The Mantis Mercenary

Base Attack Bonus +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10 Fort

Save +2 Ref Save +0

Will Save +0 +3 +0 +0 +3 +4 +1 +1 +1 +1

+4 +1 +1

+5 +5 +2

+2 +2 +2 +6 +2 +2

+6 +3 +3

+7 +3 +3 Special Detect Taint, fury of vengeance 3/day Mettle Smite Shadowlands 1 /day Fury of vengeance 4/day 5/day

Smite Shadowlands 2/day vengeance 5/day Greater fury Smite Shadowlands 3/day Bloodied but unbowed, fury of vengeance 6/day

Craft and Sense Motive .) He can use any feat he might have except for Expertise, item creation feats, metamagic feats, and Skill Focus (if it's tied to a skill that requires patience or concentration) . A fit of rage lasts for 3 rounds, plus the character's (newly improved) Constitution modifier . The avenger may prematurely end the rage voluntarily. At the end of the rage, the Moto avenger is fatigued (-2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, can't charge or run) for the duration of that encounter. The avenger can only fly into a rage once per encounter, and only a certain number of times per day (determined by level) . Entering a rage takes no time itself, but the avenger can only do it during his action, not in response to somebody else's action . An avenger can't, for example, fly into a rage when struck down by an arrow in order to get the extra hit points from the increased Constitution, although the extra hit points would be of benefit if he had gone into a rage earlier in the round, before the arrow struck .

A Moto avenger can enter a rage three times per day at 1st level, four times at 4th level, five times at 7th level, and six times at loth level. Starting at 8th level, the Moto avenger's fury bonuses become +6 to Strength, +6 to Constitution, and a +3 morale bonus on Will saves . (The AC penalty remains at -2 .)

If a Moto avenger has a rage ability from another class (such as barbarian), the two abilities do not stack. The character can use a rage ability as many times per day as either class allows him (whichever is higher) . He can use the ability against any foe, but when fighting Shadowlands creatures his Strength and Constitution bonuses are improved by +2 and his Will save bonus is improved by +1 . Thus, an 8th-level barbarian/4th-level Moto avenger can rage four times per day, even if he never faces a Shadowlands foe . When he does rage in combat against a Shadowlands foe, he gains +6 to Strength, +6 to Constitution, and +3 to Will saves . An 8th-level barbarian/8th-level Moto avenger can rage five times per day, and against Shadowlands foes he gains +8 to Strength, +8 to Constitution, and +4 on Will saves .

Mettle (Ex) : At 2nd level, the Moto avenger's special blessing allows him to shrug off magical effects that would otherwise damage or harm him . If an avenger makes a successful Will or Fortitude saving throw that would normally reduce the spell's effect, he suffers no effect from the spell at all . Only those spells with a Saving Throw entry of "Will partial," "Fortitude half," or similar entries can be negated through this ability .

Smite Shadowlands (Su) : Once per day, a Moto avenger of 3rd level or higher may attempt to smite a Shadowlands opponent with one normal melee attack. He adds a +4 bonus to his attack roll and deals 2 extra points of damage per class level . A Shadowlands opponent is a monster with the Shadowlands descriptor or a character infected with the Shadowlands Taint . If the avenger accidentally smites a creature that is not Tainted, the smite has no effect but it is still used up for that day.

Bloodied but Unbowed (Su) : If a Moto avenger of loth level dies, he can will his spirit to ravage his body, tearing and shredding it to prevent it from being animated . If he exercises this option, his corpse will not spontaneously animate in the Shadowlands . A spellcaster can still use animate dead on the corpse, but can only create a skeleton, not a zombie . Raise dead or other spells that restore an intact body to life will not funstion, but true resurrection of course will .

UNICORN LANDS

The Unicorn lands consist of vast expanses of rolling plains, grasslands, and low hills between a trio of great lakes and surrounded by lofty mountains . Perhaps forty percent of the Unicorn population live as nomads, wandering the plains while herding sheep and horses from place to place with the seasons . The rest live in cities and castles along the lake shores, rivers, and mountain edges . The Shinjo and Utaku families live in the northern lands around Dragon Lake, while the Ide and Iuchi dwell across the Spine of the World Mountains, near Scorpion lands and the Chrysanthemum Petal Lake .

ADVENTURE HOOKS

After the destruction of Beiden Pass during the Spirit Wars, Yakamo created a great crater in the Spine of the World Mountains to serve as a new pass between the northern and southern portions of the empire. Though it lies between Unicorn and Scorpion lands, the Unicorns have claimed the pass . Two pathways through the mountains lead into the Great Crater (called simply the Northern Pass and the Southern Pass), while two pathways lead through the broken ground of the crater itself. The Sun's Arc Way leads around the northern edge of the crater, while the Way of Night leads on a more winding path down to the bottom of the crater and through an underground passage before winding back up the other side . Recently a group of Ide emissaries discovered ruined structures in the tunnel portion of the Way of . Night, and Unicorn scholars have begun excavating these ruins . They believe they have discovered a lost city, belonging to a civilization not their own, reminiscent of Volturnum in the Shadowlands. Insisting that a civilization predating the Empire of Rokugan is impossible, the histories of the empire ignore these ruins, but the Unicorns persist in their research .

As the nagas prepared to return to their ages-long slumber following the Battle at Oblivion's Gate, one unfinished item of business remained to them. When Hida Yakamo met his doom in the Shadowlands, a group of nagas pulled his body off its funeral pyre and a naga jakla sacrificed himself to resurrect the Crab . Yakamo rose again with the eyes of a serpent and a mind linked to the Akasha before finally ascending to become the sun . Yakamo's birth as a naga, however, introduced a "contaminant" into the Akasha, the communal mind of the naga race : a human soul. Like a grain of sand inside an oyster shell, Yakamo's soul chafed at the Akasha until finally the Akasha expelled a