"If they're so tough, why haven't they killed me yet?"
-Trooper Praxia Ingot, 3650-3673, before taking courageous rear guard action during the retreat at Knobbled Pass (3673).

The Vanguard are the most celebrated members in the entirety of the army, and, not coincidentally, the shortest-lived.  You serve aboard a combat unit, completing a crew who have no choice but to trust you with their lives.  Only the Vanguard are trained to directly combat demons, and you have a wide range of martial responses for foes that walk, fly, climb, slither, scuttle, or, in rare cases, pour, out of the Abyss.  Your crew know that you would fight to the death to protect them, and that, someday, you will.  

You have likely served as a shock trooper, descending in harness to secure a strategic position while your navigator belays you from your ship above.  If your career has been successful, you might have developed a speciality-- e.g., piton-setting, or humanoid combat, or nest-busting-- and been transferred to an elite unit.  Most Vanguard revel in the risks of their trade, knowing that dying in combat guarantees them a favored position Below.  A Vanguard may avoid death, but what they fear, most of all, is to be transferred toward the Hub, and spend their days in relative safety.  

Discuss your military record with your Dungeon Master.  What kind of demons do you specialize in dispatching?  How long have you been aboard your current ship?  When did you run from a fight, and what did it cost your crew?

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Acrobatics, Perception

Equipment: A climbing harness, a weapon satchel, and a flare gun

Suggested Characteristics

None.