Plague Rat and Chrono Ranger

General GTG Sentinel Comics Lore
1

I'm starting to think that Chrono-Ranger IS PLague Rat.

 

Let me walk you through it:

Fair warning, this gets a bit timey-wimey, but the rules of time travel, alternate dimensions and paradoxes seem to be more than a little fluid in the multiverse.

 

1. Jim goes to the future, where he is infected with the Rat Plague and loses an arm.

-We know that the plague is infectious, that being a basic tenant of plague rat's mechanic

-We know that it makes people more animalistic, from the artwork in plague rat's deck that depicts the heroes going feral.

 

2. Jim goes back in time to find the source of this plague and eliminate it.

 

3. Jim's bounties grow steadily darker (this is very speculative, and you may have a different perspective)

 

Dead or alive- he's gaining strength and regenerating health from the hunt.

No executions- he needs to remind himself not to kill.

By any means- He's growing more feral.

Kill on sight- he's starting to give in.

The Whole Gang- He's willing to take out entire groups.

The ultimate target- He's getting stronger and more relentless.

 

4. Plague rat has Chrono-ranger's poncho in his plague locus.

 

5. We know that the two of them fight, and going by Hunter and Hunted, its an epic battle. 

 

6. We know that CR ends up stranded between dimensions.

 

My thinking is that in hunting for plague rat, Chrono realizes what he is becoming and intentionally strands himself outside of time in order to try and prevent it- or at least make sure that when he changes, there are no victims around.

 

Now, its true that Plague rat has two arms (and chrono only has one).  but its entirely possible that he'll regenerate it as the infection consumes him.  this seems entirely in keeping with Plague rat's mechanic of infected heroes being able to regain HP through feeding. 

 

I'm interested to see what other people think.

2

I don't know how convinced I am, but that would be awesome if true

3

Interesting!  Plague Rat has no non-mythical backstory yet, so it's conceivable.  You made me notice that the Plague Locus also appears to have two of Gloomweaver's voodoo dolls in it (for Legacy and someone else; Bunker?)  Along with the syringes and the can, there are some glowing spherical objects that I can't identify.

4

Heh, and knowing >G, that will be important… :open_mouth:

5

The second 'doll' is some sort of idol/artefact, I've checked Gloomweaver, the Ennead and the Tomb of Anubis but can find nothing like it

6

It's an interesting theory, and I'd love it to be true, but I'm curious as to whether you've put the bounties in that particular order for any reason other than to corroborate your ideas...

7

Interesting, you think it's something else?  That would make sense. I wonder how Plague Rat got all these items.

Incidentally, what's in the very upper-right of that image?

8

Part of a pipe outlet, spillng its contents off the side of the card

9

I think the glowing orb things in the Plague Locus belong to Nightmist - I have a vague recollection of seeing them in one of her cards somewhere, though I might be misremembering. If Chrono Ranger ends up becoming Plague Rat, wouldn't that mean that all of Plague Rat's current biography is false? About him being some drug dealer guy who ended up in the sewers and got all mutated and stuff?

Rats will hoard stuff, so Plague Rat having a bunch of random things in his nest isn't too far from the behaviour of real rats (though they mainly just hoard food, which is why you can't really overfeed a rat - they'll just stash the excess away somewhere).

I suppose if Jim deliberately stranded himself in time, it must be him who broke the sheriff's badge thing which appears to be his time-travel gizmo (it's seen sparking on the floor at his feet on his Incap side, and I think it's glowing somehow in one or two of his cards in which he's interacting iwth timey-wimey portals, like Displaced Armoury).

10

I put them in that order because of the severity of the effects/language, rather than any knowledge of their timeline.  Its entirely possible that the quote on the bottom of each bounty will place it more firmly in the overall chronology, but I'm not sure.

I'll readily admit that its a hunch.  Mostly I think it would be interesting.  Its entirely possible (likely, I think) that we'll find out some more information about the Rat and Chrono in future expansions that might shed some new light.  the artwork at the bottom of Setback's Bio has him and the Rat in combat, so I can certainly hope!  

 

11

Easy to check which issues they come from, the information on who says what on which cards and where they come from is on the wiki.

http://sotm.wikidot.com/heroes:chrono-ranger

And… I think you are unfortunately wrong. His first appearance is in Freedom Five Annual #10, which is the quote on  "By any means", which is your third placed bounty. Though with his time traveling you could still be right, it could be the first time the Freedom Five meets him, but not the first time he meets the Freedom Five

12

I had forgotten there were two versions of the biography.  The one on the SotM site is vague about origins, but the one in the Rook City rulebook indeed contradicts him being Chrono-Ranger (unless Chrono-Ranger becomes a drug dealer first, which is unlikely).  Neither biography gives a name for Plague Rat, though.

13

ah well.  another brilliant theory done in by inconvenient facts.

14

However, Ultimate Target's quote comes from one called "The Last Hunt"... The fact that it's the last could mean many things, but this is definitely one of them.

15

This used to be the inverse, where the rulebook had short vague bios, while the website had much more in depth background.  I think this changed with the website changeover around the time of Infernal Relics.

16

My biggest problem with your theory, as awesome as it is, is as follows. We know plague rat infects at least Legacy and Tachyon, but they do not become mutant rats, this leads me to believe they find some sort of cure for the disease. CON, being so far into the future and having the medical technology to amputate an arm and replace it with super awesome prosthetic, probably was also able to cure Jim of the disease while treating him. Also, Jim was attacked by a Rat Beast, not Plague Rat, and they might not be carriers of the disease. After all, I'm pretty sure the heroes cannot infect others, only Plague Rat can.

 

Still, awesome theory to draw them closer together

17

Ra gets Infected as well - I've gone completely blank on the card name but it's the one where you hit someone else at the start of your turn if you're Infected. Omg I am gonna kick myself when I remember it, lol - it seems to come out at least once in every game we play :P.

18

Afflicted Frenzy. The kicking may begin.

19

Perhaps his repeated exposure to the plague rat virus, through his many battles against him, caused it to mutate into something incurable. 

I would imagine that in order for it to spread as much as it seems to have in The Final Wasteland future, it must have mutated into something that other rat beasts could transmit. 

Perhaps after repeated battles Chrono Ranger kept being sent further and further back in time to try to find the origin of plague Rat to defeat him once and for all until he was sent back to a time where there was no Plague Rat to be found… and that's where he began to notice that the plague rat virus was changing him and he retreated to the sewers and began raiding pharmaceutical labs and drug supplies trying to find a cure. The

urban legends had it wrong, Plague Rat wasn't a drug dealer, he was a desperate man stealing drugs to save his life and the world. 

20

 

This I like, don't believe it, but it is awesome :smiley: