Robert Shay

Character Concept: Repentant ex-slaver

• Race: Human
• Sex: Male
• Age: 20 years
• Height: 6 ft.
• Weight: 170 lbs.

Appearance: Despite being relatively young, Robert has a weathered look to him, from his time at sea and his heavy drinking. He has blond hair, which he wears shoulder length, and a beard that, while not exactly neat, is not a complete mess either. He tries to cultivate the appearance of a swashbuckler, but he has neither the looks nor the personal charisma to completely pull it off.

Experience

• Experience Points Earned: 25
• Advances: 5
• Rank: Seasoned

Attributes

• Agility: d8
• Smarts: d6
• Spirit: d6
• Strength: d6
• Vigor: d6

Derived Traits

• Bennies: 3
• Charisma: 0
• Pace: 6”
• Parry: 7
• Toughness: 6

Skills

• Boating (Agility): d6
• Climbing (Strength): d4
• Fighting (Agility): d10 (+1: Florentine)
• Intimidation (Spirit): d8
• Knowledge: Masquani Language (Smarts): d6
• Notice (Smarts): d6
• Shooting (Agility): d8
• Swimming (Agility): d4
• Taunt (Smarts): d6
• Throwing (Agility): d8

Edges

• Florentine: A character trained to fight “Florentine” is a master at wielding two weapons at once. He adds +1 to his Fighting rolls versus an opponent with a single weapon and no shield. In addition, opponents subtract 1 from any “gang up” bonuses they would normally get against the fighter
• Quick Draw: This Edge allows a hero to draw a weapon as a free action (and thus ignore the usual –2 multi-action penalty if he chooses to fire as well). If the character must make an Agility roll to draw a weapon, he adds +2 to the roll.
• Two-Fisted: When attacking with a weapon in each hand, the hero rolls each attack separately but ignores the multi-action penalty.

Hindrances

• Enemy (Minor): Captain Morgan Avery: A slaver from Earth, who, upon finding himself on Caribdus, took up his trade there as well. When Robert first found himself on Caribdus, he met Captain Avery in tavern. Realizing what Captain Avery did for a living and seeing a chance to begin redeeming himself, Robert used his experience as a slaver to get hired on Avery’s ship--then proceeded to betray the captain and free all the slaves. Captain Avery would like to see Robert dead for this.
• Garrulous (Minor) (50 Fathoms, p. 20): Your hero is particularly loose with his Booty. The cost for carousing is doubled.
• Heroic (Major): The hero never says no to a person in need.

Gear

• Bedroll
• Daggers, 2 (Damage: Str(d6)+1, Range: 3/6/12, RoF: 1)
• Flint and Steel
• Flintlock Pistols, 4 (Damage: 2d6+1, Range: 5/10/20, RoF: 1, Note: Two actions to reload)
• Kentucky Rifle (Damage: 2d8, Range: 15/30/60, RoF: 1, Armor Piercing 2, Note: 3 actions to reload)
• Leather Armor (+1 Armor)
• Long sword , Toledo (Damage: Str(1d6)+1d3+1)
• Normal Clothing
• Short sword (Damage: Str(d6)+1d2)
• Whetstone

Money: 155 pieces of eight

Character History

Robert Shay was born in Boston, Massachusetts on Earth in 1752 to a poor but industrious Quaker family. As a youth, he grew bitter and resentful that his family remained poor despite their hard work. Rather than apprentice to his father Richard, he struck out on his own, looking to make easy money. He figured that if the system was rigged against the industrious, why bother being industrious? And the slave trade seemed like an easy way to make money. His family was scandalized but couldn’t quite bring themselves to disown him. And others didn’t care, for many wealthy, respectable merchants were involved in the slave trade. Robert became an able sailor, but grew particularly skilled as a combatant, both from keeping slaves in order and fighting off attacks from pirates and England’s rival powers. He lived a rather carefree lifestyle, liberally spending his money on booze and women, when in port.

One day when he arrived in Boston and stopped into pay a visit to his family, he discovered that visiting them were a family of former slaves, whom his parents’ Quaker congregation had helped gain their freedom. Robert liked them well enough, but, not being the introspective sort, didn’t give much thought to the encounter. When he was back aboard his ship, making the voyage from Africa to the Thirteen Colonies, he found the experience coming back to him. The faces of the ex-slaves he had met in Boston haunted him, as he realized that they had been through an experience like the slaves on his ship now. Robert was shaken and unable to do his job well. He was fired when they reached port, but he didn’t care. He began drinking--hard. He was filled with self-loathing for the evil he now realized he had done. He continued to work as a sailor and a fighter, but avoided slave ships. His alcoholism made it difficult for him to hold down jobs.

And then a ship he was on passed through a storm to the new world of Caribdus. Robert took this as a sign that he could begin his life anew and he tried to remake himself as a hero, to try to do undo the evil deeds of his past. He still is a hard drinker and has frequent black moods, but his life is no longer dominated by the bottle and he has recovered some of his old out-going nature. He is certainly not a Quaker like his parents, for all he knows how to do well is fight, but he tries to use those skills to help those suffering from oppression and slavery.