For long centuries, the least of all the demon cults has been in the cities, where a morsel of food laid at a half-neglected shrine of the rat cult of Chittr’k’k (pronounced CHIT-er-ek-ek) often brings some boon. Indeed, the small glint of greenish fire that indicates a sacrifice has been accepted is one of the ways that the cult itself recognizes the presence of its demonic patron, and such light is often mimicked by its adherents in their rituals and secret countersigns.
In Zobeck, the cult occasionally appears on the docks but far more often in the cartways and crypts of the undercity. The cult is often pursued and extinguished in one or another city along the River Argent, from Zobeck all the way to its mouth at the Ruby Sea, but as soon as it is wiped out, another brother or sister of the rat is sent to reestablish contact.
Chittr’k’k Cult Goals
The cult of Chittr’k’k has rather simple goals: eat, breed more rats, summon avatars of their lord. At the same time, its demonic master revels in fouling and destroying the goods and foodstuff of others. Indeed, the scouting of food and despoiling of grain, beans, and other nourishment is a common practice of both rats and Chittr’k’k’s followers.
However, the goal of summoning more rats is an even more compelling urge, either through feeding and breeding normal rats, through magical summoning (see below), or through the use of magical idols.
IDOLS OF THE RAT LORD
The cult carves and maintains small statues of Chittr’k’k, which it places in small niches or under eaves or in culverts, as impromptu shrines to the Rat Lord. Some are even found on ships, hidden in bilgewater or a ballast hold. They are usually of carved wood, showing the bright teeth and sometimes the fiery green tail of the demon lord, and its small, clawed hands are typically open enough to hold a
small object. The cult values the oldest of these statues highly, treating them as divine or saintly relics, often with particular names, like Old Buck, Nabby Tooth, or Whisker Prince. They will strive to recover any of these believed lost or taken by their foes.
As objects of veneration, believers and others seeking some small blessing leave bits of hair, meat, candles, and even bread or blood offerings at the statue, either smeared on its mouth or placed into its claws. Cat fur and cat paws are popular sacrifices. In return, Chittr’k’k sometimes dispenses a minor boon. These boons never involve true healing or the mending of broken objects or broken hearts, as with more benevolent godlings. Indeed, Chittr’k’k’s power is very weak and diffuse in all the cities and ships where he has followers, but it is strong enough to provide at least the illusion of warmth, comfort, wakefulness, and the like. In most such cases, the boon provides no actual warmth, sleep, or nourishment, but the illusion of comfort is very distinct and pleasing in the moment.
A priest or paladin of Chittr’k’k need not roll for the effect but gains the one desired. When an idol has granted sufficient boons, it has also acquired divine power, which the cult’s
priests and preachers use to summon hordes of rats, to contact Chittr’k’k himself, to summon a rattok servant of Chittr’k’k, or (in the case of truly ancient idols, brimming with divine power) even an avatar of the demon lord.
DESTRUCTION AND LOSS
While the cult often pretends to help people, its goals as a group are starvation for humanoids and the rise of ratfolk everywhere (see also Midgard Heroes Handbook for more on ratfolk). They are most active in cities, abandoned villages, wastelands, and other regions where rats can thrive in the absence of humanoid extermination. They are sometimes aligned with other forces of destruction, such as goblin tribes, gnolls, or dragons of the Mharoti Empire who use them as spies and saboteurs to weaken a place before they send in valuable dragonborn troops.
Cult Leaders & Followers
Priests of the rat cult are few, though devotees and followers (even relatively indifferent followers) are common enough. Farmers leave an offering to keep rats off the threshing room floor, millers sprinkle flour at a shrine to avoid rats in the meal-bins and grain sacks, and even sailors often leave bits of bread or cheese out to avoid having their mooring lines and sails gnawed and spoiled. Those priests who do follow Chittr’k’k are often pantheist priests. They have access to the Vermin domain or the Darkness domain. In addition, the rat cult is widespread among beggars, ratfolk, sewer dwellers, kobold rogues, smugglers, and others. Dock workers, stevedores, bargefolk, and sailors are all at least familiar with it, though most are wise enough to distrust its claims.