Quick Fixers
for GURPS
by Stephen Dedman
In any adventure, there is likely to come a moment when the heroes or their equipment have taken more damage than they can deal with themselves, and they need to call for expert help. Given the variety of equipment adventurers are likely to carry, this may occasionally require some rather bizarre expertise.
Here is a modest collection of healers, artisans, and assorted repairmen from various eras. Each one is designed with a particular cultural background in mind but requires only minor changes to adapt for almost any setting.
Asta Kristinsdotter, Shaman and Exorcist
125 points
Asta is the wise-woman of a small, isolated Norwegian village. Her mother, Kristin, maintained that Asta's father was a skald who never returned from a Viking raid, but many in the village whisper that the dark-haired child was really the son of a Finnish wizard who passed on his magical talent.
Asta was married at 13. Though quick-tongued and not considered beautiful, she could skillfully run a household and a small farm, and a local midwife was training her.
She outlived her first husband and divorced her second. She was 44 and still childless when her third and last husband died. By the time she was 50, no one in the village remembered her birth or her father.
In a setting with magic, Asta may or not have some minor magical powers, depending on the needs of the campaign -- but she will recognize when first aid is more appropriate than an exorcism or other spell, and treat . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: May 9, 2008
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