04 Night's Watch.pdf - Chaos Bleeds

Chapter 2: The Wall & the GiftHistoryStonesnake doesn’t talk about his life before taking the black. Rumor hasit that he was born in the Vale of Arryn. Some say he grew up fightingthe clans that came down from the Mountains of the Moon to raid andpillage. Others say he was born into the clans and sent to the Wall whenhe failed to die with his kin. Wherever he came from, he’s been a Rangerwith the Shadow Tower for twenty years. As Qhorin, Stonesnake’s commander,knows the wildlings, so Stonesnake knows the land.PersonalityStonesnakeAbilitiesAgility 4 Balance 3B, Quickness 2BAnimal Handling 3 Ride 1BAthletics 5 Climb 3BAwareness 3 Notice 3BCunning 3Deception 3Endurance 4 Stamina 3B, Resilience 4BFighting 4 Short Blades 2BHealing 3Marksmanship 3 Charm 2BStatus 4Stealth 5 Sneak 3BSurvival 6Forage 3B, Orientation 3B,Track 1BWarfare 3Will 3 Dedication 2BCombatDefenseAttributes12(11 in armor)IntrigueDefenseHealth 12 Composure 9Destiny Points 0Benefits: Brother of the Night’s Watch (Ranger), GiftedAthlete, Night Eyes, Terrain Specialist (Mountains)Drawbacks: NoneArms & ArmorSoft Leather Armor: AR 2 ❂ AP –1Bulk 0 (Movement 4, Sprint 16)Small Sword 4D+3B 3 damage FastDirk 4D+3B 2 damage Off-hand +1Personal Gear: soft leather armor, smallsword, dirk, climbing gear,pack, gloves, scarf11Whatever his origin, Stonesnake is entirely a man of the Night’s Watch.He does not waste time questioning his purpose. He does. He acts. Heis not a leader of men, having no authority over his Brothers and wantingnone. He is supremely confident in his abilities and does not shrinkfrom saying so, but he is not boastful. He is a Brother of the Night’sWatch and that means the wildlings are his enemies, but that is a matterof duty, not of wrath. He kills coldly, cleanly, and quickly.AppearanceStonesnake is a compact man of near fifty years, deceptively strong andspry as a man half his age. Lean and lithe as his namesake, his yearsscaling the cliffs and gorges of the Frostfangs have left not a single scrapof fat on his already spare frame. His beard and eyes are both a flintygray and he wears his whiskers short. He moves with great economy, noeffort wasted, every motion direct and purposeful.The AbandonedThere are many more castles and keeps along the Wall that lie in decimatedruins than there are holdfasts manned by the Night’s Watch.The NightfortOldest and largest, the Nightfort was the first castle built along the Wallafter the Long Night finally ended. Legends say Brandon the Builderlaid the foundation stones with his own hands. To hear the wildlings tellit, he laid them over the bones of the very giants that helped him raisethe castle at Winterfell, thus sealing the Wall in blood.Whatever the truth may be, it was lost long ago. All that remain arelegends, but of those there are a great many. Of all the castles on the Wall,the Nightfort features in the most, and the most horrific, tales that survive.Ironically, the oldest and most infamous is the tale of a man whosename was erased from history. The Night’s King was the thirteenthLord Commander. As the tale goes, he took woman from beyond theWall to wife—a woman of the Others. He declared himself King, thewoman his Queen, and bound the men of the Night’s Watch to hiswill by sorcerous means. For thirteen years they ruled, until the Starkin Winterfell and Joramun, King-beyond-The-Wall, together moved topull them down. The Night’s King’s name was stricken from humanmemory, but the story has lived eight thousand years.It was at the Nightfort that the Rat Cook killed an Andal prince forvengeance sake, baked him into a pie and served him to the king, his father.For killing a guest, the gods cursed the cook to be an enormous white ratthat could eat nothing but the flesh of his own young. And it was at theNightfort that Mad Axe heard the song of a ghost as pale as milk, and tookup his weapon in the deep of winter to slaughter his brothers in their beds.The 79 sentinels who, forsaking duty, went south to try their handsat banditry were Nightfort men. Lord Ryswell, father to one of the 79,took them back and each one was sealed alive in the ice facing north tofulfill in death the vows they had abandoned in life. They are all therestill, entombed in the Wall to watch forever.The Nightfort has seen more than its share of blood, betrayal, and blackpowers. Danny Flint—who was revealed to be a girl—died there, raped andmurdered by a band of mutineers as she stood against them. Curses andtraitors riddle the Nightfort’s history with darkness and menace, and nowit stands in ruin, abode to rats and ghosts and shadows and nothing more.The castle was abandoned some two hundred years ago, too largeand too expensive to maintain. The men that held it sealed up the gate56