Pack-Rat

Experimental Subject XCV-112890

Morgenstern Labs was one of the many corporate fronts used by The Labyrinth to hide its myriad interests in the world of scientific research, legal and otherwise. One of its special areas of experimentation was adapting DNAscent technology and processes to use on animal subjects, experimenting not only with bootstrapping specimens to higher levels of sapience, but also chimerization… the adaptation of species-specific traits from species to another. The research saw great success, producing a number of animal hybrids with human-level intelligence, as well as numerous impressive chimeras that displayed cross-sections of melded animal, reptilian, and even insectoid biologies.
One problem with being a front for powerful criminal organization is that by hiding the association, you lose much of the intimidation factor. The animal rights group that heard rumors of illicit testing in Morgenstern Labs thought they were merely vandalizing another in a string of pharmaceutical concerns guilty of torturing (testing on) animals, learning painfully—and fatally in a couple of instances—of their error when they accidentally released the specimens from their cages. The specimen that would become Pack-Rat never looked back, heading right through the waste cycling systems, into the sewers, and out to freedom.
Hesitant, fearful exploration revealed a fascinating world to him, and he rapidly educated himself through the benefit of poorly-locked libraries and downscale bookstores. When he helped a group of vagabonds being beaten by a rowdy street gang, he gained valuable allies willing to overlook his appearance in a world of demonic invasions and alien powerhouses. They named him “Pack-Rat” and beginning with those first few members, he gradually built a pack that he has taught to survive by capitalizing on society’s natural inclination to ignore them.

Physical Description

Special abilities

As a humanoid rat, Pack-Rat has claws and vicious teeth with which he can defend himself, and when he drops to all fours he can move with impressive speed. He also has a highly developed sense of smell and taste. Even in comparison to human intellects, Pack-Rat is brilliant, with a savant-like grasp of bizarre and exotic technologies. He is never without a few utilitarian devices almost absentmindedly kludged together from scraps of materials—his tech may look odd, being comprised of junk and various odds and ends, but that doesn’t make it any less effective.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Mutation into a humanoid form has turned instinctive acquisitiveness into avarice and pathological envy. Pack-Rat is a driven collector of discarded things, whether it be raggedy clothing and old transistor radios… or street people. He exhibits many symptoms of what in humans would be called autistic behavior, none of which get in the way of efficiently running a “guild” of petty thieves that he uses as surrogates for the packmates ripped away from him by his transformation. As a rat “uplifted” to human-level sapience, he has difficulty grasping the intricacies and motives of many human behaviors and morality systems, like this arcane concept called ‘property.’

Social

Contacts & Relations

His most obvious allies are “The Rats in the Wall,” a loosely organized but highly effective ring of petty thieves with a reputation for unmatched knowledge of The Undercity and hidden corners of the urban landscape. He’s also on good terms with the Menagerie, the animal rights “terrorist” group formed from the other escapees that broke out of Morgenstern Labs with him.
Aside from the authorities and various hero-types that all take exception to his choice in profession, Pack-Rat is also aware that he is hunted by agents of the corporation behind Morgenstern Labs, though he has yet to figure out the existence of the Labyrinth itself.