Menace Eradication Contract: Destroy Ferocious Rat

Menace Eradication Contract: Destroy Ferocious Rat Storylets for the Menace Eradication Contract: Destroy Ferocious Rat Venture are all found in Watchmaker's Hill. You will need to raise your Running Battle… quality to advance the Venture. When your Running Battle… reaches 5, storylets appear to complete the Venture. Once this Venture is available, you can complete it multiple times.

---

It's Just A Rat, Right?

Track down a rat of exceptional size and cunning

A contract from the Department of Menace Eradication! You must be making a name for yourself.

[You'll need to build up a Running Battle… quality to at least 5 to complete this. ]
Unlocked with Dangerous 12

Accept the contract

Department jobs are rarely simple, but they pay well.

Reward spoiler

This is everything we know…

'Rats! but rats of frankly offensive size. A number of them came ashore in the wreck of the Matilda Briggs. This one has been making a nuisance of itself up and down Bugsby's Reach. Attacking terriers. Carrying off small children. Can you sort the d—ned thing out?'
Begun a new venture! Menace Eradication Contract: Destroy Ferocious Rat
Running Battle… shows your progress in the venture.

---

Here, Rat, Rat, Rat…

Track down a rat of exceptional size and cunning

As big as a wild boar, they say…

[You'll need to build up a Running Battle… quality to at least 5 to complete this. ]
Unlocked with Menace Eradication Contract: Destroy Ferocious Rat 1

Patrol the river's edge until you see it - then shoot!

Estimates of its size vary. 'The size of a barrel.' 'The size of a donkey.' 'Big as a spider-council!' (A what?) But they all agree it's big. It can't be hard to spot.
(Dangerous challenge, high-risk at 12, chancy a 14)

Reward spoiler

You're sure you've got it!

A trail of blood mingles with the sticky mud of the Stolen River's shores. > You must have hurt it. But it's made off into the night.
Dangerous increase
Running Battle… increase

Failure spoiler

Missed

Or so you think. It's hard to be sure in the clinging moonless darkness. Certainly the rat is gone.
Dangerous increase

Try to determine where it will strike next - and lay out poisoned bait there

Perhaps its attacks have a pattern. Perhaps you'll be wasting your time. Only one way to find out.
(Watchful challenge, low-risk at 16)

Reward spoiler

You've worked out a relationship between its attacks and the tides

You leave a beefsteak laced with strychnine, and the next day it's gone. The thing ate it and lived! But it must be suffering. A few more doses will finish it off. As long as you can afford a beefsteak.
Watchful increase
Running Battle… increase

Failure spoiler (unknown)

---

Got Him!

Track down a rat of exceptional size and cunning: the resolution!

The rat is badly hurt. It's become wounded and sluggish. Now to track it to its lair in the sewers - and end this.
Unlocked with Menace Eradication Contract: Destroy Ferocious Rat 1, Running Battle… 5

Shoot it the moment you see it.

The tide will rise soon. You don't want to be trapped down here.
(Running Battle… challenge, modest at 5, straightforward at 8)

Reward spoiler

A bullet between the eyes!

Good God, it's a big one. There's no way you'll be able to drag it back to the surface. You are faced with the unpleasant task of deciding which part of the rat you should cut off in order to prove your kill. We will gloss over the details of that process, and simply mention that the Department of Menace Eradication is pleased, and pays out in full.
Gain: 36 x Rostygold.
You've lost a quality: Menace Eradication Contract: Destroy Ferocious Rat although it doesn't say so
You've lost a quality: Running Battle… although it doesn't say so

Failure spoiler (unknown)

Explore its lair thoroughly before it returns.

Who knows what you might find? I mean probably you'll find rat dung and half-eaten children, but you never know. Just be out of the sewers before the tide comes in. [Warning: failing here may mean you have to start over!]
(Running Battle… challenge, high-risk at 5, modest at 8)

Reward spoiler

A nest of squirming monsters!

Dear God - it's a female! Good thing you caught these abominations before they grew to full size. The Department of Menace Eradication will certainly pay you a bonus for these.
Gain: 36 x Rostygold.
Gain: 24 x Rat-on-a-String.
You've lost a quality: Menace Eradication Contract: Destroy Ferocious Rat although it doesn't say so
You've lost a quality: Running Battle… although it doesn't say so

Failure spoiler (unknown)

Explore its lair thoroughly before it returns

Who knows what you might find? I mean probably you'll find rat dung and half-eaten children, but you never know. Just be out of the sewers before the tide comes in. [Spending a point of Fate will ensure success here.]

Requires 1 Fate

Fate-locked content must not be placed on the wiki, per the developers.

---

All images and directly quoted text are © Failbetter Games Ltd. and are used by permission.
Failbetter Games asks that you read the FBG Fan Project Guidelines before adding content to this wiki.