In the shadow darkness of morning, just before the sun reached its arms over the horizon, the people in Cobblers Square awoke. Most were hard working, good folk, with no choice as to where they were and how to get out of it. Cobblers Square was once a central part of the market place, now it was nothing more than forgotten streets or plazas, filled with debris and the sorts that prey on innocents.
The smell of burning was still in the air. The night before, another house or shack had been gutted. No one understood or knew how this kept happening – every other night, or two or sometimes three times a week, a house, a home will be fired. Burnt to the ground, the occupants, dead – mostly. This night though, it was different.
A child survived…
The child was eventually lost in the never ending turmoil of life in Cobblers Square. Soon she was no longer a child, crawling around, but a young lass, with memories of fire burnt into her mind and eyes – even from so long ago. Paranoid that fires and flames would come back to consume her. Oddly enough however, since the fires that took her family, there had been no more for a full decade.
She had been passed from one struggling family to the next and soon, someone didn’t catch and she ended up on the streets. A young girl wouldn’t last long, but she tried. She kept moving, took what she could when she could. Didn’t stay in one place too long. Even the Cobblers Square was originally just a small plaza, now it was the name given to the entire district. The ‘poor’ district where many people ended up, some even came here to escape the hardships of the rest of the city, but once here, no one could leave.
It was the middle of winter, and cold. The cold seemed to suck the very life out of Cobblers Square. People didn’t want to be out, and those that were tried desperately not to stay out too long. She was one of them, except that she had no place to go. Shacks were fully, some good people let her sleep in their kitchens from time to time, but winter was different – most people kept to themselves, and did not worry or care about others.
She was almost eleven now, huddled in a cold, and damp alleyway. Her stomach stopped rumbling over an hour ago, or perhaps she was too cold to feel it. She had made peace with fate and the world at that very moment, accepting she would not see another sun rise or feel the warm summer breeze on her face. But it seemed, fate was not yet done with her. Two youths came into the alley way, and lit up a fire in an old ironbound barrel. At first they had not even seen her, but as the flames leapt up, fuelled by mead or ale residue in the barrel, she startled and let out a murmured cry. The boys turned on her smiling to each other in wicked ways. They jumped on her, tearing what clothes she had on and trying to force her, to ravage her. As they held her down and she waited for the pain that was too come, she stared at the fire, her mind wishing that she had been taken and consumed all that long ago.
The flames responded and erupted, but not from the barrel. The fires burned out from her and the boys screamed in absolute agony. Their limp bodies crushing to the floor, the snow and ice melting away from the once polished stone floor. The smell of freshly cooked meat assaulted her nose, and her stomach wrenched her body towards them. Within moments, her face and hands, arms and chest were covered in blood and dripping meat as she tore at their flesh, eating hurriedly, looking up ever so often, like a deer at the watering hole.
OOC – Designing our Heroin
I have probably always been a fan of pyromancers and the like. That and shapeshifters too. With the Eclipse d20 Point Buy system, it is very easy to create the character you want to play. With the web extension and other supplements, you can also customise your race if allowed by your Game Master.
Anyway, the girl above is a young street rat. Except that she has been touched by an elemental fire. So how do we build this girl?
Firstly, she is level 1. I won’t use any bonuses for race or anything like that at this stage. She would have a total of 54 CP (48 for Level 1 + the level 1 feat)
Disadvantages: Phobia – Fire (probably worth only 3cp once off) and possible compulsion (she turns cannibal) for another 3 cp but you could add any you want. These two bring her up to 60 cp
The Basics: 18
d4 Hit Dice: 0 cp
+1 Fort, Will: 6 cp (I figured Fortitude because she has survived on the street and Willpower to resist just breaking down)
BAB: 0 cp
Skill Points: 12 cp (been a street rat type character she probably will have a decent set of skills, like the rogue, but might be missing the advances skills – ie disable device, open lock, use magic device etc)
Proficiencies: 3
Simple weapons: 3 cp
Abilities: 21
I am thinking the most straight forward way to do this is to use the Dragon Path. So, we take:
Shaping (6cp) – this is just the prerequisite. Possibly could corrupt it to cost Spell Levels to use.
Dragon Fire (6cp) – this enables you to change Spell Levels into fire, but we don’t have any, so we take Mana. This can also be corrupted so that you can only use 1 SL per level per “action”.
Mana (6cp) – as Spell levels, 2d6 (we get a 9). So she can use 9 spell levels per day.
To be immune to her own fire we take Immunity. Probably only 3 cp worth (minor, minor, major). As long as the flames are created or indirectly caused by her fire she is immune to it. Option here would be to take a bigger Immunity or Fire Resistance itself. Or perhaps a version of Damage Reduction and apply it to fires only.
So we have a total spend of 21cp for Abilities
That’s a total of 42 cp. So, what can we do with the other 18 points. Well, if the GM allows you to exceed the 12 cp per level of specials in the first place, we can.
Maybe upgrade the Hit Dice to a d6 (for 2 cp)
Instead of the immunity, or perhaps in addition to it we can take Damage Reduction: 10 / Energy Attacks (that’s 12 cp, specialised for energy for effect and then corrupted to apply it to Fire only for cost. Brining the cost down to 8 cp)
8 cp left.
how about fortune: for Reflex Saving Throws (6 cp)
The remaining 2 cp can be placed into Skills ()
So you have a skilful rogue that is afraid of her own fires. (Willpower Save DC of 20 each time she encounters fire. GM may up or down this based on the size / source of flame) Out of desperation, she ate cooked (medium rare if you want to know) human flesh. This kept her alive through the harshest winters. The girl probably wouldn’t be entirely evil – unless of course she decides to go hunting for food, humans been her prey. Think she could be a fun ‘good guy’ to play as well, battling her own inner demons.