Archaeologist

Though most eyes look to the future, the past fascinates you, and you have found wisdom in exploring the ruins of civilizations that fell to disaster, or that gave birth to today’s world. Foremost in the public’s consciousness are the prehistoric orcs known as the Ancients, who left massive stone edifices, fantastic golden treasures, and little else. But you might also study the Demonocracy, the brief philosopher state of Pala, pre-Malice Elfaivar, the magically unstable ruins of Methia, or any of the multitude of obscure peoples of the past. Perhaps some day you’ll explore the planets above and the ruins of surely long-dead cultures there.

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

Skill Proficiencies: History, and either Arcana or Survival.

Tool Proficiencies: Cartographer’s tools or navigator’s tools.

Languages: One modern language and one historical language of your choice.

Suggested Equipment (Cost 29 gp): A bullseye lantern, a miner’s pick, traveler’s clothes, a shovel, a two-person tent, a trinket recovered from a dig site.

Feature: Historical Knowledge. You can easily assess the monetary value of art objects that are more than a century old, and when you see ruins you can accurately ascertain who built them and for what purpose. Sometimes when you sleep near ruins, you faintly recall dreams of the people who lived there, which might guide you to where to search or dig.

Adventures and Advancement. Your archaeological finds earn you gratitude from scholars and researchers. When you donate a valuable object to a museum or library, you gain advantage on all ability checks made during Research downtime activities performed at that institution.

Archaeologist Connection

1. The museum curator who owes you a favor.
2. The sea captain with whom you’ve made profitable voyages.
3. The noble who believes you robbed their ancestral tomb.
4. The rival who is always one step ahead of you.
5. The vanished colleague who was close to a breakthrough.
6. The thief who was going to rob you but ended up fascinated by your work.
7. The rich one-time patron with a grudge against you.
8. The buffoonish but well-financed rival whose methods are clumsy and destructive.
9. The former partner who stole your map.
10. The inventor who will buy relics he thinks are keys to lost ancient technology.

Archaeologist Memento

1. A tablet with a fragment of the same poem in an archaic form of the languages of the Demonocracy and old Elfaivar, as well as unfamiliar pictograms of what appear to be hand signs.
2. A sealed clay flask, filled with liquid and painted with strange, skeletal humanoids around a crescent moon
3. Half of a large stone key inscribed with pre-Malice iconography of the Clergy.
4. A solid gold arrow which you discovered embedded in the fossilized skull of an unfamiliar beast.
5. The charred case of an antique calligraphy kit with a brass nameplate that reads “Wm. Miller.”
6. A typed letter from a representative of the Vsadni Tzertze pointing out flaws in a paper you published about the fifth-century B.O.V. Drakr.
7. A wooden case containing a map to a ruin or dungeon, with the initials “RR” penned in the corner, found at a pawn shop.
8. A graven idol of an unknown god, carved from purple stone and partially encased in black volcanic rock.
9. An inherited, found, or stolen diary which once belonged to
   a great treasure hunter. It contains the answers to several riddles required to access some site, but no information about the site’s location.
10. A signature weapon or tool given by a mentor or old rival.