- a short extraction from the Journal of the travelling Scholar Brolunius Ironthought of Barsaive.
Important Attributes:
Charisma, Dexterity, and Willpower
Racial Restrictions:
Elves (not Blood Elves), Obsidiman, and Trolls
Karma Ritual:
The Head-Hunter jumps around his pile of heads chanting and calling the spirits of the deceased. He taunts them and calls them insulting names which he deems to be imploring the spirits weakness in a life left behind, giving them torment even in death. He does this till he feels that he sufficiently tormented them and laughs cruelly for a
while before he sets them free again.
Artisan Skills:
Runic Carving, Skull Carving, and Tattooing
FIRST CIRCLE
Talents
Avoid Blow
First Impression
Howling of the Heads (D)*
Karma Ritual
Melee Weapons (D)
Taunt (D)
SECOND CIRCLE
Talents
Durability (7/6)
Frighten (D)
Riposte
THIRD CIRCLE
Talents
Absorb Energy (D)*
Tiger Spring
FOURTH CIRCLE
Karma: The Head-Hunter may spend a Karma Point on a Recovery Test, or on any talent that substitutes for a Recovery Test
Talents
Hunt Weaving (Thread Weaving) (D)
Resist Taunt (D)
FIFTH CIRCLE
Social Defense:: Increase the Head-Hunterıs Social Defense by 1
Talents
Engaging Banter
Second Weapon
SIXTH CIRCLE
Physical Defense : Increase the Head-Hunter's Physical Defense by 1
Talents
Absorb Wisdom (D)*
Life Check
SEVENTH CIRCLE
Social Defense: Increase the Head-Hunter's Spell Defense by 1
Talents
Magic of the Heads (D)*
Second Attack
EIGHTH CIRCLE
Recovery Test: The Head-Hunter gains 1 additional Recovery Test per day
Talents
Create Puppet (D)*
Spirit Strike
NINTH CIRCLE
Initiative: Increase the Head-Hunter's Initiative dice by 1 step.
Physical Defense: Increase the Head-Hunter's Physical Defense by 1.
Talents
Critical Hit
Help of the Heads (D)*
TENTH CIRCLE
Spell Defense: Increase the Head-Hunterıs Spell Defense by 2.
Talents
Body Blade
Champion Challenge
ELEVENTH CIRCLE
Social Defense: Increase the Head-Hunter's Social Defense by 1
Karma: Increase the Head-Hunter's Maximum Karma Points by 25.
Talents
Hymn of Deflection
Vitality (D)
TWELFTH CIRCLE
Physical Defense: Increase the Head-Hunterıs Physical Defense by 2.
Talents
Questioning of the Spirits (D)*
Wound Transfer
(D) Discipline Use Talent
* Denotes New Talent
New Talents
Note: Most Talents include the Heads of the killed. These heads are first really useful to the Head-Hunter when they have become shrunk heads through a magical and some what religious process; the process to make a shrunk head is fairly simple, dry in the sun for 1 day, pray for one hour, and let it rest another day in a special magical solution given by a Shaman. Only then and ONLY then may the Head-Hunter use the benefits of his "Heads" in his talents. GMıs take this fairly serious, since the Head-Hunter can be too powerful of a Character in play and may disrupt the game balance.
Absorb Energy
| Step Number: Rank + Willpower Step |
| Action: Yes | Skill Use: No |
| Karma: 8 (see below) | Strain: None |
| Discipline Talent: Head-Hunter |
This Talent enforces the belief of the tribal Head-Hunters. The standard belief is that when a Head-Hunter kills his opponent in battle that he gains access to his victims power or rather energy. The Character makes an Absorb Energy test against the currently deceased spell defense. According to the results, the Character gains life energy, i.e. that points are added to the characters Death rating. On a poor result nothing, Average result he / she gains points equal to a third of the victims Toughness Step (always round up), Good results he / she gains points equal to half the victims Toughness Step (always round up), Excellent results he / she gains points equal to the victims Toughness Step and on an Extraordinary result he / she gains double the points
equal to the victims Toughness Step! As a draw back to the whole ritual, the Character has to spend eight Karma points.
It is a quite dramatic scene seeing a Head-Hunter absorbing energy into himself; threads of white light burst into the Hunters heart, illuminating his whole body into a full bright white glow (it is also quite painful to the Hunter and it is known that it is not a rarity that one faints after such an ordeal-depends on the GM to decide).
Absorb Wisdom
| Step Number: Rank + Willpower Step |
| Action: Yes | Skill Use: No |
| Karma: Yes | Strain: three wounds and 13 |
| Discipline Talent: Head-Hunter |
This talent enables the Character to finalize the procedure of
absorption. This talent allows the Character to retrieve gained wisdom of the slain victim. The GM chooses three talents which are both common to the Character and the opponent and raises these three by each one rank. When there exist less than three talents common to the Characters, then the remaining are raised in accordance, i.e. if only two exist then one is raised by two ranks instead of one and if there only exist one then that Talent is raised by three ranks!
The unfortunate about this Talent is that the Character stays in a form of "blessed ecstasy" for a couple of days; this doesnıt seem all to bad but picture a savage Head-Hunter smiling, murmuring, rolling his eyes, fits of laughter (!), screaming his love about death (?) and doing various acts of uncivilized behavior which makes it fairly obvious that the Character is incapable of doing anything rational in forms of thinking or in the farthest of action (even though people tend think of an savage as irrational), sorry.
Create Puppet
| Step Number: Rank + Willpower Step |
| Action: Yes | Skill Use: Yes |
| Karma: Yes | Strain: 2 blood magic damage |
| Discipline Talent: Head-Hunter |
This Talent makes it possible to create a Voodoo Doll for a special person. The Character makes a Create Puppet test against the spell defense of the opponent and if he succeeds he also needs a thread item to construct the doll. By sticking stuff into the puppet or ripping things off, the Character deals damage to the victim but can not kill the person in this way; after the person is unconscious the damage goes away and the person awakens from the unconsciousness. Needle or such stuck into it gives about 1D10 of Damage and ripping off deals twice that amount, no armor of any kind helps here: either the doll is destroyed by fire or blood magic infusion dissolves after a year and a day.
Help Of The Heads
| Step Number: Rank + Willpower Step |
| Action: No | Skill Use: No |
| Karma: No | Strain: 1 per role |
| Discipline Talent: Head-Hunter |
This Talent is exactly the same as Spirit Dodge, the Character calls forth the spirits bound to his Heads, which in turn have to defend him. See Spirit Doge for exact information...
Howling Of The Heads
| Step Number: Rank + Willpower Step |
| Action: Yes | Skill Use: No |
| Karma: No | Strain: 1 |
| Discipline Talent: Head-Hunter |
This Talent summons the Spirits the Head-Hunter has killed. The Heads start to glow in an eerie fashion and start to shriek and howl in terror. The Character makes a Howling Of The Heads test against the spell defense of the enemy. If the Character succeeds, the enemy is paralized for rank rounds or until a succsessful Willpower check is made against the Character's dice result.
Magic of the Heads
| Step Number: Rank + Willpower Step |
| Action: No | Skill Use: No |
| Karma: Yes | Strain: 3 |
| Discipline Talent: Head-Hunter |
This enables the Character to call forth on the power of his trophies (Shrunken Heads). The Character makes a Magic of the Heads test against his opponents spell defense with whom he is involved in battle. If he succeeds he gains an Attack bonus equal to his rank plus half his amount of heads (always round up).
Questioning of the Spirits
| Step Number: Rank + Willpower Step |
| Action: Yes | Skill Use: No |
| Karma: # of heads divided by two | Strain: # of heads |
| Discipline Talent: Head-Hunter |
This Talent allows the Character to ask various questions to the spirits he set free to roam the world (a nicer way to say "killed"). Since the Spirits share all their knowledge with the eternal knowledge of life, they know the answers to EVERYTHING (or so the Savages think, since they believe in it soooo badly, the magic and their gods make it happen. Theran magicians still donıt understand the magical theology involved, either the gods are damn stupid, or damn powerful...). This Talent accompanies more than just a lot of praying and kissing ass: for about 3 hours. The Character makes a Questioning of the Spirits test against two times the amount of Shrunken Skulls he posses, this makes it harder the more he kills but the more he kills the more questions he may ask: that is the amount of heads divided by ten (Yes, anybody bad enough to haven't killed that many yet, doesnıt deserve to be a Head-Hunter).
Earthdawn is a Registered Trademark of FASA Corporation. Original Earthdawn material Copyright 1994 by FASA Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission. Any use of FASA Corporation's copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.
If you have any suggsestions, comments or questions about this Discipline, send me an e-mail at:
tjosten@hotmail.com