Mentors, Contacts, etc.

[Freemage]

Mentored Skill Package Training Advance:
This option is available once per Rank, in place of a normal Skill Advance. By training under a Mentor, you can take a normal Skill Advance with the following additional rules. Individual Mentors available to the party, as well as what it takes to get them to teach you, are listed down below.

• You must choose two skills in the same Package.
• Getting a new Skill at d4 costs the same as increasing a Skill below the cap.
• One of the two Skills chosen may already be at or over the Attribute Cap, and still be Advanced as if below the cap. (Note that this does NOT apply to Combat Skills.)

Here are the Packages currently available to the group. Remember, you have to choose two Skills from the same package when using this option, and must designate an NPC Mentor who is handling the training (and pay any price they require):
Wilderness Lore Package:

• Tracking, Survival, Healing

Athletics Package:

• Climbing, Swimming, Riding

Vehicular Operations Package:

• Driving, Boating, Piloting

Thievery Package:

• Stealth, Lockpicking, Streetwise

Combat Basic Training Package (Restriction: This one cannot be used on skills at/above the cap):

• Throwing, Shooting, Fighting

Sciences Package:

• Investigation, and/or any of these Knowledges: Engineering, Medicine, or Science

Tech Skills Package:

• Repair, and/or these Knowledges: Cybernetics, Electronics

Note: All of the Mentors below can also be used as Contacts via Streetwise, per the normal rules. If you're looking for more than information or instruction, note that Alice is the individual with the highest level of practical application--but it'll cost ya.

[Freemage]

Alice Greene, Young Human City Rat from the Burbs
(High Skills, Great Availability, Fair Info, Poor Loyalty)

At 15, Alice is a life-long City Rat, having grown up in the Burbs, doing lots of petty theft, the odd mugging and similar minor acts of a criminal nature. She'd begun to move to bigger scores more befitting her impressive skillset when she was betrayed by a member of her gang looking to get leniency on a smuggling bust. She was on the run from the law when she entered a cavern that led to a larger set of tunnels; there, the Xiticix caught her on their way to the Dinosaur Swamp.
She is vaguely grateful to the party, but her motto is, "A girl's gotta eat." She can teach the Thievery Package, but will charge you for it--add up the two die-types you learn, and multiply by a thousand. (So learning Streetwise and Lockpicking at d4 would cost you 8,000 Credits; getting them both up to d12s from d10s would be 24,000 Credits.) She will travel away from the town of Hope if her transportation costs are paid, as well. (This usually means an additional 10,000 Credits.)

[Freemage]

Mirek Tanndoor, Clueless Trimadore Rogue Scientist
(Minimal Skills, Fair Availability, Great Info, Absolute Loyalty)
Mirek is originally from Stormspire, but he had difficulty as a 'pure' scientist who did not study Techno-Wizardry in that discipline's unofficial capital. Somewhat naive to the dangers of the outside world, he'd actually traveled to the Dinosaur Swamp voluntarily, hoping to examine the time-parsed and xenoforms that compose the Swamp's ecosystem. He was captured just as the Xiticix horde was establishing their presence in the valley.
Mirek is devoutly grateful to the Legion as a whole and the 7th SET in particular (he seems to have decided that they were there specifically to rescue him, and the destruction of the nascent Hive was just a side-effect of that quest), and is always happy to instruct would-be students on a wide variety of scientific principles, as well as proper research techniques (the Sciences Package); he also has his racial knack for mechanics, and can teach the Vehicular Operation Package or the Tech Skills Package. However, he is now utterly devoted to his lab work, and thus will not leave the town of Hope for any reason--students must come to him.

[Freemage]

Frankie Charroot, Lazy Human D-Bee Settler
(Minimal Skills, Great Availability, Great Info, Good Loyalty)

Frankie comes from an alternate Earth, one that underwent a more typical apocalyptic scenario, environmental disaster causing massive droughts and windstorms. Frankie is androgynous in appearance, and answers to both male and female honorifics without comment. Frankie was one of a small community that made it through when a Rift briefly opened leading directly into the Swamp. They were thankful and overwhelmed by the lush green and abundant water--until most of them got eaten by the local fauna. Frankie managed to survive, but was captured by the Xiticix. Now settling into the town of Hope, Frankie's quite happy with both the new locale and the Jokers.
Frankie's life as a nomadic drought-land dweller has given the settler a wide variety of useful Skills, enabling Frankie to teach several different Packages: Wilderness Lore, Athletics, Vehicular Operation, and even Basic Combat Training. However, the relative comforts of Hope are encouraging a long-buried tendency towards indolence, and so Frankie must be 'nudged' into actually taking on a student. This requires a Streetwise or Persuasion check, and if the check fails, it means the student will need to give a gratuity of 1000 Credits. In addition, travel costs of around 5,000 Credits will be required if Frankie is to teach far away from Hope, saying, "Really, I've had enough of traveling."