Haroo the Vast and Bladebreaker, A Young Aether Knight and His Apparatus

Haroo the Vast and Bladebreaker

The buforog knight Haroo the Vast came to knighthood following the old traditions, having been esquired to senior knight Orith Red-Fisted in the service of the Korward House Manin throughout his training.  While Haroo learned his lessons well, he found his duties increasingly hard to stomach as time went by.  House Manin's leadership had changed with the passing of time, with the current generation becoming cruel and domineering toward those they ruled over.  Orith's Nexus supported this tyranny in exchange for wealth and lives of privilege, even secretly using their 'Ratuses to massacre the leaders of a worker protest movement under the pretense of dealing with "dangerous bandits" in the forested hills.  Haroo was there that day among the squires on foot, although he took no part in the killings and was sworn to secrecy by his knight Orith in the aftermath.

On the day of his knighting, Haroo broke with his corrupted patrons, stating he had received a vision from Eskhara herself that commanded him to a period of errantry abroad until his true destiny revealed itself.  While there were certainly those who doubted the claim, Orith was not yet so lost to evil that he dared deny such a calling, and Haroo and his bonded 'Ratus were grudgingly released to seek their fate - albeit not without a reminder that Haroo's existing oaths were still binding.  The bloodbath Orith Red-Fisted had led would be kept quiet lest Haroo become an oath-breaker himself.

House Manin lacks such knightly scruples, and still regards Haroo's Bastion Bladebreaker as their rightful property.  This has led to encounters with bounty hunters seeking to reclaim the mighty machine, tensions with other Korward Houses, and complications with other authorities.  Haroo has kept on the move to keep ahead of his troubles, and it was during those wanderings that he met and joined his current Nexus.

Visuals: Haroo the Vast is a batrachian buforog of impressive size, with a mottled green hide that's usually swathed in loose-fitting, brightly-patterned clothing that's tailored to be easily shed if the wearer needs to go swimming.  His wardrobe is as voluminous as he is, all of it in brilliant rainbow colors.  In battle, he bears a sturdy square-headed mace backed up with a small handcaster.  He usually forgoes armor in favor of shielding spellweaves; as Haroo likes to say, crafting a suit of plate to cover his gargantuan form would require enough ore to build a whole other 'Ratus for the crew, so better that he rely on his magics instead.

Haroo is accompanied nearly everywhere by an ember-hound pup he befriended during his travels, which he claims to need for his own comfort as he's prone to catching chills.  The creature was the runt of its litter and looks even smaller relative to its enormous buforog owner, but it's still a dangerous opponent capable of dealing with most armed kin in a pinch; even more so when Haroo "lets it off its leash" and relaxes the magics keeping its flames from charring everything it comes in contact with.  Its hypothetical name is Sparks, but it really doesn't answer to it and the best way to get its attention is to offer it a chip of embershale as a snack. 

His 'Ratus Bladebreaker is much grimmer sight than its flamboyant master, being a hulking mass of blackened metal and dull yellow ceramics with deep red contrasts.  The thing has had such an array of adjunct limbs and weaponry added that it's barely recognizable as a Bastion frame.  It sports not one but two slab-like rectangular tower shields controlled by its massive primary arms, which partially conceal a jagged hatchet and heat-scarred snub cannon held by a set of smaller secondary appendages.    

 

Knight: Haroo     Kin: Buforog     Frame: Bastion     Moniker: Bladebreaker

Stone	Flux	Aether	Hearth
14	12	10	10
Energy	Armor Die	Damage Die	Nexus Die
16	D12 + 6	D6	D6

Augments: 

• Adjunct Limbs (Extra Armament) - You have four weapon slots instead of two, and gain either two weapons or a weapon and a shield to fill the extras.  In addition, you can benefit from two shields instead of one.

Boons:

• Companion: Ember-Hound - You are accompanied by a lupine creature engulfed in flames.  Your ember-hound increases your maximum Energy by 4.  In addition, you gain a +2 to damage rolls while on-foot. 

Frame Abilities:

• Bulwark - As an Activation, become fortified.  This effect lasts until you take a Maneuver or roll your Nexus Die.  In addition, while fortified, you can use an Interaction to make an engaged knight fortified. 
• Guardian - When an engaged knight would take damage, you can choose to roll your Armor Die to absorb damage for them.

Kin Ability: 

• Unkillable - If you would take damage, you can roll your Nexus die and reduce the damage by the result.

Nexus Surge: 

• Combined Assault - Choose an engaged knight.  You each immediately make a free attack with favor on the roll; on a success you each automatically deal max damage.

Weapons:  

• Axe - After rolling one damage, reroll the Damage Die and add it.
• Cannon - On hit, you may deal max damage, but downgrade Nexus Die after.
• Two Tower Shields - Each adds +3 to Armor Die rolls, tests made to retreat are hindered.

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Design Notes:

So that's a starting Bastion build with dual tower shields backed up by the buforog kin ability, which is leaning hard into being as durable as can be right from word one.  The extra Energy from having an ember-hound is almost overkill, but it does help with Bolster actions if needed.  Bladebreaker's not terribly versatile and suffers from the same low damage output most Bastions do, but it also avoids having any really weak aspects and starts with both a ranged and melee weapon, saving some time and AP forging one later.

And as we'll see in the next post, this is actually the basis for a risky but very high-damage Bastion build once the AP start coming in.