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The second COTW this week is a high-fantasy mercenary
wanderer, a headsman with a conscience...
Valten Matz; apprentice executioner-turned-mercenary
(c) copyright 2001 Volker Bach
Total Points: 246 Points
Age late 20s; 6'3"; 220 pounds; a muscle-bound giant of a
man - with shaved head and thick beard - dressed in coarse
travelling clothes.
ST 15 [60] - thrust 1d+1, swing 2d-1, fatigue 14
DX 14 [45] - basic speed 7, move 7, dodge 8*
parry
(two-handed sword) 10*
IQ 13 [30]
HT 14 [45] - hit points 15
WL 11 [-] - fright check 13*
*includes bonuses from Combat Reflexes
ADVANTAGES: Combat Reflexes [15]; Fit [5];
Literacy [10]; Wealth (Comfortable)
[10].
DISADVANTAGES: Charitable [-15]; Disturbing Voice
[-10]; Social Stigma ('dishonest folk', -2)
[-10]; Weak Will -2 [-16].
QUIRKS: Shaves his head; Gives to the poor and needy
secretly; Dislikes staying in the same place long; Shy
around women; Gets along fine with the 'strange' races.
[-5]
SKILLS: Area Knowledge (Realm)-14 [2]; Brawling-14
[1]; Broadsword-14 [2]; Crossbow-15
[2]; Diagnosis/TL3-13 [4]; First Aid/TL3-14*
[0]; Interrogation-12 [1]; Intimidation-13
[2]; Judo-14 [4]; Knife-15 [2];
Law-12 [2]; Occultism-14 [4]; Oral
Literature-12 [2]; Pharmacy/TL3-13 [4];
Physician/TL3-14 [8]; Riding (Horse)-14 [2];
Shield-14 [1]; Streetwise-13 [2];
Surgery/TL3-12 [4]; Torture-12 [1];
Two-Handed Sword-15 [8].
*default from Physician
LANGUAGES: Common (native) [0]; Dwarven-12
[1]; Orkish-12 [1]; Gnollish-12 [1];
Halfling-12 [1].
MANOEUVERS: Close Combat (Pummeling)-13 [1];
Counterattack (Two-Handed Sword)-13 [4]; Face
Attacks-12 [4]; Hit Location (Two-Handed Sword)-14
[2]; Improved Parry (Two-Handed Sword)-18
[4]; Kicking-14 [1]; Knee Strike-15
[2]; Pass [thrust] (Two-Handed Sword)-15
[2].
EQUIPMENT
Valten Matz lives out of his saddlebags. He owns (and
usually wears) hardened leather torso armor (PD 2, DR 2) but
otherwise goes unprotected. At his belt he carries a knife
(1d+1 imp, 2d-3 cut) and a beautifully wrought bastard sword
quite out of character for this otherwise modestly dressed
man (1d+4 imp, 2d+1 cut used two-handed). A hunting crossbow
(1d+6 imp, 1/2Dam 340, Max 425) with a quiverful of bolts
and a goat's foot complements his equipment. All his other
worldly possessions are carried in two saddlebags he
currently carries slung over his shoulders, tied together
with a bridle. They amount, by and large, to some medical
equipment, a few changes of clothes, and his armsmaster
certificate.
BIOGRAPHY
Valten Matz grew up as the son of a municipal executioner in
a small town, destined by law, custom and his father's
determined efforts to follow him in this vital and lucrative
civil service position. Being of such origin, he was tainted
from the beginning with the stigma of being of the
'dishonest folk', at the same level with gypsies, thieves,
beggars and travelling entertainers. Petty taboos and the
publicly sanctioned, offhanded cruelty of children from the
right side of the social divide dominated his life from an
early point. He had few friends, and those his father
disapproved of. Wealth and security could not make up for
this, and Valten Matz came to disdain them as ephemeral to
the real necessities of life.
Nonetheless the boy was a dutiful and capable apprentice. He
learned his father's trade in all its aspects, not just the
showmanship of the public scaffold and the master blow that
separates the head from the body of a standing man with a
single stroke, but also the laws surrounding High Justice,
how to torture a man or woman so that no permanent damage
remains, and how to nurse a victim back to health if the
sentence be revoked. His father also introduced him to the
lore and legend handed down in the profession, the uses of
the mandragora growing under the gallows and the body parts
of executed criminals, and what the spiritual significance
of every solemn ritual of pain and blood was. Valten Matz
took all of this in readily, learning with a speed and
perspicacity that surprised everyone.
Bereft of company and the common pursuits of young men,
Valten Matz devoted his leisure time to the study of
swordsmanship. The local armsmaster - an outcast and a
barely-tolerated misfit like Valten himself - was happy to
have an apt pupil in the strong, fast and capable youth and
instructed him in the forms of the long sword, the art of
fighting with the two-handed blade. Soon, the massive frame
of the hangman's son and his impressive skill at arms put an
end to any taunting, bullying or attacks. Valten
intentionally cultivated an image of volatility and physical
threat. If he could not have respect, fear would do!
By his twenty-first birthday, Valten Matz took over some of
his father's duties as a journeyman executioner. He
travelled to nearby towns to learn from the local
colleagues, though he never took upon himself the kind of
long journeys that carpenters of masons went on in pursuit
of their trade secrets. Everyone was duly impressed by his
strength, skill and quiet obedience, thinking him the finest
executioner yet to come out of their school. But unbeknownst
to them, Valten Matz was nursing in his bosom the
disposition that would make him reject his way of life and
everything he had been.
Of all the perversions that made an executioner untenable in
his position, Valten Matz developed the worst. He grew a
conscience. Always one to have high ethical standards, the
young man found it unacceptable that he should kill or maim
possibly innocent people at the behest of authorities with
little claim to their exalted positions, men he often enough
knew for the bigots and hypocrites they were through his
dealings with whores, thieves and fences. These worries came
to weigh upon him ever more heavily until, one day, he
simply saddled his father's second best hack and rode away
from all of it.
Once on the road, Valten Matz quickly found that he enjoyed
the friendship and respect of fellow travellers, adventurers
and drifters immensely. He gloried in doing good, rendering
aid and generously giving to the needy to enjoy their
gratitude. For the first time in his life he was not reviled
or feared. Like many men who come to their consciences late,
he threw himself into morality with reckless abandon, often
to the detriment of his purse or health. Two months ago he
found himself obliged to sell his horse, lacking funds to
maintain it or even himself, and is now travelling on foot
through the dust of the high road. He makes a precarious
living as a sellsword, day laborer, duellist and occasional
Robin-Hood style criminal.
ENCOUNTERED
Valten Matz is an intimidating figure - lumbering, oversized
and coarse. He is not an ugly man in the traditional sense,
but it takes effort to see anything attractive in his
unkempt beard, shaven head, dusty clothes and worn gear. He
cultivates a rough and ready image, being uncomfortable in
the company of the upper crust and usually consorting with
the underside of society. Unlikely to put himself forward or
approach anyone by himself unless he has some specific
reason, he tends to be distanced and even shy. He does not
speak much, largely because his voice is hoarse and low,
broken, thanks to a fight in the streets of his home town
that left his larynx permanently damaged.
Once the ice is broken, however, Valten Matz is an
easygoing, friendly, kind and loyal man. Self-effacing to a
fault, he dislikes his qualities being placed in the
limelight. This makes him easy to underestimate. His fate
is, as yet, open in any direction, but he is already well
known among the wayfaring folk and may have a successful
career in adventuring ahead of him if he plays his cards
right.
CANONICALITY
Valten Matz uses the optional ST=HP/HT=FT rule, as per
p.Ci7. He has been given the non-canonical Torture (M/A)
Skill, to reflect his mastery of the devices and techniques
of judicial duress. He also has several Maneuvers that are
uncanonical for the Two-Handed Sword. Of those, Improved
Parry (p.SW20, sidebar) is perhaps the most disconcerting.
It is based on historical instruction books displaying
refined parrying techniques used with such weapons; the GM
is free to leave it out, if it is bothersome. Counterattack
and Pass (both detailed in the newest edition of "GURPS
Swashbucklers", pp.SW19-27) are fairly easy to see, by
comparison.
WHAT IF?
Valten Matz is largely a converted AD&D player character
given some fine-tuning in the GURPS system. (As written, he
is a fifth-level Fighter specialising in the bastard sword,
with a good deal of adventuring under his belt already). As
such, he is heavily biased to a combat-heavy, high-fantasy
setting and should not be removed from it without need; his
unique position as a moral torturer - destined from
childhood to be what he could never bring himself to be -
does not translate into other backgrounds as well. In a
modern or sci-fi campaign, he might well end up a mere biker
or thug with aspirations to philosophy.
In a high-fantasy game that is especially cinematic, Matz's
fighting technique can be expanded with some cinematic
skills and maneuvers. Appropriate choices might include
Breaking Blow and Power Blow, and perhaps Pressure Points,
Pressure Secrets and Yin/Yang Healing if his healing skills
are to be emphasised. Possible manoeuvers include Roll with
Blow, Sweeping Counter Parry and Whirlwind Attack.
ADVENTURE SEEDS
Valten Matz is a Player Character by design, and doesn't
really work as well in any other role. GMs can use him as
reinforcements for an understrength party on their way to
doing good, as a mysterious stranger on the road, or as a
moral opponent for PCs straying from the straight and
narrow. Being itinerant, he can turn up anywhere the GM
wants, and his adventuring lifestyle justifies his taking
almost any kind of job.
- written by Volker Bach (bachv@paganet.de)
- editted and formatted by andi jones
(andi@angelwerks.com)
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