Ice Reaver

The windswept glaciers, the frozen mountains, the vast cold plains beneath the shadow of the encroach- ing ice—these hard lands are home to the fiercest peoples of Thule. The barbarians of the cold lands live off the great herds of caribou that roam the tundra or the teeming seals and fish of the frozen coasts, but when the herds or pods move on, these hardy warriors soon turn their attention to differ- ent prey: The civilized peoples of the warmer lands. Riding giant elk or rowing dragon-prowed galleys, the reavers of the north strike with terrible speed and savagery, pillaging and plundering their way across Thule’s remote marches. From Nar to Quodeth, the reaver tribes are names of terror and dread.

As one of these northern raiders, you are at home in the frozen lands. Your world is simple: The strong survive, and the weak perish. You regard the city-folk of the south as soft and decadent, and despise their hedonistic ways even when you choose to sell your axe or spear as a mercenary. The gods gave you the power to strive and to slay when you were born, and you intend to carve your way to greatness with your bloody sword or axe.

Most ice reavers are humans of Nimothan descent, simply because Nimothans make up the great majori- ty of the raiding peoples of Thule’s northern wastes. They stubbornly cling to their homelands even as the snows grow deeper year by year. A few tribes in the eastern highlands of Thule are Kalays; centuries ago these were the hardy frontiersmen Inner Sea cities, but over the generations they became more and more isolated, adopting the barbaric ways of their neigh- bors. Finally, a small number of dwarf clans with no citadel of their own share these bitter lands with the human tribes, and follow a similar lifestyle.

Key Identity: Human (Nimothan or Kalay), dwarf, barbarian, fighter, ranger, bard.

Ice Reaver Benefits

Your people don’t fight all the time. You were raised to be a hardy hunter, and live off the great herds of the northern tundra or the seals and whales of the cold seas. The rugged mountains and broken glaciers of your homeland might be impassable to other travelers, but not to you. In battle, you rely on pure ferocity, charging into the thick of the fighting and hewing down your enemies with reckless abandon. Your many battles earn you a reputation among other raiding tribes and barbarian mercenaries employed in civilized lands, and they listen carefully when you speak. In time, your fame grows so great that hundreds of northern warriors answer your call when you decide to launch a raid of your own.

Ice Reavers in the World

You come from a tribe that measures a person’s worth by his or her fighting prowess. If you are a great warrior, you are held in high regard by your people; if not, you are expected to seek the oppor- tunity to prove yourself in battle. Civilized Thu- leans who are aware of your tribe’s reputation (for example, the people of Akal-Amo, Orech, or Thran) are intimidated by you, and assume that you are irrationally brutal and violent. However, they hold a healthy respect for your fighting skill, and many southerners eagerly hire ice reavers as bodyguards, enforcers, or mercenary troops.

Personalising the Ice Reaver

There are many different reaver tribes, and each has its own unique story or quirk.

Bearslayer

You are a dwarf of a dispossessed clan. Your people were driven out of their native citadel years ago. With the loss of their home, they aban- doned their rightful clan name and took up a name of exile, calling themselves simply Bearslayers after the beasts whose home they now shared. Some- day you intend to be strong enough and respected enough to lead your people back to their stolen citadel and reclaim it.

Khatranir Warrior

You are among the last of a van- ished tribe. Once your people called the heights of Kha, the Ice Mountain, home. They raided far and wide, blooding their t’uchuk ice-axes in lands hun- dreds of miles distant. None were stronger, hardier, or more widely feared than the Khatranir. But while you were away on a long journey to the warm lands, something terrible happened. When you returned your people were dead, entombed in the snows of Kha by some dire frost curse. You do not know who cursed the Khatranir or why, but someday you will avenge your people.

Rider of Hurgan

You are a warrior of the Hurgan tribe, known throughout Thule as riders of the foul-tempered giant elk. Your people are close kin to the Quodethi, and of all the ice peoples, the most likely to engage in peaceful trade with the peoples of the south. For you, raiding is not a matter of survival or pure bloodthirst—it is a matter of pride, a way to avenge insults and defend your tribe’s own hunting grounds. Change is coming to the Hurgan people: Your tribe must abandon their ancestral lands and carve out a new home from the lands of the south. Are you the great chief the wise men see rising in the smokes of the future?

Ullathi Sea Reaver

The sea is the mother to your people. The Ullath live on the shores of the icy seas, sealing and fishing throughout the winter months— but when the spring comes and the ice breaks up, they take to their longships and spend the warm months boldly harrying the coastlands of Thule. While raiding is a way of life for the Ullath, your people are also explorers and sea-traders, and have a driving wanderlust to see new places and find new things. There are many ways to become a hero to be sung of down through the years, and you are deter- mined to find your fame someday.

Role Benefits

You are a raider from one of the barbarian tribes of the frozen north. As soon as you were old enough to fight, you joined the warriors of your people when they rode or sailed against the soft city-dwellers of the southlands. You may have turned aside from the reaver’s path for a time to adventure in far lands, but your people haven’t—whenever you decide to return home, there will be a place waiting for you among the reaver bands.

D&D 5th Edition

Reaver’s Charge (1st level): You can perform a Reaver’s Charge before initiative is rolled in an encounter, as long as you are not surprised. You can also use a bonus action to perform a Reaver’s Charge any time you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points (or less) with a melee attack. When you perform a Reaver’s Charge, you move up to your speed and make a melee attack.

You can use Reaver’s Charge once, and then you must take a rest before you can use it again.

Renowned Raider (6th level): Your name is known among the fighting peoples of Thule, and your reputation precedes you. When you make a skill or ability check to interact with barbarians, mercenaries, or outlaws, you gain tactical advantage.

Reaver Chief (10th level): You can call for raiders from your homeland to go marauding with you (including a ship if they are a seafaring people). Your raiders are equivalent to tribal warriors. Once per three years, you can raise a horde for a major attack. See Followers, under narrative bene ts.

Pathfinder

Skill Bonuses (1st level): You gain a +2 bonus to Intimidate checks and a +2 bonus to Climb, Ride, or Profession (Sailor) checks (choose the skill most appropriate to your tribe). Ice reavers are renowned for their violent ways, and you are familiar with the hard terrain of your home.

Reaver’s Charge (1st level): You can spend a hero point to perform a reaver’s charge before initiative is rolled in an encounter, as long as you are not surprised. You can also spend a hero point to perform a reaver’s charge any time you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points (or less) with a melee attack. This is like spending a hero point to take an extra standard action, except you must use the action to charge. If your charge attack hits, you deal 2d6 extra damage.

Hero points you spend to perform a reaver’s charge are not permanently expended, and are regained at the end of the day.

Renowned Raider (6th level): You gain a +4 bonus on skill checks to interact with mercenaries, raiders, or pirates—your name is known throughout the fighting peoples of Thule, and your reputation precedes you.

Reaver Chief (10th level): You can call for raiders from your homeland to go marauding with you (including a ship if they are a seafaring people). Once per three years, you can raise a horde for a major attack. See Followers, under narrative benefits.