Rattenjäger

In the deep dark wood villages of animals struggle to survive, the oppressive constant darkness all around them as great winding oaks and pines make up their very world. 

In recent years the forest has grown darker and the wild rats have gotten more daring, killing those they come across. Deep in the forest are the rats, creatures driven mad by the crimson sap of the Adeltree, warping their bodies and minds as they tear and shred their way through anything they come across, scarlet sap seeping from their fur.

The Adeltree is an ancient and powerful tree whose root system spans the entire wood, branching up all over. Under the moss and earth a great void of Adelroot and flesh and blood known as Blüdmump, the roots absorbing those that fall in the wood and creating the blood red sap as new branches burst from the earth.

It was Wilhelt, the first of the Rattenjäger, that discovered the power of the sap. When injected in small doses it gave the hunter tremendous speed and strength, at the expense of great strain on their small furry bodies. One Rattenjäger could take down several rats but a single slash would cause the sap to burst from their chest in a great crimson arc.

Even more still, those who use the sap were seen by the Adeltree as part of it. The fallen would descend into the moss, be rebuilt and healed, their souls pulled back from death as they burst from freshly grown Adelshoots ready for the hunt, veins full of sap, creating an unending cycle of death and rebirth. The sap would warp hunter and prey alike, growing limbs, changing them in viscous ways, the sap dying their fur red.

Many Rattenjäger hunted for honour, some for madness as their minds eroded from the constant death. In fact hunters would often kill each other as they fought the many horrors of the wood, fearing others would take their kill or their honour in the constant, unending slaughter.

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Rattenjäger is a tabletop wargame inspired by souls-likes such as Bloodborne. Players play mouse hunters known as Rattenjäger who delve deep into the dark wood surrounding their villages to take down dangerous rats, mutated by the potent sap of the Adeltree.

Rattenjäger utilise the sap themselves to enhance their strength and bodies, the ichor warping their minds as they lose themselves to the blood of the hunt. In fact its common for a Rattenjäger to go mad, killing both hunter and prey as they descend into the slaughter.

The Adeltree, an ancient parasitic tree that spans the forest, feeds on the blood of the hunt, drawing all who fall into a large void of flesh and viscera below known as the Blüdmump. Down in that blood filled cavern hunters who fall are rebuilt, their souls drawn from oblivion by the Adeltree, they ascend, bursting from the moss and Adelroots back into the hunt.

The Hunt of the Rattenjäger will never end.