The White Sea
Captain Fraklin "Frank" Ross
Captain
Once the favoured protege of the great Admiral Hagar, after his death Frank Ross found himself adrift in the halls of the admiralty of Saxa. As it turned out, the other captains and nobles of the admiralty never agreed with Hagar’s assessment and always thought Frank was a hopeless sailor - a commoner lifted up to captain as some sort of joke or folly of an old man.
A run in with the law after an ill-fated journey to a Spiritualist’s den further pushed Captain Frank into the shadows, where he would have remained, pickled in gin: until the charitable Captain John Hull came with an offer to lead his second ship on a special voyage.
Frank is well aware this might be his last chance to recover his name and prove his old benefactor right.
Fitness: 4
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 6
Traits
Command Authority: Everyone is obliged to follow your orders.
Frank Chat: You are good at winning people over 1-to-1. +10 for speech checks 1-1 and +5 for speech checks on groups up to 3 people.
Spirits for Spirits: You drink to forget: and to resist the spooks. While drunk, advantage on spooky rolls.
Out of your depth: Fact is, you don’t really know what you’re doing. -5 to any skill rolls (except speech).
Special Skills
Navigation, cartography, watercraft, sabres, climbing, alcohol, spooky
Major Grace McClaren
Marines Captain
Born into a noble family, raised as a Cavalotto Bohrist, and finally entered into the Saxan army as a resplendent Estate Cavalry knight, Grace had an easy life ahead of her.
But instead, her path forever changed when during a formal parade she asked where the Royal Highlander regiments were. “They’re out there”, someone said, “fighting”. Suddenly her armour and horsemanship and fencing meant nothing.
She quit the Estate Cavalry and spent years in the Royal Highlanders, before taking those skills to sea as a Marines Captain. She is now one of the most decorated and well trained soldiers in the entire Saxan military, and the expectations on her drive her to almost suicidal efforts.
Fitness: 9
Charisma: 3
Intelligence: 4
Traits
Marines Discipline: Marines are obliged to follow your orders.
Highlander grit: You’re tougher than most and have +10 to all rolls that would otherwise inflict physical damage.
The Watch: You can skip sleeping at the cost of -2 fitness the next day (stacks).
Pyromaniac: Fire is just so pretty.
Special Skills
Weapons, explosives, signals, survivalism, hunting, animals, court etiquette
Chris “Chip” Chimchuck
Ice-Master
If it floats, chances are Chip has sailed on it. For over 6 decades Chip has been at sea. He was born on a seastead during the waning of the Gloom and from there drifted to the flotsam city of Beacon as a man. Once a fisher, then a trawler, once a merchantman and once a pirate.
Chip remembers storms the likes of which would petrify a gentleman with terror, and monsters of the deep the scales of which would put the mightiest airship to shame. Now he is hired as an iceman for Saxa - and what a boon for them, for there is no finer iceman alive and none who knows the leads or the rime greater than he.
Fitness: 3
Charisma: 8
Intelligence: 5
Traits
Legend of the Seas: The crew trusts you more than any other on board. The officers and marines resent your unofficial authority.
Meteorological bones: A lifetime staring at the seas and skies has sunk in to your bones, and you can tell when and how the weather is changing.
Eagle eyes: You can see further, and better, than most.
Pegleg: ½ carry weight, slow walk speed, can’t climb.
Special Skills
Navigation, watercraft, sea shanties, meteorology, cartography, fishing
Percival Dag Klonwick Jaspar Hirschwald Piquemont Rustifer II
Astronomer Ducal
Young and with a head full of dreams and exam notes from last year’s cram sessions, the esteemed Mr Rustifer II has the unusual honour of being Saxa’s youngest ever Astronomer Ducal. Not that the competition was fierce, for no one was really sure what the role even really entailed - but Rustifer has a burning passion for the stars, and he lobbied for the role (and got it) and then lobbied again for an expedition to record a rare transit of Sinter.
Now he is the only one on board who really knows what they’re even doing in the frozen south, and a possible scapegoat should things go wrong…
Fitness: 4
Charisma: 4
Intelligence: 8
Traits
Ducal Passenger: Sailors and marines resent a landlubber being on board. The officers don’t mind.
Studious Preparation: You spent a year studying anything that might be useful for the voyage. You can roll to remember any skill or knowledge you might have studied.
Sketcher: You can quickly sketch scenes or make expressive illustrations with more time.
Astral wanderings: The stars hold special meaning for you.
Special Skills
Astronomy, cartography, science, history, lore, pistols, sabres, biology, basic medicine
Miranda Stoneslaw
Master Surgeon
Miranda sort of fell into medicine. A strange incident at a military triage station led to her fumbling her way into becoming an assistant surgeon for the Saxan Army, and then some misfiled paperwork led from there to the Marines - as a proper surgeon.
She didn’t mind though, no one asked about her background or assumed she was anything other than a good Saxan citizen and a kind doctor. An accident involving an improperly stowed anchor smashed her face and led to her quitting the Marines; but she stayed on the seas - working as a surgeon suited her, for reasons only she knew.
Fitness: 6
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 4
Traits
Egalitarian: You treat all as equal for care, which impresses the crew but bothers the marines.
Cold heart: Your heart beats slow and constant, and ice flows in your veins. You resist fear, freezing, and thermal shock, and can hold your breath longer than most.
Facial repair: Your face has been repaired after horrific damage. Your have no sense of smell, poor eyesight, and disadvantage on all facial charisma rolls.
Morbid curiosity: You just can’t resist performing autopsies, or examining murder scenes, or collecting skulls…
Special Skills
Medicine, surgery, chemistry, anatomy, biology, carpentry, forensics, the fiddle
Thogan Moorman
Boatswain
A businessman and engineer, Thogan spent his youth working oilfields in the Great Empty Desert. Eventually taking over the business, he tried expanding into mining, but intense raiding of his mines by bandits eventually drove him bankrupt and the entire company collapsed. Shamed and derelict, he drifted for a time, visiting towns and helping out with construction and odd engineering jobs as they came by.
Eventually these jobs led him aboard a ship as a carpenter’s mate. Within a few years he was a respected Boatswain.
He is especially known for driving his crews hard, a tactic he picked up in the Great Empty Desert - where delays meant deaths.
Fitness: 8
Charisma: 2
Intelligence: 6
Traits
Taskmaster: The crew resents how hard you push them.
Third wind: You can Shore Up one person (including yourself) per day, who will get 2x fitness (up to 10) for rolls that day.
Vigilant: You can’t be snuck up on and can spot movement.
Further and further: Even with impossible odds, you always, always demand to go on!
Special Skills
Craftsmanship, construction, cooking, engineering, physics, discipline, carving