Devilfish:Samuel the rat king

Samuel the Rat King
Samuel without his usual adornments.
Reputation	Notoriety Criminal D / -
Author	/u/fire209 (capes)
Alignment	Villain
Affiliation	None (Devilfish)
PRT Classification	Changer, (Brute, Master)
Status	NPC
Other names	Samuel, The Rat King, The Vermin King, Monarch of Rodents, The Illustrious Samuel the Bold and Brave, Squishy the Rat
Reddit Sheet

/u/fire209

Public Information

A large rat-bird-centipede monstrosity has been seen stalking the sewers, wearing a haphazardously placed crown and sopping, rotting robes. Capes from New York would recognize him, knowing him to be that weird rat-king from the sewer, and might have a vague idea of his powers.

Physical Appearance

A large, rat-like monstrosity, covered in plate-like scales and feathers, and an almost beak-like maw of teeth. It's tail extends very long, and looks to end in an almost centipede-like fashion, covered in sharpened spines.

Samuel can often be seen wearing a very ratty king's cloak and crown, as well as holding a sceptre of some kind. All are very clearly some kind of stolen stage prop, but he treasures them dearly.

Mentality

Samuel is a fairly resourceful fellow, cunning enough to know the game to play but often distracted by fanciful thoughts or random acts that he thinks would be funny or great. Is somewhat divorced from normal human understanding of society, having lived under it and working around it for several years.

Generally very sympathetic to people who are homeless or in generally rough situations, and will try to help out where he can, giving supplies he's stolen or organized. Is also very sympathetic to rodents and other vermin-type creatures, helping them and treating them with respect and comradery.

Equipment & Resources

• A fanciful cape and sceptre, along with a crown. Mostly decorative, but the sceptre is fairly solidly built and can be used as a makeshift weapon if need be.

• Various bits and scraps, knick knacks he collected over the years. Generally things you'd find in the trash.

Has a small den in a local landfill, where he bribes and generally befriends the workers into not bothering and reporting him. Also keeps localized dens of rats and other vermin that are well managed for his use.

• Wealth Level: 2

Skills

• Trash Scavenging

• Awesome at rat-charades

• Good urban survival skills

• Very scrappy, if effective dirty style of fighting.

• Awesome at Rat Charades

• Makes a mean Garbage Sandwich

• Good at urban tracking and information gathering.

• Knows how to work with and Network with people who are homeless or housing insecure.

Power

Case-53 Biology

Samuel is a case-53, and as such has the minor ability to consume most trash and otherwise undesirable food with no risk of injury or disease. He also has a minor brute rating (This is mostly to make up from the fact that he doesn’t really wear armor), able to survive things like a baseball bat to the head, though being severely dazed. Generally durable enough to take a few blows, though nothing major. It also gives a minor regenerative factor, enough to keep him in tiptop shape and heal most cuts and grazes in a day, but nothing potent enough to regenerate a limb or the like. It's mostly just a spectacular immune system. His biology also gives him the ability to hold his breath for roughly 3 minutes of sustained activity, and the ability so squeeze into spaces much more easily (Within the level of a professional contortionist)

His main power is mostly composed of 3 parts. None of his abilities come with the ability to influence other power-generated/affected animals, and fail to function on them.

Part 1: Crude Animal Control

Samuel is able to sense small animals (Generally small dog and below, including insects) within a ½ mile radius of himself, and is able to know their general emotional state, how healthy they are, and a general sense of what they’re focusing on/doing, though it isn’t precise and isn’t super useful as a tactical tool since he cannot cause the animal to focus on different things.

He also has a very crude control over these animals, generally able to direct ‘waypoints’ for them to go to. However he cannot direct the animals to attack if they normally wouldn’t attack, simply directing their movements. It’s more ‘setting a waypoint that the animals know they have to be near’ than anything, not able to direct fine movement. The animals are also almost never hostile to him, considering him a friend or one of their own (This only extends to animals he can control). He can direct them in general broad ‘waves’, and can selectively determine which animals are controlled (I.E. he can choose to call only rats, or make the rats go to one point while pigeons go to another, or single out a single rat and direct it with this, etc)

'Waypoints' like 'North', 'This specific room', or 'Towards Me' generally fall into the range of waypoints he can make.

Part 2: Chimeric Changer

Samuel can absorb animals that come in contact with him into his form, causing him to change ever so slightly. The more animals he absorbs the stronger and more durable he is, capping out at about 100 pounds absorbed for a roughly 4,000 pound deadlift and Class 3 ballistic armor/platemail durability. Beyond that he continues to get larger the more he absorbs, but doesn't get particularly stronger or more durable (Well, except for how with size his blows would have more force due to more momentum, etc.). He caps out at around the size of a minivan.

The more of a particular animal is absorbed, the more that animal is emphasized in the resulting changer form, and Samuel can direct or amplify these changes to an extent. Absorb enough birds? Wings may be able to form granting a low-level, slow flight, and his mouth may form into more of a beak, giving it a more powerful 'pecking' attack. These mutations aren't pretty or symmetrical, emphasizing the monstrous aspect of the case-53 more than anything.

He can only absorb animals he can control with part 1 of his power.

Part 3: Chimeric Mastering

While in the changer form, Samuel can deliberately remove some of the animal mass into separate masses, forming chimeric creatures that are a mix of their constituent animals. Unlike normal animals, Samuel has much more precise control over these, able to direct them with ease and see through their senses. Their form is an amalgam of whatever creatures were used to make them, though Samuel can focus the chimeric form in one direction or the other. These chimeras have the relative strength comparable to other animals their constituent size.

Samuel can only have roughly 500 kg of animal active like this at a time, more than that causing smaller ones to disperse to make room. These amalgam animals only retain their forms while within 30 meters of Samuel, beyond that they simply disperse back into their constituent animals. No one chimera may exceed 100 kg.

Trigger type: Coven, Case 53 Changer/Master/Brute

Example

Samuel awaited behind the sewer grate, viewing the prize. A full munster wheel of cheese, brought in just today. He knew he had to steal it, but the question was how? Turning to the mass of rats that were his friends next to him, he posed the question, chittering to them. The rats chittered back, mostly unintelligible as he couldn't actually speak to other rats, but the attempt was nice, and the rats were excited to be participating in the raid.

Pressing his little front paws together, he grabs his crown and cloak, donning the gown as he grabs onto his sceptre and a rugsack for looting. With a clack of the sceptre on the ground, the mass of rats seethes and lurches towards him, simultaneously melting into a multi-rat paste that began covering his whole form , bulking muscle and fetid hide to enhance him

Reaching out with a hand covered in the weird Rat-Goo, he clenches onto the sewer grate and rips it out, quickly clambering onto the street and leaping through the store window. Opening his rugsack, he quickly begins stuffing cheese into it, first taking the wheel before stuffing in various bries and cheddars, muensters and mozzarellas.

Just as he was finished, a bulging sack full of delicious, delicious cheese, there arrived another parahuman. Quickly fidgeting with his crown, making sure it was straight, he stepped out of the store to see a man on the street, clad in blue and very generically muscular. Squinting his rat-like eyes and twitching his whiskers, Samuel says, "You stand before Samuel the Rat King! Who dares defy me in my rodent glory!"

The severe man said nothing, simply launching towards Samuel with a punch.

With a panicked chitter, Samuel barely scrambles out of the way of that punch, grabbing several rats on his chest and removing them to have some kind of amalgam rat which he tosses straight into the man's face. Rapidly, he began calling onto all the things he could in the area. Pigeons fluttered in, Rats began pouring out from the sewer grates, various insects and critters poured from the New York City streets, all converging on Samuel as he did his best to dodge the increasingly irate parahuman. As animals converged he tossed out more and more combinations- A rat mixed with a couple pigeons to make some sort of 4-winged rat that clumsily flew into the man's face, several rats attached to a centipede to make a large sort of ratipede that tried to tangle up the man's legs. In the end, Samuel was able to escape, loot in hand as the parahuman was too busy dealing with his friends to chase after Samuel.

Backstory

Before he was the Rat King of the Sewers, Samuel was Richard Brown, an accountant who had grown sick of his work, and bitter at the corruption present in the higher echelons of society. So he decided to do something about it, reaching out to see where he could get he kind of power he needed to inflict change.

Coven answered the call. He needed something to help him gather the lowest of the low to help him make change, and Coven gave him just that, in exchange for his identity, he could become a true hero to help overthrow the corr-

Clutching his head as he woke up, the pale, naked rat glanced up at the New York City skyline, no memories of who he once was. Looking around, he could feel the city. Well, not really the city, but it's inhabitants. The rats, the pigeons, the birds. Even some small dogs. The insects lurked in a nearby trash bin, feasting on the remains of some candy mixed with the rotting remains of a fruit bowl. He could Feel them, the lowest dredges, and he could call on them.

Quickly, he grew in reputation in New York. More of as a sort of urban legend than as an actual cape, he could be seen being followed by the stinking vermin of the underworld. he had found a crown, scepter, and king's cloak and had proclaimed himself king of rats.

But then the Endbringer hit, 2 years after his arrival to the Big Apple. The resulting Devastation and damage caused him to leave the city, and he's been roaming around ever since.

Devilfish was his latest haunt, and it seemed like a nice enough place, he might stay for a while.