Thomas Bluebrim

Brawler

Legend of Wind

Level 7

0 Misfortunes / 0 Fortunes

0 Curses / 0 Blessings

178/178 Health

0/0 Mana

2/4 Stamina

0 Distinctions Available

36 Skill Points Available

8 Customization Points Available

Strength

Constitution****

Intelligence

1 Melee Damage Bonus

2

0

3 Maximum Worn Armor

150 Maximum Health

24 Additional Skill Points

0 Deflection *

4 Damage Reduction

1 Maximum Stamina Points

1 Melee Damage Bonus

12 Base Armor

0 Spell Piercing *

Wisdom

Agility

Perception

6

0

0

6 Lores

0 Bonus Targeting

0 Reaction Time

6 Arcane Resistance

0 Evasion

1 Stamina Regeneration

0 Mana *

20 Movement *

0 Missile Range Bonus *

Lore: First Aid

Your knowledge of simple anatomy and basic emergency care, and how to correctly treat simple conditions, as well as to recognize the limits of your skill and knowledge, and what exactly might otherwise happen if you blundered on.

Lore: Enchantment

Your knowledge of the nature of Enchantment, its origins, and some of its great creations; the Blade of Ages, the Eternal Shield, the Utterly Ordinary Spear.

Lore: Swimming

Your knowledge of fluid dynamics principles to the end of making yourself pointy and splashing more effectively. Fish will always be better than you. Eat a few of them. Remind them of the proper order of things.

Lore: Disguises

Your knowledge of the storied history of infiltration and deceit;secrets stolen, treasures taken, spies caught, tortured, and executed. Great rewards take a little risk.

Lore: Shelters

Your knowledge of the intricate act of turning a few bug-ridden piles of brush into a single larger bug-ridden pile of brush that will keep the rain off your head and curious creatures from doing too much investigation. The wrong kind of shelter, of course, is just a meal wrapper for the right kind of fauna.

Lore: Volcanoes

Your knowledge of the desert, the magma, the lava, the world of the ever-burning embers, and the memories of dried-up husks of those who thought they, too, knew the land they traversed.

Name

Effect

Fortune Master

Doubled Ephiphany Bonus, +1 to all Skill Rolls for every ten unspent skill points

Shrug Off

Damage less than 4 is reduced to 0

Improved Shrug Off

Damage less than 7 is reduced to 0

Unarmored Defense

When wearing no armor and not using a shield, you get Worn Armor equal to your Agility plus your Perception, +3 to Maximum HP

Improved Unarmored Defense

When wearing no armor and not using a shield, you get Damage Reduction equal to your Intelligence plus your Wisdom

Thick Skull

You are immune to non-lethal damage

Latent Power

+1 Maximum Stamina (x2)

Hurl

As a reaction to an attack by a creature no larger than one size category larger than you, you may throw your assailant up to 5ft, subject to a contest of Constitution; if your attacker hits another creature, both become Prone; if it doesn't hit another creature, it still falls Prone

Improved Hurl

Hurl has a range of 10ft, and the thrown creature deals its Total Armor in damage to any hit creatures

Fortune Master

Doubled Ephiphany Bonus, +1 to all Skill attempts for every ten unspent skill points

Call Out

You may Call Out an opponent; subject to a Discipline contest against your Endurance, they must move towards you and attack you whenever possible

Shake Off

You may expend Stamina to increase your Worn Armor by 4, knock back all adjacent opponents 5 feet, and, subject to an Endurance contest against your Endurance, knock all affected targets prone

Tough as Nails

You have a natural armor (Maximum Worn Armor Limits still apply) equal to twice your Constitution

Weapon Expertise: Unarmed

Your base unarmed attack damage increases by one progression for each free hand. Your Melee Damage Bonus applies for each free hand

Deft Nature

You can't be caught flat-footed, and can dodge as easily prone as standing

Inhuman Size 1

You get 25 additional health. Additionally, you may Enlarge at will, becoming Large.

Thomas studied his screens, debating his next steps; he had eight customization points, which left him some opportunity to improve himself. He could either improve his statistics by two points, or he could take an additional distinction. Currently, he had ten damage reduction, which, with shrug off, meant he ignored damage less than seventeen. He didn't have a good grasp on what that number meant, except that it was about ten percent of his health, which seemed pretty substantial, since as far as he had been able to determine so far, he had unusually high health.

Every point in constitution appeared to increase his health by ten, if he had been tracking the numbers correctly, and his damage reduction by two. So an additional point in Constitution gave the best rewards.

Thomas eyed the distinction he was considering, however.

Endurance Training

You get +1 Constitution at level 5, +2 Constitution at level 13, and +3 Constitution at level 20

At his current level, he'd be spending five customization points to get what he could get for three; but it'd be five, for what he could get for six, when he got to thirteen. He doubted the validity of considering level twenty, but if he did ever get there, that would be worthwhile as well. And he could either spend the three remaining customization points to improve constitution again, or save them up for one of the other attribute training distinctions.

The improved version of each, while costing another five customization points, would improve the way his attributes worked. Wisdom would get him mana, which, in spite of his apparently high wisdom, probably wasn't actually worth pursuing for him; he'd been doing some research in a local library – there was a library here, although it cost money to use, unlike the libraries he was accustomed to – and magic required a lot of specialization to make effective. It was still tempting, because, well, magic. But it wasn't something he could or should focus on right now.

He spent the customization points on Endurance Training.

He then started walking. The last few days had been preparing for this; he had a pocket full of silver, a pack full of food, and some debts to repay. Thomas felt … relieved. He felt good. He was going. And then he'd be returning; the city of Rockfall felt … not like home, but less like somebody else's home. Trenton was already gone, with the others.

The path to Grimhaven had begun by crossing the bridge around which Rockfall had grown; although originally a quarry town, it now served more as a trading hub. Then he'd be crossing straight across the hills to the east until his path hit the stream he had originally followed, which he would follow north a day or two. It was a long walk, but Thomas felt confident. He'd grown since he had first encountered the silver fawn, and while he'd still take a beating from them, he thought he could stand his own long enough to run them off now.

Granted, he wasn't certain of that, so he also had three potions which would emit a truly noxious stench when broken; they'd cost a silver coin apiece, but Trenton had told him that they were the best friend a lone traveler could have in a pinch, as nothing in the area would stick around after the bottles were broken.

The first two days went by without event, and Thomas enjoyed sleeping under the stars, the wind rustling through his clothing. The third required him to punch one of the weird ugly bandit dogs to death – carnaath, they were called? – after he woke up to it trying to take his foot off.

On the fourth day he found the stream, and a scene out of the worst of his nightmares.

On one side of the stream was a large lump of – something horribly biological, whites and grays and pinks and reds, made of tubes and fleshy bits – like an enormous ball off medical waste. It looked sort of like a horse-sized snail, except its shell was made up of what looked like piled of guts and limbs glued together with a fungal infection. It had eyestalks, of a sort, with drooping … tubes. On the ends of the stalks were heads, however; a human head, jaw ripped off and tongue hanging limply below, and on the other stalk was the head of what Thomas vaguely recognized as a silver fawn.

It was only half the horror, however, for it was engaged in combat with a swarm of maggots the size of the fawn's head; they were eating it, even as it crushed them; and as they ate, they would split into two. It would have been over already, except the snail-thing was, in turn, reaching out with what looked like fungal tentacles, sucking up the mass it crushed into itself, filling in the spaces they were devouring.

Thomas stared at the struggle for several seconds, then turned and started running north, angling away from them to rejoin the water further upstream. He had no desire to get involved in what looked like a fight between body horror movie monsters.