Mousefolk

Our singer is called Josephine. Anyone who has not heard her does not know the power of song. There is no one but is carried away by her singing, a tribute all the greater as we are not in general a music-loving race. Tranquil peace is the music we love best; our life is hard, we are no longer able, even on occasions when we have tried to shake off the cares of daily life, to rise to anything so high and remote from our usual routine as music. But we do not much lament that; we do not get even so far; a certain practical cunning, which admittedly we stand greatly in need of, we hold to be our greatest distinction, and with a smile born of such cunning we are wont to console ourselves for all shortcomings, even supposing—only it does not happen that we were to yearn once in a way for the kind of bliss which music may provide. Josephine is the sole exception; she has a love for music and knows too how to transmit it; she is the only one; when she dies, music—who knows for how long—will vanish from our lives...

Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk

Franz Kafka

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Mousefolk (Singers)
No. Enc.: 2d10 (6d10)
Alignment: Any
Movement: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 6/13
Hit Dice: 1 (Can advance in a Class)
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d4 (bite), or weapon
Save: as zero-level human
Morale: 4

When the Neomorphs tore down the walls of their prison and burned down the House of Pain to escape into the night, only the Mousefolk remained behind. They had no desire to go out into the wild places only to be eaten by their fellows. since their so-called 'liberation' they have taken-up residence within the walls of any tumbledown manor or tenement that hasn't already been claimed by rats, Voormis, Thumblings or Todtenhilzig.

They have beautiful singing voices and have often been able to sing for their supper during the kinder seasons. It is commonly believed that they possess the ability to Charm or cloud men's minds with their cunning songs and clever chants, but being a humble people, they make no such claims. To this day they remain the only Neomorphs that have not taken up arms against humanity, a fact that has led many Low-Land Farm Enclaves to adopt small communities of Mousefolk who then educate the children, entertain the aged and attend to the moribund and deformed over the dreary, dark winters.

A few find themselves unsuited to care-giving and entertaining, so they return to Wermspittle in search of adventure with the hopes of making their fortunes as discrete couriers, spies or small agents. Most of them wind up as mercenaries fighting in dirty little wars within the walls of houses, homes and manors deep within the Burned Over District.

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Source of Inspiration: Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk by Franz Kafka, with a bit of The Island of  Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells.