Rage

At a glance

Rage is a human barbarian and a member of the adventuring party.

Build overview

• Rules: 2024 core rules
• Species: Human
• Classes: Barbarian 3 / Bard 1
• Barbarian subclass: Path of the Berserker
• Background: Soldier
• Starting abilities: Strength 16, Dexterity 14, Constitution 14, Intelligence 8, Wisdom 8, Charisma 14
• Origin feat: Savage Attacker, granted by the Soldier background
• Human bonus Origin feat: Skilled, granting proficiency in Deception, Performance, and Persuasion
• Skill proficiencies: Athletics, Deception, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, and Survival
• Languages: Common, Common Sign Language, and Elvish
• Current Weapon Mastery choices: Greataxe and longsword

Advancement planning

• Level 3 choice: Multiclassed into Bard rather than taking a third Barbarian level.
• Bardic focus: Uses a set of drums worn at his waist for bardic magic and inspiration.
• Level 4 choice: Took a third Barbarian level and entered the Path of the Berserker.
• Later advancement choices will be recorded when they occur rather than projected in advance.
• Session 14: Suffered overwhelming supernatural terror at Castle Avernus’s dinner, leaving him incapacitated and imposing a lingering disadvantage on later saving throws.

Appearance and personality

• A massively built human, likened in the source notes to Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator.
• Blunt, loud, confrontational, and quick to seize the initiative.
• Smokes despite a hacking cough.
• Claims he is always looking for work that will make the world better.
• Has added a performer’s force and rhythm to his imposing presence, beating the drums at his waist to inspire allies and shape bardic magic.

Portrait

• Primary reference: Rage Portrait
• Canonical status: Visual baseline for Rage’s face, hair, beard, build, fur mantle, rugged equipment, and signature greataxe.

Abilities and equipment

• Trained as a barbarian.
• Follows the Path of the Berserker, channeling his rage into overwhelming aggression.
• Carries a greataxe, handaxe, and other martial weapons.
• His greataxe was treated with an oil said to make its blade indestructible. This was primarily flavorful and has no known mechanical effect.
• Carver has currently infused his greataxe as a +1 weapon.
• Wears a makeshift canvas cape cut from a treasury portrait of two unidentified, detective-like humans, one using a wheelchair.
• Carries one additional serving of Screaming Cheese and a sack of candied nuts.
• An unidentified red-and-black plague growth merged into the skin of his hand.
• Ate the severed human foot taken from one of the roadside travelers after one of its toes twitched. It is no longer on his necklace.
• Keeps a severed wererat foot and a fragment of the Richten House chair mimic on the chain at his neck. A crone prophesied that the slain would haunt its weight until granted final rest.
• Added one ear each from Vermoth and his two pale thralls to the trophy chain.
• Ate the three ears from Vermoth and his pale thralls, destroying them and feeling a magical tingle afterward.
• Added a severed werebear paw to the trophy chain. The wounded unicorn temporarily made the necklace disappear, but it reappeared the following morning; Rage later resolved its curse with funeral rites at sea.
• Recovered leather armor from the slain travelers as minor communal loot.
• Carries two healing potions purchased in Martira Bay.
• Wears a set of drums at his waist and uses them for Bardic Inspiration and spellcasting.
• Carries a faintly red-tinted Sun Blade recovered from Castle Avernus’s lower laboratory.

Connections

• Ignatius — fellow party member
• Carver — fellow party member

History

• Session 1: Shared a vision of a catastrophic ritual through a drunken haze, visited an elderly great-aunt’s or great-uncle’s grave in Rivalis, accepted Aldo’s request to watch a pale halfling, survived a near-fatal stabbing by a bat-shifting woman, and helped destroy animated shrubs born from a gray root.
• Session 2: Swung at the dissolving ghost, caught a pickpocket and obtained the vial later identified as a Darkon Talisman, endured the large blight’s blows, and killed it with his greataxe. Carver took custody of the talisman as party loot. Rage reached level 2.
• Session 3: Awoke to find his greataxe magically enhanced, provoked an animated scarecrow, consumed a heroic quantity of Screaming Cheese, and was overwhelmed by Vidic’s supernatural vision. Received a dried black lily from Brambledu.
• Session 4: Grabbed living plague matter bare-handed, won Rivalis’s pie contest, earned a fortune selling spices, and provoked a chair mimic inside Richten House.
• Session 5: Decapitated the bandaged horror, completed Erasmus’s cellar séance, survived being felled by its summoned creature, danced with a ghost, attacked an enlarging raven, and led the mistaken assault on four roadside travelers.
• Session 6: Concealed and mutilated the roadside dead, antagonized Lady Embermere, excavated one of Neblus’s paving graves, accepted an assassination contract, and negotiated a Dark Delver bounty.
• Session 7: Pinned Dorthol in a wrestling contest, killed High Sentinel Ablander during the failed ambush, and carried Black Lily into the Mists. Reached level 3.
• Session 8: Began expressing his Bard multiclass through drums worn at his waist, assessed Black Lily’s capabilities, investigated a rat-infested house, failed to intimidate the Last Breath’s patrons by breaking a chair, and purchased two healing potions.
• Session 9: Bought vampire and rat-shifter lore from Vidic, negotiated a donation for meeting Erasmus, joined Darian’s ecstatic revel, attempted to burn the Pale Lantern, killed one ratlike attacker, and captured another alive.
• Session 10: Mutilated and executed the captured wererat, received a prophecy concerning the trophies at his neck, joined the Keepers of the Feather, drove off a werebat with vicious mockery, and negotiated 40 gp from Black Lily for explosives.
• Session 11: Ate the twitching human foot from his trophy chain, scouted Martira Bay through summoned ravens, gambled and reveled at the Gilded Thorn, and decapitated the final fleeing thrall after Vermoth’s betrayal.
• Session 12: Took three ears from the roadside dead, smashed the coach hitch to outrun the Shroud, amputated Buddy’s forearm out of fear of lycanthropy, fought undead in the Mists, and entertained Rivalis’s refugees despite losing an arm-wrestling match.
• Session 13: Recruited Ooru, alienated Sister Elda with his trophy chain, killed and dismembered a diseased elf out of fear, and presented the party’s invitation at Castle Avernus.
• Session 14: Found his forgotten arrival recorded in the Book of Names, fell helpless beneath the dinner’s supernatural terror, helped destroy the castle’s giant undead, and reached level 4.
• Session 15: Commanded a construct aside, insisted on a second treasury haul, destroyed several guardians and elementals with his greataxe, purchased a greater restoration scroll from Siv, and took his third Barbarian level as a Path of the Berserker warrior.
• Session 16: Looted more of the treasury and made a portrait into a cape, shattered a skeletal guardian and Voss’s cage, entrusted Siv with the amnesiac prisoner, fled hundreds of corpses in supernatural fear, broke an invisible seal, and fought the bone beast’s hounds and skeletons.
• Session 17: Was knocked unconscious in the renewed bone-chamber battle, rose to help destroy the bone golem, escaped the endless skeleton horde, recovered in a lower laboratory, and claimed a red-tinted Sun Blade.
• Session 18: Destroyed the three ears on his trophy chain by eating them, killed a captive mind flayer with vicious mockery, freed Hyskosa and Lafing, and took a werebear paw after Carver killed the creature.
• Session 19: Broke the brazier’s final chains and fought the released fire elemental, then lost his cursed trophy necklace in a wounded unicorn’s cave.
• Session 20: Charmed a city guard, created a distraction with an Instrument of Illusions, broke Black Lily’s hand during the confrontation, and acquired magical equipment in Martira Bay.
• Session 21: Persuaded Snowmane to take the party to Barovia, began a romantic connection with her, used his legs as bait for the leg-taking killer, and was bitten by a rat-swarm creature that left an unidentified infection.
• Session 22: Escaped Martira Bay aboard the River Dancer, performed for its crew, and with Snowmane gave the souls bound to his trophy necklace proper funeral rites at sea, resolving its curse.

Current status

Active; Barbarian 3 / Bard 1, following the Path of the Berserker, and a member of the Keepers of the Feather. Aboard the River Dancer in the Mists with the company, carrying an unidentified infection from the rat-swarm creature’s bite. The curse on his trophy necklace has been resolved through funeral rites at sea; he still wears a crude portrait-cape and carries a red-tinted Sun Blade.

Goals and unresolved questions

• Investigate the pale halfling on Aldo’s behalf.
• Learn the identity and motives of the woman from Martira Bay.
• Discover why the gravelight above his relative’s grave dropped as though struck.
• Learn to recognize vampires—or at least stop mistaking every supernatural creature for one.

Gallery

• Darkon Party Portrait — Rage stands with Carver and Ignatius in the original group reference.
• Gravelights at the Graves — Rage watches the gravelights behave strangely among Rivalis’s graves.
• Roots Beneath Rivalis — Rage brings his greataxe against the blights in a Rivalis garden.
• Haunted Visage at the Coachman’s Rest — Rage’s greataxe passes harmlessly through the pale apparition.
• The Gardens Swallow Their Dead — Rage stands over the defeated blight as the Gardens reclaim it.
• The Scarecrow’s Last Moment — Rage faces the animated scarecrow beside Ignatius.
• Rage and the Reversed Waterfall — Screaming Cheese carries Rage into an impossible vision.
• Vidic Reveals Himself — Rage witnesses Vidic’s transformation in the cattle fields.
• The House Beyond the Mists — Rage follows Ignatius toward the hidden Richten House.
• The Chair Bites Back — Rage discovers that the dining-room furniture is hungry.
• Carver’s Last Radiant Bolt — Rage lies fallen as Carver destroys the cellar creature.
• A Dance with Van Richten’s Grief — Rage buckles beneath the monster hunter’s grief during the ghostly dance.
• The Dead Beneath Neblus — Rage uncovers corpse ash while Black Lily offers an assassination contract.
• A Coin for Lady Embermere — Rage introduces himself to Neblus nobility with a thrown coin.
• Ablander’s Last Midnight — Rage pursues the High Sentinel through the Shrine.
• Into the Mists, Willingly or Not — Rage carries Black Lily during the flight from Neblus.
• Chip, It Answered — Rage watches Carver’s spectral feline creation take shape at Richten House.
• The First Fruits of Advancement — Rage channels his new bardic magic through the paired drums at his waist.
• The Ghost at the Sound of His Name — Rage prepares to negotiate after Erasmus surprises Vidic.
• A Drop for Black Lily — Rage drums among the Pale Lantern’s ecstatic revelers.
• The Pale Lantern Will Not Burn — Rage discovers that the Pale Lantern’s furnishings refuse to catch fire.
• One Dead, One Taken — Rage kills one ratlike attacker and incapacitates another.
• Hundreds of Talons — Rage swears the Keepers’ oath around Vidic’s seer’s stone.
• The Weight upon the Chain — A crone pronounces judgment upon the trophies chained across Rage’s chest.
• The Heckler Takes Wing — Rage’s bardic mockery drives a werebat from a Martira Bay street.
• The Twitch upon the Chain — Rage answers a twitching trophy with a horrifyingly practical solution.
• The Road Out of Martira Bay — Rage strides alongside the coach as the party leaves Martira Bay.
• Rage’s First Thunderwave — Rage’s first thunderwave hurls the lesser dead away from the coach.
• Ride Through the Dead — Rage clings to the coach as it crashes through the undead roadblock.
• Mercy Born of Fear — Rage confronts the aftermath of the amputation his fear compelled.
• Battle Within the Shroud — Rage looms through the mist as his companions strike the skeletal horrors.
• The Shroud Takes Rivalis — Rage carries the wounded Buddy toward a half-lost Rivalis.
• A Merchant Takes Up the Spear — Rage receives Ooru’s sincere pledge as Ignatius gives the merchant a spear.
• What Spilled upon Hook Road — Rage recoils from the diseased elf’s grisly burden moments before fear takes control.
• Beneath the Broken Spire — Rage approaches Castle Avernus with the four-person company.
• The Book That Remembered Rage — Rage reads his own forgotten thoughts in the Library of Names.
• Three Futures for Darkon — Rage falls to his knees beneath the terror of the impossible dinner.
• What Rose in the Slaughterhouse — Rage holds the flesh-built giant at bay with his greataxe.
• Slippery Siv Steps Free — Rage towers behind Carver as Siv emerges from his cage.
• Rage Loots the Treasury — Rage shovels gold and jewels into the Bag of Holding with unrestrained delight.
• Birth of Pearl — Rage stands back in wary awe as the elemental apparatus creates Pearl’s crystal.
• The Portrait Cape — Rage displays the canvas portrait he has converted into treasury finery.
• Slippery Siv Is Back — Rage witnesses the curse release Siv into his restored human form.
• The Man Who Remembered Nothing — Rage holds aside the cell’s broken bars as Carver calms Voss.
• To the Bone Room! — Rage advances across the buried dead while Pearl confronts the bone beast.
• Rage and the Giant Rat — Rage returns to the battle with his giant rat as skeletons surround the retreating golem.
• Chip Brings Down the Bone Golem — Rage attacks beside Carver, Ignatius, Pearl, and Chip’s decisive Flamethrower.
• Flight from the Endless Dead — Rage escapes the Bone Chambers with Carver and Ignatius.
• The Red Sun Blade — Rage examines the red-glowing Sun Blade in the lower laboratory.
• Rage Breaks the Chain — Rage’s greataxe shatters a restraint chain as a fire elemental begins to rise from the torture chamber brazier.
• Hyskosa’s Revelation — Rage buckles beneath the grief that follows Hyskosa’s revealed face.
• Hyskosa’s Scrying Pool — Rage provides the blood that lets Hyskosa’s basin reveal Ankhtepot’s vision.
• Carver Heals the Unicorn — Rage keeps watch while Carver heals the wounded unicorn.
• Pearl Strikes the Fire Elemental — Rage attacks the great fire elemental as Pearl delivers the final blow.
• Black Lily’s Reckoning — Rage forces Black Lily to face the evidence of Vermoth’s betrayal.
• The Attic Coffins Open — Rage raises his greataxe as two attic coffins release aberrations.
• Snowmane Approaches the River Dancer — Rage turns to meet Snowmane in the River Dancer’s gaming lounge.
• The River Dancer Awakens — Rage reaches out to calm Snowmane as living vines awaken around the River Dancer lounge.
• A Quiet Cabin Accord — Rage and Snowmane share a private, quiet moment in the captain’s cabin.
• The Rat House Erupts — Rage braces with his greataxe as Boneless and a rising rat swarm attack in the alley.
• Above the Guard Search — Rage hides on the rooftops as guards search the Rat House alley below.
• Alley Patrol Ambush — A patrol captain’s sword checks Rage as Carver and Ignatius prepare to fight.
• Rage Lays the Chain to Rest — Rage and Snowmane release the cursed trophy chain in funeral rites at sea.