Owing thanks to GLOG discord user Eos of Dawn for her excited description of a class in Pathfinder, the tabletop roleplaying game system of her invention and some fame, and GLOG discord user Vivanter for keeping the idea of the assassin in the noosphere.
Blackbeard.
Class: Banshee
Should the whole frame of Nature round him break,In ruin and confusion hurled,He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack,And stand secure amidst a falling world.
You are a member of a secret order of killers in service of a great Power, and a rival to the Old Stone Cross. Every template of Banshee you have gives you +1 to-hit. If you're playing in a system with proficiency, you have it with light armor and all one-handed guns, foins, or other blades. Your order has taught you the secret of the smoke fusee, and you may produce one per rest period from raw materials easily available at a cost of 1 GP per at any chemist or hardware store.
Skills: Free climbing, and your choice of 1. Land Navigation 2. Breaking & Entering 3. Impressions
Starting Equipment: Turn-off pistol, ten cartridges, misericorde, reversible coat, empty bottle, sealing wax, three smoke fusees, one tool of the trade from the list at the end.
A Strike Deaf, Slow Radio
B Thermal Gunsight, Wind Walk (Exfiltrate)
C Extra attack per round
D Wind Walk (Infiltrate)
A: Strike Deaf
Your order has taught you its secret kung fu⸻to strike at the ears with open palms. Make a melee attack against AC 10; should you hit, instead of taking damage your target is permanently struck deaf.
A: Slow Radio
Your order has inducted you into its least mystery⸻to impress the winds into service as your messengers. When you speak or otherwise make noises with your mouth, you may cause a strong but narrowly-focused gust of wind to carry the sound to a destination at the fixed speed of 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers, 43 knots, 9 Beaufort). You don't need to be familiar with the target location, but you do need to know your location relative to it in order to give the wind directions and a path clear enough to not break up the wind must exist (grates and portculli are fine, sturdily closed doors are not).
A commonly-known trick among your order is to speak the message into a bottle and then tightly seal it, trading range for the ability to preserve the message until unstoppered. Legend holds that the great Banshees of old commanded such loyalty that they could cause their winds to linger, waiting for someone to hear their messages⸻but if this mystery is still known by your order, it was not taught to you.
B: Thermal Gunsight
Within areas of thick smoke or fog you can see perfectly, as if in bright light and unobscured.
B: Wind Walk
When falling, you may choose your rate of descent to a minimum of 30' per round as long as you remain conscious. This is normally sufficient to render you completely immune to falling damage, but if you try to get tricky about it your DM is justified in making you figure out the maximum safe rate of deceleration.
Upon reaching template D, by spreading your arms wide you may also ascend, preserving lateral momentum, at a rate of up to 30' per round.
Tools of the Trade
- Smoke fusee. Eight inches long, inch and a half diameter. May be struck against any rough surface to ignite, upon which it produces a match-like flame and enough opaque smoke to completely obscure anything more than 5' away through it in a 30' radius for sixty seconds. The smoke may linger longer in confined spaces, prove harmful to breathing creatures in such spaces, or be shifted or dispersed by strong wind. When crafting a smoke fusee, you may specify the color of the smoke. 1/3 slot each.
- Turn-off pistol. Large flintlock, breech-loading but in a slightly inconvenient manner. Takes only a mere five combat rounds to reload, and may be concealed like a small flintlock with the barrel unscrewed. A medium (1d10) weapon with a 30' range increment, 1 slot.
- Ten cartridges. Waxed paper, in a nice waterproof leather case. 1 slot.
- Misericorde. A light (1d6) twelve-inch spike afficed to a six-inch handle, with cruciform guard. 1/3 slot.
- Reversible coat. Nondescriptly dark on one side to blend into shadows and mobs, and formally appointed on the other to blend into high society. Long enough to obscure anything worn beneath. 2 slots carried, no slots worn.
- Empty bottle. Dark green glass, square cross-section, rounded shoulder, about 13 fluid ounces, no label. 1/3 slot.
- Sealing wax. Three sticks, in classic dark red. Negligible weight/bulk.
- Signet ring. Marks you as a member of⸻or any message you seal with it as sent by⸻the blackbeards, as your order is known colloquially. No one will consider that it might be stolen, because who would dare impersonate one. No slots.
- Writ of Passage. Marks you as an important servant of the Royal court, not to be deterred. A convincing fake, though detectable to the discerning and informed. 1 slot.
- Noble cloak. High-quality ermine. Worth 20 GP, and grants +1 reaction among those impressed by wealth. 2 slots carried, no slots worn.
- Catspaw. A sturdy twelve-inch crowbar, for prying and light demolition. A medium (1d6+STR) weapon, 1 slot.
- Climbing harpoon. Impractically barbed for combat, but equally useful as a grapnel. A light (1d6+STR) weapon, 1 slot, can occupy the same slot as a rope if tied to one.
- Thief's rope. 100' of high-strength black silk, invisible in darkness, completely silent, completely illegal in all jurisdictions. 1 slot.
- Trick hipflask. Contains two chambers, accessing one by default and the other only when manipulated in a specific way which is difficult to distinguish by onlookers. Holds about five fluid ounces in the main chamber and one in the secret, 1/3 slot.
- Codebook. Allows you to encrypt or decrypt secret messages, if you know the cipher key. 1/3 slot.
- Devil's Talons. A inch-cubic cake of strongly-scented, strongly-flavored herbal poison. If ingested, the victim's skin is entirely covered in catlike scratches, they take 4d6 damage, and must roll STR or die. 1 dose, 1/3 slot including the small wooden box it came in.
- Rubber mask. Depicting a local politician, including a high-quality wig. Very realistic, difficult to identify as a mask even if obviously not your identity. 1 slot carried, no slots worn.
- Wax fiddler. The size and shape of a large cricket, bound in gold wire. Upon unbinding will record 24 hours of audio, then immediately begin playing back 24 hours of audio, then perish. 1/3 slot.
- Forced-exit bag. Airtight, opaque black, just slightly too robust to bite through with average human teeth. Sturdily drawstringed and lined with velvet to muffle sound. 1 slot.
- Something weird, roll 1d6:
- Misery portrait. Fixed photographic plate of a short young woman with a square jaw standing in a cluttered family room, labeled 'MOMENTS BEFORE DISASTER'. Causes function-obliterating sorrow to you when glanced at, roll CHA or do nothing but consider it and weep for 1d6 hours. Doesn't have the same effect on anyone else. Negligible weight/bulk.
- Braincloak. Stops your thoughts from getting wet. 1 slot carried, no slots worn.
- Zwba'ah's Primer on Elemental Law. A handy reference text, grants advantage on related checks while holding it open in one hand. 1 slot, dedicated:
THE OLD
OLD WINDS THAT BLEW
WHEN CHAOS WAS, WHAT DO
THEY TELL THE CLATTERED TREES, THAT I
SHOULD CARE? - Universal antidote. 3 drops in tiny opaque black bottle. Each drop immediately explodes all poison in whatever liquid or body it enters. Negligible weight/bulk.
- TO DENY SEVEN, whispers name when drawn. A medium (1d8+STR) broadsword of mulberry, with undecorate yew-wood handle and text proclaiming the wielder to be diplomatically immune etched on the blade. When drawn, wielder jumps exactly six seconds forward in time (i.e. disappears for a round). Returns to hand when thrown. 1 slot.
- Camera occulta. Eight-inch-to-a-side cubic cardboard box with opaque jade lens and openable top. Displays, on the rear wall of the box, a mirrored, color-inverted image of the (DM's best guess of the) eventual corpse of any living person the lens is pointed at. 2 slots.
Blackbeard, again (public domain).
