Retarus

Retarus was born in Grathrendus and was apprenticed to the temple of the Emperor deified while still a youth. He was quickly taken into the temple guard when his physical gifts became apparent. There, Retarus performed competently enough for several years. However, returning drunk one night from a tavern he heard a muffled cry for help, and deciding on the spur of the moment to help, he found one man being held against a wall at knife point by three others. He cut one down before they even knew what had happened, and the other two fled. The man Retarus had rescued was effusive in his thanks, and took him drinking and gambling many times thereafter. Although Retarus didn't know it, the man turned out to be a senior member of a gang of thieves, and through him Retarus was introduced to the pleasures the seedy side of Grathrendus had to offer. He became slovenly in his duties, and in an attempt to straighten him out, the temple sent him to Karmorvus, where he underwent intensive sword training, as well as training as a siege engineer.

He performed well enough to be given some supervisory duties, but after his experiences in Grathrendus, Retarus became bored. He still had a few contacts, including a young gambler he had befriended, so he resigned from temple service and became a freelance sellsword. In that capacity he hooked up with the Red Gate gang, and after working with them a number of times became a member of the group, despite some tension between him and Erlach, over some thoughtless remarks the latter made about his temple service.

NB: Like almost all the members of the Red Gate gang, Retaurus was produced using the random character generator. His generation story is provided below his character sheet

CHA	VAL	Cost
STR	16	12
DEX	20	30
CON	19	18
BOD	13	6
INT	14	4
EGO	8	-4
PRE	7	-3
COM	13	1
PD	3
ED	4
SPD	3
REC	7
END	38
STUN	31
Total		61
OCV	7	+1/±1 with sword, ±1 with all HTH combat
DCV	7	±1 with sword, ±1 with all HTH combat
ECV	3

Cost	Skills and powers
4	FAM: Sword, Axe Sling and Bow
2	+1 OCV with sword
3	+1 CSL with sword
5	+1 CSL with all hand to hand combat
5	+1 with all DEX based skills
5	+5 STR (only for strike, -1)
5	Siege Engineer (13-)
1	Favour (11-) from a member of Grathrendus thieves' guild.
16	Martial Arts (unarmed combat) 12 Multipower : 12 point reserve 1 Basic Strike (12) +2d6 HA, +1 OCV 1 Killing Strike (10) +1/2 d6 HKA 1 Throw (12) +1d6 HA, +2 OCV, -1 DCV, opponent falls 1 Dodge (10) +5 DCV
3	Bureaucratics
10	Find Weakness (11-, sword)
3	KS: Battle magic (12-)
2	KS: Temple of Emperor Deified (11-)
3	KS: Famous temples (12-)
3	Interrogation
3	Defence maneuver
72	Total Powers and skills
133	Total CHA cost
50+	Disadvantages
10	Enraged when Religion Insulted (11-/14-)
10	DNPC (sidekick, 11-)
5	Professional rival (Erlach)
5	Phys Lim: One eye
53	Experience

Retarus - like all the Red Gate gang, was generated randomly. It's instructive to see how he was written up compared to Kalan - another random character.

Retarus's career went like this:

• Having decided he would be a warrior, Retarus scored big time off his random rolls. I rolled Temple warrior for his career, and chose sword and bow as his two weapon choices. He also got KS: religion as part of his starting package
• His first three rolls were perform competently - he gained some combat levels and Weapon Familiarities
• Things don't go as planned! Retarus ends up with brawling (+1d6HA) and Enraged as his Disadvantage. Looks like he has a bit of a temper.
• Retarus then gets a Perform brilliantly picking up Perk: favour and Defence maneuver
• Things go downhill after that, with a couple of things don't go as planned rolls, ending up with a couple of knowledge skills, a sidekick and one eye. Since this followed on immediately from his acquiring a criminal friend, I decided that Retarus was on the slippery slope, and was mixing with the wrong people.
• However, after that, he got several perform well rolls, picking up Martial arts off the priest table, Siege engineer, Find Weakness and Bureaucratics. Obviously he was back in good with the temple hierachy.
• His last roll was another things don't go as planned roll, landing him with a professional rival - obviously Erlach, since I was intending Retarus to join the Red Street gang - so this was when he left the temple.

With that background, it was easy to throw together a quick story and voila! - instant character. I also changed his brawling skill to +5 STR (only for strike) so he could use it with his martial arts. Otherwise, it would be pretty useless.