During the reign of the Emperor Munificens I, the Heavy Brigade was at its height. An elite force capable of destroying major wizards without support, the Brigade guaranteed that the Empire could put down any jumped-up magocracy or rebellious archconjuror. The Brigade School system guaranteed replacement troops without the need for inborn arcane talent or nonhuman prowess, and being able to concentrate overwhelming tactical force at a battlefield or city served the needs of peace.
Munificens died three hundred years ago, and the new age of the world demands military agility. In an era of collapsing borders and squabbling states, an expensive six-year training programme to produce a single trooper with an average service life of twelve years makes no sense, and the Heavy Brigade at its peak of 2400 regular infantry could never have been split enough ways to put down multiple entire provinces' rebellions.
Tradition and the dwindling resources of Icedon - a small bureaucratic nation which didn't seek independence so much as conclude that it was nonviable to remain an Imperial province halfway around the world from the capital and surrounded by elves - maintained a vestige of the Brigade until almost the present day. When Bent was signed up for Brigade School, he was in a class of twenty with half expected to flunk or die in training. They did - but the single remaining file of graduates didn't make it into the Heavy Brigade either.
With eight graduating troopers and three veteran instructors huddled in the corner of an echoing hall built for a hundred times that number, the class performed a ceremony meant to transfer their binding of loyalty from the School itself to the moribund state agency still technically responsible for their deployment. Either their class, in theory minimally adequate, was not; or the vestige of the Brigade no longer sufficiently resembled the ancient ritual that bound it together; or the magic had simply run out. The graduates found themselves completely unbound and heavily armed.
After a brief skirmish, the survivors quietly parted ways, agreeing tacitly to work in different parts of the former Empire. They would all be soldiers - they were no good for anything else now - but they didn't want to run into each other if it could be helped. Bent, originally the younger son of a minor country family, went south across the ocean and spent the early part of his mercenary career in the Sunset Kingdoms, back when that was still a survivable thing for outsiders to do.
Today Bent comes off as a quiet man on the cusp of middle-age, a professional in anonymous grey off the battlefield or anonymous grey armour on it. He has interests outside of soldiering, but they're all the kind of thing you can do without settling down - learning languages on a shallow level, reading local works of nonfiction, drinking games and darts. Few remember the Heavy Brigade, so the usual reaction to seeing him fight is "Why won't that guy admit he's a wizard?".
Wealth: Poor [1]
Skill: Squad Tactics
Skill: Civil Engineering
Skill: Materials Science
Skill: Contract Negotiation
Skill: Martial Telekinesis
Trick: A soldier of the Brigade can accurately measure masses and volumes, even of exotic substances.
Skill: Budgeting
Skill: Icedonian Tragic-Pragmatic Verse
Complication: Broken arcane loyalty binding. (Prone to latch onto things or trigger curses.)
Skill: Languages
Trick: Bent is great at tavern games of all kinds, including the ones they play in foreign parts.
Complication: Friends among the enemy. (Bent's mercenary reputation is better-known in Erak than Heraklia!)
Fallback: TBD
Brigade Focus - an amulet embedded into Bent's chest by magic and surgery.
Hand Axe - it rarely leaves his belt.
Brace of Javelins - strapped across the back, difficult to create, they have a lot more power in them than the amount Bent can pull together in the moment.
Notes on Comparative Poesy - not a finished manuscript, nor likely to be.
TBD _____
Bent has an elite education in a form of military magic which is basically obsolete. He's never going to be part of the kind of all-powerful mind-melding army of which his teachers related half-remembered stories, but he's already lived longer than than a trooper would in those days and his unusual skills give him an edge to keep living. He's seen chunks of the world and acquired a taste for it; all he really wants is to see more, roaming for as long as he can keep hale. Like any professional he never seeks to fight, but fighting's the price he pays without complaint for travel, on-off luxury and remaining alive in a world where pacifistic skills are not highly valued.
Speed: 6 HP: 10
Shaped Blasts: Rings (1-away, 2-away); Crosses (cross or x 2 squares in four directions).
Misfires: When rolling 1, no strike; instead, 2 damage and the zone is a 3x3 centered on you.
Type: Slow Burn (gain Delayed Fuse)
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+-- Grenade ----------------------- At-Will ---- Ranged 10 -- 2 --+
| Special: Choose a type of Ammo before you roll this attack. If |
| you choose an encounter Ammo, increase the damage line to 3. |
| If you choose a Friendly Ammo, do not roll an attack—simply |
| apply its effect. |
| Effect: Create a zone including your target based on the Ammo |
| you chose. The zone will last until the start of your following |
| turn and have effects based on the type of Ammo you chose. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+-- Delayed Fuse ------------------ At-Will ---- Ranged 10 -- 2 --+
| Special: Choose a type of Ammo before you roll this attack. If |
| you choose an encounter Ammo, increase the damage line to 3. |
| If you choose a Friendly Ammo, do not roll an attack—simply |
| apply its effect. |
| Effect: Select and mark two squares within 10. They are essen- |
| tially mines that can be detonated at your discretion, but they |
| take a moment to arm. After the start of your next turn, you |
| may elect at any time to use up one of your marked squares to |
| create a zone including it. This happens as an Interrupt, |
| and the zone lasts until the start of your following turn. Its |
| effects depend on the type of Ammo you chose. Decide on the |
| shape and precise placement of the zone when you detonate it. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+-- Hot Bomb ---------------------- At-Will ---- Ammo ------------+
| Creatures must leave the zone as it burns. If they take any |
| action in theh zone that doesn’t result in them leaving it, or |
| if they end their turn in the zone, they take 3 damage. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+-- Sonic Bomb -------------------- At-Will ---- Ammo ------------+
| All creatures in the zone are pushed 2 squares (pushed from the |
| bomb, not from you). Entering the zone costs 2 extra squares of |
| movement. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+-- Toxic Bomb -------------------- At-Will ---- Ammo ------------+
| Creatures starting their turn in the zone or entering it must |
| make a Saving Throw. If they fail, they take Ongoing 2 Damage |
| (save ends). |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+-- Smoke Bomb -------------------- Encounter -- Ammo ------ +1 --+
| The zone is totally obscured: creatures outside the zone can’t |
| see in, creatures inside can’t see anything. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+-- Icky Sticky Bomb -------------- Encounter -- Ammo ------ +1 --+
| Creatures starting their turn in the zone or entering it must |
| make a Saving Throw. If they fail, they are Immobilized (save |
| ends). If they succeed, they are Slowed (save ends). |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Defense Boost: When you take 3 or more damage, Resist 1.
When you roll a 3 to 6 on an attack, regain 1 Hit Point.
Stickiness Boost: When an enemy grants you an Opportunity, it takes 1 additional damage (2 -> 3).
If a Marked target makes an attack that does not include you as a target, or if
they shift out of a square within your reach, then they grant you an Opportunity.
+-- Mark -------------------------- At-Will ---- Ranged 5 --------+
| Target is Marked by you until the end of its next turn. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+-- You call that a punch? -------- Encounter -- Interrupt -------+
| Trigger: An enemy hits you with an attack. |
| Spend an Action Point. The attack misses instead. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+-- I don't think so! ------------- Encounter -- Interrupt -------+
| Trigger: An enemy grants you an Opportunity. |
| In addition to taking damage, the enemy loses the action that |
| caused it to grant you the Opportunity. If it was moving, it |
| stops. If it was making an attack, the attack is not resolved. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Melee Shooter: Ranged attacks don’t grant Opportunities.
You may gain Advantage for Flanking on Ranged attacks against adjacent opponents.
Long Reach: +1 Reach. Once per encounter, when an enemy moves adjacent to you, you may knock them prone.