You are first and foremost a scribe. Before teaching you the bow and the gun, the sword and the knife and the hunting spear, medicine and woodcraft, the secret ways to smell and hear and taste, before any of those things, your master taught you to write. You crouch in the hollows of thorny black woods, listening to the terrorbirds screech and the stirges buzz, and scribble down your observations with ink-stained fingers. You analyze, dissect, and taxonomize, in service of your God, your king, your order, your employer, or just your own quixotic obsession.
You are a Ranger, and your field of study is the hunting, capturing, and killing of living things.
 |
| The Message, Roman Kupriianov |
Ranger
Starting Equipment: A heavy jezzail, a pair of twinned oxtail machetes (can be wielded together as a medium sword or unlocked into two light swords), a thick woolen chokha and bashlyk, eight bullets—seven leaden, one silver—stored in goblin-bone gazyrs, a red-tinted candle lantern, a tinderbox, a bag of saddle jerky, a tea-brick, a writing kit, and a battered tin kettle and mug.
A: Monster Manual, Strider
B: Situational Awareness, +1 Attack/Round
C: Dogged Pursuit
D: Monster Master
A: Monster Manual
You have possession of a Monster Manual, a folio of yellowed vellum bound in the hide of a forest demigod, passed down to you by your predecessor. It is a (mostly) true and honest copy of the bestiary that the GM is using. It is weatherproof, waterproof, fireproof, acid-proof, even stab-proof enough to be used as an improvised shield. You are sworn on pain of death to never allow a non-Ranger to read it, nor to reveal its secrets to the uninitiated.
It isn't perfectly accurate—when encountering a new monster, the GM is allowed to change one thing. If you can successfully correct the monster entry, you gain a permanent +[Templates] to Hit against it and its ilk.
A: Strider
You can free-climb any natural surface as fast as you can crawl, or make an assisted climb as fast as you can walk. You can move silently while outdoors, and leave as much trace in mud, gravel, or deep snow as you do on bare stone. So long as you can see the sun or stars you always know what direction you're facing, and can travel at twice the ordinary rate while alone or in the company of fellow Rangers.
(Hint: the hides of colossal beasts count as "natural surfaces")
B: Situational Awareness
By tasting the soil, putting your ear to the ground, etc... you can tell if the hex or room you're standing in would be classified as Monster, Empty, Trap, or Special. If you attain a commanding position from which to survey, you can make this determination for adjacent areas as well.
C: Dogged Pursuit
If you make eye contact with someone or something, you can place your hunter's mark on them. They will experience this as paranoia, chills, and bouts of night terrors—eventually, a black spot will develop on their palm, growing as you approach, a literal mark of your pursuit. So long as they're marked, you always know exactly where they are.
You can only have one person marked at a time, and the only way to lift the mark is to kill the target. If you die while you have someone marked, you will return as a revenant, to continue your pursuit 'till the end of time.
D: Monster Master
Upon amending your Monster Manual, you are allowed to make one additional change of your own choice. The change must be reasonable, reflecting a weakness or property that could be discovered from studying it during and after your encounter. This change is now true, and the GM must update their own bestiary to reflect it.
