"A warrior who tends well to his training but fails to maintain his ship is really a useless piece of shit, as far as I'm concerned."
—Dio Eiridan, to Guardian Patriarch Ward, apocryphal.
Support characters are NPCs who are a part of the guild and participate in adventures without actually fighting. In a bit of story/rules segregation, they are considered to be assisting the party at all times relevant to their skills, but mechanically, they each provide different benefits similar to Utility or Item powers.
As the guild levels up, more Support NPCs at a time will be able to be brought on missions.
Support benefits and abilities are noted after each NPC's description. All Support abilities are usable once per adventure per character.
Quid: Drusas Quidare, called "Quid," is an acknowledged mechanical genius who pioneered the technology that has allowed the Goddess Tower to install personal cloning facilities into the headquarters of their most successful guilds. He specializes in adapting machines recovered from the Labyrinth to be used in Ascelia today. One of Hadrian's drinking buddies, Quid has used this connection to get assigned to a guild himself, having grown tired of just waiting around for them to "generously" give him materials to work with.
Support Benefit: +1 to hit.
Support Ability: Experimental Weapons. Minor Action: Until the end of the encounter, all of your attacks exploit any Vulnerability, regardless of damage type.
Uskradrim: The Brakenrock Tribe of Arx has a saying: "you can take a warrior out of the fight, but you can't take the fight out of a warrior." The Minotaur soldier Uskradrim is living proof. After retiring from the army due to an injury to his legs that can only be cured through cloning, a process he looks upon with derision, he devoted himself to tasks he only needed his arms for: blacksmithing, carpentry, and most of all, piloting airships. He has recently come to Ascelia as an ace pilot without a ship of his own, looking for a guild to fly into Mourclesis so they can fight in his place.
Support Benefit: +1 to all saving throws.
Support Ability: Never Say Die. Trigger: You fail a saving throw. No Action: You succeed on the saving throw, and also save against every other effect that a save can end.
Vivienna: Every guild is assigned a Deva. There are plenty of theories as to why; the most popular one is that their strange, racial memories keep perfect track of everything a guild does and witnesses, allowing the Goddess Tower full access to each guild's activities. There's nothing sinister or bureaucratic about Vivenna, though: a young Deva awaiting her first assignment to a new guild, she is eager to serve. Trained in business and finance, she will be the liaison between her guild and the Guardians - for lack of a better term, she'll make sure her fighters get paid.
Support Benefit: +5 to hit on Standard actions gained by spending an AP.
Support Ability: Let's Work Together: Minor: Recover the use of any previously expended Support Ability.
Kerm: The Evening Star's first mission proved to be an act of manipulation of sorts: the Earthdweller Monk Kerm Adac already knew that his former chief, Iapetus, had been corrupted by the Xuruthites. He also knew that without exploiting Iapetus' name recognition within Ascelia, his colony never would have gotten the attention they needed from the Goddess Tower. After a failed attempt to become the new chief himself and keep his colony going, Kerm moved his Earthdwellers back to Ascelia, and has joined the Evening Star to try and combat the forces that nearly doomed his people.
Support Benefit: +1 to all of your Slides, Shifts, and Teleports.
Support Ability: Earthdweller's Blessing: Free: Three times before the end of the encounter, whenever you suffer damage, you can spend a healing surge to heal your surge value as an Immediate Reaction.
Yul: Formerly one of Iskander's Air Pirates, this very large Dragonborn has signed up with the Evening Star after they brought him to the Goddess Tower for questioning. Whether of his own will or due to whatever interrogation he endured there, Yul's conversion seems genuine: the foul-mouthed ex-marauder has shown at least some degree of fondness for all of his new allies, and has hundreds of stories he's eager to tell - at least some of them are probably half-true.
Support Benefit: +2 Speed.
Support Ability: Belay That!: Free: Add your highest ability modifier to one of your d20 rolls, or subtract your highest ability modifier from an enemy's d20 roll. When using Belay That! you can still hit on a Natural 1 and an enemy can still miss on a Natural 20.
Snori, Bori, and Ori: It's a Dwarf! On a wharf! Three of them! That's how the three brothers rescued from Eblis' and Kasdeya's clutches appeared to the Evening Star, and suddenly they were all members of the guild, too. Such things seem to happen often and with just as little explanation whenever Dwarves are involved.
Support Benefit: +10 Max HP per Dwarf.
Support Ability: Dwarven Ingenuity: Free: Choose one of attack rolls, Fortitude defense, Will defense, damage rolls, or saving throws. Until the end of the encounter, you gain a cumulative +1 bonus to your choice per Dwarf.
Dalavesta Iskander: The night she realized that Padan Iskander was telling the truth - that he was her brother, and that all he wanted was to save her - he died. Reeling from the startling revelation and certain her memory has been tampered with or even erased like an Untouchable's, Dalavesta has abandoned her role as a Hand of the Goddess and joined the Evening Star. She has two goals now: to avenge her brother's betrayal and death, and to find out who she used to be and why it was hidden from her.
Support Benefit: +1 all Attack rolls.
Support Ability: Iskander Roulette. Trigger: You roll a d20 and dislike the result. Free: Roll twice more and use the highest of all three results.
Tessia Zselat: After fleeing Ascelia and founding the Grey Ashes, the three Archmages Zselat committed their bodies into mechanical sentinels in order to protect their new flock. Before doing so, each sought to sire an heir so that their arcane bloodline would go on. Two of the women who were to bear Zselat children died carrying the powerful arcane vessels; the third lived long enough to give birth before succumbing. Her daughter was Tessia, the last Zselat, and the leader of the Grey Ashes from the day she achieved the title "Archmage" at only fourteen years of age. Three years later, she finds her Ashes in disarray, not due to the Tower's long war so much as the Storm God's betrayal. The Evening Star is, for now, both her new home and her protection against those in the Tower who would have her killed to claim victory in their long and tragic war.
Support Benefit: +2 to all Damage.
Support Ability: Power Surge: Free: Recover any expended Daily Power or Daily Item Power.
Saevalles Desirtha: One of the leaders of the Levanter crime syndicate, long allowed to operate without much interference due to the Goddess Tower having more important priorities. Surprisingly for a high-ranking member of what is essentially a racist organization, Saevalles is not Human, but Mist-Touched, perhaps tolerated because his appearance is "mostly" normal. Since the revelation of Castor's betrayal of Levanter as well as the Tower, he has offered his considerable talents to the Evening Star on one condition: that he will not work with anyone from Edge of the Goddess.
Support Benefit: +3d6 damage with critical hits.
Support Ability: Vorpal Blade: Minor Action: Your next two attacks are automatically critical hits, if you hit successfully.
Annelisse: It would seem that the Edge of the Goddess' infamous but equally mysterious leader "Master Paithan" has been away for some time, and that in his absence, Annelisse has taken charge - not so much because she was second-in-command, but because she had the most forceful personality. Little older than Tessia, her influence stems from the fact that she is Master Paithan's adopted daughter, and that even those in the Edge who dislike her aggressive nature feel that their hands are tied when it comes to opposing her. After successfully defeating Moonblade and eliminating Volmir's last bomb as a threat to Ascelia, Annelisse has offered her skills to the Evening Star with the caveat that she will not work with Saevalles.
Support Benefit: You can use two Action Points per encounter, rather than one.
Support Ability: Edge of Ruin: Minor Action: For the rest of the encounter, any of your attacks that would leave an opponent with less than 60 HP kill them outright.
Aserhart: Former Guardian and Levanter partisan, Aserhart is a so-called "Hollow One:" one left ravaged from the inside due to being deprived contact with the Hands of the Goddess. The Evening Star earned him as an ally by sparing Saevalles, who convinced his honorable companion not to fight a useless battle. Unlike Saevalles, Aserhart has no issues working with Edge of the Goddess if necessary. It would seem that before being reduced to a Hollow One, he was a swordsman of extraordinary skill.
Support Benefit: +2 to Initiative.
Support Ability: Time Stands Still: Free: Until the end of the encounter, you gain a bonus Minor action every round.
Experiment 404: One of Dorotea's final creations before Raythe and the Evening Star destroyed her laboratory, this golem seems to be made of dozens if not hundreds of Hollow Ones grafted together. Perhaps because its component parts were once Guardians, it shows a protective and generally good-natured temperament. Its frightening visage made up of countless eyes and countless mouths placed randomly across nine feet of thick sinew, Experiment 404 is probably best not taken out in public.
Support Benefit: You begin every encounter with 20 Temporary Hit Points. These Temporary Hit Points stack with Temporary Hit Points from all other sources.
Support Ability: Battle Trance: Free: You gain a +10 bonus to your next five damage rolls.
Xeraceles: Near the Abyss, Sha Yu, Tessia, and Beido discovered an ancient undead construct, long since dormant. After their initial revulsion, they realized that someone was trapped inside of it. Grateful for their assistance, that man - the Necromancer Xeraceles - followed them out of the ruins of his city and back to Ascelia. Alive before the Empire's fall countless ages ago, he disguises his great intellect and arcane power with an obfuscating incompetence that sometimes seems genuine, sometimes not. The androgynous time-traveling Necromancer has mentioned in his usual casual manner that he is suffering from some sort of degenerative curse, and only has about five years to live.
Support Benefit: +2 to all Damage.
Support Ability: False Life: Free: You gain Temporary Hit Points equal to your Bloodied value. These Temporary Hit Points stack with Temporary Hit Points from all other sources. As long as you have Temporary Hit Points granted by False Life remaining, you cannot be Stunned or Dazed.
