld to keep their enemies nervous. The few associates of the Rats who know the true nature of the gang keep their mouths shut. Revealing the truth could cause trouble for the Bilge Rats—but it would likely be the last thing the informer would do.

Because of this need to conceal their lycanthrope nature, Bilge Rats spend most of their time in human or dire rat form, using hybrid form only when alone or dealing with people who are about to die. The Harbor district has a significant dire rat population, allowing the Rats to use this form without drawing significant attention. Dire rat pets (a few of whom might be other Bilge Rats in dire rat form) always accompany upperranking gang members. The gang’s reputation for feeding its enemies to these rats is well established, another tool for concealing its true nature.

People who brush the Rats the wrong way end up in a gutter with their lips, eyes, nose, and cheeks chewed away. Residents of the Harbor call this “giving face,” and people who don’t pay the gang respect in word and deed do so instead with the tender flesh of their features. Those in the know along the waterfront commonly whisper: “You let the Rats save face, and you get to save your own.”

Playing a Bilge Rat

The gang is your life, your family, and your pack. Your fellow Rats give you a steady place in the chaos of Stormreach’s mean streets. You get respect because you’re a Rat, but you have to earn it every day. Intimidation is the gang’s specialty, and you do your part to terrorize the Rats’ enemies. Keep people afraid, and they’ll never rise against you. Threaten, make examples out of agitators, and send strong messages to any who oppose you and yours. Strangers don’t know you except by the reputation of the gang . . . and they don’t know if you are dock vermin or a Gifted Rat.

You are part of the food chain and must accept your place with the Rats. You take care of them, and they take care of you. Failure never goes unpunished, but neither does hard work go unnoticed. Serve loyally, and you get the Gift. Betray the Circle of Plague, and you end up as its next meal.

The Gift changes you forever. From then on, you are a Rat to the bone and core of your soul. Once you are bitten, the disease festering in your veins assures your loyalty. Your thoughts are never human again . . . even your dreams are those of a rat. You no longer question your superiors, since the desire and will to question is no longer in your nature. If your life can save the pack, you sacrifice it without thought or hesitation. You hope to rise high through service to the pack and someday enter the Circle of Plague to command your lessers.

Combat

A stand-up fight is for the arena, and for fools who have something to prove. You don’t believe in honorable combat, and you prefer to fight with a tremendous advantage over your enemy. Like the vermin of your namesake, you overrun your foes with superior numbers, and you ambush them from the depths and the dark. The best fight is one in which the enemy is dead before he has a chance to draw his blade or cast a spell.

Advancement

The Circle of Plague extracts payment in both gold and loyalty. If you pay in hearty shares of both, there is no limit to how high you can rise with the Rats, but you are only as good as your last week’s earnings. If the amount of earnings you kick up to the Circle starts to slip, you might just take a fall. Maintaining lucrative rackets or taking initiative against the Rats’ foes are the two fastest ways to work up the gang’s ranks.

Once you get your bite and become a Gifted Rat, advancement becomes more about the pack’s well being. You fill positions as they become available and the more successful the gang gets, the more highranking positions are created to manage new turf and rackets.

Missions

The Bilge Rats have a few staple rackets that serve as the bread and butter of the gang. They shake down smugglers and waterfront shopkeepers for a take of their action. They waylay drunken visitors carousing in the Harbor district. And they steal goods from warehouses and ships—never taking enough to push the Storm Lords to action, just “claiming their cut.” Now and then a Rat might be called upon to do something more bloody, such as heavy lifting (see the “Rat Speak” sidebar) or culling a traitor from the teeming ranks of the dock vermin. Earning one’s keep is necessary, but more important service to the gang lies in actively squeezing out its enemies.

Rats keep their ears to the docks and listen closely to the wind and the waves. Savvy Rats spend a good deal of time spying on their enemies and keeping abreast of the ebbs and flows of the smuggling tide. The gang’s network of informants is extensive—nothing happens in the Harbor without the Rats catching wind of it.

Members of the gang are also sent to lean on Guard members who won’t look the other way, or dole out bloody punishment to people who refuse to pay up their dues. The Rats stand aloof from much of the underworld turmoil in Stormreach, cemented in place at the top by their longstanding reputation for ruthless payback whenever their interests are challenged.

When competition rears its ugly head members are dispatched to handle it swiftly. As an opening (and often final) salvo, the Rats send a message by slaughtering a few members of the opposition and returning their bloody rat-gnawed bones in a sack.

Bilge Rats in Stormreach

“My uncle used to run ships across the Thunder Sea. Bolts of silk mostly, and giant pottery shards on the way back. He refused to pay the Rats protection. His ship burned down to the waterline, and they never found him or his crew.”

—Aldriss Rams, dockworker

The Bilge Rats are most often encountered in the Harbor district. The PCs might run afoul of them along the wharfs where they collect dues from ship captains, ship-owners, and merchants. The Rats might even target a ship the PCs have an interest in for some heavy lifting. A friend or relative of the PCs (or one of the characters) might start a business in the Harbor or get involved in the shipping trade, thus bringing that person to the Rats’ attention. If the PCs investigate any crime in the Harbor district, they end up sticking their noses in the Rats’ affairs and can expect immediate repercussions.

It’s worth noting that natural lycanthropes—such as the one that originally infected Cartha—are too aware of persecution from the Church of the Silver Flame to gather in such numbers in one place. The Bilge Rats are young and arrogant, and with the tacit sanction of the Storm Lords, they think that they can run free without restriction. Should the church truly become aware of the extent of the infection, the Bilge Rats would swiftly discover otherwise.

Structure

The Rats call their lowest echelon “dock vermin” for one simple reason: They’re a silver piece a dozen. Every twocopper rogue in Stormreach nurtures a dream of someday becoming a Gifted Rat, and the Circle of Plague encourages these would-be members. First, it never hurts to have a plentiful supply of fodder available for messy jobs and bloody turf wars. Second, every vermin has to kick gold up to the top, and the more vermin, the more money comes in. Finally, the inevitable competition among the mass of rogues reveals the vermin who have true potential, and the Rats pick out the diamonds in the rough, promoting them to wharfbosses.

The Circle of Plague doesn’t care how dock vermin earn their keep, as long as they obey two simple maxims: Don’t attract attention from the Guard, and don’t harass people under the protection of the Rats. Those who fail to obey these two rules have short careers as both Rats and living creatures. All vermin kick up their shares through the wharfbosses, and they never meet a Gifted Rat face to face.

Wharfbosses have more responsibilities. They are the human face of the Rats to the outside world. All dealings with ships, shops, merchants, and the Stormreach Guard are conducted through them. The bosses keep tabs on the steady smuggling operations with long-term associates. All rising Rats do their time on the wharfs before they get their Gift, and it is not the highlight of their career. A lot of paperwork and headaches are involved in maintaining the steady business interests of the Rats. A member who proves his fortitude and loyalty during his time as a wharfboss has a high likelihood of promotion.

Above the wharfbosses, every member of the gang is a wererat. Rats are “promoted” by infection, each one brought before Cartha to receive his special bite.

No one outside the Gifted Rats knows that the Circle of Plague exists. To the outside world and the lower ranks of the gang, the members of the Circle of Plague appear no different from the rest of the captains and Gifted Rats. The only high-profile member of the Circle is Cartha, who is recognized on the streets as the gang’s undisputed leader. The Circle is the soul of the rats, with Cartha the source of the magical disease that binds the gang together. He is the only member of the gang capable of passing the Gift on to others, and if he was eliminated, the Bilge Rats would wither and die.

The Bilge Rats are internally stronger than the other gangs of the city, thanks to the loyalty instilled by the disease. The members of other gangs backstab their way through the ranks and feed on their own, weakening the entire organization. Not so among the Rats, where a lesser simply does not raise his hand against a higher-ranking member.

NPC Reactions

Mention of the Rats elicits whispered fear and loathing. Only the truly stupid are not wary of the Rats, and the citizens of Stormreach maintain a healthy dose of fear and caution when it comes to the city’s most vicious gang. Other criminals view the Rats with a mixture of hateful envy and genuine admiration. To most members of the Guard, the Rats are a permanent scar on the Harbor, a necessary evil that cannot be expunged. Truth be told, the downfall of the Rats might be the worst thing that could happen to the Harbor’s criminal scene. The bloody rush to fill their power void would seriously disrupt Stormreach’s thriving shipping trade.