Rat

*Rats scurry through The Catacombs, feeding on the unfortunate dead and the refuse of Grumbuls. Though they pose no real threat, they are sneaky and are prone to acts of thievery, often stealing from Kids and Grumbuls alike much to the annoyance of both.*

*Unlike the fat and violent City Rats that inhabit the Overworld, those that call The Catacombs their home barely manage to scrape by - what few predators are desperate enough to feed upon these rats will find themselves with an unsavory mouthful of little more than skin and bones.*

   Rats have the ability to become Invisible without magic, are quite fast, can run up walls, and pass through closed doors. Although they do not attack, they steal from humanoids including the player. However, this can be exploited by allowing the rat to steal a Torch or another light source to explore for you.

## Behavior

Rats will generally stand around and pace their current room if left alone. They generally continue this behavior around anything that isn't humanoid.

In the presence of a humanoid, it will turn invisible and attempt to steal whatever the creature or kid is holding. If the humanoid isn't holding anything or is actively chasing or attacking the rat, it will flee, running up walls and diving through doors.

A moment before lunging to steal an item, the rat will begin rolling (usually preceded by a small hop in the opposite direction). Similar to a humanoid's roll, the rat cannot be hit by anything while in this state. The act of stealing will generally uncloak the rat as well as ending its roll. Once the rat has stolen something, it won't drop the item unless it is staggered or killed. This makes the rat pretty easy to locate and keep track of since the item it carries will always remain visible.

When playing as a Poet with a tome equipped and not holding or stowing any items, rats will try to steal the equipped tome. This is the only way a tome can be unequipped without destroying the book.

When attempting to steal an item, rats will prioritize held items first, stowed items second, and equipped tomes last.

## Food

Rats can sometimes drop a Dead Rat when killed. Eating this contributes towards a bone meal (-1 Max HP, +1 MAG). Therefore, eating rats is a good alternative "bone food" as it does not incur the 1 damage penalty from eating a Skeleton.

Additionally, cooking them briefly will heal 1 health so long as it is eaten while still smoldering. If left too long after cooking, the Dead Rat will char resulting in a 1 damage penalty if eaten and no health restored. However, this can be bypassed by turning the charred corpse into a Soup which will remove the "Charred" modifier and also restore 1 health when eaten. Alternatively, they can be baked which, unlike smoldering, will not char unless dropped directly into a heat source afterwards. Baking will also prevent rot so long as the dead rat has not rotten beforehand.

## Trivia

* Dead Rats counting towards a bone meal is likely a reference to its encyclopedia entry where the rats are referred to as "an unsavory mouthful of little more than skin and bones."
* Rat holes can be found throughout the Upper Dungeon, but this appears to be entirely cosmetic as they don't seem to spawn rats.
* Rats are one of the few creatures that have a fixed amount of health with no scaling or variation.