This is Gnasher. Gnasher is a legendary hunter. (Gnasher is a three-legged ruin-rat with one working eye.)
Not a tamed beast, a demon pact, or a shapeshifter — someone who spent enough time in the ruins that something uncanny decided to follow them home. The companion is leashed (same or adjacent tile) and has no turn of its own: each round the Straykeeper’s single action is spent from either body. One character, one action, two bodies.
Design Pillars
- Loyalty: the companion strengthens the longer it goes unharmed in a run; hurting it resets the bond — a trust grind, not a stat grind
- Sidesteps companion-AI cost by design (no independent brain)
- The player refuses to notice their pet is ridiculous — that’s the bit
- Honest scope note: still needs a companion asset pass and ‘which body acts’ UI
First-Pass Kit (draft — numbers unvalidated)
- Signature — One Action, Two Bodies (passive): each activation, your single action may be spent from either body — yours, or the companion’s (leashed: same or adjacent tile; it has its own small Wind and Vitals).
- Sic ‘Em (companion action): the companion attacks with your Wits — Break 1 / Wound 1. Gnasher is a legendary hunter. The numbers are irrelevant to Gnasher’s legend.
- Fetch (companion action): the companion retrieves an item, springs a suspected trap, or investigates a dangerous tile — without spending a novice to do it.
- Passive — Loyalty: each rest the companion ends unharmed, it gains +1 Wind (up to +3). If it’s ever Wounded, the bond resets — a trust grind, not a stat grind.