RPGaDay 2026 Day 4: Charm

 Now we come to the Ruins. The first Ruin on my list is the Eureka Ruins. I might come up with an alternate name for the area, but for now, let's focus on our NPC.

We know this character is female, likely a Ratfolk, and our prompt is Charm. As this is early days, this will be some sort of "face" character that adventurers would likely be dealing with.

Let's say that she represents the Rat King. Is she a simple emissary? Nah. That would be boring. She's a Second Foundationer.

To back up a little bit, the Rat King that rules over the Ruins of Eureka is a collective consciousness made up of several ratfolk linked by their tails. Presumably, this makes them (singular or collective "they" is the correct pronoun for the situation) super-intelligent, so we can imagine that they have some sort of predictive power along the lines of psychohistory from Isaac Asimov's Foundation stories.

But in the stories, psychohistory wasn't perfect. While the Foundation was the public face of the Seldon Plan, there was the Second Foundation that had agents that took action behind the scenes to ensure that the Seldon Plan was fulfilled.

So let's assume that our "charmer" is one of these agents. Her job is to gather information to help the Rat King make better plans, but also acting to subtly influence the other players on the board to ultimately advantage the Ratfolk. So she could turn up in a lot of adventuresome locales.

Again, we have a challenge for a name. I don't think that Ratfolk speak English amongst themselves. It's probably a squeaking and chittering language, so we've got another "use name" situation. Let's call her Scarlett. We could come up with an in-universe justification for this, like red fur, but really, it's a reference to Scarlett Johansen who played the Black Widow in the MCU.

Name: Scarlett

Appearance: A female ratfolk with reddish brown fur, Among the ruins, she wears minimal clothing, mostly belts, harnesses and holsters for small weapons and other tools. In Ureka, she wears a loose, light dress as a ratfolk housemaid might wear, with the harnesses and holsters underneath it. Her tail has a few fleshy growths along its length, signs of healed injuries

Quote: "You don't have to do that."

Roleplaying: Scarlett is a manipulator. She prefers to talk rather than fight her way out of tight situations. She appears as non-threatening as possible as a way of getting access to surprising places. She doesn't always understand her missions, but she has faith that they will lead to greater success for the Rat King and her people.

Background: Scarlett is an agent of the Rat King and acts to fulfill their long-term plans.

Key Info:

She is a wild card, possibly aligned or opposed to the party, depending on her missions
She doesn't always understand what her mission is supposed to accomplish

Stat Block: