[MUGM]: Rat Patrols

The Gudgeon Moon constantly bathes the surface with it's eerie light.

This light has become a precious resource that has allowed surface-dwelling societies to thrive. Gudgerfolk and Highlord alike work to exploit the plentiful warmth, growth, and energy provided by moonlight.

While The Pilgrimage's claims of spiritual danger have yet to be thoroughly substantiated, the effects of Gudgeon Moonlight on some wildlife are a real and ever-present danger which plagues all denizens of the Mound.

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1d6 Mound Creatures / Ecological Threats

1. Glasflies

• Description: Like a firefly; but instead their rears are little focusing lenses. Each member of a given hive might have different focal lengths, angled lenses, mirrors, etc.
• Abilities: 
• In the presence of a light-source, a swarm of Glasflies can fire off a laser with the same properties as that light source.
• A swarm can also perfectly redirect light/lasers/etc. to reflect, bend around corners, etc.
• Behaviour:
• They flee in total darkness.
• If a light source is present:
• sniping and hunting wild-life
• burrowing out tunnels for hives in wood or more porous stone
• occasionally: a happy little laser light show
• If a person carrying an artificial light source is present, they will harass the holder until they give up their light source.

2. Shribulet

• Description: Normally, they are invisible by firelight & moonlight. They may only be seen with special lenses or lamps. They appear to be floating toad-like heads with wide mouths and sharp teeth. Below their neck, barely dragging along the ground, are long thin whip-like tentacles.
• Abilities:
• Basically silent
• Floating; like a slowly moving balloon.
• Upon Grappling a target:
• the target is restrained by the tentacles
• the target begins to suffocate from strangling
• the target is made invisible, the same as the Shribulet
• Behaviour: They hunt targets whom are isolated or alone; dragging them away from their group to die quietly as their innards are sucked out, leaving behind a shrivelled shrunken corpse. A pregnant Shribulet will also lay their eggs in these corpses, to protect them from the open air.

3. Nubacillus

• Description: A tube-like creature, sort of like a sea cucumber but big as a whale. Their surface ripples as they move, sort of like they were an inflated piece of cloth. There's a large ear-like orifice on the front, and an unfortunate looking orifice on the back.
• Abilities:
• Incredibly graceful flight, but can't handle almost any added weight.
• Their skin resists being broken by all but the sharpest of conventional weapons, but once it's broken they will inevitably fall, wither, and die.
• Can only sense heat and wind; not very intelligent creatures.
• Behaviour:
• Usually they just float up high, amidst the clouds, lazily filter-feeding on anything it sucks through it's air-hole.
• If threatened, they are incredibly light-weight & agile fliers; deforming and zigzagging around the sky.
• They congregate wherever there is a sufficiently large heat-source (e.g. a burning village, the surface after a Splash, the warm light of the Gudgeon Moon, etc.)
• Misc:
• Historically, their populations boomed after each Splash before dwindling off. Now they linger in the Moonlight, growing larger and fatter each generation as they mindlessly devour numerous flying creatures.

4. Glintmice

• Description: Like a softball with four rodent legs. Their fur is incredibly iridescent and shiny. They have one big orifice on their front, which serves as a mouth. That orifice is also lined with tiny fine hair which is constantly shined by it's saliva and diet, making it's mouth incredibly reflective.
• Abilities:
• If a light source is present, they can flash-blind people.
• Behaviour:
• As a rat, but also if there is a light source present it will...
• attempt to Blind nearby targets by reflecting the light and run away
• if no one is nearby, it will reflect that light to signal to other Glintmice if there's safety/danger/food/etc

5. Scrubbers

• Description: Imagine a squirrel, but instead it's hairless and leathery. It also has no tail and no head. Stretching from clavicle to rectum, there is a protruding lip surrounding a glowing rectangular orifice with rounded corners. It shines with a faint light, that makes you nauseous to look at.
• Abilities:
• Immune to magic / the supernatural
• While it is staring at a single target no larger than a horse, all of that target's magical / supernatural qualities are suppressed.
• If some aspect of a being's biology is magical, they will die in three rounds of continuous staring.
• If the stare continues for three constant days, one beneficial magic / supernatural quality of that target is completely erased.
• Behaviour:
• Scrubbers encircle the most magical / anomalous thing nearby and stare at it.
• They have no sense of self-preservation. They will sit and stare as they are cut down.
• Misc:
• A constant annoying pest for Highlords or other wizardly types.
• Nobody is quite sure how they are born or where they come from.
• Many congregate and stare at the Gudgeon Moon. This worries many Gudgeonfolk. Can they scrub away the Moon? Or worse, are they scrubbing away whatever holds the Moon in place?

6. Spesters

• Description: Imagine some fat & juicy looking fruits. The most delicious example you can think of, any and all varieties. Bunches and bushels and more. Now when you bite into it, imagine it unfold into a spider.
• Abilities:
• The bite of a single Spester isn't deadly to any creature larger than a small dog, but does cause the affected area to be itchy and paralysed.
• If enough bite a target at once, they may suffocate as the muscles responsible for breathing are paralysed (assuming they need to breathe, have flesh, etc).
• Behaviour:
• Spesters basically just hide out as fruit most of the time.
• Upon being bit, every Spester will try to ambush the prey.
• If that doesn't work / the target is big and scary, they all flee instead.
• Otherwise, as spider.
• Misc:
• Since the arrival of the Gudgeon Moon and the proliferation of Spesters in produce, it's come into style to eat your fruit with a knife. (Or your Spester with a knife- food is food. )

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Ever since the days of the first Splash, communities have had to organise to deal with different sorts of beasts running rampant. Whichever creatures somehow survived a Splash often interacted in unexpected ways with their new environment, and with creatures lingering from previous Splashes.

The arrival of the Gudgeon Moon and it's impact on the environment has only made this need more constant & pressing, resulting in the modern-day Rat Patrols.

A Rat Patrol is any confederation of individuals dedicated to keeping dangerous fauna in check. This includes everything from a volunteer task force temporarily formed by a local community, to roving bands of professional hunters. Some city-states or Highlords even maintain their own constant Rat Patrols for specific local threats.

Given the varied work, Rat Patrols often call on the expertise of all sorts- rangers, scholars, hunters, game keepers, sappers, etc etc. This also can result in a wide variety of approaches from patrol to patrol. After all: an exterminator and an ecologist may have vastly different views on how to approach a given problem.

The largest and most famous Rat Patrol is the Irmach Brigade. They are a fellowship of volunteers from above and below the Mound, devoted to keeping under-Mound creatures like Glasflies and Shribulets from reaching and overwhelming the moonlit surface. Wherever there is a path from the surface to below the Mound, chances are there's at least one volunteer coordinating local efforts to keep the surface safe.

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This post © 2025 by Ro Pham is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0