Beachcomber

The ocean is both wide and incredibly bountiful, and, when filled with tempest and torment, some of that incredible bounty can be torn loose. Perhaps a ship beleaguered by the ocean upon storm-tossed waves has come to grief, or a storm has raged with sufficient power to swirl up previously buried treasures from the oceanic depths and abyssess and bring them to a peaceful rest upon a beach. It is the beachcombers who walk the borders between the water and the land who come to harvest what others would consider trash and which they consider treasure.

As a beachcomber you must ask yourself, why did you give up your life of outdoor work and being your own boss? What mystery or urge drives you to go exploring in the world?

Ability Score Increases:+1 to Wisdom and one other ability score.

Skill Proficiencies: Survival, and one of Perception or Medicine.

Tool Proficiencies: Water vehicles, musical instrument.

Suggested Equipment (Cost 15 gold): Common clothes, 2 days rations, shovel, fishing pole

Feature: Waste Not, Want Not. You have an unmatched skill at picking over valuables and finding things which other people would want to keep. A number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest , you can pick over some fresh scene of devastation, such as a storm, fire, or monster attack and extract miscellaneous items. Once sold, these goods can support you at a moderate lifestyle for the next week, potentially longer, depending on where you have scavenged. At the Narrator’s discretion, you may occasionally find something truly rare, unique, or possibly cursed.

Additionally, when you are attempting to craft items (including magic ones), you gain an expertise die on rolls associated with gathering the material components required.

Adventures and Advancement. You left your gorgeous beachfront for a reason, but your skill at scavenging, improvising and wheedling are extremely transferable. Certain kinds of collecters and merchants will come to you about obtaining specific items or solicit your expertise. If you aid several of these collectors, you will be approached by the agents of nobility and the ludicrously wealthy, potentially gaining access to secret auctions and events you would not otherwise have access to.

Beachcomber Connections

1. The parents who raised you and taught you how to find treasure from others’ trash.
2. The mentor who initiated you into the ways of finding hidden beauty.
3. The rival who always tries to beat you to the beach after a storm.
4. The lover who time and tide keep from your side.
5. A romantic rival for a beloved eaten by a giant crab , who blames you for their death.
6. An eccentric inventor who buys the things you bring them for their work.
7. A friendly shopkeeper who sells the things you don’t want .
8. A fisherfolk who trades you fish for lumber and has all the latest gossip.
9. A ship’s captain with one leg, one eye and one hand who tells stories and shares their rum.
10. A herder who always drops by with a haunch of meat to share in the cooking.

Beachcomber Mementos

1. A message in a sealed bottle that you’ve never opened.
2. A sun-bleached skull of strange shape.
3. A scrimshawed piece of driftwood which is abstract yet beautiful.
4. A treasure map, badly water-stained, of an island. There is no clue as to where the island is or the nature of the treasure.
5. A jaunty hat which keeps the sun off and has seen better days.
6. Your first ever fishing rod.
7. A flag that no one you’ve met has been able to identify.
8. A shining pearl necklace that has survived surf and sand and worse.
9. A piece of flinty gravel, taken from where you first saw your true love.
10. A compass that points in a variety of directions but never really seems to be aligned with North.