Beyond the Veil Draft Classes Pt. III - Ratlings and the Accounter

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Ratlings

Image via happymag.tv

The Humans took a long time to realize they were not alone in their own cities. They never had been. From the moment they began hoarding grain, Humanity had rent-free tenants in the storehouses. They were often caught and killed, of course, but the smartest, the fastest and the most well fed among the survivors survived and bred. Those rats' children in turn were culled and the survivors concentrated. Over countless generations, some rats began expressing supermurine abilities. rudimentary speech, opposable thumbs, and the ability to walk on their hindlegs came first. Generations later, these first Ratlings stepped out into the common rooms of inns, farmsteads, and royal halls, announcing themselves as equals. Surprisingly, some took them seriously. Now, hundreds of generations hence, Ratlings are an expected sight in most major cities and not uncommon in rural areas. They take up work where they can, often serving as lens cutters, jewelers, scouts, explorers and many walks of life in between. Not everyone appreciates their presence, but most Humans regard Ratlings as one does a particularly smart dog. The Ratlings are more than happy to allow them this delusion.

Ratling Traits

Inhuman Perspective - You are decidedly inhuman in your manner of thought. Where humans might see refuse, you see sustenance. Where humans find hate or revenge, you recognize a stronger foe and give due respect. You come from mundane rats, hundreds of generations removed, and your behavior is impacted by that. The collective is more important than the individual and you are rarely alone.

Diminutive - You are between 8 inches and 18 inches tall, and bipedal. If your hands are free, you can scurry and climb without penalty. You can fit through gaps as small as 1 inch in diameter so long as you are not wearing armor or packs. All your equipment must be specially made, costing twice as much as a human-size piece of the same equipment. Human sized daggers and knives count as longswords. You may carry up to 1 size of objects in your paws.

Voracious - You have to eat constantly, requiring just as much food as a human. However, you are capable of eating any non-toxic plant matter, including straw, hemp, and cotton. You only need water once every three days.

Short Lived - The most venerable of your kind live to be twelve years old. You reach maturity at six months. As a result, Ratlings are highly specialized. Choose a single Camp action: This is the only one you can take while Camping. You train your Class when leveling up twice as quickly as Humans.

Resilient - You have a 1 card bonus when resisting any form of disease or poison, are immune to damage from falling if your hands are free and you are unarmored, and you may elect to ignore the first instance of damage received on an adventure provided you are free to move.

Ubiquitous - Your kith and kin inhabit every nook and cranny they find, even where humans and other creatures would not dare tread. With a successful Black Check, you can find familiar whiskered faces anywhere not actively hostile to life (volcanoes, underwater).

Accounter

"On four counts of erroneous existence, I hereby condemn the affixed to nullification and forced mundanity. The affixed stands accused of possessing  the following aberrant traits:

1. Willful disregard of the sanctity of death.

2. Forcible egress through physical barriers.

3. Over-loud shouting resulting in loss of sanity.

4. Inability to have notice of mundane interdiction affixed without extreme effort due to incorporeality."

-The condemnation of the specter of Hill Manor by Accounter Jules Vermin.

Aspect: Sense

Stock: Human or Ratling

Requirements: Sense >2, Determination >2

Starting Gear:

• Sheaf of paper
• Charcoal Pencil
• Rubber Stamp and Ink Pad
• Box of Nails
• Small Hammer

Class Ability Tract

Level 0: Audit

You were born with a seventh whisker, no pupils, or another physical manifestation of power. This marks you as different than your kin, be they Human or Ratling. You can sense the presence of the Veil without any effort, enabling you to detect the location of supernatural forces or Denizens within a number of feet equal to ten times your level, minimum 10 feet. Decide how this sense manifests to your character, such as a pressure, strange wind, or other phenomena. 

Level 1: Reject Unreality

By focusing your mind upon a supernatural presence or Denizen as an action, you can dampen a number of random effects or abilities equal to your level by passing an Aspect Check. Doing so disables those abilities until you stop using an action each round to focus on them.

Level 2: Suppress Aberration

You may write out a list of claims, stamping the notice and nailing the paper to a supernatural force or Denizen to attempt to make it mundane. Writing out a list in combat takes one turn per claim. Make a Red/Black check with +1 Card for every valid claim listed on the document, up to 5 Cards  (ex. "Willful ignorance of physical barriers" or "Unreasonable toxin expulsion"). If the Denizen is capable of resisting, you must succeed on an Attack with your hammer in order to take this action. If you are successful, you affix the notice to the target and any supernatural effects it is capable of are suppressed, rendering it mundane until the notice is removed with an Aspect Check from a different entity. You may retry this check on subsequent turns if it fails.

Level 3: Unravel Gossamer

Pierces in the Veil no longer affect you unless you allow them to do so, or the source is outside of your Audit range.

Level 4: Proof of Contradiction

You can write a blistering thesis against unreality and post your admonishment for all to see. You may spend one week to write a single page of thesis, and an additional week for each page thereafter. When posted in a public space, each page negates supernatural effects within a radius of ten feet per page of thesis until removed by a mundane creature. You may prepare theses in advance, and 5 theses are a size 1X object.

Level 5: Banish

By focusing your mind upon a Denizen as an action, you can make a Red/Black check. If you succeed, the Denizen is banished beyond the Veil. If you fail, you ignore all of its abilities, permanently, allowing you to damage it as if it were mundane.

Censorship

If a card in your Baize matches the suit or value of a card drawn on a check for a supernatural effect or Denizen ability, you may spend it to nullify that card.

Bonus Table! 

Rubber Rejection Stamps

DISMISSED W/O APPEAL

VOID

NO

INDECENT CONTENT

CLAIM DENIED

IGNORE THIS ENTITY

 

1D12 Items You Found In That Abandoned Fort

There are lots of reasons for forts to become ruins. Perhaps they were abandoned after a war, or overrun by brigands. Why exactly it happened might not matter, but adventurers definitely like exploring them. Whether for loot, a land claim, or because someone or something else is there that disagrees with their sensibilities. Here are some system agnostic items (but still aimed in the flavor direction of Beyond the Veil) you can include if you are so inclined.

1D12 Items in a Fort or Ruin

1. Captain's Mace - This flange mace is masterfully made (+1) and also functions as a parchment carrier. The handle can be opened to store a map or a handful of letters. The pommel doubles as a wax seal. It comes with a worn brass belt ring. It probably has something stored in it.

2. Weatherproof Fuse - Caught in a light drizzle and unable to use their rifle, a musketeer's effectiveness is reduced significantly. Someone apparently figured out a fix to this vexing issue. This fuse can be affixed to a matchlock rifle, pistol, or used on its own. Once lit, it functions for 2 hours per foot, regardless of wind or rain. It is extinguished if completely smothered or submerged. The coil is 2d2 feet long and has a leather carry pouch stamped with "Property of N. Daviess."

3. Watchman's Horn - A short, carved, ivory horn with holes drilled into it in much the same manner as an ocarina. The mouthpiece is made of copper. It can be heard clearly up to a mile away over an open field. Someone has carved symbols next to the holes with distinct meaning. Fingerings perhaps?

4. Liar's Dice - These dice always roll slightly higher than normal when the owner tells an obvious lie when the roll is tossed. Add 1 to the final result of a check if a lie is told while using them. The dice are not obviously enchanted.

5. An Incomplete Ledger - Mostly boring bureaucratic and logistical scribblings. The last page is incomplete and smeared with ink. After investigating it more closely (an easy but mind-numbing task), it is discovered that there is a hidden storeroom in the complex with a level-appropriate amount of cold, hard coin, expensive liquor, and a non-magical but heirloom quality sword of the now deceased commander.

6. A Trusty Cloak - This cloak is made of canvas and lined with soft hare fur. Lead is sewn into the hem and as such it does not flap in even strong winds. It weighs three times as much as a normal cloak made of the same materials (minus the lead).

7. Rope Retractor - An ingenious makeshift device that when affixed to a rope, the user can turn a crank to tightly coil any type of cordage up to 100 feet long and up to the thickness of ship's rope. This process takes 1 minute, after which the rope coil can be removed from the device.

8. Ration Crate - Open, but suspiciously untouched. Six rations wrapped in tattered cloth. Each ration is hard as a brick, smells strongly of vinegar and salt, and seemingly inedible. Not even maggots dare touch them. If soaked in water for a half-day, they become technically chewable and each one can sustain an adult human for three days, or someone smaller for six. No one will enjoy it and a difficult test of one's willpower is required to force it down their gullet.

9. The Log of a Former Adventurer - Not only is there a complete map of all the unlocked or accessible rooms of this ruin, but the location of another ruin notated as "Hells below, never seen something like that before! Danger!" next to a poorly drawn basilisk. There is also the amply provisioned skeleton of a long-dead adventurer, killed via an unfortunate accident.

10. Unlabeled Alchemicals - A milkcrate of 1d8+1 crystal and wooden flasks, all the labels long since worn away. Use your favorite potion or poison generation method to populate the crate. One of the potions is always broken. Its flask has a weathered note tied to the remnants of the neck that reads "Caution: Do not ingest! Contains drowning mildew!"

11. Unusual Bedroll - Originally mistaken as a rather thick coin purse, this lightweight bedroll folds down to fit in the palm of your hand, or fit in your pocket. Folding the bedroll takes 10 minutes and unfolding takes 1 minute. It is made of a material you are unfamiliar with and smells faintly of dry blood and ozone.

12. Onyx Monocle  - Ornately decorated with bronze fixtures, there is a necklace locked in this box. It is a silver chain attached to a paper-thin red onyx intaglio. When held up to the left eye, one can see magical energies through the onyx sheet.

Beyond the Bestiary: Dryads

The Protector from the short film "The Birch" (2017)

The Sower wept tears and flooded the world when her lover, dearest Weaver, departed. She tore her hair in agony, casting the first seeds upon the soil. They sprouted soon after, alive but lacking will. Some seeds, however, landed near tears in the fabric of the Veil. Imbued with their mother's sadness and melancholy and the creative will of the Weaver, these trees spawned the first of the world's thinking beings: Treants. The Sower, overcome with joy that her love could still be found in this world, wept once more over her first children. These tears were drank by the Treants, who bore fruit from their bodies. These fruit fell when ripe and from the pit climbed a small, gentle being. The first Dryad in each forest felt horribly alone, and so took to caring for their parent. After another season, the Sower cried once more and nurtured her children and grandchildren. The Treant bore fruit in the same manner and the Dryad was lonely no longer.

Generally peaceful beings, Dryads are caretakers of many of the older natural areas of the world and can be found in any climate. They are vaguely humanoid in shape and often have 6 limbs, but sometimes have more or fewer. They have a typically feminine appearance. They do not trust humans, and will only rarely show themselves to one and only after much reassuring of their good intentions. All Dryads in an area are clones of each other, and share a single mind. Dryads from other areas are called "Sister" should they somehow meet. They do not mind the harvesting of their homes so long as nothing is taken in excess or is wasted. Attempting to fell or otherwise harm the oldest tree in a forest, the sleeping body of their progenitor Treant, will be met with lethal force.

Stat Block

Dryad ❤+1

Armor: Barky Skin (all, AV1)

Attack: Lash (1H, Binding*). Bound targets take 1 damage every round they are bound by this attack if the Dryad chooses to attack again.

Turn: 5

Spoils: Dryad Heartwood (1X), Dryad Sap (1X, must be stored in a container)

Abilities:

Living Wood - If a Dryad is killed, it may instead lose a limb and become Critical. Then, it may move up to its speed in a direction unimpeded. The lost limbs grow back after 1 year. It can only do this for as many limbs it has (Usually 6).

Earthmother's Children - Dryads have complete control over the growth and well being of any plant they are in contact with and may manipulate such plant life as they desire over the course of an hour. Dryads may enter a plant at least their size as part of movement and become completely undetectable unless they attack.

The Spoils

Dryad Heartwood: If consumed, painfully transfigure a barky skin over the course of a week. At the end, make a hard Health save (-3) vs Death. If survived, gain Armor 1 on all body parts and take double damage from fire. You can subsist on sunlight and water. If planted, plant life within 1 mile grows supernaturally well.

Dryad Sap: a powerful alchemical reagent as well as an outstanding natural adhesive. When used to join two pieces of plant matter or wood, they grow into each other as if they were never separated There is enough to cover 2 square feet. Lethal if consumed as Poison.