Rainclaw Foundwhiskers

Rainclaw Foundwhiskers is a player character in the Godscar (campaign 4): a young possumkin ranger (Vermin Lord) who lives in the sewers beneath Sandwater Slough with a family of rats. Rainclaw is small, grey-furred with a white face and a dark central stripe, smells faintly of damp stone and old leaves, and is curious about faith but unconvinced.

Background

Rainclaw was born in The Khevasa Wildlands while his mother was travelling. Riding on her back through the sewers of a growing settlement, he was torn away by a sudden flood and never found her scent again. Rats took pity on him, fed him and stayed. Generations of rats have lived and died while Rainclaw remained, and under his care the colony has grown sophisticated: a democratic society that speaks in simple sign, with clubs, weekly tai chi, a would-be writer and a fashion-obsessed rat, Velknot Threadsnap. His scouts include Crumb Seeker and Tail Twitcher. Rainclaw advises; the rats decide.

Rainclaw wants people to understand that rats are good, and wants fewer traps and less cruelty. He passes The Low Lantern Archive almost daily through a hidden sewer access near The Tallow Stair, chats with the candle-tender Lornik Bale, scavenges behind The Gilded Maw, and does odd jobs for Slick. He fears deep water.

A week before the campaign began, Rainclaw hired Taz'Or Ka to kill The RatKEENG, a tyrant rat who ruled another sewer network. With the rats harrying his loyalists in scrap armour, they killed him; they shared his heart and ate the knot of rat-mass.

The Whiskerbond

Rainclaw's full name has grown with his deeds: Rainclaw Foundwhiskers Scrapsfeeder Heartfeaster LittleSandwich BearSlain. His rat family, The Whiskerbond, speak with him in a simple sign language, and he spoils them with bespoke lodgings, delicacies and small luxuries. The colony has picked up life's pleasures in return: there's weekly group tai chi, and clubs for fencing and crafts.

Personality

Protective of family, loyal, inventive with scrap, and happy with very little. Rainclaw has spent so long below the streets that he lacks practical experience and social graces with people, though among vermin he considers himself an artful negotiator. He is a little sticky-fingered when he judges his family's need greater than someone else's. He believes everything changes and that change brings growth, and he tries to help those who cannot help themselves. His flaws are wanderlust held back by duty, a comfortable laziness about odd jobs, a fear of deep water, and money that never stays saved: it goes on "luxuries" for the rats.

He can't abide cruelty to vermin. He breaks rat traps in pubs and sweeps up bait, then follows the baiter to lecture them on the majesty of rats. Anyone who won't listen may later find a pinch of rat bait in their drink: enough to teach a lesson, never enough to kill.

Life in the Slough

Rainclaw is converting a stretch of sewer tunnels into protected, semi-comfortable living quarters for the colony. He knows the routes, hidden areas and secret entrances better than anyone. His income comes from scrounging (dumpsters, sewers, dropped pouches) and from fetching odd samples and materials for "Techy", as he calls Slick, who doesn't appreciate the nickname. Slick keeps trying to recruit him to the refinery workforce; Rainclaw keeps trying to convert Slick to rats. He chats with Lornik Bale every couple of days along the candle route.

Bars usually turn him away when the rats come along, so he visits rarely and alone. Since the RatKEENG job, he and Taz'Or Ka have kept a ritual: a rat scouts the usual pub, and if Taz'Or Ka is in, he takes the table outside beside the sewer grate, apparently talking to himself, and passes drinks down while they trade hunting stories and monster tips.

The RatKEENG. Rainclaw found Taz'Or Ka by overhearing him boast about his kills from the street above, and hired him with his last few coins. The rats, in cardboard and scrap-metal armour and armed with toothpicks, held off the loyalists while Rainclaw shot arrows from the back line. The RatKEENG latched onto Taz'Or Ka's leg; the lizardfolk tore it in half, ate the Gordian knot of rat tails, and split the heart of the largest with Rainclaw. The enslaved rats were freed and some joined the Whiskerbond. No one knows what became of the loyalists.

Before 18 Suns Dusk 1047 PC. In the days before the Low Lantern flood, Rainclaw had finished clearing the last of the RatKEENG's lair. He found nothing worth selling, but salvaged some old stained mattresses for the colony's beds, and spent the days settling the newly freed rats in.

In the Godscar

During the Low Lantern flood Rainclaw dragged the guard Veskan out of the oil three times. Crumb Seeker later brought him the oil-soaked hat of the missing Archivist Denevar Holt, and Rainclaw found fresh repairs sealing the RatKEENG's tunnels off from the ancient sewers. Backed into a corner by the Baron, Rainclaw had his rats drop smoke bombs on the Baron's office, and has wanted the Baron dead ever since. Marya Velcrow appears to be watching Rainclaw, apparently without the Baron's knowledge.

Knocked out after the fight with the corrupted owlbear mother, Rainclaw saw visions of rat families, and then humans, being corrupted; Rainclaw collects the ears of slain foes as trophies for a necklace, wears Brad, a necklace of ancient humming bones through which he calls the Rat Militia, and bathed Crumb Seeker in alcohol against suspect flea bites. On 2026-05-20 Rainclaw was kidnapped (the rats signed that a dragon took him). In the crypt fight against three dragons Rainclaw died twice and was brought back by Brother Oils both times. The hippo-man hunters of The Guild of Harrow and Cornelius Amos Dagonlette showed an unsettling interest in Rainclaw's pelt. In Hysteria Rainclaw smelled aberration meat at "Meat", gained aberrant ears, and spoke with the strange old elf Saev Althene-Rho.

Rainclaw's closest bond in the party is with Taz'Or Ka; Rainclaw sees straight through Oils' con, and with Slick witnessed Oils' oil genuinely healing him.