I thought I might start spending Mondays showing you a glimpse beyond what you see in the normal previews of our books. Give you a big piece of meat. Ed Healy told me he really liked the Introduction of the Taskshaper in The Secrets of Adventuring (
PDF or
Print +PDF) so I though I would share it with everyone. Oh and yes that is a taskshaper pictured on the cover.
New Base Class: Taskshaper
Owain Northway,
You hunt for the secrets of the lost
children, those stolen away from this world, tricked by beings who see no value
in truth. I have had enough of secrets, I also wish to change the way the world
perceives us, and so I will give you truth, I will tell you of the taskshapers.
Lanshuil Lostdottir
I am a
taskshaper, and I will tell you the story of my kind. We are not changelings, we
are those that were replaced by them, we are not doppelgangers, though now we
often work with them. We are not a race; we are a class of individuals who for
the most part share a common background of abduction, which has left us
emotionally scarred. We are the mortal children snatched by the fey, kidnapped
from our cribs, our playgrounds, and even our schools. We are the lostlings, taken
to the primal enchanted homeland of the fey, the secret of our true heritage
kept from us, oftentimes our memories altered by magic, especially if we were old
enough to remember our previous life. We became blank slates for the fey to
write upon.
Auberyon, the Solstice
King, used his gift for deceit and the magics of the fair folk to transform us
into adaptive tools, claiming we would serve to stop a fell and encroaching
threat from the mortal realms. I believe this was his original intent but over
time when the threat did not manifest we become something else we became
entertainment. The Solstice King and many other fey now do this simply for their
own amusement.
Then came the
day we learned the great secret, our kindred were being taken to the realm of
dreams to perform in a blood sport, a place where taskshaper’s died for the
Solstice King’s pleasure. Horrified by the
betrayal we banded together and swore this would not be our fate, and so we brought
about our own vanishing.
Learning the true intent of our captors, that there was no great noble
purpose to our existence, we cast about seeking meaning, when we learned that
the fey kidnapped us from our true lives. We thought to go home, and so the majority
of the taskshapers banded together and escaped to the mortal realms, our true
home, disguised in various forms and scattering so that the Solstice King could
not corral us like so much cattle. Not that we knew what we would come home to
find, so many of us taken as small children, barely remembering the vaguest
shadows of what home might have been. Nevertheless, we wanted something real,
something independent of the whimsy of a callous fey lord.
We hoped our return would be a grand celebration, instead, we found that
no one remembered us; no one had ever missed us, for we had been replaced by
changelings. Moreover, many of us could not even take revenge upon the
changelings who had taken our identities. We were bereft of solace, for not
even the ashes of our stolen lives remained. Tragically, we had not accounted
for the movement of time in the enchanted lands of the fair folk, most of us
had returned long years after our abduction.
And so it
began, we had returned to a world no longer our own, misplaced in time, but
with all the talents and skills taught to us by the eldritch fey of the primal
world.
Adventures
Taskshapers
like myself, bereft of all else, long for a purpose in life, and I along with
them still desire a threat to strive against, to fulfill the emptiness left
inside us by the false promises of the fey. Some like me become hidden
guardians striving to defend some small remnant of our stolen lives. Others
seek masters worthy of our service, becoming agents suited to nearly any task
but most especially the betrayal-ridden shadow play of espionage. Others of our
ilk seek out the trust and companionship of a loyal fellowship and will not
hesitate to sacrifice everything including their very lives to preserve that
circle of friendship.
Many of my
fellow taskshapers ultimately choose this lifestyle because it is one of the
few places we can find acceptance, as few other communities, professions, or
tradecrafts will trust shapeshifters. Moreover, while some of my fellows chose
to hide amongst you, if locals discover their true nature they flee to a life
of adventure away from the prejudice and hatred the world holds for fey-touched
lostlings. Ultimately, I believe that this lifestyle may have also be part of a
tragic curse placed upon us by the Solstice King, denying us a permanent home
since we chose to abandon his.
Characteristics
Due to our shared upbringing in the primal plane of
dark fey, taskshapers share a number of common traits. Most of us share a wild
if not fully feral nature having spent our adolescents learning the hedonistic
practices of the Solstice Court. Pulled away from our parents at an early age,
many of us never truly grow up and seek to relive and recapture our lost
childhood. The theft of our identities and our rightful place in the world has
also left most of us are psychologically scarred, cynical, and skeptical, we
trust very few people and expect little to nothing from people or the world, this
has led us to value the beauty of the moment rather than worrying about the
future. Moreover, we place the highest value on those who have earned our
trust. Some of us therefore act with fits of sensual whimsy while others are
grim and distance, regardless all of us are painfully lonely.
Alignment
It should come
as no surprise to you that due to our ever changing and shifting nature that we
taskshapers are usually creatures of chaos, however I know those who take up
the neutrality of nature, and those how hold to a rigid code of personal
conduct that would press the honor the greatest knight. Ultimately, we can go
our own way or serve any of the forces of chaos, evil, good, or law.
While I myself
spend my days searching for my lost son, I have met a stonewarden gargoyle who
they fey took from his rookery when he was still an egg. He killed his entire
clan when he returned from the Solstice Court, for their failure to notice his
disappearance. The authorities supposedly executed him for his crime but he now
serves the Mournful Order of Kinslayers as one of their honorable assassins.
Religion
Taskshapers
generally choose two paths when it comes to the divine. First there are those
such as myself that curse and rage against the heavens for allowing this tragic
fate to befall us. A few of them have joined with other fell powers and seek to
actively overthrow the rule of heaven; others simply refuse to worship any
deity.
The second group tends to worship deities they
discovered during their time with the fey and believe these deities helped them
discover the truth of the Solstice King’s deception. These deities tend to
include cunning, laughter, madness,
rebels, scouts, shapeshifters, tragedy, travelers, tricksters, thieves, and wine. I myself give praise to Our Mother of Many Ways who presides over badgers,
creativity, geniuses, gnomes, half- wits, hyenas, inspiration, intuition,
invention, jackals, lurkers, madness, oracles, prophecy, shapeshifters, tragedy,
wine, and wolverines.
All of the
above those are simple generalities and there are always exceptions to our
common beliefs.
Govan Goneson is
a devotee of The Great Church of the Pantheon believing that all of our tragedy
was a test of our faith in Sovereigns of Heaven. While Telyn Wayward who fought
in the Coliseum Morpheuon and has totally dedicated himself to the martial
benefits offered by his talent for shapeshifting is an adherent of Our War Marshal in Heaven.
Background
All taskshapers
share one piece of common background; the denizens of the faerielands kidnapped
us and left a changeling in our place. The newest of our kind the renegade
taskshapers rescued, taking them on as apprentices. For this is what awakens
the gift of shapeshifting within us. Yet the fey chose potentials for a reason,
and therefore we have a few common background traits. The first of these is the
easiest to recognize as before being taken we showed a propensity for not
giving any thought to the consequences of their actions, and as such were often
running away from trouble. The second of these traits was much harder for the
fair folk to determine but with their ability to walk unseen throughout our lives,
they would eventually learn that we tended to delight in the mess we could make
of other people’s lives.
In their realm,
the otherworldly fey used their magic and lies to manipulate us, until we
consented to their torture, fleshly violations, and other things that were far
worse so that our gift of shapeshifting could be awakened. Myself, the fair
folk seized after I stole the roses from my sister’s wedding, they took me while
I was sitting on the limb of a high tree watching people scramble about tiring
to find my sister’s roses. The greatest of tragedies though was when the
Solstice king seduced me and then later took my child from me, I still have not
found him.
This is another
example besides having what could have been our lives stolen away from us, we
all have had something even more tragic happen to us while we were in the realm
of the faeries. Sometimes this does not happen until after we escape the Courts
of the Solstice King, and it is my belief that some fell curse uttered by
Auberyon haunts us still even after we leave wrecking misfortune throughout our
lives. However, not everyone agrees with me that this is the case.
Races
Fey, no matter
the court, do not care about what mortal race you belong to. They will steal
from anyone. However, one will do tend to find that we belonged to cultures
that had a greater chance of interaction with the faerielands. As such dwarves
of nearly any region and the stonewarden gargoyles of Questhaven are the least
likely to become taskshapers.
A few of the
satyrs I knew, who were given to talk in excess when drunk on fey wine have
told me a dark and disturbing tale about why humans tend to dominate our
numbers. That some of the outlying villages in the Questhaven protectorate near
the Dire Weald give children the fey select to the Solstice Court as part of
fell bargains forged during the age of the Cynmark Dynasty when the Dread Lich
ruled the lands.
Classes
Taskshapers can get along with
the members of nearly any other profession though in general Paladins,
Cavaliers, and Samurai often have the hardest time trusting us do to our
ability to disguise our appearance, though we seldom harbor any ill will
towards them. I have found myself most at home with druids, illusionists, transmuters,
and rogues. What I have seen as the most violate of relationships occurs
between divine healers and taskshapers who wish the destruction of all that is
divine. It is difficult for most to turn away from the benefits of magical
healing while still maintaining their hatred for what the Sovereigns of Heaven have allowed to happen to us.
Role
Within
adventuring companies, and especially the Questor’s Society, we taskshapers
often serve as the greatest of spies being able to change our appearance and
our personalities. We can also serve as gifted scouts able to range far and
wide by wing or by fin, often going where others cannot.
Some of us become spiritualists spending time with the creatures we imitate,
and seeking our own private lore. Others of my kind serve as companions to
other shapeshifters from doppelgangers to lycanthropes often passing on our
lore so that these creatures learn of our abilities. However, like me many of
my kith and kin are outsiders searching for what the fey took away from us, a
feeling of belonging and feeling of purpose in this world, or seeking for the
truth of their former identity to the muddle of altered and false memories. These
and others like me have taken up the life of an adventure and quest.
