Executioner

You had been tasked with the duty of carrying out death sentences, corporal punishments and possibly also torture. The methods may depend on your home area and its customs ­ whether axe, sword, noose, pyre or guillotine ­ but it is a dirty work that doesn't make you popular. While the cliché is that of the hulking headsman with the great axe (and a cliché with some truth to it), the dingy reputation and the easy access to objectionable items like hands of murderers or mandragora have led to the birth of more than one rogue, arcane trickster or warlock coming from this background.

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics,Intimidation

Tool Proficiencies: Poisoner's Kit

Languages: Any of your choice

Equipment: Hempen rope (50') already knotted to a noose, a sharpened 10' pole (to display heads on), a sack (chopped­ off head optional), common clothes including a black hood and a butcher’s frock, the farewell letter of an infamous criminal (or wrongly accused convict) and a belt pouch containing 8gp

Feature: Scharfrichter's Stare[edit]

Both commoners and criminals are afraid of your reputation. Neither will report if you overstep the legal lines a bit (such as by not paying your food, or bruising a captive), and both kinds will be more likely to spill the beans just to get rid of you (or in the case of criminals, to keep you from scraping the beans out of them with a redhot hook). Those who have some standing in the community will not be so easily impressed by some dingy executioner, but maybe their servants will speak freely to you if you block their way in the right dark alley...

Suggested Characteristics[edit]

d6 Personality Trait

1 When going gets weird and bloody, I remain calm and stoic.

2 I make bad puns and quips in the face of death.

3 I like to act tough and hardboiled when I feel that I've got the advantage, or that I need to secure it.

4 I'm not a person of many words ­ I get by with a nod, a headshake or a single word as often as possible

5 I am deferential to authority more than rulings ­ those chosen through merit, tradition, or birth understand the intent of the law even if the letter must be bent a bit.

6 Once a bad seed, always a bad seed ­ I am harshly judgmental of those who have erred even once.

d6 Ideal

1 Justice: Right or wrong, the law. (Lawful)

2 Redemption: No matter how wicked, anyone must be given a chance to repent before meeting their creator. (Good)

3 Community: My community cannot hold unless its people are kept safe from threats in their midst (Any)

4 Pragmatism: When some petty law get into the way of my job, it should wait out of sight in the antechamber while I take care of what needs to be done. (Chaotic).

5 Power: Life, Death, Dignity ­ I crave the moments when they step up the wooden stairs and all these things are at my fingertips. (Evil)

6 Truth: Before any justice can be meted out, it is important to draw out the truth no matter how. (Lawful)

d6 Bond

1 I've been forced to put my one true love to the sword, and have been grieving for him/her ever since.

2 There is this one criminal who could jailbreak before meeting his conviction. I will find him and give him what is his due.

3 No one is above the law ­ no one but this smug rascal who could get off scotsfree with that letter of the Cardinal. I will find her and make sure there is no loophole this time.

4 I have put a man to the sword only to learn later that he has been innocent. I will make up to his family best as I can.

5 I've led some very vile scum to the gallows, despite their powerful friends. Now I am on the run from them and their assassins.

6 While making my rounds in the dungeons, I have run into a man in an iron mask who doesn’t appear on any records. I will need to find out his secret, and bust him out if he is innocent.

d6 Flaw

1 I have taken a significant bribe, and a certain crime lord knows it and can prove it.

2 I obey any legitimate authority, even when they might be wrong.

3 The bottle is the only thing that keeps the specters of my former victims at bay.

4 I have sold hands of murderers and similar items of my handiwork to evil magic-users, or possibly even the darker powers behind them.

5 I display my gallows humor even to the point where it makes others uncomfortable ­ and beyond.

6 I take a memento of everyone I execute, and display it proudly.