DHW 07: Rat Research Fund

Rat Research Fund: A Daggerheart Adventure in the Witherwild

"Donation to the Rat Research Fund? We're trying to research a cure for this illness that makes me look like a rat. We are seeking donations."

They are entirely sincere about the research fund. They are also genuinely stealing from you to pay for it. Both things are equally true.

Rat Research Fund is a Daggerheart-compatible adventure for level 4–5 characters that drops into any city with something old underneath it — and most cities have exactly that. Below the streets is a layer that used to be a shopping district, now home to the people the surface stopped counting: plague survivors, the displaced, anyone with nowhere the sun reached. Someone down there has been caring very much about them, in several conflicting and violent directions at once.

Perfect for groups who love moral grey, underground politics, and a villain who makes a sincere offer in ordinary clothes, this adventure includes:

• A living undercroft — the Bustling Marketplace environment, a kobold potion vendor whose fire-resistance paste is definitely-not-asbestos ("it works because of science"), a personalized invisibility potion that needs a lock of your hair, and a pickpocket who doesn't run
• The Wererat — a disowned noble turned plague survivor turned fundraiser, stealing to bankroll a cure for their own condition, who warms up the instant anyone treats them like a person instead of a monster
• The One-Armed Doctor — a clinic behind a waterfall, a former imperial physician doing genuinely good work and absolutely willing to commit violence for it. He's not a villain. He's a complication. Build a prior history with one PC and the whole scene lands
• The Bargain — a moth-fairy courier, a Fanewraith deal, and two sides using each other who both know it
• The Shrine Tunnel & the Three-Eyed God — hand-dug passage, red-ochre murals that predate the city above, and a ritual chamber where four cultists in everyday clothes are very close to summoning a hungry local plague spirit. Stopping them isn't optional. How is entirely up to the party
• Full encounter support — Battle Points budget, dual summoning countdowns, Level 4 (as-written) and Level 5 (light-scaling) guidance, and every combat block mapped to a reflavored core adversary so you can pull the printed stat block at a glance
• A non-lethal way out — a complete Aftermath: Turning Them In framework that turns the dungeon into a political decision: hand the survivors to Haven, to the Fanewraith, or play the two off each other
• Optional Witherwild hooks throughout, including the campaign-altering Wererat transformation for any PC who kneels and pledges

The cult are Wicklings who were sick, desperate, and lied to, who followed an old voice into the dark because every voice above had failed them. The fight is the easy part. What you do with them after is the adventure.

The Fanewraith connection is optional and easy to remove. The rat cult is not optional. The rat cult is the adventure.

Written by Richard Kevis and K.S. Kuffer | Playtested by Karl Pohl | Inspired by Daggerheart by Darrington Press | Licensed under the Daggerheart Community Gaming License | Witherwild Designed by Carlos Cisco, Rowan Hall, and Spenser Starke