Ratpack Rat Catchers and Sons...

[Jaraak]

Starting a new game in Waterdeep. My druid and the party wizard/rogue want to do something good for the city. We want to get the street urchins off the street and organise them into an elite group of rat catchers. Mostly so they can get let into peoples houses and eye off their valuables.

What are so cool ways to infest peoples houses with rats? Also control them might be handy.

Infest house > Send urchins to clean house > Urchins pass on list of valuables to appropriate parties > profit.

Its a good campaign so world domination is out. I'll settle with dominating the pest control market :D

Any and all WOTC books available. Thanks in advance for advice!

[Half-orc Bard]

Well the Druid casts awaken on some rats and befriends them then he wildshapes into a cat. The rouge guy will then say that the cat is an expert rat catcher. This goes on for awhile maybe kill rats in some houses. Then the awakened rats will go into a rich person's castle and who would they call only the man with the amazing rat catching cat! Then the Druid and rouge see first hand what the inside looks like

(I just thought of a good idea say that the cat only works in an empty room otherwise he'll get nervous and won't catch a rat, and then he can look for exits, openings, and hiding places where you can go when you rob the place also)

[gorfnab]

Summon Swarm set to rats may work. Basically the Druid wildshapes into something inconspicuous like a dog or a cat, gets into a position where it can see the house or mark, and then casts Summon Swarm until the house's owners call the rat catchers.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

I thought you wanted to do something good for the city. Or maybe you mean getting urchins off the streets and not starving is good even if it means making them part of a criminal conspiracy and turning a healthy profit is good.

Speak with Animals lvl 1 druid spell- if the druid can't diplomance them try intimidate you've got a big size modifier and I bet a feline familiar, animal companion or wildshape would grant a nice circumstance bonus.

Both summon monster 1 and summon nature's ally 1 have dire rat a couple rounds is enough for a quick run through the kitchen.

Also make sure to wait a bit between starting your rat catching business and starting thieving get some respectability. Ideally be turning a profit even if it means cooking the books there are plenty of easy ways to do this like giving the kids room and board off the record bonus points if room and board is goodberry and rope trick hey wait that's not cooking the books that's smart business/nice for the kids.

[Lonely Tylenol]

There is an pipe, which I believe is in the Magic Item Compendium, that summons 1d6x10 dire rats or 3d6x10 rats from within 200 feet when played. As long as you are playing, or control the pipe, or... Whatever... The rats will follow you and will obey your command. Presumably, this means you can call nearby rats to you, and then command them to swarm a house.

The greatest thing about this is you can use the pipe to get the rats out just as easily as you got them in. They're mundane rats, so they don't disappear after a few rounds, and they will unfailingly come to the call of the pipes. You can infest a house, have them employ your services, send in the street urchins to eyeball or even pilfer the place, call the rats out with the lute while the owners are gone, and effectively use the same rats for every operation. Hell, if you're savvy enough, you can skip the street urchins completely.

[Jaraak]

Some very good ideas. Anyone know what the item for leading rats is called? I can't find it -- must be going blind.

The idea is to go for a robin hood type syndicate. Steal from the rich give to the poor / street urchins. Probably use the cash to fund a few city projects.

Sure we could do it ourselves but if we get the kids to take care of it then when we're done and dusted we've given them the tools to prosper on their own. We most likely won't be doing much of the theiving ourselves, just selling the information on to other criminal elements.

[Sir Swindle89]

Its a good campaign

no it's not (assuming you mean alignment)

[Jaraak]

no it's not (assuming you mean alignment)

Thats for my DM to decide :)

[Greenish]

I'm disappointed that this thread isn't about a party of bards based on the Ratpack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratpack) recreating Pied Piper of Hameln. :smallannoyed: