The Guide (SNS)

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: Martia cursed as she pulled her leg from the depths of a leaf-covered bog. The muck sucked at her limb as she hauled it free from the deadly slop. Many a traveler had disappeared into such a pool of quicksand, never to be heard from again.
: As she found firmer ground, Martia took stock of herself. She was covered in smelly slime and caked dirt. Even the links of her chain mail were full of the noxious stuff. She was not having a good day.
: After his defeat at the castle, the evil necromancer had retreated to his legendary keep. Bloodlust still clouding her reason, Martia had doggedly pursued the death mage directly into the marshland that surrounded his sanctum.
: At Wendat's request-nay, demand-she had stopped in a city along the marsh's edge to hire herself a guide who would see her safely through the deadly mire. In her haste, she had struck a deal with the first applicant, a wizened creature by the name of Prada.
﻿
: Prada was an ancient halfling, an old outdoorswoman whose wanderlust had carried her halfway across the continent and back. She had grown up near the marshlands, she told Martia, and she knew them like the back of her hand. Prada was eager to see anyone who could take a poke at Cardax, and the unlikely pair took off into the marsh early the next morning.
: Martia heard a curse behind her. "How many times must I tell you: follow my footsteps exactly. This place is more dangerous than you know." The halfling's tone was that of schoolmarm scolding a child caught cheating.
: Struggling to her feet, Martia whirled about and found herself belt to eyeball with her diminutive guide. "Do not speak to me that way, halfling. I am paying you to get me to Cardax's home, not to drown me in unending muck!"
: The halfling's nostrils flared widely. "My most sincere apologies, Madam Martia," the sarcasm dripped from her tongue. "If I had known that you were planning a pleasure cruise, I'd have been more careful. It is absolutely beyond me how one such as you could have killed Drahlix and driven Cardax from his throne. I would have thought such deeds required a spot of courage and a brain larger than that of a besotted troglodyte!"
: For a moment, Martia was taken aback by the halfling's full-sized fury. Before she could respond, a geyser spouted from the marsh beside her, spraying mud and decaying plants thirty yards into the air. Martia wiped the muck from her eyes and swore heartily. Her language took an even darker turn as she saw the creature rising up before her.
: It took her a moment to recognize it out of its normal context: the bulbous head covered with a chitinous layer of filth, the great dinner-plate eyes glaring with some animal approximation of mortal fury, the eight thick, long tentacles snaking out of the inky depths of the dirt. It was a giant, mud- dwelling octopus.
: One of the creature's tentacles had already wrapped itself around Prada's tiny frame. The halfling was stabbing at the slimy flesh with her knife, but it was having little effect. Martia rushed forward, swinging the Blade of Honesty in a wide arc. The flashing blade struck true, severing the mighty tentacle cleanly in half.
: The smell clued Martia in to the fact at which she had previously only guessed. The foul stench of the grave sprang forth from the stream of greenish ichor that spouted out of the tentacle's stump. The eight- (now seven-) armed thing attacking without any kind of warning was undead-some kind of zombie parody of the original creature.
: Cardax was no doubt behind the ambush. Steeling herself, Martia leapt for the creature's head as it began to retreat back into the muck. As she did, she felt Prada's lasso encircle her leg.
: This was going to be fun.
: * * *
Sooner or later, any adventurer worthy of the name is going to travel someplace that he has never been before. After all, a large part of being a hero involves venturing into unknown lands. Smart travelers always make sure they have one of two things: a good map, or a good guide. The best travelers use both.
A guide is rarely out of date, doesn't fall apart when wet, and is a lot harder to lose. In addition, a guide acts as an interpreter, working as a liaison between the adventuring party and any indigenous peoples they may stumble across while traveling.
A good guide is worth his weight in gold. A bad one can cost even the most alert adventurer his life. It's important for a hero to find the right person, someone he can trust. Guides are only good in one locale, but they are familiar with everything in that area. Good guides not only take you from one side of their homeland to another, they also rattle off important facts about an area and relate the region's entire history. They know the real powers in the area and can easily distinguish them from petty thieves or ambitious charlatans.
==Experience, THAC0, and Hit Dice==
﻿Guides have their own level advancement scheme as detailed in Table 19: Guide Experience Levels. They spend their days wandering about, working for whoever will hire their services. In between jobs, guides travel their chosen terrain, keeping themselves abreast of any changes-political or other- wise that have occurred in the region. Guides are always ready to defend themselves and are excellent hunters, as they spend much of their time foraging for food." For these reasons, guides use the warrior's THAC0 and saving throw table.
Due to the fact that guides do not train quite so hard as the average warrior, they only gain one eight-sided Hit Die per level up to the 8th level. In addition, guides never receive the warrior's hit point bonus for high Constitution. After 8th level, guides only receive 2 hit points every time they advance a level and do not gain extra hit points from high Constitution scores.
 Table 19: Guide Experience Levels
Level	XPs 	Hit Dice (d8)
1 	0 	1
2 	1,500 	2
3 	3,000 	3
4 	6,000 	4
5 	12,000 	5
6 	25,000 	6
7 	50,000 	7
8 	100,000 	8
9 	200,000 	8+2
10 	400,000 	8+4
11 	600,000 	8+6
12 	800,000 	8+8
13 	1,000,000	8+10
14 	1,200,000	8+12
15 	1,400,000	8+14
16 	1,600,000	8+16
17 	1,800,000	8+18
18 	2,000,000	8+20
19 	2,200,000	8+22
20 	2,400,000	8+24
==Ability Scores==
﻿Most people don't have the temperament to endure stretches of solitude, interspersed with short bursts of intense interaction with total strangers. Others balk at the possibly unsteady nature of the work. Quite a few don't have the charm to pull off the business end of the career.
After all, guides are more than just up-to- date maps. They often function as ambassador, interpreter, teacher of etiquette, and even cook. For these reasons, all guides must have a Wisdom of at least 12, a Constitution of at least 10, and a Charisma of at least 9. The guide's prime requisite is Wisdom.
==Permissible Armor and Weapons==
﻿Guides have no restrictions on armor. They can wear any protection they like. However, they cannot use many of their skills when wearing anything heavier than leather armor.
A guide can learn to use any weapon, although they cannot specialize in weapons like their warrior counterparts. These out- doorsmen concentrate on their chosen areas rather than on improving their weapons- related skills. For a guide, weapons are sim- ply a means to an end, not a way of life.
==Individual Experience Awards==
Guides earn their individual experience points in their own unique way. Their ambi- tion is not to conquer creatures, but to learn more about their home and to earn enough money to live comfortably. Occasionally, they feel the need to travel to foreign lands and spend months or even years wandering through new lands, meeting new peoples and making new friends.
Awarding a guide's individual experience awards can be tricky because of their varied experiences. Consult Table 20: Guide Experi- ence Awards when handing out experience at the end of an adventure.
 Table 20: Guide Experience Awards
Action 	Award
Per new path learned 	500 XP (varies)
Per potential disaster averted or avoided 	Varies
Per vital bit of new information learned 	250 XP (varies)
Per gold piece earned in course of acting as a guide	1 XP
===Learning Paths===
A guide earns 500 XP for every new significant path he discovers. If the guide simply discovers a new route home from his favorite tavern, that's certainly not worth 500 XP (unless it involves a circuitous route,﻿ perhaps through the city's sewers), but it might be worth 10 XP or so.
Conversely, establishing a new trade route through a nearby mountain chain would be extremely valuable to society. Such an action might be worth 5,000 XP or more, depending on the difficulty of the task and the usefulness of the route.
===Avoiding Disasters﻿===
If a guide manages to avert or avoid some kind of impending disaster for his employer, he earns experience points equal to the XP value of the obstacle. For example, if a guide manages to lead a party past a patrol of 15 orcs, the crafty outdoorsman would receive experience as if he had fought and defeated all 15 of those orcs.
===New Information﻿===
Guides collect information about the areas through which they travel. This includes notes about who is in charge, where you can sell stolen goods, where you can find a healer or a cleric, and so on.
Whenever a guide manages to discover a piece of information that could come in useful sometime in the future, he earns a certain amount of XP. Exactly how much is earned depends on how useful the information is. In most cases, the amount is equal to 50 XP. However, extremely important information brings the guide greater experience awards.
For instance, if a guide learns that the head of the local Thieves' Guild is actually the mayor of the town, the DM could award him anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000 XP-depending on the thief's power. Of course, the fact that the guide possesses this information could come back to haunt him. If the mayor discovered that the guide knew his secret, the thief might hire deadly assassins to "take care of" the guide.
===Acting as a Guide﻿===
A guide receives one experience point for each gold piece paid by a client. This does not apply to any treasure earned in the course of an adventure unless the terms of the guide's agreement with the party stipulate that he is to receive a share of the treasure in exchange for his services as a guide.