Fringe was my first character for a Shadow of the Demon Lord game and I really tried to embrace the awesome world (and RPG) that Robert Schwalb has created–I think she’s a perfect fit for Urth and was definitely the “wildcard” element of the group in Jared Rascher’s “What Do I Know About Actual Play” Actual Play Campaign.

I rolled randomly for character creation and she began as an amnesiac changeling so I decided that she was going to be REALLY insane. REALLY REALLY TRULY INSANE. At first I wasn’t sure what to do with her and kept her mostly as the typical shapeshifting rogue with a streak for acting madly–babbling in Dark Speech, doing things without explanation that confused her companions, gathering up strange objects for no apparent reason–until the first Baba Yaga hut. The instant Fringe saw that shack bobbing around on chicken legs she instinctively knew her path was to be trod upon while mounted on a creature with clawed avian feet, taking upon a true obsession with acquiring one of her own. Despite 20% of her character being about shapeshifting, she held onto the form of one of those lucky witches for 3 years in campaign time. Eventually she grew tired of not being able to find and trick one, trying instead to force a baba yaga hut into existence (killing many many chickens in the process) before crafting a sort of hound-dragged dogsled with a doghouse on it, its rails greased by bags of fat.

Near the end game she finally got her wish, taking a level of engineer to conjure a smaller version. This is where Fringe REALLY found her groove and took on a super duper Cronenberg-vibe–she has artificer as a path, but beside the gears and such she’s got looping intestines and other freakish fleshy monstrosities. At the very end of the campaign she was rolling around in a proper sized flesh-monstrosity Baba Yaga hut mech (the power armor spell; think Tron Bonne + Baba Yaga hut + Cronenberg) beside her smaller (eidolon) flesh-hut construct.

It was at the beginning of that inspiration that she devised Cluck the Chicken God (he that is both the Chicken and the Egg) and her madness really did take off. By the end she was a master of fleshcraft, wily beyond measure, and a force of entropy–she lugged the damaged spacecraft (which she flew into the BBEG troll lord after killing its owner and firing the phasers on him a few times in the encounter at the climax of the campaign) to a coven of witches that tried to make her their lackey. They have become her first recruits in a space pirate witch gang and god help whatever she runs into out there in The Void!

❤ I love you Fringe. You may return someday. ❤

PS: I have the privilege of being the first person to have a licensed setting converted to Shadow of the Demon Lord! If you are interested in eastern fantasy noir steampunk, check out Mists of Akuma (40 page preview!) 😀

Fringe, her hounds, and these other people she traveled with beautifully drawn by fellow party member @DungeonMusings.

*Matías Nicolás Caruso pointed out on the Facebook that we were doing multiclassing incorrectly–RAW you may only have 3 Paths tops. 1 Novice and either 1 Expert and 1 Master or 2 Experts.

FRINGE, Ringmaster of the Meat Circus Level 10*

Size 1 female changeling 0/4, rogue 1/2/5/8, thief 3, artificer 6 (3), engineer 7, psychic 9 (3), technomancer 10 (7)

Perception 17 (+7); shadowsight (areas obscured by shadows are as if they are lit)

Defense 18 (soft leather + shield); Health 40 (healing rate 10)

Strength 10 (+0), Agility 16 (+6), Intellect 16 (+6), Will 12 (+2)

Speed 10

Damage 0, Insanity 8, Corruption 4

Professions Academic (engineering, science), Criminal (grave robber, spy), Wilderness (tracker); Languages Common, Dark Speech

Artificer’s Bag You have a bag filled with spare parts you use to create equipment you need. You measure the number of parts in gold crowns, though the parts are worthless to anyone other than you or another artificer. The gc value of these spare parts is equal to twice your group level (7/20 gc + 97/100 gc = 16 gc left). You can use an action to begin assembling parts from your bag into a suit of armor, a weapon, ammunition, or an engineering item by spending parts from the bag with a value equal to the item’s price. It takes 1 minute to create the object, during which time you must concentrate and use a tool kit. At the end of this time, you have a finished piece of equipment that remains until you complete a rest, at which point it collapses into spare parts once more. When you complete a rest, you replenish the parts in your Artificer’s Bag, up to your normal maximum value in gc. If you lose your Artificer’s Bag, you can create a replacement. It costs a number of gold crowns equal to your group’s level. You can have only one Artificer’s Bag at a time.

Dirty Tricks Your attacks deal 1d6 extra damage when you make an attack roll with 1 boon.

Doppelganger’s Advantage You can use a triggered action on your turn to use Steal Identity. As well, when you steal a creature’s identity, your attack rolls against that creature are made with 1 boon while you have that creature’s appearance.

Eidolon (chicken hut) You create a construct that has a humanoid shape but can otherwise have any appearance you choose. The eidolon is 12 feet tall and weighs 2,000 pounds. You can have only one eidolon at a time. If your eidolon is destroyed, you can build a new one to replace it. Doing so requires you to work at least eight hours using parts you create or harvested from your old eidolon. At the end of this time, you have a new eidolon. The eidolon is not alive. It is never affected by deprivation or exposure, and it ignores any effect that would age it. When incapacitated, the eidolon ceases to be a creature and becomes an object. The eidolon is under your control. You decide what it does on each of its turns. The eidolon’s statistics appear after Fringe’s magic.

Exploit Opportunity Once per round, when the total of your attack roll is 20 or higher and exceeds the target number by at least 5, you can take another turn at any point before the end of the round.

Invention (2) When you cast a Technomancy spell, you also create a device you can hold in one hand that’s imbued with magical power that lasts until you expend it or until you complete a rest. When you make an attack roll or a challenge roll, you can expend the power from the device to make the roll with 1 boon.

Quick Reflexes You can use a triggered action on your turn to hide or retreat.

Psychic Defense When a creature makes an attack roll against your Intellect, Will, or Perception, you can spend 1 point of psychic energy to impose 2 banes on the roll. When you make an Intellect, Will, or Perception challenge roll to resist an attack, you can spend 1 point of psychic energy to make the roll with 1 boon.

Psychic Power (spent 2/6 points) You have a reservoir of psychic energy that is measured in a number of points equal to 2 + your Power (4). Spend these points to use talents you gain from this path. You regain all expended psychic energy points when you complete a rest.

Psychic Spell You can make any other tradition you have discovered a psychic tradition (see chapter 4). Whenever you cast a spell from a psychic tradition, you can spend points of psychic energy equal to the spell’s rank (minimum 1) to cast the spell without needing to expend a casting.

Roguery Trick: Magic Increase your Power by 1 and discover one tradition (technomancy). Then learn two spells for each.

Roguery Trick: Subterfuge You can use an action to make an Intellect attack roll against the Intellect of one creature within short range that can hear you and understand what you say. On a success, the target becomes charmed for 1 round or until it you attack it. On a failure, the target becomes immune to your Subterfuge until it completes a rest.

Steal Identity You can use an action to alter your appearance to match that of a target living creature you can see within short range. The target must be Size 1 or ½ and have a humanoid shape of flesh and blood. Your body changes so you look like the target, though your clothing and possessions remain unchanged. The effect lasts until you use this talent again. If you become incapacitated or touch an object made from iron, you immediately revert to your normal appearance.

Thief Talent: Hide in Shadows You can attempt to hide when you are in an area at least partially obscured by shadows, even if you are being observed.

Thief Talent: Pick Pockets You can use a triggered action to steal an item you can hold in one hand from a creature within your reach without the creature’s knowledge.

Trickery & Rogue Cunning Twice per round, you can make an attack roll or challenge roll with 1 boon. If you attack with 1 boon from this talent, your attack deals 1d6 extra damage.

ATTACK OPTIONS

Dagger (melee; short range) +6 (1d3 damage)

Rapier (melee) +6 (1d6+1 damage)

Small Shield (melee) +0 (1 damage)

Pistols (2; 56 bullets) (medium range) +6 (2d6 damage) [misfire, reload, uses bullets]

Hand Crossbow (7 bolts; 1 of which are poisoned) (short range) +6 (1d6 damage)

Sling (20 stones) (medium range) +6 (1d3 damage)

MAGIC

Power 4 (zero/five 0th, one/two 1st, zero/two 2nd, zero/one 3rd, one/one 4th)

Forbidden Tradition

harm (0), black tongue (0), obedience (1), hateful defecation (1), part bone from flesh (3), soul exchange (4)

BLACK TONGUE FORBIDDEN UTILITY 0

Duration 1 minute

For the duration, you make Intellect and Will attack rolls with 2 boons against demons, devils, spirits, and undead.

HARM FORBIDDEN ATTACK 0

Target One creature you can see within short range

Invisible barbs tear at the target’s body. Make an Intellect attack roll with 1 boon against its Strength. On a success, the target takes a –5 penalty to Health for 1 minute.

Attack Roll 20+ The penalty to Health is –10 instead.

HATEFUL DEFECATION FORBIDDEN ATTACK 1

Target One living creature with a physical body within medium range

The target’s guts twist and rumble noisily. If the target’s Health is 10 or less, it dies instantly, streams of blood and feces gushing from all of its orifices. If its Health is higher than 10, make an Intellect attack roll with 1 boon against the target’s Strength. On a success, the target takes 1d6 + 2 damage and becomes dazed for 1 round, as its guts violently and spectacularly expel their contents. If this damage incapacitates the target, excrement, organs, and blood explode from its body, which instantly brings about its death. Each creature within 2 yards of a point in the target’s space must make a Will challenge roll; on a failure, it becomes impaired for 1 round.

Attack Roll 20+ The target takes 1d6 extra damage.

OBEDIENCE FORBIDDEN ATTACK 1

Target One living creature within short range

You hook the target’s soul. Make an Intellect attack roll with 1 boon against its Will. On a success, for the next 1 minute, the target must choose at the end of each round whether to take 1d6 damage or to become compelled for 1 round.

PART BONE FROM FLESH FORBIDDEN ATTACK 3

Target One creature that has bones in its body within medium range

The target’s bones shift under its skin. Make an Intellect attack roll with 1 boon against its Strength. On a success, the target takes 6d6 damage. If the target becomes incapacitated by this damage, it dies instantly; its bones tear free from the flesh to become an animated corpse of the target’s Size that occupies its former space. The animated corpse attacks the creature nearest to it each round, choosing its target randomly if presented with multiple targets.

Attack Roll 20+ The target takes 2d6 extra damage.

SOUL EXCHANGE FORBIDDEN ATTACK 4

Target Two living mortal creatures within medium range

You grasp the targets’ souls. Make an Intellect attack roll against each target’s Will. On a success, the target becomes dazed for 1 minute.

Attack Roll 20+ The target also becomes stunned while it is dazed this way.

Special If you get a success against both targets, their souls permanently swap bodies. Each target gains 1d6 Insanity. Each soul brings the following to its new body, but otherwise uses the new body’s attributes, characteristics, and abilities:

All languages and professions

Intellect and Will scores (recalculate Perception if necessary)

Insanity and Corruption scores

All talents

All traditions it has discovered and all spells it knows

Technomancy Tradition (PSYCHIC)

jury rig (0), bolt thrower (1), grenades (2), powered suit (4)

JURY-RIG TECHNOMANCY UTILITY 0

Target One Size 2 or smaller object that has 1 or more damage, but is not destroyed, that you can reach. You touch the target, removing 1d6 damage from it.

BOLT THROWER TECHNOMANCY ATTACK 1

Area A cube, 1 yard on a side, originating from a point you can reach and resting on a solid surface

Duration 1 minute

You create a Size 1 crossbow turret in the area. The turret has Defense 5 and Health equal to your Intellect score. It lasts for the duration or until destroyed. At the end of each round, the turret fires at one target creature or object within long range. Make an Intellect attack roll against the target’s Defense. On a success, the target takes 2d6 damage.

Attack Roll 20+ The target takes 1d6 extra damage.

GRENADES TECHNOMANCY ATTACK 2

Target Up to three points within short range

You throw three grenades, dividing them as you choose among the targets. When a grenade reaches its target, or if it encounters a solid creature or object before then, it explodes. The explosion deals 1d6 + 1 damage from fire to everything in a sphere with a 1-yard radius centered on the target or a point within the creature’s or object’s space. Each creature in the area that gets a success on an Agility challenge roll takes half the damage.

POWERED SUIT TECHNOMANCY UTILITY 4

Area A cube, 3 yards on a side, originating from a point you can reach

Duration Until you complete a rest; see the effect

You concentrate for 1 hour, during which time you construct a powered battle suit, a huge construct, in the area. The construct remains for the duration or until incapacitated. It cannot use actions or move independently; you must move into its cockpit to control it. While inside, you treat the construct’s Defense and Health scores as your own, move at its Speed, and can use its attack options and actions in place of your own.

EIDOLON CHICKEN HUT

Size 2 construct (equipped with spider-legs aka climber’s kit)

Perception 10 (+0); darksight

Defense 16 (Vigdis’ scale armor from artificer bag); Health 50 ← 5 damage

Strength 16 (+6), Agility 8 (–2), Intellect 5 (–5), Will 11 (+1)

Speed 6

Immune damage from disease and poison; gaining Insanity; asleep, charmed, diseased, fatigued, frightened, poisoned

ATTACK OPTIONS

Appendage (melee) +6 (2d6)

Stone and slingshot (medium range) -2 (1d6)

Avatar of Cluck Bomber (10) and slingshot (medium range) -2 (At the end of the round, the bomb explodes in a 5-yard radius, dealing 3d6 + 3 damage to everything in the area. However, a creature that gets a success on an Agility challenge roll takes half the damage instead. Bombs can explode if mishandled. If an explosive device takes 10 or more damage or a creature handling the device takes damage equal to its Health, the bomb explodes.)

Poopootov Bombs (6) and slingshot (medium range) -2 (3d6+3 damage to everything within 5 yards. Agility challenge roll for half damage (bomb takes 10 damage or creature holding takes damage equal to health causes bomb to explode)

Spare Parts You can use an action to touch one construct (such as your eidolon) or an object you can reach. If you maintain contact with the target and concentrate for 1 minute, make an Intellect challenge roll. On a success, the target heals 2d6 damage. On a failure, you cannot use this talent again until after you complete a rest.

CHICKEN HUT POWERED SUIT (HUGE CONSTRUCT)

Size 3 or larger construct

Perception 5 (–5); darksight

Defense 13; Health 100

Strength 17 (+7), Agility 7 (–3), Intellect 5 (–5), Will 11 (+1)

Speed 8

Immune damage from disease or poison; gaining Insanity; asleep, charmed, diseased, fatigued, frightened, poisoned

ATTACK OPTIONS

Appendage (melee) +7 (3d6)

SPECIAL ATTACKS

Double Attack The construct attacks twice with its appendage.

EQUIPMENT

Backpack, a waterskin, a tinderbox, 2 torches, 2 vials of poison, 5 potions of healing, and a pouch containing 30gc, 0ss, 1 cp, cultist robe and mask, fine gloves, lock picks, manacles, inquisitor’s robes, horse, keys to Holdfast church, chain, coin of surface layer invisibility, tiny glass cage that grants complete silence within 1 yard, demonic rock (Will +1), necromancer’s implements (+1 boon to forbidden spellcasting), necromancer’s spellbook, bone arrow of the fey lord (+8d6 damage, Str roll for half)

AVATARS OF CLUCK

SMALL CONSTRUCT DIFFICULTY 5 (16 each fitted with a bomb and timer)

Size ½ smaller construct (four) and Size ¼ smaller construct (six)

Perception 5 (–5); darksight

Defense 13; Health 8

Strength 13 (+3), Agility 11 (+1), Intellect 5 (–5), Will 11 (+1)

Speed 10

Immune damage from disease or poison; gaining Insanity; asleep, charmed, diseased, fatigued, frightened, poisoned

ATTACK OPTIONS

Appendage (melee) +3 (1d6)

Bomb You can use an action to light the fuse and throw a bomb out to medium range. At the end of the round, the bomb explodes in a 5-yard radius, dealing 3d6 + 3 damage to everything in the area. However, a creature that gets a success on an Agility challenge roll takes half the damage instead. Bombs can explode if mishandled. If an explosive device takes 10 or more damage or a creature handling the device takes damage equal to its Health, the bomb explodes.

ANCESTRY INFORMATION

TRUE AGE 22 years old APPARENT ANCESTRY Human APPARENT BUILD Short

APPARENT APPEARANCE Most consider you homely: not quite ugly, but a bit worse than plain.

BACKGROUND You worked as an informant for the Inquisition.

QUIRK Animals become nervous around you.

PERSONALITY You take on other forms for profit, usually to gain access to places normally forbidden to you. You are Dutiful, Imaginative, Malicious, and Slovenly.

ANCESTRY: Changeling

Faerie create changelings to conceal the absence of children they steal. They construct a changeling from natural materials and use magic to give it the appearance of the missing child. The magic often fades after a few weeks, but sometimes it lingers and lets the changeling grow up to become a real person.

Many Masks: Changelings can use their magical natures to adopt the forms of anyone they see. They assume different forms to conceal their true nature, forms that most deem hideous and unsettling. When stripped of their disguises, changelings look like humanoids formed from dirt, sticks, and rocks, with glowing green eyes set in otherwise featureless faces. Changelings in their natural forms stand 5 feet tall and weigh 90 pounds.

Changeable Identities: Constantly changing identities mimic the attitudes and outlooks of the people around them, having no particular views themselves or, if they have them, burying them so deep they cannot remember who they started out being or what they hope to become.