BULLYBASHER’S GAUNTLETS
ITEMS OF LEGACY
CHAPTER 3
Bullybasher’s Gauntlets are a pair of full plate metal gauntlets that look well worn but are fully functional. Nonlegacy Game Statistics: +1 gauntlets; Cost 4,604 gp. Omen: Once per day, while wearing the gauntlets, you can learn the most commonly used name of any one creature by looking that creature in the eyes. The target gets a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Wisdom bonus) to negate the effect. This is a divination effect (caster level 3rd).
HISTORY
Bullybasher’s Gauntlets turned a tormented weakling into a champion of the downtrodden
these matches only to save enough gold to leave the city, but he drew the attention of a powerful local crime gang called the Green Daggers. The gang wanted Pelt to muscle their “tax” from the neighborhood businesses. Most storekeepers paid into the protection racket without complaint, except for a solitary blacksmith—the same one who had raised Pelt after his mother died. Pelt defied the gang and defended his adoptive father. He proceeded to take out every leg-breaker and assassin sent after him. Taking this as a sign of weakness, the other gangs in the local underworld made quick work of the remaining Green Daggers. (DC 25; Call Them Out) It was around this time that the local shop owners approached Pelt and offered to pay him for his protection. Pelt accepted. The community was too large for one man to look after, so Pelt recruited deputies from among the townsfolk who used to bully him when they were children. With their help, he organized a militia to resist the new gangs that had formed when the Green Daggers were dismantled. Without realizing it, Pelt had decided to stay put. The city had somehow become more appealing, and Pelt now felt like he belonged. Under his stewardship, the community prospered. Pelt used much of his own wealth to finance a hospital for the poor, so poverty would never again make the difference between one of them living or dying. (DC 30; Build Them Up)
Illus. by D. Crabapple
Pelt was the scrawny, illegitimate child of a prostitute, and a target for every bully in his town. He earned his keep by cleaning shop and smelting metal for a local blacksmith. The older boys of the streets hunted poor Pelt down every day, but the boy refused to cower to anyone. It didn’t matter how much the other kids ganged up on him, he heeded his mother’s words and never fought back. Pelt didn’t throw a single punch, but his unwillingness to be intimidated earned him a regular beating. While Pelt was healing from one particularly bad thrashing, his mother caught a seasonal virus. The impoverished woman couldn’t afford medicine while Pelt was incapacitated, and the gang that skimmed her profits wouldn’t help either. She died, and the blacksmith took Pelt in. When he recovered, Pelt took a pair of discarded metal gloves from the blacksmith and began wearing them in public. These gloves came to be known as Bullybasher’s Gauntlets. (DC 15) The oversized gauntlets made Pelt a target right away, which was exactly what he wanted. He watched the faces of the street kids contort into ugly expressions of greed as they rushed him. Outnumbered as usual, Pelt fought back this time. He kept throwing punches until each attacker had been flattened in turn, sending boy after boy sprawling on the cobblestones. Pelt had taken his thumps over the years, but he had learned from each one. (DC 20; Knock Them Down) It wasn’t long before Pelt’s skills as a pugilist attracted an unscrupulous merchant who organized bouts against the young man for entertainment and profit. Pelt fought in
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