Bilge Vermin

Bilge vermin are nocturnal, cat-sized rat-things with greasy gray fur flecked black and dingy white, a twitching scaly pink tail, big ears, pointed snouts and teeth that gnaw through planks to reach food.

Every one carries a curse-born gift of the crimson curse of the frontier coast, and most have slid into the curse's deforming final stage. Most bear the phasing gift, which leaves them puffy and grotesquely misshapen and makes them sink into solid matter if they linger in one spot. They wear no curse-warding red metal, getting a trace of protection from scarlet pimpernel or none at all.

Far more aggressive than giant rats, they attack poultry, cats and other small domestic animals, and even humanoids if they get a chance. A bilge vermin divides the world into two categories: food and rocks. Like rats, they carry disease; a bite has a 5% chance of passing on something serious, such as plague or typhus, unless the victim saves vs. poison. They swim well and fight as readily in water as on land.

They live to eat, even chewing in their sleep, devouring up to ten times their weight in food or refuse daily and fouling far more. Granaries and cargo holds suffer worst; many a captain has opened a hold to find nothing left. Most phase into storehouses, ships or pimpernel caves, nest briefly and move on. Nests may hold shiny trinkets and victims' belongings.

They breed like rats, three to five litters a year of eight to twelve young each, and live two to four years. Scarlet pimpernel is their favorite food, which makes them a handy test: set one loose near a patch, and whatever it tries to eat is true pimpernel rather than the identical-looking crimson delight. The trick is pulling it off the plant before it finishes the whole thing.

Crimson ticks plague them, so swarms often keep company with small tick-eating songbirds. Traps and poison control them, but most such poisons are just as deadly to people.