Ace Trueflight-Ember

Hound-lineage pilot and courier — a self-taught flyer who washed out of every institution that wouldn't take a Companion, and learned to fly anyway.

Ace is dog-stock: broad-chested, quick-eyed, with a nose for trouble that has saved his life more than once and a loyalty that runs bone-deep once it's earned. He tried to enlist as a scout twice and was turned away twice — never quite in so many words, but the meaning was clear enough. So he drifted, hitched rides in cockpits, learned the stick by watching, and built a freelance flying career out of the scraps the gatekeepers left him. He runs cargo, people, and the occasional thing best not described, and he has never once lost a parcel he swore to deliver.

• Heritage: Companion — Hound (dog-stock)
• Age: 34 (4 terms: 1 Drifter, 1 wandering, 2 Criminal)
• Careers: Drifter (1 term) → Scout (failed entry — wandering term) → Criminal (2 terms)
• Role at the table: pilot, scout, wheelman, the crew's eyes

Characteristics§

A 2/2 split. Characteristics grant Advantage/Disadvantage, never numeric modifiers.

Fast hands and a frontier-hardy body; no schooling and no standing — a Companion the institutions shut out twice over. His Dexterity Advantage carries Piloting, Driving, and Sneaking; his Education and Social Disadvantages are exactly the doors that were closed to him.

Skills§

All other skills Untrained (−3). Holds 5 unspent XP.

Trauma§

Starts play with no trauma marks. He took one physical point in creation (the failed Scout entry) on Wounded; it cleared at the end of creation.

Physical:  [ ] Wounded   [ ] Maimed
Mental:    [ ] Shaken    [ ] Broken

Base armor 3 (10 in the flight vest; see gear).

Boons & Banes§

Boons (Advantage in relevant situations; 1 Momentum to activate in play)

• Reads a Room (from Life Event) — sizing up people and a situation fast, catching the mood and the tell (a Hound's read).
• Holds a Dangerous Secret (from Life Event) — leverage: he knows something someone would pay, or kill, to keep quiet.
• Nose for Trouble (bought, 5 XP) — sensing an ambush, a tail, or something wrong with a place before it shows itself.
• Always Finds a Way Through (bought, 5 XP) — piloting or navigating a hazardous route, debris field, or tight approach under pressure.

Banes (Disadvantage in relevant situations)

• Mistaken for Property (starting, +5 XP) — Disadvantage in places and dealings where Companions still aren't treated as full people; the law, the paperwork, and the wrong rooms work against him.
• Can't Sit Still (starting, +5 XP) — Disadvantage on patient, sedentary, long-watch tasks; a courier built to move chafes at holding position.

Contacts§

• Old Marrow — Ally (found family). A young stowaway Ace took in and half-raised on the courier circuit; not his by blood, entirely his by choice. (Life Event 33.)
• Tace Driftwell — Contact. Someone from a walk of life Ace would never otherwise have crossed — a salvage broker who owes him and trades him leads. (Drifter D66 36.)

Credits & Gear§

Cr2,000 (base; no career credit rewards landed).

Outfitting — rolled Random Gear on choice 1, rolled Equipment & Trinkets on choice 2 (a full kit).

Weapons & Armor (Random Gear)

• Ace's snub scattergun — TL 9. Range 30 m, Damage 4D, Magazine 10. Traits: Spread (Advantage at close range, Disadvantage beyond short), Dangerous (at Effect −5 or worse it explodes). A cheap, ugly close-range gun he trusts anyway. Crude grade.
• Sabarmati smartweave flight vest — TL 12, Fine grade. Armor +7, Rad 2. Trait: Self-mending (armor lost to wear or Corrosive restores after a short rest). (Total armor 10 worn.)

Equipment (rolled)

• Med-scanner (Korhonen) — TL 10, Cr1,500 (salvaged; a real asset beside the crew's medic).
• Hand lamp — TL 6, Cr25.

Trinkets (rolled)

• A monogrammed handkerchief — the initials aren't his; he's carried it so long they feel like family.
• A Sable Thresh-Ember medal — wildly inauthentic. He wears it anyway, and dares you to say something.

Play Notes§

Ace flies. With Piloting at Professional under a Dexterity Advantage, plus Always Finds a Way Through, he can thread approaches that should not be survivable; behind the stick of a ship or a ground-car he is the crew's best chance of arriving and of leaving. Out of the cockpit, Nose for Trouble and Recon make him the scout he was never allowed to officially be, and Reads a Room gives him a social read his Disadvantages would otherwise deny him. Watch the two Disadvantages: Mistaken for Property and his Social Standing bite in any official or unwelcoming setting — keep him out of the paperwork and let Jinx or Bram front those rooms. The scattergun is a last-ditch, close-range answer, and Dangerous means a truly bad roll can hurt him. He holds 5 XP in reserve. Starts each session with Momentum 3.

Creation Log — Key Rolls

All rolls real. Advantage = 3D6 keep highest two. Adv/Dis free during creation. A failed entry test gives 1 trauma and a wandering term, and flags that career at −2 for any later attempt; each of your first two failed entries also grants +5 XP (Ace's one failure is within that, so he banks the 5).

• Heritage / split (chosen): Companion (Hound); 2/2 → Advantage Dexterity, Endurance; Disadvantage Education, Social Standing.
• Term 1 — Drifter entry (Dexterity Adv): 3D6 keep two = 9 → PASS. Fixed: Survival, Sneaking, Driving, Network. First term auto-success. D66 36 → contact from an unexpected walk of life → Contact (Tace Driftwell). Life: 3 (Fortune) → D66 46 → a side hustle taught you a trade → Piloting (Trained). → leave Drifter; attempt Scout.
• Term 2 — Scout entry (Endurance Adv): 3D6 keep two = 7 → FAIL. Wandering term: +5 XP, 1 physical trauma (placed Wounded, clears), Scout flagged −2. Life: 5 (Awakening) → D66 52 → a gift for reading people → Psychology (Trained), Boon: Reads a Room.
• Term 3 — Criminal entry (Dexterity Adv): 3D6 keep two = 9 → PASS. Fixed: Deceive, Sneaking (held), Close Quarters, Network (held). First term auto-success. D66 31 → contacts in the underworld multiplied → Network → Experienced. Life: 1 (Love & Bonds) → D66 33 → raised a child not yours by blood → Ally (Old Marrow). → continue.
• Term 4 — Criminal (Dexterity Adv): 3D6 keep two = 9 → SUCCESS. D66 26 → a clean job, quietly done → +5 XP. Life: 2 (Family) → D66 61 → a deathbed confession → +5 XP, Boon: Holds a Dangerous Secret. → retire safely after 4 terms.

XP: 40 base + 5 (failed entry) + 10 events (5 + 5) + 10 (two starting Banes) = 65. Spent (60): Piloting Trained→Experienced→Professional (20); Recon Untrained→Trained (10); Communications Untrained→Trained (10); Survival →Experienced (10); Boon Nose for Trouble (5); Boon Always Finds a Way Through (5). Held in reserve: 5 XP. End of creation: Wounded cleared → enters play unmarked.