Order of Aecus 13th Age/Desmond Sparklethorpe

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Desmond Sparklethorpe Race: Rogue

Class: Gnome

• Str: 8 / -1
• Dex: 18 / +4
• Con: 12 / +1
• Int: 14 / +2
• Wis: 10 / 0
• Cha: 16 / +2

• Initiative: 5
• AC: 12 + 1 + 1 = 14
• Physical Defense: 12 + 1 + 1 = 14
• Mental Defense: 10 + 1 + 2 = 13
• Hit Points: 21
• Recoveries: 8
• Recovery Die: 1d8+1

Icons:

• Prince of Shadows - Weak Positive (2)
• Dwarf King: Weak Conflicted (1)

Racial Features:

• Befuddling: Once per battle, as an immediate action, a foe that is attacking you must roll a normal save. If it fails it is dazed until the end of your next turn. If it rolls a 1 on the save it is weakened until the end of your next turn.
• Minor Illusions: As a standard action, at-will, you can create a strong smell or a sound nearby. Creatures that pass a normal save don’t notice the smell or sound, creatures that fail hear it or smell it.
• Small: Gnomes PCs have a +2 bonus against opportunity attacks.

Rogue Basics:

• Momentum: gained when hitting an enemy with an attack, lost when hit by an attack
• Sneak Attack: deals +1d8 damage against foe also engaged with an ally
• Adventurer Feat: use SA the first round of combat against enemies whose Initiative I beat.

Class Features:

• Lethal: When making rogue attacks, your critical hit range against bloodied enemies is 16+.
• Shadow Walk: As a standard action, make a Stealth check vs. the highest Mental Defense of any nearby foe. If you succeed, take yourself off the table. At the start of your next turn, return anywhere you like nearby, dealing double damage with your first rogue attack that turn. If you fail the Stealth check, you expend your minor action instead of your standard action, but you can’t use this power again this turn.
• Thievery: You have the Thief background at its full possible bonus, +5, without having to spend your background points on it. You have the Thief background at its full possible bonus, +5, without having to spend your background points on it.

Attack Powers:

• Flying Blade: [At-Will Attack]

Ranged attack Requires small bladed weapon Target: One nearby creature Attack: Dexterity vs. AC Hit: WEAPON + Dexterity damage, and if your attack roll is even and you have an ally engaged with the target, add your Sneak Attack damage. Miss: Damage equal to your level

• Roll With It: [At-Will Momentum Power]

Interrupt Action; Requires Momentum Use when hit by an attack that targets AC or PD. Take half damage from that attack.

• Tumbling Strike: [At-Will Attack]

At-Will Melee Attack Always: You get +5 to all Disengagement checks you make this turn and can move up to a foe, strike and then attempt to disengage as your full turn. Attack: Dexterity vs. AC Hit: WEAPON + Dexterity damage, Miss: Damage equal to your level

One Unique Thing:

Desmond possesses a clockwork heart, an experimental device concocted in a rare collaboration between The Dwarf King and The Archmage. This apparatus preserved his life when he was ambushed and beaten while investigating a supposed conspiracy to capture The Prince of Shadows.

He knows not of the mechanical heart's existence, simply awakening bruised and battered in a dark alley several days later. Did these shadow conspirators simply desire a guinea pig for the latest model? Did the Prince of Shadows orchestrate this life-saving insertion to save his operative? And is the heart a vessel containing something else, now hidden and out of reach from prying eyes?

Icon Relationships: (3 points)

• Prince of Shadows - Weak Positive (2)
• The Dwarf King - Weak Conflicted (1)

Backgrounds: (12 points)

• Dapper Detective 4
• Prankster 4
• Bookseller's Son 4

Appearance

Desmond is 3'6", with green eyes and curly orange hair. He often wears a grin on his boyish face, but his world-weary eyes have stress lines around them that betray his jovial exterior. The bright colors of his eyes and hair are offset by his all gray attire: a utilitarian cloak, tunic, trousers, and boots. He walks with a wolfs-head sword-cane and a slung shoulder bag contains his investigation kit. Desmond tends to twitch his nose when deep in thought or when scrutinizing a situation, as if trying to smell out hidden information.

Personality

A lover of puzzles, riddles and mysteries, Desmond comes off as smart-mouthed, witty, and borderline arrogant. The gnome likes to talk big for his small stature, and enjoys throwing subtle, witty taunts at less intelligent opponents, getting him into an inordinate amount of trouble in social situations.

Background

Desmond was born in a small gnome enclave near Twisp, the only child of the town sheriff and his bookish Lorekeeper. Perpetually curious, Desmond would get into trouble from the day he could crawl, picking up and fiddling with arcane objects and mystic artifacts in his mother's office that she was to catalogue. He pored over librams and tomes in her collection, and he developed a fascination with unlocking the secrets and magical properties these items possessed.

Although incredibly bright, an astute observer and a quick learner, he had the attention span of a goldfish and did poorly at school, mostly because he bored quickly and couldn't stay seated long enough to finish any of his examinations. Seeing his son's natural gifts, his father channeled the boy's aptitudes towards helping him solve various mysteries the harried lawman had no time for.

At first it was just simple things: somebody's lost cat, or a missing trinket. But eventually he developed a considerable reputation as a magic-empowered investigator, eventually assisting his father in a variety of cases.

Things were going quite swimmingly for the young gnome until the dreadful day he found his parents dead in their home, slaughtered by a mysterious assailant who left no traces — natural, magical or otherwise. Pursuing the slimmest thread of a lead passed on by a mysterious informant, Desmond found himself in the midst of a massive conspiracy that intimated the apprehension of the Prince of Shadows. He's in way over his head.