Ormly

Ormly was the champion rat catcher of the Rat Catchers' Guild.^[1] He was described as a gnarled little man^[2] having yellow-tinted silver hair, a pallid, deeply lined face with a high and broad forehead, and small, narrow-set eyes.^[3][4]

He claimed every rat in Letheras knew his name.^[5] Onyx thought him indecisive.^[6]

In Midnight Tides

Brys Beddict encountered Ormly in the flooded passages below the Eternal Domicile while it was still under construction. As the palace's best ratcatcher, Ormly had been hired to remove the rats whose bodies kept clogging the waterpumps used by the royal engineers. He disappeared in the tunnels overnight leading Royal Engineer Grum to think him drowned. But Ormly soon appeared neck deep in water with a mass of rats floating about his head, tied by their tails with string to his cape.^[7]

Later, Ormly was among the board members of the Rat Catchers' Guild approached by Tehol Beddict and Bugg. Of the six, Ormly was one of only three who were not magical illusions. Tehol revealed that the knew the Guild was in fact a cover for their work as assassins and thieves, much to Ormly's displeasure. Then Tehol worked out a lucrative three point contract with the Guild. During the negotiations, Ormly deduced that Tehol's previous disastrous financial endeavours, which had once ruined the Guild's investments, had been deliberate. Champion Ormly briefly considering not letting Tehol leave the Guild alive.^[8]

After the Tiste Edur invaded the Kingdom of Lether, Chief Investigator Rucket browbeat Ormly into divulging to Bugg the Guild's intelligence on the occupied cities. According to the Guild's spies, the Edur were taking the place of the Letherii nobility and the constabulary but otherwise allowing life to operate normally.^[9]

In Reaper's Gale

The Rat Catchers' Guild was one of the first victims of the new Tiste Edur regime. On his first day as Invigilator of the Patriotists, Karos Invictad outlawed the Guild and sent a hundred agents to Scale House. Scores of Guild members were arrested, although all later turned out to be illusions.^[10] Rucket established a new office in a disused area of tombs and tunnels below Adventure Alley.^[11]

After Scale House collapsed, she was joined for a meeting by Ormly, who expressed nervousness about Tehol Beddict's plans to wreck the Letherii economy by hoarding coin. The plan was proving too successful and the Patriotists were stirred up to find the culprit. He accused her of losing all objectivity when it came to Tehol because of her lust for the man. Rucket insisted the true mystery was Bugg and how he had managed to hide so much coin. None of their rats had been able to find the coins' hiding place. She finished the conversation by making lewd remarks about her servant, Unn, just to stir Ormly up.^[12]

After the Patriotists finally tracked down Tehol and arrested him, Ormly and Rucket awaited news of Tehol's execution date. Ormly also reported that Ublala Pung had likely gone insane as he was spotted crawling on his hands and knees in a Tarthenal cemetery. The two Rat Catchers awaited word from Selush, who possessed one of Brys Beddict's fingers. When the finger began twitching, Selush sent word to Rucket.^[13] Ormly took the finger and went to Settle Lake where he was disgusted to find Ursto Hoobutt and Pinosel, the lake's guardians, drunk. He noted they exactly resembled a six hundred-year-old painting in the Old Palace's baths. Before long a dazed Brys Beddict surfaced on the lake's bank.^[14]

Telling Brys his brother's life was in danger, Ormly guided the man to the Patriotists' headquarters while filling him in all that he had missed since his death. Brys killed Karos Invictad in his office as Ormly sent out for a healer for the nearly dead Tehol. Brys belayed the order, saying an Elder God was already on the way.^[15] Meanwhile, Ormly and Rucket spent a fortune hiring criers to proclaim Tehol a hero of the people to successfully turn public sentiment back in his favour.^[16]

When Adjunct Tavore Paran reached the Eternal Domicile at the head of her forces, Rucket, wearing her illusory glamour, welcomed her and introduced Brys as Lether's saviour and Tehol as Lether's new emperor. Ormly stood with them, the pockets of his cloak filled with rats.^[2]

Notes and references