Kratch is a small, wiry kobold with rust-red scales, a pale cream throat, and bright amber eyes. Their hands are broad-knuckled and permanently darkened with ink, chalk, and weapon oil from years of copying manuscripts and maintaining arms. They wear a slightly oversized chain shirt beneath a patched scholar's robe, with the robe's sleeves carefully tied back to keep them clear of their hands. A brass magnifying lens hangs from a cord at their neck, and their greatsword is comically large for their frame but meticulously polished.

Kratch is observant, earnest, and cheerfully argumentative. They treat every ruin, weapon, and monster as a question waiting to be answered. They are protective of smaller or overlooked people, quick to share useful information, and deeply suspicious of anyone who claims that cruelty is simply the natural order of things.

Kratch was born in a kobold warren beneath the collapsed foundations of an old observatory. Their clutch served as scavengers for a reclusive historian, bringing back broken tablets, rusted weapons, and books too damp for anyone else to want. Kratch became fascinated by the marks inside those books, especially the diagrams showing how ordinary people had resisted tyrants, monsters, and armies. Though they were physically slight, they learned that a well-timed shove, a sharp point, and a companion who knew where to stand could change the outcome of a fight.