Monday, 25 August 2025

Fossil Anarch (Class: Cōs, or Relic Paladin)



You are a living relic. It is possible you are the only member of your instinctual and dreamt-of order left on the continent. More advanced technologies are available to you, used by the people around you - but you are a living relic. You have been competed out of the ecosystem of Law by huscarls and holy warriors. But the spirits and the beasts remember you - and so the things in the dark, which fear your order yet…


You represent the most primal form of Law, the first thing to separate itself from the original Chaos - the Law of the tool and the circle of firelight. Flint is your symbol, and the darkness of the night is what you guard against.



THE CŌS

+1 to Hit and +1 Save per Template. 

Starting Skill: 1) Tracking 2) Sharpening 3) Leatherworking 4) Butchering 5) Stonecarving 6) Weather Prediction

Starting Equipment: Hand-made hide clothing, bullroarer, heavy cloak, four pieces of Relic Kit (no shoes). 

A - Lay on Hands, Questing, Favour 

B - Mount

C - Circle of Firelight, +1 Attack per Turn 

D - Smite 



Lay on Hands

Your hands are hard like flint, and your fingers cut like daggers. Your hands together are a +[templates] medium weapon - when you have nothing in your hands, you are considered to be using the weapon in two hands. 


You can sharpen edged weapons with your bare hands over the course of a minute, causing them to deal maximum damage on their next attack. You can start small fires by snapping your fingers or striking your hands together. 



Questing

When you act to defend humanity from darkness and chaos, gain a Questing Die (1d6), which may be rolled and added to damage, attack, and skill rolls, as well as to reduce damage from an incoming attack. You can use up to [templates] QD at once.

When you roll a 6 on the QD, it is depleted and removed permanently. If you conclusively fail to defend those you set out to protect, all QD you currently possess are depleted. In complete darkness, your QD instead deplete on a roll of 5-6.



Favour

Animals are never hostile to you unless you make them so. Creatures of Law, ancient spirits, very old ghosts, genius loci and various kinds of kami and fay will presume you to be a friend, ally and righteous sort. 



Mount

You gain a mighty spirit-steed, who wanders from the cosmic wilderness. These spirits have chosen forms that represent - if not literally - the ancient friendships between humanity and beasts. Choose between a giant wolf, a giant mouflon, a giant junglefowl or a giant eohippus. 


It can understand all of your languages, and follow instructions, but cannot talk. It is perfectly loyal but is still a spirit with a will of its own. It will permit no one other than you to ride it, though it can and will permit a single passenger, so long as you are present. 


If your Mount is slain, you must perform a noonday ritual - make a burnt offering of an animal you hunted yourself, with the same or more HD as it had, upon a bonfire big enough to contain your Mount, and throw in some part of the Mount’s body - dried blood, a feather, fur, hide. It will be revived over the course of 1d6 days, rising from the ashes once completely reformed. 


Your Mount has 10 Inventory Slots and the same amount of Hit Dice as you. It has 12AC, deals 1d6 damage when it attacks, and moves twice as quickly as the average person can run. 


It has extra features based on the choice of species you made. You may pick one additional feature for it at each of B, C, and D templates from the list particular to that template.


Mount Choices:

  • Wolf - Attack becomes a 1d10 damage bite. Can howl to summon 1d6 friendly wolves. 

  • Junglefowl - Two attacks per turn. Calls loudly at dawn. Glide 100’ horizontal per 10’ vertical.

  • Mouflon - Attack becomes a 2d4 damage ram. 14AC. Nimble climber. 

  • Eohippus - Soothing presence calms other animals. Under a sanctuary effect at all times.


Additional Features:

B: +2 AC, Rider and passenger are immune to cold, Blindsight 30’, Sense Chaos 30’. 

C: +2 AC, Eyes shed cones of firelight, Detect Magic 30’, Detect Metal 30’. 

D: Sense Assassins 60’, Invisibility (1hr/day), Speech, +1MD and two Spells. 



Circle of Firelight 

You can choose to radiate light like a bonfire. Those in the light you radiate are immune to fear, and can, with your permission, use your QD. 



Smite
When you snap your fingers to summon small fires, you can instead roll QD to summon lightning, fire’s truest form. You deal [sum]*2 damage with lightningbolts. Lightning ignites, deafens and frightens the unprepared. 



Relic Kit

  1. Stone-headed Spear - A medium spear which can nonetheless be thrown within 20’. 

  2. Gem-headed Spear - A heavy spear with stone spikes studding the shaft below the glittering gemstone point. Can strike the intangible. 

  3. Sling - A heavy ranged weapon. You are well-trained in its difficult usage. Delivers stones to distant targets with devastating force, but requires space to spin up. Due to being a leather strip and some cord, it is very compact, sharing a single inventory slot with 10 stone bullets. You start with 10 stone bullets, also. 

  4. 10 Meteoric Iron Sling-bullets - +1 to hit and damage, +3 vs. chthonic creatures, demons of darkness and creatures carrying plague. 1 slot. 

  5. Armour of River Reeds - As leather, blessed by a friendly river-spirit. The wearer cannot sink in freshwater. 1 Slot carried, 0 worn. 

  6. Thokcha - An amulet of meteoric iron which fell from the sky. Provides +1 Save, and resonates in sympathy when other things fall from the heavens in this or an adjacent hex. 

  7. Armour of Black Bark - As leather, blessed by the wise old spirit of the forest. The wearer is invisible in foliage and has protection from thorns. 1 slot carried, 0 worn. 

  8. Beehive - A whole-ass beehive in a woven skep. The bees, themselves being creatures of Law, will never sting you, and present honeycomb offerings to you as an ally of their cause. 

  9. Blowgun - A light ranged weapon. Delivers small darts which can be very easily coated with poison. Comes with a single dose of Lasketi Poison, see below. 

  10. 4 Doses of Lasketi Poison - Derived from rare flowers and roots, shown to you by the meadow-spirits. Those affected by this poison (it can be ingested or injected via dart, as above) are affected by 1d6 minutes of agony, feeling as though they are burning from the inside out. For 1d6 days after, their body is filled with a low-level burning ache. 

  11. Reaping Sickle - Hefty crescent-moon blade of shining bronze. A medium weapon. Deals +1d4 damage to plants and plant creatures. 

  12. Armour of Many Seashells - As chain, +2 Reaction with water elementals and aquatic beings. 2 slots carried, 1 worn. 

  13. Surly Wolf-dog - The animal has chosen you as its master. It has 1HD, a 1d6-damage bite, and a grumpy, aggressive mien, but it’s a softy deep-down. It can understand you perfectly and follows instruction competently. 

  14. Armour of Many Flowers - As unarmoured. +2 Reaction, destroyed if you are critically hit. Counts as plate against metaphysical, social or spiritual attacks. 

  15. Dugout Boat - Carved from a single hefty tree-trunk. This monoxylon is not the nimblest craft, but you are immune to becoming lost while paddling it, for the genius loci of lakes, waterways and coastlines recognise what it means, and keep you on the right path. 

  16. Antenna Sword - A light blade of arsenical bronze with a distinct design. If you hold the blade to your ear, it will occasionally pick up otherworldly messages with its antennae. 

  17. Armour of Turtle-Scutes - As plate. +1DR. Heavy and rattling. These blessed scutes were gathered from a hidden graveyard of giant turtles on an isolated island. The wearer cannot sink in saltwater, but is forbidden by judgy turtle-ghosts to run with their own legs. 4 slots carried, 2 worn. 

  18. Spirit-hide Armour - Made from the worked hide of a volunteering animal spirit. Feels warm alive, still has fur on it. Decorated with pieces of bone and amber. As chain, protects the wearer from XP-drain, doom, hauntings and curses. 2 Slots carried, 1 worn. 

  19. Sky Disk - Patinated bronze, gold, silver, and polished copper. Forms a hefty disk which is purported to be a map of Heaven. +2 Reaction with heavenly beings when brandished. Also could be used as a shield. 1 Slot. 

  20. A Curio! 

    1. Horned Headdress - Hide mask with roughly-cut eyeholes, along with a tightly-fitting headdress capped with spiralling horns. Said to represent the visage of an evil spirit. While wearing it, any fires that you started become blue-tinged moonflames, which burn cold and use water as fuel (treat water as lamp oil, in this situation), leaving wood (but not flesh) unharmed. They can only be extinguished by sand or soil. Any light shed by your class features, or by light sources you hold or touch, is moonlight. 1 slot carried, 0 worn. 

    2. Lightning-struck Branch - Blackened, burnt, glows dully with internal embers. Big enough to be used as a staff, or a medium bludgeon. This means you, yourself, shall never be struck by lightning, since it marks you as the appointed deputy of the storm, in his kingdom upon the earth. Don’t worry about battering people with the storm’s badge of office - he loves crudity. 1 Slot. 

    3. Pegasus-Skin Drum - Allegedly, anyway. Pale, downy. When struck, the sounds the drum makes contain an unaccountably resonant, harmonic tone. The undead hate the fuck out of the sounds this thing makes, and will charge into fire or obvious pit traps just for a chance to smash the drum to pieces. 

    4. Skeleton of an Unknown Animal - Whatever the hell it was, the skeleton seems to make no damn sense. It’s irritatingly difficult to try and puzzle out how all these fangs, ribs, vertebrae… is that a limb? What’s going on here? Whatever it was - it whispers, and will tell you tales from very ancient days, when you are alone in the dark with it. Stored loose in a large sack. 1 Slot. 

    5. Dream Boat - The first boat a human being ever imagined, given power by its newness. Used to come to the call of any servant of Law, but now only the relic paladins remember it. Spectral dugout canoe the size of a yacht, can be summoned in any lake or sea by hours of uninterrupted prayer, then by sleep - it will be there in the morning, having sailed out of your dreams. 

    6. Wasp-paper Tunic - Fragile, odd-smelling, full of live wasps. Not armour, destroyed if you are critically hit. Wasps, being creatures of Chaos, will sting you when they feel brave enough - as a tradeoff, when wearing this creaking shirt, you are immune to magical detection, invisible in darkness, and read as Chaotic when it’s to your benefit. 1 Slot carried, 0 slots worn. 



This isn’t for any particular setting.  The original inspiration for the class was the offhand mention of flint in deus ex parabola’s Pyromancer, but I don’t believe it’d fit in the UW. Maybe deus will tell me otherwise. 


This class is inspired by many GLOG paladins, but especially by Xenophon’s recent one, so this is part of that one’s bandwagon, I suppose. 


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