You have spent considerable time alone in the wilderness, stalking prey and using what is available to stay alive. The clergy of Fenmarel Mestarine, the Lone Wolf, expanded your skillset to help you hunt more dangerous game: the kind that builds societies.
- Skill Proficiencies: Survival and one of the following: Athletics, Deception, or Stealth.
- Tool Proficiencies: Select one tool you used to survive in remote places: carpenter's tools, cook's utensils, herbalism kit, poisoner's kit, or woodcarver's tools.
And select one tool Fenmarel's clergy trained you to use against people: disguise kit, forgery kit, poisoner's kit, or thieves' tools. - Equipment: A forged document establishing a fake identity or granting safe passage (work with your DM on the identity or the place of passage), a set of dark green-and-brown traveler's clothes, and a belt pouch containing 7 gp and some small animal bones.
You also have one of the following sets of tools of survival (your choice), with containers:
- carpenter's tools and whetstone
- cook's utensils, whetstone, hunting trap, and fishing tackle
- herbalism kit and shovel
- hunting trap and crowbar
- woodcarver's tools, whetstone, hunting trap, and fur blanket
What made you a lone wolf
Most people make their peace with being part of the world: they seek friendship, love, and belonging, whether for those relationships' intrinsic value or because they're so instrumental to obtaining many other things.
Something made you different. Was it a transformative experience, a cluster of habits picked up over a long time, or something innate?
| d8 | What made you a lone wolf |
|---|---|
| 1 | You experienced or closely witnessed profound betrayal, shattering your capacity to trust in anyone. Once bitten hard enough, forever shy. |
| 2 | You once favored a moderate balance as the Harpers do, or you didn't care much about distant conflicts. Then something deeply outraged you; perhaps the patch of wilderness you called home was invasively spoiled. Instead of moving on, you were radicalized. |
| 3 | Your solitude developed through habit. Early on, you relied on yourself because you wouldn't or couldn't rely on others; and as you learned how to provide for yourself, you didn't learn to value other people, so your social skills remained underdeveloped. |
| 4 | You were cast out from society or firmly separated from it by disaster, and you had to carve a life out of the natural poverty of isolation. It turns out you had the grit, knack, or spite to make the most of it. |
| 5 | You have always been an ornery soul. You insisted on doing things your way even when the customary method was perfectly adequate, because for you contrariness and exploration are instinctual. You neglect relationships for the same reason. |
| 6 | You discovered you had an exceptional talent, to which your self-esteem naturally became attached. You developed a superiority complex that repelled people—and you tried to compensate by training harder to develop this talent that makes you special. |
| 7 | You have tasted abject subjugation, and you refuse to suffer anything like it again. The slightest restriction reminds you of your fetters. You abhor the slave mentality, and you find it everywhere. |
| 8 | You came of age in a culture, subculture, or family that relentlessly infixed the virtues of independence and suspicion of authority, and you're a true believer. |
Feature: Fenmarel's Clergy
Via wild elves, rangers, and various disreputable types of people, you know how to get in contact with members of Fenmarel Mestarine's clergy. They will not come to your direct aid, but they will provide you with discreet training relevant to deception, spying, poisoning, guerrilla tactics, and surviving on your own, and they will connect you to black-market goods and services related to these purposes.
Suggested Characteristics
Because followers of the elven deity Fenmarel Mestarine have a penchant for conscious dissimulation, to be long acquainted with them is no guarantee of knowing their true personalities. To the extent that people can identify them, Fenmarel's disciples have a reputation for being isolated, paranoid, and cynical, but they would say they're more self-sufficient and realistic, especially about non-elven folk. They are overwhelmingly suspicious of authority and order, but those tendencies are rooted in different values, temperaments, and personal histories.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I am fiercely jealous of my independence in every aspect of my life. It's more than a lifestyle or a principle: it's a reflex. |
| 2 | I practice stealth and deceit not only for tactical advantage, but also for comfort. The more exposed I am, the more agitated I feel, and the more frantically I seek cover. |
| 3 | Having lived in the wild, I chafe at everything about civilization: the disease-ridden masses of people and livestock, the inescapable odors, the cloying food, the cramped closeness of walls and ceilings and locked portals, the inelegance of imposed order. |
| 4 | I take obvious pride in my ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome. Unlike so many people, I don't depend on a brittle social order for my needs and desires. |
| 5 | Seeing people languish in helplessness or subordination irks me. I exhort them to be more self-reliant, and I pick fights with those who lord over them. |
| 6 | I sense catastrophe lurking around every bend. Mighty empires and the best-laid plans can fall apart in no time, broken by unstoppable natural forces, unseen flaws, misplaced trust, or hubris. When bad things happen, I'm the one who told you so. |
| 7 | The more altruistic someone appears, the more suspicious I get. Selflessness is the favorite disguise for every urge to control. |
| 8 | I don't care for frivolity and fun, but I find it convenient to pretend like I do so I can catch people with their guard down. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Anarchy. When one is governed by others, one doesn't learn how to responsibly govern oneself. A society filled with such people courts disaster. (Chaotic) |
| 2 | Return to Wilderness. Non-elven civilization is a threat to the wilds and should be pared back or abolished. (Chaotic) |
| 3 | Self-Sufficiency. One must be capable of independently handling anything that life can throw one's way. Specialization is for hive insects. (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Survival of the Fittest. The natural world is not merely indifferent, it's brutal. Every living thing exists at the expense of another. So claw for what you can get and don't pity those who can't hack it. (Evil) |
| 5 | Path Forger's Fellowship. One has a duty to help outcasts, scapegoats, and others to make their own way in a hostile world. (Good) |
| 6 | Adaptation. Nature requires us to run as fast as we can just to avoid falling behind. One must be willing and able to change anything and shed any encumbrance, even when it hurts, to meet every new challenge. (Neutral) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I cannot sleep soundly until I have vengeance for a stinging betrayal. |
| 2 | Lawful forces are naturally sclerotic and corrupt, and the few among them with conviction are hamstrung by their exposure, attachments, and codes of conduct. I am able and willing to do the things they won't. |
| 3 | I will reclaim my home and make an example of those who sullied it. |
| 4 | I feel a bone-deep gratitude to those who trained me and gave me purpose. I can't turn my back on them. |
| 5 | Though I am cautioned to do my deeds in secrecy, I have a deep-seated drive to vindicate myself in the eyes of those who doubted me. Or perhaps the stone that the builders rejected will shatter their windows. |
| 6 | I tell people I fight for a cause or out of loyalty, but the truth is I do it mostly because I enjoy it, I'm good at it, and I don't know what else I could do that would be meaningful or important. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | When it comes to making my enemies pay, I'm so bitter that I'm easy to goad, I take hasty risks, and I turn cruel. In sober hindsight I have regrets, but in the moment I can't listen to reason. |
| 2 | My pride in my skills and self-sufficiency shades into vanity: I'm condescending, and I go to lengths to avoid seeking help. |
| 3 | Social graces atrophy in seclusion. I can't stop causing offense at every turn, and I fall for the simplest of conversational traps. |
| 4 | My presumptions of bad faith poison my interactions, but I can't help what I see: people's real motives are rarely what they claim; they deceive even themselves. Elves are bad enough about it, but everyone else is worse. |
| 5 | I don't know how to love or be loved, because anyone who knew the real me would reject me. I'm reluctant to make even trivial promises, so my relationships—of all kinds—are superficial and fleeting, but when I do give my word, I never break it. |
| 6 | I sense scheming and treachery everywhere: I don't believe in coincidences, and where others see misfortune I suspect malice. I spy on the few allies I have, and I lose sleep and money planning for unlikely contingencies. |
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