leer(s), also called perspicrith ("sense-holder"), sensurist, cognister or vatiseer. A creepy lot trained in seeing small and otherwise missed detail, remembering faces, following scents and trails, spying, shadowing, and all such prying arts; and the use of the sthenicon.
They soak their eyes over a period of months in special [potions] collectively called washes or opthasaums, which irreparably change the colors of their eyes and permanently alter the abilities of their sight. The first of these opthasaums prepares the eye for transformation and is called Saum of Adparat or adparatic syrup. After a month of soaking in this wash, one hour each day, the leer spends another month soaking his or her eyes in either of two washes: Bile of Vatës will make the more common leer known as a laggard with brown and yellow eyes, and cognistercus or Swill of Cognit the less common falsemen, with red and blue eyes. The whole process of changing a person's eyes is called adparation, and one can tell a leer by these weirdly colored orbs. Each leer also takes particular kinds of [potions] to enhance his or her capacities in day-to-day duties.
Leers are highly sought after: laggards in the wild places to warn against monsters or other lurking dangers, and to track brigands, smugglers and escaped prisoners; falsemen in the cities to work for the wealthy and for government, wheedling out the dishonest and sycophantic, and interrogating the suspicious. Though they alter their biology in a chemical way, they are not regarded with nearly as much suspicion or loathing as lahzars and are not questioned as potential gudgeons [man-made monsters].
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| A leer wearing a sthenicon. |
Falseman
falseman (falsemen), also called liedermen; leers who can tell a person's true emotional state, and thus can determine whether or not that person is being truthful. The washes they use to change their eyes make the whites turn bloody red and the irises go a bright pale blue.
A: Sense Lies, Contacts
B: Literacy, Memorization
C: Prominence
D: Embarrassing Secret
You gain +1 known language per Falseman template.
Starting Skill: (d6) 1. Etiquette, 2. Law, 3. Streetwise, 4. Investigation, 5. Espionage, 6. Politics.
Starting Items:
- dagger,
- proofing (any clothes you want, Def as leather),
- sthenicon (see below).
Sense Lies
You are well-versed in body language and can smell minor changes of mood. You know when someone is lying. They can evade, they can remain silent, but if they go to speak, they cannot hide their lies from you.
Contacts
Through both informants and official channels, you are often in the know on important informations. You are the first one to learn new gossips, and you have a 1-in-6 chance to have already heard something about any newly introduced NPC.
With a successful Charisma check, you may ask a favour of a contact. The favour will be things not generally available to the average person. The contact will not endanger himself or his employment, and may negotiate a payment or favour in return if the request is difficult or unpleasant.
You may call upon these contacts [Leer templates] per adventure.
Literacy
You can read and write. Most people can do both, but you can really write. Your letters allow for persuasion rolls at a distance. You can also roll under Intelligence to see the intentions of an author, the delicate themes of a poem, or the inconsistencies in a complex text.
Memorization
You have photographic memory. You can memorize any length of text after one reading. You can also search any location you have seen retrospectively, inspecting details you have not paid attention to before.
Prominence
Once per round, you can choose to be the most prominent person in a group or the least prominent person in a group.
Falsemen are sometimes employed as silent observers and discreet advisers, sometimes as spies and investigators, sometimes as terrifying interrogators or skillful barristers. They can switch between remaining unseen and unheard, and being the most interesting person in the room with frightening ease.
Embarrassing Secret
Once per person when you talk to them at least for a few minutes, you can discover a secret they would rather keep hidden. The GM will describe it to you.
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| A kraulschwimmen, one of the monsters to be hunted by leers. |
Laggard
laggard(s); a leer who can see through things, into dark and hidden places, and notice things far off. The name comes from the word "lag", which means to scour or scrub something. The washes they use to change their eyes make the whites turn olive-brown while the irises become a deep yellow.
A: Sense Hidden, Track
B: Vigilance
C: Danger Sense
D: Trackless Step, Bait
You gain +1 Stealth while in wilderness per Laggard template.
Starting Skill: (d6) 1. Hunting, 2. Trapping, 3. Bushcraft, 4. Monster Lore, 5. Animal Lore, 6. Pathfinding.
Starting Items:
- knupel,
- proofing (any clothes you want, Def as leather),
- sthenicon (see below).
knupel, also called virga; the most rough and knobbly of all the cudgels, it is often awarded to those who gain mastery of a bastinade [stick-fighting martial art]. A knupel is about 4½ feet to 5 feet long, thick at the hitting end and thinner at the strap-bound handle. Regarded as a "battlefield" weapon, a knupel can cause horrendous injuries.
Sense Hidden
You have low-light vision, requiring next to no light to see (though you still cannot see in total darkness). You easily notice anything amiss in your surroundings.
Depending on your GM, you should either be alerted whenever there is something interesting nearby (though you will have to find what exactly triggered your sixth sense yourself), or you receive advantage on all perception rolls (which is boring).
Track
Rather than requiring exploding 1d4 of exploration turns to follow a track, you only need simple 1d4 of exploration turns. Furthermore when you find the track of any creature or group, you learn a piece of useful information about them, and then one new information per hour of tracking.
Vigilance
Once per day when the GM gives you the Omen for an encounter, you can choose to reroll the encounter and get a different one. You must accept the new result.
Danger Sense
If you are surprised, you have a 50% chance to act on the surprise round anyway. If you encounter a creature no one in the group has seen before, you can roll under your Intelligence to remember a detail or weakness, provided the creature is not unique.
Trackless Step
As long as you are not in a significant rush, you leave no trail and cannot be tracked.
Bait
You can automatically trigger an encounter by putting out a bait and waiting in ambush.
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| Another leer with a sthenicon. |
Sthenicon
sthenicon(s), also called leer-box or simply box; a biologue [biological tool] used to seek out tiny or hidden smells, and to show things difficult to see - whether hidden or far off - more clearly.
Usually a simple, dark wooden box, with leather straps and buckles. The back, which goes against the face, is hollowed out and sealed within with a doeskin-like material. On each side of this protrude stubby brass horns. Air and the attendant odors enter through these hornlets and, by the organics inside, are rendered more odoriferous. If the compactly folded membrane inside that enhances smells so effectively was spread out, it would stretch around 120 squares of feet.
At the middle of the top of the box is a modest lens, through which vision is received. Upon the sides of the sthenicon, at the same height as the lens, are three slots, which the user can push in and out in various ways to alter the nature of how he sees. A small hole in one of the lower corners is bored into the front of the box, apparently to render the user more audible when talking, so that the device need not be removed to allow the wearer to speak. Another slot in the bottom of the box allows soups, thin stews and special [potions] that augment the use of this tool to be slurped with only minor inconvenience. The whole kit is fastened to the head - over the whole face - with the straps and buckles mentioned earlier.
If a sthenicon is worn for too long, the organs within can begin to grow into the user's own nasal membrane and even into the skin of the face. After about a week, the box could still be taken off, though the leer would find tendrils up their nose that would tear out painfully. After a month of wearing a sthenicon, it could not be removed without surgery and the loss of the front of one's face.
Used mostly by leers, who are highly trained in its use, and swallow special [potions] beforehand to help make their senses sharper and sniff exotic powders to retard the invasion of the biologue's organs.
As you put on a sthenicon, it will cover your whole face and press it against the warm, pliable artificial organs within. Its main function is to grant you a sense of smell on par with a scent hound. You can tell apart human, animal and monster scents, track different scent trails, and easily recognize anything and anyone you had smelled before. In addition, the different settings of its lens mechanism allow the leer to see as if through a spyglass, or with wizard vision.
One needs an extensive training to interpret sthenicon readings correctly, and thus very few non-leers can use it. Even leers need an hour after they put on their sthenicon to adjust to the altered sensory input, so you cannot just constantly don and doff it. However, your can become accustomed to the strange senses bestowed by a sthenicon, and for every day you wear it, you gain +1 to all perception checks, up to a maximum of your level. This bonus resets when you remove the sthenicon.
The organs inside tend to painfully grow into your nose and face, only to be ripped out when you take the sthenicon off, leaving nasty scars. For every day you use a sthenicon, you take 1 Charisma damage once you take it off. This damage heals normally, except it won't mend properly unless you refrain from using the sthenicon until it fully heals. Should you wear your sthenicon long enough to be reduced to 0 Cha by the damage you would take upon removing it, you will need surgical help to survive.
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| A brodchin. |
Finally, here are two fun types of chemicals that the leers can use (or that can be used against them):
signifer(s); the distinct parts of a scent or other trail that aid leers in their work. One of the more remarkable applications of a signifer is a group of [potions] known as anavoids, which leers use to mark someone or something they want to trail, following the distinct scent wherever it may lead. The best anavoids will last for weeks even in water, and are hard to detect by fellow leers, seeming more like a natural smell to all but the person who used it. It has been known for talented and well set-up leers to follow an anavoided trail even on ship from one harbor to another.
nullodour(s); a [potion] designed to hide or confuse or fake certain smells. Its most common use is to mask the distinctive odor of a person, so that he or she remains unnoticed by monsters. Also highly effective against leers.
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