Chương 48: Bonus Content: Character Sheet — Chancellor Stondall

Character Sheet — Chancellor Stondall Race: Karkadann · Rogue 15 (Arcane Trickster) · The King's Strong Hand Core Stats Armor Class 17 (natural armor, Dex, warded chain of office) Hit Points 114 (15d8 + 45) Speed 30 ft. Initiative +3 · Proficiency Bonus +5 STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 16 (+3) 16 (+3) 20 (+5) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) Saving Throws Dex +8, Int +10, Wis +7 (Slippery Mind); advantage vs. charmed & frightened.

Skills: Expertise: Insight +12, Investigation +15, History +15, Persuasion +12 · Proficient: Arcana +10, Deception +7, Intimidation +7, Perception +7, Sleight of Hand +8 · Reliable Talent (any proficient check treats a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10) Senses: passive Perception 22 (Observant); Blindsight 10 ft.; keen smell (advantage on Perception checks that rely on smell) Languages: Common, several court and trade tongues, and whatever he is currently decoding; reads lips.

Feats Observant — +5 to passive Perception and Investigation, and he can read lips across a crowded hall. Nothing said in his presence is off the record. Keen Mind — perfect recall of anything he has seen or heard in the last month. The chancellor who "keeps a record of everything" partly is the record. Fey Touched — Misty Step and Command — a one-word compulsion and a quiet exit. Two Ability Score Improvements bringing Intelligence to 20 and steadying his Dexterity.

Spellcasting (Arcane Trickster) Spell save DC 18 · Spell attack +10 · Focus: Enchantment & Illusion — subtle, court-appropriate, deniable. Cantrips: Mage Hand (Legerdemain), Minor Illusion, Message 1st: Charm Person, Disguise Self, Detect Magic, Command (Fey Touched) 2nd: Suggestion, Detect Thoughts, Invisibility 3rd: Hypnotic Pattern, Sending, Fear Slots: 4 / 3 / 2 (max 3rd level; 4th arrives at Rogue 19) Mage Hand Legerdemain — his spectral hand is invisible and can plant, lift, and manipulate at range.

Evidence appears and disappears at his convenience. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. The chancellor in play Stondall does not fight, in the sense a fighter would recognize. He wins the encounter before it becomes one, and the pieces are built for exactly that: He already knows. Observant reading lips, Keen Mind holding a month of perfect record, Detect Thoughts when he needs the rest — he walks into the room with the information everyone else thinks is still hidden.

Reliable Talent means he does not fail the checks that matter; he is, as he says, accurate rather than generous. He nudges rather than shoves. Suggestion, Command, Charm Person, Hypnotic Pattern — small, quiet compulsions that look like other people simply deciding to be reasonable. Mage Hand Legerdemain moves the document, plants the letter, lifts the seal, all unseen. He is impossible to move or fool.

Slippery Mind and advantage against charm and fear make the manipulator unmanipulable; Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, and Invisibility keep him intact if talk fails. And when he does strike, you don't see it. On the rare occasion the chancellor moves against someone directly, Magical Ambush (disadvantage on the save) and Versatile Trickster (advantage from his Mage Hand) land 8d6 of Sneak Attack before the target knows a decision was made. Underneath it all sits the rhinoceros.

He is the size of a small cart and cannot be shoved, cornered, or hurried, which means no one is ever tempted to make the disagreement physical. The threat he never uses is what lets him win with a turned page. Class Features (Rogue 15 / Arcane Trickster) Sneak Attack (8d6), Cunning Action (bonus-action Dash/Disengage/Hide), Thieves' Cant Uncanny Dodge — reaction to halve one attack's damage. Evasion — take no damage on a successful Dex save for half, half on a failure.

Reliable Talent — noted above; the mechanical spine of "I am accurate." Arcane Trickster — Mage Hand Legerdemain (L3), Magical Ambush (L9), Versatile Trickster (L13): hidden spells hit saves at disadvantage; his Mage Hand can give him advantage on a target. Blindsense — he knows where hidden and invisible creatures are within 10 ft. Slippery Mind — proficiency in Wisdom saves; the mind that reads everyone is very hard to read back.

Racial Traits (Rhinoceros-folk, homebrew) Powerful Build — counts as one size larger for carrying capacity and for pushing, dragging, lifting, and resolving grapples. You do not shove the chancellor. Natural Armor — thick hide sets his unarmored AC at 13 + Dexterity, so a robe serves him as well as armor. Horn — a natural gore (1d6 + Str piercing) he has essentially never needed to use, and prefers people remember he has. Keen Smell — advantage on smell-based Perception. Also why he arrives early to stand upwind.

Implacable — advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened. Equipment Chain of office — a warded chancellor's chain that rounds out his defenses; his only real "armor." The staff — an ornate staff of office topped with a carved totem; an arcane focus and a symbol of the crown's authority in equal measure. The documents — an ever-present sheaf of papers and a pen, held with the grip of someone who has found them more reliable than most things for thirty years.

Functionally, his spellbook, his archive, and his weapon of choice. Who he is Stondall is a rhinoceros, which means he occupies roughly the space of a small cart. His robes are deep navy; his expression was configured for watchful skepticism so long ago that it stopped being an expression and became a face. He communicates that skepticism through the smallest of gestures — a turned page, a refusal to look up — and after thirty years he is extraordinarily precise about it. He keeps a record of everything.

He is, by his own account, rarely generous and reliably accurate, and he updates his opinion of a person only under the steady pressure of evidence, one grudging revision at a time. The closest he comes to warmth is a nod in a corridor. He is the king's strong hand. Humphrey is kindness itself and sees the best in everyone; Stondall is the one sent in when the worst is happening, and the crown needs to show a hard edge. He sees the worst so the king does not have to.

And he can do that — be the edge, deliver the bad news, tell the king no — for one reason: they have known each other their whole lives. The chancellor and the king are oldest friends, and the friendship underneath the office is absolute. It lets Stondall be the crown's blunt instrument without ever threatening it. He guards Humphrey in the sphere of paper and shadow and long memory as fiercely as Humphrey guards everyone else in the open.

Two old friends, one who plants himself between his people and harm, and one who makes sure the harm never gets close enough to require it.