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Sites
and Sounds
Automata
Crossbows (by
Planewalker)
Everyone
on the planes gets used to seeing items and trinkets from
all across the planes. It would be nothing to own half a
dozen different items ranging from the 635 th layer of
The Abyss to the sixth slope of Mount Celestia. However,
there are always a few items that stick out in a body's
mind as distinctive. Such an item would be the clockwork
cross-bows of Automata.
These
crossbows are produced at great cost by Geron the
Mechanist (Petitioner / male human / 0-level / Fraternity
of Order / LN), an inventor with a knack for creating
complex geared machines. His workshop is filled with all
sorts of mechanical birds and creatures, not the least of
which is a clockwork golem he manufactured that answers
the door and retrieves items for customers. Many fighters
with some jink to toss away like to grab one of his
clockwork crossbows to impress their employers and the
common berk on the street. All clockwork crossbows are
manufactured from steel, making them pretty heavy weapons
to lug around, but many crossbowmen swear on them. The
secret of their popularity lies not only in their exotic
look, but in their accuracy and the gear mechanisms that
cut loading times up to half of a normal crossbow. Every
clockwork crossbow provides a gear mechanism that, when a
loaded bolt is fired, helps reduce the pull needed to
re-cock the crossbow, resulting in faster loading times.
This causes the firing rates to move up an extra
half-attack for all clockwork crossbows. [For
instance, a normal heavy crossbow fires at a rate of 1/2.
A heavy clockwork crossbow fires at a rate of
1/1.]
This
fact alone makes the clockwork crossbows a popular item
among planewalking bolt-throwers everywhere. That's not
the only thing they're know for, though. Clockwork
crossbows provide the user with non-magical pluses to
their attack and damage. Any general clockwork crossbow
provides a +1 to attack and damage scores, and Geron can
make ones that are up to +4 due to special sights and
balance mechanisms in the drawstring. In order to get the
bonus, you also need to have a special steel bolt (made
by Geron's Workshop, of course) loaded in order for the
bonus to have full effect. Any other bolt gets half the
bonus, rounded down. Reports from the battlefield say
that the crossbow, though non-magical, can injure as a
magical weapon for purposes of attacking high-up fiends
and other highly magical creatures.
While
bolt-throwers get excited at the possibilities of such a
weapon, there are a few drawbacks that the weapon has.
For one thing, the weapon is heavy. Being made completely
of steel, they enjoy a large positive gravity factor when
used. Another item of note is that they are clockwork,
and while durable, they can and do get jammed when not
maintained properly. Geron recommends cleaning the gears
and retuning the aiming and balance mechanisms every day,
more if you're in a high airborne particle area such as
Pelion or extremely dirty areas like Minauros. And it
needs to be thoroughly dried after being submersed, a
process that takes at least a half-day under ideal
conditions. He also recommends a "tuning-up" of the
weapon every half-year, Automata, which is about six
months. Every two months after the sixth that it isn't
tuned up, the weapon loses a plus until it has no
bonuses.
The
final deterrent to those who would be top shelf marksmen
is cost, and believe me, cutter, that's cost with a
capital "jink." These weapons start at a few thousand
gold pieces, and can easily soar into indentured
servitude for a decade or so or a Merkhant's life
savings, whichever is easier for the customer. For DM's
looking to bleed off jinx that's lying around in barrels
in the PC's kips, here's the time to do it. "Basic"
clockwork crossbows go for 5,000 gold or it's equivalent
in metal or metalworking materials (This is due to the
fact that he goes through a lot of metal and tools, and
this is an easy way for him to get them without the
hassle of having to do it himself. Geron reserves the
right to refuse payment this way, especially if the PC's
try to peel him by giving him inferior quality metal or
tools, or he just doesn't need the tools or metal now. It
could be a good way to kick off an adventure, though.
Imagine the PCs wanting a crossbow and having to trek to
a Prime world to retrieve some rare ore from a Dwarven
kingdom there. Of course, the dwarves don't just give it
away to anyone, and they've had this small problem with
an itty-bitty drow raiding party…. Undermountain,
anyone?)
Geron's
Workshop: Geron's workshop
is located in Automata, 3 blocks Spireward of The Council
of Order Main Building, just along Modron Way. It's a
large two story building, with all sorts of things
hopping about and chirping and whirring and lots of
things you would associate with wind-up toys. Most of
them are wind-up toys, but there are quite a few that
aren't. Geron is the owner and proprietor, but maintains
a staff of three mechanists and a half-dozen apprentices
who are responsible for general maintenance and upkeep of
the models on display, as well as basic repair work. The
shop and workrooms are located on the first floor, and
Geron's quarters are on the second (which, incidentally,
are pretty good and well decorated. Think of a Humanities
professor's house, filled with books and nice, old,
furniture and things like that.)
Geron
is a clean cutter. He believes in hard work and an honest
wage for that work. He knows he's one of the best in the
planes, and he'll charge people for that level of
expertise and knowledge. Sure, you can get clockwork
crossbows at other places in Automata and Sigil, but they
aren't as finely crafted as his, and there's nothing
illegal about charging people for that. His apprentices,
however, are another matter. He's not sure who, but there
have been rumours that one of his apprentices is working
for the Council of Anarchy and looking for a way to arm
their soldiers with his weaponry with having to pay the
huge amounts of money for them. Geron's not one to mess
with politics, but anarchy is a bad thing in his mind,
and if anyone could help him find out who was the mole,
he would be grateful -- perhaps even grateful to give a
discount on one of his items….
The
statistics listed below are for Geron's clockwork
crossbows and his specially made bolts. These statistics
apply only when both the crossbow and bolt are used
together. If a clockwork crossbow uses normal bolts, or
special bolts are used in a normal crossbow, apply the
normal statistics found in the Player's
Handbook.
|
Weapon
|
Cost
|
Weight
|
Size
|
Type
|
Speed
|
Damage
S-M / L
|
|
Light crossbow
|
5,000 gp
+
|
10
|
S
|
-
|
5
|
-
|
|
Heavy crossbow
|
8,000 gp
+
|
20
|
M
|
-
|
7
|
-
|
|
Hand crossbow
|
15,000 gp
+
|
5
|
S
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
|
Light quarrel
|
1 gp
|
5 = 1 lb
|
S
|
P
|
-
|
1d6 /
1d4
|
|
Heavy quarrel
|
2 gp
|
5 = 1 lb
|
M
|
P
|
-
|
1d8+1 /
1d6+1
|
|
Hand quarrel
|
10 gp
|
10 = 1
lb
|
S
|
P
|
-
|
1d4 /
1d3
|
The Brothers of the
Dark Hood (aka "the Outlands
Dark Eight") (by
Brian)
Nilis Blackwing, an
Outlands planewalker, lanned me this chant about a bunch
of bandits who've been preying on caravans crossing the
Lands...
The
merchants of Sigil make a good deal of their jink by
arranging goods and supplies transport into Sigil.
Usually the goods come from the primes, the Great Ring,
and else where by way of caravan. Of course there are a
lot of bashers out there who like to pray of these
caravans. Why just a short while ago I came across the
remains of one such caravan after it had been robed.
There wasn't one survivor. Now berk with more than portal
to the quasi-plane of vacuum in his brain box knows that
if you are going to move a single wagon goods through the
outlands, you need to have some cutters for protection.
This group was smart and had five bashers with them, yet
it did them no good. Every one of them was brought down,
but I couldn't find any bodies of the raiders. I couldn't
find any spots of blood on the ground so it wasn't like
they carried the corpses off. I'm betting they were able
to take down every one of the guards and the caravan
drivers and merchants with out taking a single casualty.
That's impressive to say the least.
The
decimated caravan was right next to a portal, so I took a
step through. I landed in some burg in the Grey Waste.
The caravan had apparently left from there with a
shipment of baatezu and tanar'ri ichor, flesh, teeth,
claws, and other assorted good stuff harvested from a
near by Blood War battlefield. Apparently this caravan
travelled this course on a set schedule. And a few days
earlier some other cutters had come through asking about
the very same caravan. With a bit of garnish, I was able
to convince the inn keeper to give be the dark of these
berks.
There
were seven of them, but they kept mentioning, to each
other, about what "Klyster" had told them to do. As in:
"Don't forget, we are suppose to get some beef for
Klyster, or he'll have all our heads on a pike!" A talked
to the butcher of the town. The seven of them bought the
three largest chunks of beef he had! This Klyster cutter
must have one big appetite. According to the townsfolk,
the other seven cutters were a group of mixed characters.
Four were human, but there were two tieflings, and one
was either half ogre of half orc.
I've
got a basher-by-basher description below:
Jonis
Crosh Human, 1st-level
fighter (Str: 17, Int: 6, Align: N)
A
large fellow who seemed a bit slow The leather headed sod
just kind of followed the rest of the guys around asking
stupid questions and such. He wore a set of black studded
leather armour that had spiked studs. He had a long sword
and buckler. The rest of the group kept yelling at him,
and they used either his first or last name when doing
so.
Nimbus
Human, 1st-level bard (Align: NE, NWP: Fast Talking,
Intimidation)
Born
to be a true knight of the post, this basher talked the
bartender out of a full keg of bub! He had no armour, and
only seemed to have a short sword. One of the children of
the town noticed he had something shiny up his right left
sleeve. I'm betting it was a dagger in a wrist sheath.
Dornith
Human, 2nd-level fighter (Align: LE, specialist with
bastard sword, proficient with lasso)
Silent
with a constant grim look on his face, he didn't say nor
do much of anything the entire time he was here. He
usually had his hand on his sword (bastard sword, Green
Steel) and had a set of banded mail.
Corleath
Human, 1st-level wild mage (Align: CE; Spellbook:
Cantrip, Nahal's Reckless Dweomer*, Hornung's Guess,
Magic missile*, Shocking Grasp, Patternweave)
He
was noted for not having a cleanly shaved chin, and for
being completely bald on the top of his head, by a lady
who spent the night with the cutter in his room at the
inn.
Trodis
Half-ogre, 1st-level fighter (CE; Specialist with
scythe, Str: 18/31, -2 to Dex & Int when drunk)
A
bit of a braggart, he told a story to the local bubbers
about how he got discharged from a mercenary force on
Acheron for killing his commanding officer in a duel. He
accented his story by drinking his bub from his own mug,
which is made out of a human skull. He was not seen sober
his entire stay in the burg. His weapon of choice is a
hooked scythe, and a sickle for close quarter fighting.
He wore scale-mail.
Narnis
Tiefling, 2nd-level Fighter (Align: NE; Tiefling
abilities: 1/2 damage from fire, cold, and acid. Darkness
15' once/day, Infravision 120')
Also
somewhat of a braggart also, a barmaid told me that he
use to be part of an Abyssal army. He "escaped" when his
side lost a battle of the Blood War on part of the
Outlands. He has Goat legs and small horns on his
forehead. He wore leather armour and was armed with a
battle-axe.
Black
Heart Tiefling, 3rd-level
thief (Align: NE; Tiefling abilities: Harmed only by
magical or silver weapons [S, P only, B works
fine] blur 1/day, invisibility 1/week, mirror image
1/day, infravision 120', detect magic 3/day. Carries
darts with type "O" poison. The crowbar is only
close-quarter weapon)
The
group always called him "Black Heart" or just Black. He
wore a black trench coat apparently had some pockets only
on the inside. I suspect a full set of picks and such.
The innkeeper noticed that he had some arrows he was
toying with but didn't have a bow in his gear. I think he
might have a collapsible short bow under his jacket. He
was noted for having Blue skin, horns on his head, and a
lizard tail. I also learned that he refused to take
silver coins as part of his change at the blacksmith. He
bought a crowbar there.
After
a few rounds of free bub down at the tavern I was unable
to get and idea of whom Klyster was from the bubbers, but
the bartender was very happy with my tab. He informed me
that he was referred to as "old 4 arms" once or twice,
and the he killed some one once, just for looking at his
face! From the sound of it I'd say the group was led by a
reave (see PSMC2) But reave generally aren't considered
that smart. After a talk with an old beggar named
"Grossis" he told me that he noticed that whatever "Black
Heart" seemed to suggest happened, even though he wasn't
the apparent leader. I'm betting that he is the
behind-the-scenes leader of the group, and that even the
reave doesn't know it.
Author's Note
To DMs: I set this
up so that the It should be fairly easy to modify this
account of the highwaymen so that the PCs are the ones
asking the questions. Some things like appearances can be
easily had, while more important bits mention their
sources in the town. Black Heat was designed to escape
when the group is brought down, and eventually become a
recurring villain. The group tends to pretend to be a
broken down caravan (the wagon has the reave covered up
in the back and the rest of the group dressed in rags
over their armour) and then spring to life when another
caravan stops to help.
These characters were designed
as low level villains. In a campaign filled with fiends,
celestials, and the most powerful creatures of the
multiverse, it can be hard to get a low level games
going. Most of the characters are low level warriors, and
their leader, a reave, only has HD 2+4. Only Black Heart
needs special weapons to hit him, and if the group has
type B weapons they can still harm him. (Although he
should escape for later use)
Miestras the
Reaver's Auction House (by
Brian Danford)
A
great deal of berks seem to forget that Primes (the
place, not the people/things) have value. Every day a new
lot of clueless primes come plodding into Sigil. Most
cutters seem them as easy prey to be peeled and bobbed
with ease. But many forget that these primes have
powerful weapons, spells, and other assorted items of
value. Now it ain't easy for these primes to get to Outer
Planes, so that leads me to my next bit of rather obvious
dark for every new magic spell or item brought to the
Outer Planes, there must be hundreds left on the primes.
There are near-on infinite crystal spheres, and so many
plane-walkers fully ignore what potential power these
places could provide, and berk, power is profit.
Point
in case: Miestras the Reaver's Auction
House.
For
those of you who aren't well-lanned on the prime
civilisations, a reaver is a the name for a rogue neogi.
The Neogi tend replenish their numbers by turning older
neogi into large bloated egg sacks. As you can imagine,
not all neogi look forward to that. This particular
basher was a bit on the barmy side for a neogi. He
thought it was possible for a creature to be neither
slave, nor a slave owner. In neogi burgs that's an
invitation for early "retirement." So Miestras picked up
kip and headed for where he thought would be the best
place to hide from his Xenophobic brethren The
Outer-Planes. Being a Prime-blood he new the value of the
Prime worlds, and set-up an auction house. Now I bet most
of you berks out there want to know what is sold at these
Auctions. Well I'll let you in on the dark of it: spell
books. That's right, he sells spell books. Every Prime
has its fair share of spell slingers, and everyone one of
them has at least a few spell books, and most of them
have spells that haven't ever been seen of or heard of on
the great ring. On top of that, the prime has artwork,
and artefacts galore, but he makes his most money selling
spell books with unique spells.
Miestras
set himself up with a very lucrative business. He pays
cutters for suitable locations on backwater primes.
Suitable as in out-of-the-way locations near moderately
powerful mages, or similar deposits of magic goodies,
then he pays a few more bashers to go collect the goods.
Anything else the bashers bring back they can keep, but
if the sods don't bring back anything of "value" to cover
the cost sending then to the prime, well they become the
new slaves of Miestras until they either die, or repay
him 3 fold the jink they owe him.
Four
times an Outland year, he holds an Auction. Hundreds
attend. These week-long auctions are divided into
sections. The first day non-magic works get sold. Mostly
tapestries, paintings, and sculptures. It isn't uncommon
to see representatives of some of the wealthier families
of the Ladies Ward there. The second and third days are
devoted to arms and armour respectively. All manner
weapons can be found. Only uniquely magical items to be
had. No simple +3 or +2 items. If you are
itching for an intelligent weapon, you can be sure to
find one here, and you will most likely get to chose one
with a similar out look as you! The fourth day has rings,
rods, wand, staves, amulets and other knickknacks. Once
again, only ones with rare powers are to be had. The rest
of the time is spent on the scrolls and spell books. Some
of the truly expensive books have true names of
fiends in them. Prime wizards have a habit of trying to
summon the blokes. Others simply have strange spells. On
occasion, Miestras will have one of his wizards
demonstrate a spell on a few slaves.
The
auction house itself appears to be a small,
well-maintained solid stone dwelling with no windows and
only one entrance. Upon entrance, a Yugoloth greets the
guests. Before going further admission, a fee must be
paid for entry, and a binding contract must be signed.
The contract stipulates that no fighting will be
tolerated in the auction, and the penalties for failure
to pay.
If
the fee is paid, and the contracts signed, The cutters
are allowed into the rest of the auction hall. It is
assumed, by most, to be a more powerful version of
Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion as the interior
is far larger then the out side of the building, and
semitransparent waiters move about. While this would fit
the spell's description, Bags of holding and other
similar devices still seem to work inside the hall, so
there must be other forces at work.
Miestras
is present at every auction. He can be seen riding on a
large silk pillow being carried by is umber hulk slave.
He has never been seen away from this umber hulk
bodyguard.
The
Auction house has no noticeable defensive structures or
people. The inside has a number of bodyguards such for
Miestras and his guest, but no where near the amount of
defence that you would imagine an inter-planer raider
would erect. Especially one that specifically targets
primes with powerful magic items or spells.
The
Auction hall is located in what was once a small town in
the Outlands. Miestras bought up everything in the town
and evicted the previous owners. Slaves, and currently
employed raiders aren't allowed inside the Auction hall
(neogi are xenophobic after all) so they stay in the
surrounding buildings. Cutters interested in finding the
anthill should travel to the gate-town of torch, and then
head towards the Spire.
Prices:
Admission: 1000 gp per person, per day. Food, drink and
board are all free with admission.
Jobs:
Location for raid: 2000 gp. Prime Raider: 1000 gp, plus
any gold or "normal" magic items found on the prime. (If
you can make the cut).
DM's
Dark: Miestras left his
crystal-sphere when he was very young, and thus he only
had his one slave at the time. (The umber-hulk) He was
afraid that his "radical views" would hasten him into
becoming a grand old master. He was originally going to
"hide" in Sigil because he felt it would be far too
crowded and busy for other Neogi to want to deal with.
But he found that it was also to busy for himself. He
moved to the less crowded Outlands. He still fears his
brethren, although it is unlikely they will find him. The
actual auction hall uses a permanent "mansion" spell. He
used a number of wish spells to hide the location from
the prime wizards he has stolen goods from (and his Neogi
brethren), and to allow all magic items and spells to
work inside the mansion. He sends raiding parties using
what is more or less a round trip plane shift spell. It
requires expensive components, so he is very careful who
employs.
Black
Jaw
(by Brian)
[Note: This character
is a much higher-level version of the Black Jaw in the
entry above, intended for use by DMs with higher-level
campaigns who seek a powerful adversary for their
PCs.]
There
are a number of unwritten constants in the multiverse.
The reason they are unwritten is that if some
leatherheaded sod were to write it down, another
leatherheaded sod would read it and prove it wrong.
That's why I ain't going to say: "No matter how good you
are at something, you can always find someone else who is
better." Hey wait a second, you ain't planning on writing
this down are you'se? Well that might explain why no one,
but no one, is as good a burglar as Black
Heart.
What's
that! You ain't never heard of the great Black Heart?!
The plague of the Misers!? Living legend to all thieves
in the multiverse, and you ain't never heard of him? Does
clueless run in your family or are you just naturally
leatherheaded? What's that? Oh you're a prime! Well that
would explain it a bit then wouldn't.
Well
settle on down here, and for the small fee of another
bub, that's the interplanetary name for beer mind ye,
I'll tell you all about old Black Heart.
Well
the best place to start is usually just that, the start.
Black Heart is a thief, not just any thief mind you, he's
a professional. He can get in to any vault, bank, hoard,
lair, etc with out setting of one alarm, or meeting one
guard. Course he wasn't always so good. He originally was
part of a band of Highwaymen. They called themselves
"Brothers of the Dark Hood" or some rabble. It was
basically seven planewalkers and a reave. The reave was
the official leader but Black Heart (even as he was known
back then) more or less did all the thinking for the
reave and then some. Caravan plundering was to easy and
to small time for the likes of Black Heart. He quickly
tumbled to minor theft in side the Cage, err the City of
Doors. I wouldn't want to confuse you there, sir prime.
Anyway, he stole from clueless and well-lanned cutters
alike. He eventually moved on to breaking-and-entering
cat-burglary, although he quickly learned to avoid the
breaking part, as it tends to draw attention. He ended up
making a bit of a name for himself. A talented lone wolf
thief is neither liked by thief guilds nor the Hardheads,
so needless to say every basher from both sides of the
law could pick up a bit of jink for his head.
It
took no more then two years for Black Heart to become so
good at what he did that he couldn't do it anymore. He
upped and left Sigil altogether. He now makes his kip on
the Outlands. Has for a number of years. That how he
became known as the Black Heart Plague. You see
the Merkhants
(that's a sect mind you) all tend to have holdings and
vaults scattered around the most out of the way parts of
the Outlands. These became the targets of Black Heart. He
plundered one unique item from everyone of the merkhants
he could find. Everything from a Sword from the Blood War
to a Massive Diamond from the Plane of Minerals was
taken. At one vault he got into, he found only a mound of
coins with no unique items. Instead of taking some coins,
he wrote a note to the owner in complaint!
Although
its not like as soon as he stepped onto the Outlands he
suddenly became a master thief -- far from it! He
improved his skills in the Cage and he got some nifty
tricks all worked out. For example, instead of trying to
sneak past the guards, or trying to fight them or such,
Black Heart just kills them outright before entering.
Some suspect magic, other suspect psionics but I once had
a conversation with someone with the dark of it. He kills
them with poison. A gas to be exact. But type has got
even the Hardheads confused. See it appears to be yellow
mould spores, and a lot of them. More then a small
patches of mould, so some how he is either collecting the
spores, or duplicating the effects. Regardless, it hard
to defend from. Now the rest of the thefts are better
understood. It's all fairly standard stuff. It's just
that such standard tactics shouldn't work on such heavily
guarded vaults. He tends to come into the buildings
through small openings usually used for ventilation or
service etc. He disarms the traps as he goes, and uses
acid or such to get past bars/barriers. Then he goes in,
avoids the magic traps, takes the desired object and gets
out. Course no one knows why he is just able to do this.
No other thief has ever been able to just disarm the
traps in a miser's vault, or just go around the magic
traps, but for some more bub I'll tell you why I think he
does it
Well
now, let's see. First off he's get the experience for it.
He has been doing this stuff for a long time, and he more
or less specialises in high security vaults and such. I
also think It has to do with his heritage. See there is a
bit of cant going around that Dark Heat is a direct
descendent from some yugoloth high up, and if any
creature is better suited to getting itself into places
it ain't suppose to go, it's a yugoloth. Yup that's right
he's a tiefling. Not that it's all that surprising.
Plenty of thieves are of fiendish heritage, but this one
got more 'loth then mortal in him I reckon.
Now
some say you can best judge a thing, by its enemies, so
let me tell you of a few here just so you can get an
idea. He's wanted by the Harmonium for numerous thefts in
Sigil, but that ain't nothing compared to this: A few
Merkhants banded together and did the only thing they
know how to do when presented with a problem, threw money
at it. The result was a band of yugoloth mercenaries took
the job of tracking down and bringing in Black Heart. The
band is said to have three canoloths, an arcanaloth, and
a host of lesser 'loths. On top of that, there is still a
good deal of bounty for his head in the underworld, so a
number of assassins are always on the look out for him.
Black
Heart tends to enjoy the thrill of the chase, though. He
is constantly playing games on his pursuers. He doesn't
tend to kill them, although some say he can't. He is a
master thief and not an assassin, but as a master thief,
he is nearly impossible to find. There is one fed-up
arcanaloth out there that can attest to that!
So
what does he look like? Well now that's some very hard
dark to come by course I'm a bit thirsty and.... aww, you
read my mind!
Well
no one has actually seen his face in more then a few
years, but there are some that met him back when he was
just a minor thief. They say he had this real
blue-looking skin, and he had horns on his head, like
coming out of his forehead. And he had a lizard tail.
Rumour has it that the tail was kind of prehensile, as he
was known to use it to pickpockets back in those days.
And the last bit I heard was that he never touches
silver. My guess is that he got some fiend-related
disorder about it. Kind of like how he never tells anyone
his name (you didn't think he was named Black Heart at
birth did you!?) on a count of they might be able to use
that true name magic on him.
Black
Heart, Tiefling, 17th-level
thief (Align: NE)
HD: 17 (d6), HP: 52 , THAC0: 12 (+2
dex), Armour Class: 10 (silver, magic, or type B weapons
only, -3 dex), Str: 9, Dex: 17, Con: 10, Int: 15, Wis:
11, Cha: 9 (-3 to non-tieflings/fiends due to
appearance), PP: 75%, OL: 95%, F/RT: 95%, MS: 95%, HS:
90%, DN: 65%, CW: 90%, RL: 50%, BackStab: x5
(Tiefling abilities: harmed only by
magical or silver weapons [S, P only, B works fine
regardless] blur 1/day, invisibility
1/week, mirror image 1/day, infravision
120', detect magic 3/day)
He
is noted for having blue skin, horns on his head, and a
lizard tail. He is somewhat short, and is very slim. He
always wears a large black trench coat which also servers
as a "dark suit" (+5% to hide in shadows) as well as
contains his gear. The out side of the coat has only two
pockets which hold nothing, but inside, a few dozen
pockets hold sets of green steal thief picks, lock
chisels, wire cutters, small hack saw blades, files,
glass cutters, climbing daggers, and "special" arrows
(four poisoned, one major grapple, and five stone
bitters). Each item has a separate pocket so that even as
the coat moves about, none of the parts can hit each
other and make noise. Under that coat, when on a job, he
wares a "spider" or housebreaker harness. He commonly
uses it to suspend himself from ceilings and such to
avoid floor panel traps. When on a job he also carries a
pair of bags of holding (usually stored in a single
non-magical bag) one holds additional larger gear like
his crowbar, rope/cables, spikes, a magically silent
hammer, and other such goodies. The other bag of holding
contains a large colony of yellow mould. In order to
activate its spores, he disturbs the molds my throwing
sling shot bullets into the sack until the spores shoot
out into a massive cloud. (10d4 foot by 10d4 foot) In
order to allow himself to breath, he uses a small bag of
holding (the kind commonly used by mages to hold spell
components) but instead ties it to his head and breathes
a 20 minute stash of air in it.
He
also uses a few protective items, such as a wrist sheath
(normal throwing dagger inside), poisoned darts in his
jacket cuffs (Brain Spider venom or type "F"), and a
collapsible short bow +2. (Sigil forged)
His
personality is not that of outwardly aggression or hatred
but he always looks out for number one. The rest of the
Multiverse can pike it. He steals because he needs the
cash. Not that he doesn't already have a lot, but living
well, and not leaving a trail for other to fallow, and
still getting at rare items (like green steel thief picks
or Brain Spider Venom) can be far more costly then one
would dream. True to the professional thief, he no longer
requires the thrill of the theft (it has been replaced by
the chase) so he does his work smoothly and efficiently.
It's his job, and he is very good at it, nothing more.
Avoiding
the constant flow of trackers, bounty hunters, and
assassins on the other hand, is now his favourite past
time. He enjoys the look in the eyes a hunter gets when a
prey gets away from them, especially when he was the
prey. He will go to great lengths to fall into and then
get out of an ambush. He is not stupid though. He never
intentionally gets into an ambush without first knowing
what it is and how to get out of it. He also always wears
an amulet of proof against detection.
Author's Notes
for Role Playing Dark Heart:
He
is designed to be chased across the Outlands as he steals
valuables from dozens of museums, treasuries, and
Merkhant vaults. Perhaps even Magnum Opus herself is
after the blood. He will outsmart, frustrate, and taunt
PCs who are trying to catch him far more often they
trying to kill them. Actual physical conflict is only the
last resort of a thief of his skill.
I
only included thief stats so that if he is encountered
face to face, the DM will know how good he is at hiding
in shadows etc. He should never actually fail to by pass
defences or alarms when entering or stealing from a
location. Also, he is very direct in stealing from a
location. He enters via the easiest way, which is rarely
a door. He is more likely to melt a whole in an iron roof
(with acid), drop in by rope and steal a large gem with
out ever touching the floor than he is to try and by pass
PCs or other guards/traps at a front door. If he is ever
pressed into a situation where he can not escape or fight
his way out (poisoning a PC can give him a diversion etc)
then he will surrender, and latter attempt to buy his way
out etc.
Some
possible "hooks" that could be built of this character
include:
- He is some how the result of a
selective breeding project of a baernoloth. His yugoloth
adversaries are under the control of an ultroloth that
wants to see what the baernoloth has been up
to.
- He steals a magical artifact and
doesn't know its full destructive power.
- He is actually being funded by a
Merkhant to steal other Merkhant's valuables and thus
advance his employer in the sect hierarchy.
- After being captured by the PCs,
and brought to justice, He promptly buys his way out of
the system (a trick learned from his merkhant targets)
and then decides its his turn to chase the
PCs.
- The PCs are hired by the Harmonium
to setup a sting operation in which the PCs are suppose
to meet up with Dark Heart and try to catch him while he
attempts to sell a dragonslayer sword. (PCs
pretend to be a group from the Plane of Air, where
dragons are ruthlessly hunted down and
killed)
Lucias
d'Amberville (by
Mike Hachey)
6th level mage, human
(werewolf) prime
Chaotic Neutral
Str: 10, Dex: 12, Con: 9, Int: 18, Wis: 17, Cha: 16,
THAC0: 18, HP: 52, AC: 9.
Special Abilities: Lucias has standard mage and werewolf
abilities
Equipment: Wizard robes, ring of protection
+1
History:
Lucias is a prime wizard from the world of Mystara,
wherever that is. Like most primes, he has some crazy
ideas, 'cept his seem to make sense. The second he heard
about theories on the Hinterlands, he immediately thought
a lot of not-quite barmy notions.
Anyway,
Lucias was borne into a royal family in Glantri, some
country in his prime world. The cutter liked to spend
time around his Uncle Ettiene d'Amberville. Lucias was
spying on his uncle one day. Ettiene was making a wish to
travel to the "Plane of Concordant Opposition". Lucias
was watching from the rafters below. After the wish was
worded, he fell from the rafters and in through his
uncle's portal.
Lucias
found he liked the Outlands, though. He travels even to
the Spire's base (he says the Spire's base is really not
even on the Outlands), where his magic does not function,
just to study it.
Lucias
has one problem: Lycanthropy. When he was 12, he was
bitten by a werewolf, and now every quarter moon, he's
growing fur and running around like a Xaositect. . . well
maybe not quite THAT unpredictable.
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