Dire wolves may be the paradigmatic dire animals, but dire
rats are probably the ones you first saw in the dungeon. (I seem to recall a nice illustration
of one in the D&D Basic Set red
box.) And now that swarms are all
the rage, regular rats are a bother, too.
A hero’s career does
not have to get off to a glamorous start. When a rampaging red dragon firebombs their town, a group of
ne’er-do-wells are too young to take up arms against the monster. But when the dragon smashes the abandoned
basilica and sets it ablaze, there is much the young heroes can do, including
rescuing townsfolk trapped in the rubble and exterminating the rat swarms that
come pouring out of the walls.
“The Stunning
Rodentia of Seamus, Adventurer” read the signboards posted all over
town. Seamus’s trained piebald
dire rats are a hit until one of the stars contracts filth fever. Soon all the rats are half-mad and
sickly, and the improvident Seamus releases them rather than put himself at
risk nursing them back to health.
A wererat street
urchin finds he can no longer empathize with dire rats. Perplexed, he follows his former
friends deep into the sewers in rat form, where he finds them chewing on
strange fungi and weeping stones.
He also finds morlocks, and both discoveries terrify him so much he is
willing to risk asking for help.
—Pathfinder Bestiary
232
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