[-11 Hit Points: Bludgeoning damage]
[Hit Points: -3/15]
I dreamed. Maybe.
I dreamed the stars were falling around me, and shattering like glass, like crystal, like little gilded frames. I dreamed of heat inside, and of long, cold hands. My cheekbone hurt. I dreamed of sunbeams that pierced the earth, and a Voice crying,
Footsteps, crunching the shards, and then a different voice, this one cold and cynical. “…wouldn’t believe it, but I heard this giant crash, and it turns out the other crazy halfling was here. She got the crystal. Hmm? What’s that? No…” The voice turned oh-so-clever. “…I’m afraid she didn’t survive. Blown completely to bits. Not enough of a body left to resurrect.”
Voice? I thought, What do we do now? but there was no answer, just the faint click of a sirenstone turning off.
I dreamed of a cold, cruel smile. “This time, you little imp, you are well and truly mine.”
About the Author
A. J. Galelyn is a starving artist the soon to be bestselling author of the Cerulean novels featuring the impetuous halfling Samiel. She is an American expat currently living in Central America, where she divides her time between attempting to surf and keeping her laptops alive long enough to feed her videogaming addictions. Her qualifications for RPG.lit authorship include having read very nearly every book in her local library, and having played and DM’d tabletop and computer roleplaying games since she first owned a computer at age 20, when she learned that pretend isn’t just for kids.
For updates on further adventures in Cerulea, join AJ’s newsletter:
Tell me when the next book is out!
Cerulea Terms
Hit Points
Hit Points are a representation of your current level of health. Hit Points can be lost by taking damage or loosing Constitution. At 0 Hit Points, you fall unconscious. At -5 Hit Points, you begin bleeding to death. When your negative Hit Points go below your current Constitution score, you die.
Hit Points will replenish over time as you rest and heal. Certain effects such as divine magic restore Hit Points more quickly than is natural.
Attack Bonus
Your Attack Bonus represents your ability to land a damaging blow against an opponent. Your combat experience (as represented by your class combinations) as well as your innate ability (as represented by your stats) determine this. Without special training, it takes a good Strength to hit someone hard enough to hurt.
XP
XP stands for Experience Points and represents the personal growth achieved by surviving challenges and overcoming obstacles. You need Experience Points to aquire levels, purchase stat increases, and unlock feats. Experience Points can be gained by completing quests and optional objectives within the quest.
Damage Type
Damage type: Bludgeoning
Bludgeoning damage takes the form of bruises and broken bones. Blunt weapons deal Bludgeoning damage. Bludgeoning is one of three physical damage types, the other two are Piercing and Slashing.
Damage type: Slashing
Slashing damage takes the form of cuts and scrapes. Edged weapons deal Slashing damage. Slashing is one of three physical damage types, the other two are Bludgeoning and Piercing.
Damage type: Piercing
Piercing damage takes the form of stabs, pinches, stings and impalement. Pointy weapons deal Piercing damage. Piercing is one of the three physical damage types, the other two are Bludgeoning and Slashing.
Damage type: Fire
Fire damage burns. Fire is one of fire elemental damage types; the others are Cold, Electric, Acid and Sonic.
Feats
Feats are special, discrete, talents that you can train to assist you in adventuring. Everyone can earn feats, but some can only be taken by people who have met the prerequisites. Feats are acquired during gameplay by attempting and succeeding at something exceptional.
Feat: Dodge
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but misses never hurt me.
Dodge: You have a percentage chance to dodge incoming attacks and effects. Your dodge chance is based on your Dexterity score.
Feat: Mobility
Tumbling through bad guys while drawing your weapon while dodging attacks while positioning yourself for a well timed strike is not called “multi-tasking”, it’s called “staying alive”.
Mobility allows you to preform a secondary action while moving, and makes you more difficult to hit when you’re not standing still.
Prerequisites: Dodge
Skills
Skills are trained abilities that you possess. A high level of skill in a certain area will allow you do overcome more difficult challenges and use the skill more creatively than a low skill. All skills are based in one of the three physical or three mental stats, this represents the amount of “natural talent” a person has, regardless of training. Your Intelligence score will determine how many skills you have access to.
Almost anyone can train any skill, but some races or classes will be better at certain skills. A few skills (such as Improvise Magic Device) are restricted to certain classes (Sorcerers and Rogues, respectively). Skills are trained during gameplay as you have access to them.
Skill: Escape Artist
Help! Help! I’m being repressed!
Escape Artist allows you to pull free of things that bind and entrap you. Ropes, chains, quicksand, corsets… you just don’t take “I’m stuck” for an answer.
Base: Dexterity
Skill: Stealth
Sneaky, sneaky ninja. Wait, what ninja?
Stealth allows you to conceal yourself, hide from your enemies, and move without being noticed.
Base: Dexterity
Note: Halflings receive a +4 bonus to Stealth because of how small and light they are.
Skill: Slight of Hand
Idle hands may be the devils workshop, but light fingers are his Amazon Prime account.
Slight of Hand allows you to palm small objects and perform feats of deception, such as picking a pocket or pulling a coin from thin air.
Base: Dexterity
Skill: Perception
Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it wont see you.
Perception is a measure of your ability to notice things in your local environment, such as a footprint concealed in the mud or a tiny sound that wakes you in the night.
Base: Wisdom
Skill: Jump
Look before you leap, and then sometimes, leap anyway.
The Jump skill is a measurement of how far and how high you can jump, as well as your ability to land safely afterwards. A good Jump skill will allow you to negate some damage from falling.
Base: Strength
Note: Even though they lack strength, halflings get a +2 bonus to Jump because of their light frame.
Skill: Hunting
“Lost” is just a point of view. Preferably, someone else’s.
The Hunting skill represents your ability to take care of yourself and survive in the wild. A high Hunting skill allows you to follow game trails, intuit the behavior of animals and evade pursuit.
Base: Wisdom
Skill: Climb
Two dimensional movement is for people that lack imagination.
The Climb skill is a measurement of quickly and nimbly you can climb things. From cliff faces to trees to the shaggy hide of a charging mammoth, you know just where to shift your weight and get a grip to get yourself up and over an obstacle.
Base: Strength
Note: Even though they lack strength, halflings get a +2 bonus to Climb because of their light frame and proportionally long limbs.
Skill: Improvise Magic Device
What's the magic word again? Klaatu Barada Nik*cough*tomumblemumblemumble…
Improvise Magic Device allows you to activate, trigger, s
et off or use a magical artifact. From “abracadabra” to an inexplicable desire to polish old lamps with genies inside, this is the skill with which even manaless mundanes can cause more trouble than a rogue kitten in a nuclear launch facility.
Base: Charisma
(Not, obviously, Wisdom. Definitely not Wisdom)
Skill: Trapsmithing
You are just one of those people that can’t leave puzzles well enough alone.
Trapsmithing allows you to decode, pick apart, disable or jury rig mechanical devices of all kinds. From traps to locks to pocket watches; if it’s got gears, triggers, tumblers, or something inside it that goes “tick”, you can have it buggered up in no time.
Base: Intelligence
Note: Trapsmithing requires the proper tools. “Your face” is not considered a proper tool, except possibly by orks, to whom it is both an ideal can opener AND the best punchline to any joke, ever.
Skill: Bluff
You are less worried about absolute truth than you are about temporary plausibility.
The Bluff skill allows you to lie, cheat, and bullshit with such grand aplomb that your mark doesn’t just fall for it, they actively want to believe you. And is it really so wrong to give them what they want? After all, that elephant really might have been yours.
Base: Charisma
Skill: Intimidate
Go ahead, punk; make my day.
The Intimidate skill allows you to stare down, bully, unnerve and otherwise terrify others into doing what you want. Or not doing what you don’t want. Or just panicking.
Base: Charisma
Granted Abilities
Granted Abilities are talents bestowed on you when you reach a certain level in a given class. Everyone with enough levels in a class will receive the Granted Ability. Granted Abilities are usually specific to the class that grants them and not available for general access. Granted abilities are acquired upon leveling.
Granted Ability: Precision Fighting
Precision Fighting allows you to use your Dexterity as your primary stat to determine if you score a damaging blow on an enemy in melee combat. Without Precision Fighting, only your Strength score factors into your attack bonus.
Note: Precision Fighting does not apply to all weapons. Only small, light weapons are “precise”, such as daggers, rapiers or handaxes. Greatswords, cutlasses or trees do not count.
Granted Ability: Wilderness Survival
Wilderness Survival adds to your Hunting skill in your native terrain.
Granted Ability: Ambidextrous Fighting
Ambidextrous Fighting allows you to make an attack with either hand while wielding two weapons. Because of the extra concentration required, it will be more difficult to land a blow with either attack.
Prerequisite: Dexterity of 15 or higher, or else you risk chopping off your own nose.
Granted Ability: Sneak Attack
No one has their guard up all the time, and you know how to hit them just where it hurts. Your attacks do extra damage when your opponent doesn’t see them coming.
Granted Ability: Trapfinding
Paranoia is not a disorder. You have a sixth sense for when the world is out to get you, and can use your Perception skill to notice traps.
Granted Ability: Evasion
Evasion allows you to twist and move in such a way that you have a chance to dodge through the safe spaces in otherwise impenetrably dangerous areas.
Granted Ability: Minor Magic
There is magic in your blood. How it got there is between you and your doctor. Sometimes, though, it comes out on its own… you can occasionally cast a single, simple spell.
Background
Everyone comes from somewhere, and your unique experiences will interact with your choice of classes, feats, and skills; restricting some choices and opening up others. Backgrounds must be selected during creation and cannot be modified after. You aren’t actually required to be an orphan, but if not, you must have a signed permission slip from your parents.
Background: Wild Child, Waif of the Sands
In a faraway land,
in a faraway place,
there was born a girl without a face.
Her father sighed,
and her mother cried,
and when the tribe moved on, they left her behind.
But the sand was her cradle,
and the sun kept her warm,
the wind took a vow to protect her from harm.
The dustdevils gave her sandrubies for eyes,
and her mouth was carved out
by a soft summer storm.
Soon she grew from a babe to a girl.
First she could run, and then she could twirl.
Around and around,
like the buzzards on high,
she danced with the wind, and fought with the sky.
“Rebellious child!” they told her one day
“We love you, we love you, but you just cannot stay.
You must venture forth,
take your leave of this land,
find your own people, and learn of their ways.”
From the desert she took
the mirage that conceals,
the peace of the night,
and all that was real.
She waved to the jackals, kissed the scorpions farewell,
and came into town with a story to tell.
Class
Your class represents your training and general philosophy towards adventuring. Some classes, such as Sorcerer and Wizard, may seem similar, but have completely opposing perspectives towards the use and control of arcane magic, and they will have different Granted Abilities as well as Skill and Feat options. You may take levels in as many different classes as you like, but diversifying comes at the expense of gaining expertise in any one class. Taking all your levels in a single class is referred to as a “pure build”, two classes is “dual classing”, and three or more is called “gimped”.
Class: Ranger
Rangers are independent fighting combatants that rely heavily on skills. Most of them gained their abilities out in the wilderness and are just as happy to live on the fringes of society, making a living as trackers and trappers and guides. They are proficient with light armor that leaves them mobile, but cannot use heavy tower shields or platemail.
Rangers come in two types: “ranged rangers” specializing in distance combat that can put an arrow in a bulls eye from halfway across the world, and then two more next to it before anyone has figured out where the first on even came from; and “melee rangers” that use Ambidextrous Fighting to slice and dice their way in and out of combat.
Rangers do no appreciate the terms “redneck” or “hillbilly” or “that crazy mountain man that smells like a Sasquatch”. They are simply very practical folks that cure their own hides and think of hairbrushes as extra weight. If you piss off your ranger you are likely to find yourself stranded a long way from home with a note pinned to the poison ivy saying “Makes great toilet paper, really!”
Class: Rogue
Rogues are skill based adventurers that engage in combat indirectly, hiding in the shadows and striking when they are least expected. Some rogues prefer to avoid direct confrontation and instead defeat their enemies with clever tricks and traps. Rogues have access to more skills than any other class, including the exclusive Improvise Magic Device and Trapsmithing.
Rogues are easy to get along with so long as you are fanatically curious about everything under the sun, and not under the sun, and want to know the name of every type of fastener ever invented, and are also very “detail oriented”. You can tell when your rogue likes you because they’ll point out the hidden tripwire before you walk into it.
Levels
Your level represents your adventuring experience. The longer you have been adventuring and the more challenges you have overcome, the more levels you will have. Each level must be taken in one of the available classes.
Stats
Stats are your fundamental characteristics. There are three physical stats (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution) and three mental, or internal, stats (Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma). Your stats will determine what feats are available to you and how much natural talent you have with your skills. In any stat a score of 10 is considered average, and will naturally range from a 6 (very low) to an 18 (extraordinarily high). Some races have advantages or penalties that modify these extremes, although someone with a stat below a 6 is considered disabled and are unlikely to be functional without special provisions. Stats can be temporarily modified by unusual conditions and magic, or permanently modified by very powerful magic or adventuring experience.
Strength
Strength is a measure of how strong you are. It will determine how much you can lift, how much you can carry, and how easy it is for you score a wounding blow on an opponent in melee combat.
If your Strength falls to a score of 0 for any reason, you are too weak to move and collapse immobile on the ground.
High: You can bench press a gorilla.
Low: You loose arm wrestling contests to rubber bands.
Dexterity
Dexterity is a measure of how quick, nimble and agile you are. It determines your coordination, fine muscle control, speed and reflexes. Your Dexterity also measures how easily you hit a target in ranged combat.
If your Dexterity falls to a score of 0 for any reason, your muscles lack the coordination to stand, move, or engage in any activity.
High: You win cartwheel races on tightropes.
Low: You can trip over your own two feet while sitting down.
Constitution
Constitution is a measure of your overall health and hardiness. It determines how many hit points you have, how tough you are, and how often you get sick.
If your Constitution falls to a score of 0 for any reason, you are dead. It is possible die from Hit Point damage even if your Constitution score is unaffected.
A Fist Full of Sand: A Book of Cerulea (Sam's Song 1) Page 28