Aspiring Artist

At any given time there are dozens if not hundreds of solitary artists plying their trade and hoping to garner enough attention to be recognized and acknowledged by a guild like the Lutes and Lyres. Acceptance into such an organization promises a stability that most artists can only dream of possessing. So far, you have not yet achieved membership into such a guild. Instead, you are a lone troubadour, minstrel, or other form of entertainer. Your eagerness to join an official organization has led you to develop a set of skills outside the traditional artist. It seems the finest way to gain recognition is to prove yourself to be both independent and focused on amour-propre. You may not be too far off from your goal.

After all, the less you want something, the more likely you are to get it.

Skill Proficiencies: Performance, Sleight of Hand

Languages: Thieves’ Cant

Tool Proficiencies: A single musical instrument, a single gaming set

Equipment: A musical instrument of your choice with a small, secret compartment, a gaming set of your choice, a set of common clothes, a set of costume clothes, and a pouch with 13 sp.

A Thing or Two

You know that the right information can get you further than the best talent so you’ve learned to keep your ears to the ground and their eyes elsewhere. While working as an artist, you’ve managed to pick up a delectable secret. Work with your GM to determine the exact nature of this hidden knowledge or roll on the table below.

d6	Secret
1	While performing at a rural estate, you discovered that the local baron is having an affair – with the baron adjacent! You’re quite confident that you are the only one who knows.
2	A mother in a nearby village has been keeping one of her children in hiding for some time, because it has sprouted both wings and talons and has a penchant for raw meat.
3	A collection of monastic friars have begun an embezzlement scheme. You successfully blackmailed them some time ago and “promised” to keep their secret.
4	A young nobleman, and heir to the household name, has recently found they can not have children to carry on the family lineage. The family is secretly exploring arcane alternatives for procreation.
5	You stumble across a workspace intended for forging counterfeit currency in an isolated and “abandoned” farmhouse. You’re fairly certain the owners didn’t notice you.
6	A local, well-off meadery claims their wares are produced by halflings of the finest mark, but is actually manufactured by trolls down in a nearby bog. If word were to get out, the place would be ruined.

Feature: Well Traveled

The wandering minstrel is a staple of any community.

Few performers can reside indefinitely in their own hometown and keep their aunts, uncles, and nearby neighbors from feeling anything but annoyed. Much better audiences and opportunities lie on the open road. You are very familiar with the territory within a 25 mile radius of your hometown and can almost certainly recall locations of the best inns and taverns, which locations have over-ambitious lawmen, and where a lusty dalliance might be willing to offer accommodation or aid in a pinch.

Suggested Quirks

As an aspiring artist, it’s not unlikely you’ve developed a particular habit or ritual common to others throughout your profession. Aspiring artists are often fickle and particular creatures, having their own way of doing things and offering a snide smirk to those that prefer a different method. Choose a quirk from the table below or feel free to create your own.

d6	Quirks
1	I enjoy pickpocketing, but avoid filching anything that is easily identifiable by those whom I’m inclined to sell the stolen items to. Carrying hot items makes me decidedly irritable.
2	I refuse to play music alongside anyone with a stringed instrument. A lutist broke my heart and now hearing one leaves me wanting to snap their strings.
3	I have a taste for the finer things and strongly prefer purchasing items of extreme quality. It irks me every time I have to stoop to the mundane.
4	I keep a small notebook filled with dozens of secrets arranged neatly and archaically in my own cypher, which I will never teach to anyone.
5	I was thrown out of three taverns in the span of a single night by people who can’t appreciate my craft. I’ve vowed since then to never set foot in an establishment where my craft is not respected.
6	I loathe the smell of the common rabble and have become obsessed with differentiating myself from them with the use of excessive perfumes. Every time I’m in a new place, I’m on the hunt for new, delicate fragrances.