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The Sky for Roof, Mountains for Walls (Class: Cossack)

For Cloak-and-Sword, again. This one shares a lot of DNA with Phlox's iconic Barbarian.

Józef Brandt

Class: Volni
Start with: colorful foreign clothes, decorated fur hat, a shashka sabre, a nagaika short whip, a big bottle of chihir (intoxicating to any constitution), an animal companion (see below). 

You are one of the Volni, free semi-nomadic people of the east. You hail from Dikoe Pole (known in Manteu as Le Territoire Indompté, or simply The Wild Steppe), a region of mostly unexplored sprawling steppes located between the Dragoman Empire to the south and the northern Tsardom, where laws imposed by its neighbors seldom take hold.

Twinsoul: At the moment of your birth, the soul that was meant for you split in two, and one half entered an animal that was born at the exact same time. This is a common occurrence for the Volni and an important part of their culture.

You are accompanied by an incredibly loyal and smart 2 HD animal (usually a horse, though wolves and eagles aren't unheard of), with which you share a soul. This has the following implications:

• You can share senses by closing your eyes and concentrating.
• You can feel each other's emotions and pain when close together.
• You can tell the rough direction to one another when far apart.
• Anyone who holds Esprit for one also holds it for the other.
• Your companion's lifespan is extended to match your own.
• For purposes of faith and magic, you are a single soul in two bodies.

Mechanically, you essentially control both the animal companion and the Volni. In combat, the animal companion acts on the same turn as the Volni.

If one of you dies, the other is doomed to perish within a year.

Steel and Saddle: When rolling damage, you add an extra damage die for each of the following and take the highest result:

• You used one of the traditional Volni weapons, like your shashka or nagaika.
• You fight alongside your animal companion.
• You are outnumbered 2-to-1 or more.

Patchwork Tongue: You speak Surjik, in addition to any other languages you might know. Surjik is the native language of the steppes, composed of words and phrases borrowed from every culture your people ever encountered (which is most of them).

When speaking Surjik to someone who doesn't, there is a 1-in-6 chance for them to still understand what you're saying. This also applies to animals. 

Iron Guts: Your tolerance for alcohol is impressive. For you, weak alcohol (like ale or wine) acts like water, and strong alcohol (like vodka) acts like weak alcohol. After downing a full bottle of strong alcohol, you are immune to fear until you become sober again. If relevant, you have +4 to saves vs getting stupidly drunk.

People you spend the whole night drinking with hold Esprit for you, and you for them.

Story-Fated: When rolling for consequences of Carousing, you may roll twice and pick. If you do, you now hold mutual Esprit with one of the people involved and are bound by fate to cross paths again, for better or worse. 

Steppe-Born: You never suffer penalties when camping or sleeping out in the wilderness, no matter the weather or other natural conditions. However, you suffer those penalties when you are forced to sleep under a roof instead of an open sky.

Wind-Guided: When traveling, you never leave foot- or hoofprints, nor scent by which you can be tracked. You can make sure that none of the ones you travel with leave them either, as long as all of you slow down and travel at half speed. 

Barbare: Your rough foreign manners tend to put people off. You have -2 to reactions from nobles and other more civilized city-dwellers, and are forbidden from entering churches without explicit permission.

Moderation in All Things (Class: Humourist)

For Cloak-and-Sword.

Class: Humourist
Start with: Treated skin-covering garb, a scalpel, a doctor's bag, phlebotomy tools, too many jars and vials.

Leech: With an hour of work, you may extract 1 HD's worth of a specific Humour from a willing or unconscious body. A body contains an amount of Humours equal to its HD, and replenishes 1 HD's worth per day if parted. A Humourless body does not die, but instead becomes sluggish and apathetic.

The Humours are:

• Blood: the Humour of joy and affability. Can be found in children, happy lovers, courtesans, dogs, and angels.
• Black Bile: the Humour of sadness and creativity. Can be found in poets, failed actors, noble scions, crows, and ghosts.
• Yellow Bile: the Humour of anger and daring. Can be found in military officers, athletes, revolutionaries, lions, and demons.
• Phlegm: the Humour of patience and contemplation. Can be found in scholars, priests, old people, turtles, and gargoyles.

A body with more than 1 HD may hold more than a single type of Humour, depending on how many categories it falls under at once (elderly actors, scions turned revolutionaries, bears (considered by some to be the link between dogs and lions), sickly young women).

Temperance: With 10 minutes of work, you may inject 1 HD of an extracted Humour into a willing or unconscious body.
If the body is injured, roll 2d6 and restore Elan for the greater of the two results if the chosen Humour matches the body, or the lesser if it doesn't.
If the body is not injured, it gains the following effect based on the chosen Humour until the end of the day or until it suffers damage (which will violently release the excess Humours), whichever comes first:

• Blood: +1 to reactions and +1 to saves vs love. Must save or be a people pleaser if asked to do something.
• Black Bile: +1 to hit and 1-in-6 chance to see invisible things like angels and muses. Must save or inconsolably cry whenever anything bad happens to you or anyone else.
• Yellow Bile: +1 damage and +1 to saves vs fear. Must save or fly into a rage at any perceived slight.
• Phlegm: +1 AC and 1-in-6 chance to already know the relevant factoid in addition to any other lore roll. Must save or refuse to act without lengthy deliberation when presented with a choice.

Multiple injections of the same Humour stack, increasing numerical bonuses by 1, but adding -2 to saves vs the related drawback.

Bedside Manner: Upon being seen, you are immediately recognized as a physician. You never seem out of place at social gatherings and are always welcome at any club you visit. You have a +2 to reactions from ill nobles and commoners, unless there is already another physician present.
A noble is considered to be ill when any ailment is causing them the slightest discomfort.
A commoner is considered to be ill when any ailment actively interferes with their work.

Life Debt: Anyone you save from certain death through medical intervention holds Esprit for you. Those who held Esprit for them and were present at the time will also hold Esprit for you.

Shorthand: You can write exceptionally fast, matching and sometimes exceeding talking speed. Text written this way is unintelligible to anyone except you and those who you teach how to read it. You are literate in Gryce in addition to any other languages you might know.

Mithridatism: You have +2 to saves against diseases and poisons. If you succeed the save against the same disease or poison three times, you become completely immune to it.

Diagnosis: With 10 minutes of uninterrupted examination, you can precisely determine all mundane ailments a body is suffering from, as well as its current Elan and Fertility type. This also reveals familial connections to any others previously diagnosed by you.

Non Nocere: If you ever attack anyone you previously diagnosed and the attack hits, you kill them instantly, no save. If at least one other person was present, you immediately become an outlaw and lose all social standing. Even if you were alone, you still lose all your Humourist abilities.

 

Credit to Grace on the GLOG server for inspiring this class