One of Acryn's most ancient houses, House Blackthorn has a somewhat ignominious history dating back to the founding of the city. The first record of the house is to be found in the first years of Acryn, when Lord Agathorn Blackthorn betrayed his own mercenary company to the forces of Acryn during the Battle of Marguis and was awarded a minor noble title by the King for his service. Later Lady Arabeth Blackthorn won the house a Dukedom after her short lived marriage to Duke Doran Cargan, who was trampled to death by his own horse, his butlers horse and 43 other unknown horses during a hunting accident in a warehouse in the Acryn docks three hours after the wedding. During the Reign of King Rodderick the Mad, house Blackthorn nearly took the throne after the 'Red Brunch' resulted in death of some 32 members of the Salic family, until it was discovered that the person who stowed the crates of alchemical blasting powder in the palace wine cellar was none other than Grand Duchess Alicia Blackthorn. The house survived several more centuries until the Dukedom was finally lost during the rule of Queen Belegrana some 200 years ago when Duke Argon Blackthorn was discovered, in the nude, in the King's bedchamber with a claw fiend, the Head of the Guild of Heralds and three Caulish assassins. The Duke's subsequent trial and execution marked the beginning of House Blackthorn's decline.

Arcus is the last of his line and, though he'd never admit it, of somewhat dubious heritage. His Mother, the late Countess, raised him alone in the run down town-house in the docks that represented the last of the family's once great estate. She instilled in her son all the great lessons of nobility; self-confidence, narcissism and an enduring devotion to the purity of the noble essence.

Determined to be the Blackthorn that finally made it, Arcus pawned his signet ring (bearing the family crest of two Weasels Strident on an argent field, holding aloft a ducal coronet with the whole wrapped in black thorns) and began his adventuring career, always remembering the family motto; “We Win or We Cheat”.

More recently Arcus discovered, coincidentally simultaneously with the first award of the Blackthorn Honoury Monetary Scholarship in Investigative Genealogy, that due to some historical oversight in the records the Blackthorn Dukedom did in fact survive through his mother's fifth uncle once removed and in fact he is the last Duke Blackthorn. Anyone who says otherwise is not invited to his very expensive parties.

During the events of the Cargan attempt to restore the royal line of Acyrn, Arcus was last seen exploding into a rippling whirlwind of flux. Events were confused at the time but reportedly he shouted something along the lines of: 'Yes! At last! A Blackthorn is King!'. The executors of his estate deny this was the case.

Class: Wayfinder

Background #1: Nobility/Merchant

Background #2: Diplomat

Background #3: Thief

Background #4: Weaponry (Rapier)

Skills

• Find the Path
• Inertial Barrier
• Choose the Path
• Light Armour Training
• Light Armour Swiftness
• Repair the form
• Shake Reality's Fetters
• Know the Flux's Touch
• Concealed arts
• Flux shaping: Items
• Flux shaping: Landscaping
• Flux shaping: Worldshaping
• Repairing Inertial Barrier
• Restore the form
• Flux Summoning
• Destabilisation
• Guild membership
• Solid reputation
• Guild Backing
• Guild Councillor
• Permanent Stabilization
• Restoring inertial barrier
• Durable inertial barrier

Scion of the Flux

• Persistence
• Personal Enhancement
• More Flux now than Mortal…

Background Skills

• Wealth 5 (A scurrilous political magazine, a horse racing syndicate, a share in a firm of unscrupulous lawyers, share in a theatre company, haute couture Jewellers)
• Connections (Nobility)
• Connections (Council)
• Estates
• Diplomacy (+ once per adventure can convince a group he is their superior)
• Fast talk
• Attention Grabbing
• Larceny
• Pickpocket
• Disguise
• Use Weapon
• Weapon Talent 1
• Weapon Potency

Epic Skills

• Mark of the Soul

Equipment:

447 Riel

• Water-proof tent
  
• Mastercrafted Rapier
  
• Mastercrafted Light Armour

• A sample of dried blood from the last of the royal line of Acryn
  

• Master-crafted dagger related to the Salic hoard.
  

• Blessed Mask that makes the wearer look like Arcus Blackthorn
  

• Wierdly perfect glass flower

Income/Resources:

• 225 riel per adventure - 30 for Alastair Fitzgrave's salary +30 from guild.

• A few royalist sympathisers scattered through the city
  

• A squad of goons appended to military forces.

• Loyal Guild wayfinders trained in crazy flux travel.

• Member of the Council
  

• Castle Blackthorn- a monument to one man's ego and terrible taste

• The Blackthorn Boarding School for Destitute Children (a mine) - a joint venture with a Caulish mining magnate and the Terrac family, Arcus gets 70 Acra of the produce.

Little Black Book

• Random Mine owning Councillor bribed
• Blackmailing the Graves Family
• Won the favour of the Caulish church

Stats

5 + 5
+2 Dodge in flux
4 armour hits in flux
Blind 5 twice per encounter in flux
+1 dodge in light armour
+4 body hits between encounters in flux or +2 hits if at full
+2 Disarms/weakens