Vagabond

*"Me? I’m no one of consequence. Just passing through…."*

## Basic

(Core) Vagabonds love life on the road. The traditional Peasant or Burgher existence seems like prison to them. Who wants to wake up in the same village or city every day, doing the same thing as yesterday? Vagabonds are footloose wanderers who look on each day as a new adventure. They may take on odd jobs here and there to earn some brass, but they never stay in one place for long. The road beckons, with the promise of something better always over the next hill. While they do love to travel, they are not ignorant of the dangers of the road. Vagabonds can thus often be found in travelling companies, formed for mutual protection. The law has little love for these groups and in many places Vagabonds are viewed as common criminals.

### Secondary Profile

**Skills:** Common Knowledge (Bretonnia, Estalia, Kislev, or Tilea), Gossip or Secret Language (Ranger Tongue or Thieves’ Tongue), Haggle or Swim, Heal or Perception, Navigation, Outdoor Survival, Performer (Dancer, Singer, or Storyteller) or Secret Signs (Ranger or Thief), Silent Move

**Talents:** Fleet Footed or Rover, Marksman or Orientation, Seasoned Traveller

**Trappings:** Back Pack, Rations (1 week), Tent, Water Skin

### **Career Entries**

Barber-Surgeon, Camp Follower, Cartographer, Cat Burglar, Charcoal-Burner, Entertainer, Envoy, Ex-Convict, Fieldwarden, Hedge Wizard, Kithband Warrior, Outlaw, Soldier, Woodsman

### **Career Exits**

Bone Picker, Entertainer, Friar, Rapscallion, Scout, Thief, Woodsman

## Werner Wintrich alias Markus the Cat

Werner is a man with a history. He is far more than the weather-worn and penniless vagabond he appears to be. Formerly he was Markus the Cat, one of the Empire’s most proficient cat burglars, and responsible for no less than a dozen jewel thefts from the Imperial nobility. Now, he has given up his life of crime to see the world and escape his past. He has left behind any riches his former career might have brought and taken to the road. Now all Werner wants is to be left alone and to see what lies over the horizon for the rest of his days.

Alas, Werner will have to run quickly if he is to escape his previous career. The dashing Markus the Cat was as much a stealer of hearts as jewels. Jilted lovers and robbed nobles rarely forget their grudgesand he still has a large bounty on his head. In particular, his last haul, where he stole the jewelled necklace of the Countess Carola von Trappe, still haunts him. He gave the jewellery to his partner who was killed in a barroom squabble that very night. All interested parties believe he still has the necklace and so they hire bounty hunter after bounty hunter to find the elusive Cat.

## Vagabonds and the Ranger Tongue

Quite a few vagabonds have picked up on the enigmatic language of the Woodsmen, the so-called Ranger Tongue. A hodgepodge of human languages (particularly Reikspiel and Breton) and elvish, this secret tongue is useful in two respects. First, it is a code language, useful for passing messages even when unfriendly ears are listening. For example, greeting someone with the elven word for ‘visitor’ while raising the left hand tells the listener ‘those I travel with are not to be trusted.’ Second, the language is rich in terminology describing the dangers of the woods and the outdoors.

A complex situation, such as the wolves in a certain stretch of woods starving and turning to hunting men, might only take a single word in Ranger Tongue. In addition, a seasoned traveller knows that keeping on the good side of the woodsmen is never a bad idea. Knowing Ranger Tongue facilitates that.