STORY & ART BY STEVE PRESCOTT

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Contents 9By Brian Campbell

Summoning the Armies of the Apocalypse

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© 1999 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights re-served. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire the Masquerade, Mage the Ascension and World of Darkness are registered trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Werewolf the Apocalypse, Wraith the Oblivion, Changeling the Dreaming, Hunter the Reckon-ing, Werewolf the Wild West, Ratkin, Axis Mundi The Book of Spirits, Hengeyokai Shapeshifters of the East, Werewolf Players Guide, Book of the Weaver, Bone Gnaw-ers Tribebook and Destiny’s Price are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by White Wolf Publishing, Inc.

The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned.

This book uses the supernatural for settings, charac-ters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. Reader discretion is advised.

For a free White Wolf catalog call 1-800-454-WOLF.Rats in the walls? Check out White Wolf online athttp://www.white-wolf.com; alt.games.whitewolf and

rec.games.frp.storyteller

Special ThanksRebecca “PokéGigante” Schaefer, for having the biggest Pikachu in the office.Justin “Cryptologist” Achilli, for breaking the E&D code.Rob “Spoit” Hatch, for the sound his blood vessels made when he saw the ad for “Calgary Conflagration” action figures.Aileen “Creditmonger” Miles, for ensuring that her name will now appear at least three times on most Werewolf books. Ethan “UNDEADUNDEADUNDEAD” Skemp, for entirely too much excitement about lurching, dessicated corpses at the local cinema. Mike “Dying Breed” Tinney, for finding a place that still does karaoke.

CreditsAuthor: Brian CampbellComic Book Story & Art: Steve PrescottDeveloper: Ethan SkempEditor: Aileen E. MilesArt Director: Aileen E. MilesArt: Mitch Byrd, Joe Corroney, Brian LeBlanc, Larry MacDougall, Steve Prescott, Jeff Rebner, Ron SpencerBack Cover Art: Steve PrescottLayout & Typesetting: Aileen E. Miles Cover Design: Aileen E. Miles Playtesting (The Scooby Cthulhu Troupe): Fred Annet, Jr., Ahna E. Blaker, Shawn Conrad, Zack DeLong, Peter James DuBois, Phillip Granner, Alan Holmberg, Bjorn Maier-Ellison, Lars Michelson-Hubbel, Mari Michelson-HubbelScumdangle Elfbiter: Justin Achilli.

Danger! Rat!There are a couple of things about this book that

just… aren’t right. Please remember as you read that we White Wolfers really aren’t in favor of terrorism and don’t want to exterminate the human race. We’re just writing about a bunch of crazed wererats with an entirely different set of principles. We don’t expect you to go out and start emulating Twitchers, really (at least we hope you won’t!), but consider this a note to pacify whomever’s mother might have picked up the book.

Thank you. Drive through. “The ansur lize in never giving up even when you are all

beet to hell and you only have won guy buT DAmn us Rat Thraptors have fiting spit i Mean spirit.”

—Scumdangle Elfbiter

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Contents 11

Introduction: The Shadow of the Rat 12

Chapter One: Ratkin Legends 18History as the wererats tell it

Chapter Two: Infesting the World 28A look at Ratkin society

Chapter Three: Crunchy Bits and Shiny Things 54Ratkin character creation

Chapter Four: Aspects and Renown 78Ratkin “auspices” and Rank

Chapter Five: Systems and Storytelling 96Optional guidelines for intensifying the Ratkin experience

Appendix One: Ratkin Gifts 106

Appendix Two: Rat Bastards 126

Appendix Three: The Real World 137

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Introduction 13

Introduction: The Shadow of the Rat

We are the Little Folk — we! Too little to love or to hate.Leave us alone and you'll see How we can drag down the State...Mistletoe killing an oak — Rats gnawing cables in two —Moths making holes in a cloak — How they must love what they do!

— Rudyard Kipling, “A Pict Song”

A World of RageThe shadow of the rat, crossing into power, never to be buried.

— T.S. Elliot, “The Wasteland”Long before the dawn of human history, shapechangers

walked the Earth. The world was honest and brutal then — monsters had no need to hide their true forms. Legends speak of the Changing Breeds, shapeshifters who served as the guardians of the Earth. First and foremost among the shapechangers were the Garou, a race of werewolves entrusted with the safety of mankind. For three thousand years, the Wolves watched over hordes of humans. The worst of them exploited the humans as slaves, culled them as breeding stock, and sacrificed them to fulfill carnal urges. Loremasters who know the old stories call this time the Impergium, an era when the unrestrained force of chaos reigned supreme.

Surrounded by a primal world of rage, humans lived in fear of violence in the night, especially when the moon was full. Werewolves stalked the darkness, inspiring terror through

sheer atrocity. Monsters bred in the darkness, but the Children of Wolf protected mankind from the savage horrors of the night. Racial memories of Garou violence have been buried in the human subconscious ever since. To this very day, the mere sight of a werewolf in its Crinos form is enough to drive all but the staunchest humans beyond the fragile limits of their sanity, overwhelming them with the madness of Delirium. The terror of the Impergium will never be forgotten.

Nonetheless, the story ends badly. It’s said that the Garou’s triumphs were so great that they became proud of their savage accomplishments. Soon, they declared themselves the greatest of Gaia’s children, intimidating any who threatened their su-premacy. As the Wolves’ fury and false pride grew, they exacted their rage on the other shapeshifters of the world. Overcome by hubris, some even demanded that the other Changing Breeds serve as their subjects. Of course, the other shapechangers refused, secure in their devotion to the Earth.

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