Pâté de Rolo

Pâté de Rolo is a puppet created by Laudna made of a raven skull affixed to the body of a dead rat. Pâté is named after the de Rolo family of Whitestone, where Laudna is from. When she puppets Pâté, speaks through him using ventriloquy in a deeper pitched, almost Cockney accent.

Description
Pâté de Rolo is a small puppet created by Laudna made out of the body of a rat and the skull of a raven that died after flying into a wall inside Laudna's home. In official art, the puppet is depicted wearing a red ribbon around its neck. She carries him on her belt.

Laudna puppets him using magical tendrils from her fingers as strings like a marionette. She performs ventriloquy through him using a deeper pitched, almost Cockney accent. She stated that he can be puppeteered a maximum of six inches away from her fingertips, though she is "working on" extending that range.

He is named after the de Rolo family of Whitestone, where Laudna is from. Laudna recalled there being many de Rolos whose names began with the letter P (likely the multiple Percivals) and felt that the puppet looked like dead liver, so she additionally named him Pâté.

History
Before 841 PD, Laudna created Pâté to keep her company alongside "the voice inside her head" to prevent her from going mad in her solitude. She seems proud of the work she did in creating Pâté herself.

Pâté was introduced to the Campaign Three adventuring party in. Though Laudna was excited to show him off, reaction to Pâté among the group was mixed: Fresh Cut Grass and Ashton Greymoore reacted positively, Dorian Storm was polite but disliked him, and Imogen Temult remarked that she had not gotten used to Pâté in the two years she's known Laudna. When Laudna, speaking through Pâté, told the group that he kept her company to maintain her sanity in solitude, Orym whispered to the puppet that he did a good job.

Laudna later excitedly introduced Pâté to Little Mister, Fearne Calloway's monkey-shaped wildfire spirit. Little Mister screeched at Pâté, and Fearne attempted to encourage Little Mister to befriend Pâté by petting Pâté, which only made Little Mister jealous. Later that day, Laudna showed him to Milo Krook. Thrilled, Milo called Laudna "cool" and became inspired to create similar rat-creature hybrid constructs.

Laudna presented Pâté to Chetney Pock O'Pea, who was initially delighted to make the acquaintance but was more hesitant when Laudna proclaimed that he and Pâté were now friends. When the group considered having Chetney pay them for their help by making toys, instead of in gold, Laudna asked if he could make a girlfriend for Pâté. Chetney said he could and, when Laudna through Pâté said he was "quite horny", Chetney added he would consider that in the design. The next day, when Fearne used Wild Shape to become a rat, Pâté said she was "a fresh hunk of meat"; Imogen said this was inappropriate to say, and Laudna admonished Pâté for offending Imogen.

Trivia

 * After Laura spoke with her mouth closed (to simulate Jester speaking underwater), in, Marisha asked Laura if she was ever interested in trying ventriloquism. This likely resulted in the development of Pâté.
 * A pâté (French: "paste") is a food made from a seasoned mixture of ground meat and fat, usually slow-cooked and served cold. Given Laudna compared the puppet to liver, pâté de foie gras is made of the livers of fattened ducks or geese and is considered a delicacy associated with the rich and noble.
 * Pâté's raven skull is reminiscent of Percival de Rolo's personally crafted bird-beaked mask and his raven skull clasp crafted using a skull given to him by Keyleth, who like Laudna was played by Marisha.