Perception: the unsung ability score.
waaay back in first ed dnd (when it was called Advanced Dungeons and Dragons), there was an article in Dragon magazine that outlined, very simply and straight-forwardedly, the need for a (then) 8th ability score (this was during the era of the rather silly abilty of Commliness) of Perception. Basically, a character's Perception score decided not only how mental astute and aware they were, but also the level of their physical senses. A character with a bad perception score might be near-sighted, or partial deaf. while a character with a high score might have fighter pilot 20/15 vision or be able to keenly discern the ingriendients in a pot just by a deep sniff.

It was especially useful in those awkward gaming moments when someone was "supposed" to notice that hidden latch in the room and a basic "search for secret/hidden doors" didn't work. Naturally, Perception scores, high and low, gave modifiers to an elf's natural talents and thieves' skills (We moved the more perception based skills over to be modified by this score rather than dex. where it seemed logical to do so).

Perception was a universally loved and adapted house rule in our gaming groups, and even after moving on to the 2nd ed, it will still taken in course that you rolled up you character with a Perception score. It worked even better with the skills in 2nd ed as their were a couple skills (mountaineering and black-smithy come to immediate mind) that no "applicable" ability score to modify them...voila! Perception.

Even by 3rd ed, they still had not, to my satisfaction, came up with any sort of rule or stat that convincingly duplicated the niche filled by Perception.

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Where I introduce myself
 

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"Here is where it ends! Here is where the tide of Darkness is turned away forever."
Being a fragment of the history of Termination Force and the rise of the Jackal

The orcs were all gone, decimated or banished back to their brutal, red-washed home world, Borgnesh. Many bands of heroes worked across the whole of Haven to see the dark stain of the orcish race erased from its gleam. Yet, it was only one group that dared to take the war to Borgnesh, and to the Overlord of that world; He of the Single-Eye. They crossed through the portal, leaving loved ones behind to mourn their loss.

Armies across the veldts of Greater Jerilon, largest of the continents of Haven, swelled and roiled in numbers enough to stagger the most keen of Arithmetists. Orcs, elves, and the men of the world pulled and fought and struggled to find their place in the order of things. Thousands had died and many more promised to perish. And like their mortal mirrors below, the Gods gathered and shifted, picking and switching to the side they thought victorious. Most of these Gods obeyed the Edict of the Creator; no deity may walk amongst mortals. Yet, this did not stop them from sending down their servants. In some parts of Haven, the skies turned liquid and flowed, silvery and sanguine, with the blood of warring angels. Darkness seemed a physical thing, the learned and the superstitous whispered together. It seemed to be passing over the lands and laying a heavy cloak across the whole of Haven, smothering all breath from it forever. It was not, thankfully, to be.

Some how, the foreign heroes to the strange lands of the orcs succeeded. Borgnesh, the single-orbed god-monster that had created and named the savage Orcish realm after himself, was blinded, albeit temporary. As his baleful gaze faded over the gathering forces that sought to swarm into Haven, Correllon the Larethian stood up, made mighty by the acts of these brave heroes with their halos and their magic. He drew from his elvish kin the power and the will to take the Moon from the sky and string it a celestial bow. He violated the Edict of the Creator and unleashed his divine wrath upon the objects of his ire. The Gods could do nothing but cower before the azure glow of the Moon. The moon that was now bestrung and held in the hands a God among Men.

With this bow, his arrows, points the size of islands, crashed down upon the Orcish armies sending them into fear, confusion and turmoil. They sought to flee the onslaught in every direction, to even the sea. Keen-eyed Correllon found them all. The force of his arrows boiled rivers and brought low high mountains. And when one orc did find shelter, lithe creatures of mist and magic, the Angels of Correllon, sniffed them out. Many of the good peoples of Haven perished in the conflagation as well. Despite, the mighty Elf-king, his vigor growing which each death of the verminous orcs, was not slaked in his thirst. Correllon and his angels hunted and slew all the orcs in Haven, each and every one.

Correllon was free, he was enraged, he was unfettered. It is best left to sages and philosophers to debate if the Havok of Correllon did more harm than good. Nonetheless, the backbone of the Orcs was shattered, their Lord Borgnesh the Single-eyed broken, defeated and cast back to the blood-dust lands, his followers; those that yet lived; trailing behind.

Correllon, his strength and will spent, fell back into the Heavens to descend into a long and silent slumber. The mortal peoples turned to their own gods for guidance. Woe it was for them.

Miraclously, most of those heroes that dared cross worlds survived their harrowing in Borgnesh. They returned to a land blasted and in chaos. Rigel Stargazer, divine saint of his mistress Mishakal, had sacrificed his life for the heroes to prevail and their leader, Haylar True-elven, would not see this be fruitless. It was through the holy might of Stargazer that the portal across worlds was cast down, the ruddy dim of Borgnesh's sun darkened to the eyes of Haven forevermore.

The heroes, cleped Termination Force by oracles, turned their weary minds and bodies to the daunting task of saving the world from itself.
end fragment

Below are recorded those words said to be the last of Rigel Stargazer as he brought low the servants of Borgnesh and sealed forever the portal from that gloomy land to our own.

I am the only one who can hold my head up high,
Shake my fists at these gates saying:
"I've come home now!
Fetch me the sword of the son and the father.
Tell them their Pillar of Faith has ascended.
It's time now!
My time now!
Give me my, give me my wings!"

Notes: The sword referred to is thought to be the double bladed weapon, Grey Sabre Silver-Tip, wielded first by Haylar True-elven, leader of Termination Force. It was later willed to his son, Orestes. Shortly after uttering these words, Stargazer's body dissolved away. A great light, said to be his spirit first destroyed the anchor stone of the portal and then flowed upward into the skies of Haven.

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