Name: Osric Griswall
Species: Human
Age: 62
Gender: Male
Appearance: Despite his age, Osric is a proud standing and strong individual with some youthful aspects to his look. He stands at 5’7” tall, and has strong muscle definition in his physique. He has short white hair, a short white boxed beard and a mustache. He has rough hands from years of work, but takes enough care of them to still be fully articulate. His arms and torso have several scars from burns over the years.
His attire consists of a dirtied tunic, leather trousers, thick leather boots, a tool belt, heavy apron, goggles, and a monocle. His eye-wear changes depending on what he is doing. His clothing is of neutral earth colors. His boots are black. When not in use, his goggles sit on top of his head. His monocle sits in a pocket sewn in his shirt. The apron is heavy and has some metal links sewn into it to act as a kind of pseudo armor. The monocle is of black steel on a chain.
Bio: Osric wasn’t exactly a famous smith, but he was known by those near his town as an exceptional one. Not only was he good at making large items such as frames, weapons, and tools, but the dexterity of his hands let him handle materials as soft as gold and silver expertly. Being the only smith in his town, he had no shortage of work. His apprentices helped with the everyday tasks, but when it came to the numerous orders requiring fine details, he was alone. Many of his apprentices quit even attempting to learn the finer methods of crafting. Those apprentices were skilled enough at smithing, so there was no risk they couldn’t move to the city or other towns and pick up smithing again, but to have the skill of two professions at once, it was beyond what they were looking for.
This didn’t matter much to him. Even since he left his home in Helvetia to make it on his own, he promised himself that the only person he needed to impress was himself. He took a lot of pride in his work, whether it came to hammering plate steel to intricately inlaying a gemstone into a platinum ring. He was fortunate enough to be an apprentice himself to that of an artificer. A person who weaved magic into their work. Much like his own apprentices when it came to Osric’s skills, he couldn’t grasp the control of mana. Though some of the lessons stuck and on more than one occasion came in handy in his work, he felt more comfortable using his hands directly with the material.
He was content with his life, but when the military started to equip its soldiers with a new weapon, it became his newest fascination. The musket, a metal tube in a wooden frame, capable of firing bits of metal at blistering speeds. An ability that only the rare magic caster or even the djinn were capable of. Through some less than ideal means, Osric was able to grab a hold of the weapons. To come up with such an ingenuous idea to essentially make a smaller cannon, and to make it work. Osric was impressed, but even as a new technology, Osric felt that it could be further improved. It was threatening on its own, but he could see the glaring issue. It fired too slowly. There were several methods the military could use to avoid that being an issue, but in Osric's eyes, that means using as many if not more soldiers to make them work. And by then why not swarm the enemy with numbers?
Osric was not able to keep the musket, but he was able to take notes and remember as much as he could about the design before he was caught. Despite the work he had at home, he dedicated no small part of his time and energy into rebuilding the weapon. He utilized his small artificer skills as well to help fine tune the reverse engineered musket until he had his own version. Getting to work wasn’t the issue, unlike those soldiers, he had to learn to use it on the fly. Thankfully, for his eye for detail, he was able to grasp the concept. Though the new noises coming from behind his smithy did raise questions, his reputation was enough to quell any rising concerns about them. Over time, he became quite good at using the weapon, even taking it hunting on occasion. With that part understood, it was time for him to design a new version.
There were numerous issues he had to overcome. For one, everything had to be loaded individually. Another, reloading these components was messy and could easily be interrupted. The equipment he’d need to make something more self contained didn’t exist, so he had to be as creative as possible. It took years, but eventually he was able to not only finish but further fine tune a decent prototype. While firearms improved in the military, they still lacked the ability to fire repeatedly. Here Osric had a weapon that could solve the issue, but at the same time, he could not reveal it without indicting himself.
Instead, he took what he knew and started working in the field. He took less smithing jobs, instead giving the apprentices that stuck around the longest more of a commanding role at the shop. As with making any new craft, he started slowly and eventually worked up into more adventurous circles. Not so much a mercenary as a freelancer, he was eventually found out. While he should have known taking the weapon out as often as he did would eventually catch the eye of law enforcement, he came to a point where he didn’t care. He didn’t need to stay put. His skills would always be needed. Be it smithing, crafting, or even as a marksman. Osric gave the control over the smithy to his most prominent student, and then set out on his own.
He wasn’t just any gun for hire. He only took jobs he felt were in the common folk’s best interest. He was one of them, after all. A common man with a unique weapon that easily out paced the normal soldier’s firearm. His crimes were minor at best, and news of him was quickly washed away. He wasn’t a criminal by any stretch, he just had a unique weapon. His life was just a small series of technicalities, and at the end of the day, even knights of the kingdom were thankful of his employment from the few times he worked with them.
Nowadays, his name is among the collection of reliable men people spread around, by mouth, reputation, or rumor. The list of people that were reliable, and not tied to any organization. Some might think them scary, as no authority holds down like the police or military, but have shown enough good will that it's easily overlooked. It’s from this list that Osric has a name, and being one of the few marksmen available for hire.
Passives: Sense Build – Osric can examine a man-made object and determine the craftsmanship, and the materials used. He can also analyze the item’s condition giving him a sense of its worth and reliability. If the item is enchanted, he can also pry into what the effects of the enchantment are including effects, conditions, and elements.
Jerry Rigger – Osric can hastily craft together makeshift weapons, tools, and armor, and have the item work effectively to achieve the intended use for a short duration after construction. The item will eventually break after enough uses, but should last long enough for the intended purpose, such as subduing a single enemy, or blocking enough blows to escape.
Spells: Imbue Elements – From Osric's old artificer days, a basic skills, he can enchant the ammunition within his gun to have an increased elemental effect. He is limited to two basic elements, fire and lightning. Fire increases the penetrating power of the rifle, while lighting will shock and stun the enemy. The lighting effects are amplified if the enemy is wearing armor.
Heat metal – While no replacement to a properly tended smithing fire, this spell works to quickly heat any targeted metal near Osric. The metal will quickly heat up to a point where its red hot and malleable. The heating starts from a central point of Osric’s choosing and slowly expands outward from there.
Make Brittle – Through touch, Osric can weaken the structural integrity of an item. Doing so makes it easier to break from blunt force, or be pierced by a spear/sword. How brittle something becomes depends on how strong and study the material was to begin with. Durability also determines how long Osric needs to channel the magic before the item gets to a truly fragile state. The fragility of the item is permanent unless treated otherwise.
Precision – By focusing, Osric can essentially enhance the range of his weapon, taking in feedback such as gravity, wind, and movement. This skill lets him fire a single shot as accurately as possible with little margin of error seemingly even bypassing air resistance. Of course, distance still decreases accuracy so the farther a target it outside the rifle’s range of effectiveness, the longer Osric has to focus. He will need constant a line of sight.
Mundane Skills: Steady Hands – Osric can work meticulously with his hands working with delicate material without disturbing it. He can also keep calm and his hands very steady in stressful or turbulent situations.
Master Blacksmith – He can forge, and repair a variety of common smithy goods such as weapons, armor, and tools. He can also work with finer materials such as precious metals. He builds his own tools, weapons, and armor when he can find a smithy willing to let him use their facilities.
Expert Marksman – Osric is proficient with most two handed firearms, and is able to reload them at a quick pace. This is amplified with his own weapon, cutting down reload times considerably.
Equipment: Repeater Drum Rifle – An unusual weapon with a bulky housing. The gun is capable of housing a preloaded six barrel drum. Each barrel is loaded with powder and a ball. When the barrel turns, the next barrel is uncovered and the musket is primed in one motion. The gun can be reloaded by replacing the barrel drum, or manually like a traditional musket. The drum is spun manually with a lever at the top of the gun which also resets the pan and hammer. Pushing the lever the other way unloads the barrel.
Short sword
two spare preloaded barrel drums
Knapsack – mess kit, fire starter, rope, water skin, knife, whetstone, blacksmith hand tools
pouch of gunpowder
pouch of loose ammunition
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