Damage Bonus: +1d4.
Allegiance Tendencies: Good, Lawful. Skills: Accounting (10%), Appraise (15%),
Archaeology (05%), Art (05%), Astronomy
(05%), Bargain (35%), Brawl (65%), Climb (50%), Command (45%), Craft (Armor- smithing) (25%), Craft (Weapon-smithing) (25%), Disguise (01%), Dodge (55%), Etiquette (55%), Fast Talk (25%), Fine Manipulation (05%), First Aid (55%), Gaming (INT + POW%), Grapple (25%), Hide (40%), History (25%), Insight (45%), Jump (45%), Law (05%), Listen (55%), Martial Arts (01%), MEDICINE (01%), Navigate (60%), OCCULT (05%), Perform (25%), Persuade (55%), Pharmacy (05%),
Pilot Boat (21%), Religion (new) (40%),
RESEARCH (LIBRARY USE) (01%), Research (Streetwise) (55%), Ride Horse
(35%), Sense (30%), Spot (55%), Status (55%), Stealth (40%), Strategy (33%),
Survival (new) (70%), Swim (25%), Teach (40%), Throw (45%), Track (60%).
Attacks:
Dagger, blessed, steel, 86%, 1d4+2+db (+1 vs. demons), impaling, 15 HP.
Spear, steel-tipped, 55%, 1d6+1+db, impaling, 15 HP.
Sling, 56%, 1d8 db, 80 yards, crushing, cannot parry.
Defenses: Armor 4 (studded leather and helmet)
Round Shield, 70%, 1d3+db, knockback, Armor 20 (must parry).
Deity: Circle.
Gear: Studded leather armor & wooden shield, spear, sling, dagger (blessed, steel), good quality traveling and camping gear, palfrey horse (“Rodney”), text of advice and sayings of St. Polemachus.
Ashes, TO ASHES ORGANIZATIONS
Wealth: 8 (people love her so much that she, her squire or her horse rarely want for anything).
2. The Paired
The Paired are a truly strange group. The prestige class is only available to two PLAYERS working in tandem, both of whom must join at the same time.
Magic in the World runs haywire, and if two people who are sufficiently devoted to each other, they can sometimes tap into the stuff of magic and learn to use it to help other people as well as each other. This pair bond may give one, or both, of them a natural empathy for the healing arts. Such Paired healers, when identified, are approached by a “guild” and offered membership. (The Paired “guild” is actually much closer to a mandatory union with zero tolerance for “scabs”).
The guild shares knowledge with its members and (unfortunately) refuses to share it outside the organization. Many in the higher levels of the organization see themselves as “chosen” or “special”, and while the Paired are by definition loyal to those they are Paired with, different Pairs often do not get along. The guild requires that members charge for their services and pay a tithe to the masters of the organization, and it zealously polices and protects the membership.
The Paired work as wandering healers for hire. Their credo is to offer (in exchange for pay) a level of medical knowledge far beyond that which is commonly known in the World. (They are not found in Fallingstar, but are well-known elsewhere). They also seek to uncover lost healing arts and share them—but only within their membership.
Many are all business when dealing with their charges, not wasting time on idle chitchat. It is almost as if the Paired are so devoted to each other that they have trouble with interacting with others. Despite the doors that their empathy opens, the empathy tends to be very focused. As a result, NPC
Paired rarely interact openly with anyone other than themselves. More often, they pitch a green pavilion tent on the outskirts of town to announce that they have arrived, and wait and see if anyone approaches them to secure their services.
The price for a given service is left to the discretion of each Pair, but they are encouraged to make it sting. Depending on the moral outlook of the Pair in question, this heavy-handed approach to the price of healing carries a variety of rationales. Those of Neutral or Evil outlook (and there are a few of these) justify it in terms of charging what the market will bear for valuable services that they have spent their whole lives developing. Those of Good outlook have a more complex justification for their prices. The more they charge, they reason, the more they can travel and focus on their art. The more they travel, the more art they can uncover from the ruins of the World, and the better off everyone is in the long run. And besides, in a truly exceptional case, they have discretion as to how to make the price sting—they can accept service in lieu of payment.
It occasionally happened that someone tries to force a Pair to heal for free, or tries to stiff a Pair on payment, or even tries to enslave or press-gang a Pair. People largely quit doing that when they realized that this only upped the price the next time, or got their entire town blacklisted or, upon occasion, even attacked and burned. Once a Pair blacklists a town, no Pair will visit the town (at least not without risking the wrath of the guild).
The number of Paired is quite small. It is estimated that there are only a dozen Pairs in the entirety of the World, at most.
The Paired have no headquarters, but every other winter solstice, they gather at a central location (agreed to at the previous gathering) and hold a moot to trade knowledge and technique.
There is no hierarchy, but there is one Pair (known as the Healing Hands) who is
Ashes, TO ASHES ORGANIZATIONS
appointed to be the point of contact for the others. The Healing Hands are a Pair that has become too old to travel any longer; they tend to settle in a larger settlement where they can receive messages about any outrages committed against a Pair, and distribute messages of blacklisting against any offending settlement. The current Healing Hands reside in Crystal Lake in Eglantine.
To join the guild, one will have to come to the attention of the guild for one’s extraordinary skill in healing. A Pair will eventually approach the PLAYER to investigate whether the person is just a good healer, or displays the signs of magical empathy with another that means they are able to make some subtle use of magic and be a potentially miraculous healer. If the latter is the case, they offer membership. Most healers, by that point in their career, will have heard of the Paired, and few refuse. Those who do refuse may find themselves sanctioned, with sanctions ranging from a cold-shouldered lack of cooperation (from Good-inclined Pairs) to violence and coercion (from Evil-inclined Pairs).
Game Rule Information:
Prerequisites: To take a level as Paired, a PLAYER must possess 60% in First Aid and come to the attention of an existing member of the guild. The PLAYER must also have a very strong pair bond (parent/child, close siblings, true love) with another PLAYER
who constantly accompanies them. Finally, the person with whom the pair bond exists must also join at the same time. The companion need not have the requisite skill percentages, but such non-healer companions cannot advance in the organization unless they subsequently acquire the requisite skill set. Both of the Paired must also agree to the credo of the Paired and swear to obey their laws under penalty of severe sanction.
The Paired are by and large a Lawful organization which does not bend the rules except where their self-interest or some lawfully-viewed greater good would dictate. At the same time, many (but not all) have a compassionate streak that led them to healing in the first place. Most Paired are Lawful and either Good or Neutral. Some Lawful and Evil or Neutral and Evil Paired exist; these are the functional equivalent of misanthropic doctors who went to medical school simply to maximize their income. Bickering Pairs nonetheless bound by love or blood are not uncommon.
Class Abilities. The Paired have three degrees of advancement: Guild, Expert and Miracle Worker.
Guild: Both newly initiated Paired gains a number of benefits.
First, a Paired healer (i.e., one with the requisite skill percentages) gains the right to wield the symbol of office. This greatly raises the practical stakes associated with anyone trying to harm or molest her (at least on the part of rational villagers). She gains +30% to Persuade when attempting to convince mortals to not harm the Paired; this does not apply to other Pairs.
Second, the Paired become mystically,
empathically linked with one another. Each
is automatically aware of the hit points, state of physical well-being, and general mental state (happy, sad, mortal terror) of the other. First Aid checks made by one toward the other (only) receive a +50% bonus due to this empathy.
Ashes, TO ASHES ORGANIZATIONS
Wealth increase to 7, reflecting their new
status and its ability to generate income. (If their Wealth is already at 7 or higher, disregard this).
If a Paired healer’s companion dies, they can make no further progress in the organization until they find a new person to be Paired with, and that person takes the necessary oath (and forms the necessary relationship with the healer. It only works if it is genuine).
Expert Healer: Advancement to Expert Healer occurs in the KEEPER’s discretion, but generally, the healer part of the Paired should have 95% in First Aid. At this point, a Paired healer has become so practiced in the healing arts that anyone under her care receives the maximum possible benefit from her successful attention.
In addition, a Paired healer can use First Aid to treat any poison or disease suffered by her Paired companion, as well as by herself, as though the Medicine skill were in play. (While this is a far cry from immunity to poison, it doesn’t hurt, and the Paired generally scoff at most non-monster generated diseases at least, as far as their personal health is concerned).
Miracle Worker: While the dead cannot be raised in Ashes, to Ashes, through dint of long membership and trading with other Paired, a Paired healer gains a sufficient knowledge of medicine that she can attempt to resuscitate the very recently deceased. The Keeper should hold this advancement back for truly momentous story events, such as the discovery of a lost medical library. In addition, and at a minimum, the Paired must travel to one of the winter solstice meetings and (in game) trade for rare medical knowledge.
When this occurs, the healer gains Medicine at an initial rank of 05%, but the skill is now “unlocked” and can be progressed in. In addition, First Aid can now be used to attempt to revive a character that has fallen below 0 hit points for up to 10 rounds. Hey, it’s better than nothing.
Sample Paired:
Sister Joan, Paired with Ronald.
“Be quiet now and quit that infernal mewling—this is for your own good.” STR 11 DEX 12 INT 16 CON 13 APP 12 POW 16 SIZ 11 EDU 12 Hits: 12 Age: 38.
Damage Bonus: +0.
Allegiance Tendencies: Neutral, Lawful. Skills: Accounting (20%), Appraise (30%),
Archaeology (25%), Art (05%), Astronomy
(25%), Bargain (65%), Brawl (25%), Climb (40%), Command (05%), Craft (Farming) (35%) Disguise (01%), Dodge (57%), Etiquette (25%), Fast Talk (35%), Fine Manipulation (05%), First Aid (95%), Gaming (INT + POW%), Grapple (25%), Hide (52%), History (37%), Insight (75%), Jump (25%), Law (05%), Listen (50%), Martial Arts (01%), MEDICINE (01%), Navigate (56%), OCCULT (25%), Perform (05%), Persuade (66%), Pharmacy (23%),
Pilot Boat (01%), Religion (new) (28%),
RESEARCH (LIBRARY USE) (01%), Research (Streetwise) (35%), Ride Horse
(05%), Sense (40%), Spot (56%), Status (45%), Stealth (35%), Strategy (01%),
Survival (new) (69%), Swim (25%), Teach (50%), Throw (25%), Track (10%).
Attacks:
Sling, 58%, 1d8, 80 yards, crushing, 1 shot, cannot parry.
Quarterstaff, 55%, 1d8, crushing, can parry twice vs. attack, 20 HP.
Ashes, TO ASHES ORGANIZATIONS
Special: Paired Guild, Symbol of Office, Expert Healer.
Deity: The Circle
Gear: Staff, Leather Armor, Healing Kit, Medicinal Herbs, Pavilion Tent.
Wealth: 7.
Ronald, Paired With Joan.
STR 13 DEX 13 INT 12 CON 14 APP 14