Saving the world on a Sunday afternoon
Scouts use their knowledge of the terrain, their enemy and the world they live in in order to defeat their foes and achieve their objectives. These abilities fall into three categories, as below:
A character with creature lore knows the ins and outs of fighting particular monsters, and can share this with their allies, given time.
Creature Lore increases the damage and dexterity of characters who receive it. This includes the character giving the advice. A character gains a Creature Lore bonus by listening to advice given by a character with the Creature Lore skill. This advice takes a minimum of a minute to use and must be relevant to the creature being fought. The decision if the advice is effective is made by the GM and general consensus. The character giving the advice always receives the bonus themselves.
A character gains Creature Lore equal to the Rec Creature level of the character giving the advice as follows:
| Level | Damage Bonus | Dexterity Bonus | Rank to learn Creature Lore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proficiency | No Bonus | No Bonus | No minimum |
| Specialisation | +1 | +1 | No minimum |
| Expertise | +2 | +1 | No minimum |
| Mastery | +3 | +2 | 20 |
| Advanced Mastery | +4 | +2 | 40 |
| Legendary Mastery | +5 | +3 | 70 |
Creature Lore bonuses last for 1 hour, or until replaced, whichever is the sooner. A character can only be the recipient of 1 Creature Lore bonus at a time. There is no limit to the number of Creature Lore bonuses a character may attempt to provide during a day. A character may only brief to provide one type of Creature Lore bonus at a time.
A character can give Creature Lore bonuses to groups of creatures depending on their Creature Lore level. More skilled characters can give more broadly applicable advice. These lists are not exclusive. If an exotic creature appears on a game, the GM should be consulted for if a character’s Creature Lore level is sufficient, using the Rec Creature level as a guideline.
Creature Lore Proficiency
Creature Lore Specialisation
Creature Lore Expertise
Creature Lore Mastery
Creature Lore Advanced Mastery
Creature Lore Legendary Mastery
A character with Forager Lore knows how to gather and process naturally availible materials into useful salves which can be used for various purposes on a patrol. A character with Forager Lore may spend 15 minutes foraging to gather materials to make salves. These minutes do not have to be continuous, nor do they require concentration, but should be roleplayed appropriately or the GM may rule that the foraging is ineffective. A character gains a number of salves equal to their Recognise Smell skill as follows:
| Recognise Smell Skill | Number of Salves |
| Proficiency | 1 |
| Specialisation | 2 |
| Expertise | 3 |
| Mastery | 4 |
| Advanced Mastery | 5 |
| Legendary Mastery | 6 |
These may be selected as the character wishes from the list of salves.
A character is assumed to start the game with 1 foraging session worth of salves, unless the GM rules otherwise.
Effects caused by salves cannot be downcast and are natural abilities. Spell immunity, Path/School Resistance and Disuptive Aura have no effect on Salves.
Applying a salve takes 10 seconds of appropriate roleplay.
Example: Penny has collected a Stasis 1 Salve and a Sleep 1 Salve. She spends 10 seconds applying the salve to her sword before attacking an enemy and drinks the Stasis 1 salve. Note if Penny had got the salves reversed, she would have Slept herself.
A player must carry appropriate phys-reps for salves in order to use Forager Lore.
Only 1 Forager Lore ability may be applied to any weapon at a time.
Salves are only effective when fresh. Salves gathered on a game last until sunrise the following day.
Salves have special targeting rules. A salve can be applied to a willing target with 10 seconds of roleplay, although the target is not aware of what the salve does until it takes effect. Salves can also by applied to unwilling targets by applying them to weapons and attacking with them. This allows the weapon wielder to call the salve effect in addition to their damage on their next successful attack. If the strike causes real damage (not a bruise), the salve effect is applied to the target. This includes beneficial salves, which the target cannot choose to refuse.
Example: Prospera finds a wounded Drow while patrolling. Thinking quickly, she offers to apply a healing salve to not be slain on the spot. Foolishly, the Drow accepts and with 10 seconds of roleplay, Prospera applies the Double Weakness salve. The Drow is then affected by a Double Weakness.
Example: Brightleaf is tracking an enemy scout and wants to stop them from reporting back to their bandit leader. She applies a Sleep 2 Salve to her bow. She then shoots the scout, calling Swift Piercing 7 Sleep 2. The enemy scout has 4 Dexterity as their only protection, which is insufficient to reduce the damage to a bruise or less, and so they are put to sleep.
A character can determine if a liquid is an unused salve by use of the Recognise Smell skill, but not it’s effects. In order to determine the effects of a salve, the character must be capable of making a version of that salve.
Example: Clive finds 3 bottles on a Darkblade he’s just shot. Using his Recognise Smell Proficiency skill, he can tell they are some variety of salve. Clive has Forager Lore Specialisation. With this he can tell one bottle is a Courage 4 Salve, one bottle is a Clear Mind salve. As the last bottle is a Regrow 1 Salve, which requires Forage Lore Expertise to make, he cannot identify it.
| Low Level | Skill to learn | |
| Proficiency | Specialisation | Expertise |
| Stasis Salve 1 | Stasis Salve 2 | |
| Sleep Salve 1 | Sleep Salve 2 | |
| Weakness Salve | ||
| Courage Salve 1 | Courage Salve 2 | Courage Salve 3 |
| Coma Salve 1 | Coma Salve 2 | |
| Regrow Salve 1 | ||
| Remove Slow Salve | Remove Paralysis Salve | |
| Reduce Weakness Salve | Reduce Double Weakness Salve | |
| Destroy Salve | ||
| Clear Mind Salve | ||
| Clear Sight Salve | ||
| Lantern Salve | ||
| High Level | Skill to learn | Rank to learn |
| Mastery | Advanced Mastery | Legendary Mastery |
| 20 | 40 | 70 |
| Stasis Salve 3 | ||
| Sleep Salve 3 | Sleep Salve 4 | Sleep Salve 5 |
| Double Weakness Salve | Triple Weakness Salve | Quadruple Weakness Salve |
| Courage Salve 4 | Courage Salve 5 | Courage Salve 6 |
| Coma Salve 3 | Coma Salve 4 | Coma Salve 5 |
| Remove Petrification Salve | ||
| Reduce Triple Weakness Salve | Reduce Quadruple Weakness Salve | Reduce Quintuple Weakness Salve |
| Enervate Salve | Permanent Enervate Salve |
Duration: 15 minutes
Type: —
Target: Person
Effect:
Reduces the effective level of all poisons/diseases on the target by <n> for the duration of the miracle. At the end of the duration, any poisons/diseases that have not been cured/expired revert to their original level.
Note that the poison/disease still needs to be cured at its original level and it does not remove the poison/disease completely if it reduces its effective level such that the target is suffering no effects.
Stasis also effects bleeding for the duration as follows:
| Stasis | Bleeding |
| 1 | Stops any 1/min bleeding |
| 2 | Reduces any 1/sec bleeding to 1/min |
| 3 | Stops any 1/sec bleeding |
Duration: 15 minutes
Type: Offensive
Target: Person
Resisted By: Toughness
Effect:
A band of air tightens around the target’s throat. The target falls unconscious for 15 minutes.
The target can be awoken before this by any of the following methods:
This salve will not work on any creature that does not breathe.
Duration: 15 minutes
Type: Offensive
Target: Person
Resisted by: Strength
Effect:
Drains the target of Strength/Double Strength/Triple Strength/Quadruple Strength/Quintuple Strength.
If the target drops below normal Strength he collapses and most obey the following:
Weakness effects are not cumulative.
Duration: 15 minutes
Type: Mental
Target: Person
Effect:
Courage increases the target’s effective Willpower by <n> when subjected to Fear inducing effects. This miracle will not remove any existing Fear effects on the target.
Courage also reduces the effects of any Demoralise effects on the target by <n>. Demoralise effects which have their effects reduced to 0 or less are dispelled.
Duration: 15 Minutes
Type: Offensive, Mental
Target: Person
Resisted by: Willpower
Effect:
Directly affects the mind, causing signals from the brain to be stopped. The target falls unconscious for 15mins.
The target can be awoken before this by any of the following methods:
Note that this salve does not affect the Undead, plants, or similar creatures.
Duration: Special
Type: Non-stackable
Target: Person
Effect:
The touched location (even if it has been severed/crushed) regains the amount of Body Points per minute as follows:
| Location | Rate |
| Arm/Leg | <n> |
| Chest | <n> – 1 |
| Head | <n> – 2 |
(where a rate is zero or negative no Body Points can be regained to that location). The recipient also receives an equal amount of Life Points.
The location only needs to be touched to begin the Regrow process, it is not necessary to continue to touch the location.
The miracle ends when one of the following conditions is met:
Severed/Crushed locations start regrowing on -10.
Regrow does not fix a broken location (though a Severed/Crushed location will grow back unbroken). It will still regenerate body points for that location, but the location will remain unusable.
If the character is dead, Regrow will still regenerate lost locations, but a Raise Dead or similar miracle is required to return the character to life.
Duration: Instantaneous
Type: —
Target: Person
Effect:
Removes the effects of Slow from the target character. This miracle can also be used to remove Halt and Freeze effects.
Duration: Instantaneous
Type: —
Target: Person
Effect:
Removes the effects of Paralysis from the target character, as well as the effects removed by Remove Slow.
Duration: Instantaneous
Type: —
Target: Person
Effect:
Removes the effects of Petrification from the target character, as well as the effects removed by Remove Paralysis.
Duration: 15 Minutes
Type: —
Target: Person
Effect:
Reduces the effects of all Weakness effects on a target by <Strength>. Weakness effects reduced to no effect are dispelled.
Example: Harlock has single strength and is under the effects of a double weakness. A friendly light mage casts Reduce Weakness on him. For the next 15 minutes, the double Weakness is reduced to single Weakness and Harlock can stand again.
Duration: Instant
Type: Offensive
Target: Object
Resisted by: Protective castings
Effect:
Destroys any one non-living object touched by the salve or salve applied weapon. Damage does not need to be caused.
Example: Clive applies a Destroy Salve to his daggers and attacks a Guard. Even though the Guard blocks his attack with his shield, the shield is destroyed. He then attacks with the second dagger, which the Guard parries with his weapon. The weapon is then destroyed.
Duration: Instantaneous
Type: Mental
Target: Person
Effect:
Clear Mind removes ONE offensive Mental spell/miracle cast on the target (the caster specifies which one). Note that this spell cannot be used on the caster as they will not be aware that anything is wrong.
Example: Twinkle has a Fear 2 and a Charm 1 running on her. Bunty casts Clear Mind on Twinkle specifying that the Fear is removed.
Clear Mind CANNOT remove possession.
Duration: Instantaneous
Type:
Target: Person
Effect:
Clear Sight removes the effect of Blindness from the target character. This includes the following spells/miracles: Blindness, Dazzle & Flash.
Example: Orchid is attacked by a drow who casts Blindness 1 on him, as he has no Willpower he is blinded. Fortunately, a nice Light Mage casts Clear Sight on him, and the effect of the Blindess spell is immediately removed.
Duration: 15 minutes
Type: —
Target: Person
Effect:
The caster can create a 20’ radius of light from his hand.
The player must provide his own lantern as a Phys. Rep. for this spell.
Duration: 15 minutes
Type: Offensive
Target: Person
Resisted by: Power armour
Effect:
Enervate Salve puts the effected character on half his maximum Life Points plus any Power Armour. If the character is already on less than half Life Points, this miracle has no effect. The Power Armour value used is the maximum on any location.
Example: Dunno has 60 Life Points and is currently in a Bless 4 when he is struck by an Enervate. His Life Points immediately drop to 34.
After fighting for a few more minutes, his Life Points have been further reduced to 10 when he is again struck by an Enervate. However, as his Life Points are already below half it has no effect.
The effect of the Enervate Salve lasts for 15 minutes or until the Life miracle Revive is cast. Any other life curing will only take the Life Points to a half the character’s maximum Life Points.
Example: Dunno is healed by his friendly, neighbourhood Justice Priest, but until the effect of the Enervate Salve wears off, his Life Points cannot go above 30.
Example: During the fight, Dunno is reduced to -3 Life Points. He then bled for a further 5 minutes, putting him on -8 Life Points, when the Enervate ended.
If the Enervate Salve had lasted another 3 minutes, Dunno would have reached -11 Life Points and died. After the Enervate wears off, he would still be dead.
Duration: Permanent
Type: Offensive
Target: Person
Resisted by: Power armour
Prerequisite: Enervate Salve
Effect:
This has the same effect as Enervate Salve above, except that the effect is permanent and can only be removed by a Revive miracle.
To make a Permanent Enervate Salve, a character must first have an Enervate Salve as a required ingredient.
For the purposes of Permanent Enervate, your max life is always halved. Even if you buy more life after being enervated, your new max life is halved.
Example: If you have 30 life, are permanent enervated, giving you effectively 15 life for ever. If you subsequently buy 6 more life, you are effectively on 18 life for ever.
A GM may rule that special plants or materials are availible within their game area which can offer salves which are not included in this list. These should emulate effects from casting lists with levels set according to the following guidelines:
| Effect Level | Forager Level |
| 0-1 | Proficiency |
| 2-3 | Specialisation |
| 4-5 | Expertise |
| 6-7 | Mastery |
| 8-9 | Advanced Mastery |
| 10+ | Legendary Mastery |
A character with Create Trap knows the methods and ways of making and laying concealed traps to manipulate the battlefield to their advantage.
Setting up a trap requires 5*(level+1) seconds, representing the preparation to craft and place a workable trap that can harm or hinder someone from items already carried. As part of this process, the Player must place a phys-rep for the trap at the location the trap is. Traps are phys-reped by a length of cord or rope, no more than 10ft long, laid on the floor. The rope should have an obvious marking, such as a clothes peg, with a number on it and in a color appropriate to the level of the trap as follows:
| Trap Level | Phys-rep colour | Phys-rep number |
|---|---|---|
| Proficiency | Red | 1 |
| Specialisation | Orange | 2 |
| Expertise | Yellow | 3 |
| Mastery | Green | 4 |
| Advanced Mastery | Blue | 5 |
| Legendary Mastery | Purple | 6 |
The level of the trap, which determines the difficulty to identify, is chosen by the character creating the trap at the time of making the trap, and can be any level up to or equal to their Recognise Tracks skill.
Example: Watcher, who has Recognise Tracks Mastery, sets up a Trip trap in the middle of the path, and wants it to be easy to see, and so chooses to set a trap with Proficiency, laying out a red rope marked with the number 1. He also sets out two Spike Traps on either side of the Trip trap, and conceals these more, choosing Expertise and laying out two yellow ropes marked with the number 2.
Later, a passing goblin warband walk past, and noticing the Trip trap with their scouts, walk into the Spike Traps and break their legs.
A character can set up as many traps as they have appropriate phys-reps and suitable OOC locations of a trap and time to set them up. Traps must not be placed in ways which violate the safety guidelines or create trip hazards.
Traps can be identified with the Recognise Tracks skill. This requires Recognise Tracks equal to the trap maker’s trap level. A character can disarm any Trap they know how to make, as long as they can successfully identify it. To disarm a Trap requires both hands free and for the character to concentrate for 30 seconds.
Example: Nate has Rec Tracks Mastery and knows how to make Spike Trap 3s. He finds a Trip Trap, needing Rec Tracks proficiency, when patrolling. He cannot disarm it.
Later Nate finds a Spike Trap 21, needing Rec Tracks Mastery to identify. As he knows how to make Spike Trap 3s, he can disarm the trap.
Later Nate sees Gaheris fall into a Spike Trap 27, needing Rec Tracks Advanced Mastery to identify. Even if he knew where the trap was placed roughly, by seeing the enemy trapper prepare something for example, as he could not identify this, he could not disarm it.
Traps can only be activated by the trap-maker or those specified by them at the time the trap is set, who can trigger any trap they are in line of sight of at will that is not in the process of being disarmed. Traps affect the closest player or monster to the trap when triggered, within a 5ft radius of the marker. A player can choose not to activate a trap if they so wish. A trap-maker does not have to be able to perceive the target of a trap in order to activate it.
Example: Epifanio is trying to sneak into the treasure hold of a pirate ship whilst under the effects of Invisibility. One-Eye the trap-maker has left a Trip and Entangle trap behind the entrance door as a defence against thieves. Even though Epifanio enters the door undetected, One-Eye can still call “Time Stop: Trap!” and trigger the effect. Epifanio is then Tripped and Entangled and had better hope he can free himself before any routine checks occur.
Example: Nemesis is fleeing towards the party from an angry Troll she’s insulted. Brightleaf warned Nemesis of her traps ahead of time and decides not to trigger the Spike Trap she’s prepared when Nemesis runs over it but instead wait until the Troll following her does.
A trap maker can trigger the trap by calling Time Stop, followed by Trap!.
The victim caught by the trap will take the effect listed on the Trap or called out by the Trapmaker, pick up the phys-rep, (the trap has been used up) and return the phys-rep to the player trapmaker if able, or if not a monster or the GM.
A player is responsible for retrieving their phys-reps when the players leave a location. Repeated failures to collect trap phys-reps will incur negative points.
All effects caused by traps are Natural. Spell Immunity, Path/School Resistance and Disruptive Aura have no effect on traps. Traps have no effect on incorporeal creatures.
A player can combine multiple traps they know by purchasing the Multi-trap skill. The order in which the traps trigger is determined when they buy the skill.
The ability to create a type of trap is bought individually for each specific trap. The cost of this is determined by the Create Trap skill for the character’s race. Traps of a specific level also have a pre-requisite Recognise Tracks skill to learn, shown above the trap level.
| Low Level | Skill to learn | ||||
| Level 0 | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | |
| Proficiency | Proficiency | Specialisation | Specialisation | Expertise | |
| Trip | Trip and Entangle | Double Trip and Entangle | |||
| Thunder Clap 1 | Thunder Clap 2 | ||||
| Flash 1 | Flash 2 | ||||
| Spike Trap 3 | Spike Trap 6 | Spike Trap 9 | Spike Trap 12 | Spike Trap 15 | |
| Glowing Mark Trap 1 | Glowing Mark Trap 2 | ||||
| Knockback Trap | Double Knockback Trap | ||||
| Dazzle 1 | Dazzle 2 | Dazzle 3 | Dazzle 4 | Dazzle 5 | |
| Mass Fear Trap 1 | Mass Fear Trap 2 |
| High Level | Skill to learn | Rank to learn | |||
| Level 5 | Level 6 | Level 7 | Level 8 | Level 9 | Level 10 |
| Expertise | Mastery | Mastery | Advanced Mastery | Advanced Mastery | Legendary Mastery |
| 15 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 55 | 70 |
| Triple Trip and Entangle | Quadruple Trip and Entangle | Quintuple Trip and Entagle | |||
| Mass Trip | |||||
| Thunder Clap 3 | Thunder Clap 4 | Thunder Clap 5 | |||
| Flash 3 | Flash 4 | Flash 5 | |||
| Spike Trap 18 | Spike Trap 21 | Spike Trap 24 | Spike Trap 27 | Spike Trap 30 | Spike Trap 33 |
| Shrivel Trap | |||||
| Glowing Mark Trap 3 | Glowing Mark Trap 4 | Glowing Mark Trap 5 | |||
| Triple Knockback Trap | Quadruple Knockback Trap | Quintuple Knockback Trap | |||
| Dazzle 6 | Dazzle 7 | Dazzle 8 | Dazzle 9 | Dazzle 10 | Dazzle 11 |
| Mass Fear Trap 3 | Mass Fear Trap 4 | Mass Fear Trap 5 |
Duration: Instantaneous
Target: Person
Resisted by: Dexterity
Effect:
Trips the targeted character if they’re moving (the player should fall to his knees).
You cannot Trip someone who is in the process of getting out of a Grip i.e. has just one leg free.
A usable Dexterity of 4 is sufficient to avoid the effects of Trip.
Duration: Instantaneous
Target: Area (10’ Radius)
Resisted by: Dexterity
Prerequisite: Trip
Effect:
The caster nominates a point (which may be a person, object or anything else equally obvious) and everyone within 10’ is targeted by a Trip trap.
Duration: 15 minutes
Target: Person
Resisted by: Strength
Effect:
Trip and Entangle traps causes nets, plants or webbing to trip and entangle all limbs on a target. A target who fails to resist the Trip falls to the ground and is entangled on all locations. A usable Dexterity of 4 is sufficient to avoid the effects of the trip but the character is still entangled by their feet. A character with at least <Strength> can break the hold, taking 5 seconds per entangled location. A target who has been Entangled on all locations is a valid target for Backstab or Sniping from any direction until they have freed 2 locations.
Duration: 10 seconds
Target: Person
Resisted by: Toughness
Effect:
Any target with Toughness less than <n> is blinded (see The System for a description of this effect). With the following additional penalty:
Range: 10’ radius
Duration: 10 seconds
Target: Person
Resisted by: Toughness
Effect:
The caster claps his hand at the end of the vocals and calls “Thunder Clap <n>”. Any character with Toughness less than <n> is stunned for 10 seconds (unable to do anything but stagger around).
Duration: Instantaneous
Target: Person
Resisted by: Normal Armour, Immolate, Float.
Effect:
Causes (N) Piercing Normal Damage to a single leg as the target’s own weight drives them into the hidden spikes. Salves which do not cause damage, such as Weakness Blade, may be applied to Spike Trap, as can Lethal Strike but spells and miracles cannot be. Immolate or Float makes a target immune to Spike Trap.
Spike Traps may be deployed as Subdue Spike Traps. This option is chosen at the point of trap deployment and cannot be changed afterward.
Range: 20’
Duration: 15 minutes
Type: Offensive
Target: Person
Resisted by: –
Effect:
Glowing Mark lines the targets body with a glowing red flame, which doesn’t actually cause any damage, but does make the target easier to see, even in bright daylight.
For the duration of the spell, the target’s Dexterity bonus is reduced by <n>, to a minimum of 0. In addition, Glowing Mark traps negate the effects of invisibility, causing the target to be seen clearly.
Duration: Instantaneous
Type: Offensive
Target: Person
Resisted by: Strength
Effect:
A character who fails to resist is knocked back 10’ as if they had suffered an attack with the Knockback special strike.
The direction of the Knockback is chosen when the trap is set.
Duration: 15 minutes
Type: Offensive
Target: Person
Resisted by: Power armour
Prerequisite: Spike Trap 14
Effect:
Shrivel Trap puts both legs on half the maximum Body Points plus any Power Armour. If the location is already on less than half Body Points, this trap has no effect.
Example: Aramis has 28 Body Points on his Chest and is currently in a Harden 3, when he is struck by a Shrivel to his Chest. The Body Points on this location immediately drop to 17 (half 28 plus the Power protection supplied by the Harden). After fighting for a few more minutes, his Chest Body Points have been further reduced to 5 when he is again struck by a Shrivel to his Chest. However, as his Body Points on this location are less than half, it has no effect.
The effect of the Shrivel lasts for 15 minutes or until the Order miracle Restore is cast on the effected location. Any other curing on a Shrivelled location will only take the Body Points to half the character’s maximum Body Points for the location.
Example: Aramis decides he needs to fix his Chest and casts Heal Wounds 20 on it. However, due to the Shrivel, he can only raise the Body Points on this location to 14.
To learn Shrivel Trap, a character must first learn Spike Trap 21.
Duration: 15 minutes
Type: Offensive
Target: Person
Resisted by: -
Effect:
Partially dazzles the targeted character, making it difficult for them to see. The target’s physical damage is reduced by <n>.
Duration: 1 minute
Type: Offensive, Mental
Target: Person
Resisted by: Willpower
Effect:
All characters within 10’ of the trap who fail to resist must flee the area immediately until they are out of sight. The effect lasts for 1 minute (or until the activated trap is disarmed), during which time the effected character flees whenever he approaches the area.
A Mass Fear trap remains in place after being triggered, and can be located without requiring Recognise Tracks.