I come to standing in a grass clearing in a forest. I don’t feel right. My head is all jumbled. I feel really heavy. Mom is yelling something I don’t understand. My head is clearing but mom’s yelling has me worried. Are we being attacked? I look around and just see my family. Joey is whimpering near mom trying to get her attention. Carlos is messing with his sling. Dad is swinging a sword and hoping around. He looks like an idiot with his big armor. I don’t see something attacking us. Wait…we all look like ourselves? Why do we all look like ourselves? Shouldn’t I look like a halfling?
“Put your armor on.” I can finally understand what mom is saying to me. The mental commands work just like the game, so I open the inventory and click on my leather armor. “We told you to equip everything before exiting character creation,” she says as the countdown for equipping armor starts. I equip my short bow, which is instant. I see an infinity sign over the quiver on my paper doll. I put my spear and dagger in slots one and two of my quickslot bar. I put my healing kit, survival kit, repair kit, cooking kit, cartography kit, survey kit, and thieves’ tools into my second quickslot bar. I notice it says my carry weight is (x + (26 lbs * .75). What is x? I’m at 16.5 lbs. already?
I look through weights. My boots, gloves, belt and rations weigh nothing. My armor weighs 7.5, spear 3, bow 2, dagger .5, and I have seven kits all at .5 lbs each. That still doesn’t tell me what x is.
I notice I don’t have my cd link anymore. I try accessing the tangle and I can’t. That really sucks. “Mia?” No response. Not having Mia really stinks. She’s been my only real friend my whole life. I check my pockets. My leatherman is gone. Everything is gone. Even my real belt is gone. Why did it take my belt? This is really weird.
I start navigating to the skills page to assign the ones I need to quickslots when mom says, “Carlos, don’t tell me you only have a robe please. God help me, Carlos!”
Carlos jumps and says, “That’s the only kit that came with a sling, ma! What did you want me to do? Jesus, you’re always on my ass about everything.”
“Talk like that to your mother again and that won’t be all that’s on your ass,” dad says as he gives Carlos what I call the ‘angry-dad’ look. “And watch your language.”
My armor is on, it takes 30 seconds to equip. I finish hotkeying the skills, professions and the craft I have into quickslots and start working on equipping my boots, belt, and gloves. They take six seconds each. That’s everything I have. And everything I can do to prepare. I think.
“Over here! This is a store,” I hear mom say behind me. “I have 2 gold. How much do you guys have? Well, 20 silver and 20 copper.”
“Same.”
“Same too.”
“Yup,” we all reply.
“Good, give it to Car…me, so I can buy Carlos some armor. We can only get padded. Wait, you can use a shield and sling together, right?”
There is a pause before Carlos answers, “Yeah, technically. But I suck with the sling already. I can’t use a shield with it yet.”
“Have you tried? Tell you what – we’ll get the light shield and you try to figure it out. Either way, it’s better to have and not need, than need and not have. The padded armor is five, a light shield is three. Whoa, a buckler costs 15. I hope it’s as easy to get gold here as it is in fourth age.”
Mom’s at some sort of floating ball thing near a tree. That’s a store? I feel weird. Everything is heavy. Like I’m under water or something. Past the ball thing is a rectangle of water. I look in and see stairs leading down to a door under the water. I point it out and dad says, “We’ll check it out later, sweetie.”
Mom is asking Carlos about what he took instead of nine lives. I bet I’m next in line to be grilled. Is this the tutorial? It is nothing like the tutorial in fourth age if it is. Since I have some time I look through my character sheet.
Key - Base (Ability Modifier) ((Misc.)) [Total]
CLASSES: 1 Rogue
RACE: Rusk Valley Halfling - Alignment: True Neutral - Deity: Atheist
HP: 2 (3) ((5 Destined for Greatness)) [10]
AC: 10 (4) ((2 Leather Armor; 1 Small; 1 Lucky Duck)) [18]
BAB: 0
Land Speed: *
ABILITIES
Str: 8 (-1) ((0)) [8]
Dex 18 (4) ((0)) [18]
Con: 16 (3) ((0)) [16]
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Int: 16 (3) ((0)) [16]
Wis: 8 (-1) ((0)) [8]
Cha: 8 (-1) ((0)) [8]
SAVES
Fortitude: 0 (3) ((1 Halfling Luck)) [4]
Reflex: 2 (4) ((1 Halfling Luck)) [7]
Will: 0 (-1) ((1 Halfling Luck)) [0]
COMBAT MODE: Free Attack/Auto Attack/Game Mode
MAIN HAND
Short Bow
AB: 0 (4) ((1 Small)) [5]
DAM: 1d6 (0) ((0)) Extra Damage=0 [1-6 Piercing], C 20, CM x3
Spear (In Black Raven spears are considered medium one-handed or two-handed weapons. A spear can be thrown. A ready action can be used to set a spear against a charge, double damage is dealt on a successful hit against a charging opponent. Must have one hand free to ready against charge)
AB: 0 (-1) ((1 Small)) [0]
DAM: 1d6 (-1) ((0)) Extra Damage=0 [0-5 Piercing], C 20, CM x3
OFF HAND
NA
OTHER ATTACKS
NA
OTHER
Spell Failure: 10%
Max Dex Bonus: 6 leather Armor [6]
Armor Check Penalty: 0
HOBBIES, CRAFTS, and PROFESSIONS
Hobby: Tinker level 1 (Maximum skill level of Hobbies is character level plus feats and racial and class features. No Ability mod for Hobbies. No experience needed to level Hobbies)
Crafts: Culinarian level 0 (Allows for the advanced completion of various dishes that do not involve baking ingredients, such as meat dishes, soups, and vegetables. Bakers focus on bread, pasta, and pastry dishes. Maximum level is class level of the class used to open the Craft. If multiclassing, a Craft can be selected twice or more and class levels can be combined to increase maximum Craft level. Unlike Hobbies, both Crafts and Profession require experience to level up)
Professions: NA
SKILLS
44 points at level 1
Italics - cross class skill
*Armor Check Penalty applies
(Falls under above group skill)
Acrobatics* (Dex) 4 (4) ((0)) [8]
(Balance)*
(Escape)*
(Fall)*
(Tumble)* (10 base points in Acrobatics with Tumble selected and opened gives a +1 bonus to AC. 20 base points gives another +1 bonus, for a total of +2 bonus to AC. This counts as a skill bonus and stacks with everything)
Athletics* (Str) 4 (-1) ((0)) [3]
(Climb)* 4 (-1) ((2 Hafling Movement)) [5]
(Jump)* 4 (-1) ((2 Hafling Movement)) [5]
(Run)* (Con) 4 (3) ((0)) [7] (10 base points in Athletics with Run selected and opened gives a +5 land speed bonus. 20 base points gives another +5 for +10 total land speed increase. This counts as a skill bonus and stacks with everything. This translates into a 7.5% speed increase at 10 and 20, 15% total. This is the only benefit in this world, as the Run skill effects Stamina in End of the Fourth Age, which was not implemented here)
(Swim)*
Disable Device (Int) 4 (3) ((0)) [7]
Heal (Wis) 2 (-1) ((0)) [1]
Hide* (Dex) 4 (4) ((4 Small)) [12]
Knowledge (Int) 4 (3) ((0)) [7]
(Arcane) 2 [5]
(Dungeoneering)
(Geography) 2 [5]
(Nature) 2 [5]
Move Silently* (Dex) 4 (4) ((2 Halfling Movement)) [10]
Open Lock (Dex) 4 (4) ((0)) [8]
Search (Int) 4 (3) ((0)) [7]
Spot (Wis) 4 (-1) ((0)) [3]
Survival (Wis) 2 (-1) ((0)) [1]
Skill Points carried over to next level: 0
FEATS
* are selected feats or options, listed last
Level 1 (Rogue 1)
Destined for Greatness (Free feat given to all players of End of the Fourth Age. You were born under an auspicious sign and have a greater destiny than most born in Benekal or even all of Tibur. You receive +5 Hit Points at level 1)
Charge (As SRD besides the following. Charges take three seconds from starting point to target regardless of distance. Distance has been standardized to 60 feet for all players since there is no land speed)
Armor Proficiency [Light]
Shield Proficiency [Buckler] (In Black Raven, bucklers and light shields are part of the Rogue’s weapon and armor proficiencies)
Shield Proficiency [Light] (In Black Raven, bucklers and light shields are part of the Rogue’s weapon and armor proficiencies)
Weapon Proficiency [Simple]
Weapon Proficiency [Rogue]
Halfling Hearing (+2 racial bonus on Listen checks)
Halfling Movement (+2 racial bonus Climb, Jump and Move Silently checks)
Halfling Luck (+1 racial bonus on all saving throws)
Halfling Courage (+2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear. This bonus stacks with the Halfling’s Luck +1 bonus on saving throws in general)
Halfling Aim (+1 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown weapons and slings)
Small (Weapons and armor automatically resize. Weight is reduced by half. Damage of weapons is reduced by 2, but cannot be reduced below 1. May effect item’s HPs. Carrying capacity is 3/4ths of Medium sized characters. +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks. Base land speed is 20. Translates to -15% speed. May change prices on gear bought through store or NPCs.)
Halfling Languages
Trapfinding
Sneak Attack (1D6)
*Background – Lucky Duck (+1 AC. No automatic failure on any roll of natural 1 other than attack rolls, when applicable)
*Point Blank Shot (+1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at ranges of up to 30 feet)
*Specialization Point used – Point Blank Shot (+2 bonus on attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at ranges of up to 20 feet. +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at ranges of between 21 and 40 feet)
ITEMS
Leather Armor
Short bow
Spear
Dagger
Healing kit (Takes 1 Round (6 seconds) to complete. No benefit if interrupted. Heals 1d2 + Heal skill + enhancement bonus hit points. Check for stabilization, poison, disease, treat wounds. Can be used once between combats. Maximum charges that can be held in the inventory are 1 + (enhancement bonus x2). Maximum enhancement bonus for all kits are +6. Cannot specialize in the Healing skill)
Survival kit
Repair kit (Takes 1 Turn (60 seconds) to complete. No benefit if interrupted. Repairs weapons and armor by a total of 1 + Tinker level durability points divided by the number of damaged pieces. Priority is set by user. Maximum durability repaired on a single item is 2 + enhancement bonus of kit. Can only be used once between combats on own gear)
Cooking kit
Cartography kit (Allowed with Knowledge: Geography. The Geography skill opens up the minimap function in outdoor terrains and improves both map and minimap with higher skill. Specializing in Geography highlights detected enemies on the minimap, adds icons for events, and gives +2 synergy bonus to both spot and search checks outdoors)
Survey kit (Allowed with Knowledge: Dungeoneering. The Dungeoneering skill allows dungeon mapping, opens the minimap function in indoor terrains, and expands the range and scope of both the map and minimap with higher skill. Specializing in Dungeoneering opens the assess enemy function, adds icons for unhidden treasure chests in range, and gives +2 synergy bonus to both spot and search checks indoors)
Thieves’ tools
Rations x3