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Let's Play Hell's Rebels! Adventure 01, Scene 01
This is the first scene I did for my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign. Initially I wrote stuff into this file as it happened, alternating betweeen Player and GM roles as appropriate. Then I did several editing passes to properly format it for publication, add the correct links, and apply slight retcons resulting from the change to Arcturus’ background.
[GM] Introduction
The background for the adventure here is mostly the same, though I imagine mainland Cheliax is going to be worse than the writers envisioned at handling the Glorious Reclamation.
Barzilai arrived ten days ago, directed the Night of Ashes, instituted martial law, and made seven absurd proclamations so far. Several minor protests were dispersed by dottari or CCG thugs, and this is the largest one yet.
Anyway, our heroes are all at the protest for their varied motives:
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Now that she’s back in town Jade will never miss a protest against Thrune if she can help it. It’s also a good way to catch up on the news and figure out what to do from here.
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Arcturus is here for pretty much the same reason, though in this case he’s looking for news about Shensen, the missing diva.
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Rosalia is here due to rumors that her missing friend Shensen would be present, though they’d probably show up even if that wasn’t the case.
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Urist is here to find Rexus Victocora. He was tipped off by Laria Longroad that the man would be here. He is the last surviving family member of some of his former colleagues, and he will save the boy if he can.
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Jania is also interested on the news, though in her case she’s worried about how the current political climate might affect her school. Her disposition also makes her inclined to try some pickpocketing here.
[Player] The Aria Park Protest
We’re following the kind-of-skill-challenge laid out in the protest description, so there are these defined actions PCs can take during the initial part of the protest.
Everyone is going to spend their first couple of hours on Watch the Crowd and Listen for Rumors actions. Watching the crowd is a roll on the better of Perception and Observation. Listening for Rumors is either Current Affairs or again the best between Perception and Observation
Watching the Crowd:
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Jania lacks Observation, so she’s rolling Perception. Success by 3.
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Urist rolls Perception as well, since it’s better than his Observation. Success by 3.
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Arcturus fails his Perception roll by 2.
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Rosalia makes her Perception roll by 2.
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And Jade amazingly makes her Perception roll by 7! Not a critical success, but an excellent margin.
So everyone notices that the crowd is agitated and discontented, but not overly violent. Jade additionally notices a subtle undercurrent there as if there’s a group trying to rile up the crowd without being seen. There might be trouble brewing!
Those who succeeded by any margin also perceive the general layout of the protest, and which groups are part of it: Kintargo loyalists who demand local rule, democratic activists who demand an election for mayor, “economic conservatives” who are upset at the increased taxation, trolls who are in it for the lulz and perhaps a riot, and fascists who are trying to shout the others down in support of Barzilai.
Arcturus is too overwhelmed by the crowd to notice anything except that they’re noisy and kinda fun.
Listening for Rumors:
Everyone uses Perception except for Rosalia, who rolls Current Affairs.
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Jania uses Stealth as a complimentary skill and makes her roll by 3. She gets two rolls on the rumor table and hears that a) Shensen is missing, and might have been imprisoned and b) something is killing tieflings in the Devil’s Nursery. Could it be the Temple Hill Slasher returned from the dead?
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Urist succeeds by 1. He gets a roll on the rumor table and hears speculation about Mayor Bailinus’ fate. Some say she ran away when Thrune rolled into town, others say she died on an accident.
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Rosalia succeeds by 5. She gets three rolls! She hears the same rumor about Shensen, which is very fortuitous since that’s what she came here to learn. She also hears that the prisons are so full Thrune started keeping prisoners in warehouses, or putting them to work in commandeered buildings like the Salix Salt Works. Thrune also plans to bring public excruciations to Kintargo, a practice that’s common in the Chelish heartlands but used to be forbidden here.
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Arcturus succeeds by 2. He hears that Thrune’s bodyguard Nox might be a half-devil or something of the sort. Maybe he should wrestle her!
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Jade fails by 1. She learns the basic situation of the city, which is useful to her, but fails to turn up any juicy bits of gossip.
Three of the PCs will perform a third action, and after that I’m moving on to the riot.
Jania will pick some pockets! Let’s use the default rules from DF Exploits for it. She makes her Pickpocketing roll by 3 and thus earns 3 silvers… which is actually a mistake on my part (3 silvers is $60, she earned $15). But I’m letting that stand.
This is where it might get fun. Jade will attempt to Rabble-Rouse, and organize the crowd so that they can protest with one voice. Rosalia on the other hand will silence the lulzers and fascists.
The original book says rallying the crowd is a Diplomacy or Perform check, and silencing the assholes is a Bluff or Intimidate check. What about GURPS?
Both of these actions involve addressing large groups of people so Public Speaking should figure into it somehow, if only as a complementary skill to help grab the crowd’s attention. Jade is trying to organize a group of NPCs, which is definitely covered by Leadership. Rosalia is going to try to browbeat the fascists first, using Intimidation
Jade succeeds in her Leadership roll with a margin of 10, which I think it’s enough to get a nice unified chant going and for the crowd to recognize and part for her when shit goes down.
Rosalia makes her roll by 3, which is enough for a regular success too. The “Chelish loyalists” (fascist scum) are silenced.
Then what happens is that the two ladies notice each other’s efforts! The final action before the riot start will be each of them attempting to help the other. So how about we do one more rallying action with Rosalia helping Jade and one more suppression with Jade helping Rosalia?
So Rosalia rolls Singing to help a second Leadership roll from Jade, and Jade rolls Leadership to help a second Intimidation roll from Rosalia, directing the crowd to help shouting the trolls down. Regular successes all around, which are enough.
Each time the characters gain a quest XP reward in the original, I’m giving them 1 character point each. Here, they all gain the maximum of 4, for 4 successful actions.
[Player] The Riot
Things happen more or less as described in the book at this point. Barzilai appears, makes his eighth proclamation forbidding foreign ship captains from leaving their vessels on pain of torture, and gets pelted with horse manure.
I wanted Arcturus to be the one who throws it, since he’s pretty annoyed at Barzilai right now and is impulsive enough to want to start something. This was actually the first roll I made in Foundry, an attack using Throwing Art. I took into account the distance between Arcturus’ position in the map and the balcony (behind and above Nox), as well as its elevation. And he hit!
The horse apple veers off-course at the last minute because Barzilai has a Missile Shield on himself, but he still flinches and spills his wine, ordering Nox and the dottari to move against the crowd. The fight is on!
Now, the original book recommends dealing with the crowd abstractly. It makes most of the map difficult terrain for everyone except those PCs who managed to make a good impression. Most people will do this because it’s faster and more convenient.
I’m not most people.
A map of the Aria Park riot filled with protesters represented by individual tokens. We’re using the variant of Popcorn Initiative used in Lancer. The first character to act is a PC, chosen by the group. Then the GM and the players alternate, with each one choosing a character on their side to activate that turn. When one side runs out, the other activates their remaining characters. At the end of the round everyone refreshes their activation and we keep the same alternating sequence. If an enemy was the last to act before, a PC acts first in round 2, and vice-versa.
We also have a “neutral” side here: the bystanders. I rule they move 4 hexes on their turn, and they all activate together at the end of each round. Bystanders have a Move of 5 and a Dodge score of 8, and they go down (disabled or dead) upon taking any hits.
The bystanders, obviously, will attempt to run away by moving towards the left or right edges of the map. If they get there, they manage to escape and I remove them from the board.
The CCG thugs start out in the middle of the crowd, and they’ll use Move or Move and Attack maneuvers to close in on bystanders and club them. If a PC is in range they’ll prioritize attacking the PCs instead. These are mooks, and though they can make defense rolls they also go down in one hit.
The dottari will slowly march down the map, moving 1 hex at a time except if they need to turn their formation. If they move into reach of a bystander, they will attack, but they will prioritize keeping their formation over that. Nox and her hellhound pet will keep formation with them. Or at least, that’s the plan. Dottari are regulars, going down automatically at 0 HP. Nox and her hellhound are elites, and use the same rules as PCs.
The PCs can do whatever they want, of course, and with my player hat on I decide that they will try to protect as many bystanders as they can and give them time to run away, and then will attempt to escape themselves. Even Jania finds herself compelled to do that - she’s far from selfless but she’s also no friend of the dottari.
I started writing up detailed actions here, but I found that took too long. This was the exact type of busywork I’m trying to eliminate by using Foundry. So here’s a summary.
Jade starts the proceedings by moving directly northwards to challenge the dottari. If they’re focusing on the tall elf with the sword they will pay less attention to the unarmed civilians. The illustration above is after I had moved her.
The dottari advance according to their plan, and the CCG Thugs manage to club a couple of civilians who were too close when the chaos started. Arcturus charges into them and begins grappling. Rosalia, Urist and Jania move to assist, trying to keep the un-grappled thugs away from both the civilians and Art himself.
Arcturus remains unarmed throughout the fight. Any thug he grabs is more or less defenseless since they have such low stats. In the turn after he grabs them, he can punch them and spend the boatload of Control Points the grab generated to deal a monstrous amount of damage. He gets to do that twice. Jania defeats another grappled thug with a whack of her cane, and Urist knocks one out with a shield bash - he hasn’t drawn his axe yet.
I forgot to move the bystanders at the end of the first round, so in the second one the dottari began reaching them and taking down the upper row of the crowd. I let that stand when I realize my mistake - we can say the crowd was collectively stunned for a round.
Seeing this, Jade decides to up the ante and attack the dottari that’s closing in on her, nearly beheading the guard with a well-aimed horizontal slash to the neck!
This causes Nox to start moving towards her and ordering the other dottari to do the same. They pick up their pace, ignoring the fleeing bystanders to focus on those armed individuals who are actively resisting them.
Fortunately the rest of the PCs manage to defeat the thugs by the time the guards arrive. Jania, who is a bit further away, forms an Ice Dagger and begins to aim it at Nox’s general direction.
Jade stabs a second dottari in the face and begins fencing with two others plus Nox and her dog. She slowly retreats towards the rest of the group, now focused on protecting them.
This whole encounter feels like an even match. It’s likely our heroes could win this and kill all enemies if they stayed to the bitter end like the Dungeon Fantastic party often does. They’d suffer casualties, but I think they might win in the end as long as either Art or Jade stayed up for long enough.
I don’t intend for them to stay that long, however. If Nox gets a single hit in, it’s game over for that PC. And if the dottari from the left flank get close enough to surround them, it might be game over for the whole group. They’re not strong individually, but they can prevent the party from moving and make them easy targets for Nox.
Once Nox is close enough Rosalia hits her with a Song of Humiliation and manages to stun her. Jania takes this opportunity to throw the Ice Dagger she had been holding.
My rule here is that melee attacks with no declared target land on the enemy’s torso, but ranged attacks end up in a random location. Nox fails do dodge this one, so the dagger hits her right leg. Jade follows up with a sword strike to the same leg, crippling it. They all see Nox immediately begins regenerating the damage, though.
Arcturus, Urist, and Jania book it towards “map east” as soon as there are no dottari in the way. Rosalia and Jade end up staying for a bit longer, but the bard quickly finds an alternate escape route and Jade follows soon after now that she doesn’t need to cover anyone’s escape. During this altercation, which took around 8 rounds, the bulk of the bystanders managed to escape unharmed. So were the PCs, for the most part. Urist got bonked by a dottari for 4 HP, but managed to heal himself back to full in short order.
The original Pathfinder encounter had the CCG Thugs appearing first, then a pair of dottari, and then the rest as a “you should run now” message. Putting everyone on the map from Round 1 and increasing the total number of dottari seems to be the right way to make this challenging and exciting for starting DF delvers.
While they technically ran from this fight, that was the goal, so I can consider this a victory. I give them 1 point for it.
This scene was definitely chaotic and though the characters acquitted themselves well, the Chaos Factor rises to 6.
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Urist Stortebeker, the Last Archivist
One of the player characters for my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign.
Urist Stortebeker is a somewhat unorthodox dwarven priest because he honors gods of freedom and knowledge such as Caiden Caylean, Avandra, and Ioun. This naturally drew him to the Honored Society of Archivists in Kintargo a few years ago. This was a secret organization dedicated to preserving the true history of the Ravounel region and of wider Cheliax from the revisionist depredations of its fascist government.
He was just walking the first steps to mastering their deep scholarship, but his previous adventuring career made him very good at retrieving lost documents of historical and cultural value, so that’s what he mostly focused on.
He had been out on a mission to retrieve one of those documents when the Night of Ashes happened. The agents of Barzilai Thrune, the newly appointed Lord Mayor of Kintargo, swept through the city killing anyone who they thought might be able to oppose his plans, and burning down their homes. This included the members of the Society, most of whose identities Barzilai had figured out.
This makes Urist the last surviving Archivist, and you can be he’s extremely angry and sad about that. However, just before he left on that last mission, some of his Archivist friends asked him to look after their son if anything happened to them. They weren’t sure anything was going to happen, but things weren’t looking good in general.
So now Urist’s top priority is finding this son, Rexus Victocora, and making sure that he’s safe. And then he’s going to make those damned nazis pay. His demeanor might be jolly but he’s still a dwarf. He knows how to hold a grudge.
Description
Urist has a very typical appearance to go with his very typical name. Stocky, bald, pale skin, white beard, brown eyes. He always carries his clan dagger in his belt, and his axe too. In combat he likes heavy armor and a shield to go with the weapons. Unlike the typical dwarf character, he tends to act jolly a lot of the time, even in the face of adversity and grief.
“Stortebeker” is an epithet that was applied to a historical Dutch pirate. It means roughly “upturner of cups”, which in turn means someone who drinks a lot. Appropriate for a priest who honors the drunk god.
Build Notes
Urist is a pretty typical Dungeon Fantasy Cleric, though he’s more on the fighty side of that archetype than on the “staff and robe” one. So in addition to more spells, his progression plan is going to include better combat skills and possibly some Holy Warrior abilities to make him better at directly fighting demons.
As mentioned above, he’s a dwarf, and his species traits have been included in his character sheet below.
Character Sheet
ST 12 {20}; DX 12 {40}; IQ 14 {80}; HT 12 {20};
Damage 1d-1/1d+2; Basic Lift 14.4kg; HP 12; Will 14; Per 14; FP 14 {6}; Basic Speed 6; Basic Move 5 {-5};
Advantages
- Clerical Investment {5}
- Detect Evil {18}
- Night Vision 5 {5}
- Power Investiture 3 {30}
- Resistant to Poison 6 {6}
- Unfazeable {15}
Features
- Armor not interchangeable with that of humans
Disadvantages
- Charitable (12) {-15}
- Compulsive Carousing (12) {-5}
- Compulsive Generosity (12) {-5}
- Intolerance (Evil Religions) {-5}
- Overconfidence (12) {-5}
- Sense of Duty (Good Entities) {-10}
Quirks
- Define your own! {-5}
Skills
- Axe/Mace (A) DX+2 {8} - 14
- Diagnosis (H) IQ-2 {1} - 12
- Esoteric Medicine (Holy) (H) Per {4} - 14
- Exorcism (H) Will {4} - 14
- First Aid (E) IQ+1 {1}1 - 15
- Gesture (E) IQ {1} - 14
- Hidden Lore (Demons) (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Hiking (A) HT-1 {1} - 11
- Innate Attack (Projectile) (E) DX+2 {4} - 14
- Meditation (H) Will-2 {1} - 12
- Observation (A) Per-1 {1} - 13
- Occultism (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Public Speaking (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Religious Ritual (H) IQ-2 {1} - 12
- Research (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Savoir-Faire (E) IQ {1} - 14
- Shield (E) DX+2 {4} - 14
- Surgery (H) IQ-2 {2} - 12
- Teaching (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Theology (H) IQ-2 {1} - 12
Spells
All get +3 from Power Investiture
- Affect Spirits (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Armor (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Breathe Water (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Cleansing (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Continual Light (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Cure Disease (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Glow (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Lend Energy (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Light (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Major Healing (VH) IQ {1} - 14
- Minor Healing (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Recover Energy (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Recover Energy (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Resist Disease (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Resist Fire (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Resist Lightning (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Resist Poison (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- See Secrets (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Shield (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Sunbolt (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Sunlight (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
Loadout
$1000, 22.18kg, Light Encumbrance.
- Clothing: $0, 1kg.
- Silver-Coated Axe: Reach 1, sw+2 cut; $150, 2kg.
- Small Shield: DB 1; $40, 4kg.
- Small Knife: Clan dagger; $30, 0.25kg.
- Light Cloth Armor: All locations, includes face protection; DR 1; $155, 9.4kg.
- Small Backback: Holds 20kg of gear. $60, 1.5kg.
- First Aid kit: +1 to First Aid. $50, 1kg.
- Holy Symbol: $50, 0.5kg.
- Holy Water: “Grenade” bottle; $15, 0.5kg.
- Pouch: Holds 1.5kg; $10, 0.1kg.
- Minor Healing Potion: heals 1d HP; $120, 0.25kg.
- 13 x Silver Coin: $260, 0.13kg.
- 15 x Copper Coin: $15, 0.15kg.
Combat
Assumes Light Encumbrance and a DB 1 shield.
- Defenses
- Dodge: 9
- Parry: 11U
- DR: 3 on skull, 0 on eyes, 1 everywhere else.
- Attacks
- Axe (14): 1d+4 cut, Reach 1.
- Shield Bash (14): 1d-1 cr, Reach 1.
- Sunbolt (14): 1d-9d burn, Acc 2, Range 75/150, costs 0-8 FP.
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Defaults from Esoteric Medicine (Holy) ↩
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Rosalia Savory, the Mysterious Satirist
One of the player characters for my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign.
Rosalia Savory used to work at the Kintargo Opera House in a role that, in modern times, might have been called “production assistant”. She did what needed doing backstage, helped the actors out, sang in the background chorus from offstage, and so on. It was a living, and she liked doing it.
She was also secretly one of Kintargo’s several “mysterious satirists” who published stuff criticizing the more Thrune-loving segments of the city’s nobility and government, as well as the church of Asmodeus. In her case it was little absurdist play scripts, which she signed as “Little Lamp”.
So when Barzilai Thrune waltzed in, disappeared a lot of people, burned down their homes, and then took over the Opera House as his personal residence, she suddenly had a lot of inspiration for new material, and a lot more time in which to write it since she was out of a job. Her scripts got a lot more accusative, without losing their comedic edge, and there’s a warrant out for her arrest as soon as someone finds out who she is.
Her future plans include going from production assistant to community organizer. She’s at the protest at the start of adventure 1 because of course she’d be.
Description
Rosalia has pale freckled skin, brown eyes, and unruly curly brown hair down to her shoulders. She usually wears “working stiff” clothes when out and about, and likes to carry and play a guitar when she’s not on the job. She has a fairly easy-going and fun-loving personality and a tendency to make jokes and maintain forced cheer to cope with stressful and sad situations, so it feels like she never stops smiling these days.
Her looks and general demeanor are inspired by Pinkie Pie. I’ve used Rosalia in a couple of games before, so there’s a “yes, her again” note next to her name in my personal version of her character sheet.
Build Notes
Rosalia is mostly a standard DF Bard with the usual wide distribution of points. She has a couple of bard powers, a small set of mind-affecting spells, and a little fencing ability. The biggest deviation here is that she’s naturally talented at shooting pistols, which is kinda funny because she doesn’t start in possession of a gun. Getting her one, and the corresponding ammo, should be a priority once play starts.
In a fight she’s mostly going to rely on Song of Humiliation to aid her physical attacks, and cast spells if she has the time and space to do so.
Dungeon Fantasy being the way it is, by virtue of being a Bard Rosalia starts with by far the most social skills in the group, and only loses out on reaction bonuses to Jade, so she’s going to be one of the party’s “faces”.
Character Sheet
ST 10 {0}; DX 13 {60}; IQ 14 {80}; HT 11 {10}
Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 10kg; HP 10; Will 14; Per 14; FP 13 {6}; Basic Speed 6.00; Basic Move 6;
Advantages
- Bardic Talent 3 {30}
- Charisma 2 {10}
- Danger Sense {15}
- Gunslinger (One-Handed Guns) {15}
- Song of Echoes {14}
- Song of Humiliation {4}
- Voice {10}
Disadvantages
- Chummy {-5}
- Code of Honor (Outlaw’s) {-5}
- Compulsive Carousing (12) {-5}
- Curious (12) {-5}
- Gluttony (12) {-5}
- Impulsiveness (12) {-10}
- Secret (Mysterious Satirist) {-10}
- Sense of Duty (Adventuring Companions) {-5}
Quirks
- Pick your own! {-5}
Skills
- Acrobatics (H) DX-2 {1} - 11
- Acting (A) IQ {2} - 14
- Carousing (E) HT+1 {2} - 12
- Connoisseur (Art) (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Current Affairs (E) IQ {1} - 14
- Dancing (A) DX-1 {1} - 12
- Detect Lies (H) Per-2 {1} - 12
- Diplomacy (H) IQ {1}1 - 14
- Disguise (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Fast-Draw (Sword) (E) DX {1} - 13
- Fast-Talk (A) IQ+1 {1}1 - 15
- Guns (Pistol) (E) DX+1 {2} - 14
- Heraldry (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Interrogation (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Intimidation (A) Will-1 {1} - 13
- Merchant (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Musical Composition (H) IQ+1 {1}2 - 15
- Musical Instrument (Guitar) (H) IQ+2 {2}2 - 16
- Performance (A) IQ+1 {1}1 - 15
- Poetry (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Propaganda (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Public Speaking (A) IQ+3 {1}13 - 17
- Saber (A) DX+2 {8} - 15
- Savoir-Faire (E) IQ {1} - 14
- Singing (E) HT+5 {1}1 - 16
- Sleight of Hand (H) DX-2 {1} - 11
- Stealth (A) DX-1 {1} - 12
- Streetwise (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Writing (A) IQ-1 {1} - 13
Spells
- Bravery (p. 53) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Fear (p. 54) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Foolishness (p. 54) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Hush (p.56) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Loyalty (p. 55) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Sense Emotion (p. 26) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Sense Evil (p. 26) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Sense Foes (p. 26) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Silence (p. 67) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Sound (p. 67) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
- Voices (p. 68) (H) IQ+1 {1} - 15
Loadout
- Clothing: $0, 1kg.
- Pouch: Holds 1.5kg. $10, 0.1kg.
- Guitar: Two-handed instrument. $150, 2.5kg.
- Armor:
- Light Cloth Body Armor: $53, 3.15kg.
- Light Cloth Sleeves: $25, 1.5kg.
- Saber: $700, 1kg.
Combat
- Defenses
- Dodge: 9
- Parry (Saber): 10F
- DR: 1 (torso and arms), 2 (skull)
- Attacks
- Saber (15): 1d-1 cut or imp, Reach 1.
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Jania Moonshadow, The Phantom Thief
One of the player characters for my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign.
Jania is a distinguished alumna of Lady Docur’s School for Girls. She moved to Vyre to seek her fortune after graduation, and took to the city’s fashions (“goth”) and customs (“creepy”) quite readily.
Jania soon acquired a certain propensity for grandstanding. She built an above-board reputation as a powerful wizard and an “openly secret” one as a master thief for that extra thrill. It helps that creepy, unexplained events keep happening around her. Jania introduces herself as “The Great and Powerful”, though some think a better title would be “The Two-Faced”. Don’t call her that where she can hear you, though, she considers it insulting.
Ms. Moonshadow’s increasing boldness soon caused her to run afoul of an old wererat named Hei-Fen, a veteran of the same business who was enjoying a “quiet” retirement as the combat instructor for an assassin cult. After the first couple attempts on her life, Jania decided that it would be wise to go on vacation for a while. She regrettably had to leave most of her ill-gotten gains behind.
When she returned to her old hometown of Kintargo, she found it in quite a state. Lady Docur filled her in on the local situation and asked for some help, which she was only too happy to provide. Jania feels a genuine need to repay the school for her excellent education. Jania also sincerely hopes that hag Hei-Fen dies of old age before she has to return to Vyre.
Description
Jania’s inspirations are Sucy Mondavarian from Little Witch Acacemia for the creepy bits, and the Great and Powerful Trixie for everything else. I imagine her as a blue-skinned elf with white hair and a penchant for black dresses and witch hats. Despite her skin tone, she’s not a sea elf. She’s just blue. If your GM is strict about those things, chalk it up to an unfortunate accident with silver-based alchemical compounds during her school years.
Notes
Jania’s personality has a lot of The Great and Powerful Trixie in it, with a dash of Lupin III and a tiny bit of Sucy thrown in. She puts up a flamboyantly witchy front in social interactions and is all about being extremely sneaky when practicing her actual craft of thievery. She even likes using classic “phantom thief” moves like leaving calling cards or giving advance warning of a heist, but only when it helps her plans succeed.
Rules-wise she’s built on a tweaked version of the Spell-Thief template from GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Thieves. She has Spell-Thief Expertise, which adds to spells just like Magery but also benefits her Spell-Thief abilities. Jania’s main focus is being the party’s sneak and its “active radar”. She can fight well when compared to a civilian but she’s far from being the best combatant in this party.
For progression, our highest priority here is getting Jania a third level of Spell-Thief Expertise, which will raise all of her spell levels to the discount breakpoint of 15. After that point we can either keep adding more spells, or improving her thief and combat traits. Danger Sense might be a good purchase here. She should also get something expensive to act as a Power Item.
Jania Moonshadow, 250-point Half-Elf Spell-Thief
ST 10 {0}; DX 14 {80}; IQ 14 {80}; HT 11 {10};
Damage 1d/1d-2; Basic Lift 10kg.; Will 14; Per 14; HP 10 FP 11; Basic Speed 6.25; Basic Move 6.
Advantages
- Flexibility {5}
- High Manual Dexterity 1 {5}
- Spell-Thief Experdise 2 {27}
- Open Locks 2 {5}
- Unusual Background (Spell-Thief) {5}
Disadvantages
- Bad Temper {-10}
- Code of Honor (Outlaw’s) {-5}
- Laziness {-10}
- Overconfidence (12) {-5}
- Sense of Duty (Adventuring Companions) {-5}
- Weirdness Magnet {-15}
Quirks
- Pick your Own! {-5}
Skills
- Acrobatics DX-2 {1}-12
- Alchemy IQ-3 {1}-11
- Brawling DX+0 {1}-14
- Carousing HT+0 {1}-11
- Climbing DX+2 {1}-16
- Disguise IQ-1 {1}-13
- Escape DX+3 {4}-17
- Fast-Draw (Sword) DX+0 {1}-14
- Fast-Talk IQ+0 {2}-14
- Filch DX+0 {2}-14
- Hazardous Materials IQ-1 {1}-13
- Hidden Lore (Magic Items) IQ+0 {2}-14
- Holdout IQ+0 {2}-14
- Innate Attack (Projectile) DX+1 {2}-15
- Lockpicking DX+2 {4}-16
- Merchant IQ-1 {1}-13
- Occultism IQ+0 {2}-14
- Pickpocket DX+0 {2}-14
- Savoir-Faire IQ+0 {1}-14
- Sleight of Hand DX-1 {1}-13
- Smallsword DX+3 {12}-17
- Stealth DX+1 {4}-15
- Streetwise IQ+0 {2}-14
- Thaumatology IQ-1 {1}-13
- Traps IQ+1 {4}-15
- Urban Survival Per+0 {2}-14
Spells
- Apportation IQ {1} - 14
- Aura IQ {1} - 14
- Blur IQ {1} - 14
- Climbing IQ {1} - 14
- Continual Light IQ {1} - 14
- Create Water IQ {1} - 14
- Darkness IQ {1} - 14
- Detect Magic IQ {1} - 14
- Great Haste IQ-1 {1} - 13
- Haste IQ {1} - 14
- Ice Dagger IQ+1 {2} - 15
- Ice Sphere IQ {1} - 14
- Icy Weapon IQ {1} - 14
- Infravision IQ {1} - 14
- Invisibility IQ {1} - 14
- Levitation IQ {1} - 14
- Light IQ {1} - 14
- Lockmaster IQ {1} - 14
- Locksmith IQ {1} - 14
- Magelock IQ {1} - 14
- Mage Sight IQ {1} - 14
- Night Vision IQ {1} - 14
- Purify Water IQ {1} - 14
- See Invisible IQ {1} - 14
- Seeker IQ {1} - 14
- Seek Food IQ {1} - 14
- Seek Water IQ {1} - 14
- See Secrets IQ {1} - 14
- Shape Water IQ {1} - 14
Loadout
$1000, 7.883kg. No Encumbrance.
- Clothing; $0, 1kg.
- Ninja Slippers: +1 to Stealth. $100, 0.25kg.
- Fine Short Staff: Enchanted with Staff; $90, 0.5kg.
- Backpack, Small; $60, 1.5kg.
- Personal Basics; $5, 0.5kg.
- Trap-Finder’s Kit, Good; $250, 1kg.
- Spy’s Horn; $100, 1kg.
- Canteen; $10, 0.5kg.
- Water (1 Quart); $0, 1kg.
- Pouch; $10, 0.1kg.
- Lockpicks; $50, 0.05kg.
- 2 x Nageteppo, Flash; $80, 0.2kg.
- 2 x Nageteppo, Smoke; $80, 0.2kg.
- Coins: a quarter gold piece, 3 silvers, and 5 coppers. $165, 0.103kg.
Combat
Assumes No Encumbrance.
- Defenses
- Dodge: 9
- Parry: 11F
- DR: 2 on skull, 0 everywhere else.
- Attacks
- Short Staff (17): 1d+1 cr (swing) or 1d-1 cr (thrust). Reach 1.
- Ice Dagger (15): 1d-1 imp per energy point, Acc 3, Range 30/60. Costs 0-5 FP. See DF Spells p. 69.
- Ice Sphere (15): 1d cr per energy point, Acc 2, Range 40/80. Costs 0-5 FP. See DF Spells p. 69.
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Arcturus Pankrator, The Knight of the Deep
One of the player characters for my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign.
Arcturus Pankrator is a renowned hero and slayer of monsters among the underwater peoples that make their home near Ravounel. Landlubbers have no idea who he is, which is somewhat unfortunate for him because that’s where he’s headed for the foreseeable future.
His newest quest was given to him by the leader of the sea elf village of Acisazi: he is to seek the help of Shensen, the famous singer and priestess of Sarenrae who lives in Kintargo. The village has been plagued by a horrible curse, and since Shensen is an old friend of theirs she would have both the willingness and the power to help them out. However, she has not answered their magical messages, so something might have happened to her. Time to send in an actual envoy to find out what happened and help Shensen out if needed. An excellent job for a hero of his caliber!
Unfortunately Arcturus’ wallet was considerably leaner than his muscles, so he’s more or less completely broke when he arrives at Kintargo. The information he manages to gather about the city’s situation isn’t all that encouraging either, with Shensen missing and this new human dictator causing a pall of anger and sorrow to hang over the city.
The Atlantean wrestler isn’t exactly a genius detective. His method of investigation can be summed by the word “vibes”. Therefore, Arcturus is absolutely sure that the shortest path to completing his quest lies in opposing this land-monster, which is why he’s at the big protest against him at the start of the campaign.
Description
Arcturus is an obvious expy of Aquaman from Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and that’s exactly what he looks like. You can make his hair brown instead of blond if you won’t want a 100% exact match, but you should still take all your roleplaying cues from that version of Aquaman.
Build Notes
Arcturus is a mix of the Wrestler and Martial Artist archetypes. The Wrestler first appeared in Pyramid #3/111. Art makes extensive use of the Fantastic Dungeon Grappling rules, as does the campaign he’s in.
He’s an Atlantean, which means he has no problem operating underwater. His fighting style works well both in and out of water: grab’em, and stab’em. That is, inflict a reasonable bunch of Control Points onto an enemy using Wrestling, and then stab them with his knife while spending as many CP as possible to boost the knife’s damage dice. If there’s no time to draw the knife, the damage dice from CP alone should let Art inflict some involuntary yoga on almost any opponent anyway.
Character advancement is simple. More ST, more DR, higher combat skills, more attacks! Those can come from either straight up increases or Martial Artist and Wrestler powers (or better armor in the case of DR). He can also make excellent use of Extra Attacks and Fast-Draw, which let the grab-and-stab loop happen much faster. Any branching out will mostly be towards the addition of more acrobatic and movement skills. Let everyone else do the talking and investigating, Arcturus Pankrator is here to punch things and tie them in knots. Point him at any nazis, sea monsters, or nazi sea monsters and watch the spectacle.
Character Sheet
Attributes
ST 14 {40}; DX 15 {100}; IQ 10 {0}; HT 12 {20};
Damage 1d/2d; Basic Lift 19.6kg; HP 14; Will 10; Per 10; FP 12; Basic Speed 7 {5}; Basic Move 8 {5};
Advantages
- Amphibious {10}
- Combat Reflexes {15}
- Doesn’t Breathe (Gills) {10}
- Enhanced Parry (Bare Hands) {15}
- Trained by a Master {30}
- Wrestling Master {10}
Disadvantages
- Code of Honor (Chivalry) {-15}
- Impulsiveness (12) {-10}
- Obsession (Find the missing sea elves) {-5}
- Overconfidence (12) {-5}
- Sense of Duty {-5}
- Wealth: Struggling {-10}
Quirks
- Pick your own! {-5}
Skills
- Carousing (E) HT {1} - 12
- Hiking (A) HT-1 {1} - 11
- Judo (H) DX {4} - 15
- Karate (H) DX-1 {1} - 14
- Knife (E) DX+1 {2} - 16
- Knot-Tying (E) DX {1} - 15
- Stealth (A) DX-1 {1} - 14
- Swimming (E) HT {1} - 12
- Wrestling (A) DX+5 {20} - 20
Chi Skills
- Immovable Stance (H) DX {4} - 15
- Push (H) DX {4} - 15
- Throwing Art (E) DX {4} - 15
Loadout
- Large Knife: $40, 0.5kg.
- Clothing: Free, 1kg.
- Armor: Nothing on head, light scale on body, light cloth/leather everywhere else. $336, 8.4kg.
- Pouch: Stores 1.5kg of small objects. $10, 0.1kg.
- Coins: 1 silver, 10 copper. $30, 0.11kg.
Combat
- Defenses
- Dodge: 11
- Parry: 17 (Wrestling), 14F (Judo), 11 (Knife).
- DR: 2 on skull, 0 on head, 3 (2 vs Crushing) on body, 1 everywhere else.
- Attacks
- Large Knife (16): 2d-2 cut (Reach C, 1) or 1d imp (Reach C).
- Wrestling Grab (20): 1d+3 control, Reach C.
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