Free Blade
FREE BLADE
Mercenary, wanderer, outlaw, fortune-hunter, freebooter—the cities of Thule are full of hard-nosed adventurers ready to earn a living with a strong sword-hand. Monarchs and nobles are always looking for skilled soldiers, merchants need bodyguards, and forgotten treasures lie waiting for the audacious explorer bold enough to dare deadly jungles and cursed ruins and claim them. The free blade is a true soldier of fortune, a sell-sword who may try out a dozen different careers as he or she searches for that one bold stroke that might make a mercenary into a lord ... or even a king.
Whether you’re a professional mercenary with a careful eye for the odds or a bored barbarian look- ing for adventure, you keep your sword loose in the scabbard and your coinpurse where you can see it. You’re ambitious, resourceful, and pragmatic—all the gold in the world is worthless to a dead man. Above all, you are a great believer in the power of opportunity. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, you never stop looking for your next big chance. If it involves making enemies or breaking laws, so be it.
Fighting skill is the stock in trade of the free blade—anyone following this path must be handy with weapons and willing to fight for pay. Free blades come from almost any culture or background. Some are wandering barbarians, some are desperate street thugs trying to get ahead, and a few are high- born swordsmen or swordswomen forced by family circumstances to carve out their own place in the world. Even nonhumans such as dwarven mercenaries or elven duelists are found in this opportunistic trade.
Key Identity: Barbarian, fighter, ranger, rogue.
FREE BLADE BENEFITS
Even if you’re just beginning your career, you’ve al- ready been to more places and seen more things than most people. Free blades are defined by their wanderlust; you’re familiar with a lot of different places, you have a knack for languages, and you have an uncanny ability to fit in wherever you find yourself. As a veteran of many skirmishes, riots, and tavern brawls, you have learned how to finish fights fast when you get an opponent at a disadvantage. It might not be particularly honorable, but honor isn’t something you worry about too much. As word of your prowess spreads, you’ll find that you are never really without a job—there’s always someone hiring mercenaries, or a band of outlaws in need of a leader.
FREE BLADES IN THE WORLD
Rootless adventurers are common in Thule. Some are city-born men and women of the lower classes who set out to win wealth any way they can. Others are barbarians curious about civilized ways (or, perhaps, unwelcome in their own homelands) who have nothing to sell but their blades. Low-born Thuleans often romanticize the free blades’ way of life, so you have many friends among the common people.
Over time, you will naturally cross paths with other free blades who have their own ideas about the opportunities you come across. Competition, rivalry, or outright treachery are the usual results— your worst enemies are all too often free blades just like you.
PERSONALIZING THE FREE BLADE
The hallmarks of a free blade are adaptability and wanderlust. They’ll do anything to get by, taking on boring or dangerous work until something better turns up, and they think nothing of setting out to see if the next city offers better opportunities.
Ammur Wanderer: The barbarian clans of the Ammur Hills are a strong, settled Dhari tribe that has at various times fought off incursions from Lomar, Quodeth, and Marg. Many young Ammur warriors leave their homeland to sell their swords
in the rich city-states. Unlike most barbarians, who know little of civilization before they arrive at a city gate, you are acquainted with civilized ways—you just don’t think much of them.
Dishonored Lomari: The people of Lomar are known for their martial spirit and prickly sense of honor. More than a few of Lomar’s warriors find that better prospects await them in the wide world beyond Lomar’s mighty walls. Some of these exiles leave voluntarily, unable to find a place that suits them in Lomar’s rigid society. Others fail to live up to the unforgiving standards of Lomari society and leave in disgrace. Whatever your reason for leaving Lomar, you now earn the best living you can by selling a lifetime of martial training to the highest bidder. What drove you to leave? If you could go back, would you?
Margish Wolf: The city of Marg has a deservedly evil reputation as the center of Thule’s slave trade, but not every Marg is a slaver. Most are ruthless merchants and traders—commonly called “wolves” in Marg and nearby lands—who deal in any commodity that comes their way, or turn to robbery and plunder if legitimate trade is hard to come by. Part mercenary, part trader, part outlaw, a Margish wolf has an evil reputation, but everyone knows that you will do whatever you must to get ahead.
Zinandar Mercenary: You are a dwarf of Kal-Zinan, the City of the Iron Gate. Kal-Zinan is renowned for two principal exports: Iron arms and armor, and the toughest mercenaries in Thule. You’re one of the latter. Free blades in general have a reputation for being opportunistic and unreliable, but you consider yourself a professional and prefer to honor your contracts as long as your employer holds up his end of the bargain.
FREEBLADE
You are a soldier of fortune, and while you roam free, the price of your sword isn’t. You don’t spill blood out of malice, it’s just the price of doing business, a price that someone else gets to pay. You broker deals to get gold, anything to keep building your fortune, and maybe gain a bit of fame along the way.
Skill Bonuses (1st level): Your travels and business associations have provided you with a certain breadth of knowledge. You gain a bonus language selected from: Low Atlantean, Dhari, Kalayan, Lomari, Nimothan, Urgan. You gain a background of Freeblade at +2 and can use it in a variety of checks. Examples include:
Determining who is looking to hire, and why
Negotiating for a job
Checks to recall customs and laws in the various city-states in which you do business
Fast-talk guards or con your way into cities
Sellsword (4th level): Whenever you are paid gold for your services, you get 50% more gold.
Company of Men (8th level): You have worked for, with, and against many other sellswords and earned their respect, and you now have a dozen swords at your call. These are mid-level warriors and fighting-men, and you decide whether your company is a band of outlaws, soldiers, mercenaries or something in between. You also may choose a base of operations, such as a hall in a city-state, a watchtower on a road, or a hidden cave near a trade route. Your company earns enough money to pay for upkeep and their own wages, and you can recruit a half-dozen more men each time you reach a new level. Your followers are guards, and a squad of them will accompany you on your adventures if you request.
Adventurer Feat, Opportunistic Action: Once per battle when you miss with an opportunity attack, you can either reroll the attack or move as a free action.