Rodent Adventure Group Sketch (Patreon)

The Thistledown project is based around (primarily) the actions of the Rodent Adventure Group, also known as the RAG. These four rodents are part of The Adventure Guild's Inclusion Program, an initiative to test out types of people as Adventurers and Mages who would otherwise be banned from such roles in Thistleland. As descendants of Avala refugees (banned from magic or adventuring as their people are labelled 'irresponsible'), all four members of this group come squarely under this, and indeed represent the best chance the people of Avala have to better their status in Thistleland.

From left to right, the four members are:

Rooibos Thread, the groups adopted leader and one of the two Springhare sisters. Rooibos is a pacifist at heart and the healer of the group, using the staff she gained from the Mages. Her ambition one day is to become a Mage herself.

Bohea Tare, also known as Bo' to her friends. Best friends of Peppermint, Bohea grasps life with both paws, and lives to fight anyone and everyone she meets, though usually in good spirits. She is quite happy with her would-be opponents choose to fight in chess as much as brawling. She is also the quartermaster of the group, using her Red Planta pet to carry luggage.

Peppermint Clay, the red squirrel rogue. Shy, anxious and timid, Peppermint has a submissiveness problem which she gets around by avoiding enemies and people alike, though usually only uses her disabling zapper gauntlets on the former. Somehow she is best friends with Bohea, and the two often fight at each other, usually with chess.

Darjeeling Thread, the warrior Springhare. While she uses a quarterstaff rather then the classic sword you would expect of warriors, Darjeeling was allowed by The Adventure Guild to place a small Momentum Engine (a generally forbidden piece of Avala 'magic') into her weapon, enabling it to send opponents flying with a single strike, be they rodent size or drakes. Reserved in speech and precise in movements, she prefers action to words.

In the background, you can see the young Red Planta that Bohea has adopted and which acts as the groups luggage carrier. Nobody is quite sure how Bohea managed to even partially tame a Red Planta, nor is it clear exactly what stops it from eating the entire RAG alive.

This artwork was created by Timor.