About Shortnose.Statistics:
Male Human Fighther 1
N Medium Humanoid (Human) Init +2; Senses Perception +1 ------------------------------ DEFENSE ------------------------------ AC 22, touch 12, flat-footed 18 (+5 armor, +2 dex, +2 shield, +1 trait, +1 dodge, +1 feat) hp 25 (2d10+4+2) Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +1 ------------------------------ OFFENSE ------------------------------ Speed 20 ft. Melee +6 Scimitar 1d6+3
Ranged ------------------------------
Traits Defender of the Society.
Drawbacks Feats Power Attack
Skills (3 points; 2 class, 0 INT, 1 Human)
-4 Acrobatics
*ACP applies to these skills
Languages Common Special Abilities:
------------------------------ SPECIAL ABILITIES ------------------------------ Gear/Possessions:
------------------------------ GEAR/POSSESSIONS ------------------------------ 1x Scimitar
Carrying Capacity
Money 0 GP 0 SP 0 CP
Background:
Smiles staggered to one side and dropped to one knee.
‘Here, Sergeant.’ ‘You’ll live?’ ‘Caught a look in an eye,’ the man replied, edging into view. One side of his face was sheathed in blood, but it wasn’t his own. ‘Seen hyenas looking saner.’ He pointed with a bloodied long knife. ‘That corporal there gave ’im a nudge …’ The man Koryk indicated was on his knees. A regular. Burly, broad-shouldered, with a knife handle jutting from the right side of his chest. Blood was streaming from his mouth and nostrils, filled with bubbles. Tarr glared round, his eyes catching Shortnose. He walked over. ‘Smiles – look at me, soldier.’ She lifted her head. ‘Like Koryk said, Sergeant – we ain’t blind and we ain’t stupid. Caught the same nudge, so I gave him my knife.’
Shortnose nodded. ‘Twelve paces between ’em, in the dark, in a crowd.’ The dying corporal had dropped his bearded chin to his chest and seemed to be staring at his knees. Corabb edged closer and gave the man a push. He fell over. The thudding impact, as he landed on the ground, spurted one last mass of foam from his mouth and nose. ‘Two down?’ Tarr asked. Shortnose could feel the hatred in the eyes of the regulars crowding the scene, and he flinched when Corabb said, ‘Three, Sergeant. The first two were the distraction – two more came in low from behind, making for the wagon. I got the first one, then Cuttle chased the last one away – still after him, I guess.’ ‘He’s out there?’ Tarr demanded. ‘Rovagug’s breath!’ Smiles straightened and, moving drunkenly, made her way to the dead corporal, where she retrieved her knife. ‘It ain’t right,’ she muttered. She faced the crowd. ‘We’re guarding empty casks, you damned fools!’ Someone called out, ‘Wasn’t us, marine. That was the Captain’s gang.’ Shortnose scowled. Blistig. Gods below. ‘Just leave us alone,’ Smiles said, turning away. Cuttle returned, caught Tarr’s eye and with one hand casually brushed the crossbow slung down behind his left arm.
Smiles came up to Shortnose. ‘Killing our own – it ain’t right.’ ‘I know.’ ‘You had my back – thanks.’ He nodded. The crowd of regulars was melting away. The wagon started rolling, the squad falling in alongside it, and the bodies were left behind. ‘It’s the madness,’ said Corabb a short time later. ‘In Powt Saw—’ ‘You don’t need to tell us,’ Cuttle interrupted. ‘We was there, remember?’ ‘Aye. Just saying, that’s all. The madness of thirst —’ ‘That was planned out.’ ‘The corporal, aye,’ Corabb said, ‘but not that fool going for Koryk.’ ‘And the ones coming in from behind? Planned, Corabb. Someone’s orders. That ain’t madness. That ain’t anything of the sort.’ ‘Mostly, I was talking about the rest of them regulars – the ones closing in on the smell of blood.’ No one had any response to that. Shortnose found that he was still holding his greatsword. Sighing, he sheathed it. Shortnose took the blood-stained shirt and pushed it beneath the collar of the leather yoke, stuffing it across the width of his collar bones where his skin had been worn away and things were looking raw. Someone had brought him the shirt, sopping wet and warm, but all that blood didn’t bother him much – he was already adding to it. The wagon was heavy. Heavier now with children riding atop all the bundles of food. But for all their numbers, not as heavy as it should have been. That was because they were mostly starved down to bones. He didn’t like thinking about that. Back when he’d been a child he remembered hungry times, but every one of those times his da would come in with something for the runts, Shortnose the runtiest of them all. A scrap. Something to chew. And his ma, she’d go out with other mas and they’d be busy for a few days and nights and then she’d come back in, sometimes bruised, sometimes weeping, but she’d have money for the table, and that money turned into food. His da used to swear a lot those times she did that. But it was all down to feeding the runts. ‘My beautiful runts,’ his da liked saying. And then, years later, when the garrison had up and left town, suddenly Ma couldn’t get the money the way she used to, but she and Da were happier for all of that anyway. Shortnose’s older brothers had all gone off by then, two of ’em to war and the other one to marry Widow Karas, who was ten years older than him and who Shortnose secretly loved with all his might, so it was probably a good thing he ran away when he did, since his brother wouldn’t have taken kindly to that trouble behind the barn with Karas drunk, or maybe not, and anyway it was all in good fun –
Brought me that shirt, did you? ‘Ain’t good, runt,’ he said. ‘Drinking blood.’ The boy frowned up at him, and went on with his licking until his hands were clean. – and he’d heard later how one of his brothers got killed outside Nathilog and the other one came back with only one leg, and then the pensions came through and Ma and Da stopped having to struggle so, especially when Shortnose joined up himself and sent two-thirds of his pay back home; half of that went home to Da and Ma; the other third went to his brother and his wife, because he felt guilty about the baby and all. Still, it wasn’t good being hungry so young, and starving was worst of all. His da used to say, ‘If ya can’t feed ’em, don’t have ’em. Hood’s proud pole, it don’t take a genius to see that!’ It sure don’t, and that was why Shortnose kept paying for his runt, and he’d still be paying for it if it wasn’t for them being fired and made outlaws and deserters and all the other names the military came up with for not doing what they told you to do. By now, though, that runt would be old enough to work all on its own, so maybe his brother would have called off the bounty on his head. Maybe everything was all right by now, the dust settled and all. It was nice to think so. But now he’d gone and fallen in love with Flashwit and Mayfly and wasn’t that silly, since there were two of them and only one of him. Not that he saw that as a problem. But women could get funny about things like that. And lots of other things too, which was why they were so much trouble. The hauler on his right stumbled. Shortnose reached down one-handed and lifted the woman back on to her feet. She gasped her thanks.
‘You’re Shortnose, aren’t ya?’ He glanced down at her. She was short, with big, strong-looking legs – now that was bad luck for her, wasn’t it? The one thing that made proper men drool turned out getting her yoked like a – like a – ‘Yah, that’s me.’ ‘Been tryin to look, y’see?’ ‘No.’ ‘I heard you got the same ear bitten off twice.’ ‘So?’ ‘Well, er, how’s that possible?’ ‘Don’t ask me. It was all Bredd’s fault.’ ‘Bredd? Nefarias Bredd? You were fighting him?’ ‘Might have been. Save your breath, soldier. See this runt here? He ain’t saying a thing, cause he’s smart.’ ‘It’s because he doesn’t understand Taldane.’ ‘As good an excuse as any, I always say. Anyway, just keep pulling, and think about things you like to think about. To distract ya from all the bad stuff.’ ‘What are you thinking about?’ ‘Me? Women.’ ‘Right,’ she said in a strangely cold tone. ‘So I guess I’ll think about handsome, clever men.’ He smiled down at her. ‘You don’t have to do that, lass – you got one walking right beside you.’ The boy went away and came back a short time later with some more cloth, which he gave to Shortnose so that he could stop his bleeding nose. Like his da used to say, ‘There ain’t no figurin’ the ways of women.’ Too bad too. She was kinda pretty and, even better, she could swear the hide off a bhederin. Could there be a sexier combination? He didn’t think so.
Appearance and Personality:
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