The Order of the Tainted Blood is a brotherhood of lost souls. These blood hunters complete a dark ritual to gain the ability to utilize hemocraft magic. They typically recruit those who have nowhere left to turn.
These blood hunters imbue themselves with beast blood, take mutagens that will infect them with diseases, embrace curses, delve into necromancy, all sorts of forbidden arts just to better understand the tools in the employ of the enemy and then use them against them.
- Skill Proficiencies: History, Arcana
- Tool Proficiencies: One toolkit of your choice
- Languages: One of your choice
- Equipment: A set of common clothes, a black cloak with a hood, and a pouch containing 10 gp
Happy people aren’t selected to join the Order of the Tainted Blood. The Order finds talented individuals who have lost everything. They use that loss and fill that void with purpose. To destroy monstrosities.
| d6 | Loss |
|---|---|
| 1 | Orphan. A Blood Hunter saved you after a monster slaughtered your family. |
| 2 | Addict. Addicted to a substance and finally hit rock bottom, the Order recruited you when you had nothing left. |
| 3 | Captured. You were kidnapped and taken far away before being rescued and brought in by a member of the Order. |
| 4 | Starvation. A terrible blight afflicted your rural village, and many of your friends and family members starved to death. You survived, but only barely, and we're saved once a member of the Order slayed the monster causing it. |
| 5 | War Vet. You have lived through hell and back, and your government couldn't give a shit about you. The Order does. |
| 6 | Vicissitude. You were once a member of a wealthy family who lost their entire fortune in the blink of an eye. |
You have access to the Order of the Tainted Blood's shadow network, which allows you to communicate with other members of the order over long distances. If you write a letter in a special arcane ink, address it to a member of the Order, sign it with your own blood, and cast it into a fire, the letter will burn to cinders and materialize whole again on the person of the Hunter you addressed it to.
The ink used to send a letter across the shadow network is the same as that used by a wizard to scribe spells in a spellbook. Writing a letter in this ink costs 10 gp per page.
Suggested Characteristics
Agents of the Volstrucker are groomed to follow orders without question and to kill without mercy. The trauma and loss that brings one into the order can fester even more strongly against the darkness of a hunter’s assignments. Officially, no one ever leaves the order—traitors and weaklings are dealt within the Order's circle, or they are hunted down like any other monster. After all, once you join the Order, you become the monster you seek to destroy.
| d6 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I prefer to keep my thoughts to myself. |
| 2 | I indulge vice in excess to quiet my conscience. |
| 3 | I don't run from evil. Evil runs from me. |
| 4 | Some event from the past keeps worming its way into my mind, making me restless. |
| 5 | I always keep my word—except when I’m commanded to break it. |
| 6 | I laugh off insults and never take them personally. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Order. The will of the Order is absolute. (Law) |
| 2 | True Loyalty. The Order is greater than any power, even the crown. (Law) |
| 3 | Death. The penalty for disloyalty is death. (Evil) |
| 4 | Determination. I cannot fail. Not ever. (Neutral) |
| 5 | Fear. People should not respect power. They should fear it. (Evil) |
| 6 | Escape. The Order has made me do horrific things! I can’t atone for what I’ve done for them, but I can escape with my life. (Any) |
| d4 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | The job is all that matters. I will see it through. |
| 2 | My orders are important, but my comrades are worth more than anything. I would die for them. |
| 3 | Everything I’ve done, I’ve done to protect someone close to me. |
| 4 | If the Order falls, all of civilization falls with it. I will fight monsters of this world until I die. |
| d4 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I drink to dull the pain in the back of my head. |
| 2 | I go a bit mad when I see blood. |
| 3 | I can hear the voices of everyone I’ve killed. I see their faces. I can’t be free of these ghosts. |
| 4 | Fear is a powerful motivator. I will do whatever it takes to prevent those who know what I am from seeing me fail, and from those I care about from knowing what I am. |