"Sorry, mate. The rest of the guild deal with the rats. Me and me mates deal with the bigger ones in the sewers. Tide of them down there, there is…"
The rat catcher is a common sight throughout the Empire. They can be found in villages, towns, and cities, making a living by disposing of the vermin that infest all dwellings in this unsanitary age. Rat catchers are often travelling folk, although larger towns and cities have permanent contingents of "vermin soldiers." Rats are their chief enemy, but they can also dispose of moles, mice, and even fouler pests. City-dwelling rat catchers spend a great deal of time in the sewers, wading through rivers of filth in search of their prey. It's a dirty job but it helps keep the plague away.[1a]
Rat catchers are often aided by small but vicious dogs, strays who they adopt as apprentices. Cities dealing with particularly bad infestations of giant rats will hired contingents of Sewer Jacks, the toughest of rat catchers.[3a]
Rat Catching Secrets[]
A good rat catcher keeps their methods secret if they want to protect their livelihood. They prefer if their customers attribute their skills to some supernatural talent, rather than a collection of clever tricks. However, a good rat catcher doesn't catch many rats chasing after them with a mallet. To truly excel at the art of hunting and killing vermin a rat catcher must become a true rat wrangler, truly understanding the rat.[2a]
To this end, rat catchers sometime spend hours in sewers and derelict buildings sitting silently and watching their prey, learning how they move, hunt, and feed. The most common way to catch rats is to trap a house. The rat catchers find the likely places rats travel and lay simple cage or spring traps to kill or capture them.[2a]
However, sometimes canny rats will learn to avoid or even survive the traps. Then, the rat catcher must hunt them down. Rats leave many traces of their passing, from tiny paw prints to trails of droppings. A good rat catcher can tell the size and gender of a rat by its tracks. A rat catcher's dog is also a vital part of his trade and it is during the hunt that it comes into the fore. A dog can crawl into dark places and root out hidden vermin. The dog is also the rat catcher's nose, helping them to detect the scent of filth left by their quarry.[2a]
Rat Catcher Slang[]
Living beneath the notice of Imperial society, rat catchers are a rather secretive and shadowy group, preferring the company of their own kind. Part of this insular nature comes out in the way they speak, a mixture of slang and trade tongue that only other rat catchers truly understand. Below are a few examples of rat catcher slang.[2a]
- Rats – "tunnel pigeons," "sewer bunnies," "pox with paws," "privy natives"[2a]
- Sewer – "filth hole," "dark street," "rubbish pipe," "rat run," "downtown"[2a]
- Job – "rat hunt," "trap and strangle," "underground walk"[2a]
- Money – "rat tails," "sewer coin," "skull and paw"[2a]
- Watchman – "clanker," "limping lantern," "signpost"[2a]
- City – "rat wheel," "sewer top"[2a]
- Person – "stinker," "walking filth," "rubbish farmer"[2a]
So, for example, a rat catcher might say that he "was on a trap and strangle in the filth hole when he noticed some vile privy perfume. However, the rubbish farmer was paying good rat tails so he decided to get on and find the cursed tunnel pigeons." Which, translated, means the rat catcher was on a job in the sewer when he noticed its foul stench. However, the person who had hired him was paying good money so he decided to get on and find the cursed rats.[2a]
Rat Catchers in Tilea[]
"You see these here notch-as on my bandoleer? Thas-sa means I kill twenty ratmen. Anton, he has the dogs and they-a smell them out, then I sticks them with-a my spear, thas what we-a call sollecitare—it means, the tickler, see? Because of all the barbs on its-a side, see. It kills the Skaveni very much, and then wes-a sticking their stupid little skulls on-a the town gate, as-a warning. Accorde, they always come back again, the very next night too. Theys-a never giving up, and so neither does we."
A portrait of the famed mercenaries known as the Rat-Catchers of Miragliano, who were founded in the aftermath of the devastation of the Tilean city-state of Miragliano by the Red Pox in the year 1812 IC. This image was originally painted in oils on canvas by Wilhelm Leiber.[5a]
The Tileans have the terrible curse of inhabiting the land closest to the great Skaven spawning ground of Skavenblight, which lies in the Zombie Marshes. Although they have been spared the worst of the plagues, they have instead suffered the greatest share of the sorties of the ratmen.[4a]
So many times have the Skaven marched against the people of Tilea that they have long-since forgotten the luxury of pretending that the ratmen do not exist, as in the Empire, and instead have devoted themselves fiercely to protecting their cities and exterminating the Skaven found within them. The Rat-Catchers of Miragliano, one of the most famous mercenary regiments in all of Tilea, are employed by the prince of that city solely to destroy the Skaven menace.[4a]
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Core Rulebook (RPG)
- 1a: pg. 49
- 2: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Career Compendium (RPG)
- 2a: pg. 174
- 3: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Core Rulebook (RPG)
- 3a: pg. 66
- 4: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Children of the Horned Rat (RPG)
- 4a: pp. 10-11
- 5: The Loathsome Ratmen and All Their Vile Kin (Background Book)
- 5a: pp. 81-85