Germican Stench Rat

It's been far too long since I posted anything and hope to be a bit better in the future. I'm currently working on the sequel to PO-1: The Stolen Child which is taking far loner than I had hoped. In the meantime here's a new Old School Monster.


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Germican Stench Rat

Frequency:                              Rare
No. Encountered:                    1-12
Size:                                        Small
Move:                                      12"
Armour Class:                         4
Hit Dice:                                 1-4 Hit points
Attacks:                                   1
Damage:                                  1-2
Special Attacks:                      Stench
Special Defenses:                   Charm
Magic Resistance:                  Standard
Lair Probability:                     10%
Treasure:                                 None
Intelligence:                            Animal
Alignment:                              Chaotic Neutral
Level/XP:                                1/9+1/hp



This seemingly minor nuisance would be viewed as just another breed of giant rat, of which it slightly smaller and less intelligent than, if it weren't for two unfortunate qualities.The first of these is the more obnoxious. At the start of every encounter, a germican stench rat will release a cloud of gas that exactly duplicates the second level magic user spell stinking cloud, except the range is zero. This sulfur-smelling cloud is full of germs and has a 5% chance of infecting anyone within its radius with a serious disease(as a rat bite). A successful saving throw versus poison prevents infection.

The annoying pest has survived not by its wits but by its unusual charm abilities. For some mysterious reason, sentient beings with intelligence scores less than nine inevitably mistake it for a small dog and beings with wisdom scores less than nine tend to find it cute. Either of these makes a potential victim vulnerable to the stench rat's charm ability. If the potential victim fails its saving throw, it will find the rat "adorable" and adopt it as a pet. At first this might seem relatively harmless as the stench rat is naturally tame. However, the stench rat is a lousy companion in a dungeon. At the slightest noise, the germican stench rat will begin growling and making a loud annoying sound that vaguely resembles high pitched barking, making surprise impossible. Even worse, the stench rat's gas cloud is not completely under its control and there is a 1 in 12 chance of it accidentally gassing  the party each hour. And in the event of an encounter, it will forget that its new friends aren't immune and will launch its gas attack immediately. Due to its insanity, a stench rat never needs to make a morale check or save vs fear, though it enjoys antagonizing dangerous monsters then "hiding" behind its owner.

If taken home the stench rat will have its 1 in 12 chance of it accidentally gassing and it will reveal another unfortunate characteristic, its tendency to destroy any paper product it can find. It especially likes scrolls and spellbooks and left unsupervised will chew them up. Any unsupervised germican stench rat will have a 10% chance of destroying one of these each hour. Only if there are none in the house or they are all magically secured will they be safe. If the stench rat destroys something especially important to the owner, such as a spellbook, it is allowed a new saving throw against its charm.

Sages are uncertain as to the relationship between giant rats (Rattus Sumatracus) and germican stench rats (Rattus Peeyewicus) but suspect the latter are descended from an especially smelly subgroup of the former. They have no value.
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Everything between the lines, except the photograph, is released as open game content. The photo is not open game content. There is no additional product identity.