Player Characters
All’s Well That Ends tells a story of several characters, each with their own set of strengths and weaknesses, abilities, traits, and equipment, who strive against formidable odds to realise desperate goals. To experience all of their travails, you will need to play through the full campaign, a series of linked combat scenarios and exploration phases over which their stories unfold.
Marica – the Archagonist
The initial instigator of All's Well That Ends, Marica is a former battle captain of High House Norohd – a once-loyal dog of war. After the house discharged her entire cohort for undisclosed reasons, her erstwhile comrades began to disappear. When one too many tavern tables lay empty, Marica started asking questions. Questions led to clues, and clues to a thankless journey beyond the fringes of Civilisation and across the Western Wildlands.
It is Marica's arrival in the frontier town of Helhope, and the treacherous former allies that follow her there, that drive the opening beats of the story. Fortunately, she has just enough time to recruit a small group of sellswords before chaos descends.
In combat, Marica plays the dual roles of party support and melee beatstick. Her skill with her warpick enables her to punch through the most stalwart of enemy defences, while her healing abilities will keep her and her allies on their feet long after their natural stamina has failed. Such is her tenacity that she is able to heal even when floored, meaning that she is never quite out of the fight. As befits the party's leader, Marica has access to a range of orders on her action cards. And as befits a vengeful military veteran, she also has more than the average number of rampage options.
Lambik – the Occulted
Though the laws of the high houses call for arcaniacs to be hanged on sight, few enough of the houses' scions venture beyond Civilisation that the forbidden arts still tempt some denizens of the Wildlands. Lambik is one such benighted adept, though he sought wise tutelage under the wing of the master Carnelion, whose manse far beyond the Hot Flats remains unassailable by the houses.
Of course, Carnelion did not share his power without a price, and now Lambik finds himself driven back towards the teeth of the high houses, leashed to Marica's venture for reasons only his master truly knows.
While Lambik is fragile, and must either avoid direct damage or maintain solid defences, he is able to deal considerable punishment from a moderate distance with his chained blade. With his ability to store brace tokens on his weapon cards, he can bound up and down the trigger sequence between rounds, as well as using the tokens to fuel his unique weapon abilities. His wide influence enables him to inflict his arcane abilities on distant enemies, sending them shrieking into danger or simply crushing their will to fight on.
Groanax – the Zealbreaker
The Western Wildlands are home to all manner of fell creatures and bizarre echoes of humankind, but also to droves of simple men and women who seek solace from the stifling rule of Civilisation's high houses. Once a factotum of House Borclava, Groanax fled from the house soon after the birth of his daughter, and on a small plot of land in the hills north of Helhope he turned his killing irons to ploughshares.
That simple way of life could not last in such a place. After several years of honest labour, Groanax returned from selling off his harvest surplus to find his home ransacked, his wife slain and his beloved daughter missing. He knew the culprits: the slavers and bandits of the Kulatt Klan. But he could not dig them out of their refuge in Whalers Wood alone. Then, by chance, came Marica.
Groanax swings his ranch mattock hard enough to split rocks, let alone the skulls of his mortal enemies. With high health and potency, you just need to steer him into the thing you want to die. But beware, as a melee fighter he can quickly be overwhelmed if caught out of position. Fortunately, his plough and hurl abilities enable him to clear paths through his enemies, while he intimidates others into submission.
Knowman – the Ambuscader
Lawless lands exert an inexorable pull on rogues and rakehells, and so it was only a matter of time before Knowman found his way back to Helhope. Though he has adventured across most of Civilisation and, on occasion, well beyond (and is not shy of recounting the many epic deeds he performed there), he has a certain soft spot for the futile endurance of the little frontier town and its motley, flea-bitten people.
Along the way he has evaded the wrath of many enemies, from scorned patrons to betrayed allies, and on this occasion Helhope is perhaps the last place he can find refuge from the consequences. So when Marica essentially offers an armed escort into the Wildlands, Knowman is quick to join her.
Never one to risk his own life and limb when others can shoulder that burden, Knowman tackles his enemies from a distance. Of course, this means that he is rarely around to loot the spoils, but he has subtler ways of getting his hands on coin. Able to pin his foes in place with his hobble ability, Knowman also carries a belt loaded with primitive explosives and fulminating potions, so once he has assured himself a safe distance he can sow carnage among massed opposition.