Hero Quest 2, session zero, part 2

Character Creation

New Averoth Civil Census Form 35c, year 342 KE

Authorised and Distributed by the Department of Civil Intelligence - New Averoth Administrative Zone.

In accordance with Union Directive 11k, all unaffiliated citizens are required to fill out the following form in full. Please note, all of your answers will be cross-referenced against relevant civil intelligence records. Any discrepancies may result in fines, incarceration, or memory audits.

For help orientate yourself in our glorious city, please refer to the following Union authorised literature:

Name and/or alias:

Make a suggestion in the comments below.

Gender:

Age bracket:

Occupation/skillset:

What is your class?

• Rogue
  Deft, dexterous, and dangerous. Whether you’re skulking about in the Dregs looking for a pocket to pick, or negotiating prices in a drakeroot deal, you get by on your cunning and reflexes. With skills ranging from subterfuge and lock-picking, to manipulation and misdirection, to close-quarters knife fighting, you’re prepared for anything.

• Artificer
  Through years of study, practice, and experimentation, you’ve developed a working knowledge of the rune lore through which all the sarithal in this city function. You know how to deactivate glyph wards, hack sending stones, and overload rune-lamps to create explosives. You also modify and create your own sarithal, from custom wands and rings, to experimental refraction cloaks and bindercharms.

• Enforcer
  You’re big, strong, and undeniably resilient to physical punishment, although maybe not so smart. Whether you’re throwing down with your great sword, your fists, or whatever happens to be lying around, you know how to fight and you’ve got the scars to prove it.

• Alchemist
  You’ve got a brew for every occasion, from healing salves and fortifying elixirs, to unstable explosives and stimulating concoctions which turn nights you thought you’d never forget into nights you can’t remember. Watch your back though. The Alchemist Guild does not take kindly to unlicensed alchemists operating outside their jurisdiction.

• Seer
  Born with an ancient and forbidden power called The Sight, you’ve always been able to see more than most people, from spirits, to energy fields, to the thoughts and feelings of those around you. Sometimes, you’re even able to reach out and bend these invisible forces to your will.

  But is this power a blessing or a curse? In a city which never sleeps, where injustice and suffering are an everyday occurrence, sometimes what you see overwhelms and horrifies you. Not only that, but the Sight is illegal in the Union. Seers are hunted by an elite squad of super human inquisitors in direct service of the Merizians. You must always hide your true nature, for your very existence is a crime punishable by death.

Personal history, part one:

What is your background?

• Street Rat
  You grew up on the streets of the Outer City, begging and stealing just to survive. You know what it’s like to be hungry. What it’s like to not have a roof. What it’s like to be looked down on by even the lowest dregs of society. But you also know how to take care of yourself and when blood runs on the streets, you know how to survive.

• Academy Dropout
  You were once a promising student at the prestigious New Averoth Grand Academy, but then you uncovered a dark secret amongst the faculty which led to your expulsion. Now the Arcanist Guild wants to keep you quiet and your enormous student loan means Financier Guild debt collectors hound your every step.

• Disgraced Highborn
  You grew up atop an Over City spire living in the utmost luxury, from the finest food to the latest fashions. You had servants, private tutors, and even your own, personal airship, but then your father made a false move in the treacherous game of Highborn politics and your family lost everything.

• Now, with your father dead, it’s left to you to redeem your family name and reclaim what is rightfully yours. But down here, in the filth and the squalor, your accent and manner mark you out, and the common people of New Averoth often don’t take kindly to your presence.

• Criminal
  You’ve been running with gangs and street thugs since before your voice dropped. You’ve got a reputation in the underworld for getting the job done, no matter what it is, and never letting a little thing like morality get in the way. You’ve had more than your fair share of run-ins with the Watch, but somehow you’ve managed to avoid incarceration, at least so far.

• Arcane Experiment
  Your earliest clear memory is waking up in some secret laboratory, hidden deep in the Under City with a mad wizard standing over you. He tried to bend you to his will, but you rebelled and escaped.

  What are you? Your memories from before are faint and blurred, and hopelessly fragmentary, and the experimentation has left you with enhanced strength, speed, and strange, unpredictable powers. Your eyes glow in the dark, and your too-pale skin has jagged glyphs etched across its surface. Wherever you go, you’re met with suspicion and mistrust.

  The wizard wants you back and you want answers. A reunion is bound to happen sooner or later.

Personal History, part two:

What is your biggest regret?

• Left someone behind
  During the riots three years ago, someone you loved was in danger. You could’ve saved them, but instead you ran.

• Turned someone in
  You ratted out your annoying neighbour to the Watch for something they didn’t even do. They got taken to Grey-Island Prison and no one’s seen or heard from them since.

• Drakeroot bender
  One night after a bit too much drakeroot you did… something. You woke up the next morning to find yourself estranged from all of your friends. If only you could remember what happened.

• Stayed silent
  You made a big mistake involving a street gang, a greedy Guild official, and a whole lot of money. Someone else took the blame and ended up dead. You could’ve spoken up and cleared their name, but you stayed silent and now it’s too late.

Current financial situation:

Why do you need 2000 Union marks?

• Gambling debts
  Your gambling debts aren’t going to pay themselves.

• Drakeroot addiction
  Maintaining such a destructive drakeroot habit isn’t cheap.

• Grandmother’s medicine
  The Alchemist Guild keeps raising the price of your grandmother’s medicine.

• Ancient artefact acquisition
  You’ve got a contact with a very rare, very powerful, and potentially very dangerous Pre-Breaking artefact for sale.

• Blackmailed by a corrupt watchman
  A corrupt Watchman has a cipher glyph with some very incriminating, and you think fabricated, memories encoded onto it. If you don’t pay him by the end of next week, you’re going to spend the rest of your life in Grey-Island Prison.

Once complete, return this document to the nearest Civil Office within 72 hours of the issue stamp.

Tampering with the binding glyph is considered a serious offence.

Do your duty.

Remain compliant.

For the glory of the Union.

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Thank you for helping to build our character for the upcoming season of Hero Quest.

I’ll see you next week when we begin our new adventure.