Thursday, July 12, 2018

Sheridan the Exile

Sheridan

      “Not all of the criminals out here want to kill you. Some just want your skin.”

Sheridan isn’t a bad man, he’s just a bit lazy. He wandered extensively in his younger days, hoping to strike it rich without actually having to strain himself. Eventually, Sheridan ended up getting arrested for vagrancy. He was branded with a “V” on his right forearm, then exiled. Expelled into the wild with other condemned men, Sheridan learned to either work or die.

     Sheridan managed to befriend a dozen or so non-violent criminals. They banded together for mutual support and now spend their time maintaining the defenses of the camp in which they live. He dreams of returning home, but he knows it’s futile. The walls that surround his homeland are 40 feet high and the guards who patrol them shoot anything that approaches.

     The wild lands where Sheridan lives are home to fierce animals and dangerous sub-humans. If that weren’t bad enough, more violent criminals often raid the camp where Sheridan and the more passive exiles live. Many of the dangerous convicts have serious mental illnesses and life in the wild has caused them to grow increasingly unstable. Sheridan worries that it’s only a matter of time before the camp is overrun. He hopes and prays that his luck will turn and that relief will come. Until then, there are trenches to dig, fires to tend and food to be gathered.

Using Sheridan In Play
     There are some who believe that exile is a rather harsh sentence. This is especially true given the fact that the prisoners often turn upon on another and that many of the exiles are not equipped to deal with living in a brutal environment. The people who argue for reforms in the law are correct to wonder why a petty crime, like vagrancy, is punished with a potential death sentence.

     Characters might be hired to smuggle supplies, medicine and letters from relatives to the exiled prisoners. The party would have to be very careful, since being caught could very well result in the characters being exiled as well. In the wild, the party would have to defend themselves from attacks by the more violent exiles, as well as fend off wild animals.

     Conversely, characters might be hired by city officials to survey the criminal camps, determine the prisoners’ relative health and organization and then report on their findings. It’s possible the exiles have organized themselves into a rag tag army and plan on attacking the society that treated them so cruelly. It’d be up to the party to pacify the exiles.

Sheridan (-5 points)
SM 0 (5’ 8” tall, 155 lbs.);
ST 11 [10], DX 10, IQ 11 [20], HT 11 [10];
HP 11, Will 9 [-10], Per 11, FP 11;
Basic Lift 24, Damage: Thr 1d-1/Sw 1d+1;
Basic Speed 5.25, Basic Move 5;
Dodge 8, Parry (see attacks), Block -
DR 0.

Advantages and Perks 
Less Sleep 1 [2].

Disadvantages and Quirks 
Social Stigma (criminal record) [-5], Status -2 [-10], Wealth (dead broke) [-25].

Skills 
     Camouflage-12 [2], Gardening-12 [2], Melee Weapon (broadsword)-9 [1].

 Attacks 
Light Club-9, 1d+2 sw/cr or 1d thr/cr, reach 1, parry 7.

Equipment
Tattered clothing, waterskin, club. 

     Sheridan and a band of exiled convicts living on the fringes of civilization were inspired by Patrick Carman’s Dark Hills Divide.

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