TEXT: 
  
  3
  The Classic British Fantasy Roleplaying Game
  By Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson
  “Dragon Warriors is a joy: a slick, fun system 
  and a vivid fantasy world that keeps drawing 
  me back, year after year. This gorgeous and long-
  awaited new edition is a rare second chance to 
  get in on the best-kept secret in gaming.”
  —Tim Harford, 
  author of The Undercover economisT
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
  The classic British fantasy role-playing game
  By Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson
  Interior artwork
  Andy Hepworth
  Jon Hodgson
  Scott Neil
  Scott Purdy
  Erik Wilson
  Maps
  Andy Law 
  (www.hapimeses.com)
  Russ Nicholson
  Frazer Payne
  Logo
  Mark Quire
  Editing, revisions 
  and additional material
  Dave Morris
  Adrian Bott
  Frazer Payne
  Ian Sturrock
  James Wallis
  Cover
  Jon Hodgson
  Layout & Publishing
  James Wallis
  DRAGON WARRIORS
  By Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson
  ISBN 978--90640-03-7
  All text is copyright © 1986, 2008 Dave Morris and Oliver 
  Johnson. All art and maps are copyright © 2008 the individual 
  creators. All other elements of design are copyright © 2008 
  Magnum Opus Press. All rights reserved. Dragon Warriors is 
  a trademark of Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson, used under 
  licence by Magnum Opus Press. Originally published in 
  different format by Corgi Books, 1986-1987. 
  The authors have asserted their moral rights to be identified as 
  the creators of this work.
  Digital edition published by Magnum Opus Press. Print edition 
  available from Mongoose Publishing/ Flaming Cobra.
  Magnum Opus Press
  29a Abbeville Road, 
  London SW4 9LA
  United Kingdom
  hello@magnumopuspress.com
  For more information on the Dragon Warriors game and game-
  world, its creators, forthcoming products for it, and other 
  exciting games and game-related books, visit the Magnum 
  Opus Press website at http://www.magnumopuspress.com
  
  3
  Dedicated to all those we have gamed with over 
  the years—too many to thank individually, but 
  know that there’s a little bit of every one of you 
  in Dragon Warriors.
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  
  
  RN
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
  Introduction  
   
   
  11
  Chapter 1: Fantasy Roleplay 
  13
  The GamesMaster 
   
   
  13
  Getting started  
   
   
  14
  The object of the game  
   
  14
  The dice 
   
   
   
  15
  Chapter 2: Creating a Character 17
  Roleplaying 
   
   
   
  17
  Step 1: The characteristics 
   
  18
  Step 2: Choosing a profession 
   
  18
  Step 3: Health points 
   
   
  20
  Step 4: The combat factors 
   
  20
  Step 5: Magical combat factors  
  21
  Step 6: Dodging 
   
   
  21
  Step 7: Stealth and Perception  
  22
  Step 8: Initial equipment 
   
  22
  Step 9: Rank 
   
   
   
  22
  Step 10: Background 
   
   
  22
  Character sheet  
   
   
  22
  Encumbrance  
   
   
  23
  Character creation summary 
   
  24
  Chapter 3:  The Fighters 
   
  25
  To Live By The Sword  
   
  25 
  Knights  
   
   
   
  25
   
  Knight special abilities 
   
  26
   
   
  Track  
   
   
  26
   
   
  Armour Expert  
   
  26
   
   
  Ride Warhorse  
   
  26
   
   
  Disarm Technique 
   
  26
   
   
  Expert Parry 
   
   
  27
   
   
  Main Gauche  
   
  27
   
   
  Master Bowman 
   
  27
   
   
  Quick Draw 
   
   
  27
  CONTENTS
   
   
  Swordmaster 
   
   
  27
   
   
  Weaponskill 
   
   
  27 
  Barbarians 
   
   
   
  27
   
  Barbarian special abilities 
   
  27
   
   
  Track  
   
   
  27
   
   
  Berserk  
   
   
  27
   
   
  Ride Warhorse  
   
  28
   
   
  Bloodrage 
   
   
  28
   
  Barbarians and Armour 
   
  28
  Chapter 4: The Wizards 
   
  29
  Sorcerers 
   
   
   
  30
   
  Minimum requirements 
   
  30
   
  Spellcasting  
   
   
  30
   
  Sorcerers and armour 
   
  30
  The special abilities of a Sorcerer 
  30
   
  Calligraphy  
   
   
  30
   
  Alchemy 
   
   
   
  30
   
  Artifice 
   
   
   
  31
   
  Wands 
   
   
   
  32
  Mystics  
   
   
   
  33
   
  Minimum requirements 
   
  33
   
  Spellcasting  
   
   
  33
   
  Spell mastery 
   
   
  33
   
  Mystics and armour  
   
  33
  Special abilities of a Mystic 
   
  33
   
  Premonition  
   
   
  34
   
  ESP  
   
   
   
  34
   
  Enchantment of arms and armour 
  34
   
  Adepthood  
   
   
  35
  Elementalists 
   
   
   
  35
   
  Minimum requirements 
   
  35
   
  Elemental specialism  
   
  35
   
  Elementalists and armour 
   
  36
  Special abilities of an Elementalist 
  36
   
   
  Spellcasting 
   
   
  36
   
   
  Raw power 
   
   
  36
  
  7
   
   
  Elemental resistance 
   
  37
   
  Basic equipment 
   
   
  37
   
  Darkness Elementalists 
   
  37
  Warlocks 
   
   
   
  38
   
  Minimum requirements 
   
  38
   
  Weapon groups 
   
   
  38
   
  Simultaneous casting  
   
  38
   
   
  Warlocks and armour 
   
  38
  Special abilities of a Warlock 
   
  39
   
   
  Appraise enemy  
   
  39
   
   
  Arrow cutting  
   
  39
   
   
  Fight blind 
   
   
  39
   
   
  Unarmed combat 
   
  39
   
   
  Minor enchantment (Weapons) 39
   
   
  Minor enchantment (Armour) 40
   
   
  Major enchantment (Weapons) 40
   
   
  Major enchantment (Armour) 40
   
   
  Ride warhorse  
   
  40
  Chapter 5: Assassins 
   
  41
  Minimum requirements  
   
  41
  Assassins and armour 
   
   
  41
  The special abilities of an Assassin 
  42
   
  Stealth 
   
   
   
  42
   
  Combat techniques:   
   
  42
   
   
  Armour Piercing 
   
  42
   
   
  Shock attack 
   
   
  42
   
   
  Throwing Spikes 
   
  43
   
   
  Unarmed Combat  
   
  43 
   
  Mental techniques:   
   
  43
   
   
  Inner Sense,  
   
   
  43
   
   
  Memorize 
   
   
  44
   
   
  Deathvow 
   
   
  44
   
  Meditational techniques 
   
  44
   
  Alchemical techniques 
   
  45
   
   
  Assassin’s Lotion 
   
  45
   
   
  Smoke Jar 
   
   
  45
   
   
  Flash Pellets 
   
   
  45
   
  The Skills of Assassins 
   
  46 
   
   
  Climb  
   
   
  46
   
   
  Disguise 
   
   
  46
   
   
  Pilfer  
   
   
  46
   
   
  Pick lock 
   
   
  47
   
   
  Track  
   
   
  48
  Assassins at work: an example 
   
  48
  Chapter 6: In the Beginning 
  50
  Interlude: social class 
   
   
  50
  Determining background 
   
  52
  Nationality and native tongue 
   
  56
   
  Other languages 
   
   
  56
  Literacy and ancient languages  
  56
   
  The system in action  
   
  57
  Chapter 7: Into Adventure  
  59
  Adventuring strategy 
   
   
  59
   
  NPC adventurers 
   
   
  59
   
  Illumination  
   
   
  60
  Encounters in an underworld 
   
  60
   
  Fighting in the dark  
   
  61
   
  Battle order  
   
   
  61
   
  Locked doors 
   
   
  62
  Out of sight: Stealth and Perception 
  62
   
  How the scores are used 
   
  62
   
  Stealth and Perception modifiers 
  62
   
  When the Stealth roll is made 
  63
  Tracking 
   
   
   
  63
  Climbing 
   
   
   
  63
  Falling  
   
   
   
  64
  Special cases 
   
   
   
  64
  Extra-special cases 
   
   
  64
  Chapter 8: The Rules of Combat 66
  The hit roll 
   
   
   
  66
  The armour bypass roll  
   
  66
  Weapons 
   
   
   
  67
  Common weapons 
   
   
  67
  Moving into combat 
   
   
  67
  Strength 
   
   
   
  68
  Shields  
   
   
   
  68
  Fighting more than one opponent 
  68
  Wounds and recovery 
   
   
  68
  Missile combat  
   
   
  68
  Missile weapons 
   
   
  69
  Combat penalties for wearing armour 
  71
  The Combat Round 
   
   
  71
  Evading an attack 
   
   
  71
  Getting out of combat  
   
  72
  Chapter 9: The Use of Magic 
  73
  Casting a spell  
   
   
  73
  Mystics: Casting spells  
   
  73
   
  Casting spells above their level 
  74
   
  Terminating a spell  
   
  74
  Elementalists: Casting spells 
   
  74
  Warlocks: Casting spells 
   
  74
  Using extra magic points 
   
  75
  
  8
  Dragon Warriors
  How does the spell affect its victim? 
  75
  Resisting direct-attack spells 
   
  75
  How far does the spell reach? 
   
  77
  How long does the spell last? 
   
  77
  Can spells be overlapped? 
   
  77
  Terminating a spell 
   
   
  78
  Chapter 10: The Book of Spells 
  79
  Sorcerer spells  
   
   
  79
  Mystic spells 
   
   
   
  90
  Elementalist spells 
   
   
  95
   
  Earth 
   
   
   
  96
   
  Air  
   
   
   
  99
   
  Water 
   
   
   
  101
   
  Fire  
   
   
   
  103
   
  Darkness 
   
   
   
  104
  Warlock spells  
   
   
  106
  Chapter 11: GamesMastering 
  115
  Game time 
   
   
   
  115
  Non-player characters  
   
  115
   
  Hired help  
   
   
  116
   
  Hirelings 
   
   
   
  116
   
  Bearers 
   
   
   
  116
   
  Fellow adventurers  
   
  117
  Death  
   
   
   
  121
  Other rules 
   
   
   
  122
   
  Poison 
   
   
   
  122
   
  Morale checks 
   
   
  122
   
  Fright attacks 
   
   
  122
   
  Gaze attacks  
   
   
  123
   
  Vision types  
   
   
  123
  Curses  
   
   
   
  123
  Madness 
   
   
   
  124
   
  Multiple personalities 
   
  124
   
  Paranoia 
   
   
   
  124
   
  Hysteria 
   
   
   
  124
   
  Phobia 
   
   
   
  125
   
  Amnesia 
   
   
   
  125
   
  Melancholia  
   
   
  125
   
  Catatonia 
   
   
   
  125
   
  Megalomania 
   
   
  125
   
  Pathological uncertainty 
   
  125
   
  Obsessive mania 
   
   
  126
   
  Notes on madness 
   
   
  126
  Diseases 
   
   
   
  126
  Final advice to the GM  
   
  127
   
   
  Chapter 12: 
  Rewards of Adventuring 
   
  129 
  Experience points 
   
   
  129
  Increasing in rank 
   
   
  129
  Renown 
   
   
   
  131
  Treasure 
   
   
   
  131
   
  How is the treasure table used? 
  132
  NPC weapons and equipment  
  133
  Spending the spoils 
   
   
  134
   
  Equipment  
   
   
  134
   
  Trading magic 
   
   
  135 
   
  Armour types 
   
   
  135
   
  Food and lodging 
   
   
  135
   
  Property and land 
   
   
  135 
  Chapter 13: 
  Items Weird and Wondrous 
  137
  Enchanted weapons 
   
   
  137
  Enchanted armour 
   
   
  138
  Scrolls  
   
   
   
  138
  Potions and magical compounds  
  138
  Amulets and talismans  
   
  141
  Rings  
   
   
   
  144
  Artifacts 
   
   
   
  145
  Relics  
   
   
   
  147
  Chapter 14: The Lands of Legend 149
  The Lie of the Land 
   
   
  151
  Cornumbria 
   
   
   
  151
  Albion  
   
   
   
  151
  Thuland 
   
   
   
  152
  Ereworn 
   
   
   
  152 
  Glissom 
   
   
   
  153
  The Stranded Isles 
   
   
  153
  The North-West Mainland 
   
  153
  The Gouge 
   
   
   
  153
  Krarth  
   
   
   
  154
  The Mercanian Coast  
   
  157
  The Trackless Ooze 
   
   
  157
  The Kingdom of Wyrd  
   
  158
  Yggdras Isle 
   
   
   
  158
  The Gnawing Waste 
   
   
  158
  The New Selentine Empire 
   
  158
  The Nomad Khanates  
   
  160
  Ferromaine 
   
   
   
  161
  Emphidor and neighbouring countries 163
  Selentium and the Asmulian Lords 
  163
  The Ta’ashim Lands 
   
   
  164
  The Principalities of the Crusade 
  166
  
  9
  Harogarn 
   
   
   
  166
  The Mungoda Rain-Forest 
   
  167
  Chapter 15: The Lore of Legend 
  169
  The Altar of Jusjurandus 
   
  169
  The Armoured One of Skiosonar 
  170
  The Casket of Fays 
   
   
  170
  The Crown of Kings 
   
   
  171
  Dragon Pearls  
   
   
  172
  Elven paraphernalia 
   
   
  172
  The Ghosts of the Magi 
   
  172
  Hand of Glory  
   
   
  173
  Helgrim’s Hand  
   
   
  173
  The High King’s Cauldron 
   
  174
  The Immortal God-King 
   
  174
  The Masque of Impenetrable Deceit 
  175
  Nostro’s Boots of Striding 
   
  175
  The Onyx Prowler 
   
   
  175
  Places of magic and mystery 
   
  175
  Sa’aknathur (SAH-ahk’ nath-UR) 
  177
  Sa’aknathur’s Marvellous Cabinets 
  177
  The Seven Arrows of Athgeld  
  177
  The Spear of Screaming Souls  
  178
  Stygian Waters  
   
   
  178
  Travellers’ tales  
   
   
  179
  The Wendigo Pelt 
   
   
  180
  The Whispering Hat 
   
   
  180
  The Witch-Baubles of Kao 
   
  180
  Chapter 16: 
  Living in the Lands of Legend 
  183
  Languages 
   
   
   
  183
   
  Learning a language  
   
  183
   
   
  Learning from a tutor  
  185
   
   
  Learning by usage 
   
  185
   
   
  Combined method 
   
  185
   
  Ancient languages 
   
   
  185
   
  Modern languages 
   
   
  186
   
  Special languages 
   
   
  186
   
   
  Arcane  
   
   
  186
   
   
  Coradian traders’ argot  
  186
   
  Literacy 
   
   
   
  187
   
  Learning a script 
   
   
  187
  The calendar 
   
   
   
  188
  Crime and punishment  
   
  189
   
  The King’s Court 
   
   
  189
   
  The Court of High Justice 
   
  190
   
  The Manor Court 
   
   
  190
   
  The Ecclesiastical Court 
   
  190
   
  The Civil Court 
   
   
  191
   
  The Market Court  
   
  191
   
  Coming to court 
   
   
  191
   
  Witnesses 
   
   
   
  191
   
   
  What do the witnesses do? 
  192
   
  On the spot fines 
   
   
  192
   
  Reasoning with the judges 
   
  193
   
  Passing sentence 
   
   
  195
  Wargames 
   
   
   
  196
   
  The tourney  
   
   
  197
   
  The joust 
   
   
   
  197
   
  Who attends the event? 
   
  198
   
  Ransom 
   
   
   
  199
   
  Jousting rules 
   
   
  199
   
  Other combat entertainments 
  201
   
  Experience points 
   
   
  202
  Chapter 17: 
  Your campaign setting 
   
  203
  World-building checklist 
   
  203
   
  Inspiration  
   
   
  203
   
  Culture 
   
   
   
  203
   
  Magic and Fantasy  
   
  204
   
  Non-humans 
   
   
  204
   
  Genders 
   
   
   
  204
   
  Rules changes 
   
   
  205
  Other worlds 
   
   
   
  205
   
  Feudal Japan  
   
   
  205
   
  Pre-Columbian Mexico 
   
  205
   
  Roman Britain 
   
   
  206
   
  Settings from fantasy literature 
  206
  Rules variants  
   
   
  207
   
  Variable damage 
   
   
  207
   
  More lethal combat  
   
  207
   
  Mooks 
   
   
   
  208
   
  Critical hits  
   
   
  208
   
  Fate points  
   
   
  208
   
  More skills  
   
   
  209
   
  No shopping  
   
   
  209
  Chapter 18: Travel and Hazards  211
  Disputations 
   
   
   
  211
  Underworlds 
   
   
   
  212
  Long-distance travel 
   
   
  212
  Sea travel 
   
   
   
  213
   
  Vessel types  
   
   
  214
   
  Weather at sea 
   
   
  214
   
  Making headway 
   
   
  214
   
  Storms 
   
   
   
  215
  
  0
  Dragon Warriors
   
  Lost at sea  
   
   
  216
   
  The cost of sea travel  
   
  216
  Chapter 19: 
  The Darkness Before Dawn  
  217
  How to GM this adventure 
   
  217
   
  GamesMaster’s overview 
   
  217 
   
  Pre-game preparation 
   
  218
  Scene 1: On the road 
   
   
  219
  Scene 2: Solly in the Stocks 
   
  219
  Scene 3: About Town 
   
   
  220
   
  3a. The Inn  
   
   
  221
   
  3b. Lady Angela’s Refuge 
   
  222
   
  3c. The Manor House 
   
  222
   
  Local knowledge 
   
   
  223
  Scene 4: The Eaves Gatekeeper  
  223
  Scene 5: Entering the Forest 
   
  224
  Scene 6: The First Ambush 
   
  224
  Scene 7: The Ruins 
   
   
  225
  Scene 8: The White Lady Abroad 
  225
  Scene 9: The Hollow Oak 
   
  226
  Scene 10: Old Mab’s Stone House 
  227
  Scene 11: Hellhounds Attack 
   
  229
  Scene 12: Queen Fhionne’s House 
  229
  Scene 13: The Final Battle 
   
  230
  Scene 14: The Return Home 
   
  232
  Scene 15: Traitor’s Stand 
   
  233
  Endings and Beginnings 
   
  234
  Chapter 20: 
  Monsters of Legend  
   
  237
  Adventurers 
   
   
   
  237
  Apemen 
   
   
   
  237
  Automaton 
   
   
   
  237
  Baraduth (Eaves Phantom) 
   
  237
  Barghest 
   
   
   
  238
  Barnacle Men  
   
   
  238
  Basilisk  
   
   
   
  238
  Bat 
   
   
   
   
  238
  Bear 
   
   
   
   
  238
  Black Riders 
   
   
   
  238
  Blue Men 
   
   
   
  238
  Boggart  
   
   
   
  238
  Bull 
   
   
   
   
  239
  Cadaver 
   
   
   
  239
  Caitshee 
   
   
   
  239
  Centaur 
   
   
   
  239
  Chimera 
   
   
   
  239
  Chonchon 
   
   
   
  239
  Cloudspider 
   
  240
  Crocodile 
   
  240
  Death’s Head 
   
  240
  Dracomen 
   
  240
  Dragon  
   
  240 
   
  Dwarf  
   
  240
  Elemental 
   
  240
  Elf  
   
   
  241
  Fang Warrior 
   
  241
  Frost Giant 
   
  241
  Fungus Men 
   
  241
  Gargoyle 
   
  241
  Ghost  
   
  241
  Ghoul  
   
  241
  Giant Beetle 
   
  242
  Giant Eagle 
   
  242
  Giant Rat 
   
  242
  Giant Scorpion  
  242
  Giant Viper 
   
  242
  Gnome  
   
  242
  Goblin  
   
  242
  Golem  
   
  242
  Gorgon  
   
  243
  Grave Gaunt 
   
  243
  Gryphon 
   
  243
  Hag 
   
   
  243
  Halfling 
   
  243
  Harpy  
   
  244
  Hellhound 
   
  244
  Hellhound, greater 
  244
  Hellion  
   
  244
  Hellrot  
   
  244
  Hippogriff 
   
  244
  Hobgoblin 
   
  244
  Horse  
   
  245
  Human  
   
  245
  Hydra  
   
  245
  Hydra, small 
   
  245
  Ignis Fatuus 
   
  245
  Imp 
   
   
  245
  Ire Goblin 
   
  245
  Jumbee  
   
  245
  Kappa  
   
  246
  Killer Bees 
   
  246
  Kraken  
   
  246
  Krask  
   
  246
  Lycanthrope 
   
  246
  Malgash 
   
  247
  Manticore 
   
  247
  Mere-Gaunt 
   
  247
  Minotaur 
   
  247
  Mordu   
   
  247
  Mummy 
   
  247
  Nargut  
   
  247
  Necrochor 
   
  248
  Nightmare 
   
  248
  Obsidiak 
   
  248
  Ogre 
   
   
  248
  Okeman 
   
  248
  Oni 
   
   
  248
  Orc 
   
   
  249
  Pazuzu  
   
  249
  Phoenix 
   
  249
  Python  
   
  249
  Rakshah 
   
  249
  Sentinel Crab  
  249
  Shadow Walker  
  249
  Shen Lun 
   
  250
  Skeleton 
   
  250
  Skullghast 
   
  250
  Snow Ape 
   
  250
  Spectre  
   
  250
  Sphinx  
   
  250
  Spider, Giant 
   
  250
  Spider, Tarantula 
  250
  Spriggan 
   
  251
  Sufiriad  
   
  251
  Swamp Folk 
   
  251
  Tapestry Demon 
  251
  Thorn Demon  
  251
  Tiger (sabre tooth) 
  251
  Titan  
   
  251
  Troll 
   
   
  252
  Vampire 
   
  252
  Volucreth 
   
  252
  Wild Boar 
   
  252
  Water Leaper  
  252
  White Lady 
   
  253
  Wight  
   
  253
  Wolf 
   
   
  253
  Wraith  
   
  253
  Wyvern  
   
  253
  Yeti 
   
   
  253
  Zombie  
   
  253
  Appendix 1: 
   
  Spell Index  
  254
  Appendix 2: 
   
  Other Dragon 
   
  Warriors books 
  255
  Blank character sheet 
  256
  
  
  INTRODUCTION
  Ages seem in stories, a place dripping with a Euro-
  pean folktale sensibility. The flavor of what fantasy 
  ought to be.
   
  In Legend, faerie creatures are as amoral as cats 
  and as heartless as children. A goblin in the rafters 
  can spoil a whole night’s sleep, while a troll under 
  the bridge ahead is reason to change your travel 
  plans. And these creatures are rare. Walking into a 
  tavern in Legend and finding an elf at the bar would 
  be like strolling into your real-life local and seeing a 
  polar bear. 
   
  In Legend, human emotion is just as strong as 
  magic. The scenario ‘A Box of Old Bones’, which 
  originally appeared in White Dwarf magazine in 
  1985 and which is bound to re-emerge before long, 
  makes it clear that the miracles associated with 
  holy relics are sufficiently rare and vaguely mani-
  fested that a fake relic can go unnoticed for years, 
  getting by on the strength of its placebo effect and 
  the willingness of clergy and believers to collude in 
  seeing evidence where they want to see it. Our rule 
  was never to evoke magic if a non-supernatural plot 
  point would do.
   
  Fantasy games like D&D—or, these days, World 
  of Warcraft—belong to the George Lucas or Chris 
  Columbus branch of role-playing. Dragon Warriors 
  would be a movie by Guillermo del Toro or Tim 
  Burton. In literary terms, if D&D is Eragon, then 
  DW is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell. Now that the 
  righteous passion of youth is mellowed somewhat, 
  we see that neither approach is right or wrong. Fan-
  tasy has room for all flavours. Take your pick. 
   
  Turning now to thanks, regrets and reminis-
  cences… Dragon Warriors owes its existence to Ian 
  Livingstone and Steve Jackson, whose brainwave 
  was to see that role-playing could be smuggled into 
  bookshops. We were never that interested in solo 
  gamebooks, but as soon as we saw the first Fight-
  AS DragoN WarriorS is coming up to its 
  quarter century, it’s now almost as venerable as those 
  classic original role-playing games—Dungeons & 
  Dragons, runeQuest, Traveller—in whose company 
  it was once a cheeky whippersnapper.
   
  Those who enjoy Dragon Warriors respond to 
  something unique about it. Which sets us to won-
  dering: what is the essence of Dragon Warriors? 
  Most certainly that essence doesn’t lie in armor-
  bypass rolls or other game mechanics. Indeed, the 
  best Legend campaigns we’ve played in have used 
  the GURPS system. And the rules mean nothing 
  to those who live in the Dragon Warriors world, 
  for whom ‘mystic’ and ‘warlock’ and ‘sorcerer’ are 
  all interchangeable shorthand for a guy you really 
  should steer well clear of.
   
  So, is DW then defined by the world of Legend? 
  We think not. Some of the great role-playing games 
  are completely identified with an entire fantasy sub-
  creation. Tekumel and Glorantha spring to mind. 
  The world of Legend, on the other hand, was always 
  intended to be our world—only skewed. 
   
  Some parts are closer to the 10th century, others 
  to the 14th, but the point was always to create a 
  backdrop that would be recognizably and convinc-
  ingly medieval. It was never about creating a place 
  that was alien and strange. The familiarity of Leg-
  end is what gives players freedom to create their 
  own stories there.
   
  Not rules nor world, then. From a personal per-
  spective, the important thing for us has always been 
  the flavour. That, for us, is the essence of Dragon 
  Warriors. Our aim was to put something dark, 
  spooky and magical back into fantasy role-playing. 
  Loathing the medieval Disneyland of Dungeons 
  & Dragons, with its theme-park taverns, comedy 
  dwarves and cannon-fodder profusion of monsters, 
  we made Legend as vividly dreamlike as the Middle 
   
   
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
  ing Fantasy book we started planning the pitch for 
  Dragon Warriors.
   
  The game system too owes a debt to Livingstone 
  and Jackson, interestingly enough. We had self-pub-
  lished a little RPG called Mortal Combat in the late 
  1970s. This came to the attention of Games Work-
  shop, with whom we discussed a UK rival to D&D. 
  Workshop’s working title for this was ‘Adventure’. 
  The deal never happened, but it gave us an excuse 
  to focus our role-playing sessions towards creating a 
  set of rules and a world (in fact, several worlds) that 
  ultimately evolved into Dragon Warriors.
   
  With hindsight, there are things we would do 
  differently. Oliver always argued strenuously against 
  polyhedral dice, but Dave resisted a pure d6-based 
  system—wrongly, as he now admits. As the whole 
  point of Dragon Warriors was to be accessible to 
  everybody, the low price-point of the books was 
  pretty much invalidated when you had to go search-
  ing for twelve-sided dice. Democratization of the 
  dice supply would also have helped to break the 
  authority of the GamesMaster—a term we abhor, 
  preferring ‘umpire’ or ‘referee’ as more indicative 
  of the group story-creation that we feel good role-
  playing should be.
   
  Philippa Dickinson, our editor at Transworld, 
  recognized that role-playing broke the normal pub-
  lishing rules about age groups. That’s why the origi-
  nal DW books showed no sign of being targeted at 
  11-15 year olds, even though those were almost cer-
  tainly our main market. We played it ourselves, after 
  all, and our friends—and we were twentysome-
  things, as I hope were many of those who bought 
  the books first time round.
   
  Completists may wonder what other DW books 
  are out there. We used Legend as the setting for our 
  Blood Sword series of gamebooks (Knight Books, 
  1987-88), where we elaborated the end-of-time 
  storyline that hangs over the world as the year 1000 
  approaches. Later, some of the story threads in 
  Blood Sword were used for three novellas called The 
  Chronicles of the Magi (Hodder, 1997). We’re still 
  not sure if we consider Blood Sword to be canoni-
  cal—or whether the year 1000 would really pass in 
  Legend with much hysteria, and not a little magical 
  mischief, but maybe sans the direct intervention of 
  God Almighty. The flavour of DW can be grim and 
  horrific as well as whimsical, but such grimness is 
  usually on a personal level. A character’s soul can be 
  in peril, lives can be threatened by treachery, indi-
  viduals can be torn by loyalties and inner conflicts. 
  And yet, in a Legend campaign, it is not usually 
  the fate of the world that hangs in the balance. Not 
  merely the fate of the world, at any rate. 
   
  At the risk of evoking comparison with Robert 
  E Howard’s estate, whose discovery of new stories 
  seems almost to have dwarfed Howard’s output 
  while alive, there was also an entire world of DW 
  rules and adventures, much more extensive than 
  in the original six books. This is the invaders & 
  ancients book, which was to have been incorporated 
  into Chaosium’s Questworld project. When that deal 
  failed to come about, we reworked the material into 
  a massive worldbook, called ophis, that would have 
  comprised some of DW books 7-12. 
   
  If you’re interested, a little glimpse of that con-
  tinent of Ophis will feature in Shadowline: The art 
  of iain McCaig (Insight, 2008). But that is all there 
  is, alas, as in those days we did our work in non-
  electronic form. The manuscript may have taken 
  the train to Dumfries or been used to lay the cor-
  nerstone of a church or used to light a fire on an 
  especially cold winter’s night—all those fates that 
  the one and only copies of things are wont to suffer. 
  But, like life, the loss is what makes the rest of it so 
  precious.
   
  For the resurrection of Dragon Warriors we par-
  ticularly want to thank James Wallis, who needs 
  no introduction as one of the great luminaries of 
  gaming. We are honoured that Dragon Warriors is 
  appearing as one of the first publications of Mag-
  num Opus Press, and grateful to James for lavishing 
  such attention to make it a truly mouth-watering 
  edition. We also must thank Ian Sturrock for edit-
  ing, revising and improving our original material 
  into a new edition for a new era of gaming. 
   
  And we are most grateful to have such excellent 
  companions in our ongoing exploration of Legend—
  in particular Steve Foster and Tim Harford. Steve 
  has been with us from the very beginning, designed 
  Mortal Combat and in fact originated several of the 
  most colourful characters of the Dragon Warriors 
  world including Tobias of the Knights Capellar and 
  arch-wizard Cynewulf Magister. Tim has woven 
  some of the eeriest, most exciting and most affect-
  ing campaigns of Ellesland and enhanced it immea-
  surably with his ideas. Along with them, we are 
  privileged to have adventured with Aaron Fortune, 
  Paul Gilham, Frazer Payne and Tim Savin—heroes 
  of Legend, dear friends, stalwarts all.
  —Dave Morris
  
  3
  Chapter 
  FANTASY 
  ROLEPLAY
  Each of the other players has a single character, 
  but the GM controls a host of villagers, hirelings, 
  monsters and other non-player characters. He also 
  controls every event in the game, for he knows in 
  advance every detail of each adventure. The GM is 
  ‘god’ of the game’s fantasy world.
   
  Most people are familiar with computer ‘RPGs’, 
  a form of adventure gaming which developed from 
  the FRP hobby. In a computer adventure you have a 
  reasonably wide range of choices, but you are limited 
  (and often frustrated) by the constraints of the soft-
  ware. If your character wants to perform an action 
  that the programmers have not coded into the game, 
  you simply can’t do it. FRP games are much closer 
  to reality than computer adventures can be. Traps 
  and dangers are more fiendish, players must be more 
  alert and inventive to survive. Anything that could 
  happen in a ‘real’ fantasy world can happen in a 
  Dragon Warriors game. All this is possible because 
  of the GamesMaster, for he judges what will happen 
  in any situation that crops up.
   
  In the example a few paragraphs above, you 
  were GamesMastering your friends as they explored 
  the underworld of Moria. The rest of this book is 
  addressed entirely on the assumption that you, the 
  reader, are to be the GM of your Dragon Warriors 
  gaming group. (If this is not the case, if you will 
  actually be participating as a player, then you may 
  certainly read most of the book—knowing the rules 
  never hurt a player!—but you must take care not to 
  look at chapter 19. That is an adventure scenario 
  which must only be read by the GamesMaster.)
  DragoN WarriorS is a fantasy roleplaying 
  game. But what does that actually mean?
   
  Fantasy roleplaying games (sometimes known as 
  FRPs, RPGs or FRPGs), are a way for a group of 
  friends to share adventures in a magical world—the 
  world of the imagination. Suppose you decided to 
  read the famous Mines of Moria sequence from 
  Tolkien’s Lord of the rings to some friends. However, 
  instead of sticking to the original plot you involve 
  your friends by assigning each of them a character 
  in the story. One person is thus playing the part (or 
  role) of Gandalf, another is Frodo, and so on. They 
  are deciding for themselves what to do. All you are 
  doing is giving them the descriptions—what the 
  Mines look like, the monsters they meet, the treas-
  ures they find:
   
  “You’re in a 10-metre by 5-metre chamber with 
  a stone sarcophagus in the middle. Tunnels lead from 
  the centre of the east and west walls, and you’ve just 
  come through the door to the south. as you are noting 
  this down on your map, you—Carl—see a skeletal hand 
  emerging from the sarcophagus...”
   
  All you need to do then is add a set of adventure 
  rules (and that is exactly what this book is) and you 
  would be playing an FRP game! 
  The GamesMaster
  The GamesMaster, also known as the GM, is the 
  director and narrator of a Dragon Warriors game. 
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  Getting Started
  If you have already played or even GamesMastered 
  an FRP game before, you can skip straight to Chap-
  ter 2 and start finding out about the rules. If not, 
  you may find it helpful to see how a typical game 
  is played. You have gathered together a few friends 
  as players. (Four to six players is perhaps the ideal, 
  though I have in my time played games with only 
  the GM and one player—right up to, at the other 
  extreme, gargantuan expeditions involving fifteen 
  players or more.)
   
  More often than not, your players will have 
  already skimmed through this book, though they 
  should definitely not have looked at the adventure 
  at the back. Any players who don’t already know the 
  combat rules should have them briefly explained. 
  After this, you get the players to each fill in a ‘char-
  acter sheet’ using the rules of Chapter 2.
   
  You are sitting a little way apart from the players. 
  This is so they cannot peek at the maps and notes 
  which are laid out in front of you. These notes are 
  the scenario for the evening’s adventure.
   
  You begin by setting the scene. The players’ 
  characters, who are destined to be adventuring 
  companions, must meet one another. You decide to 
  use the convenient plot device of having them all 
  arrive at a quiet woodland chapel one crisp morn-
  ing. The players, now roleplaying the part of their 
  characters, describe themselves and quickly become 
  acquainted.
   
  In this example there are four people present: you 
  as GamesMaster; Jack, who is playing Sir Gareth; 
  Phil whose character is called Sir Hugo of Malfosse, 
  and Bob, who plays Sir Balin.
  Jack: “Greetings, strangers. I am Sir Gareth. I flat-
  ter myself to think you might have heard of 
  me, for I bested three valiant Knights at the 
  Fay Bridge tourney.” I’m good-looking and 
  wear the finest armour, you notice.
  Phil:  Not a scratch on you, in other words. I step 
  forward and say with a smile, “Ah, sirrah, I 
  have not heard of your exploits before, and 
  thank you for bringing them to my notice. I, 
  Sir Hugo of Malfosse, must truly be a dullard, 
  for I took part in the tourney, yet somehow I 
  missed you....” I’m short and thickset, with a 
  bushy black beard.
  Bob:  “Tourneys! Bah, games for children. God 
  deliver me from such foolery. I returned but 
  lately from the Crusade to find my lands sto-
  len by a treacherous cousin. With God’s grace 
  I plan a short and eventful future for him, the 
  cur.” I glower as I look east, thoughts full of 
  vengeance.
  Jack:  “A sorry tale, good sir Knight. But pray, by 
  what name are you called?”
  Bob:  Didn’t I say? (grins) “Sir Balin,” I mutter 
  darkly.
  You:  As you’re all standing around outside the 
  chapel, you notice the priest standing a short 
  distance away. He is a tall man in plain grey 
  robes and wears a large cross on his breast.
  Jack:  We bow—
  Phil:  I don’t. “These newfangled gods, they’re no 
  better than the old ones.”
  Bob:  “I pray you will learn the error of that ere long, 
  Sir Hugo. I have learned to baptize heathens 
  in their own tainted blood.”
  You:  The priest says, “Quell this anger! Remember 
  you stand before God’s house!” He walks over 
  and, smiling, says, “But even the most pious 
  Knight has need of worldly wealth, is that 
  not so? I will tell you how you can fill those 
  haversacks you wear with bright silver—and 
  mayhap rid these woods of evil into the bar-
  gain....”
  The players are about to begin their adventure. It 
  will be the first of many. 
  The Object of the Game
  Very often a Dragon Warriors game will consist of a 
  foray into an underworld—a series of chambers and 
  passageways, often below the ground, inhabited by 
  a variety of hostile monsters. More elaborate plots 
  will also occur when you have been playing for some 
  time. Town-based adventures are very popular. But 
  an underworld adventure, or at least one with a lin-
  ear story, is best to start with because its structured 
  format makes it easy for the GM to handle.
   
  The adventure will usually have a single objec-
  tive. Perhaps the player-characters are exploring a 
  ruined castle in search of a magic sword which they 
  believe lies hidden there. The adventure ends suc-
  cessfully if they manage to defeat the monsters and 
  puzzle out the traps in their way, reach the sword, 
  and get out of the castle in one piece.
  
  
   
  In many computer RPGs that would be the end 
  of the story. But Dragon Warriors is a continuing 
  adventure. With each success the player-characters 
  increase their combat skills, amass more treasure, 
  buy better armour and enchanted weapons with 
  the fortunes they have acquired. As they rise in 
  power their adventures will pit them against ever 
  more fearsome adversaries. This continuing series 
  of adventures involving a group of player-charac-
  ters is called a ‘campaign’. After several adventures 
  the characters in your campaign will be seasoned 
  adventurers. They will talk about the early games as 
  though they were exploits that really happened. As 
  of course they did, within the realm of the imagina-
  tion which you will have created.
  The Dice
  To most people dice are cubes with spots on, for 
  rolling random numbers from 1 to 6. Not if you are 
  talking to an FRP gamer, though. If you ask him 
  to roll a die (singular of ‘dice’) he will most likely 
  reply by asking you which sort of die you mean. 
  FRP games like Dragon Warriors use several sorts of 
  die besides the ordinary six-sided variety, known as 
  ‘polyhedral dice’. 
   
  Gaming-talk has an abbreviation for these dif-
  ferent dice. If you want a player to roll a single 
  eight-sided die you need only say, “Roll 1d8.” In the 
  same gaming-talk, “3d6” means “roll three six-sided 
  dice”, “2d10 +1” means “roll two ten-sided dice and 
  add 1 to the total”, and so on.
  d4  
  This is the only die which 
  doesn’t land with one face upper-
  most when you throw it. The 
  number rolled is the one that comes 
  up at the bottom of each side (a ‘3’ 
  in this picture).
  d6  
  This is the common six-
  sided die. Even non-gamers prob-
  ably have several of these around 
  their house already.
  d8  
  The eight-sided die, or 
  octahedron.
  d10  
  The ten-sided die. This is 
  also used to roll numbers from one 
  to a hundred—see below.
  d12  
  The twelve-sided die, or 
  dodecahedron.
  d20  
  Most twenty-sided dice 
  today have the numbers from 1-
  20 on them. However, some older 
  dice are marked with the numerals 
  0 to 9, with each numeral appear-
  ing twice. If you have one of these, 
  then to get a result from 1-20 roll it 
  alongside a d6. If the result of the 
  d6 is 1, 2 or 3 then the result is as 
  normal (count 0s as 10s), but if it’s 
  4, 5 or 6 then add 10 to it.
  d100 
  Occasionally the game will refer to a ‘d100’. 
  100-sided dice do exist but they look like golfballs, 
  roll as far as them, and it’s hard to tell which number 
  is actually on top! In fact when a number from 1–
  100 is needed you use the d10 to generate it. First 
  you throw it and count the number rolled as the 
  ‘tens’ (counting 0 now as ‘no tens’). Then you throw 
  it again and count this roll as the ‘ones’. So a roll of 
  ‘3’ followed by a roll of ‘5’ gives the number 35. (‘01’, 
  ’02’, ’03’, etc. count as 1, 2, 3... but ‘00’ counts as 
  100.) Another name for d100 is ‘percentile dice’.
   
  The particularly useful thing about d100 is that 
  it gives you a way to check a percentage chance of 
  something happening. Suppose there is a point in 
  the game where a player-character wants to leap 
  across a wide chasm, and the GamesMaster decides 
  to give him a 30% chance of making the jump safely. 
  A d100 roll is made. If the roll is anything from 01 
  to 30 he is okay, but a roll of 31-100 indicates failure 
  (splat!).
   
  Sets of polyhedral dice can be obtained from 
  specialist games shops, or by mail order over the 
  internet. 
  Fantasy roleplay
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
   JH
  
  7
  BEFORE YOU CAN begin your first Dragon War-
  riors game, each player must create a character who 
  will be his or her fantasy ‘alter-ego’ in the Lands of 
  Legend, the world of the game. Only ordinary six-
  sided dice are needed for this. 
  ROLEPLAYING
  Newcomers to fantasy roleplaying (‘FRP’) often 
  spend their first few games immersed in the won-
  drous new world that it opens up. For a while they 
  find it enough merely to ‘pretend themselves’ into 
  adventures where they can creep nervously down 
  the winding black tunnels of the Ogre’s lair and 
  seek vast wealth in the cobweb-draped vaults of the 
  Vampire’s crypt. If you are new to gaming, feel free 
  to skip ahead to ‘Step One’ below, and come back 
  to this section later—perhaps after you have tried 
  playing an adventure or two.
   
  Players eventually tend to consider other aspects 
  of the GamesMaster’s fantasy world. What is daily 
  life like between adventures? Who are the local 
  lords, and what are the political intrigues between 
  them? Most importantly, what is ‘your’ (meaning 
  your character’s) attitude to the world around? Why 
  did he or she become an adventurer rather than, for 
  instance, a blacksmith, a merchant, or whatever pro-
  fession his or her parents followed? Questions like 
  this are the starting point for true roleplaying.
   
  Playing a role is what makes FRP really special, 
  and what makes an FRP adventure far more excit-
  ing than any solo gamebook or computer adventure 
  could be. You should choose a personality for your 
  character—which need not be anything like your 
  own personality. You can experiment and see what 
  it’s like to see a world through the eyes of some-
  one with different attitudes or beliefs, or a different 
  skin colour or race, or a different gender. During an 
  adventure, try to act in a way that reflects the role 
  you have chosen. 
   
  Start by thinking a little about your character’s 
  past life. Maybe you’ve chosen to play an impov-
  erished noblewoman, perhaps? She should demand 
  some deference from the other player-characters, 
  and moan bitterly if she has to borrow money from 
  them to support her doubtless extravagant tastes. Or 
  your character might be an ex-soldier, just back from 
  the Crusades. Maybe he finds the unprofessional 
  approach of his fellow adventurers to be annoyingly 
  amateurish. His conversation could be a string of 
  military clichés and anecdotes. A roving Barbar-
  ian could find civilization hard to understand, and 
  might prefer to solve most problems using an axe. 
  A scholarly Sorcerer might go off on an expedition 
  just to collect ancient objets d’art. Gold and silver 
  would mean nothing to him. He has no interest in 
  the tactics of adventuring, so he would leave the 
  warriors in the party to decide on any battle plans. 
   
  Consider also ‘your’ attitude to the rest of the 
  party. Without a doubt you will eventually meet—or 
  Chapter 
  CREATING 
  A CHARACTER
  
  8
  Dragon Warriors
  even play—the cowardly villain who covets treasure 
  so much that he runs off with the loot while his 
  comrades are battling the monster. Less familiar is 
  the brave adventurer who will risk his own life to 
  delay a foe while his friends retreat. Our own cam-
  paign includes the tale of Dagronelt the Harpist, 
  who befriended an NPC (a ‘non-player character’ 
  operated by the GM) and then experienced a con-
  flict of loyalties when the other player-characters 
  fought the NPC in question. 
   
  You may also want to create a background and 
  a life story for your character: where they’re from, 
  what their family is like, why they chose their pro-
  fession, and any important experiences they may 
  have had before the game started. There are three 
  ways that you can work out this information. First 
  of all, you can simply choose for yourself: read the 
  rest of the book to get a clear idea of the world in 
  which the Dragon Warriors game takes place, and 
  decide how you want your character to fit into it. 
  (Subject to the GM’s approval. You cannot simply 
  decide that your character is heir to a kingdom!) 
   
  Alternatively, you can create it randomly. There 
  are tables to generate more detail about your char-
  acter’s region of origin and other background 
  information in Chapter 6: ‘In the Beginning’. For 
  GamesMasters, these are also useful for creating 
  non-player characters (NPCs) in a hurry.
   
  If you want to get stuck into playing the game 
  straight away, then feel free to skip that chapter for 
  the moment. There is no need to develop an entire 
  life history at the start of your first game, though. 
  You can always come back to it later. Often a char-
  acter will take on a persona of his own after you have 
  played him a few times, and you and the GM can 
  add events or details to his background later on.
  Step One 
  THE 
  CHARACTERISTICS
  Each character is initially defined by his scores in 
  five characteristics. These are Strength, Reflexes, 
  Intelligence, Psychic Talent and Looks. The value 
  of each characteristic is found by rolling three six-
  sided dice (3d6), and therefore ranges from a mini-
  mum of 3 to a maximum of 18.
  Strength is a measure of the character’s fitness and 
  physical toughness. 
  His Reflexes score indicates his dexterity, agility and 
  speed of reactions. 
  Intelligence shows how clever the character is (so 
  a player who rolls low for this ought to role-play as 
  though he really is dim-witted). 
  Psychic Talent represents the character’s basic ability 
  to resist (and in some cases use) magic. 
  The character’s Looks score reflects his appearance 
  and personal charm; this has no bearing on his 
  adventuring skills, but you should certainly take it into 
  account when deciding how non-player characters 
  (NPCs) would react to him.
  The player rolls 3d6 for each of these five character-
  istics, then, and records the scores in the appropri-
  ate boxes on his character sheet. These scores will 
  never change—except in rare cases, through illness 
  or sorcery.
   
  Each player will require a blank Character Sheet 
  like the one shown on the next page, to keep track 
  of their character’s scores. A full-size character sheet 
  will be found at the back of the book, and you may 
  make as many photocopies of it as you need.
   
  Special note: The luck of the dice means that 
  sometimes a player will create a character with 
  hopelessly bad scores, quite unsuited to life as an 
  adventurer. The player may discard the character 
  and roll up another. It is for you, as GamesMaster, 
  to decide whether a character is ‘hopeless’ or not. As 
  a guideline, we suggest you allow a player to discard 
  any character with more than two characteristics 
  below the average (9 to 12) range.
  Step Two 
  CHOOSING A 
  PROFESSION
  In the Dragon Warriors game there are seven Profes-
  sions to which an adventurer may belong: Assassin, 
  Knight, Barbarian, Elementalist, Sorcerer, Mys-
  tic and Warlock. Players who have never played 
  an RPG before may find it easiest to play either a 
  Knight or a Barbarian. These two classes don’t need 
  to concern themselves with magic or stealth, just 
  cold steel, mighty thews and valour.
  
  9
   
  In any case, Knights and Barbarians will be by far 
  the most common classes in most Dragon Warriors 
  games. Indeed, there is no particular need to include 
  the other classes at all for many adventures, and some 
  campaigns will play out in their entirety with only 
  these two. Most parties, though, will have a balance, 
  with perhaps a majority of Knights and Barbarians 
  and the occasional Mystic, Sorcerer, Elementalist or 
  Warlock. Assassins are scarce indeed, and are often 
  better fitted to use in solo adventures (with only 
  one player character and the GM) or campaigns in 
  which everyone plays an Assassin! 
   
  Knights are the best all-around fighters in 
  Dragon Warriors. Though physically less robust than 
  Barbarians, they are able to wear heavy armour with-
  out losing any of their combat skills. Play a Knight 
  if you want a character who strives to be like King 
  Arthur, or Lancelot, or Gawain.
   
  Barbarians are better in attack, but defensively 
  less skilful than Knights. Their fighting style is 
  fast and mobile, and heavy armour hampers them. 
  They are able to go berserk in combat, making their 
  attacks still more ferocious. Play a Barbarian if you 
  want a character who could be a Viking warrior, or a 
  skilled brawler from the pages of fantasy novels, like 
  Conan or Fafhrd.
   
  Assassins are average in combat but excel in 
  sneak attacks, when they can target an unwary 
  opponent. They are by far the most stealthy char-
  acter class in the game, and gain a variety of other 
  abilities that might seem magical to the unwary. Play 
  an Assassin if you want a character who could have 
  come straight out of a martial-arts fantasy movie 
  like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero, or who 
  emulates one of the great rogues of fantasy literature 
  like the Gray Mouser.
   
  Sorcerers are the most common and general 
  magic-wielding character profession—if any of 
  these rare individuals can be called ‘common’. They 
  are relatively ineffective in mundane combat but can 
  blast their foes with magic. They have a more varied 
  repertoire of spells than Elementalists and a little 
  more raw magical power than Mystics. Play a Sor-
  cerer if you want a character resembling Merlin, or 
  Gandalf, or Harry Potter.
   
  Mystics use magic of a sort, but this is a per-
  sonal magic that comes from the Mystic’s mastery 
  of his own mind rather than some external source. A 
  Mystic is a good all-rounder, not quite so magically 
  strong as a Sorcerer or Elementalist, but reason-
  ably capable in combat and with a few other useful 
  special abilities. Play a Mystic if you want to dazzle 
  your foes with the power of your character’s mind 
  alone.
   
  Elementalists are specialist magicians, using 
  the power of the natural elements to achieve their 
  aims. Each Elementalist’s magic is focused around 
  a particular element, chosen from among Fire, Air, 
  Earth, Water and Darkness. Like Sorcerers, they 
  tend not to be very skilled with conventional weap-
  ons such as swords and bows. Play an Elementalist 
  if your favourite characters are the shamans, witches 
  and druids of legend and fantasy literature.
   
  Finally, Warlocks combine magic with sword-
  play. They can wear armour and use their spells to 
  boost their combat abilities. They aren’t quite so 
  versatile in combat as Knights or Barbarians, but 
  can be devastating when armed with their preferred 
  weapons. Play a Warlock if your favourite fantasy 
  hero is Elric, or just if you want the best of both 
  worlds!
   
  The player decides now to which of these Profes-
  sions she wants her character to belong, and notes 
  this at the top of her character sheet. 
  Creating a CharaCter
  a sample blank character sheet
  
  0
  Dragon Warriors
  Step Three 
  HEALTH POINTS
  Having chosen his Profession, the player can roll his 
  character’s Health Points score. A character’s Health 
  Points (or HP) show how robust he is. Whenever 
  the character takes a wound in combat, the wound 
  is expressed as a number which comes off his HP 
  score. 
   
  The character falls unconscious when his Health 
  Point score reaches 0, and will die if it is ever reduced 
  to –3 or less. Lost Health Points can be recuperated 
  by resting after the adventure—as long as the char-
  acter survives (see page 68).
  A Knight starts with 1d6 +7 Health Points (roll 1d6 
  and add 7).
  A Barbarian starts with 1d6 +9 Health Points.
  An Elementalist or Sorcerer starts with 1d6 +4 Health 
  Points.
  For an Assassin, Mystic or Warlock, initial Health 
  Points are found by rolling 1d6 +5 
  A character’s initial Health Points score increases as 
  he advances in rank (of which, more later). 
  Step Four 
  THE COMBAT FACTORS
  The player is now ready to determine her character’s 
  attack and defence scores. No further dice rolling 
  is required—you have already made the necessary 
  rolls and choices. The basic scores are:
  for Assassins:  
   
  attack score is 13, defence score is 5
  for Barbarians:   
  attack score is 14, defence score is 6
  for Elementalists:  
  attack score is 11, defence score is 5
  for Knights:   
   
  attack score is 13, defence score is 7
  for Mystics:   
   
  attack score is 12, defence score is 6
  for Sorcerers:  
   
  attack score is 11, defence score is 5
  for Warlocks:  
   
  attack score is 12, defence score is 5
  These are, in fact, the scores for an average char-
  acter at the start of his career. If the player rolled 
  above or below the average range (9–12) on certain 
  of his characteristics at Step One, she may have to 
   JH
  
  
  modify her attack and defence scores slightly as a 
  result—see the Effects Table below.
   
  After making any adjustments, the player should 
  enter these attack and defence scores on their 
  character sheet. (In subsequent adventures, as the 
  character rises in rank, these scores will increase.)
   
  The way in which attack and defence are used 
  in the game is explained in Chapter 8: The Rules of 
  Combat.
  Step Five 
  MAGICAL COMBAT 
  FACTORS
  attack and defence, as we shall see, represent the 
  character’s fighting prowess. In the Dragon Warri-
  ors world, where magic is a reality, it follows that 
  these Combat Factors must have a magical ana-
  logue: magical attack and magical defence. 
   
  The basic magical defence score is 3 for 
  Assassins, Knights, and Barbarians; 4 for Mystics 
  and Warlocks; and 5 for Elementalists and Sorcer-
  ers. This base score is modified if the character’s 
  Intelligence and/or Psychic Talent fall outside the 
  average range—see the Effects table below.
   
  Elementalists, Sorcerers, Mystics and Warlocks 
  have a magical attack score. (Assassins, Barbar-
  ians, and Knights do not need a magical attack 
  score as they cannot cast spells.) The basic magical 
  attack score is 15 in the case of Elementalists and 
  Sorcerers, 14 in the case of Mystics, and 12 in the 
  case of Warlocks. This basic score is modified if the 
  character’s Intelligence and/or Psychic Talent are 
  outside the average range. As above, see below.
   
  The rules for using magical defence and magical 
  attack are in Chapter 9: The Use of Magic.
  Step Six 
  DODGING
  Some attacks are not covered by the normal combat 
  rules of Chapter 8. A character who tries to parry a 
  dragon’s fiery breath with only a sword is going to 
  be fried! In such cases, the best thing is to dodge 
  out of the way. The score that shows how good the 
  character is at dodging is evasion. 
   
  The basic evasion score at 1st rank is 3 for an 
  Elementalist, Mystic, Sorcerer, or Warlock, 4 for a 
  Knight, and 5 for an Assassin or Barbarian. This is 
  Effects of High and Low Characteristic Scores 
  on Attack, Defence, etc.
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Characteristic score
  Characteristic 
   
  3 4 5 
   
   
   
   
  6 7 8 
   
   
   
  9 10 11 12  
   
  13 14 15 
   
  16 17 18
  Strength  
   
  – attack  
   
   
  – attack  
   
  No Effect  
   
  + attack   
  + attack
   
   
   
   
   
  – defence  
   
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
  + defence
  Reflexes 
   
   
  – attack  
   
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
  + attack
   
   
   
   
   
  – defence 
   
   
  – defence  
   
  No Effect  
   
  + defence  
  + defence
   
   
   
   
   
  – evasion  
   
   
  – evasion  
   
  No Effect  
   
  + evasion  
  + evasion
   
   
   
   
   
  – stealth  
   
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
  + stealth
  Intelligence 
   
  – attack  
   
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
  + attack
   
   
   
   
   
  – defence  
   
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
  + defence
   
   
   
   
   
  – magical  
   
    
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
  + magical
   
   
   
   
   
       attack  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
       attack  
   
   
   
   
   
  – magical  
   
    
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
  + magical
   
   
   
   
   
       defence 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
       defence
  Psychic Talent  
  – magical 
   
   
  – magical  
   
  No Effect  
   
  + magical  
  + magical 
   
   
   
   
   
       defence   
   
   
       defence 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       defence 
       defence
   
   
   
   
   
  – perception  
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
   
  No Effect  
  + perception
   
   
   
   
   
  Not applicable*  
   
  Not applicable*  
  No Effect  
   
  + magical  
  + magical
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
       attack  
       attack
   
   
   
   
   
  *Characters with Psychic Talent of 8 or less cannot use magic.
  Creating a CharaCter
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
  modified if the character’s Reflexes score is above or 
  below average—see the Effects table above. 
   
  The way evasion is applied will be explained in 
  more detail in Chapter 8, page 71.
  Step Seven 
  STEALTH AND 
  PERCEPTION
  Any character (and monster, for that matter) may 
  attempt to move around unnoticed, though assas-
  sins are the masters of this kind of task. The two 
  character scores that allow the GM to determine 
  the results of such activity are stealth and per-
  ception. These scores vary according to a charac-
  ter’s Profession:
  For Knights, Barbarians, Elementalists, Sorcerers, and 
  Warlocks: stealth score is 13, perception score is 5
  For Mystics, their enhanced psychic awareness grants 
  them higher scores: stealth score is 14, perception 
  score is 6
  For Assassins, their special training grants them excellent 
  scores: stealth score is 18, perception score is 8
  These scores assume a character with average char-
  acteristic scores. A very high or low score in Reflexes 
  affects stealth slightly, and Psychic Talent affects 
  perception. See the Effects table for the effects.
   
  The uses of these stealth and perception 
  scores will be explained on page 62 of Chapter 7. 
  Step Eight 
  INITIAL EqUIPMENT 
  Each newly rolled character represents a young 
  adventurer who has yet to acquire much practical 
  experience. However, the character does not just leap 
  into existence at the instant the Character Sheet is 
  filled in. He or she has, even at lowly 1st rank, rather 
  more skill in their chosen field than the average man 
  or woman—the result, we can assume, of gruelling 
  training throughout the character’s youth. 
   
  Certain basic items of equipment have been 
  acquired by the character in the years leading up 
  to their first adventure. The starting equipment is 
  listed separately for each character class.
   
  Further equipment, including missile weapons 
  such as a bow and arrows, may be purchased if the 
  character has enough money. The Equipment lists 
  on page 134 of Chapter 12 shows the availability 
  and cost of a number of common items.
  Step Nine 
  RANk
  All characters begin the game at 1st rank. The play-
  ers should not imagine that this makes their char-
  acters total novices, however. A 1st-rank Knight or 
  Barbarian is a respectably skilled fighter. While not 
  yet mighty heroes, they have been in a few battles 
  and know how to use their weapons. Likewise a 1st-
  rank Elementalist, Mystic, Sorcerer, or Warlock has 
  learned more about the arcane arts than most peo-
  ple will ever know, and will be respected (or feared) 
  by ordinary folk. A 1st-rank Assassin is probably a 
  full member of one of the secretive brotherhoods of 
  Assassins, qualified to kill for hire.
   
  Each successful adventure gains experience 
  points for the character. When sufficient have been 
  accumulated, the character goes up to the next rank. 
  This is explained on pp129-130 of chapter 12.
  Step Ten 
  BACkGROUND
  Now you know what this character can do, it’s time 
  to find out more about who they are and where they 
  come from. This process is described in Chapter 6: 
  In the Beginning, starting on page 50.
  CHARACTER SHEET
  This summary shows how a Character Sheet should 
  be filled out for a 1st-rank Knight, with appropriate 
  modifications for Strength, Intelligence, etc.
  Example
  Bob is creating a Dragon Warriors character for him-
  self. He begins by rolling 3d6 for each characteristic, and 
  comes up with:
  Strength 7
  —a below-average score, but not exactly puny.
  
  3
  Reflexes 13
  —he will be able to react quicker than many of his 
  opponents.
  Intelligence 18
  —extremely astute and sharp-witted.
  Psychic Talent 8
  —less than average occult awareness.
  Looks 14
  —handsome!
  Bob decides to make the character a Knight, and calls 
  himself ‘Sir Balin the Bloodthirsty’. rolling 1d6 +7 for 
  his Health Points, he scores 13—the maximum for a 
  Knight at 1st rank. 
   
  after making the appropriate adjustments from his 
  Strength, reflexes and intelligence, Bob/Sir Balin finds 
  that he has an attack of 13 (the Strength and intel-
  ligence modifiers cancel out) and a defence of 9 (helped 
  here by his high reflexes and even higher intelligence).
   
  Sir Balin’s keen intelligence stands him in good stead 
  when he comes to calculate his magical defence; the 
  bonus due to intelligence cancels out the penalty due to 
  low Psychic Talent, leaving him with the basic magical 
  defence of 3. Because of his reflexes, he has an evasion 
  score of 5. His stealth is 13 and his perception is 5.
   
  after taking the initial equipment due to him as a 
  Knight, Sir Balin spends some of his cash to acquire a 
  bow and six arrows. He would happily leave it at that, 
  but his gamesMaster points out that he must have 
  something to keep the arrows in! grumbling, Sir Balin 
  parts with 4 more florins for a quiver.
  ENCUMBRANCE
  How much can a character carry? To some extent 
  it depends on his Strength, but the bulkiness of 
  objects also matters. Rather than devise a complex 
  chart of Equipment weights and ‘hindrance factors’, 
  the simple rule in Dragon Warriors is that an average 
  character can carry ten items roughly equivalent to 
  a weapon in size and weight. 
   
  Such items include:
   
  • 
  a weapon
   
  • 
  a quiver of arrows
   
  • 
  a case of quarrels
   
  • 
  a scroll
   
  • 
  a bottle
   
  • 
  a lantern or torch
   
  • 
  a sack of coins (about 150)
  Small items such as rings and amulets are not 
  counted. Armour is also excluded from this—the 
  encumbering effect of heavy armour on a character 
  not trained to use it is already allowed for in the 
  combat rules.
   
  Weaker and slighter characters cannot carry as 
  many items as this. A character of Strength 3, 4 or 
  5 is allowed only six items. A character of Strength 
  6-8 is allowed eight.
   
  Powerful characters can carry more. A charac-
  ter whose Strength score is 13–15 can carry up to 
  twelve items. A character with a Strength of 16 or 
  more can carry fourteen items.
   
  There are some occasions when you will have 
  to make an on-the-spot ruling. For example, the 
  player-characters find a locked chest containing 
  between one and two thousand silver pieces. They 
  can’t break it open and decide to take it along with 
  them. 
   
  This many coins would normally count as ten 
  items for encumbrance purposes—but there is also 
  the weight of the chest to take into account. A char-
  acter of above-average Strength could carry it on his 
  back, as long as someone else took care of his weap-
  ons and regular equipment in the meantime. 
  Creating a CharaCter
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  CHARACTER CREATION 
  SUMMARY
  Knights
  A. Strength, Reflexes, Intelligence, Psychic Talent and 
  Looks: roll 3d6 for each.
  B. Health Points: roll 1d6 +7.
  C.  Basic attack 13, defence 7
  D. Basic magical defence 3
  E. Basic evasion 4
  F.  Basic stealth 13, perception 5
  G. Special Abilities at 1st Rank: track, armour expert, ride 
  warhorse.
  H. Initially equipped with plate armour, shield, dagger, 
  lantern, flint-and-tinder, backpack, 25 florins, sword or 
  morning star.
  Barbarians
  A.  Strength, Reflexes, Intelligence, Psychic Talent and 
  Looks: roll 3d6 for each.
  B.  Health Points: roll 1d6 +9.
  C.  Basic attack 14, defence 6
  D. Basic magical defence 3
  E.  Basic evasion 5
  F.  Basic stealth 13, perception 5
  G. Special Abilities at 1st Rank: berserk, track, ride 
  warhorse.
  H. Initially equipped with full mail armour, dagger, 
  lantern, flint-and-tinder, backpack, 6d6 florins, 
  battleaxe or two-handed sword.
  Sorcerers
  A. Strength, Reflexes, Intelligence, Psychic Talent and 
  Looks: roll 3d6 for each. (Intelligence and Psychic 
  Talent must both be at least 9 for the character to 
  qualify as a Sorcerer)
  B. Health Points: roll 1d6 +4
  C. Basic attack 11, defence 5
  D. Basic magical attack 15, magical defence 5
  E. Basic evasion 3
  F. Basic stealth 13, perception 5
  G. Special Abilities at 1st Rank: spellcasting.
  H. Initially equipped with lantern, flint-and-tinder, 
  backpack, dagger, shortsword or staff, 20 florins, any 
  two potions from the following: Dexterity, Occult 
  Acuity, Strength, Healing and Replenishment. (The 
  potions are a gift from the Master Sorcerer under 
  whom the character served his apprenticeship. This is a 
  long-established tradition.)
  I. Initial Magic Points: 4
  Mystics
  A. Strength, Reflexes, Intelligence, Psychic Talent and 
  Looks: roll 3d6 for each. (Psychic Talent must be at 
  least 9 if character is to qualify as a Mystic.)
  B.  Health Points: roll 1d6 +5
  C.  Basic attack 12, defence 6
  D.  Basic magical attack 14, magical defence 4
  E.  Basic evasion 3
  F.  Basic stealth 14, perception 6
  G. Special Abilities at 1st Rank: spellcasting, spell mastery, 
  premonition, ESP.
  H. Initially equipped with lantern, flint-and-tinder, 
  backpack, bow, quiver containing six arrows, dagger, 
  mail hauberk, 2-20 florins, sword or staff.
  Elementalists
  A. Strength, Reflexes, Intelligence, Psychic Talent and 
  Looks: roll 3d6 for each. (Intelligence and Psychic 
  Talent must be at least 9 to become an Elementalist.)
  B. Health Points: roll 1d6 +4
  C. Basic attack 11, defence 5
  D. Basic magical attack 15, magical defence 5
  E.  Basic evasion 3
  F.  Basic stealth 13, perception 5
  G. Special Abilities at 1st Rank: spellcasting.
  H. Initially equipped with lantern, tinderbox, sword, staff 
  and shield, 2-20 florins, padded armour.
  I.  Initial Magic Points: 3 in main category; 1 in each of 
  the two subsidiary categories.
  Warlocks
  A. Strength, Reflexes, Intelligence, Psychic Talent and 
  Looks: roll 3d6 for each. (Intelligence must be at 
  least 11 and Psychic Talent must be at least 9 for the 
  character to be a Warlock.)
  B. Health Points: roll 1d6 +5
  C. Basic attack 12, defence 5
  D. Basic magical attack 12, magical defence 4
  E. Basic evasion 3
  F. Basic stealth 13, perception 5
  G. Special Abilities at 1st Rank: spellcasting, weapon 
  groups, simultaneous casting.
  H. Initially equipped with lantern, flint-and-tinder, 
  backpack, bow, quiver with six arrows, dagger, full mail 
  armour, 2-20 florins, two-handed sword or spear or 
  sword and shield.
  I. Initial Magic Points: 2
  Assassins
  A. Strength, Reflexes, Intelligence, Psychic Talent and 
  Looks: roll 3d6 for each. (Reflexes must be at least 12, 
  Intelligence must be at least 9, and Psychic Talent must 
  be at least 9 for the character to qualify as an Assassin.)
  B. Health Points: roll 1d6 +5
  C. Basic attack 13, defence 5
  D. Basic magical defence 3
  E. Basic evasion 5
  F. Basic stealth 18, perception 8
  G. Special Abilities at 1st Rank: stealth, combat technique 
  (choose one), skill (choose one).
  H. Initially equipped with backpack, staff, sword, 
  crossbow, case containing five quarrels, padded armour, 
  miscellaneous equipment (rope, climbing gear, hand 
  lantern, flint-and-tinder, etc), 3-30 florins.
  
  
  To Live By The Sword
  IN THE LANDS of Legend, the world where the 
  Dragon Warriors game is set, there are two main 
  classes of people who earn their living by use of 
  weapons: Knights and Barbarians. 
   
  Knights come from more advanced cultures, the 
  ones that have learned how to craft sophisticated 
  armour and weapons from refined metals. Depend-
  ing on where they originate they may be bound by 
  a chivalric code that prescribes to whom they owe 
  loyalty and service, when and how they can hon-
  ourably kill an opponent, and so on. Some cultures 
  have no such code for their elite warriors, and some 
  knights choose to abandon the code and live outside 
  it, masterless and without loyalty or honour. 
   
  Barbarians by contrast are from less sophisticated 
  cultures, though their ferocity and their skill are no 
  less fearsome for all that. 
   
  Though culturally different, Barbarians and 
  Knights are quite similar in game terms. Both are 
  primarily combatants and have been trained in the 
  arts of warfare and fighting. However, the Knight 
  will take a skilled and tactical approach to bat-
  tle, while the Barbarian relies on instincts and the 
  innate savagery of his attack to carry the day. A 
  mounted knight is an unstoppable opponent in an 
  open field, but in a woodland ambush or a dockside 
  tavern brawl a barbarian would have the advantage. 
  A well-formed adventuring party will need the skills 
  of both.
   
  There are other professions who are trained in the 
  use of combat: Assassins and Warlocks, for example, 
  who will be described shortly; gladiators; pirates 
  and bandits; warriors of primitive tribes; specialists 
  who use dogs, hawks and stranger creatures as their 
  weapons; those who let themselves be possessed by 
  the power of their violent gods in battle; and more. 
  But these are all subjects for another time.
  kNIGHTS
  Knights represent the civilised warrior aristocracy of 
  countries like Albion, Ereworn, Chaubrette, Algandy 
  and Kurland. Most player-character Knights will be 
  landless, lordless wanderers, perhaps nominally of 
  noble birth, but gaining respect through their deeds 
  rather than their family name. Some may be younger 
  sons of more important, established houses, who 
  know that they are never likely to inherit the family 
  lands and so must instead seek adventure through 
  errantry or crusading.
   
  A few so-called ‘knights’ are in fact well-equipped 
  men-at-arms, perhaps veterans of mercenary cam-
  paigns around the world, their armour no heirloom 
  or custom-fitted extravagance but a harness pieced 
  together from the loot of a dozen battlefields. 
  Though many Knights wish to live up to a chivalric 
  ideal, the reality of a short, harsh, war-torn life often 
  makes cynics and realists of the best of them.
  Chapter 3
  THE 
  FIGHTERS
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
  Special Abilities of a knight
  Like all the Professions, Knights have been trained 
  in some special abilities that raise them above com-
  mon soldiers and militia-members. Some of these 
  abilities are unique to Knights, while a few are com-
  mon to other Professions. 
   
  What’s more, there are a number of advanced 
  combat techniques that can only be practised by a 
  Knight of 8th rank or higher. The character may 
  select any one of these skills each time he attains a 
  new rank, beginning when he reaches the 8th rank. 
   
  Knights’ special abilities are as follows:
   
  •  
  Track
   
  •  
  armour Expert
   
  •  
  ride Warhorse
   
  •  
  Disarm Technique (rank  8 onwards)
   
  •  
  Expert Parry (rank  8 onwards)
   
  •  
  Main gauche (rank  8 onwards)
   
  •  
  Master Bowman (rank  8 onwards)
   
  •  
  Quick Draw (rank  8 onwards)
   
  •  
  Swordmaster (rank  8 onwards)
   
  •  
  Weaponskill (various) (rank  8 onwards)
  Track
  Knights may attempt to track their opponents or 
  prey animals across country. This is explained in 
  more detail on p. 63.
  Armour Expert
  The Knight is the only character who can wear a suit 
  of plate armour without any penalties to attack or 
  defence. He never suffers any attack or defence 
  penalties for wearing armour.
  Ride Warhorse
  All characters can ride, but only Knights, Barbar-
  ians and some Warlocks have had the long years of 
  special training required to ride a warhorse (p. 245). 
  Warhorses are larger, stronger and far more spirited 
  than ordinary horses, making them impossible to 
  handle if one is not ‘born to the saddle’.
  Disarm Technique
  The Knight is able to twist an opponent’s sword out 
  of his hand by catching the blade in the specially 
  shaped guard of his own weapon. The skill comes 
  into effect when a sword-blow is aimed at the Knight 
   JH
  
  7
  and the attacker scores a 20 for his Hit Roll (always 
  a miss). The Knight then rolls 3d6, and if he scores 
  higher than his enemy’s rank (or rank-equivalent) 
  then the sword is wrenched from the latter’s hand 
  and flung 1m to 6m away.
  Expert Parry
  Knowledge of this skill gives the Knight greater 
  proficiency in the use of a shield. For any blow that 
  would otherwise hit him, he rolls d10. On a roll of 1 
  or 2 he catches the blow on his shield, negating it.
  Main Gauche
  This skill enables the character to fight with two 
  weapons simultaneously—a one-handed weapon 
  such as a sword or axe in his right hand, and a dagger 
  or a shortsword in his left. Evidently this precludes 
  him from using a shield. The secondary weapon 
  may be used in either of two ways, and the charac-
  ter must decide at the start of every Combat Round 
  which of these options he is using that Round:
  1. The secondary weapon may be used as a guard, 
  giving +2 to the character’s defence. (If the dagger/
  shortsword is magical, its bonus is also added.)
  2.  The character can strike with both weapons at once, 
  making a separate Hit Roll for each weapon. His 
  defence is zero for that Round. Both blows must 
  be at the same opponent. The opponent’s defence 
  counts fully against both blows, as defence only 
  needs to be split against multiple attackers, not against 
  multiple blows by one attacker.
  Master Bowman
  The Master Bowman adds +1 to Armour Bypass 
  Rolls for arrows (not quarrels—the crossbow is not 
  covered by this skill). He is also able to loose off 
  his arrows more quickly than an untrained archer; as 
  well as shooting an arrow at his usual time to act in 
  the Combat Round, he has a 50% chance of being 
  able to shoot a second at the end of that round.
  Quick Draw
  This skill applies to daggers, shortswords and 
  swords. Normally the drawing of a weapon is an 
  action requiring one complete Combat Round, but 
  a character with this skill can take his weapon from 
  its scabbard and strike with it immediately. (This is 
  equivalent to the samurai skill of iai jutsu.)
  Swordmaster
  This skill is only effective when the Knight is using 
  a sword (either one-handed or two-handed). He 
  makes a critical hit (i.e. a blow that requires no 
  Armour Bypass Roll) on a Hit Roll score of 1 or 2. 
  This is twice the regular chance of a critical hit.
  Weaponskill
  A separate Weaponskill governs the use of each 
  mêlée weapon, so this skill must be selected more 
  than once if the character desires special mastery 
  of several weapon types. When fighting with the 
  weapon specific to his Weaponskill, the character 
  adds 1 to Armour Bypass Rolls.
  BARBARIANS
  Barbarians may come from Thuland, the Eastern 
  Steppes, or one of a variety of other distant and 
  inhospitable lands. They might be raiders sailing out 
  of the north in their longboats, or hard-eyed desert 
  nomads seeking vengeance, or savage hunters from 
  the unexplored lands far to the south. They will be 
  regarded with some wariness if they wander in more 
  civilised realms, where they may be thought of as 
  little better than animals. In truth, the Barbarian 
  may have a code of honour as complex as that of any 
  Knight, though he might never explain its subtleties 
  to an outsider, or even articulate them into words 
  for his own benefit.
  Special Abilities of a Barbarian
  Like Knights, Barbarians have a number of special 
  abilities. These are:
   
  •  
  Track
   
  •  
  Berserk
   
  •  
  ride Warhorse
   
  •  
  Bloodrage (rank  8 onwards)
  Track
  Barbarians may attempt to track their opponents or 
  prey animals, across country. This is explained on 
  p. 63.
  Berserk
  Barbarians have the special ability of going berserk in 
  combat. The character is able to make more power-
  ful attacks at the cost of neglecting his defence. He 
  the Fighters
  
  8
  Dragon Warriors
  may temporarily add 1 point to attack for each 3 
  points he subtracts from defence for that Round.
  Ride Warhorse
  All player-characters can ride but only Knights and 
  Barbarians, along with a few Warlocks, have had the 
  long years of special training required to ride a war-
  horse. Warhorses are larger, stronger, and far more 
  spirited than ordinary horses, making them impos-
  sible to handle if one is not raised to ride them.
  Bloodrage
  A Bloodrage is an even more effective way than 
  going berserk (see above) of calling upon the reserves 
  of stamina and ferocity that reside in the depths of 
  the human soul.
   
  A Barbarian of 8th rank or higher may go into 
  a Bloodrage during any combat in which he has 
  taken a wound. He begins to bellow and roar ter-
  rible war-oaths, foam drools from his mouth, and 
  his eyes glaze with insensate fury. Any normal mor-
  tal (that is, an unranked character not belonging to 
  an adventuring Profession) whom he attacks is 80% 
  likely to flee in terror, and even hardy adventurers of 
  the 1st and 2nd ranks have a 25% chance of imme-
  diate retreat. 
   
  Under Bloodrage, the Barbarian may not use 
  missile weapons. He will always seek close combat 
  with his foes, attacking with an enhanced attack 
  score equal to his normal attack plus his defence 
  score. He loses all interest in parrying, however, and 
  his defence goes temporarily to zero. (Thus Borak, 
  who has attack 22 and defence 14 under normal 
  circumstances, becomes a ‘killing machine’ with 
  attack 36 and defence 0 when in the throes of a 
  Bloodrage.) Armour Bypass Rolls are not affected, 
  but any blow that gets past the opponent’s armour 
  scores an extra 1 HP damage (a morning star inflicts 
  6 points, etc.).
   
  A Barbarian in Bloodrage feels no pain. Whereas 
  a character normally falls unconscious when wounds 
  reduce his current Health Points score to 0, the Bar-
  barian continues to fight on until victorious or dead 
  (i.e. at –3 HP). Also, his battle-craziness cannot be 
  abated by mind-controlling spells. A spell such as 
  Enslave has no effect on him while he is in the Blo-
  odrage. 
   
  The snag with Bloodrage comes when all ene-
  mies have either fallen or fled the field of battle. 
  The Barbarian will then turn on any other available 
  target of his fury—and this may include his own 
  companions! To shrug off the Bloodrage and return 
  to normal, the character must roll under his Intel-
  ligence score on 1d20. He attempts this roll at the 
  start of every Combat Round, and if he fails then 
  he must spend the round pursuing or fighting the 
  nearest possible opponent. Once the Intelligence 
  roll is made, the Barbarian calms down and returns 
  to normal.
  Barbarians and Armour
  Barbarians can wear any armour up to a suit of 
  full mail without suffering any combat penalties 
  for doing so. They are unused to fighting in plate 
  armour, however, and must suffer a –2 penalty from 
  attack and defence if they ever wear it (see p. 71 
  for more information). 
  
  9
  IN THE DragoN WarriorS game there are 
  four magic-using professions, each with different 
  specialisations, strengths and weaknesses. They are 
  known collectively as ‘wizards’. Ordinary people 
  don’t understand that there are different types of 
  spell-caster, and treat all those who deal in magic 
  with a mixture of suspicion and fear.
   
  Sorcerers are those who seek to master the arcane 
  enchantments which enable them to draw energy 
  from other dimensions and channel it according 
  to their wishes. They make poor fighters but their 
  spells can be quite devastating. 
   
  Mystics, on the other hand, meditate so as to 
  harmonize themselves with the unseen forces of 
  Nature—perhaps we would call them ‘psionics’ in 
  modern terminology. Mystics learn something of 
  the fighting arts, and many of their spells serve 
  to enhance the Mystic’s own physical and mental 
  prowess. They can generally cast fewer spells per 
  day than the other wizardly character classes. 
   
  Elementalists strive to master the raw elements 
  of nature, rather than studying the more refined 
  dweomers of Sorcerers, but are otherwise similar.
   
  Warlocks work their magic much like Sorcer-
  ers or Elementalists, but their spells are devoted to 
  enhancing their already mighty prowess in weapon 
  combat. They are the most capable of the wizardly 
  classes in the ways of the warrior, even when all their 
  magic is exhausted.
   
  Any player choosing to be a wizardly character 
  will soon realize the big difference between the 
  magic-using Professions and the fighting Profes-
  sions. Sorcerers, Elementalists, Mystics, and War-
  locks are able to use a lot of power in a short time, 
  but once their spells are exhausted they are relatively 
  weak. A wizardly character who comes, fresh and 
  with spells undiminished, to a battle with a Knight, 
  Assassin or Barbarian of similar rank will usually 
  win. If the magician had already used his day’s spells, 
  however, the reverse would be true. Over a typical 
  adventure—four hours (game-time) in a monster-
  ridden dungeon, say—the whole thing averages 
  out. As a GamesMaster you may find it useful to 
  remember that short adventures favour the magi-
  cians while long adventures favour the fighters.
   
  Each of the four Professions is able to use a par-
  ticular type of spells. These four spell groups are 
  quite different, with little or no overlap, so as to fit 
  the particular styles of each character class.
   
  There is a further distinction between Mystics 
  and the other spell-users. When a Sorcerer, War-
  lock, or Elementalist casts a spell he expends Magic 
  Points to do so; when he has used up all his Magic 
  Points he can use no more spells that day. Mystics 
  do not have Magic Points. When a Mystic casts a 
  spell, she makes a check to see whether she ‘fatigues’ 
  her spellcasting ability; when this psionic ‘fatigue’ 
  occurs, the Mystic can cast no more spells that day. 
   
  On average, a Mystic and a Sorcerer or Elemen-
  talist of equal rank will be able to use roughly the 
  same number of spells in a day—but whereas the 
  Sorcerer always knows precisely how much spell-
  power (in the form of Magic Points) he has left, 
  the Mystic can never be sure when she is going to 
  Chapter 4
  THE 
  WIZARDS
  
  30
  Dragon Warriors
  suffer ‘fatigue’. Mystics have to get used to a life of 
  uncertainty. To balance out this uncertainty a little, 
  each Mystic may select one Mystic spell which she 
  is capable of casting at will, without risking fatigue. 
  In effect, this one spell has become an innate ability, 
  so carefully honed and practised that the Mystic can 
  leave it ‘always on’ if desired.
  SORCERERS
  Sorcerers are the civilised, scholarly magicians, 
  found in most lands other than in Thuland and the 
  Mercanian Coast where Elementalists predominate. 
  They use their knowledge and wits to master magic. 
  All Sorcerers are left-handed.
  Minimum Requirements
  A player who wishes his character to be a Sorcerer 
  must roll scores of at least 9 for both Intelligence 
  and Psychic Talent. If these scores are below aver-
  age, the character is not qualified to study sorcery.
  Spellcasting
  Sorcerers have a certain number of Magic Points 
  available each day, which they use to cast spells. See 
  Chapter 9: The Use of Magic for full details of Sor-
  cerer spells and spellcasting.
  Sorcerers and Armour
  There is nothing to stop a Sorcerer wearing heavy 
  armour, but it is not usually a good idea. Sorcer-
  ers are not trained to fight in armour, for one thing, 
  and suffer combat penalties if they do so (see p. 71). 
  More seriously, armour hampers the freedom of 
  movement necessary if the Sorcerer is to make accu-
  rate occult gestures (see p. 77). Few Sorcerers wear 
  anything heavier than a suit of padded armour.
  The Special Abilities  
  of a Sorcerer
  Sorcerers do not rely only on their innate ability to 
  cast spells. A study of sorcery imparts the techniques 
  needed to prepare scrolls, potions and minor magical 
  items. A high-ranking Sorcerer will go adventuring 
  with a small arsenal of such magical adjuncts.
   
  Sorcerers are trained in four unique skills:
   
  •  
  Calligraphy
   
  •  
  alchemy
   
  •  
  artifice
   
  •  
  Use of Wands
  Calligraphy
  This is the ability to prepare magical scrolls, a skill 
  known to any Sorcerer of 4th rank or higher. The 
  total cost of the basic materials for a scroll will be 
  3-18 crowns: parchment of high quality is called for, 
  along with gold leaf and some rare and expensive 
  pigments. The scroll may be for any spell that the 
  Sorcerer is able to cast (that is, whose level does 
  not exceed his rank), and the maximum number of 
  Magic Points placed in the spell is limited by the 
  Sorcerer’s rank. An 8th-rank character could not 
  write out a scroll for a 9 MP Wall of Magic, even 
  though he could personally cast the spell at three 
  times that strength. The process of inscribing 
  and illuminating a scroll takes a full lunar month 
  (twenty-eight days).
   
  Each scroll that a Sorcerer prepares temporar-
  ily suppresses 2 points of his normal Magic Points 
  score until it is used. A 10th-rank Sorcerer with five 
  scrolls at his belt would thus have 25 MPs instead of 
  his usual 35.
  Alchemy
  Alchemy is the science which governs the prepa-
  ration of potions and thaumaturgic compounds. A 
  Sorcerer first begins to master this skill when he 
  reaches 6th rank.
   
  A fully equipped laboratory, which can be estab-
  lished at a cost of some two hundred crowns, is the 
  first prerequisite. This comprises a lot of equipment, 
  so the Sorcerer must have somewhere to set it all up. 
  If he later needs to relocate his laboratory (maybe 
  the locals think he’s doing something unholy), 2-
  20 crowns of the set-up cost can be salvaged in the 
  form of small portable items and ingredients.
  
  3
   
  The Sorcerer does not become a Master Alche-
  mist overnight. At 6th rank he knows how to distil 
  only the less complex potions. Others must wait 
  until he gains more experience:
  Sorcerer’s 
   Potions which can   
   
   
   
  Cost of
  rank 
   
  be prepared  
   
   
   
   
   
  ingredients
  6th  
   
  Dexterity   
   
   
   
   
   
  35C
   
   
   
  Occult Acuity  
   
   
   
   
  40C
   
   
   
  Strength 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  35C 
  7th  
   
  all the above plus Healing   
   
  40C
   
   
   
  Replenishment  
   
   
   
   
  100C
   
   
   
  Poison   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  120C
   
   
   
  Theriac  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  100C 
  8th  
   
  all the above plus Night Vision   
  35C 
   
   
   
  Smoke   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  50C
   
   
   
  Amianthus Dust   
   
   
   
  150C
  9th  
   
  all the above plus Control 
   
   
  120C
   
   
   
  Truth   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  100C
   
   
   
  Love   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  100C
   
   
   
  Sleep   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  200C
  10th   
  all the above plus Transformation  200C 
   
   
   
  Dreams  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  200C
   
   
   
  the Elemental Essences  
   
   
  200C 
   
   
   
  Evaporating Potion  
   
   
   
  200C 
   
   
   
  Elixir Vitae  
   
   
   
   
   
  250C
   
   
   
  Virus Lunare   
   
   
   
   
  180C
  It takes twenty-eight days to distil a potion. In a 
  normal-sized laboratory there could be up to ten 
  potions ‘on the boil’ at one time. The Sorcerer can-
  not leave these bubbling away while he goes off on 
  an adventure; the alchemical process calls for con-
  tinual supervision as various ingredients are mixed 
  and added, vaporized, condensed and filtered. 
   
  There is always a chance that the Sorcerer will 
  do something wrong or miss out some vital ingre-
  dient. This gets less likely as his experience grows. 
  The chance that a potion will turn out misbrewed 
  and useless is 40% when the Sorcerer is 6th rank, 
  decreasing by 10% per rank above the 6th. This roll 
  is made by the GamesMaster; the Sorcerer only 
  finds out whether he got the formula right when he 
  (or someone else) drinks it. 
   
  Full details of the various potions are given in 
  Chapter 13, on pp138-141.
  Artifice
  This is the skill involved in constructing magic 
  amulets, talismans and rings. It is a very precise sci-
  ence, and there is only a very slight chance (5%) that 
  the item will turn out flawed or useless. The work 
  the WizarDs
   JH
  
  3
  Dragon Warriors
  of constructing magic items is intensely demand-
  ing and ties up most of the Sorcerer’s occult energy 
  over a long period. No adventuring is possible while 
  making one of these items. If the Sorcerer has to 
  cast any spells, he must make sure he keeps back at 
  least 20 Magic Points each day to fuel his labora-
  tory enchantments. Even breaking off the work for 
  one day is enough to undo these vital enchantments, 
  and the entire procedure must then start again from 
  scratch. A Sorcerer who is engaged in making a 
  magic item will not appreciate any interruptions.
   
  Talismans may be constructed when the Sorcerer 
  reaches 8th rank. The work will take seven months 
  and cost the Sorcerer in the region of 300 crowns.
   
  Amulets must wait until the Sorcerer reaches 
  10th rank. Manufacture of one of these items will 
  take a year and a day, at a basic materials cost of 400 
  to 500 crowns.
   
  Only a Master Sorcerer of 12th rank or above is 
  able to construct a magic ring. Apparatus and mis-
  cellaneous costs are likely to be in the region of 600 
  crowns. The work will take three years; those rings 
  which have charges will also require one month per 
  charge.
   
  It is said that at 15th rank a Sorcerer has such 
  consummate understanding of Artifice that he is 
  able to build magic items of his own devising, rather 
  than copying the powers and procedures handed 
  down in the ancient lore. If any player-character 
  should ever attain this lofty pinnacle, it it up to you 
  as GamesMaster to set the final ruling on this. As a 
  general rule, Artifice (like all other Sorcerous skills) 
  is in a very muddy state compared to the organized 
  bodies of knowledge that began to develop by the 
  16th century. Dozens of arbitrary and half-true the-
  ories circulate. The medieval culture of our Dragon 
  Warriors world has not evolved the modern ‘scien-
  tific method’, so Sorcerers tend to make new discov-
  eries in an entirely haphazard fashion. Developing 
  an innovation in the field is quite extraordinary, as it 
  would never occur to most medieval Sorcerers to go 
  beyond the tested arcana of centuries past. A Sor-
  cerer who undertakes something new may be start-
  ing on a lifetime’s work. Players should understand 
  this.
  Wands
  A wand is a device which enables a Sorcerer to 
  concentrate his power efficiently in a small group 
  of spells, at the expense of weakening him in other 
  spells and reducing his versatility.
   
  Artifice is the skill governing construction of 
  wands—a task that any Sorcerer can undertake 
  when he reaches 8th rank. It is important to realize 
  that a Sorcerer’s wand is nothing like the toy used by 
  modern conjurers; it is a wooden staff at least a metre 
  long, often intricately carved and studded with gems 
  or precious metals. Apart from the requirement that 
  its length must be between one and two metres, 
  a wand may have virtually any shape and appear-
  ance. A rustic wizard with a taste for things simple 
  and pristine might choose a gnarled branch of oak, 
  whereas the elegant mages of the towns and courts 
  are more likely to carve their wands of ebony, pine 
  or mahogany into extraordinary forms representing 
  serpents, demonic faces, dragons and abstract sym-
  bols—and then decorate them further with lacquer, 
  gold leaf, rubies, moonstone or emeralds.
   
  The cost of constructing a wand can be anything 
  from a few silver pieces right up to hundreds or 
  even thousands of Crowns. This is up to the Sor-
  cerer himself—it depends how splendid he wants 
  his wand to be. However, the GamesMaster is urged 
  to deal harshly with any wayward player-character 
  who has always displayed an extravagant lifestyle, 
  lives in a richly appointed townhouse, mingles with 
  nobles and wealthy merchants—and yet makes his 
  wand out of a bit of driftwood to save money! NPCs 
  are likely to treat such a character with some scorn. 
  (“Look at that buffoon Mysterio—calls himself a 
  Master Sorcerer and carries that worm-eaten chair 
  leg around for a wand!”) He will be seen as some-
  thing of a charlatan, and NPC patrons will find 
  other, grander Sorcerers to employ.
   
  After deciding which type of wand he is going 
  to make, the Sorcerer spends three months enchant-
  ing it. Throughout this period he can undertake no 
  adventures—indeed, he must become a veritable 
  hermit, focusing all his attention on the wand. Hav-
  ing enchanted the wand, the Sorcerer must imbue it 
  with magical energy. Until he does this, the wand is 
  like an uncharged battery. To ‘charge’ it, he sacrifices 
  some of his own innate capacity for spell-casting. 
  In game-terms, he permanently reduces his Magic 
  Points score. For each Magic Point sacrificed, the 
  wand gains 1½ MP of its own, rounding fractions 
  down. So a Sorcerer prepared to reduce his MP score 
  by 6 would have a wand charged to 9 MP, etc. 
   
  The Magic Points contained in a wand can only 
  be used to cast the spells specific to the wand (e.g. 
  Command and Enslave in the case of a Wand of 
  Mastery). The Sorcerer is still able to use his own 
  
  33
  Magic Points to cast any spell he knows—including 
  the spells governed by the wand. While he holds 
  the wand, he casts attack spells governed by it at 
  a bonus: +1 to magical attack or speed, which-
  ever is applicable. Conversely, the wand hampers 
  his control of other spells, giving a 5% chance of 
  miscasting these. Magic Points expended from the 
  wand’s stock regenerate, like the Sorcerer’s own 
  MPs, at midnight.
   
  The spells specific to each wand are as follows:
  Wand of Mastery  
  Command and Enslave
  Wand of Flame 
   
  Dragonbreath, Nova and Firestorm
  Wand of Healing  
  Miracle Cure, Lesser and greater 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Healing, antidote and Cure Disease
  Wand of Energy 
   
  Shadowbolt and Deathlight
  Wand of Necromancy Hold off The Dead, reanimate The 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Dead and animate Bones
  Wand of Summoning  Wolfcall, Phantasm and Battlemaster
  Wand of War   
   
  Vorpal Blade1, Destrier and armour
  In combat, wands count as normal quarterstaves. 
  They confer no bonus on the wielder’s Combat Fac-
  tors, but are magical and hence able to wound crea-
  tures such as Spectres and Wights. A wand can only 
  be used for spellcasting by the Sorcerer who created 
  it, although any character may wield it as a weapon.
   
  A Sorcerer cannot have more than one wand, 
  because he is not able to construct a second until 
  the first is destroyed. A wand can only be destroyed 
  by the Sorcerer who created it, or by an enormously 
  powerful creature such as a Dragon or Demon. 
  Destroying a wand does not return the Magic Points 
  invested in it to its owner; these are permanently 
  lost.
  MYSTICS
  A Mystic can be a formidable foe using only the 
  power of his mind, setting little store by the wands 
  and other occult fripperies of Elementalists or Sor-
  cerers.
  Minimum Requirements
  To be a Mystic, a character must have a Psychic Tal-
  ent score of at least 9. There is no minimum Intelli-
  gence requirement—Mysticism, unlike Elemental-
  ism or Sorcery, is not academically demanding.
  1 
  The wand itself is transformed into a weapon equivalent to a Vorpal 
  Blade for the duration of the spell.
  Spellcasting
  See Chapter 9, pp73-74, for full information on 
  Mystical magic and how their spells are cast.
  Spell Mastery
  A Mystic may select one spell to master. A mastered 
  spell is effectively ‘always-on’, with an indefinite 
  duration: the Mystic derives the full benefits from 
  it without needing to make a Psychic Fatigue roll. It 
  continues to function even after the Mystic becomes 
  psychically fatigued. At 1st rank only one spell may 
  be selected for mastery: See Enchantment. As the 
  Mystic gains ranks she may change the spell she has 
  mastered by taking a week to intensively meditate 
  on a different spell. The old spell may still be cast 
  as normal, but has the usual duration rather than 
  continuing indefinitely. The new spells that become 
  available for mastery at each level are listed below. 
  Note that the Mystic may only have one spell Mas-
  tered at any one time.
  New Mystic Spells Available for 
  Mastery, by Rank
  1st Rank:   
   
   
   
  See Enchantment
  2nd Rank:   
   
   
   
  Darksight
  3rd Rank:   
   
   
   
  allseeing Eye
  4th Rank:   
   
   
   
  Mind Cloak
  5th Rank:   
   
   
   
  Clairvoyance
  6th Rank:   
   
   
   
  Hidden Target, Telepathy
  7th Rank or above:  
   
  Truthsense, assessment
  Mystics and Armour
  Like Elementalists and Sorcerers, Mystics are not 
  really at home in a heavy suit of armour. Their style 
  of combat is unsuited to such encumbrance, result-
  ing in combat penalties (see p. 71). They can wear 
  up to a mail hauberk before starting to suffer penal-
  ties, and many do.
  The Special Abilities  
  of a Mystic
  Constant training in the use of the mind’s power 
  provides the Mystic with other abilities besides his 
  spells. The supernormal senses that are latent in all 
  of us are awakened in him. Although not fully reli-
  able, they are indispensable aids on any adventure 
  the WizarDs
  
  34
  Dragon Warriors
  for, in contrast to his spells, the Mystic can use them 
  over and over without suffering psychic fatigue.
   
  At higher ranks Mystics acquire the gift of man-
  ufacturing enchanted arms and armour. Any item 
  reflects the man or woman who created it, and the 
  spiritual perfection and enlightenment of the adept 
  Mystic shows in the wondrous weaponry he makes. 
  Mystics themselves are rarely known to use magic 
  armour (it impedes their spellcasting, as we shall 
  see later), but they have no problem with wielding 
  magical weapons. 
   
  As well as crafting items for his own use, the 
  Mystic may choose to make them ‘to order’ for 
  characters of other Professions. Strictly speaking, 
  there is nothing to stop him from setting up shop as 
  an artisan and churning out one magic weapon after 
  another. He could obviously turn a tidy profit this 
  way, but it would not really be in keeping with the 
  true mystical Way.
   
  Each item that a Mystic makes should be unique, 
  fashioned with a specific owner in mind (even if 
  that person is not the one who eventually gets to 
  use it). This restriction is not inherent in the Dragon 
  Warriors rules; it is left to the player to role-play his 
  Mystic character accurately.
   
  The special abilities of a Mystic are:
   
  •  
  Premonition (or Sixth Sense)
   
  •  
  ESP (or Seventh Sense)
   
  •  
  Enchantment of arms and armour
   
  •  
  adepthood
  Premonition (or Sixth Sense)
  This is the ability to sense danger. It must be applied 
  to a specific object or location within 5 metres of the 
  Mystic. It does not give any exact knowledge as to 
  the form of the danger. (A door which registered 
  as dangerous could be booby-trapped—or it might 
  have a Vampire lurking on the other side of it!)
   
  The chance of perceiving danger (if there is any 
  danger to be perceived) is:
   
   
  35% + 2% per rank
  So Caedmon Skysoul, who is 2nd rank, has a Pre-
  monition success rate of 39%.
   
  To use Premonition, the Mystic must first con-
  centrate on the place or thing under suspicion. This 
  takes two full Combat Rounds (CR) while he clears 
  his mind of all distractions. In the third CR the 
  GamesMaster rolls d100. If the roll comes up within 
  the Mystic’s success range, the GM informs him of 
  any danger that is present. If the percentile roll is 
  outside the required range, or if there is no danger, 
  the Mystic simply gets no impression. (Note that 
  the Mystic will not be able to distinguish between 
  sensing ‘no danger’ and not sensing ‘danger’.)
   
  Would it not be possible to double-check a Pre-
  monition reading by waiting another two Combat 
  Rounds and trying again? In fact, no. Having got 
  a negative reading (for whatever reason) the Mys-
  tic will continue to get that same reading on every 
  attempt until the circumstances actually change in 
  some way (e.g. the brook he’s previously checked 
  out as safe is suddenly poisoned by some Goblins 
  upstream).
  ESP (or Seventh Sense)
  This is the ability to detect thoughts within a range 
  of 10 metres. No indication is given of direction, 
  nor of the number of beings—although the Mys-
  tic is able to selectively ‘tune out’ the thoughts of 
  his companions. He can tell the difference between 
  intelligent thoughts and animal thoughts, but he 
  cannot actually read minds.
   
  The success chance of ESP is:
   
  •  
  5% + 3% per rank
   
  So looking at Caedmon again, we see his ESP 
  ability is at 11%.
   
  The Mystic must prepare for three Combat 
  Rounds before attempting to use ESP. Unlike Pre-
  monition, this does not take all his concentration. 
  He could be in the middle of a fight and still use his 
  ESP ability. The percentile roll is made, as before, by 
  the GM.
   
  A Mystic using the spell Mind Cloak will not reg-
  ister on ESP. Nor will the following: Elves (except 
  if detected by an Elven Mystic), Ghosts, Gnomes, 
  Goblins, Hobgoblins and the Undead. Tenebrous 
  and obscure, the thoughts of these magic folk slip 
  through the Human Mystic’s coarse ESP net.
   
  A Mystic of 9th rank or higher will always be 
  able to sense the proximity of another Mystic of 
  9th rank or higher (unless the latter has got a Mind 
  Cloak spell up). The Mystic Force is so strong with 
  such individuals that they activate one another’s 
  Seventh Sense automatically.
  Enchantment of Arms and Armour
  A 4th-rank Mystic is able to produce +1 magic 
  weapons and armour. At 6th rank the ability extends 
  to +2 items, and at 9th rank to +3 items. (See p. 
  137 of Chapter 13: Items Weird and Wondrous, for 
  more explanation of these terms.)
  
  3
   
  Producing an enchanted weapon or suit of armour 
  entails more than just stoking up a forge and ham-
  mering out the metal. A long period of solitude and 
  fasting, of physical and mental preparation, must 
  come first. The task may take months or years:
  item 
   
   
   
   
   
  Time taken to create  
  +1 arrow or quarrel  
   
  25 days
  +2 arrow or quarrel  
   
  125 days
  +3 arrow or quarrel  
   
  375 days
  +1 weapon  
   
   
   
  100 days
  +2 weapon  
   
   
   
  500 days
  +3 weapon  
   
   
   
  1500 days
  +1 armour (any sort) 
   
  100 days
  +2 armour (any sort) 
   
  400 days
  +3 armour (any sort) 
   
  900 days
  If the Mystic fails to remain in the proper tran-
  scendent state throughout this time, he may pro-
  duce a flawed item. Obviously, the chance of this 
  diminishes as the Mystic becomes more dedicated 
  and more accomplished—as he advances in rank, in 
  other words. The chance of producing a flawed item 
  is 40% at 4th rank, 30% at 5th, etc. In the case of a 
  Mystic player-character the player himself, not the 
  GM, makes this roll. 
   
  A Mystic always knows when he has made a 
  flawed item. Flawed items will function normally if 
  used, but there is a general aura of imperfection and 
  possibly evil about them. This will detect as dan-
  gerous under Premonition. Eventually, the flawed 
  item will bring ill-luck to its owner by embroiling 
  him in a squabble he did not want, slaying someone 
  other than he intended, or failing to parry a killing 
  blow; for example, flawed armour might cause him 
  to stumble into the path of a Firestorm spell. 
   
  Generally a Mystic will destroy the item he has 
  made if he sees it is flawed. Unfortunately not all 
  members of the profession share these scruples.
  Adepthood
  Even in the magical world of Dragon Warriors 
  there is no power to match the inner mysteries of 
  the human mind. Extraordinary abilities may be 
  acquired by a Mystic who reaches total spiritual 
  mastery and becomes an Adept.
   
  The Mystic may first attempt to attain Adept-
  hood when he reaches 8th rank. He must find some 
  secluded spot where he can dwell in solitary contem-
  plation—a high mountain cave or bleak island will 
  do. Each day he meditates, and at the end of each 
  week he checks to see if he has achieved Adepthood. 
  (In game-terms, this is indicated by a roll of 96-00 
  on d100. However, in the case of a player-character 
  the GamesMaster should be satisfied that the play-
  er’s interpretation of his character role is appropriate 
  for the character to become an Adept.)
   
  This Adept Mystic is spiritually at the pinnacle 
  of perfection—and physically not far from that. His 
  Reflexes and Psychic Talent scores both increase to 
  18. His natural rate of healing from wounds is dou-
  bled, and he becomes immune to poison and disease. 
  His serenity cannot be perturbed by external influ-
  ences, rendering him inviolate against fright attacks, 
  mind-controlling spells, or possession by demons or 
  spirits. Lastly, no enchanted weapon he forges will 
  ever be flawed. With his every action guided by per-
  fect wisdom, how could it be otherwise?
  ELEMENTALISTS
  In the north, in the savage regions known as the 
  Mercanian Coast and Thuland, the main magical 
  practice is that of Elementalism. The Elementalists 
  are shamans, rune-magicians and tricksters. They 
  use their own willpower and cleverness to harness 
  the raw, elemental powers of nature, wielding fire, 
  earth, air, water and even darkness as though they 
  were tools and weapons.
   
  The Darkness Elementalist is an outcast from 
  society and his practices are reviled by all good 
  men. Servants of Darkness incur certain penalties 
  for their perverted ways: these are known as geases 
  and are inflicted on those who use Darkness magic. 
  Explanation of these geases will be found after each 
  description of the Darkness spells.
  Minimum requirements
  To be an Elementalist, a character must have scores 
  of at least 9 for both Intelligence and Psychic Talent. 
  Usually only humans become Elementalists, though 
  the occasional Elf may be drawn to the profession. 
  Dwarves are excluded because of their inability to 
  perform magic.
  Elemental Specialism
  There are five elements: Fire; Air; Water; Earth; and 
  Darkness. The Elementalist chooses one of these as 
  the WizarDs
  
  36
  Dragon Warriors
  his main category and then two other subsidiary 
  elements. The latter must be adjacent to the main 
  element on the diagram below.
  Thus an Elementalist who specialized in Fire magic 
  could not take Water magic as one of her subsidi-
  ary elements. Darkness magic cannot be taken as 
  a subsidiary group: it must be the character’s main 
  specialization. Elemental spells are cast using Magic 
  Points (see pp74-75 of Chapter 9 for full informa-
  tion about how to cast Elemental spells).
  Elementalists and Armour
  There is nothing to stop an Elementalist wear-
  ing heavy armour, but it is not usually a good idea. 
  Elementalists are not trained to fight in armour, for 
  one thing, and suffer combat penalties if they do 
  so (see p. 71). More seriously, armour hampers the 
  freedom of movement necessary if the Elementalist 
  is to make accurate occult gestures (see p. 77). Most 
  of the time, an Elementalist will prefer to wear at 
  most a suit of padded armour, finding that mail or 
  heavier armour impedes him too much.
  The Special Abilities of an 
  Elementalist
  Spellcasting
  See pp95-106 of Chapter 9: The Book of Spells, for 
  full information on the different Elementalist spells 
  and how they are used.
  Raw Power
  Even when incapable of casting a spell, or less effec-
  tive at casting a spell, for some reason (for example, 
  due to wearing armour, being paralyzed, or other-
  wise being unable to make the requisite arcane hand 
   JH
  
  37
  gestures), an Elementalist can cause raw elemental 
  power to surge out from his body and into a foe, so 
  long as he has Magic Points remaining in at least 
  one Element. This is an Indirect Attack with a 
  Speed of 10 + Magic Points expended, a Range of 
  10 metres per Magic Point expended, and damage 
  of 2d6 per Magic Point expended. For example, a 
  Water Elementalist using 3 Magic Points to make 
  this attack would cause a surge of freezing water to 
  blast a foe up to 30 metres away at a speed of 13, 
  dealing 6d6 damage. 
   
  An Elementalist can potentially use this raw ele-
  mental power for other, more mundane purposes, as 
  in the examples in the table above. Note that these 
  mundane uses are not usually intended as attacks, 
  though there is nothing to prevent them from being 
  used during combat if that might be helpful.
  Elemental Resistance
  An Elementalist is resistant to being attacked by her 
  own element, as wielded by another Elementalist 
  or (at the GM’s discretion) in the form of another 
  spellcaster’s spell, magical item attack, or even 
  mundane attack (for example a hurricane, blizzard, 
  burning building or rocky avalanche). She gains a 
  +4 to magical defence and evasion if attacked 
  by her primary element, or a +2 if attacked by one 
  of her secondary elements. She is so familiar with 
  the elements in question that she can easily evade or 
  resist their attacks.
  Basic equipment
  Each Elementalist requires one article of basic 
  equipment which he must carry about with him at 
  all times. These articles are the channels through 
  which the elemental magical forces are focused. 
  They are not part of the character’s initial equip-
  ment and must be purchased or otherwise obtained 
  in the course of the game. Without one of these 
  items of basic equipment, the Elementalist can only 
  cast his spells at twice the normal Spell Point cost.
  Element 
   
  Equipment   
   
   
  Market price 
  Earth   
   
  Vine root staff   
   
  5 florins
  Air  
   
   
  Aeolian harp   
   
  10 gold crowns
  Water  
   
  Crystal phial of  
   
  1 gold crown
   
   
   
   
  pure spring-water
  Fire 
   
   
  Piece of volcanic rock  5 florins
   
   
   
   
  carried as an amulet 
   
  Darkness   
  Orb of Darkness—  
  This cannot be
   
   
   
   
  this consists of two  
  bought at market
   
   
   
   
  hemispheres that can and can only
   
   
   
   
  only be unscrewed   
  be obtained from 
   
   
   
   
  by mastering a   
   
  another Darkness 
   
   
   
   
  complex system of   
  Elementalist. 
   
   
   
   
  arcane twists.   
    
  Orbs can only be 
   
   
   
   
  Otherwise it   
   
  constructed in the
   
   
   
   
  is unopenable and  
  Lost City of Nem
   
   
   
   
  indestructible.  
   
  by an Elementalist  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  of 8th rank or 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  higher.
  Darkness Elementalists,  
  the other elements and their geases
  Darkness Elementalists, like other Elementalists, 
  may use spells from two other categories of element. 
  Such spells, though, never have quite the same 
  effect as they would have had if they had been cast 
  by a non-Darkness Elementalist. Frequently they 
  the WizarDs
  Some Possible Uses of Raw Elemental Power
  MPs 
  Air  
   
   
   
  Earth  
   
   
  Fire 
   
   
   
  Water  
   
   
      Darkness
  1 
   
  Blow out a   
   
  Fill in a small   
  Light a candle  
  Produce a litre of     Extinguish a candle
   
   
  candle  
   
   
  hole 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  drinking water in
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  an empty flagon
  2 
   
  Provide a slow   
  Fill in a shallow  
  Light a bonfire   
  Cause a dry well      Extinguish a small
   
   
  wind for a  
   
  grave   
   
   
  or campfire  
   
  to provide water 
      campfire
   
   
  sailing ship for  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  for an hour or so
   
   
  1 hour
  3+  
  Provide a fast  
  Fill in a full- 
    
  Light a bonfire   
  Cause a dry well      Extinguish a bonfire
   
   
  wind for a  
   
  sized grave  
   
  or campfire  
   
  to provide water
   
   
  sailing ship for  
   
   
   
   
   
  made from wet  
  again, permanently
   
   
  1 hour  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  wood
  
  38
  Dragon Warriors
  are more potent. Explanations of these variants are 
  appended to the various descriptions of the spells in 
  Chapter 10: The Book of Spells.
  WARLOCkS
  Warlocks are fighter-mages, masters of both sword 
  and sorcery. Their ability to use magic does not 
  equal that of Sorcerer or Mystic, but this is counter-
  balanced by the Warlock’s skill with weaponry. The 
  skills gained by Warlocks of very high rank (8th 
  and above) are similar to those available to Knights, 
  though with a strong supernatural slant.
   
  Human and Elven characters may belong to this 
  Profession. Dwarves are excluded because of their 
  inability to use magic.
  Minimum requirements
  A character is only eligible for this Profession if he 
  has an Intelligence score of at least 11 and a Psychic 
  Talent score of at least 9.
  Weapon Groups
  A good deal of the Warlock’s time is spent study-
  ing magic. He does not have the hours of combat 
  practice available to the other fighting Professions, 
  and cannot be an expert in a whole range of weap-
  ons. Instead, he must confine his training to specific 
  Weapon Groups. By specializing, he can hone his 
  skills with the weapons of his choice until he is vir-
  tually the equal of a Knight or Barbarian.
   
  At 1st rank the Warlock is equally skilled in the 
  use of all weapons. He only needs to specialize upon 
  reaching 3rd rank, when the combat techniques he 
  must use are beginning to get quite complex. At 3rd 
  rank, he chooses two Weapon Groups from among 
  the eight groups shown in the table below.
   
  When fighting with a weapon belonging to one 
  of his chosen Weapon Groups, the Warlock uses his 
  full normal attack score. If obliged to fight with a 
  weapon type that he is not familiar with, he suffers 
  a penalty of –2 from attack.
   
  The initial choice of Weapon Groups is not unal-
  terable. If a Warlock who chose Groups III and VI 
  at 3rd rank later wanted to switch the first of these 
  to, say, Group IV (as he might do if he acquired 
  a magical two-handed sword) then he could do so. 
  The switch-over from one group to another takes 
  two months of game-time; during this period the 
  Warlock is proficient in neither group.
  Simultaneous Casting
  Warlocks can ‘power up’ for battle faster than the 
  other magic-using Professions can. Certain of their 
  spells may be cast simultaneously with one another, 
  allowing the Warlock to cast two spells per round. 
  For more information, see page 75 of Chapter 9: 
  The Use of Magic.
  Warlocks and Armour
  Warlocks, like Barbarians, can wear and fight in 
  anything up to mail armour without incurring a 
  Combat Factor penalty (see p. 71). They do suffer a 
  small penalty to attack and defence if they wear 
  plate armour. Fortunately, armour does not impede 
  a Warlock’s spellcasting—in this respect Warlocks 
  have a definite advantage over Elementalists and 
  Sorcerers.
  Warlock Weapon Groups
  Weapon Group I 
   
   
  Weapon Group II 
   
   
  Weapon Group III  
   
  Weapon Group IV
  Flail 
   
   
   
   
   
  Dagger  
   
   
   
   
  Halberd 
   
   
   
   
  Two-handed sword 
  Mace  
   
   
   
   
  Shortsword  
   
   
   
  Staff 
   
   
  Morningstar 
   
   
   
  Sword  
   
   
   
   
  Spear  
  Weapon Group V 
   
   
  Weapon Group VI  
   
  Weapon Group VII  
   
  Weapon Group VIII
  Battleaxe  
   
   
   
  Bow 
   
   
   
   
   
  Crossbow  
   
   
   
  Cudgel
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Javelin  
   
   
   
   
  Unarmed combat
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Sling
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Thrown dagger
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Rock, etc. 
  
  39
  The Special Abilities  
  of a Warlock
  Warlocks do not have access to the special skills of 
  a Sorcerer. They cannot read magic scrolls. Nor can 
  they prepare potions—though they can benefit from 
  the effect of a potion, just like any other character. 
  The same applies to magic rings and talismans.
   
  Listed below are the eight talents available to 
  Warlocks of advanced rank. As befits this Profes-
  sion, the talents are a combination of martial and 
  magical skills. A Warlock selects one of these talents 
  upon reaching 8th rank, then another at 9th rank 
  and so on.
   
  •  
  appraise Enemy
   
  •  
  arrow Cutting 
   
  •  
  Fight Blind 
   
  •  
  Unarmed Combat 
   
  •  
  Minor Enchantment (Weapons) 
   
  •  
  Minor Enchantment (armour) 
   
  •  
  Major Enchantment (Weapons) 
   
  •  
  Major Enchantment (armour)
   
  •  
  ride Warhorse
  Appraise Enemy
  This skill enables the Warlock to determine the 
  Profession (if any) and rank of a character just by 
  watching him for a few moments. The GM rolls a 
  d20, and if the score is under the Warlock’s Psychic 
  Talent he informs him accurately of the character’s 
  Profession and rank. 
   
  If the d20 roll fails, the GM derives a random 
  result for the observed character’s rank by rolling 
  3d6 –7, taking results below 1 as 1st-rank, and gives 
  his Profession as whatever seems most plausible. 
  (Note that even without this skill it is usually easy 
  to tell a Barbarian, say, from a Sorcerer! Also note 
  that tables for determining random Professions and 
  ranks will appear in the Dragon Warriors Bestiary.) 
   
  Use of the skill takes one Combat Round for 
  each character observed. It can only be used once on 
  any given character—i.e. the Warlock cannot dou-
  ble-check in case of a mistake the first time. 
   
  Because this is a skill rather than a spell it is not 
  affected by Deceit or Mind Cloak. However, for the 
  same reason it is affected by an Assassin’s Disguise 
  skill, and an Assassin who disguises himself success-
  fully will be able to fool the Warlock into thinking 
  him to be some other rank and Profession.
  Arrow Cutting
  This talent allows the Warlock to knock or catch 
  arrows out of the air before they hit him! This calls 
  for total concentration, so he cannot do it while 
  spell-casting, in mêlée, etc. 
   
  He is able to pit his defence score against the 
  bowman’s attack. The Hit Roll is thus made as for 
  normal mêlée combat, except that the usual range 
  and visibility modifiers (p. 68) still apply also. The 
  Warlock will have to split his defence (p. 68) if 
  more than one arrow is shot at him in the same 
  Combat Round. 
   
  The Arrow Cutting skill can only be used if 
  the Warlock can see his attacker; this is because 
  he needs to see the release of the arrow to time his 
  parry—he does not actually follow it in flight with 
  his eye. Despite the name, this skill applies to all 
  missile weapons (throwing stars, arrows, javelins, 
  etc.) except for crossbow bolts.
  Fight Blind
  The Warlock acquires a kind of ‘radar’ sense. When 
  fighting blind (in pitch darkness or thick smoke, 
  or against an invisible foe, for instance) he incurs a 
  penalty of only –2 attack and –4 defence. (This 
  is only 50% of the usual penalty for fighting blind; 
  see p. 61)
  Unarmed Combat
  In order to select this skill, the Warlock must have 
  chosen Weapon Group VIII as one of his fields 
  of specialization. If he later switches to another 
  Weapon Group, he loses the use of this skill. When 
  fighting unarmed, the skill means that he uses a d6 
  for Armour Bypass Rolls and inflicts 3 HP damage 
  on a successful blow.
  Minor Enchantment (Weapons)
  This gives the Warlock the ability to forge enchanted 
  weapons. There are three sub-levels to the Minor 
  Enchantment skill: basic, advanced and master. The 
  first time the Warlock chooses this skill it gives 
  him the ability to produce +1 magic weapons. He 
  must wait until he gains another rank and then take 
  the same skill a second time in order to reach the 
  advanced level required for +2 weapons. For mas-
  ter level (+3 weapons) he must take this skill three 
  times. 
   
  The time taken to create an enchanted weapon is 
  given on p. 35. There is a 1% chance that the weapon 
  will turn out to be flawed.
  the WizarDs
  
  40
  Dragon Warriors
  Minor Enchantment (Armour)
  This is exactly the same as the previous skill except 
  that it governs the construction of enchanted armour 
  instead of weaponry.
  Major Enchantment (Weapons)
  A Warlock is only able to take this skill when he 
  has Minor Enchantment of Weapons at the master 
  level. The skill enables him to produce three magic 
  swords which are listed below. He can make only 
  one of each type of sword in his lifetime, and each 
  takes a year and a day to make.
   
  These items must be swords of some form—a 
  normal sword, shortsword, scimitar, two-handed 
  sword or whatever. It is not possible to forge other 
  types of weapon using this skill.
  Volcanic Sword  The wielder of this sword can cause its 
  blade to glow white-hot or even burst into flame. This 
  adds +5 HP to the damage the weapon inflicts; e.g. a 
  Volcanic Shortsword becomes a (d8, 8) weapon. This 
  applies only against creatures that can be affected by heat 
  and/or fire. A Spectre, for instance, being ethereal, would 
  only take damage as from a normal magic sword.
  Severblade  The edge of this sword is always razor-sharp. 
  While fighting with it, a character uses d20 for Armour 
  Bypass Rolls. The damage inflicted is as it would be for a 
  normal sword.
  Vampire Sword  This sword leeches the life-energy of 
  those it slays and channels it into its owner. If wounded, 
  the wielder of the Vampire Sword gets back 3 HP for 
  every living creature or character he kills with it.
  The power listed above are the only magical pow-
  ers these weapons possess. They cannot be imbued 
  with magic bonuses (+1, etc.) in addition to these 
  powers.
  Major Enchantment (Armour)
  A Warlock must have mastered the Minor Enchant-
  ment of Armour before he can acquire this skill. 
  When he takes the skill, he must select one armour 
  type from the three given below. He must take the 
  skill a second time if he also wants to be able to 
  make one of the other armour types.
   
  All of these types of magic armour are plate. 
  Like the special swords given above, they have no 
  magic bonus; this means that they have an intrinsic 
  Armour Factor. Fashioning a suit of these armour 
  types takes three years. There is a 1% chance that 
  the armour will turn out to be flawed.
  Nullplate  This must be made with an alloy of silver 
  which becomes jet-black in the process of forging. The 
  armour must be studded with emeralds and jade, and the 
  total cost is likely to approach 5000 florins. Whoever 
  wears the armour is protected at all times by a kind of low-
  power Spell Screen that reduces any direct-attack spells cast 
  at him by 3 Magic Points. This defence is not cumulative 
  in effect with a regular Spell Screen—i.e. if the wearer casts 
  a Spell Screen then for the duration of the spell his total 
  defence will stop 5 MPs, not 8 MPs.
  Herculean Armour  Made from an alloy of gold and 
  decorated with rubies, topaz or fire opals, this armour is 
  likely to cost some 4000 florins. It has a reddish, coppery 
  appearance when finished. The wearer has a Strength of 
  20 at all times, allowing him numerous advantages as set 
  out on p. 64 and p. 68.
  Fortress Armour  
  An alloy of platinum produces a suit of 
  armour that shimmers like quicksilver. Moreover it must 
  be adorned with diamonds, and the total expense may be 
  more than 8000 florins. Probably it is worth the price, as 
  it protects its wearer from all forms of destructive energy 
  (a Dragon’s fire, lightning bolts, and all indirect-attack 
  spells that specifically inflict damage) by reducing the 
  damage roll by 20 HP. Note that this renders the wearer 
  completely immune to such things as the Dragonbreath 
  spell and gives him considerable protection even against 
  Firestorm, Thunderclap, Energy Bolt, etc. The armour gives 
  no protection against direct-attack magic and, as stated 
  above, it counts as normal plate (AF 5) against swords, 
  arrows, and other regular weapons.
  Ride Warhorse
  A Warlock who has chosen this speciality can ride 
  a warhorse, exactly as though she were a Knight or 
  Barbarian.
  
  4
  AN ASSASSIN IS one who makes a craft of mur-
  der. Stealth, trickery and poison are the tools of his 
  trade. In the normal world, of course, that trade is 
  a rather unattractive one. Leaving aside the ethi-
  cal question, eliminating one important NPC after 
  another would not make for very interesting games 
  after a while. 
   
  Fortunately, the adventuring Assassin of Dragon 
  Warriors has more than one string to his bow. If 
  he has no qualms about such work, he may indeed 
  accept contract killings. But he may also at vari-
  ous times be a tomb-robber, a troubleshooter, an 
  explorer, a bodyguard, a thief, a freebooter and even 
  a hero—just like any other adventurer. The only dif-
  ference is that where the Knight has armour and 
  warhorse and the Sorcerer has spells and potions, 
  the Assassin accomplishes his deeds mainly by cun-
  ning and guile.
   
  Assassins are much rarer than the other adven-
  turing Professions. Barely one adventurer in a hun-
  dred is an Assassin. A player cannot easily get a 
  character who qualifies to be an Assassin, as high 
  scores must be rolled in several characteristics (see 
  below). Even if these rolls are achieved, the final say 
  rests (as always) with the GamesMaster. He may 
  rule that Assassin player-characters have no place in 
  his campaign. 
   
  Knights in particular despise Assassins for their 
  ‘cowardly’ ways. It would be stretching credibility a 
  long way if a group of player-character Knights were 
  to accept an Assassin as their boon companion. 
   
  Note that the rules for Assassins are designed 
  so that a player who wishes an Assassin-like char-
  acter who is not a full-blown murderer may play 
  one, by forgoing several of the usual Assassin abili-
  ties in exchange for more sneaky, thief-like skills. 
  The GamesMaster may well be more lenient about 
  allowing such a character in his campaign.
  Minimum requirements
  A player who wishes his character to be an Assassin 
  must roll scores of at least 12 for Reflexes and 9 for 
  both Intelligence and Psychic Talent. If these mini-
  mum rolls are not achieved, the character cannot 
  belong to this Profession. None of the fraternities of 
  Assassins have ever been known to accept Elves or 
  Dwarves, although it is possible that one or both of 
  those races may have their own Assassins, presum-
  ably even more secretive than the human ones.
  Assassins and armour
  Assassins prefer a fast, agile fighting style, and suffer 
  combat penalties when wearing heavier armour:
  Chapter 
  ASSASSINS:
  THE  SHADOW 
  WARRIORS
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  Mail Armour:   –2 from both attack and defence
  Plate:   
   
  –4 from both attack and defence
  The special abilities  
  of an Assassin
  Assassins are fighters who are trained to use stealth 
  and cunning to kill, spy or steal. The special abilities 
  of an Assassin are:
   
  •  Stealth
   
  •  Combat techniques: 
   
   
  •  armour Piercing
   
   
  •  Unarmed Combat 
   
   
  •  Throwing Spikes
   
   
  •  Shock attack
   
  •  Mental techniques: 
   
   
  •  inner Sense, 
   
   
  •  Memorize
   
   
  •  Deathvow
   
  •  Meditational techniques
   
  •  alchemical techniques
   
  •  Skills: 
   
   
  •  Climb
   
   
  •  Disguise
   
   
  •  Pilfer
   
   
  •  Pick lock
   
   
  •  Track
  Stealth
  This ability is crucially important to the Assassin, as 
  it enables him to pass by unnoticed in the darkness or 
  to creep up on an enemy and execute a shock attack 
  (see below). An Assassin is at his most stealthful 
  when lightly armoured and in a small group. Most 
  Assassins prefer to operate alone.
   
  The rules for stealth and perception are 
  explained on pp62-63. While anyone may try 
  sneaking past a sentry, it is Assassins who are the 
  undisputed masters of stealth. It is theoretically 
  possible (though unlikely) for a Master Assassin to 
  stand stock-still within three metres of a 1st-rank 
  guard, in daylight with no cover to hide behind, and 
  yet remain unnoticed! Because of such miraculous 
  abilities many believe Assassins have magical pow-
  ers—some call them the ‘Masters of Invisibility’.
   
  In practice, most of an Assassin’s apparently 
  supernatural talents derive from an understanding 
  of psychology and a number of ‘conjuring tricks’, 
  backed up by a limited repertoire of abilities much 
  like those of Mystics. But the Order of Assassins 
  have been the silent practitioners of their art for 
  centuries. They have learned many secrets—and 
  who can say whether some of these are not true 
  magic? 
   
  In game terms, an Assassin’s Stealth ability is 
  purely and simply his high stealth and percep-
  tion scores, which are considerably better than any 
  other character’s.
  Combat techniques
  The arcana of Assassin societies include combat 
  techniques unknown to other Professions. The 
  Assassin may select any one of the following Combat 
  Techniques at 1st rank, and gains a further Combat 
  Technique of her choice at 3rd rank, 5th rank, and 
  7th Rank. Any time an Assassin is eligible to select 
  a new Combat Technique he may instead forego the 
  Combat Technique and gain another Skill instead 
  (pp46-48).
  Armour piercing
  Assassins are extremely adept at striking for the 
  weak points in an opponent’s armour, and when 
  attacking with sword, staff, dagger, shortsword or 
  throwing spike, the Assassin adds +1 to his Armour 
  Bypass Rolls.
  Shock attack
  An Assassin who successfully moves within 3 metres 
  of an enemy without being noticed is then able to 
  make a shock attack. The effect of this is automatic 
  surprise (see p. 61). Additionally, if the Assassin’s 
  rank is higher than that of his surprised opponent, 
  he rolls d6 and consults the Shock Attack Table:
  Shock Attack Table
  Roll  
  Description Effect
  1 
   
  Stunned 
   
  Opponent’s attack, defence and 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  evasion are all at 0
  2 
   
  Aghast  
   
  Opponent’s attack and evasion 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  are at 0; defence is half normal
  3-4  
  Astonished  
  Opponent’s attack is at 0; 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  evasion and defence at half 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  normal
  5-6  
  Surprised   
  Opponent’s attack is at 0; 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  evasion and defence are 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  unimpaired
  Any special effect from the above table lasts for a 
  round, after which the victim may act normally.
  
  43
  Throwing spike
  The throwing spike (sometimes called a throwing 
  star) is an unusual weapon used almost exclusively 
  by Assassins. Ordinarily it is just a (d2, 2) weapon—
  making it (d2 +1, 1) in the hands of an Assassin 
  with the Armour Piercing technique—and is there-
  fore not especially effective against armoured tar-
  gets. It has the advantage that an Assassin can hurl 
  up to three spikes, not necessarily all at the same 
  opponent, as a single action. Throwing spikes are 
  sometimes coated with poison (pages 45 and 122).
  Throwing spike: (d2 +1, 2) when used by an Assassin 
  Short/Medium/Long ranges: 0-10m/11-20m/21-25m
  Assassins must make their own spikes/stars, at a 
  materials cost of 3-12 florins for nine. This takes 
  the character two days. The nine spikes together, 
  fitted into a sort of bandolier, count as one item 
  for encumbrance purposes. Throwing spikes can be 
  re-used if the Assassin can locate and recover them 
  after they have been thrown.
  Unarmed combat
  The skill of unarmed combat is of particular interest 
  to an Assassin, because he cannot always be sure of 
  having a weapon to hand when his intended vic-
  tim comes near. When using unarmed combat, the 
  Assassin makes Armour Bypass Rolls with a d6 and 
  inflicts 3 points of damage on a successful blow.
  Mental Techniques
  Assassins cultivate the power of the mind, honing 
  their thoughts like weapons. At 4th rank the Assas-
  sin may select one Mental Technique from either 
  Memorize or Inner Sense. At 8th rank he gains the 
  other technique (whichever one he did not select 
  the first time). Finally, at 12th rank, he gains the 
  feared Deathvow technique. 
   
  Any time an Assassin is eligible to select a new 
  Mental Technique (including Deathvow) he may 
  instead forego the Mental Technique and select 
  another Skill (see pp46-48).
  Inner Sense
  Assassins are the agents of night, and cultivate a 
  psychic ‘inner sense’ to enable them to operate in 
  darkness. Whenever an Assassin comes within one 
  metre of a pit, obstacle, being or trap—even in pitch 
  blackness—he will sense it if he rolls under his Psy-
  chic Talent score on 1d20. For the now-familiar 
  assassins
   SP
  
  44
  Dragon Warriors
  reasons, this roll is actually made for the Assassin 
  by the GM.
   
  For more detailed activity in the dark, the Assas-
  sin carries a ‘hand lantern’. This is a shuttered lamp 
  held in the palm of the hand, allowing the Assassin 
  to release narrow furtive beams of light just by part-
  ing his fingers.
  Memorize
  Assassins are trained to recall information with 
  almost photographic accuracy. The Assassin has 
  total short-term recall, with a 100% chance of rec-
  ollecting the full details of anything he has glanced 
  at or overheard in the last month.
   
  The chance of remembering something dimin-
  ishes with the passage of time, decreasing by 10% 
  for each month after the first until reaching a mini-
  mum of 10%.
  Example
  one of his missions calls for the assassin Kirigi to break 
  into the townhouse of the despised merchant gorquist 
  and steal an artefact that he has just had shipped from 
  the land of Khitai. While scouring the merchant’s office 
  for the hidden artefact, Kirigi glances through a number 
  of scattered papers. He reads a few of them to see if the 
  artefact is mentioned, but they appear to be letters con-
  nected with gorquist’s criminal dealings. Eventually he 
  finds what he is looking for, drops it in his haversack 
  and leaves.
   
  Some six months later, Kirigi’s employer is hav-
  ing trouble with the town council. He needs some way 
  to coerce some of the council members—one of whom 
  is gorquist—into giving him their support. Kirigi 
  attempts to recall the content of the documents he saw. if 
  he had attempted this in the first month, he would have 
  been sure of success. as it is, his memory of the documents 
  is reduced to 50%, meaning that he must roll 01-50 on 
  d100 to replicate them accurately. He rolls a 32, and 
  duly delivers full details of gorquist’s smuggling racket 
  into his overjoyed employer’s hands.
  Deathvow
  A Master Assassin gains the power of the Death-
  vow, wherewith he can ‘set’ himself to kill a given 
  character, driving this single objective so forcefully 
  into his subconscious mind that he becomes virtu-
  ally a walking bomb.
   
  The time taken to prepare the mind for the 
  Deathvow is one week. During this period, the 
  Master Assassin reviews and absorbs everything 
  he knows about his intended target. If he subse-
  quently comes within 3m of the target at any time, 
  the Assassin immediately goes into a killing frenzy 
  that lasts until he or the target is dead. This killing 
  frenzy gives the Assassin a bonus of +10 to attack 
  and +2 on Armour Bypass Rolls and on the dam-
  age inflicted with a successful hit; also, instead of 
  blacking out at 0 HP, he stays conscious and fight-
  ing until the moment of death (–3 HP).
   
  While on the trail of his victim, the Master 
  Assassin is indifferent to hardship and discomfort. 
  He needs neither food nor rest, and covers twice the 
  usual distance cross-country each day. 
   
  An Assassin can set himself only one such spe-
  cial target at a time. If he later decides to abort the 
  mission, it will take him a further week to ‘de-psych’ 
  himself. After this he can, if he wishes, select another 
  victim.
  Meditational techniques
  Assassin societies the world over have always been 
  renowned for the uncanny effects they could bring 
  about through altered states of consciousness. 
  The Ninja of old Japan used a range of secret fin-
  ger positions called kuji-kiri to achieve the proper 
  transcendent state. The Order of Hashishim were 
  capable of miraculous feats because of their religious 
  fervour and their use of certain drugs.
   
  In Dragon Warriors, Assassins are able to use spe-
  cial meditational techniques to simulate some of the 
  powers of a Mystic. The Assassin may enter various 
  trances. Entering the trance requires the Assassin 
  to become motionless and concentrate for three 
  Combat Rounds. While in the trance, the Assassin 
  becomes rigid and staring as though frozen, though 
  he in fact remains fully aware of his surround-
  ings and may terminate the trance at once if he is 
  attacked. He is unable to speak while in a trance 
  state. Some of the trances must be maintained for a 
  specific period before giving any benefit, and if the 
  Assassin has to terminate them before this then the 
  trance is wasted.
   
  Each of these trances is linked to one of the seven 
  universal Elements which the Assassins believe con-
  stitute all things.
   
  The Light Trance, which an Assassin may make 
  use of from 1st rank up, allows for rapid recovery 
  from injury and poison. The Assassin must remain 
  in the trance for one full day, at the end of which he 
  recovers an extra 1d8 Health Points in addition to 
  
  4
  any HP that he would have recovered anyway by the 
  natural healing rules (see p. 68). There is also a 20% 
  chance that the trance will neutralize any disease or 
  toxin from which the Assassin is suffering.
   
  The Darkness Trance, which Assassins acquire at 
  2nd rank, duplicates the effect of the Mystic spell 
  Suspended animation (p. 90). The Assassin must 
  spend two hours in the trance, and at the end of this 
  time he is able to sink into a deathlike coma of any 
  preset duration up to a year and a day. The Assassin 
  appears dead while in this state, and even ESP will 
  detect no signs of life.
   
  The Water Trance ability is gained at 4th rank. 
  The Assassin must spend one hour in the trance 
  state. At the end of this time his thoughts become 
  masked so that he cannot be detected by ESP, the 
  spell Scry or similar sorcery. This effect is, of course, 
  exactly like the Mystic spell Mind Cloak, and its 
  duration is twenty minutes. 
   
  Mastery of the Earth Trance is acquired at 6th 
  rank. The trance state lasts for as long as the Assas-
  sin wishes to maintain it. While in the trance he is 
  unharmed by extremes of heat and cold. This goes 
  beyond the normal limits of a Mystic’s Survival 
  spell (p. 93) to include partial immunity to fire: the 
  damage caused by the spells Dragonbreath and Fire-
  storm and a Dragon’s flames are all reduced to 10 
  HP. While in Earth Trance the Assassin can go for 
  up to an hour without drawing breath. 
   
  At 8th rank, the Assassin is able to enter the 
  Void Trance. The trance must last a half-hour, at the 
  end of which the Assassin gains the benefit of the 
  Mystic spell Hidden Target (p. 91). However, unlike 
  the spell—whose duration is set by a Spell Expiry 
  Roll—this effect will last for fifteen minutes.
   
  The Fire Trance is learned at 10th rank. The 
  trance takes one hour to complete, and gives the 
  Assassin the effect of a Swiftness spell (p. 94). This 
  allows him to move at twice normal speed, strike 
  twice per Combat Round, etc. The effect lasts for 
  five minutes after concluding the trance.
   
  Only when he reaches 12th rank does an Assas-
  sin master the secrets of the Wind Trance. This 
  trance takes one hour to complete and provides the 
  Assassin with the power of intangibility (p.94). A 
  Spell Expiry Roll is made to determine how long 
  this effect lasts.
   
  Any time that an Assassin is eligible to select a 
  Meditational Technique he may instead forego the 
  Meditational Technique and select another Skill 
  (see p. 46-48).
  Alchemical techniques
  The Assassin’s overall alchemical knowledge is 
  hardly comparable to that of the Sorcerer, but in the 
  particular areas that interest him he has great skill. 
  There are only three special compounds that Assas-
  sins are able to prepare. The Assassin does not need 
  a laboratory for his alchemy, however—he concocts 
  these potions from herbal and mineral ingredients, 
  using fairly straightforward procedures. The three 
  compounds are:
  Assassin’s Lotion
  This is a normal poison (see p. 122) which can be 
  coated on to throwing spikes, the edge of a sword, 
  etc. Coating a weapon with the substance is an 
  action requiring one Combat Round. The weapon 
  must be used within one minute or the Lotion oxi-
  dizes and becomes harmless. The Lotion works only 
  for the first wound scored with the weapon—after 
  that it is used up.
   
  Brewing up a flask of the Lotion containing 
  enough for five applications, takes three days and 
  costs 150 silver florins.
  Smoke Jar
  This is a large clay pot which functions exactly like 
  a Vial of Smoke (see p. 140). For encumbrance pur-
  poses it is counted as two items however. A Smoke 
  Jar takes two days to prepare, at a cost of 100 flor-
  ins.
  Flash Pellets
  When one of these pellets is hurled at the ground, 
  it produces a blinding flare of light. Any sighted 
  creature within 5 metres will be dazzled for the next 
  Combat Round, allowing the Assassin to flee from 
  the scene or conceal himself. Use of a Flash Pel-
  let often gives the impression that the Assassin has 
  vanished into thin air! 
   
  It takes one day to prepare three of these pel-
  lets (the three together constitute one ‘encumbrance 
  point’), and the ingredients cost 50 florins for each.
   
  Just as with a Sorcerer’s alchemy, there is a chance 
  that the Assassin will get something wrong—add 
  the herbs in the incorrect amounts, stir the brew too 
  much, allow it to go off the boil too soon, or any 
  other possible mistake. There is thus a 50% chance 
  that a potion he attempts to produce at 1st rank will 
  turn out useless. The chance decreases to 45% at 
  2nd rank, 40% at 3rd rank, and so on. He only finds 
  assassins
  
  46
  Dragon Warriors
  out whether or not he concocted it right when he 
  comes to use it.
   
  An Assassin who has no interest in Alchemy 
  may forego the ability entirely, gaining an additional 
  Skill of his choice at 1st Rank instead (see below).
  The Skills of Assassins
  Assassins rely on specialized skills. At 1st rank, 3rd 
  rank, 5th rank, 7th rank and 11th rank the Assassin 
  may choose a skill from among Breakfall, Climbing, 
  Jump, Disguise, Picklock, Pilfer, and Track. These 
  skills may be selected more than once, for additional 
  proficiency; see the individual skill descriptions for 
  more information.
  Breakfall
  Assassins with the Breakfall skill can fall up to 6m 
  without sustaining injury. They take the same dam-
  age as other Professions for any greater distance than 
  this. This skill may be selected up to three times. On 
  the second selection, the Assassin may safely fall up 
  to 12m; on the third, up to 18m.
  Climbing
  Assassins with the Climbing skill carry special iron 
  claws (no encumbrance) that fit over their gloves 
  and boots for climbing purposes. This enables them 
  to modify the usual climbing rules on page 63.
   
  When an Assassin wishes to climb a wall or cliff-
  face, he subtracts half his rank (rounded down) from 
  the difficulty factor of the climb. Thus when Kirigi, 
  who is 10th rank, is scaling the sheer wall of polished 
  glass to the Minaret of Nuara the Enchantress, he 
  treats it not as difficulty factor 20, but as difficulty 
  factor 15.
   
  This skill may be selected a second time; in this 
  case, the Assassin subtracts his rank from the dif-
  ficulty factor of the climb, rather than half his rank.
  Jumping
  An Assassin who already has the Climbing skill may 
  select the Jumping skill.
   
  An Assassin who has the Jumping skill can leap 
   JH
  
  47
  up to scale any obstacle below 3m in height, given 
  at least 5m as a run-up. This is executed as a single 
  jumping somersault—spectacular, though it can lead 
  to problems if there is a drop on the other side!
   
  This skill may be selected a second time, allow-
  ing the Assassin to scale an obstacle up to 4.5m in 
  height with a single leap.
  Disguise
  This skill is used to blend into a group in order to 
  evade a pursuer, or to masquerade as another person 
  in order to gain access to the home of an intended 
  victim. The skill of disguise does not give the Assas-
  sin the ability to mimic a specific individual, merely 
  to simulate the appearance and mannerisms of a 
  type. (Amida, for instance, is slender and obviously 
  feminine, and for all her skill could never disguise 
  herself as Lars Long-shanks the Barbarian. She 
  could, however, pass herself as a merry alewife, a 
  peasant woman, a proud lady or a sultry harlot.)
   
  The chance that a character will see through 
  the Assassin’s disguise is usually quite small. This 
  is determined by subtracting the observing charac-
  ter’s perception from the Assassin’s stealth, and 
  the result is the number that the Assassin must roll 
  equal to or under on 2d10 to pass undetected. Note 
  that this is exactly like the regular Stealth Roll (see 
  pp 62-63) but without the various modifiers that 
  usually apply.
   
  The Disguise roll must be repeated every ten 
  minutes that the Assassin maintains his disguise. 
  He must make an additional roll if he engages in 
  conversation with anyone while disguised.
   
  This skill may be selected a second time; in this 
  case the Assassin becomes a master of disguise, and 
  may attempt to mimic a particular individual. Fur-
  thermore he need only re-roll once per hour, rather 
  than once per ten minutes. He must still re-roll if he 
  engages anyone in conversation.
  Pilfer
  This is the ability to ‘lift’ small items from a person 
  while standing next to them. Some Assassins, more 
  concerned with thievery than with the honourable 
  profession of murder, may use the pilfer ability to 
  cut purses in the marketplace or even remove rings 
  from a character’s finger while shaking hands with 
  him!
   
  The attempt to pilfer is made as a normal 
  stealth vs perception roll (see pp 62-63) with 
  an intrinsic handicap of –4 from the Assassin’s 
  stealth score. If the roll fails, the Assassin fails 
  to get the item—and the GM checks to see if his 
  would-be victim noticed the attempt (indicated by a 
  roll of perception or less on 1d20).
   
  This skill may be selected a second time, in which 
  case the handicap to stealth is reduced to -2.
  Example
  Sable is a young and inexperienced assassin, but has the 
  Pilfer skill. She is in desperate need of cash and sees little 
  risk in slitting the money-pouch of a loutish Barbarian. 
  ‘accidentally’ blundering into the Barbarian, she slips 
  the blade of her knife against the fellow’s purse.
   
  Sable’s stealth score is 18 and the Barbarian’s per-
  ception is 5, so she must roll 9 or less on 2d10 to succeed 
  in her attempt. Unfortunately, she rolls a 16. She has 
  failed to get the purse—and her worries are not over yet! 
  The gM rolls at 3 on 1d20: the Barbarian feels a faint 
  pinprick as Sable’s knife touches his skin. a meaty hand 
  seizes Sable’s sleeve as she turns to run...
  Pick Lock
  Doors in castles rarely have locks, since the castle’s 
  inhabitants prefer to put their trust in the reliable 
  sturdiness of an oak bar. In most castles the only 
  door with a lock is the door to the dungeon. Of 
  course, that is the most likely place for a captured 
  Assassin to end up. 
   
  Padlocks are often used to secure treasure chests, 
  so the Assassin will have plenty of opportunity to 
  put this skill to good use if he visits one of the mar-
  ket towns that are beginning to spring up. Locks 
  are much in demand among the newly prosperous 
  merchant class, to keep their wares safe.
   
  The chance of picking a lock successfully will 
  depend on its mechanism. The percentages given 
  here are for a typical lock. More expensive and com-
  plicated locks will prove more secure.
   
  The base chance of picking a lock is 30%. The 
  Assassin may select the Pick Lock skill up to three 
  times; the chance increases to 60% for a second skill 
  pick, and to 90% for a third skill pick.
  Modifiers
  Intelligence 16 or more  
  +5%
  Reflexes 16 or more  
   
  +10%
  The dice roll (which is, incidentally, made by the 
  GM on the character’s behalf) merely establishes 
  whether the Assassin is able to pick the lock. In 
  order to actually do so, he makes a percentile dice 
  assassins
  
  48
  Dragon Warriors
  roll every Combat Round. When this roll comes up 
  equal to or less than his rank then he either suc-
  ceeds in getting the lock open (if the GM previously 
  determined that he would be able to do this) or dis-
  covers that it is beyond him (if the GM’s roll at the 
  start came outside the required range).
  Example
  Nasir, a player-character assassin, and his adventuring 
  companions discover a locked treasure chest in an under-
  world. While the others stand guard, Nasir gets out the 
  tools of his trade and sets to work on the lock. at this 
  point, the gM rolls to see whether Nasir will be able to 
  pick this lock and secretly notes down the result.
   
  Nasir rolls d100, and continues to do this every 
  Combat round until finally, after a nerve-wracking 
  twelve Combat rounds, he scores under his rank. it is 
  only now that the gM tells him: “You finally realize you 
  have no chance with this lock; it’s too well made.”
   
  Nasir shrugs and gives up, amid jeers from his com-
  rades. Now they must carry the whole chest out of the 
  underworld and hope that they can find a way to get it 
  open later.
  If an Assassin fails to pick a lock (as in the example 
  above) he can make a second attempt once at least a 
  week has passed.
   
  This skill requires the use of a set of lock picks 
  (what else!). A set can be acquired for about 50 flor-
  ins, though they can only be bought from very spe-
  cialised vendors. They count for negligible encum-
  brance.
  Track
  Assassins with this skill may attempt to track their 
  victims, or indeed other opponents and prey ani-
  mals, across country. This is explained on page 63.
   
  This skill may be selected a second time; an 
  Assassin doing so gains a +2 bonus on all tracking-
  related perception rolls.
  Assassins at Work:  
  an example
  The following serves to illustrate some of the vari-
  ous Assassin skills in action:
  amida is a 7th-rank assassin who has been employed to 
  steal a magical book. She sets out late one night, equip-
  ping herself with leather armour, sword and throw-
  ing spikes, rope, hand lantern and tinderbox, a smoke 
  jar, three flash pellets and a small sack (to put the book 
  in). She has the following Skills: Pick Lock, Disguise, 
  Climb (picked twice), plus all four of the Combat Tech-
  niques, the Mental Technique Memorize, and the usual 
  alchemical and Meditational Techniques for a 7th-rank 
  assassin. 
   
  arriving at the owner’s townhouse, she finds a high 
  weathered stone wall that proves no obstacle. Clamber-
  ing down into the garden, she drops low and runs for the 
  house. once inside, she heads straight for the chamber 
  where the book is kept—she bribed one of the servants to 
  sketch her a map, but with her near-perfect memory she 
  does not need to refer to it now.
   
  She turns a corner to see a guard standing only 5 
  metres away. The passage is fairly well lit and there is 
  almost no cover available, so the gamesMaster modifies 
  amida’s STEALTH by –4 to 20 and the guard’s PERCEP-
  TION by +2 to 7. also, she incurs a further –5 STEALTH 
  because she will have to pass within 3m of where he’s 
  standing. in all, she must roll 8 or less on 2d10 to get 
  by unnoticed. She just makes this, managing to slip past 
  (perhaps having distracted him by throwing her voice 
  out into the courtyard below—it is up to the gM to 
  interpret the ‘reality’ behind the dice roll). She darts off 
  around the next corner.
   
  reaching the library, she finds the book she seeks 
  chained to the shelf. Taking out her lock picks, she sets to 
  work. Her chance of success is only 30%. The gM rolls 
  secretly to see whether she can open the lock (she can); 
  amida rolls d100 each round until she gets 07 or less, 
  whereupon she picks the lock. relieved (because the only 
  alternative would have been to rip the covers off this 
  priceless work), she puts it into the sack and makes for 
  the door. 
   
  amida’s luck begins to curdle a little as she leaves the 
  library. The guard she saw earlier has left his post and is 
  standing only a couple of metres away!
   
  She makes a Shock attack, rolling 1 on 1d6: the 
  guard is stunned. He stands slack-jawed and defenceless 
  as she whips out her sword, and before he can recover his 
  wits she has run him through. She catches the body as it 
  falls and lowers it gently to the floor.
   
  Less than a minute later, crossing the lawn, she hears 
  shouts from inside the house. Someone has discovered the 
  guard’s body. as lights appear at the windows, amida 
  climbs the wall and jumps down into the alley. She 
  looks out into the street for a way to get past the main 
  gate without being seen. a group of fishermen, return-
  ing after a late catch, come strolling along the road. She 
  
  49
  chops the neck of the last one as he goes past and takes 
  his rough tunic, loosing her hair and cutting it hastily 
  with her swordblade so she looks like a peasant. Then 
  she straggles along at the rear of the group. Her 2d10 
  Disguise roll is a 15—enough (even with a –4 penalty 
  for her haste) to get her past the guards who are even 
  now rushing out into the street. 
   
  one of them stops her to ask if she saw anyone rush-
  ing from the house. She has to make another Disguise 
  roll, but on a 12 she manages to misdirect him in a 
  convincing lower-class accent. Then, to her horror, she 
  sees the master of the house come out into the street.
   
  Sedillion is a 10th-rank Sorcerer, of sharper senses 
  than his bungling guards. amida would need a 10 or 
  less on 2d10 to fool him, but she rolls a 13. Something 
  gives her away. Perhaps she forgot that the fishermen’s 
  hair is wet with sea-spray while hers is dry. Just a small 
  detail, but Sedillion notices it and orders his men to seize 
  her.
   
  amida boldly steps forward, raises her arms—and 
  with all eyes on her throws down a flash pellet. While 
  Sedillion and his men are dazzled, she slinks into the 
  shadows. out here in the darkened streets she is in her 
  element; her next Stealth roll does not fail.
   
  Sedillion will not give up his precious book. By 
  Transforming himself into a tiger he gains heightened 
  perception and a certain degree of night vision. He closes 
  in on where amida is hidden and she, seeing the flexing 
  claws and the smile on the face of the tiger, surrenders.
   
  Since they have adventured together in the past 
  (both are player-characters), Sedillion agrees not to hand 
  amida over to the tender mercies of the night watch. 
  He is content to get his precious book back. For her part, 
  amida gives her word (a frankly worthless concession) 
  never to try and rob him again. 
   
  Sedillion bows, and when he looks up she has already 
  slipped away into the darkness....
  assassins
  
  0
  Dragon Warriors
  THE PURPOSE OF this chapter is to give each 
  player-character a background, a provenance upon 
  which the player can build his life history from birth 
  to the time he enters the campaign as a young blood 
  of 1st rank. The same procedure can also be used 
  for NPCs (non-player characters) if required, as 
  the tables below will supply a history for any newly 
  rolled character.
   
  Often a player will like to concoct his own life 
  history. The GamesMaster will certainly allow and 
  encourage this if the player’s ideas are (1) interest-
  ing and (2) do not conflict with the needs and style 
  of the GM’s campaign. But sometimes players take 
  the chance to be extravagantly optimistic (‘Okay, 
  I’ve worked out my life story—I’m heir to the King-
  dom of Algandy…’), and at other times even the 
  most inspired player will find his imagination flag-
  ging. Then it is time to let the dice lead the way: 
  refer to the tables below and see what result you get. 
  You may be surprised to find that your new Knight 
  character was born into a merchant’s household or 
  that your Assassin could have followed his father 
  into the Plasterers’ Guild. How can this Warlock 
  be a scion of the nobility, how can this Sorcerer 
  suffer the stigma of coming from a community of 
  charcoal-burners? Finding answers to questions like 
  these will spur you into developing a fully fleshed-
  out personal history.
   
  Having created a new character, dice are rolled to 
  determine his social position by birth—i.e. whether 
  one or both of his parents were nobles, peasants 
  or whatever. Since most 1st-rank characters will 
  probably be about 17-22 years old, it should not be 
  surprising that this is not always the social position 
  that the character now enjoys. A lot of water can 
  pass under the bridge in seventeen years. The GM 
  will often rule that the character has suffered several 
  changes of fortune in his time. 
   
  Take the example of Launfric, a character whom 
  the dice indicate to be of noble blood. The GM 
  may decide that this roll applies only to his mother, 
  abducted in her youth by raiders from Merca-
  nia. A birthmark on his forearm is Launfric’s only 
  clue to his father’s identity. Or possibly it was his 
  father who was the noble—a lord who dallied with 
  a comely tavern-wench one night and passed on 
  without a second thought for the brat he had sired. 
  Yet another alternative would be that a rival lord 
  had slain Launfric’s parents and taken his father’s 
  lands. Launfric is then a dispossessed heir, doubtless 
  scheming for the day he will take revenge on his 
  parents’ murderer.
   
  There are many ways for the GM to ensure his 
  campaign is fair and balanced between all the play-
  ers while at the same time giving each player-char-
  acter a colourful and individual life history.
  Interlude: social class
  Most of the societies of the Lands of Legend are 
  feudal, with the complex system of mutual obliga-
  tion and status structure that this entails. It will help 
  Chapter 6
  IN THE 
  BEGINNING
  
  
  if players have some idea of the relative status of 
  the various classes. Bear in mind that status is not 
  entirely fixed. There is some degree of social mobil-
  ity—not much in an orderly region such as Chau-
  brette, but in Algandy or northern Albion levies 
  may be knighted in the same battle that deprives a 
  lord of all his estates. Modifiers such as wealth and 
  prestige (especially high office in the Church) also 
  make a great deal of difference. Riolta, the 1st-rank 
  Sorceress, provokes only sullen looks and mum-
  bled prayers when she passes a group of serfs tilling 
  the fields, but if she survives to become Riolta the 
  Wyrdcaster, wealthy 6th-rank Sorceress with her 
  own (appropriated) castle, even great barons may 
  treat her with respect.
   
  The nobility are the powerful lords and their 
  families—men such as Montombre, Grisaille and 
  Baron Aldred (p. 152). Their attendant knights 
  form the gentry, and this class also comprises 
  minor lords-of-the-manor. (The erstwhile lord of 
  Axbridge village, Sir Hathnar, was such a one, the 
  vavasour or sub-vassal of Aldred, who removed him 
  and took direct responsibility for Axbridge about a 
  year before the events described in Chapter 19.)
   
  The division between town and country is 
  beginning to take shape, although it is only along 
  the shores of the Coradian coast that more than 
  one-tenth of the population choose the former with 
  its admixture of wealth and squalour, security and 
  discomfort.
   
  Craftsmen have the highest status in the town—
  after the local nobility and gentry, of course. These 
  are the masons, shipbuilders, carpenters, etc., who 
  are now beginning to consolidate the Guilds, des-
  tined to wield much power in the centuries to come. 
  At approximately the same level we find the learned 
  professionals—the scribes, lawyers, doctors and so 
  on. Next are the tradesmen, a group comprising 
  such occupations as butcher, grocer and baker. 
   
  Below these come the menials, who are essen-
  tially the feudal working class. Rather than follow-
  ing a set occupation throughout his life, a member 
  of this class will do whatever job he can find that 
  pays him a living. Some will belong to the town 
  guard, unless this function is performed by soldiers 
  of the king or the local lord. Extra guards will be 
  taken on at festival times, and some university towns 
  have a separate force for the ‘gown’. Other menials 
  in the Beginning
   JH
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
  will perform tasks such as lighting the street-lamps 
  (some towns have bronze bowls full of pitch set at 
  the end of main thoroughfares), collecting refuse 
  and sewage, delivering pitchers of water1, town-cry-
  ing and burying the dead. Last of all are a group we 
  may call the riffraff, using this term to encompass 
  beggars, street hawkers, whores (but not the more 
  reputable madams who could almost be considered 
  professionals and borrow some of the status of their 
  prestigious patrons), cutpurses, lazars and other 
  indigents.
   
  In the countryside, the pre-eminent class are 
  the freemen. To this group belong farmers, artisans 
  (blacksmiths, wheelwrights, armourers, etc.), forest-
  ers, innkeepers (like the famous Gully, whose inn is 
  the best in northern Albion), and the men-at-arms 
  who form the bulk of a castle’s garrison. They are 
  the feudal middle-class, few in number but usually 
  quite well off by the standards of the time. Many 
  own horses, swords and even armour. They are their 
  lord’s vassals and owe him a number of services, 
  including forty days in his army each year, but they 
  own property and may come and go as they please. 
  Below the freemen come entertainers and mer-
  chants. Though it should be added that bards2, who 
  journey from castle to castle with their epic tales 
  and songs of vanished glory, are really very highly 
  regarded and may be on a par with the gentry. 
   
  Serfs, or villeins, come next. They are as much a 
  lord’s property as is his livestock, and sometimes not 
  much better treated. They have no rights in law, nor 
  title to their homes. They must work three days in 
  each week on the lord’s land and grow whatever they 
  can for their own needs in the time that remains. 
  Nonetheless they are of higher status than the cot-
  tars who, though technically free and able to possess 
  a cottage and a plot of land, have no fixed identity 
  within the feudal structure. They are often very 
  poor and must perform their tasks for a daily (and 
  barely sufficient) wage. A cottar will turn his hand 
  to any employment available, therefore. He may dig 
  ditches, herd cows, press apples for cider, keep bees, 
  thatch the roofs of other villagers, fetch and carry 
  and run errands—and in return get a few coppers 
  from the village reeve. A cottar’s freedom is of no 
  advantage to him in a society where a man is judged 
  by his obligations and his standing. A serf will say 
  to a cottar, ‘I am a bondsman whom my lord values 
  1 
  Except in some old Selentine cities that actually have a plumbing sys-
  tem.
  2 
  Called in Cornumbria and Ereworn the ‘filidh’.
  and protects as his property’—not with any sense 
  of dissatisfaction, but with the assured superiority 
  that comes from knowing his place in the scheme 
  of things. Little wonder, then, that this class often 
  produces the sort of disaffected ne’er-do-well who 
  is likely to become an adventurer. 
   
  Close to the bottom of the pile are the slaves, 
  nowadays rarely seen in the more ‘enlightened’ lands 
  of the True Faith though common enough in the 
  Ta’ashim countries and also in Thuland, Ereworn, 
  Krarth, Mercania and some parts of Cornumbria. 
  We should also mention the outlaws, who live in 
  the wildwood and respect no authority. Last are 
  the charcoal-burners, lower even then the riffraff 
  of the towns. These strange, secretive folk live in 
  isolated communities at the forest’s edge and make 
  occasional visits to the nearby villages to barter their 
  only commodity in exchange for food and tatters 
  of hide. A sullen people with an inbred distrust of 
  strangers, they smell vile, are stained swart by the 
  smoke of their fires, die after a short and ugly life, 
  and venerate pagan spirits that they knew in prehis-
  toric times.
   
  These, then, are the possible provenances of an 
  adventuring character. To the above it need only be 
  added that by the life he has chosen for himself an 
  adventurer rarely commands the respect that might 
  be his by birth. A freeman and even a serf would 
  peer down his nose at any lordless wanderer who 
  came into his village—though if the wanderer is 
  clad in armour and has a strong sword-arm he will 
  doubtless be treated with a semblance of equality.
  Determining background
  A player uses the following tables once he has gen-
  erated a new 1st-rank character. Players with already 
  established characters could also use these rules, but 
  it is usually unsatisfactory to suddenly ‘discover’ a 
  character’s life history when he/she has been in the 
  campaign for some time.
   
  Two Professions do not use the tables. Elemen-
  talists are a very localized subgroup: the shaman-
  priests of Thuland and Mercania.3 They are a class 
  unto themselves. A few foreigners may become 
  3 
  actually, a few Elementalists hail from other backgrounds. The kastrian 
  sorcerers of Khitai and the storm-wizards of the Desert of Songs can also be 
  considered Elementalists within the structure of the Dragon Warriors rules. 
  Neither of these is a particularly likely source of player-character, however.
  
  3
  apprentice to an Elementalist and learn the skills 
  that way, but most Elementalists are born into their 
  Profession. Barbarians must come from one of a 
  limited number of backgrounds. The social posi-
  tion a Barbarian holds in his homeland counts for 
  naught in the civilized countries, and so this aspect 
  of a Barbarian’s provenance is ignored.
   
  Some of the categories in Background Table I, 
  above, require further explanation: 
  The Tamorian Cataphracts are the warrior elite of the 
  New Selentine Empire (p. 158). Though the Selen-
  tine Empire is no longer the all-conquering power 
  it once was, its myth still lingers. A character born 
  into the Cataphract class would logically be some-
  what arrogant and proud. The player should also 
  ask himself why his character chose to go out into 
  the world as an adventurer rather than following his 
  father as one of the ‘Bastions of the East’.
   
  Some characters may be the sons or daughters of 
  the Krarth magi (the sorcerous overlords of that fro-
  zen land—see p.155). The magi are not numerous, 
  but they do sire an extraordinary number of prog-
  eny through more-or-less casual dalliances. Faced 
  with the alternative of poisoning or garrotting by 
  one of their legitimate half-siblings, many of these 
  offspring leave Krarth and join one of the arcane 
  adventuring Professions.
   
  Assassins who do not originate among the Mari-
  jahs or the Clan of Harbingers1 are ‘self-taught’. They 
  developed for themselves the skills they needed to 
  pursue their chosen career. This is rarely as satis-
  factory as being trained within a long-established 
  Assassins’ society—a fact which is represented in 
  the game by giving all Assassins of Marijah or Har-
  binger provenance an initial lead of 2d6 experience 
  points when they first enter the campaign. This is 
  quite an advantage, but it must be weighed against 
  another factor. Societies of Assassins do not like 
  anyone quitting their ranks because they fear the 
  fugitive member may reveal their secrets. The risk 
  1 
  other assassins’ groups do exist, including the cultists of the goddess 
  of Ebon annihilation in Minj and the sulsa of far-off Yamato. Members of 
  these groups will rarely be met in the parts of Legend covered by this book.
  Background Table 1
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Adventuring Profession
  Parents’ class 
   
   
   
   
  knight  
   
  mystic  
   
  sorcerer   
   
  warlock  
  assassin
  Nobility 
   
   
   
   
   
  01-18  
   
  01-03  
   
  01-13  
   
   
  01-10  
   
  01-02
  Gentry  
   
   
   
   
   
  19-53  
   
  04-07  
   
  14-22  
   
   
  11-21  
   
  03-06
  Townsfolk: Craft*  
   
   
  54-55  
   
  08-14  
   
  23-26  
   
   
  22-28  
   
  07-08
  Townsfolk: Profession** 
   
  56-57  
   
  15-21  
   
  27-39  
   
   
  29-35  
   
  09-10
  Townsfolk: Trade*** 
   
   
  58  
   
   
  22-24  
   
  40-42  
   
   
  36-38  
   
  11-13
  Townsfolk: Menial  
   
   
  59-61  
   
  25-27  
   
  43-50  
   
   
  39-41  
   
  14-22
  Townsfolk: Riffraff  
   
   
  62-64  
   
  28-30  
   
  51-54  
   
   
  42-43  
   
  23-31
  Merchant  
   
   
   
   
  65-67  
   
  31-34  
   
  55-57  
   
   
  44-50  
   
  32-34
  Entertainer  
   
   
   
   
  68-71  
   
  35-41  
   
  58-62  
   
   
  51-58  
   
  35-39
  Freeman**** 
   
   
   
   
  72-83  
   
  42-61  
   
  63-75  
   
   
  59-69  
   
  40
  Serf 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  84-87  
   
  62-75  
   
  76-83  
   
   
  70-76  
   
  41-43
  Cottar  
   
   
   
   
   
  88-93  
   
  76-89  
   
  84-87  
   
   
  77-84  
   
  44-47
  Slave  
   
   
   
   
   
  94-96  
   
  90-92  
   
  88-95  
   
   
  85-90  
   
  48-49
  Charcoal-Burner  
   
   
  97  
   
   
  93-96  
   
  96  
   
   
   
  91  
   
   
  50-53
  Tamorian Cataphract  
   
  98-99  
   
  – 
   
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
  –
  Marijah Assassin  
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
  54-65
  Clan of Harbingers  
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
  66-96
  Krarth magi 
   
   
   
   
  – 
   
   
   
  97  
   
   
  97-98  
   
   
  92-96  
   
  97  
  Other1 (GM’s choice)  
   
  00  
   
   
  98-00  
   
  99-00  
   
   
  97-00  
   
  98-00  
  * Refer to Background Subtable 1a.  
   
   
  *** Refer to Background Subtable 1b.
  ** Refer to Background Subtable 1d. 
   
   
  **** Refer to Background Subtable 1c.
  1     as examples, this category could include: characters who do not know who their parents were; characters born to a licentious monk or nun; 
  any non-human character (if such are allowed in the campaign): characters with some sorcery or mystery attaching to their origin (found 
  asleep in a cave and awakened after a hundred years, lost and without memory after a visit to an Elven hall, etc., etc.)
  in the Beginning
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  of this is admittedly slim in the case of a 1st-rank 
  character, who will have been entrusted with few of 
  the society’s inner arcana. Even so, there is a 10% 
  chance that others of the society will be assigned to 
  track down and silence the fugitive. If this is the case 
  (indicated by a roll of 01-10 on percentile dice), the 
  GM makes a secret note of the fact that the char-
  acter is pursued by 1-3 Assassins from his former 
  society. These pursuers begin at 1st rank themselves 
  but will, of course, acquire experience just as the 
  character does. In any game-month they have a 3% 
  chance of locating him. This increases if he should 
  stay in one place for a period of time: +1%/month 
  to a total maximum chance of 10% in any month. 
  This theme can make an excellent continuing sub-
  plot to the main campaign: the fugitive’s attempt to 
  stay one step ahead of his hunters. The showdown, 
  when it occurs, should provide the character with a 
  fight he can win—but not easily. By eliminating his 
  pursuers the Assassin breaks his last links with the 
  past he sought to escape. If the GM handles this 
  well it can be a very powerful and seminal episode 
  in the character’s life.
  If a character’s father was a craftsman, professional, 
  tradesman or freeman, a further check can be made 
  on the subtables below to find out his occupation. 
  This affects the character himself in only a very few 
  cases, but it can add chrome to his life history.
   
  (‘Other’ on these tables takes in less-common 
  occupations such as rope-maker, cooper, oil-maker, 
  etc. Also there is always the possibility that one or 
  both of the character’s parents were professional 
  adventurers themselves.)
  Background subtable 1a: Craftsmen 
  d100 roll 
  Father’s occupation
  01-05  
   
  Armourer/Weaponsmith
  06-12  
   
  Artist
  13-24  
   
  Blacksmith
  25-36  
   
  Carpenter
  37-45  
   
  Cartwright
  46-49  
   
  Foundryman
  50-53  
   
  Instrument-maker
  54-60  
   
  Jeweller/Goldsmith
  61-62  
   
  Limner
  63-67  
   
  Locksmith
  68-74  
   
  Mariner1
  75-84  
   
  Mason
  85-90  
   
  Shipbuilder
  91-100  
   
  Other
  1     This applies only to skilled mariners—captains, pilots, 
  etc. ordinary seamen are just menials.
  Background subtable 1c: Freemen 
  d100 roll 
  Father’s occupation
  01-02  
   
  Animal trainer
  03-04  
   
  Architect-Engineer1
   
   
   
   
  Artisan—
  05-11   
   
   
  Armourer/Weaponsmith
  12-16  
   
   
  Blacksmith
  17-21  
   
   
  Bowyer
  22-25   
   
   
  Carpenter
  26-30  
   
   
  Cartwright
  31   
   
   
   
  Chandler
  32-35   
   
   
  Fletcher
  36-39   
   
   
  Mason
  40  
   
   
   
  Potter
  41-44   
   
   
  Weaver
  45-46  
   
  Cook
  47-48  
   
  Falconer
  49-64  
   
  Farmer
  65-71  
   
  Fisherman
  72-75  
   
  Forester
  76-78  
   
  Innkeeper
  79-80  
   
  Major-domo
  81-85  
   
  Man-at-arms
  86-87  
   
  Miller
  88  
   
   
  Miner2
  89-90  
   
  Priest3
  91-93  
   
  Shepherd
  94-100  
   
  Other
  1     i.e. a military engineer skilled in designing castles, 
  bridges and siege engines; he would not be needed to design 
  simple hump-backed bridges across streams or for other day-
  to-day needs in the village.
  2      This means a mining foreman—one who could recog-
  nize where gold or whatever is present and supervise the 
  mining operation. Serfs would do the spadework.
  3     Village priests are not monks and are often married. The 
  rector, if any, is likely to be gentry—possibly a relative of the 
  lord of the manor. He will usually be unmarried.
  Background subtable 1b: Tradesmen 
  d100 roll 
  Father’s occupation
  01-11  
   
  Baker
  12-19  
   
  Butcher
  20-21  
   
  Chandler
  22-25  
   
  Clothier
  26-29  
   
  Cobbler
  30-39  
   
  Fishmonger
  40-43  
   
  Fruiterer
  44-46  
   
  Furrier
  47-56  
   
  Grocer
  57-66  
   
  Innkeeper
  67-73  
   
  Merchant
  74-77  
   
  Miller
  78-83  
   
  Moneylender
  84-87  
   
  Vintner
  88-100  
   
  Other
  
  
  Background table 2: Barbarian origins
  d100 
  Details
  01-19 Thuland. The people of Thuland are not 
  completely uncivilized. In fact, they have a highly 
  developed ‘early feudal’ society. The warriors of 
  this land are represented as Barbarians rather than 
  Knights because this reflects their temperament 
  and fighting style.
  20-42 Mercanian Coast. Like the Thulanders, these 
  people are tall and fair-skinned, often with red or 
  blond hair.
  43-55 Eastern Steppes. These people are horse nomads. 
  The character may choose his Khanate of origin, 
  the principal ones being: the Katagai Khanate, the 
  Khanate of the Black Pavilion, the Khanate of the 
  Raven, the Khanate of the Sweeping Vast, and 
  the Oshkosa Khanate. Steppes nomads are usually 
  short and very stocky. Skin-colour is a rich olive-
  gold and hair (usually worn in a pigtail) is black or 
  tawny brown.
  56-58 Gnawing Wastes. These white skinned, brown-
  haired people are reindeer hunters and herdsmen.
  59-60 Trackless Ooze. A male character of this hunter-
  gatherer society will have elongated earlobes from 
  the bone earplugs he would have worn as a child. 
  Females, who share the lanky, rangy appearance of 
  their menfolk, go unadorned.
  61-68 South Emphidor. The mountain-dwelling 
  shepherds of this part of the world still lead 
  much the same existence as their ancestors did a 
  millennium ago.
  69-73 Harogarn Mountains. This region is famed for its 
  tough, swarthy yak herdsmen who dwell in uneasy 
  and often violent proximity to the Dwarven 
  settlements here. A Barbarian from the Harogarn 
  range is thus typified by his hatred of Dwarves.
  74-77 Drakken Peaks. The conifer-wooded slopes of the 
  peaks of southern Krarth are inhabited by a race 
  of sleekly handsome, saffron-skinned hunters and 
  foresters. These tribes have little commerce with 
  the people of Krarth’s hinterland. Individuals are 
  prized as slaves at the courts of the magi.
  78-86 Kaikuhuru Desert. A character from this region 
  will have the characteristic aquiline features and 
  brown skin of the badawin. These desert nomads 
  herd camels and are famed for their fierce pride, 
  sense of honour and elaborate code of hospitality.
  87-93 Northern Zhenir. As is apparent from their dark 
  skin and hooked noses, the horse nomads of this 
  region are related to the badawin of the desert. 
  Unfortunately they do not share the badawini’s 
  code of honour, and because of the ambushes they 
  set for Crusaders they have acquired a reputation 
  for treachery.
  94-95 Mistral Sea. The vassklavi fisherfolk ply the coastal 
  waters north of the Ooze. Through a genetic 
  quirk, many individuals of this race have what is 
  sometimes called ‘cuts in the eye’—jagged black 
  sections across the iris. 
  96  
  Azure Coast. A number of nomadic fisher-
  gatherer tribes live along the shores, moving 
  whenever the ocean currents bring shoals to 
  another part of the coast. These people are dark 
  skinned, slant-eyed and lack body hair. 
  97  
  Thanagost Peaks. A character from one of the 
  hunting tribes of these mountains (e.g. the 
  Makunyu and the Maloca) will have the black 
  skin and narrow eyes that are characteristic of all 
  peoples of this continent. The favoured weapons of 
  such people are spears and slings.
  98  
  Mungoda Jungle. There are many tribes inhabiting 
  this vast rain forest. A sweeping generic statement 
  about their way of life is not possible. The Uktari 
  of the interior are skilled and deadly hunters—
  masters of bow, sling, spear and club. A warrior of 
  this tribe can be identified by his teeth, sharpened 
  to become evil fangs, and the scarified marks 
  across his body. The Uktari are feared by the more 
  peaceable tribes, including the Tenuk, the Kalaki 
  and the Eraruti. These peoples are agriculturalists, 
  cultivating root crops in forest clearings and maize 
  on lakeside ‘floating gardens’. They also hunt for 
  game and gather fruit, berries and insects.
  99-00 Cosh Goyopë. The swamps of Cosh Goyopë 
  support a number of river-dwelling tribes. These 
  people rely on their keen senses and skill with 
  their log-canoes to avoid their deadly enemies, 
  the lumbering reptilian Dracomen. They eat fish, 
  frogs and grubs and sometimes forage for fruit 
  away from the main waterways. Monkeys are also 
  hunted—not only because they add variety to the 
  diet: a monkey brought down by a spear or arrow 
  is often one less scout for the Dracomen (see the 
  Dragon Warriors Bestiary). An individual’s tribe 
  and status are indicated by his/her body-paint and 
  costume of feathers and wooden plaques.
  in the Beginning
  Background subtable 1d:  Professionals 
  d100 roll 
  Father’s occupation
  01-17  
  Administrator
  18-28  
  Architect
  29-32  
  Cartographer
  33-45  
  Doctor
  46-61  
  Lawyer
  62-69  
  Paper-and-ink maker
  70  
   
  Professor1
  71-90  
  Scribe
  91-100  
  Other
  1      University professors are mostly monks. Very few have 
  offspring—at least that they would acknowledge.
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
  Nationality and native tongue
  The player has now determined the social niche into 
  which his character was born. Barbarians (having 
  used Background Table 2) and Elementalists (using 
  Table 3) will know their country of origin. For others 
  this will probably not have been specified. A Knight 
  who is the son of a Cataphract knows he comes 
  from the New Selentine Empire—but the son of a 
  miller, blacksmith, jeweller, or whatever might have 
  been born in any county. This is left for the player 
  to decide after consulting his GamesMaster. Prob-
  ably the character in most cases will be a native of 
  Ellesland, if that is where the campaign is set.
   
  Usually the character’s main language (in which 
  he will be fluent) is the tongue of his native country.1 
  See page 183. 
  Other languages
  In an age when most people do not travel and 
  very few receive a formal education, characters are 
  unlikely to be multilingual at first. Barbarians are 
  the notable exception. Even a 1st-rank Barbarian is 
  quite widely travelled.
   
  Characters make a roll on the table below to see 
  if they have a second language. If he/she does, the 
  player chooses from the list of modern languages 
  1 
  one can think of a few cases where the life history the player chooses 
  might preclude this. Camilla, for instance, is the daughter of a wealthy 
  Ta’ashim merchant. She survived a shipwreck off the south-west coast of 
  albion when she was just a baby, and was found and brought up by a fisher-
  man and his wife. although obviously of Ta’ashim blood, she speaks fluent 
  Elleslandic with her adoptive parents’ accent—and knows no words of Nas-
  cerine.
  on page 186. Ideally, the choice should be one that 
  fits in logically with the character’s life history. (‘My 
  father was a sea captain and often took me with 
  him when he crossed the Glaive. That’s how come I 
  speak Beaulangue...’)
   
  A character who knows a second language to at 
  least intermediate level rolls again to see if he knows 
  a third, and so on.
  d20 roll  
  Result
  1 
   
   
  character is fluent in an additional language
  2-3  
   
  character knows an additional language to 
   
   
   
  intermediate level
  4-5  
   
  character knows a few words of another 
   
   
   
  language
  6-20 
   
  no additional language
  Modifiers to the d20 roll
  The following modifiers take account of parental 
  class:
  Nobility 
   
   
   
  -2
  Gentry  
   
   
   
  -1
  Mariner 
   
   
   
  -2
  Merchant  
   
   
  -1
  Major-domo 
   
   
  -1
  All Barbarians subtract 6 from the die roll.
   
  Regardless of dice rolls, there should always be a 
  common language which all player-characters in the 
  campaign speak to at least intermediate level. The 
  GM will give a ‘free’ language to any character who 
  would otherwise be unable to understand his com-
  rades. (The player may adopt a foreign accent if he 
  wishes!)
  Literacy and ancient 
  languages
  Literacy, the ability to read and write, is acquired 
  through a formal education. Though this often 
  means a Church or monastic education, the char-
  acter may have been taught by his parents or a rela-
  tive. In addition to knowledge of Classic script (and 
  thus the ability to write most modern languages 
  that he knows—see page 187), formal education is 
  also likely to give the character one or more ancient 
  languages.
   
  Sorcerers and Warlocks are always literate, hav-
  ing been taught to read and write by the Master 
  Sorcerer under whom they studied. Other charac-
  Background table 3: 
  Elementalist Origins
  d100 
   
  Where the Elementalist was trained
  01-35  
  The Pagan Mountains
  36-55  
  Thuland
  56-90  
  Mercanian Coast
  91-94  
  Desert of Songs
  95-96  
  Khitai
  97-100  
  Outcast1
  1     This does not mean the Elementalist himself is an outcast, but 
  rather that their teacher was a wanderer or exile. The player may 
  use Background Table 1 (the column for Sorcerers) to determine his 
  parents’ social class—or he may assume that the Elementalist who 
  taught him was his father.
  
  7
  ters roll for literacy according to their social prov-
  enance:
  Parental background 
   
  Chance of literacy
  Nobility 
   
   
   
   
  15%
  Gentry  
   
   
   
   
  10%
  Craft  
   
   
   
   
  10%
  Profession  
   
   
   
  35%
  Trade  
   
   
   
   
  7%
  Freeman 
   
   
   
   
  8%
  Serf 
   
   
   
   
   
  3%
  Cottar  
   
   
   
   
  2%
  Merchant  
   
   
   
  10%
  Entertainer  
   
   
   
  8%
  Menial  
   
   
   
   
  5%
  Riffraff  
   
   
   
   
  2%
  Charcoal-Burner  
   
  1%
  Other  
   
   
   
   
  1d20%
  Barbarian  
   
   
   
  1%
    
  If the dice roll indicates the character is literate, roll 
  on the following table to see if he knows any ancient 
  languages:
  Ancient language 
   
  Chance of knowing (and level)
  Bacchile 
   
   
   
  70% (roll d6: 1-3 =  intermediate, 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     4-6 = fluent)
  Emphidian1 
   
   
  20% (roll d6: 1-4 =  intermediate, 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     5-6 = fluent)
  Old Mercanian2 
   
  5% (roll d6:   1-4 = intermediate, 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     5-6 = fluent)
  Old Kurlish 
   
   
  25% (roll d6: 1-3 = intermediate, 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     4-6 = fluent)
  Kaikahuran3 
   
   
  3% (roll d6:   1-5 = intermediate, 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     6 = fluent)
  Lughwyd4  
   
   
  5% (roll d6:   1-5 = intermediate, 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     6 = fluent)
  Special5 
   
   
   
  3% (roll d6:   1-4 = intermediate, 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     5-6 = fluent)
  For more on the languages of the Lands of Legend, 
  and how characters may learn new ones, see the 
  Languages section on page 183.
  The system in action
  Let us take an example to see how the tables work. 
  A player has just rolled a new character, a 1st-rank 
  1 
  includes knowledge of the Emphidian script. 
  2 
  includes knowledge of Nikkar runic script.
  3 
  includes knowledge of Qemor hieroglyphics. ancient Kaikuhuran is not 
  spoken.
  4 
  includes knowledge of the Kell script; note that Lughwyd exits today 
  only in its written form.
  5 
  The character has had an unusual education and may choose 1-3 further 
  languages—ancient or modern. He will be able to speak, read and write these 
  at the level indicated by the d6 roll.
  Assassin. Rolling on Background Table 1 on page 53 
  he discovers that his provenance is the secret society 
  of Marijah Assassins. He is adamant that his char-
  acter is of the western race, however, so he devises 
  a life history that permits this. He was a Crusader’s 
  son, kidnapped by the Marijahs when he was only a 
  few months old and brought up as one of their own. 
  He is thus fluent in Nascerine and has a Ta’ashim 
  name, Ma’aruf. 
   
  The GamesMaster’s campaign begins in Kur-
  land and, before he will allow the player’s chosen 
  background, some rationale must be given for how 
  he comes to be so far from home. The player sug-
  gests that he was assigned to kill a Grandmaster of 
  the Knights Capellars, caught, and brought back to 
  Kurland as a prisoner. When the story of his life 
  was pieced together and explained to him, he turned 
  violently against his Marijah ‘brethren’ and became a 
  convert to the True Faith. He argues that, given the 
  course of his life until now, he should speak Kurlish 
  to at least intermediate level (see p. 183). 
   
  The GM cannot help but agree (he likes the 
  inventive background the player has devised, but he 
  does not need the complication of a character who 
  cannot understand what the other player-charac-
  ters are saying); he permits this and also gives the 
  character a –4 modifier on the additional languages 
  table (p. 56). After rolling the dice, it turns out 
  that Ma’aruf speaks fluent Beaulangue (presumably 
  learnt during his time on a Capellars ship bound for 
  Kurland), intermediate Kurlish and of course fluent 
  Nascerine.
   
  The player then checks for literacy (this page). 
  As Ma’aruf comes under the category of  ‘other’ he 
  first rolls d20, and gets a 9. This means he has a 
  9% chance of being literate, so he rolls percentile 
  dice and gets a result of 04. He is indeed literate, 
  but here the GM steps in. Ma’aruf’s education is 
  likely to have been gained while he was still with 
  the Marijah Assassins, so instead of knowing the 
  Classic script (as would be the case with a western 
  character) he has been taught Jezant. He can read 
  and write his ‘native’ Nascerine. Rolling for ancient 
  languages, he obtains Emphidian and Kaikuhuran 
  to intermediate level.
  Summarizing all this on the back of his character 
  sheet, the player writes something like:
  Crusader’s son brought up as a Marijah Assassin. Later 
  brought back to Kurland by the Knights Capellars and 
  converted to the True Faith.
  in the Beginning
  
  8
  Dragon Warriors
  Languages:
  Nascerine (fluent and literate)
  Kurlish (spoken only—intermediate) 
  Beaulangue (spoken only—fluent) 
  Anc. Emphidian (literate and spoken to intermediate)
  Anc. Kaikuhuran (literate to intermediate; not spoken)
  Scripts known: 
  Jezant, Emphidian and Qemor Hieroglyphic
  Lastly (and unknown to the player) the GM deter-
  mines whether Ma’aruf is pursued by any of his 
  former comrades. The chance of this is normally 10% 
  (p. 54), but the GM reflects before rolling the dice. 
  He has been rather generous in allowing a –4 modi-
  fier for Ma’aruf’s spoken languages chance, after all. 
  He ups the probability to 20% and rolls—Ma’aruf is 
  indeed being hunted by two Marijah Assassins. Ah 
  well, such an inventive player will not be bothered 
  by a little spicing of that sort!
   JH
  
  9
  Adventuring Strategy
  AN ADVENTURE ALMOST always begins with 
  the GM briefing the players—on the most basic 
  level, something like: “You’re in a village on the edge 
  of Gloaming Moor and the innkeeper tells you that 
  a murderous Ogre frequents the area. The villagers 
  will pay forty silvers if you find his lair and put an 
  end to him.”
   
  Before rushing into danger, the players will prob-
  ably want to find out as much as they can. In the 
  example above close questioning of some of the vil-
  lagers might lead them to suspect that it is no mere 
  Ogre that has been causing trouble, but something 
  much more horrible. Bodies drained of blood have 
  been found. This ‘Ogre’ is best tackled with the aid 
  of crucifix and garlic! The GM will not spoon-feed 
  the players with the information they need. If they 
  neglect essential groundwork and forward planning, 
  the adventure may be doomed before they set out.
   
  Always begin an adventure by considering strat-
  egy. If the job is to get the Baron’s daughter back 
  from the dungeon of the mad 12th-rank Sorcerer, 
  the PCs will presumably spend the adventure 
  searching an underworld for the girl—and then get 
  out quick. The GM might well make the Sorcerer 
  a totally unbeatable foe, relying on them to have 
  the good sense to avoid him. They must keep their 
  strategy flexible. The planning done at the start of 
  an adventure cannot take account of the full facts. 
  The GM may throw in something unexpected at 
  any time (“You mean the Baron’s daughter’s in love 
  with the crazy wizard?!?”) and the party will have to 
  think on its feet. The whole point of an adventure is 
  very often that things are not what they seem.
  NPC Adventurers
  If you think your party is not powerful enough to 
  handle an adventure (and the GM may well drop 
  some heavy hints if this is so), you can try to recruit 
  extra members: NPCs, or non-player characters. 
  Hirelings work for cash—a guaranteed sum, agreed 
  before the adventure. They will usually be content 
  with that, but if you stumble upon an unexpectedly 
  large haul and neglect to offer them a bonus then 
  they may cause trouble. Hirelings always have a 
  strong regard for their own safety. Since they have 
  no particular vested interest in the outcome of the 
  adventure, they will desert if the going gets tough. 
   
  Fellow adventurers work on the same basis as 
  player-characters. They join the adventure and take a 
  share of any treasure found. The exact share depends 
  on how powerful they are; if they are the same rank 
  as the player-characters they will naturally expect 
  equal footing. They are usually more trustworthy 
  than hirelings, and may have strong ideas of their 
  own about the way the party is organized. 
   
  The GM will tell the players if there are any 
  NPCs interested in joining their party, and the terms 
  they will settle for. For GamesMasters themselves, 
  there is more information on creating and using the 
  different types of NPC adventurer on pp116-120 of 
  Chapter 11: GamesMastering.
  Chapter 7
  INTO
  ADVENTURE
  
  60
  Dragon Warriors
  Illumination
  Why do all player-characters have a lantern as part 
  of their initial equipment? The reason for this is that 
  many of their adventures will take place in under-
  worlds—labyrinths of chambers and passageways, 
  usually underground and usually unlit. Adventures 
  occur in other settings as well—a fantasy town pro-
  vides scope for intrigue and good roleplaying—but 
  underworlds are especially popular.
   
  A lantern will illuminate objects up to 15m away. 
  It can be shuttered, and has the advantage that it 
  can be placed on the floor to provide light during a 
  combat. A single flask of oil will fuel a lantern for 
  two hours of game-time.
   
  A torch is a length of wood which has been 
  dipped in pitch so that it will burn at one end. It 
  will give light up to 10m—or 15m if two torches are 
  used together. The major disadvantage of a torch is 
  that it gives very little light if dropped or put down 
  on the floor. (It may even go out: 20% chance of 
  this.) Thus, unless a convenient torch-bracket hap-
  pens to be on the wall nearby, someone in the party 
  must hold up the torch during combat so that his 
  companions can see who (or what) they’re fighting.
   
  A torch will burn for one hour.
   
  Sorcerers and Mystics possess spells that pro-
  vide light—or eliminate the need for it. These are 
  detailed in Chapter 10: The Book of Spells.
  Encounters in an underworld
  Since the light of their lanterns will penetrate some 
  15m into the darkness, this is the distance at which 
  characters can expect to encounter most monsters. 
  NPC adventurers will have lanterns of their own, 
  and will be sighted at anything up to 30m.
   
  These encounter ranges apply in long corridors 
  and large chambers, where illumination is the only 
  limit on visibility. If the characters step through a 
  door and encounter a monster that was on the other 
  side then it might, of course, be as close as a few 
  metres away. 
  Surprise
  Any encounter may contain the element of surprise. 
  A monster (or group of monsters) will surprise the 
   JH
  
  6
  player-characters on a roll of 1 on 1d6. This indi-
  cates that the characters were looking the other way, 
  or the monsters emerged unexpectedly through an 
  archway or from behind a pillar. In these cases the 
  characters are taken unawares, and will notice the 
  monsters at a distance of only 1-6m. The advantage 
  of surprise gives the monsters one ‘free’ Combat 
  Round, during which the player-characters may 
  defend themselves but take no action, before the 
  normal combat procedure begins. 
   
  Why should the player-characters not get a 
  chance to surprise the monsters? This is because 
  the harsh light of their lanterns usually gives the 
  monsters (who are accustomed to the gloom of 
  the underworld) plenty of warning that they are 
  approaching. Some sorcerous spells give a dim radi-
  ance that will not alert monsters. Also, when char-
  acters pass through a doorway, any nearby monsters 
  will not have seen their lantern-light until the door 
  was opened. In this instance, the characters can 
  check to see if they surprise the monsters! (Their 
  chance is the same, 1 in 6.) If two groups each sur-
  prise one another, the ‘free’ Combat Round is lost.
  Fighting in the dark
  If all the party’s torches, lanterns and Moonglow 
  spells go out, they are left in pitch darkness. And in 
  trouble. Most monsters, including all undead crea-
  tures, can see in the dark (see p. 123). If the characters 
  cannot get their torches relit before combat begins, 
  they must take a temporary penalty of –4 attack 
  and –8 defence. As GamesMaster, you may like to 
  have a sudden and unexplained gust of wind howl 
  down a corridor and put out the characters’ torches. 
  There is no need actually to have a monster attack 
  them (unless you are really merciless). Just watch 
  them panic getting the lights back on.
  Battle order
  The battle order of a party of characters is the way 
  in which they are standing relative to one another. 
  Their formation, in other words. It is absolutely vital 
  that the players indicate their battle order before any 
  fight begins. Ideally, each player will have a labelled 
  counter or (better still) a miniature figurine to rep-
  resent his character. Arranged on a tabletop, these 
  figurines show the party’s deployment in a dungeon 
  passage, ruined temple, tavern bar or other poten-
  tially hazardous situation.
   
  A character with a sword, mace, or other com-
  mon mêlée weapon requires a space of about 1½m 
  in which to fight, so two characters could normally 
  fight side-by-side in a 3m-wide passage. A character 
  wielding a battleaxe, halberd or two-handed sword 
  needs more space—at least 2m—and must usually 
  stand alone in his row of the battle order. Those 
  fighting with shortswords and spears do not need 
  so much room to manoeuvre, for these are thrust-
  ing weapons; three such characters are able to fight 
  abreast in a 3m corridor. This also holds true for 
  archers, crossbowmen and spell-casters.
   
  As players, you should learn to vary your party’s 
  battle order according to circumstances. The general 
  aim is to put yourselves in a position of advantage at 
  the expense of whatever you are fighting. 
   
  Consider a lone Knight who enters a subterranean 
  temple and is attacked by six Skeletons. The worst 
  thing he could do would be to stand in the centre of 
  the chamber. The Skeletons would be able to form a 
  circle around him, and he would have zero defence 
  against the three behind him. A marginally better 
  tactic would be to back up to a wall so that none of 
  the Skeletons could come at him from the rear. Now 
  he has only to fight them three at a time. The very 
  best manoeuvre is to retreat into a narrow doorway 
  so that only one Skeleton can attack at a time.
   
  That example is a little unrealistic, for how many 
  adventurers wander into danger on their own? But 
  it illustrates the important point that tactics make a 
  significant difference to your chances of victory. A 
  more extended example will show how a party might 
  handle tactical arrangements throughout an adven-
  ture. Six adventurers have entered a castle known 
  to be the hideout of some fifteen or twenty Orcs. 
  They have heard that the original lord of the castle 
  was a great warrior and that he was buried—along 
  with several magical weapons he had acquired—in 
  a secret chamber below the castle. They intend to 
  have those weapons. 
   
  The party consists of three Knights (Goriel, 
  Sagris and Turquin), one Barbarian (Lars), one Sor-
  cerer (Anarchos) and one Mystic (Merek).
  Example A
  The six adventurers are advancing along a 3m-wide 
  corridor in the castle. Trouble could come from either 
  direction, so the least well armoured members of the 
  party (anarchos and Merek) are protected by being in 
  the middle. These two aim to avoid mêlée, so they are 
  carrying the lanterns.
  into aDventure
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
   
  The four warriors all carry loaded crossbows. if they 
  spot any orcs, their plan is for the front row to fall prone 
  and shoot, the second row to crouch, and the third row to 
  shoot from standing position. They expect to encounter 
  orc sentries individually or in pairs, and reckon on a 
  four-quarrel volley being enough to take these out before 
  they can alert the other orcs.
  Example B
  a while later the party have met and killed a few orcs, 
  but lost Sagris when a hidden trapdoor opened under 
  him. Now they are in the inner courtyard of the castle. 
  anarchos, in the centre, holds a shield above his head in 
  case orcish archers start sniping from the battlements. 
   
  Suddenly a host of orcs—a dozen or more—burst 
  from archways around the courtyard. The characters 
  draw swords and form a ring around anarchos. This 
  ensures that the orcs can only engage them at two-to-
  one odds, and allows anarchos to cast healing spells on 
  anyone who gets wounded.
  Example C
  it is much later. our adventurers have cleared out most 
  of the orcs and are now in the catacombs below the cas-
  tle. These passageways twist and turn, so crossbows are 
  not as usable as they were in the long corridors above. 
   
  They anticipate that the previous lord of the castle 
  may be undead, and roaming about. The battle order 
  is now adapted to deal with a single adversary. The 
  two Knights and the Barbarian take the front row, all 
  armed with spears. anarchos carries a lantern as before. 
  Merek brings up the rear, guarding the Sorcerer’s back, 
  in case they missed a couple of orcs—they don’t want 
  their top magic-user suddenly chopped from behind!
  Locked doors
  Doors in an underworld will sometimes be locked. 
  If the characters do not have the necessary key, they 
  can try forcing the door. This is usually not too dif-
  ficult, as the timbers of an underworld door tend to 
  become weak and rotted with age. A typical locked 
  door can be forced open at first attempt by a char-
  acter with Strength of 16 or more. Weaker charac-
  ters must roll under their Strength score on 1d20 in 
  order to get the door open. Every attempt, success-
  ful or not, costs the character 1 Health Point.
   
  You may assign a minimum necessary Strength, 
  below which a character has no chance of breaking 
  the door down. Very sturdy doors might have 18 (or 
  more) as the minimum Strength.
   
  Characters with an axe can try hacking the door 
  to splinters. No roll is needed, but this will usually 
  take several minutes to accomplish. 
  OUT OF SIGHT:       
  STEALTH and 
  PERCEPTION
  How the Scores are Used
  Nasir, the Assassin we met in chapter 5, needs to 
  creep past a guard without being noticed. In game 
  terms, how does he go about it?
   
  Nasir’s stealth score is 22, while the guard has 
  a perception score of 5. Attempts at stealth involve 
  the same basic procedure as a roll to see whether a 
  spell takes effect (p. 75): the character subtracts the 
  perception of the person he’s sneaking past from 
  his own stealth score. The result is what he must 
  roll equal to or less than on 2d10 in order to pass 
  unnoticed. Without any modifiers, this means that 
  Nasir would have to roll 17 or less on 2d10 for the 
  guard not to notice him. That would obviously be 
  rather easy, but various other conditions modify 
  the roll to some extent. The guard is alert, listen-
  ing and watching carefully, and this gives him +2 
  to perception. There are no pillars or objects for 
  Nasir to hide behind, so he must rely on keeping 
  to the shadows, and he must pass very close to the 
  guard—within 3m. In all, this reduces his stealth 
  in these circumstances by 10. Thus, the roll that he 
  actually needs to make is 4 or less on 2d10—virtu-
  ally impossible! This is a feat of stealth to challenge 
  even a Master Assassin.
  STEALTH and PERCEPTION 
  modifiers
  The stealth and perception scores as given 
  assume a dimly lit environment with numer-
  ous shadows. This is because most stealth rolls 
  will be made during underworld adventures, and 
  underworlds are just such an environment. It is 
  also assumed that the character who is trying to 
  stay hidden is moving fairly carefully (at no faster 
  than walking pace) and that the character whom he 
  is trying to stay hidden from is not concentrating 
  
  63
  solely on keeping a lookout. When these ‘typical’ 
  conditions do not apply, certain modifiers adjust the 
  stealth and perception scores.
  Stealth modifiers:
  wearing mail hauberk  
   
  stealth –3
  wearing mail armour 
   
   
  stealth –4
  wearing plate armour  
   
  stealth –6
  not moving  
   
   
   
   
  stealth +3
  moving slowly  
   
   
   
  no modifier
  moving quickly  
   
   
   
  stealth –2
  within 3m of enemy 
   
   
  stealth –5
  no cover available1  
   
   
  stealth –5
  Perception modifiers:
  pitch darkness  
   
   
   
  perception –7
  torchlight or dusk  
   
   
  (no modifier)
  broad daylight  
   
   
   
  perception +5
  asleep  
   
   
   
   
   
  perception –9
  looking other way  
   
   
  perception –5
  listening intently2  
   
   
  perception +2
  extraneous noise or bustle  
  perception –3 or more
  As always, these modifiers should be regulated by 
  common sense. Some creatures (undead, for exam-
  ple) see perfectly in darkness but abhor bright light. 
  The perception modifiers for illumination are 
  reversed in the case of such a being (i.e. –7 for day-
  light, +5 for total darkness). Bats use sonar in place 
  of vision, and so illumination makes little difference 
  to their perception rating. All such differences are 
  listed on page 123.
   
  Invisible characters are a special case. Normal 
  invisibility gives +7 to stealth. Factors such as 
  cover and illumination make no difference to an 
  invisible character.
   
  Note that the Pass Unseen spell provides infallible 
  stealth against characters of 1st–4th rank. This 
  spell actually occludes the victims’ minds so that they 
  will not notice the caster under any conditions.
  When the Stealth Roll is made
  A Stealth Roll is only needed when there is some 
  reasonable chance that a character could be noticed. 
  It should not be used slavishly. For example, if Nasir 
  climbs into a mummy-case just before his enemies 
  1 
  ’Cover’ could consist of pillars, archways, trees, drapes, fog, rain, etc. in 
  most castles and underworld chambers there should be some cover available. 
  if there is a little cover but not much, the gM may apply a reduced modifier 
  of from –1 to –4 stealth.
  2 
  a character who is listening intently must be standing still and doing 
  nothing else. Most sentries are not this diligent, and the gamesMaster should 
  roll for an NPC to see whether he is actually alert or whether he is daydream-
  ing, playing knucklebones, etc. The required roll is rank or under on 1d8.
  enter the tomb chamber he is raiding, they are only 
  going to see him if they happen to search the room 
  and open the case. As a rule-of-thumb, Stealth Rolls 
  need only be made when the character is moving 
  within 15m (lantern range) of another character, or 
  stationary in hiding within 7m.
   
  Once a successful Stealth Roll has been made, 
  the character will not usually have to make another 
  until five minutes have elapsed. However, if circum-
  stances suddenly change in some way (e.g. a 12th-
  rank Vampire Knight enters the darkened room 
  where Nasir was managing to hide quite easily from 
  a couple of bored sentries) then a second roll must 
  be made immediately. 
   
  When several characters are trying to pass unno-
  ticed, each must make a successful Stealth Roll. This 
  is why Assassins prefer to operate alone. If there is 
  more than one guard present, the Stealth Roll is 
  compared to the highest perception score in the 
  group. (If that guard doesn’t notice the shadowy fig-
  ure slipping by, none of his comrades are likely to.)
  Tracking
  The skill of tracking involves the informed observa-
  tion of trampled grass, broken branches and other 
  signs. This enables a Barbarian or Knight, or certain 
  Assassins, to follow trails up to three days old. Other 
  character types may not use tracking (though they 
  might have magical methods of finding their foes).
   
  The chance of tracking is resolved by the charac-
  ter rolling 1d20. If he scores less than or equal to his 
  perception, he is able to track his quarry for one 
  day before making another roll. An additional roll is 
  required every time the trail crosses from one terrain 
  type into another (e.g. from woodlands to hills), and 
  also if the quarry fords a river.
   
  After three days a trail will begin to grow obscure, 
  and the chance of successful tracking quickly dimin-
  ishes. 1d4 is added to the 1d20 die score per day 
  thereafter, plus an extra 1d6 for each snowfall or 
  heavy storm that occurs.
  Climbing
  Characters often wish to scale some obstacle. The 
  valiant prince of folk tales, who climbs the ivy-cov-
  ered wall to rescue the damsel in the tower, is more 
  often replaced in Dragon Warriors by the disreputa-
  ble adventurer clambering up to loot the Ogre’s lair. 
  But the principle is the same.
  into aDventure
  
  64
  Dragon Warriors
   
  Characters’ Reflexes are a measure of their dex-
  terity and agility. A character with high Reflexes 
  climbs better than a character with low Reflexes. For 
  every climb, assign a difficulty factor. This should be 
  a number between 3 (for an easy climb) and 18 (for 
  a sheer climb with few handholds). Any character 
  whose Reflexes score is at least equal to the diffi-
  culty factor can make the climb with no problems. 
   
  A character with a lower Reflexes score may 
  attempt the climb, but he must roll under his 
  Reflexes score on 1d20 to succeed. If he fails this 
  roll, he will fall at a random point in the climb. If he 
  survives the fall, he can try again.
   
  Typical difficulty factors are:
   
  Climb  
    
   
   
  Difficulty factor
   
  ladder  
   
   
   
  3
   
  dangling rope  
   
  6
   
  tree  
   
   
   
   
  9
   
  ivy-covered wall 
   
  12
   
  cliff 
   
   
   
   
  13
   
  rough stone wall 
   
  16
   
  smooth stone wall  
  18
  Falling
  Monsters are not the only hazard adventurers must 
  face in the deserted ruins they frequent. Pit traps 
  abound, and sometimes a crumbling floor or stair-
  way may collapse. Characters can fall 1m without 
  suffering injury, but greater distances will usually 
  result in some damage:
   
  Drop 
   
   
   
    
  Health Points lost
   
  1m–2m  
   
   
   
  1d2 (i.e. halve the roll of a d4, 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  rounding up)
   
  2m–4m  
   
   
   
  1d4
   
  4m–6m  
   
   
   
  1d6
   
  6m–8m  
   
   
   
  1d8
   
  8m–10m 
   
   
   
  1d10
   
  10m–12m  
   
   
  1d12
   
  12m–14m  
   
   
  1d20
   
  14m–16m  
   
   
  2d20
   
  more than 16m  
   
  5d20
  A character wearing armour has his fall broken to 
  some extent. The type of armour makes no differ-
  ence here. He takes 2 HP less damage than is indi-
  cated by the die roll (eg, 1d8 –2 for an 8m drop).
  Special cases
  Dragon Warriors is a game of fantasy reality (as dis-
  tinct from ‘real’ reality!). Combat and magic take 
  up the bulk of the rules because they are the main 
  elements in any fantasy adventure. But this is a role-
  playing game, and characters are supposed to be able 
  to try anything they might attempt in reality.
   
  How do you GamesMaster a situation that the 
  rules do not specifically cover? The first step is to 
  consider what the character is doing and decide 
  which of his five characteristics has most bearing 
  on the situation. If you cannot definitely isolate a 
  single characteristic, you may decide to average two 
  or more. Picking someone’s pocket requires dexter-
  ity, so Reflexes is the relevant characteristic; but 
  cheating in a game of chance involves cunning and 
  sleight-of-hand—Reflexes are averaged with Intel-
  ligence in this case.
   
  Having ruled which characteristic is being used, 
  you assign a difficulty factor, a number from 3 to 18, 
  to whatever it is that the character is doing. If his 
  appropriate characteristic is equal to or greater than 
  the difficulty factor, he succeeds in his task. If less, 
  he must roll 1d20 and score under his characteristic 
  to succeed.
   
  You can see straight away that this is just another 
  way of stating generally a rule that we have already 
  met in two specific cases: climbing and opening 
  locked doors.
   
  On the opposite page Sir Balin demonstrates 
  how it can be used in a variety of situations. 
  Extra-Special Cases
  Inevitably, there are going to be some cases that 
  won’t fit any rule—even the all-purpose rule given 
  above. The player-characters are tiptoeing past the 
  sleeping Orc sentry. What’s the chance he’ll wake 
  up? There is no characteristic or ability you can 
  really apply here. You just have to assign a percent-
  age chance and roll the dice.
   
  If this seems arbitrary or even unfair, it 
  shouldn’t be. The reason why FRP games have to 
  have a GamesMaster is so that there’s someone to 
  adjudicate the chance of things like that. All you 
  need to do is give the situation a little thought first. 
  If that Orc is a decent sentry, you’d allow maybe a 
  75% chance of him waking up. If you decide he’s 
  snoring in a drunken stupor, that might be nearer 
  5%. The outcome of the roll could surprise you as 
  much as it does the players—but that’s part of the 
  fun of roleplaying!
  
  6
  into aDventure
   EW
  
  66
  Dragon Warriors
  THE RULES OF combat are the most fundamen-
  tal element in any FRP game. A large proportion of 
  any adventure is likely to be taken up with battles 
  against monsters and hostile non-player characters. 
  Make sure your players understand the basic com-
  bat procedure before starting the first adventure—it 
  will give them a framework on which to build their 
  knowledge of the rules as a whole, and save you 
  from taking time out for explanation during the 
  adventure.
   
  In its simplest form combat consists of two 
  characters fighting one another. For game purposes 
  every fight is divided up into Combat Rounds; each 
  Combat Round represents six seconds of game-
  time. The procedure of each Round is the same for 
  both characters involved in the fight, the one with 
  the higher Reflexes getting the first blow: 
  1.  The attacker rolls 1d20 to determine whether he hits 
  (the Hit Roll). If he fails then his go is over for the 
  round and his opponent gets to strike back.
  2.  If an attacker scores a hit, he rolls to see whether the 
  blow gets past his opponent’s armour (if any). This is 
  the Armour Bypass Roll. If it fails then the opponent’s 
  armour does its job and he is not hurt by the blow.
  3.  A blow which gets through armour inflicts a wound. 
  The opponent’s Health Points are reduced by the 
  damage rating of the weapon used (4 Health Points in 
  the case of a sword, 5 HP for a battleaxe, etc.)
  If the Combat Round ends with both combatants 
  still able to fight (i.e. their current Health Points have 
  not yet been reduced to 0), the next Round begins 
  and the procedure is followed through again.
  The Hit Roll
  To see if he hits an opponent, a character simply sub-
  tracts the opponent’s defence score from his own 
  attack score. This gives the number that he must 
  roll equal to or less than on 1d20 in order to score a 
  hit. A roll of ‘20’ is always a miss, regardless of the 
  combatants’ relative Combat Factors. Conversely, a 
  roll of ‘1’ is always a hit—and, in fact, always gets 
  past armour. (Such a roll is called a ‘critical hit’.)
  The Armour Bypass Roll
  Having scored a hit, a character rolls to see if his 
  blow can penetrate his opponent’s armour. Each 
  type of protection has a given Armour Factor (usu-
  ally abbreviated to AF).
  Armour type  
   
   
   
  Armour Factor
  None   
   
   
   
   
   
  0
  Gambeson   
   
   
   
   
  1
  Padded Armour 
    
   
   
  2
  Mail Hauberk  
   
   
   
  3
  Mail Armour  
   
   
   
  4
  Plate Armour  
   
   
   
  5
  The attacker must roll higher than his opponent’s 
  Armour Factor in order to penetrate the armour. 
  The type of die used for this Armour Bypass Roll 
  depends on the weapon with which the blow was 
  struck.
  Chapter 8
  THE RULES  
  OF COMBAT
  
  67
  Weapons
  Weapons vary in effectiveness in two ways: their 
  ability to penetrate armour, and the damage they 
  inflict for a successful hit. For convenience, the fol-
  lowing notation is used:
   
  •  
  Sword (d8, 4 points)
  This means that a character attacking with a sword 
  uses an eight-sided die when making an Armour 
  Bypass Roll. If his blow gets past armour, his oppo-
  nent will lose 4 Health Points.
  Moving into Combat
  Before hitting an opponent, it is (obviously) neces-
  sary to be adjacent to them. A character may, when 
  it is his turn to act, move up to one-quarter of his 
  normal movement and strike in the same Round. 
  Normal movement for a human is 10 metres per 
  Combat Round, so a character who is no more than 
  2½ metres from an enemy is able to close and strike 
  as one action.
   
  There is an exception to this rule. When a char-
  acter has surprised his foe (see p. 61) he may move 
  half his normal movement and attack in the same 
  Combat Round.
  Example
  angus and Fergus, uncompromising Barbarians, arrive 
  at a door in a dungeon and kick it open to discover two 
  orcs about to go on guard duty. one orc is only 2m from 
  the doorway. angus closes and strikes at him. The other 
  orc is standing by the weapon rack some 4m from the 
  door, and although Fergus charges in he cannot strike 
  him this round.
  Battleaxe* (d8, 6 points)
  Morning Star (d6, 5 points)
  Mace (d6, 4 points)
  Cudgel (d3, 3 points)
  Dagger (d4, 3 points)
  Shortsword (d8, 3 points)
  Sword (d8, 4 points)
  Flail (d6, 4 points)
  Two-handed Sword* (d10, 5 points)
  Staff* (d6, 3 points)  
  Spear* (2d4, 4 points) 
  Halberd * (d10, 5 points)
  Common Weapons
  *   These weapons require two hands 
  and thus preclude the use of a shield.
  the rules oF ComBat
  EW
  
  68
  Dragon Warriors
   
  (if our Barbarians had surprised the orcs—by roll-
  ing a 1 on 1d6; see p. 61 —they could both have closed 
  and attacked.) 
  It is very important to have some way of keeping 
  track of where everyone is standing during a fight. 
  Figurines or labelled counters will be useful.
  Strength
  A character with a Strength score of 16, 17 or 18 
  adds +1 to his Armour Bypass Rolls and to the 
  damage he inflicts for a successful hit.
   
  Occasionally, as a result of magic, a character 
  may attain a Strength above 18. His Armour Bypass 
  Rolls and weapon damage get a +2 bonus.
  Shields
  A character using a shield rolls 1d6 for any blow 
  that is struck against him. On a roll of 1, he catches 
  the blow on his shield—the blow is negated, even if 
  it was a critical hit.
  Fighting more than one opponent
  We said earlier that a one-on-one fight was the 
  simplest form that combat could take. It is unlikely 
  that a group of adventurers will encounter an exactly 
  equal number of monsters; most combats will actu-
  ally involve someone (either character or monster) 
  fighting more than one opponent at the same time.
   
  A character (or monster) can divide his defence 
  between up to three attacks made against him in a 
  Combat Round. He must announce how much of 
  his defence he is putting against each blow before 
  the attacker makes his Hit Roll. 
  Wounds and Recovery
  As stated above, when a character is wounded he 
  loses Health Points. When the character’s current 
  Health Points reach 0 he falls unconscious. If they 
  are reduced to –3 he is dead (see p.121).
   
  A character who falls unconscious rolls 1d6 at 
  the end of every minute (every 10 Combat Rounds) 
  of game-time. When he manages to roll a 1, he 
  wakes up. (His Health Point score is restored to 1, 
  the minimum necessary for consciousness.)
   
  There are two ways to recover lost Health Points: 
  by magic or by recuperation. Magic is faster, but not 
  widely available. The healing spells are detailed in 
  Chapter 10 and we will concern ourselves only with 
  natural recuperation here. The character must wait 
  four days before the natural healing process begins. 
  He will then regain a number of Health Points equal 
  to his rank each day, until he is back to his normal 
  (unwounded) Health Points score. 
   
  Neither magical nor recuperative healing will 
  ever take a character above his normal Health 
  Points score. The only way to increase this score is 
  by advancing in rank.
  Example
  in his first adventure Sir Balin the Bloodthirsty has sev-
  eral fierce battles. Eventually he is felled by a Zombie. 
  He wakes up a short time later (with 1 Health Point) 
  to find that his companions have defeated the Zombie. 
  Since they are all heavily wounded by now, they head 
  back to the nearest village to rest. after four days, and 
  every day from then on, Sir Balin regains 1 Health 
  Point. He is fully recovered when his Health Points score 
  is back to 13; it will not increase beyond that until he 
  advances to 2nd rank.
  Missile Combat
  Missile weapons such as bows differ somewhat from 
  handheld weaponry. For one thing, most characters 
  cannot parry an arrow that is shot at them! In order 
  to score a hit on his opponent, an archer must simply 
  roll equal to or less than his attack score on 1d20. 
  It is like the Hit Roll in normal combat, except that 
  the target character’s defence score makes no dif-
  ference. 
   
  Circumstances will modify the d20 Hit Roll, 
  making the chance of hitting less likely.
  Target is...  
   
   
   
  Adjustment to die roll
  at short range  
   
   
  no adjustment
  at medium range 
   
   
  +3
  at long range 
   
   
   
  +7
  small or crouching  
   
  +2
  moving slowly  
   
   
  +2
  moving quickly  
   
   
  +4
  in poor light 
   
   
   
  +3 or more (GM’s discretion)
  Example
  Fully recovered after his last adventure, Sir Balin sets 
  off with his comrades-at-arms to explore a ruined hill 
  fort. as they approach the ruins, a goblin is spotted some 
  distance off. Doubtless it is slinking away to report their 
  presence to others of its kind. 
  
  69
  Hand Weapons
  Weapon  
   
   
   
  Damage
  Battleaxe*   
   
   
  d8, 6 points
  Cudgel  
   
   
   
  d3, 3 points
  Dagger  
   
   
   
  d4, 3 points
  Flail  
   
   
   
   
  d6, 4 points
  Halberd *   
   
   
  d10, 5 points
  Mace   
   
   
   
  d6, 4 points
  Morning star   
   
  d6, 5 points
  Shortsword  
   
   
  d8, 3 points
  Spear*   
   
   
   
  2d4, 4 points
  Staff*   
   
   
   
  d6, 3 points
  Sword   
   
   
   
  d8, 4 points
  Two-handed sword*  
  d10, 5 points
  Unarmed combat   
  d3, 2 points
  * These weapons require two hands and thus preclude the use of a shield.
  Missile Weapons
  Weapon  
   
  Damage 
   
   
  Short 
   
  Medium   
  Long range
  Bow*   
   
  (d6, 4 points)  
  0-50m  
  51-125m  
  126-250m
  Crossbow*  
  (d10, 4 points)  
  0-25m  
  26-75m  
  76-250m
  Dagger  
   
  (d3, 3 points)  
  0-10m  
  11-20m  
  21-25m
  Javelin   
   
  (d8, 4 points)   
  0-15m  
  16-25m  
  26-35m
  Rock, thrown  (d3, 2 points)  
  0-10m  
  11-15m  
  16-20m
  Sling   
   
  (d6, 3 points)    
  0-25m  
  26-75m  
  76-100m
  Missile Weapons
  Bow* (d6, 4 points)
  Crossbow* (d10, 4 points) 
  Sling (d6, 3 points) 
  Javelin 
  (d8, 4 points) 
  Dagger, thrown  (d3, 3 points)
  the rules oF ComBat
  EW
  
  70
  Dragon Warriors
  EW
  
  7
   
  Balin quickly readies his bow. The goblin is a small 
  target, moving slowly at medium range and in poor 
  light (it is dusk). The total modifier is thus +10. Balin 
  rolls the d20 and scores a 4, adjusted by the modifier to 
  a 14. Balin has an ATTACK score of 13, so the arrow just 
  misses. Sniggering evilly, the goblin disappears among 
  the trees.
  Combat Penalties for Wearing Armour
  Knights are trained to fight in any armour. The fight-
  ing style of other Professions is different, however, 
  and may incur penalties to the character’s Combat 
  Factors:
  Barbarians or Warlocks  
  –2 from attack and defence 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  if wearing plate armour
  Assassins or Mystics   
  –2 from attack and defence  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  for wearing mail armour; 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  –4 for plate armour
  Elementalists or Sorcerers  –1 from attack and defence
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  for wearing a mail hauberk; 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  –3 for mail armour; –4 for 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  plate armour
  The Combat Round 
  All the important rules governing combat itself have 
  now been covered. However, the six-second Com-
  bat Round is not just the time taken to strike a blow 
  or shoot an arrow, but also covers the time needed to 
  perform a number of other actions as well. 
   
  Within a Combat Round, characters act in 
  descending order of Reflexes. When a character’s 
  (or monster’s) turn comes, he performs his action. 
  In detail, the possible actions a character may take 
  include:
  -  attack with a mêlée weapon (after moving up to 2½m 
  if desired—see above, Moving into Combat)
  - 
  prepare and shoot an arrow
  -  discharge a loaded crossbow
  -  partially load a crossbow (the character must spend 3 
  rounds doing this before he can shoot)
  -  draw a weapon
  -  cast a spell
  -  take out a scroll and unroll it
  -  take out a potion and unstopper it
  -  read a scroll
  -  drink a potion
  -  activate a magical device (amulet, etc.)
  - 
  make a normal move (10m for a human, 12m for an 
  elf, etc.)
  -  run (20m for a human, 25m for an elf, etc.) (a 
  character who runs must either run, move normally or 
  do nothing in the following round)
   
  Characters who have the same Reflexes score 
  act simultaneously. When a character’s turn to act 
  comes he may, if he chooses, defer his action until 
  later in the Round. This gives him the chance to see 
  what other characters are doing first. 
  Example
  Sir Hugo, accompanied by his employer Ulric, a Sorcerer, 
  are in the town of Clyster shopping for some items. after 
  a busy morning in the market, they seek refreshment in 
  a small dockside tavern. Without realizing it they have 
  strayed into one of the town’s most notorious haunts 
  for ruffians and rogues. Three wiry cutthroats begin to 
  insult them, and in moments swords are drawn.
   
  Hugo could act before any of them, but he decides to 
  wait and see what Ulric (with a lower reflexes score) 
  has planned. The Sorcerer casts a Transfix spell which 
  only one of the cutthroats manages to resist. if Hugo had 
  struck sooner he might have wasted his blow in wound-
  ing one of the men who now stands transfixed. as it is, 
  he makes short work of dispatching the last cutthroat.
  Evading an attack
  gM: “You’re advancing down a musty corridor. Your 
  torch gives off a smoky light, revealing large spiders that 
  scuttle away as you pass. Strange carvings mark the 
  walls. Suddenly you hear an ominous grating noise—a 
  gigantic stone slab is descending to block the corridor 
  behind you.”
  Player: “i whirl and throw myself through the gap before 
  it can close.”
  gM: “You can try. The slab’s descent has a speed of 10. 
  What’s your evasion?’’
  Certain fast-moving attacks or other threats cannot 
  be prevented by using defence, but might just be 
  dodged by the use of evasion. 
   
  evasion is used in a wide variety of situations—
  to leap through a closing gap, to sidestep a Dragon’s 
  breath of fire, to dodge a falling chandelier... in any 
  situation where the character’s survival depends on 
  getting out of the way.
   
  The attack that the character is trying to dodge is 
  given a speed rating. This might be anything from 
  5 for a slowly toppling statue, up to 20 for the lanc-
  ing energy-beam of a magic Ring of Red Ruin. The 
  character’s evasion is subtracted from the attack’s 
  speed. If a roll of 2d10 comes up less than or equal 
  to the result, the attack has hit. If greater, the char-
  acter dodged. 
  the rules oF ComBat
  
  7
  Dragon Warriors
   
  Note that this is very like the Hit Roll in com-
  bat, except that the roll is made on 2d10 instead of 
  1d20. A roll of 2 always means that the character 
  has failed to dodge, while a 20 always means the 
  attack has missed. In the example above, the char-
  acter had an evasion score of 4. The GamesMaster 
  rolled two ten-sided dice. On a roll of 6 or less, the 
  slab would descend too quickly, crushing him before 
  he had scrambled beneath it. On a roll of 7 or more, 
  the slab would miss.
  Typical Attack Speeds
  Description  
   
  speeD score  
  Example
  Easily evaded  
  5 
   
   
   
  Toppling statue
   
   
   
   
   
  6
  Very slow  
   
  7 
   
   
   
  Drifting cloud of gas
   
   
   
   
   
  8
  Slow 
   
   
   
  9 
   
   
   
  Hurled chair or other
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  slow-moving object
   
   
   
   
   
  10
  Average 
   
   
  11  
   
   
  Rolling boulder
   
   
   
   
   
  12  
   
   
  Falling block of 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  masonry
  Fast 
   
   
   
  13  
   
   
  Trapdoor suddenly 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  opening underfoot
   
   
   
   
   
  14
  Very fast 
   
   
  15
   
   
   
   
   
  16  
   
   
  A Dragon’s flame
  Extremely fast  
  17  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  18   
   
   
  Javelin1
  Dazzling 
   
   
  19
   
   
   
   
   
  20  
   
   
  Energy-beam from a 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Ring of Red Ruin
  It is very important to visualize the situation when 
  a character has to evade an attack. Do not simply 
  make the roll without considering what it repre-
  sents. A character dangling on the end of a rope is 
  treated as having evasion of zero when a magic ring 
  is fired at him, unless he says that he is prepared to 
  let go of the rope. A character trapped at the bottom 
  of a deep well will certainly be hit by the fireball that 
  his enemy lobs down at him. evasion scores only 
  apply when it is physically possible to evade.
  1 
  it is thus difficult but not impossible to evade a javelin—if one sees it 
  coming. other missile weapons move far too quickly for a character to stand 
  any chance of dodging them.
  Getting out of Combat
  The wise adventurer knows when to escape from a 
  fight. There are two ways of doing this; the first is 
  recommended, except for characters in very good 
  armour.
  Retreat: When his turn comes to act, the retreating 
  character, still defending normally, backs up one-quarter of 
  his normal movement (i.e. 2½m in the case of a human). 
  The next Round, if his opponent does not follow up, the 
  character can turn and run.
  Rout: This is a more desperate method. The character 
  simply turns his back on his opponent. The opponent gets 
  one free strike at his back (zero defence) before he can 
  run off.
  Sensible players will always be prepared to escape 
  when things are going badly. No one can expect to 
  win every battle—particularly not in the early days 
  of inexperience. 
   
  Monsters may decide to give chase. It is the 
  GamesMaster’s task to role-play the monsters and 
  make this decision. You will probably take a number 
  of factors into account, such as: 
  •  How powerful are the monsters? 
  •  How powerful are the fleeing player-characters 
  •  How powerful do the monsters think the fleeing 
  player-characters are?
  •  What do the monsters have to gain from chasing 
  them? 
  The characters may discourage pursuit by throwing 
  down food (to distract unintelligent creatures) or 
  treasure (in the case of more discerning pursuers). 
  Very intelligent and powerful monsters will not be 
  fooled by such tactics—why should they stop and 
  pick up baubles when they can catch the characters 
  and get all their treasure?
   
  Lastly, remember that the monsters also have the 
  option of running away. Some (Orcs are a case in 
  point) virtually make a habit of it. 
  
  73
  ALTHOUGH THERE ARE four different spell-
  using Professions in this book—or eight if you 
  count the different types of Elementalists—magic 
  is not common in the Lands of Legend, and most 
  people still live in fear of those who can wield its 
  occult power. For Sorcerers, Warlocks and Elemen-
  talists casting a spell involves speaking an incanta-
  tion aloud (and sometimes the louder the better), 
  with gestures and movements, wands pointed at the 
  target, or even symbols marked on walls, floor, or 
  bodies. This kind of thing can make nervous guards 
  get twitchy or even panic a crowd of yokels. There 
  are no set rules for this: it’s the GM’s call. 
   
  Spells have some features in common, whether 
  cast by an Elementalist, a Mystic, a Sorcerer or a 
  Warlock. Unless otherwise noted, the following 
  points are the same for all the spell-casting classes.
  Casting a Spell
  Spells are divided into levels of increasing power 
  and complexity, and a Sorcerer, Elementalist or 
  Warlock cannot cast a spell of higher level than her 
  rank. Spells cost Magic Points to cast: 1 MP for a 
  first-level spell, 2 MPs for a second-level, and so on 
  up to 10 MPs for a tenth-level spell. 
   
  When a Sorcerer, Elementalist or Warlock casts 
  a spell, she deducts the appropriate number of Magic 
  Points from her Magic Point score. When this score 
  reaches 0 the character can cast no more spells that 
  day (Elementalists are a little different, with three 
  separate Magic Point scores; see below). 
   
  A Sorcerer’s Magic Point score increases with 
  rank (of course!), as shown in the following table.
  Sorcerer Magic Points
  Sorcerer’s rank  
  Magic Points usable per day
  1st  
   
   
   
   
  4
  2nd  
   
   
   
   
  8
  3rd  
   
   
   
   
  12
  4th  
   
   
   
   
  15
  5th  
   
   
   
   
  19
  6th  
   
   
   
   
  23
  7th  
   
   
   
   
  25
  8th  
   
   
   
   
  28
  9th  
   
   
   
   
  31
  10th 
   
   
   
   
  35
   
   
   
   
   
  (and +4 MPs per rank thereafter)
  Expended Magic Points regenerate at precisely 
  midnight. This happens automatically; there is no 
  need for the Sorcerer to perform any rituals, unlike 
  with Elementalists.
  Example
  Lyona is a 2nd-rank Sorceress, and has a normal (unde-
  pleted) Magic Point score of 8. During one adventure, 
  she casts a Tangleroots, a Weaken and two Dragon-
  breath spells, leaving her with 3 Magic Points. She 
  avoids any more trouble that day, and at midnight her 
  Magic Point total is restored to its normal score of 8.
  Mystics: Casting Spells
  Like the other spell-casting classes, a Mystic cannot 
  use spells of a higher level than his rank. However, 
  Chapter 9
  THE USE  
  OF MAGIC
  
  74
  Dragon Warriors
  Mystics suffer additional difficulties when using 
  magic. Whenever a Mystic casts a spell he must 
  make a check to see whether the effort ‘psychically 
  fatigues’ him. To avoid psychic fatigue, the Mystic 
  must roll equal to or less than:
   
  •  13, plus his rank, minus the spell’s level, on 1d20.
   
  This roll is called the Psychic Fatigue Check. If it 
  fails, the Mystic cannot cast any more spells that 
  day. Mystics automatically recover from psychic 
  fatigue at dawn.
   
  Note that when making the Psychic Fatigue 
  Check a roll of 20 always results in fatigue, what-
  ever the Mystic’s rank or the level of the spell being 
  cast.
  Example
  Caedmon Skysoul, a 2nd-rank Mystic, casts Invigorate, 
  which is a level 1 spell. He therefore needs to roll 14 or 
  less on d20 to avoid psychic fatigue. in fact he rolls an 
  18. Caedmon now cannot cast spells until the following 
  dawn (although this does not prevent the Invigorate he 
  just cast from taking effect).
  Casting Spells Above Their Level
  For the purpose of penetrating the sorcerous defences 
  Wall of Magic and Spell Screen, Mystic spells are con-
  sidered to have a ‘Magic Point strength’ equal to 
  their level. Thus (even though Mystics do not use 
  Magic Points), an Enthrall spell, being of level 4, is 
  equivalent in strength to a 4 MP Sorcerer spell such 
  as Curse.
   
  The other three wizardly Professons can put 
  extra Magic Points into a spell to help it ‘punch 
  through’ magical defences. Mystics cannot do that, 
  but they can choose to cast a spell above its normal 
  level. This increases the chance of psychic fatigue 
  but gives a more powerful spell. As an example, con-
  sider Shugendo Sai, a Mystic who is about to attack 
  an enemy Sorcerer. Suspecting that his foe has put 
  up a 4 MP Wall of Magic, Shugendo Sai casts his 
  Enthrall as an eighth-level spell. He makes his Psy-
  chic Fatigue Check just as though he had cast a level 
  eight spell. His Enthrall—after losing the equivalent 
  of 4 Magic Points to the Wall—is reduced to fourth 
  level and attacks the Sorcerer normally.
  Terminating a Spell
  A Mystic can cancel out his own durational spells 
  at any time. Unlike a Sorcerer, the Mystic does not 
  need to take a Combat Round to do this. He can 
  cause any or all of his durational spells to lapse just 
  by not bothering to sustain them. If a Mystic is 
  killed or knocked unconscious, any durational spells 
  he has going at the time will expire immediately.
   
  Sorcerers rarely leave Spell Expiry durational 
  spells going after a combat, as they prefer to recoup 
  some of their expended Magic Points (see p. 78). A 
  Mystic gains nothing by prematurely terminating a 
  spell, and will usually choose to leave it going until 
  it expires naturally. 
  Example
  Caedmon increases his strength with a Might spell 
  while battling a Mummy. The spell has not worn off 
  several rounds later when, with the combat over and 
  the Mummy defeated, Caedmon’s fellows begin to dis-
  cuss which area of the underworld to explore next.
   
  Caedmon does not wish to cancel his Might spell, 
  but the gM does not want to disrupt the flow of the 
  game by having him make a Spell Expiry roll for every 
  six seconds the characters stand around talking. instead, 
  he has Caedmon’s player roll on d100 every minute. The 
  player manages to roll under 76 three times in a row, 
  so Caedmon’s strength is still magically enhanced three 
  minutes later when another Mummy chances upon the 
  still-arguing characters. a battle ensues, and Caedmon 
  resumes making his Spell Expiry roll on a round-by-
  round basis.
  Elementalists: Casting Spells
  Elementalists have a separate Magic Point score 
  in each of their elemental categories. Magic Points 
  within one category cannot be used to cast spells 
  of another category—so Fire MPs cannot be used 
  for Earth spells, for instance. The number of Magic 
  Points that an Elementalist will have in each cat-
  egory is shown below.
  Rank  
  MPs in main 
  MPs in second and third
   
   
   
  category  
   
  categories
  1st  
   
  3 
   
   
   
  1 in each
  2nd  
   
  6 
   
   
   
  2 in each
  3rd  
   
  9 
   
   
   
  3 in each
  4th  
   
  12  
   
   
  4 in each 
   
  5th  
   
  15  
   
   
  5 in each 
   
  6th  
   
  18  
   
   
  6 in each 
   
  7th  
   
  21  
   
   
  7 in each 
   
  Nth 
   
  3 × N  
   
  N in each
  When an Elementalist has used up all the Magic 
  Points set aside for an element, that category is 
  depleted. The Elementalist cannot use spells of 
  
  7
  a depleted category until he performs a Ritual of 
  Recovery. The Ritual must be performed at a spe-
  cific time of day in which the element is ascendant. 
  The appropriate times are as follows:
  Elemental category   
  Ritual must be performed at...
  Fire  
   
   
   
   
  sunrise
  Air  
   
   
   
   
  noon
  Water   
   
   
   
  moonrise*
  Earth   
   
   
   
  moonset*
  Darkness   
   
   
  sunset
  *  These cannot be performed on the one night each 
  month when there is no moon.
  The Ritual of Recovery restores the Elementalist to 
  full Magic Points in that category only. His other 
  categories, if depleted, require a separate Ritual.
   
  A Ritual of Recovery takes only 1 minute, but 
  requires the Elementalist to be in a quiet, reasonably 
  private place, without interruptions or distractions.
  Warlocks: Casting Spells
  A Warlock’s magic operates like a Sorcerer’s (though 
  the spells are different). The Warlock can cast spells 
  whose level does not exceed his rank, and in doing 
  so he expends Magic Points equal to the spell’s level. 
  A Warlock has lower reserves of magical energy 
  than a Sorcerer of the same rank, however:
  Warlock’s rank  
  Magic Points score
  1st  
   
   
   
   
  2
  2nd  
   
   
   
   
  4
  3rd  
   
   
   
   
  6
  4th  
   
   
   
   
  8
  5th  
   
   
   
   
  10
  6th  
   
   
   
   
  12
  7th  
   
   
   
   
  14
  8th  
   
   
   
   
  16
  9th  
   
   
   
   
  18
  10th 
   
   
   
   
  20 etc.
  Any expended Magic Points are replenished at sun-
  set. A Warlock’s Magic Points are exactly equiva-
  lent to sorcery Magic Points except where stated 
  otherwise—i.e. they are regenerated by a Potion of 
  Replenishment, attenuated by a Spell Screen, etc.
  Using Extra Magic Points
  An Elementalist, Sorcerer or Warlock may choose 
  to put additional Magic Points into a spell, above 
  the basic MP cost of the spell. There is no advan-
  tage to be gained doing this with an indirect-attack 
  spell—it is a tactic to be used with direct-attack 
  spells, to give them more chance of getting through 
  an enemy’s magical barriers. If a character suspects 
  his opponent has a Wall of Magic operating, putting 
  an extra few Magic Points into the Dishearten spell 
  he’s casting may seem a worthwhile investment.
  How Does the Spell Affect its Victim?
  Every attack spell falls into one of two categories. 
  ‘Direct-attack’ spells are those which have a direct 
  supernatural effect on the victim—turn him to 
  stone, hypnotise him, etc. ‘Indirect-attack’ spells are 
  those which create some secondary effect such as a 
  jet of flame or a bolt of lightning.
   
  Looking at the Dragonbreath spell (p. 80), you 
  may not think there is anything particularly indi-
  rect about it. It is indirect-attack, though, because 
  the way in which it harms its victim is physical, not 
  supernatural. The spell creates a jet of fire. If the 
  intended victim is not quick on his feet and/or well-
  armoured, he will get burned. His intrinsic resist-
  ance to magic (i.e. magical defence) is irrelevant.
   
  In practice, direct-attack spells are those which 
  require the caster to match his own magical attack 
  against his intended target’s magical defence. 
  Indirect-attack spells require the caster to match the 
  spell’s intrinsic speed against the victim’s evasion.
  Resisting Direct-Attack Spells
  The rules procedure for magical defence is very 
  similar to that for evasion (see p. 62).
   
  Any spell which may have a direct supernatu-
  ral effect on a character (e.g. Fossilize, which turns 
  its victim to stone) must overcome his magical 
  defence. The spell works with the magical attack 
  of its caster, from which the target character’s magi-
  cal defence is subtracted. The result is the number 
  that the caster must roll equal to or under on 2d10 
  in order for the spell to work.
   
  As before, a 2 means that the spell takes effect 
  regardless of the relative magical attack and 
  magical defence of caster and victim. Similarly, a 
  20 always indicates that the spell has failed to affect 
  its victim.
   
  This procedure also applies to a number of 
  magical attacks that are not, strictly speaking, spells. 
  Examples include the weakening touch of a Wight, 
  the awful gaze of a Basilisk, etc.
  the use oF magiC
  
  76
  Dragon Warriors
  EW
  
  77
  How Far Can the Spell Reach?
  Where relevant, a maximum range is given for 
  each spell. When magic-using characters are in an 
  adventuring party it becomes particularly important 
  to have some way of keeping track of where each 
  character is standing (such as marked counters 
  or miniature figurines). Otherwise there will be 
  numerous exhausting arguments along the lines of 
  “I’m sure that Orc is in range for a Shadowbolt” or 
  “He can’t have hit me with Fossilize—I’m too far 
  away!” Figurines make the whole combat situation 
  clear, eliminating any need for dispute. 
  How Long Does the Spell Last?
  Some spells last only a few seconds. If you blinked, 
  you might miss a Shadowbolt or a Dragonbreath alto-
  gether. Effectively, such spells are instantaneous. 
   
  Spells which continue to operate for more than 
  one Combat Round are called ‘durational’, and a 
  glance through the spell lists of Chapter 10 will 
  show that all durational spells are indicated as such. 
  In some cases a specific duration is given (e.g. ‘Moon-
  glow—lasts for ten minutes’). Where it is not, there 
  is only the mysterious statement: “Spell Expiry Roll 
  applies”. What does this entail?
   
  For most spells, a Spell Expiry Roll is made by 
  rolling two six-sided dice (2d6). On a roll of 2-11, 
  the spell continues to operate. On a roll of 12, it 
  wears off. This Spell Expiry Roll is made at the start 
  of each Combat Round following that in which 
  the spell was cast. If a spell-caster has several spells 
  going at one time, she must make a separate Spell 
  Expiry Roll for each. So a duel between two high-
  ranking characters can involve a whole series of 2d6 
  rolls at the beginning of each new Round, as the 
  duellists check for each of their protective enchant-
  ments in turn.
   
  Warlocks’ spells do not have quite the staying 
  power of other casters’ spells. Most durational spells 
  available to Warlocks are subject to a Spell Expiry 
  Roll. However, this differs from the usual kind of 
  Spell Expiry Roll in that a d20 is used, and the spell 
  wears off on a roll of 20. Warlock spells tend to be 
  powerful but short-lived.
   
  It is not always convenient for players or the 
  GM to have to make a Spell Expiry Roll for every 
  six seconds of game-time when there is no longer 
  a combat in progress. You may prefer to make a 
  minute-by-minute roll to see when the spell wears 
  off. 
   
  For Elementalists, Mystics and Sorcerers, the 
  chance that the spell will still be operating after one 
  minute is 75% (which is statistically equivalent to 
  ten successive Spell Expiry Rolls). Thus, the spell-
  caster rolls d100 for every minute that elapses after 
  combat is over; on a roll of 01-75, his spell remains 
  on for another minute before he need roll again. 
   
  For Warlocks, the chance of a spell still operat-
  ing after a minute is 60%. That is, the player (or 
  the GM, in the case of a non-player character) rolls 
  d100 at the end of every minute that goes by: on a 
  roll of 01-60 the spell is still going, on a roll of 61-
  100 it wears off.
  Can Spells be Overlapped?
  All spell-casters can cast a spell before the effects of 
  an earlier spell have finished or worn off. In fact, it is 
  theoretically possible to have any number of differ-
  ent durational spells going at one time. A Sorcerer 
  who’s feeling really nasty (or cautious) might put on 
  Spell Screen, Vorpal Blade, Warding, invisibility and 
  armour (and maybe a few others as well) before 
  wading into a fight.
   
  The same spell cannot, however, be ‘doubled up’ 
  to get twice the benefit. A Sorcerer who casts Vorpal 
  Blade twice has simply wasted 7 Magic Points—he 
  doesn’t get two swords to fight with!
  Spell Failure Chances for 
  Elementalists or Sorcerers in Armour
  Certain types of armour give a chance of miscasting 
  any spell, as follows.
  Armour worn  
   Chance of miscast spell
  Mail hauberk  
   
   
  10%
  Mail armour 
   
   
   
  20%
  Plate 
   
   
   
   
   
  30%
  This applies to each spell the character casts. For 
  instance, Limorien, a Sorcerer who insists on wear-
  ing plate armour, has a 30% chance of miscasting 
  any spell. Every time he attempts a spell, he must 
  roll d100. On a roll of 01–30, he has miscast it.
   
  A character miscasting a spell must pay twice 
  the normal Magic Point cost of the spell. Instead 
  of getting the spell he wanted, he rolls randomly 
  among all the spells of the same level. If Limorien 
  attempts a Warding and miscasts it, he has to roll 
  1d6. Say he rolls a 5—this means he actually casts, 
  not Warding but the fifth spell of level two: Tangle-
  the use oF magiC
  
  78
  Dragon Warriors
  roots. Poor Limorien not only pays the exorbitant 
  cost of 4 Magic Points, but he has to dodge his own 
  Tangleroots spell!
   
  Note that Mystics and Warlocks do not have any 
  chance of spell failure, whatever armour they wear. 
  Warlocks are specially trained to cast their spells in 
  armour, and Mystics need only focus their minds 
  to work their magic, not wave their arms about in 
  arcane gestures.
  Terminating a Spell
  A character can cancel his own durational spells at 
  any time. He does not need to wait for the spell to 
  wear off. For Elementalists, Sorcerers or Warlocks, 
  this is a definite action—they have to ‘will’ the spell 
  to terminate—and takes one Combat Round. Mys-
  tics are different (see p. 74).
   
  When an Elementalist, Sorcerer or Warlock ter-
  minates a durational spell to which a Spell Expiry 
  Roll applies, he gets back half the Magic Points 
  (rounded down) that he expended to cast it.
  Example
  Lyona is on a dungeon adventure with some friends. 
  Their first encounter is with some Skeletons. These are 
  defeated after a short skirmish, during which Lyona has 
  cast Moonglow, Hold Off The Dead and Tangle-
  roots. She has 3 Magic Points left. Since the Skeleton 
  she caught with Tangleroots has now been slain by one 
  of her comrades, Lyona terminates the spell. Her Magic 
  Points score is back up to 4.
   
  She is about to terminate the Hold Off The Dead 
  spell and get a single MP back for that as well, but 
  before she gets the chance its Spell Expiry roll comes up 
  ‘12’ and it wears off naturally. Cancelling the Moon-
  glow would not give her back any MPs. Moonglow is 
  one of the handful of durational spells which do not take 
  a Spell Expiry roll. (Even if it did, she would get no 
  points for cancelling it. Can you see why?)
   JH
  
  79
  The list on this page shows all the spells usable by 
  Sorcerers. The two important points to remember 
  are, firstly, that a spell’s level is also the number of 
  Magic Points needed to cast it and, secondly, a Sor-
  cerer can cast only those spells whose level does not 
  exceed his rank. 
   
  For ease of reference, you will find an index of all 
  the spells in this book on page 254.
  Spells of Level Four
  ANTIDOTE
  CURSE
  DISEASE
  ORACLE
  SHADOWBOLT
  WALL OF MAGIC
  Spells of Level Five
  BANISH
  DIVINATION
  FOSSILIZE
  MANTLET
  REANIMATE THE DEAD
  TRANSFIX
  Spells of Level Six
  ARMOUR
  CURE DISEASE
  DISHEARTEN
  DISPEL MAGIC
  PHANTASM
  SWORD OF DAMOCLES
  Chapter 0
  THE BOOk
  OF SPELLS
  Spells of Level Seven
  DEATHLIGHT
  ENSLAVE
  NOVA
  SPELL SCREEN
  STASIS
  VORPAL BLADE
  Spells of Level Eight
  ASTRAL GATE
  BASTION
  BURDEN
  DESTRIER
  EVIL EYE
  RUNE
  Spells of Level Nine
  ANIMATE BONES
  BATTLEMASTER
  FIRESTORM
  INVISIBILITY
  MIRACLE CURE
  RAISE FOG
  Spells of Level Ten
  DOPPELGANGER
  HECATOMB
  PENTACLE OF ENTRAPMENT
  RESURRECT
  SCRY
  TRANSFORM
  Spells of Level One
  DRAGONBREATH
  IMAGE
  LESSER HEALING
  MOONGLOW
  PORTAL
  WEAKEN
  Spells of Level Two
  DETECT AURA
  HOLD OFF THE DEAD
  INFLICT WOUND
  PEER
  TANGLEROOTS
  WARDING
  Spells of Level Three
  BANQUET
  BEACON
  COMMAND
  GREATER HEALING
  ILLUSION
  WOLFCALL
  SORCERER SPELLS
  
  80
  Dragon Warriors
  Sorcerer Spells of Level One
  Dragonbreath
  Range: 20m
  This spell creates a narrow jet of flame which can be 
  directed at a single target. If the target fails to dodge 
  the flame (match the spell’s speed of 12 against the 
  target’s evasion) he takes 1d6 +6 Health Points 
  damage. This damage roll is reduced by the target’s 
  Armour Factor, however, so a character in plate 
  armour would lose only 1d6 +1 HP.
  Image
  Range: 20m
  Duration: see below
  The caster can create a visual image of no greater 
  than man-size; this is nearly perfect, and has only 
  a 10% chance of being recognized to be an illusion. 
  The image is a kind of hologram, and cannot be 
  made to move around. It will last until touched or 
  Dispelled.
  Lesser Healing
  Range: touch
  This spell restores 2 Health Points to a wounded 
  character. It will not increase his Health Point score 
  above its normal (unwounded) level, of course. Lesser 
  Healing cannot bring a character back from the 
  dead—such a feat is possible in the Dragon Warriors 
  world, but more potent sorcery than this is needed!
  Moonglow
  Duration: lasts for ten minutes
  A circle of light 5m in radius surrounds the caster, 
  who can dim the intensity to zero or brighten it 
  to about the level of the full moon’s light, at will. 
  Unlike torchlight, the illumination provided by this 
  spell is sufficiently diffuse that it may not alert mon-
  sters lurking nearby. A party of characters using no 
  other light source but Moonglow have a chance (the 
  usual 1 in 6) of surprising any monster they meet.
  Portal
  Range: touch
  Duration: see below
  This spell may be used in either of two ways. open 
  Portal will thrust open any door which could nor-
  mally be forced by a character of Strength 16. The 
  second mode of the spell, Close Portal, shuts and 
  locks a door magically. This form of the spell is 
  durational, and will stay in effect until Dispelled or 
  broken by physical force.
  Weaken
  Range: 20m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies 
  Match the caster’s magical attack vs target’s 
  magical defence. The character on whom this 
  spell takes effects will be weakened. He temporarily 
  loses 2 attack points and inflicts 1 less point of 
  damage than usual when striking in combat.
  Sorcerer Spells of Level Two
  Detect Aura
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell enables the caster (or another on whom 
  he casts the spell) to see the supernatural aura which 
  surrounds enchanted beings and objects.
  Hold Off the Dead
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell creates a zone around the caster, 2m in 
  radius, which affects Undead whose rank-equivalent 
  does not exceed the caster’s rank. If such Undead 
  enter the zone they are immediately subject to a 
  magical attack (match the caster’s magical attack 
  against the Undead’s magical defence). If suc-
  cessful, the spell prevents them from approaching 
  the caster as long as the enchantment lasts.
  Inflict Wound
  Range: 3m
  Match the caster’s magical attack against the tar-
  get’s magical defence. If successful, this inflicts a 
  wound of 5 Health Points on the victim. Armour 
  provides no protection against this damage.
  Peer
  Range: 20m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies, and see below
  When this spell is cast, the Sorcerer specifies any 
  point within the spell’s range (e.g. “14m due north 
  of me”, “5m straight down”, etc.). He is then able 
  to see anything that is happening within 3m of the 
  specified point as though he were standing there. 
  The spell is not hampered by intervening walls or 
  floors unless these are made of metal; more than 
  
  8
  2cm thickness of metal will block a Peer spell. The 
  spell will expire immediately if the caster moves 
  around while it is operating.
  Tangleroots
  Range: 15m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell affects one target, causing a tangle of mag-
  ical creepers to sprout out of the ground and ensnare 
  his legs. If the target fails to leap clear (match spell’s 
  speed of 14 vs target’s evasion) then he is caught 
  and immobilized. With an edged weapon it is pos-
  sible to cut oneself free within 2–8 Combat Rounds 
  (roll 2d4); beings of great strength (Strength 16 or 
  more) will be able to pull free of the roots in only 
  1–3 rounds, and animals such as Wolves will take 2–
  12 rounds to claw and chew through the roots. This 
  spell is commonly used either to hold any enemy 
  while trying to escape from him, or to prevent him 
  evading a more devastating follow-up spell.
  Warding
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  Warding enhances the Sorcerer’s luck in combat. 
  Any character attempting a Hit Roll against him, 
  whether in mêlée or with a missile weapon, must 
  add 2 to the d20 score.
  Sorcerer Spells of Level Three
  Banquet
  Enough food and drink is created to provide one 
  meal for five people. The food is nourishing but—
  despite the spell’s appetising name—rather bland. 
  Few would care to eat it if they had a choice; but 
  when adventurers are starving they will fall upon 
  Banquet fare enthusiastically enough!
  Beacon
  Range: 15m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  If any invisible object or being is within range when 
  Beacon is cast, the spell causes a glowing ball of green 
  light to appear just above it. This light will move as 
  the invisible object/being moves, thus marking out 
  its location.
  the Book oF spells
  EW
  
  8
  Dragon Warriors
  Command
  Range: 5m
  Durational: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  A successful casting of this spell (match caster’s 
  magical attack vs target’s magical defence) 
  brings the victim (who must be of 1st–3rd rank) 
  under the Sorcerer’s control. He will then do what-
  ever the caster tells him to do. Commanded beings 
  do not become mindless slaves; they retain their 
  normal intelligence and ability to reason, and are 
  thus capable of following quite complex orders. 
  Language barriers may be a problem—if the victim 
  cannot understand what his ‘master’ is saying to him 
  then he will simply act in what he believes to be his 
  master’s best interests.
  Greater Healing
  Range: 5m
  A more powerful version of Lesser Healing. It restores 
  7 Health Points to the recipient, with the same pro-
  visos as for the level-one spell (p. 80).
  Illusion
  Range: 20m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell creates an illusion no greater than two 
  cubic metres in volume. This differs from an image 
  in two ways; the illusion will move as the caster 
  wishes, and it fools not just sight but the other natu-
  ral senses as well. There is thus very little chance of 
  distinguishing an illusion from the real thing; even 
  a rigorous examination gives only a 5% chance of 
  this. If he wishes, the Sorcerer can cast illusion over 
  a character (himself included) in order to provide 
  a near-perfect disguise. When overlapped in this 
  way, the illusion must be equal in at least one linear 
  dimension to the thing it is covering. A man could 
  thus be covered by the illusion of a 2m-long snake, 
  but not by the illusion of a gnat. 
   
  It is important to remember that illusions exist 
  only in the minds of those who behold them. An 
  illusion could not cast a spell, inflict a wound, carry 
  treasure, open doors, or in any other way affect the 
  real world. 
  Wolfcall
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell is usable only out-of-doors—in moor-
  land, woods and dense forest, the wild places where 
  Wolves hunt. It summons one Wolf (see p. 253) 
  to the caster’s side to fight for him. The Wolf will 
  arrive 2–12 Combat Rounds after the spell is cast 
  and will then remain until the spell wears off. The 
  Sorcerer does not start making Spell Expiry Rolls 
  until the Wolf turns up. 
   
  (A note for the literal-minded: there does not 
  actually have to be a Wolf nearby for Wolfcall to 
  work. The Wolf may in fact be brought across miles 
  of countryside in barely a minute, by the working of 
  the Sorcerer’s magic.)
  Sorcerer Spells of Level Four
  Antidote
  Range: 5m
  This reduces the potency of poisons or drugs in a 
  character’s bloodstream. A poison which normally 
  requires a 3d6 roll compared to the character’s 
  Strength (see p. 122 in Chapter 11) is reduced to 
  one which requires a 2d6 roll, etc. The spell must 
  be applied within one Combat Round (six seconds) 
  of the character being poisoned. It does not reverse 
  any damage or other effects already caused by the 
  poison.
  Curse
  Range: 15m
  This spell affects up to four beings (roll 1d4), cursing 
  them with bad luck if it is successful (match caster’s 
  magical attack vs target’s magical defence). 
  Cursed beings must adjust all their die rolls by 2 so 
  as to make them less favourable—i.e., +2 to the die 
  score when making a Hit Roll, –2 when making an 
  Armour Bypass Roll, etc.
  Disease
  Range: 15m
  Duration: lasts until Dispelled
  A single living being may be afflicted with a rot-
  ting disease (match caster’s magical attack vs tar-
  get’s magical defence). The victim loses 2 Health 
  Points every Combat Round until cured or dead.
  Oracle
  Duration: lasts for one minute
  The Sorcerer attunes himself to the spirit world 
  and is able to ask up to three questions. The ques-
  tions must be phrased in such a way that they can 
  be answered by a yes or a no. The spirits have a 75% 
  chance of knowing the answer to any question they 
  
  83
  are asked. (The GamesMaster rolls d100. On 01–75 
  they know the answer; on rolls of 76–00 they don’t.) 
  If they do not know the answer to a question, or if 
  the question is worded vaguely, the spirits will give 
  a random answer (roll d6: 1–3 = yes, 4–6 = no), and 
  they will then stick to that answer if asked the same 
  question again.
   
  The spirits can speak only of events concerning 
  the past and present. They cannot see into the future, 
  nor answer questions which concern a character’s 
  thoughts and motives. Thus a Sorcerer could ask, 
  “Have my companions ever discussed murdering 
  me?” but not “Have my companions ever thought 
  of murdering me?” Or rather, he could ask it but the 
  spirits’ reply would be meaningless.
  Shadowbolt
  Range: 20m
  Causes an ebon bolt of energy to shoot from the 
  caster’s hand to strike a single being. If the bolt 
  hits (match spell’s speed of 14 vs target’s evasion), 
  it does 2d6+10 HP damage. The damage roll is 
  reduced by a number equal to the target’s Armour 
  Factor, if any (see the Dragonbreath spell on p. 80).
  Wall of Magic
  Range: Touch
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies, and see below
  The caster—or another on whom he casts the 
  spell—is surrounded by a protective zone that will 
  block enemy spells. The caster may expend as many 
  points as he likes when casting the Wall of Magic 
  (down to a minimum of 4 MP), and this is the 
  number of Magic Points the Wall will absorb from 
  spells cast into it. Once it has absorbed its Magic 
  Point limit, the Wall collapses. Wall of Magic blocks 
  only direct-attack spells, however—i.e. those that 
  involve a magical attack vs magical defence 
  roll. Indirect-attack spells such as Shadowbolt are 
  unaffected.
   
  If the Wall collapses without having absorbed all 
  the Magic Points from an incoming spell, the spell 
  still has a chance of taking effect but the attacking 
  Sorcerer or Mystic must adjust his attack die roll by 
  the difference between the number of MPs left in 
  the spell and the spell’s level. 
   
  Suppose Eldrin the Crafty has put up a 5 MP 
  Wall of Magic. His arch-foe Nebulos attacks him 
  with a Disease spell, which is completely absorbed 
  but which knocks the Wall down to 1 MP in the 
  process. In the next Combat Round, Nebulos casts a 
  Curse. Eldrin’s Wall of Magic collapses after absorbing 
  1 MP from the Curse. Nebulos matches his magi-
  cal attack against Eldrin’s magical defence to 
  resolve his Curse, but must add 1 to the 2d10 roll 
  because the Curse is of reduced strength.
  Sorcerer Spells of Level Five
  Banish
  Range: touch
  Duration: lasts until Dispelled
  For this spell to take effect, the caster must actually 
  touch his intended victim in the Combat Round fol-
  lowing that in which he cast the spell. This means 
  that the caster must make a successful Hit Roll on 
  his opponent—though no Armour Bypass Roll is 
  needed, as it is sufficient that he merely touch the 
  opponent’s clothing or armour. 
   
  If the spell takes effect (match caster’s magical 
  attack vs target’s magical defence) the victim 
  is banished to limbo, and can only be freed at the 
  caster’s whim or if a Dispel Magic (see p. 84) is cast 
  at the spot where the victim disappeared. A Sorcerer 
  can communicate in his dreams with those he has 
  banished, and will usually find them quite eager to 
  barter information and secrets in return for a prom-
  ise of freedom from limbo.
  Divination
  Duration: lasts one minute
  A modification of the oracle spell which enables the 
  caster to ask a question even if the answer is not a 
  simple yes/no. Only one question may be asked, and 
  there is still the same limit (75%) on accuracy. The 
  spirits will often answer in the form of a rhyme, rid-
  dle or obscure clue—the GM is urged to be inven-
  tive and evasive! A Sorcerer may not cast more than 
  one Divination in a single day.
  Fossilize
  Range: 20m
  Duration: lasts until Dispelled
  If the spell is successful (match caster’s magical 
  attack vs target’s magical defence), one being 
  is turned to stone, along with anything he is wear-
  ing or carrying. Fossilize has no effect on Gargoyles 
  (their bodies are made of rock in the first place) nor, 
  for obvious reasons, on non-corporeal creatures such 
  as Spectres.
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  84
  Dragon Warriors
  Mantlet
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This highly useful spell surrounds the caster with 
  an enchanted zone 3m in radius. Any arrow, quar-
  rel, slingshot or other missile entering this zone will 
  fall harmlessly to the ground. Magical or extremely 
  large (more than 20kg) projectiles are not impeded 
  by the spell, however.
  Reanimate the Dead
  Range: 5m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  Using this necromantic spell, the Sorcerer can raise 
  up to six (roll 1d6) dead Humans, Elves or Dwarves 
  as Zombies (see p. 253) under his control. Zombies, 
  having only limited intelligence, will not be able to 
  comprehend complex instructions—the Sorcerer 
  must limit his commands to four words or less.
  Transfix
  Range: 20m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies (and see below)
  If the caster is successful (match caster’s magical 
  attack vs target’s magical defence) then 2-8 
  beings (roll 2d4 for the number affected) suffer a 
  ‘brainstorm’ which causes them to stop what they 
  are doing and stand passively until the spell wears 
  off. Afterwards, they will be unable to remember 
  anything that happened while the spell was in effect 
  or in the two Combat Rounds just before it was 
  cast. If a Transfixed character is attacked, the spell is 
  immediately broken.
  Sorcerer Spells of Level Six
  Armour
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The spellcaster becomes engirded in jet-black plate 
  armour. This provides an Armour Factor of 6 and, 
  unlike normal armour, does not hamper the Sorcer-
  er’s casting ability. Any clothing or armour the caster 
  is already wearing is transformed for the duration 
  of the spell—one cannot cast it on top of a suit of 
  normal plate and then claim an AF of 11!
  Cure Disease
  Range: 1m
  The beneficiary of this valued spell is cleansed of 
  all illnesses, whether natural or uncanny in origin. 
  Damage already suffered as a result of the disease is 
  not healed, however.
  Dishearten
  Range: 30m
  A far more terrible spell than its euphemistic name 
  suggests—if cast successfully (match caster’s magi-
  cal attack vs target’s magical defence) this 
  causes the victim’s heart to explode, killing him 
  instantly. Naturally, it has no effect on Undead or 
  on creatures such as Gargoyles, Death’s-Heads, etc., 
  which have no heart. A useful side-effect of the spell 
  is that even if it fails to take effect, the target still 
  loses 1d4 HP as though from a painful kick to the 
  unprotected chest.
  Dispel Magic
  Range: 5m
  When Dispel Magic is cast, any durational spells 
  operating within its range (except for those which 
  cost more Magic Points than are used in the Dis-
  pel Magic) immediately expire. Dispel Magic is not 
  directional, and may therefore terminate the caster’s 
  own durational spells as well as those of his ene-
  mies.
  Phantasm
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The Sorcerer draws ectoplasm from another dimen-
  sion and is able to fashion it into a creature to do his 
  bidding. The creature may be whatever the Sorcerer 
  wishes, as long as it is no larger than about twice 
  man-size. Regardless of its outward appearance, the 
  Phantasm’s abilities and characteristics are always 
  the same: magical defence of 8, evasion of 5, 
  Armour Factor 4, 4-24 Health Points (roll 4d6), 
  and stealth and perception identical to the cast-
  er’s own. attack and defence must sum to 28, but 
  may be chosen by the caster within this limitation. 
   
  When Phantasms strike in combat they always 
  use 1d10 for Armour Bypass Rolls and inflict 5 HP 
  on a successful hit. The Phantasm’s movement rate 
  corresponds to that of the creature it resembles—
  10m/Combat Round if Human, and so on.
  Sword of Damocles
  Range: 10m
  Duration: lasts until activated (see below)
  A glowing sword of unearthly nature appears above 
  the head of the target. This sword is ethereal and 
  cannot be damaged or removed by physical means. 
  
  8
  It will continue to hang in the air above the tar-
  get, moving as he moves, until activated by a com-
  mand from the caster. It will then become solid and 
  descend to strike the victim, emitting a metallic 
  screech as it does so. Unless the sword is dodged 
  (match its speed of 17 vs the target’s evasion), 
  it will deal the hapless target a mighty blow. Use 
  1d10 +2 for its Armour Bypass Roll; a successful 
  hit inflicts 4d6 HP damage. After its single strike, 
  successful or not, the sword vanishes.
   
   If he chooses, the caster can make the sword’s 
  descent dependent on some condition—for exam-
  ple, “Strike if I am slain.” It is thus an excellent spell 
  for coercing an enemy. (“Kill me, and my Sword of 
  Damocles will turn you into a kebab!”)
  Sorcerer Spells of Level Seven
  Deathlight
  Range: 40m
  A very powerful bolt of energy leaps from the cast-
  er’s hands, forking to strike 1-4 beings (match spell’s 
  speed of 16 vs targets’ evasion). A being failing to 
  evade will take 3d6+10 HP damage (reduced by his/
  its Armour Factor, if any).
  Enslave
  Range: 30m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This more powerful variant on the Command spell 
  will affect a single being of any rank. A successful 
  casting (match caster’s magical attack vs target’s 
  magical defence) renders the victim completely 
  subservient to the Sorcerer’s will. Unlike Command, 
  this spell turns its victim into an unreasoning slave 
  who will do only what he is told. Language barriers 
  are not a problem; the victim will always understand 
  what his master is telling him to do, though with a 
  tendency to follow instructions literally—occasion-
  ally with unlooked-for results. It takes one Combat 
  Round to issue an Enslaved character with orders, or 
  to change existing orders.
  Nova
  Range: 5m
  Myriad beams of searing light shoot from the cast-
  er’s body in all directions. Any being within 5m 
  who fails to jump clear (match spell’s speed of 18 
  vs targets’ evasion) is struck by 1–3 of the beams 
  (roll 1d6: 1–2 = 1 beam, 3–4 = 2 beams, 5–6 = 3 
  beams). Each beam inflicts 3d8 HP of damage, less 
  the target’s Armour Factor.
  Spell Screen
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This establishes a defensive enchantment around 
  the Sorcerer which will protect him from direct-
  attack spells (those which involve a magical 
  attack vs magical defence roll). The effect of 
  the Spell Screen is to reduce any spell passing into 
  it by 5 Magic Points. Unlike a Wall of Magic, the 
  Spell Screen itself is not reduced in strength by this. 
  (It is not possible to get a Spell Screen that filters out 
  more than 5 MPs by expending more Magic Points 
  in casting it. Also, the effects are not cumulative, so 
  two Spell Screens are no better than one.)
   
  Two special cases are worth considering. If a Spell 
  Screen is overlapped with a Wall of Magic, attacking 
  spells knock Magic Points off the Wall first, before 
  being attenuated by the Screen. Secondly, the Spell 
  Screen affects only spells cast at the Sorcerer him-
  self, not spells cast at the Screen. Take the case of a 
  Sorcerer who is wielding a Vorpal Blade and is pro-
  tected by Spell Screen. A 12 MP Dispel Magic would 
  be required to dispel the Vorpal Blade; but to deal 
  with the Screen, only a 7 MP Dispel Magic would be 
  needed.
  Stasis
  Range: 20m
  Duration: lasts until Dispelled
  The caster is able to ‘freeze’ 1-3 victims at an instant 
  in time (match caster’s magical attack vs target’s 
  magical defence). A character thus frozen will 
  remain exactly where he was when he succumbed to 
  the spell. He cannot think or act in any way (he is 
  caught ‘between ticks of the clock’, as it were), nor 
  can he be moved or harmed by any means while the 
  Stasis is in effect.
  Vorpal Blade
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  In the caster’s hand there appears a magic sword—
  as black as midnight, with a coruscating nimbus of 
  green fire. This weapon is a +3 sword. That is, it 
  increases the Sorcerer’s attack and defence by 3 
  while he is fighting with it, uses 1d8 +3 for Armour 
  Bypass Rolls and does 7 HP damage on a successful 
  strike. Putting this eldritch weapon down will cause 
  it to vanish immediately. If the Sorcerer should be 
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  86
  Dragon Warriors
  so foolish as to offer it to another, the sword will 
  turn in his hand, strike him once, and then disap-
  pear forever!
  Sorcerer Spells of Level Eight
  Astral Gate
  Duration: see below
  A shimmering portal, a rent in the very fabric of 
  space itself, is created in front of the caster. This 
  portal leads to any place the caster wishes to reach 
  (not more than 150km away), allowing characters 
  to cross this distance in the blink of an eye. The 
  intended destination should be a spot which the 
  caster knows reasonably well. If he is trying to reach 
  a place he has only seen once, the caster has a 40% 
  chance of ‘missing’ by up to a hundred metres (roll 
  d100 for the distance out and d8 for direction—1 
  = north, 2 = northeast, 3 = east, etc). If aiming for 
  a destination he has never seen, and is guided only 
  by another’s account, the caster has a 50% chance of 
  missing by up to a kilometre. 
   
  The Astral Gate will teleport only living beings 
  and whatever they are wearing or carrying. It is not 
  possible to lob a Shadowbolt through first, to take 
  care of anyone at the far end! As each character 
  passes through the Gate, a d6 is rolled. On a roll 
  of 6, the spell expires. A Sorcerer must take three 
  Combat Rounds to visualize his intended destina-
  tion before casting astral gate. Unless he takes this 
  precaution, there is a 60% chance that the far end of 
  the Gate will emerge onto another plane of reality, 
  and any character passing through will then be lost 
  forever.
  Bastion
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  Motes of glittering light spread from the caster’s 
  hands and rapidly spread, ‘painting’ a surface in the 
  air as they do. Within a second, an impenetrable 
  steel-grey barrier has been created. This barrier has 
  a maximum surface area of some 25 square metres, 
  and may be made to form a hemisphere roughly 4m 
  across (within which the Sorcerer may shelter while 
  healing himself or casting more defensive spells) or 
  a wall (blocking a dungeon corridor, perhaps, while 
   JH
  
  87
  the caster and his companions speed away from 
  their foes).
  Burden
  Range: 15m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  Cast at an area of ground, the Burden spell causes 
  the pull of gravity to become so overwhelmingly 
  strong that any being standing there will fall down 
  and be unable to move until the spell expires. Very 
  large creatures fare no better than smaller and 
  weaker ones: “the bigger they are...” The spell affects 
  a circular area up to 5m across, extending upwards 
  into the air no more than 3m. (It is not much use, 
  therefore, against a flying creature.) The caster’s 
  enemies have a chance to jump clear when he casts 
  the spell, and this is represented by matching the 
  spell’s speed of 16 against their evasion scores. No 
  such opportunity is available to those who blunder 
  into the zone once the spell has taken effect, how-
  ever; they are remorselessly pulled to the ground.
  Destrier
  Duration: see below
  This conjuration is usable only at night or in the 
  lightless depths of an underworld, as it summons a 
  demonic Warhorse which is driven back to its fey 
  world by the rays of the dawn. It will also vanish at 
  once if the Sorcerer dismounts. The Destrier is a sere 
  black steed clad in tarnished silver armour; its eyes 
  burn with an emerald light. Any seeing it will know 
  it to be a faerie beast, and characters of 1st–3rd rank 
  subtract 1 from attack when fighting it.
   
  The Destrier can carry its master across a hun-
  dred kilometres of open country or woodland in a 
  single night. It is fierce and terrible in battle, hav-
  ing an attack 17, defence 4, evasion 4, magi-
  cal defence 13, stealth 8, perception 12, and 
  elfsight (see p. 123). Its silver-shod hoofs and sharp 
  teeth deal damage as a normal Warhorse but with 
  +1 on Armour Bypass Rolls. It has 2d6+ 12 Health 
  Points and its silver barding gives it an Armour Fac-
  tor of 3.
   
  Note that it is only by this spell that a Sorcerer 
  can ride a Warhorse. Normal Warhorses are avail-
  able only to Knights, Barbarians and Warlocks.
  Evil Eye
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster of the spell becomes touched by the 
  spirit of the Fomori demi-god Balor, whose gaze is 
  Death. The caster’s left eye is filled with a fathom-
  less dark. Any character mêléeing him has a 40% 
  chance of meeting the hideous stare of this eye. This 
  check is made at the end of each Combat Round. 
  (The chance may be less than 40% if the caster’s 
  opponent looks away or shuts his eyes—as for Gaze 
  Attacks, p. 123). A character who looks into the 
  eye’s gaze is subject to a 1d12 Fright Attack (see 
  Fright Attacks, p. 122): a twelve-sided die is rolled 
  and the victim’s rank is subtracted from the score. If 
  the caster can roll less than or equal to the result on 
  2d10, the victim dies.
   
  The user of this spell temporarily loses sight in 
  the affected eye. Thus deprived of binocular vision, 
  he subtracts 1 point from attack and 2 points from 
  both defence and evasion while the spell lasts.
  Rune
  Duration: lasts until activated
  This is a notorious spell used as a magical trap by 
  high-ranking Sorcerers; experienced adventurers are 
  always wary of stumbling across a Sorcerer’s rune. 
  The rune is cast by inscribing an occult symbol on a 
  wall, flagstone, tapestry or other suitable object. The 
  Sorcerer can then cast into it any other spell that he 
  is able to use. This spell will be held by the rune and 
  released if anyone except the caster comes within 
  3m line of sight. The rune must be exposed if it is to 
  work, but Sorcerers can be quite artful in contriving 
  abstract murals or odd locations (the ceiling? behind 
  a door?) to keep others from noticing a rune before 
  it goes off. A Sorcerer may have only one rune at 
  any given time.
  Sorcerer Spells of Level Nine
  Animate Bones
  Range: touch
  By casting this over the skeletal remains of some 
  unfortunate whom he himself slew, the Sorcerer 
  can cause them to rise up as a Skeleton. It makes 
  no difference what skills the being possessed in life, 
  for this spell does not restore the original soul or 
  intellect. The Skeleton is merely a simple-minded 
  creature whose main virtue lies in total obedience to 
  its animator. All Skeletons thus have the same abili-
  ties: attack 10, defence 5, evasion 3, magical 
  defence 3 and 2–7 Health Points (roll 1d6 +1).
  the Book oF spells
  
  88
  Dragon Warriors
  Battlemaster
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  A supernatural, obsidian-armoured warrior is sum-
  moned from another Plane and bound in the caster’s 
  service for the period of the spell. The Battlemaster 
  is clad in magical mail armour and wields a magic 
  axe. His characteristics and scores are:
   attack 30, Axe (d8 +2, 8 points)  
  Armour Factor 6
  defence 24 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  evasion 8
  magical defence 17  
   
   
   
  stealth 12 
  24 Health Points   
   
   
   
   
  perception 18  
  (Strength 18; reflexes 13) 
   
   
   
  (panoptical)
   
  When the spell runs out the Battlemaster returns 
  to his own dimensional Plane, where any wounds 
  he has received are supernaturally healed before the 
  next time he is summoned. 
   
  Although any given Sorcerer can materialize the 
  Battlemaster only once per day, he exists on many 
  planes simultaneously and it is thus possible for two 
  Sorcerers actually to summon him at the same time. 
  If the Battlemaster should be ordered to attack him-
  self (i.e. another Battlemaster summoned by a dif-
  ferent Sorcerer), his two selves will merge into one 
  and he will be freed from the control of either sum-
  moner. He will then proceed to wreak havoc before 
  returning to his own world.
  Firestorm
  Range: 30m
  The caster flings a ball of snarling flames which 
  explodes into an inferno of 6m diameter. Characters 
  will take 4d10 +4 HP damage if they fail to jump 
  clear (match spell’s speed of 18 vs targets’ eva-
  sion)—and 4 HP damage even if they do, simply 
  from the peripheral heat of this terrible blast! A tar-
  get wearing magic armour (of any sort) may reduce 
  the damage he takes by 3 points; armour that is not 
  enchanted provides no defence.
  Invisibility
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster is rendered invisible. If his opponents 
  become aware of his general location (perhaps he 
  sneezed or knocked over a vase, or they saw him 
  begin to cast the incantation), he may be attacked 
  with spells. Direct-attack spells affect an invisible 
  target normally, but indirect-attack spells are subject 
  to a penalty of 1d8 speed points to represent their 
  likelihood of being slightly off-target. A character 
  attempting to mêlée the invisible Sorcerer incurs a 
  penalty of –4 from attack and –8 from defence 
  (just like fighting blind, of course—see p. 61). Mis-
  sile weapons are almost useless against one who is 
  invisible: the bowman halves his normal attack 
  and subtracts 3. Sir Balin, who has an attack of 
  13, therefore shoots at an invisible enemy as though 
  with an attack of only 4.
  Miracle Cure
  Range: 5m
  This spell restores the recipient to his normal Health 
  Point score, cures any diseases and eradicates any 
  toxins he is suffering from, and regenerates any 
  missing limbs or organs. As with the Lesser Healing 
  and greater Healing spells, it has no effect on a dead 
  character.
  Raise Fog
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  With the casting of this spell (which must be used 
  out-of-doors), a dense mist quickly rises to cover an 
  area 60m across by 5m high. This area is centred on 
  the Sorcerer’s position when he cast the spell. The 
  Sorcerer himself can see quite normally within the 
  fog, but for others the visibility is barely 3m. 
  Sorcerer Spells of Level Ten
  Doppelganger
  A soulless duplicate of a person known to the caster 
  can be created. The caster must first fashion a simu-
  lacrum of clay mixed with his own blood. This blood 
  can never be replenished, and the caster’s normal 
  Health Points score is permanently reduced by 1d4 
  points as a consequence. 
   
  After making the simulacrum, the caster must 
  acquire some item often used or worn by the person 
  he is trying to duplicate. A favourite cloak would do, 
  or a sword. With such an item in his possession, the 
  Sorcerer casts the spell and his simulacrum arises in 
  the likeness of the original.
   
  The Doppelganger has the physical character-
  istics and skills (including fighting ability) of the 
  
  89
  character it resembles, but not his knowledge skills. 
  It is a being without reason or volition, and will 
  simply obey its creator’s commands without ques-
  tion. Having no soul, it cannot walk on consecrated 
  ground and will not cast a reflection.
  Hecatomb
  Range: 10m
  This spell is applied to all beings, whether friend or 
  foe, within 10m of the caster. It is instant death for 
  any on whom it takes effect (match caster’s magical 
  attack vs victims’ magical defence). So potent 
  an attack is not without its cost. The spell causes a 
  severe magical backlash to its caster, represented by 
  the loss of 1–100 experience points. It is a price few 
  Sorcerers would be prepared to pay, except in the 
  most extreme circumstances.
  Pentacle of Entrapment
  Duration: lasts three days (and see below)
  This spell requires a large pentacle about 5m across 
  to be drawn or engraved. When the spell is cast, the 
  pentacle becomes a trap for the caster’s enemies. 
  The first 2–12 beings of up to 5th rank to come 
  within 20m (they must be able to see the pentacle) 
  are subject to the spell. 
   
  Those on whom it takes effect (match caster’s 
  magical attack vs victim’s magical defence) 
  will be instantaneously transported within the pen-
  tacle’s boundary. Though unharmed, they will be 
  powerless to escape unless they know the ‘key’ word 
  (arbitrarily chosen by the Sorcerer when he cast 
  the spell) that unlocks the Pentacle of Entrapment. 
  The spell is also negated if any part of the pentacle 
  design is erased, but this cannot be accomplished by 
  one trapped within it.
  Resurrect
  Range: touch
  This spell will restore life to a character who has 
  been dead for no more than one lunar month 
  (twenty-eight days). The revitalized character per-
  manently loses 1d3 Health Points, and for a week 
  after rising from the dead his Strength and Reflexes 
  are half normal. resurrect must be cast at sunrise, 
  and the effort of employing it renders the caster 
  unable to use any spells above the fifth level for the 
  rest of the day. This means that Sorcerers are usually 
  very reluctant to cast resurrect, whatever their rank. 
  Even if persuaded to do so, the Sorcerer is likely 
  to charge at least two hundred gold crowns for his 
  service.
  Scry
  Duration: lasts three minutes
  The use of this spell enables the Sorcerer to look into 
  a specially prepared obsidian mirror (his ‘Speculum’) 
  and call up images of people, far-off places and past 
  events. If asked to show a place, the mirror will 
  show only a general view, not a specific location. A 
  request to “Show me the tower of Mizar the magi-
  cian” would bring a view of the building’s exterior. 
  The Sorcerer can then move his scrying viewpoint 
  around, but not through physical barriers such as 
  walls and closed doors, nor onto consecrated ground. 
  The mirror transmits images only; the Sorcerer can 
  hear nothing of what is said by those he spies upon. 
  An observed Sorcerer or Mystic of equal or greater 
  rank will know when another descries him, and may 
  use Dispel Magic to cancel the spell (this also causes 
  the Speculum to shatter).
   
  When the Sorcerer desires to look on past events, 
  he must know the time when the event in question 
  took place to within twelve hours. If he has some 
  object which was on the scene at the time he wishes 
  to view, such knowledge is unnecessary. 
   
  Constructing the mirror needed for this spell 
  will cost the Sorcerer 30–180 (3d6 ×10) gold crowns 
  and will take a week. He may not then construct a 
  second Speculum unless and until the first shatters.
  Transformation
  Duration: lasts three minutes
  The caster may alter his form to become any crea-
  ture whose rank-equivalent does not exceed his 
  own rank. His Health Points, magical attack 
  and magical defence scores are unaffected by the 
  change, but his fighting skills become those of the 
  new form. Note that the Sorcerer acquires only the 
  physical abilities of his new form, not the magical 
  ones. If Limorien Transforms himself into a Gorgon 
  then his hair will turn to deadly snakes but he will 
  not get the monster’s petrifying stare.
   
  A Sorcerer cannot use magic while in altered 
  form, unless the form is of a creature which is basi-
  cally humanoid so that he can make the necessary 
  hand-gestures.
   
  Transformation lasts three minutes (30 Combat 
  Rounds), though the caster may of course terminate 
  it before then if need be.
  the Book oF spells
  
  90
  Dragon Warriors
  These are the spells usable by Mystics. Remember 
  that the Mystic’s rank sets the upper limit on the 
  level of spells he can cast.
  Spells of Level One
  INVIGORATE
  MIRAGE
  SEE ENCHANTMENT
  SUSPENDED ANIMATION
   Spells of Level Two
  DARKSIGHT
  DAZZLE
  MIGHT
  PURSUIT
  Spells of Level Three
  ALLSEEING EYE
  MIND CLOAK
  NOURISH
  TELEKINESIS
  tell whether a weapon or talisman were magical, but 
  would not be able to sense impermanent enchant-
  ments, such as the presence of a Command spell.
  Suspended Animation
  The Mystic is able to sink into a deep coma, out-
  wardly resembling death. This coma lasts for any 
  preset duration up to a year and a day. Even ESP 
  will detect no thoughts, but in fact the Mystic does 
  remain aware of his surroundings—except that his 
  mental processes are slowed by a factor of sixty.
  Mystic Spells of Level Two
  Darksight
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The Mystic acquires the ability to see in darkness 
  like an Elf. That is, he can see with perfect clarity 
  by moonlight or under a star-filled night sky, and in 
  the pitch dark of an underworld as though it were 
  deep twilight.
  Spells of Level Seven
  DUEL
  LEVITATION
  PARALYSIS
  PROTECTION
  Spells of Level Eight
  INTANGIBILITY
  MINDPOOL
  SWIFTNESS
  TRANCE
  Spells of Level Nine
  IMPREGNABLE SPHERE
  PHOENIX
  TELEPORT
  THUNDERCLAP
  Spells of Level Four
  CLAIRVOYANCE
  ENTHRALL
  HIDDEN TARGET
  TELEPATHY
  Spells of Level Five
  FORCE FIELD
  MYSTIC BLAST
  PASS UNSEEN
  TRUTHSENSE
  Spells of Level Six
  ASSESSMENT
  PURIFICATION
  STEEL CLAW
  SURVIVAL
  Mystic Spells of Level One
  Invigorate
  The Mystic converts psychic energy into physical 
  energy, releasing a powerful restorative force into his 
  body. He regains two Health Points. The spell will 
  not increase his Health Point score above its normal 
  level, of course.
  Mirage
  Range: 10m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  A visual illusion is created, of anything the caster 
  wishes so long as it is no bigger than man-sized. 
  The Mirage can be ‘programmed’ to perform a set 
  of actions (e.g. a guard marching up and down out-
  side a door) or it can be controlled mentally, like a 
  holographic puppet. There is a 10% chance that the 
  Mirage will be recognized as such at first glance.
  See Enchantment
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  While this spell is in effect, the Mystic is able to see 
  powerful concentrations of magic energy. He could 
  MYSTIC SPELLS
  
  9
  Dazzle
  This spell produces a flash of brilliant light that 
  will all but blind any sighted creature within 5m 
  for one full Combat Round. This gives the Mystic 
  the chance to escape from his foes or make one free 
  strike while they are dazzled, making them –8 from 
  defence.
  Might
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  A powerful spell for use in combat, this has the effect 
  of increasing the Mystic’s Strength. If his normal 
  Strength score is 15 or less, it temporarily increases 
  to 16; if normally 16 or more, it increases to 19.
  Pursuit
  Duration: lasts one day
  This enables the Mystic to follow the psychic spoor 
  of a person or creature whom he knows or has had 
  described to him. He may thus track his quarry over 
  terrain of any sort, and in all weathers.
  Mystic Spells of Level Three
  Allseeing Eye
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies 
  This extends the Mystic’s power of vision beyond 
  the visible spectrum, enabling him to perceive any 
  invisible object or being within 10m. The Mystic 
  sees the invisible shapes as featureless silhouettes.
  Mind Cloak
  Duration: lasts ten minutes
  This spell puts up a psionic shield around the Mystic, 
  preventing detection by ESP, Scry or similar magi-
  cal means. If the caster is being tracked by another 
  Mystic using the Pursuit spell, this spell will cause 
  the latter to lose his ‘scent’.
  Nourish
  This spell ensures the Mystic need never starve 
  when he has no food or water. A single casting pro-
  vides him with refreshment and nourishment for a 
  full day.
  Telekinesis
  Range: 25m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This is the classic parapsychic ability to move and 
  manipulate objects at a distance by the power of the 
  mind. The spell affects a single object of up to 0.5kg 
  weight. The maximum velocity at which an object 
  can be moved by Telekinesis is about 15m per Com-
  bat Round, making for a rather ineffective missile 
  (speed 8 to dodge, and doing no appreciable dam-
  age on impact anyway). 
   
  The Mystic may wield a dagger by Telekinesis, in 
  order to mêlée an opponent at a distance; he would 
  do so with half his normal attack (telekinetic con-
  trol is quite clumsy) and doing 1 HP less damage for 
  a successful blow (because there is little strength in 
  the spell).
  Mystic Spells of Level Four
  Clairvoyance
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell intensifies the Mystic’s inherent paranor-
  mal senses, and so confers the ability to see anything 
  within 5m even through solid objects. A full 360° 
  arc of ‘vision’ is obtained, making it very difficult to 
  take the Mystic unawares.
  Enthrall
  Range: 5m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster must match his magical attack against 
  his target’s magical defence. If successful, this 
  spell warps its victim’s judgement so that he believes 
  the Mystic to be his friend. This delusion does not 
  destroy the victim’s loyalty to his real friends, how-
  ever, and neither does it make him well-disposed 
  towards the Mystic’s companions. He will believe 
  anything the Mystic tells him and, unless the Mys-
  tic openly attacks him, will trust him completely 
  until the spell wears off.
  Hidden Target
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell enables the Mystic to pick off targets with 
  arrow, sling or thrown dagger even if blindfolded. 
  He ignores the usual penalties for poor visibility. 
  Even in thick fog or if the target is invisible, the 
  Mystic shoots as if he could see him perfectly. He 
  must know there is someone to shoot at, though—
  he cannot just walk into a room and lob off a few 
  arrows ‘on spec’ in case there should happen to be 
  an invisible Sorcerer about.
  the Book oF spells
  
  9
  Dragon Warriors
  Telepathy
  Range: 10km
  Duration: lasts ten minutes
  The Mystic is able to communicate telepathically 
  with another (who must be known to him) over con-
  siderable distances. Communication is in the form 
  of images as well as words, so different languages 
  need not prove an insurmountable obstacle. Note, 
  however, that two characters from totally different 
  cultures (a medieval wizard and an Inca priest, for 
  instance) may be simply unable to think in the same 
  terms.
  Mystic Spells of Level Five
  Force Field
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies (and see 
  below)
  This spell protects the Mystic with a thin, invisible 
  force barrier. When a blow is struck against him, the 
  Force Field absorbs the damage and prevents it from 
  harming him. Once it has absorbed a total of 15 HP 
  damage, the Force Field collapses. It gives no protec-
  tion from magical weapons, spells or other forms of 
  attack (such as flames or poisonous fumes).
  Mystic Blast
  Range: 30m
  This spell takes the form of a psychic force bolt. The 
  caster must match the spell’s speed of 16 against 
  the target’s evasion. If it strikes its target, the bolt 
  inflicts 3d6 +1 HP damage. The target may reduce 
  this damage by his Armour Factor, if any. (A char-
  acter in mail armour would take only 3d6 –3 HP, 
  for example.)
  Pass Unseen
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The Mystic becomes invisible... up to a point. He 
  can walk right past his enemies and they will not 
  notice him. This is not as good as true invisibility 
  (the high-level Sorcerer variety) because he will still 
  reflect in a mirror, and becomes visible at once if he 
  tries to attack anybody or casts another spell. Also, 
  the spell will only fool beings of 1st to 4th rank/
  rank-equivalent.
   JH
  
  93
  Truthsense
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  While the spell lasts, the Mystic is able to tell with 
  85% accuracy when someone is lying to him. That 
  is, if a character tells him a lie, d100 is rolled. On 
  a roll of 01-85, he knows it to be a lie. On a roll 
  of 86-00, he is not sure one way or the other. The 
  d100 roll is made secretly by the GamesMaster, for 
  obvious reasons.
  Mystic Spells of Level Six
  Assessment
  Range: 10m
  By means of this spell the Mystic can instantane-
  ously assess all characters within range and deter-
  mine the following: their Profession, rank (or rank-
  equivalent) and current Health Points. Assessment 
  is blocked by Mind Cloak, and will not give any 
  information about characters above 10th rank.
  Purification
  This spell cleanses the Mystic’s body of all ailments 
  and poisons, and heals up to 8 Health Points if he 
  is wounded.
  Steel Claw
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster’s hand is transformed into a rigid talon 
  of gleaming metal. When he strikes with this in 
  combat, he uses a d12 for Armour Bypass Rolls and 
  inflicts 8 HP damage with each successful blow.
  Survival
  Duration: lasts one day
  The Mystic is able to endure extremes of heat and 
  cold such as might be experienced under a blazing 
  desert sky or in an arctic waste. He is not protected 
  from direct exposure to fire. Survival also enables 
  the Mystic to go without air for up to an hour after 
  drawing a single breath.
  Mystic Spells of Level Seven
  Duel
  Duration: see below
  To use this spell, the Mystic must close in mêlée 
  with an opponent. The spell shifts both the Mystic 
  and his opponent out of phase with the rest of the 
  universe; they remain visible only as a flickering, 
  indistinct blur. 
   
  Out-of-phase characters are on another plane, 
  and cannot affect (or be affected by) their surround-
  ings. Unable to move from the spot where they 
  ‘phased out’, the two combatants must continue 
  their battle until one is slain. Only then does the 
  spell terminate, returning them—alive or dead—to 
  the normal world.
  Levitation
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies, and see below
  This spell allows the caster to rise up into the air 
  and float around. Levitational movement is quite 
  slow—only 10m per Combat Round (normal walk-
  ing speed, in other words). 
   
  This spell requires concentration to sustain. If 
  the Mystic wants to enter mêlée or cast another 
  spell, he must first cancel the Levitation.
  Paralysis
  Range: 15m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster must match his magical attack against 
  his target’s magical defence. This spell, if it takes 
  effect, results in paralysis of all the voluntary mus-
  cles. It will work only on a living being. The victim 
  collapses at once, but remains conscious. 
   
  Another Mystic who was affected by this spell 
  could still cast spells of his own, since Mystics need 
  only the power of their psyche to work magic and 
  do not rely on the chants and arcane gestures of the 
  Sorcerer.
  Protection
  Duration: lasts until Dispelled, and see below
  A potent spell which adds 2 points to the caster’s 
  magical defence and increases his Armour Factor 
  by 2. 
   
  The caster can sustain the Protection spell indefi-
  nitely if he chooses to, but he must add +1 to the 
  die roll whenever he makes a Psychic Fatigue Check 
  (see page 74 in Chapter 9) while the Protection spell 
  is in effect.
  the Book oF spells
  
  94
  Dragon Warriors
  Mystic Spells of Level Eight
  Intangibility
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The Mystic and any items he is wearing or carrying 
  become intangible. He can pass through solid objects 
  as though they were not there. While intangible a 
  magical weapon is required to hit him in combat. 
  Indirect-attack spells like Firestorm pass harmlessly 
  through his insubstantial form, though direct-attack 
  spells are still fully effective. The Mystic must take 
  care when using this spell, for if it expires while he 
  is inside a solid object he will die.
  Mindpool
  Range: 3m
  Duration: lasts thirty seconds (5 Combat Rounds)
  This spell enables two Mystics to combine their 
  power for a brief time. With multiple castings of the 
  spell, more Mystics can be included in the Mind-
  pool—up to five individuals at one time. Mystics in a 
  Mindpool each resist hostile direct-attack spells with 
  the total magical defence of the whole group, and 
  each casts his own spells with the highest magical 
  attack of the group.
  Example
  Two Mystics have reached the main burial chamber of 
  an ancient barrow. Suddenly they are aware of cloaked 
  shapes loping towards them: wights! The senior Mys-
  tic casts Mindpool, linking himself with his 4th-rank 
  companion. They add their magical defence scores 
  together: 7+12 in this case, so each now has an effective 
  magical defence of 19. The 4th-rank Mystic is still 
  only able to cast spells up to level four—but that includes 
  the direct-attack spell Enthrall, which he can now cast 
  with his companion’s magical attack of 21.
  Swiftness
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This accelerates the caster’s metabolism and speeds 
  his physical movements. He gets two actions of his 
  own to every one Combat Round experienced by 
  those around him. The first action must be taken 
  at the very start of each CR, and the second at the 
  point in the CR (determined by his Reflexes score) 
  when he would normally get to act. The actions 
  might be two 10m moves, or a move and an attack, 
  or any other combination of actions. What the 
  Mystic cannot do is cast two spells in one CR. This 
  is because he continues to think at the normal rate.
  Trance
  Duration: lasts ten minutes
  The Mystic enters a trance-like state while his psy-
  chic self, or ka, is freed from his body and is able to 
  travel up to five kilometres away. The ka can see and 
  hear, but is ethereal and cannot interact with or be 
  seen by others. However, if it comes into the pres-
  ence of a character of equal or higher rank then the 
  latter will be able to sense it. Another Mystic could 
  then use Pursuit to trace the ka back to its body.
  Mystic Spells of Level Nine
  Impregnable Sphere
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The Mystic is surrounded by an invisible force bub-
  ble that blocks all physical attacks: missiles, crea-
  tures, indirect-attack spells, etc. Attacks of this type 
  can pass neither into nor out of the impregnable 
  Sphere. Direct-attack spells (which entail a magical 
  attack vs magical defence roll) are not impeded. 
  The Sphere will not move around, so the Mystic 
  must remain in one spot while the spell lasts.
  Phoenix
  This spell allows the Mystic to return from the 
  dead. He (or more accurately his spirit-self) must 
  cast it the Combat Round after he is slain. The body 
  immediately begins to smoulder and then burns 
  fiercely; no natural means can douse this blaze. 
  After 5 Combat Rounds (thirty seconds) the Mystic 
  arises from his own ashes like the bird of legend. All 
  his wounds are healed by the spell, but his Health 
  Point score is permanently reduced by one. The 
  revivifying fire will also destroy any equipment that 
  was on his body—only exceptional magic items may 
  survive, and this is at the GamesMaster’s discretion. 
  This spell cannot be cast more than once a week.
  Teleport
  By using this spell, the Mystic can vanish and reap-
  pear at another point within 100m. He can only tel-
  eport to somewhere he has been before, or which is 
  in his line-of-sight when he casts the spell.
  Thunderclap
  Range: 1m
  The Mystic can blow a wall down with one shout! 
  In fact, the shout is a focus for the immense destruc-
  
  9
  tive energy of the psyche. If directed at an opponent 
  who fails to jump clear (match the spell’s speed of 
  12 vs the target’s evasion), the spell inflicts 6d6 +6 
  HP damage. Unenchanted armour gives no protec-
   
   
  Earth Elementalist Spells
  Level
  1.   
  ABUNDANCE
  2.   
  SPIDER MAGIC
  3.   
  FOREST MURMURS
  4.   
  CREATE BOG
  5.   
  ROOTS
  6.   
  ROCK WALL
  7.   
  FISSURE
  8.   
  GIVE UP THE DEAD
  9.   
  TREMOR
  10.   
  SUMMON THE MAN OF STONE
  Air Elementalist Spells
  Level 
  1.   
  CUTTING POWR OF THE MIND
  2.   
  STARGAZE
  3.   
  FALSE RUMOURS
  4.   
  WINDWALL
  5.   
  SUMMON THE HOST OF THE AIR
  6.   
  INTANGIBILITY
  7.   
  GARROTTE 
  8.   
  FLIGHT
  9.   
  SPIN
  10.   
  BANSHEE
  Water Elementalist Spells
  Level
  1.  
  RAIN
  2.  
  WAVE MASTERY
  3.  
  ICEWALL
  4.  
  WALK ON WATER
  5.  
  ICE SPEAR
  6.  
  BREATHE UNDER WATER
  7.   
  BLIZZARD
  8.   
  FREEZE
  9.   
  LIGHTNING
  10.   
  SUMMON TSUNAMI
  tion from this, and even enchanted armour absorbs 
  only 2 HP. The Thunderclap can be used to smash 
  a 2m-wide hole in stone walls up to half a metre 
  thick.
  Fire Elementalist Spells
  Level
  1.   
  CANDLE
  2.   
  PYROTECHNICS
  3.   
  FIRE ARROW
  4.   
  SHEET OF FLAME
  5.   
  PROTECTION FROM FIRE
  6.   
  EXTINGUISH
  7.   
  FLASH
  8.   
  FIRE WEAPON
  9.   
  CONFLAGRATION
  10.   
  SUMMON THE HOLOCAUST
  Darkness Elementalist Spells
  Level
  1.  
  CATSPAW
  2.  
  DARKEYES
  3.  
  BENIGHT
  4.  
  CURTAIN OF NIGHT
  5.  
  JAVELIN OF DARKNESS
  6.  
  SHADOWFALL
  7.  
  SUMMON THE CREATURES OF THE
   
   
  NIGHT
  8.   
  ECLIPSE OF THE MOON
  9.   
  SHADOW SELF
  10.  
  SUMMON BALOR, PRINCE OF DARKNESS
  the Book oF spells
  ELEMENTALIST SPELLS
  
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  Dragon Warriors
  Earth Spells
  The basic equipment and spell-focus for all Earth 
  Elementalists is a gnarled vine root fashioned into 
  the shape of a staff.
  1. Abundance 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The Elementalist must find a soft patch of earth 
  into which to thrust his staff. He may then cast 
  the spell on to the staff; any fruit, of the Elemen-
  talist’s choice, will emerge sprouting from the side 
  of the haft. This will occur at the rate of one fruit 
  per Round until the Spell Expiry Roll takes place. 
  A whole feast of fruit may be provided in this way, 
  given lucky rolls!
  Darkness: If this spell is cast by a Darkness Elemen-
  talist, the fruit produced contains a medium poison, 
  although superficially it is even more appetizing 
  than the fruit produced above.
  2. Spider Magic 
  Range: 10m
  This is essentially a concealing spell. The sorcerer 
  may cast the spell on a well-used path, for exam-
  ple, and immediately the undergrowth will spring 
  up making it look disused; or he may cast the spell 
  over an archway and spiderwebs will appear, making 
  it seem as if no one has passed in this direction for 
  a long time. Any such non-aggressive, creative use 
  of animal signs or limited plant growth is allowed. 
  It will only affect an area in a 10m radius of the 
  caster.
  Darkness: If this spell is cast by a Darkness Elemen-
  talist, the plant growth/spider webbing etc. will 
  not cease within a 10m radius but will continue 
  to expand at a rate of 1m per Round until a Spell 
  Expiry Roll takes effect. The plant growth is acidic 
  and, if touched, will cause the loss of 1 Health Point 
  or one point of permanent damage to a character’s 
  Armour Factor if he is wearing armour. The spider’s 
  web is similarly acidic.
  3. Forest Murmurs 
  Duration: 10 minutes
  This spell allows the caster to communicate with 
  wayside plants. The plants’ memory only stretches 
  back for twenty-four hours, and they have no sight 
  so cannot describe the appearance of people or 
  things that have passed their way. However, they 
  will be able to report the number of people and the 
  time they passed (whether daylight or at night), 
  report snatches of their conversation, etc. They are 
  also capable of detecting the aura of magic. Unfor-
  tunately this method of communicating with inani-
  mate bodies is not totally foolproof and the GM 
  should roll for a 10% chance of the information 
  being a false rumour.
  Darkness: Any Darkness Elementalist, fearing that 
  he is being followed, may cast the spell on a large 
  stretch of path where he thinks his pursuers or ene-
  mies may stop. If they attempt to cast the normal 
  Forest Murmurs spell, the rumours that the pursuers 
  receive will always be false ones.
  4. Create Bog 
  Range 10m. 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This is an aimed spell and the caster must pit the 
  spell’s speed of 12 against his opponent’s evasion. 
  If the opponent fails to dodge, he will find that the 
  ground at his feet has turned to a thick, viscous sludge 
  which will temporarily immobilize him. Characters 
  wishing to escape embogment should make a d20 
  roll under their Strength for each Round they are 
  thus trapped. If they make the throw, the GM must 
  assume they have managed to pull themselves free 
  of the mire.
  Darkness: The bog so created is a bottomless one 
  and a character thus captured will sink without trace 
  unless he pulls himself free or is otherwise saved. 
  Both categories are subject to the normal Spell 
  Expiry Rolls.
  5. Roots 
  Range 20m. 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The sorcerer casts a directional spell which causes 
  any roots around the vicinity of his opponent’s feet 
  to spring from the ground and grasp at his ankles. 
  The spell will affect any opponent within a 2m 
  radius of where the spell lands. The number of roots 
  appearing will vary depending on terrain: 
   
  Forest:   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  10 roots 
   
  Open ground, temperate climate:  6 roots
   
  Open ground, cold climate:  
   
  4 roots
   
  Open ground, dry climate:   
   
  2 roots
   
  Desert; indoors; stone flooring:  
  0
  Each root has to be evaded, and each has a speed of 
  16. Characters are immobilized when held by a root. 
  If the character is held by four roots, assume that all 
  
  97
  his limbs have been pinned and that he is borne to 
  the ground, unable to move until the Spell Expiry 
  takes place. A character who still has one hand free 
  can attempt to hack himself clear by striking out 
  at each root around him. The roots have 4 Health 
  Points each.
  Darkness: The roots called up not only seize limbs 
  but also strangle and crush: assume damage (d6, 4) 
  for each root in contact with the victim.
  6. Rock Wall 
  Range 10m 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  An Elementalist may cast this spell on any free-
  standing rock and make it grow to ten times its nor-
  mal size, on condition that the sorcerer is capable of 
  physically lifting the original rock by himself. As a 
  rough guide, only rocks half the size of the average 
  human body can be lifted in this way. These rocks 
  can be used to block up doorways, topple down on 
  enemies, etc. The rocks will keep their blown-up 
  shape until a Spell Expiry Roll takes place.
  Darkness: The same as above, but no Spell Expiry 
  Roll takes place and the transformation is perma-
  nent. A Darkness Elementalist could entomb some-
  one behind one of these large rocks forever.
  7. Fissure 
  Range 1m
  This spell causes a permanent 3m-wide fissure to 
  appear in any surface in front of the caster. The fis-
  sure will extend 5m to either side of the caster and 
  will be 5m in depth. Anyone standing in the affected 
  area must evade the speed of the fissure (18) or fall 
  into it (1d6 damage). Anyone trying to jump the 
  fissure will find that they have to roll under their 
  Reflexes on a d20 to succeed. A fissure will appear in 
  any terrain, on the surface or underground.
  Darkness: The pit is filled with churning teeth of 
  rock that will prove to be instantaneously fatal to 
  anyone falling into it. A Spell Expiry Roll applies to 
  these ‘teeth’, although in both cases the fissure will 
  remain a permanent feature.
  8. Give up the Dead 
  Range 10m
  The caster calls up the buried remains of all those 
  interred within a 10m radius. This applies to human 
  the Book oF spells
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  98
  Dragon Warriors
  corpses as well as animal ones. It does not apply to 
  any body that has not been buried at least one lunar 
  month. These Undead creatures will serve the caster 
  as bodyguards or perform simple tasks for him, but 
  they are subject collectively to a Spell Expiry Roll, 
  so their usefulness may be of limited duration. The 
  state of the temporarily resurrected bodies will vary 
  somewhat, but assume that all humans disinterred 
  have the basic skeleton characteristics.
  attack 11  
   
   
   
   
  Armour Factor 0
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m
  magical defence 3 
   
   
  evasion 3 
  Health Points 1d6 +1   
   
  Rank-equivalent: 1
  For animal skeletons, assume that they have half 
  the Health Points, attack, defence and magi-
  cal defence that a living member of their species 
  would have.
  Chances of raising the dead
  Graveyard or other  
   
  95% of producing 1-12
  burial ground:   
   
   
  skeletons
  Ancient ruins,    
   
   
  60% of producing 1-6
  catacombs etc.:  
   
   
  skeletons 
  Open ground:   
   
   
  10% chance of producing 1-2
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  skeletons
  Once the Spell Expiry Roll takes effect, the corpses 
  will fall to the ground as heaps of bones.
  Darkness:  The necromancy is permanent, and the 
  skeletons of man and beast will follow the spell 
  caster until they are destroyed.
  9. Tremor 
  Range 20m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell causes a violent tremor of the earth’s 
  surface which increases in intensity as time elapses. 
  The spell affects an area 10m across and anyone or 
  anything in this radius will find that they are taking 
  damage. The spell is subject to a Spell Expiry Roll. 
  Consult the table below for damage.
  round Effect
  1   
  A slight shaking in the earth’s surface is noticeable 
  beneath the soles of the feet. The surface of liquids 
  held in cups etc. begins to ripple, birds leave their 
  nests and take flight.
  2   
  The earth is now vibrating so fast that the surface 
  of it ripples. If it is covered by flagstones or other 
  similar surface these will begin to gently undulate 
  up and down. All animals in the area will cry out 
  in fear. Fixtures on the wall will fall from their 
  hangings and cups will overturn, spilling their 
  contents.
  3 
   
  The first round in which anyone still in the vicinity 
  of the tremor will take damage. The shaking is 
  now so intense it jars the bones, cracks paving 
  stones and exposes the roots of trees. Damage 1d4 
  (armour doesn’t protect).
  4 
   
  Human jaw bones are now chattering together like 
  castanets, the walls of buildings are shaking, and 
  cracks are appearing in them. Paving stones appear 
  like waves rolling on a sea. It is nearly impossible 
  to keep one’s footing (d20 roll under reflexes). 
  Damage 2d4 (armour doesn’t protect).
  5   
  No one can stand up and hence escape the zone 
  of the tremor. Destruction is assured for them and 
  they will take a further 1d4 damage to the 2d4 
  damage per round that they are already taking. 
  If in an enclosed space, ceiling masonry will now 
  begin to fall, posing an additional threat. Fissures 
  will appear in the earth, swallowing humans, trees, 
  articles of domestic furniture, or whatever else is 
  appropriate to the place.
  6   
  Total destruction: normal wooden buildings 
  (but not citadels or castles) will collapse in on 
  themselves, the earth will split open revealing a 
  great chasm into which all things will fall and 
  where nothing can survive. 
  Darkness: The effect of the spell is not subject to an 
  Expiry Roll: the destruction of any wall or building 
  in the area where this spell is cast is assured.
  10. Summon the Man of Stone
  If the Elementalist finds himself in a rocky area 
  where there is plenty of free-standing stone, he may 
  summon up a titanic figure made of rock who will 
  serve him until the Spell Expiry Roll takes place.
  attack 30  Fist (d8 +2, 8)  
   
  Armour Factor 6
  defence 24 
   
   
   
   
   
  evasion 8
  magical defence 17  
   
   
  Health Points 24
  The Stone Man will be able to break through walls 
  and always travels in a directly straight line once 
  freed of its summoner’s control. It will disappear 
  after exactly one hour.
  Darkness: The creature summoned is different to 
  that above. It battens on to the flesh of living men, 
  delighting in grinding their bones between its stony 
  jaws. Such a Stone Man released on a settlement 
  could devastate its population within minutes, so it 
  is perhaps fortunate that, like its relative above, this 
  juggernaut only remains on this plane for one hour’s 
  duration. Like the species above, the titan moves 
  in straight lines and can burrow through cliffs and 
  subterranean tunnels.
  
  99
  Air Spells
  To cast spells all Air Elementalists must carry an 
  Aeolian Harp, a musical instrument with strings 
  that create melodies when blown in the wind.
  1. Cutting Power of the Mind 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster invokes the power of air to enhance his 
  thoughts, cutting through all distractions like a 
  sharp knife. His Intelligence temporarily increases 
  to 18, or, if already 18, to 19. In addition to the 
  usual benefits of his newly increased Intelligence, he 
  gains a +2 bonus on all attack rolls when wielding 
  any ranged weapon; he is capable of influencing its 
  movement even when it is in flight, using the power 
  of his mind alone. 
  Darkness: As above, except that the ranged weapon 
  gains a +1 bonus to Damage also.
  2. Stargaze
  The element of Wind and Air leads one’s thoughts 
  naturally to the sky. Stargaze is a sorcerous ability to 
  reduce the effect of hardship on the caster’s mind, 
  making him able to bear hunger for a week with-
  out visibly weakening, and enabling him to stand 
  in combat although his Health Point total may 
  have gone below 0. If the caster should continue 
  in combat until he is at –3 he will collapse dead. 
  Stargaze will also allow the caster to hold his breath 
  underwater for twice the usual time, endure twice 
  the strength of heat as any other man, twice the cold 
  etc. Each casting of the spell lasts for one day.
  Darkness: The caster may negate the effects of 
  adversity altogether. Wounds inflicted on him will 
  cause no reduction in his Health Points, nor will fire 
  and lack of air. Food will act like a poison on the 
  body. At the same time, the caster will not be able 
  to affect anyone or anything else physically; thus, he 
  will not be able to enter into combat or even open a 
  door although he will be able to pass through a Wall 
  of Fire totally unharmed. This condition will last for 
  exactly one day. At the end of that day the caster 
  must make a roll against a magical attack of 1d6 
  +10 or he will find that his body begins to evaporate 
  into a vapour until all that is left of him is a thin 
  wraith of ethereal smoke.
  3. False Rumours
  An aural version of the various illusion spells used by 
  other magicians, this allows the the caster to subdue 
  the spirits of the air and makes them set up aural 
  illusions to mislead the enemy. Any distortion may 
  be added to the sound (scraps of a conversation, the 
  clank of armour, the sound of falling bodies, march-
  ing armies, song, etc.) to make these noises in some 
  way threatening to the person listening to them.
  Darkness: The sound created is always that of a 
  demoniacal moan that will turn the hearer mad (see 
  page 124) if they fail to resist a Fright Attack of 14 
  (see page 122).
  4. Windwall 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster may create a wall of wind around his 
  body, or use the wall to block a corridor immedi-
  ately in front or behind him. The wall of wind thus 
  created is 1m thick and stretches for more than 10m 
  to either side of the caster of the spell. Stepping into 
  the wall is rather like stepping into the centre of 
  a typhoon: on the first round anyone doing so will 
  take 1d8 points of damage (armour does not pro-
  tect) and will continue to do so for as long as they 
  remain in the wall. The only way to break through 
  the wall is to roll under one’s Strength on 2d20. The 
  wall is subject to a normal Spell Expiry Roll.
  Darkness:  The wall will advance forward at the rate 
  of 1m per round and therefore can be used offen-
  sively against people trapped at the ends of corri-
  dors, etc.
  5. Summon the Host of the Air 
  Range: 1 mile
  The caster attracts to himself all those creatures 
  currently in flight through the medium of air in 
  a one-mile radius. These he may instruct to do as 
  he wishes, getting them to attack his enemies or 
  instructing them to spy out the land, etc. The caster 
  will be able to communicate in simple terms with 
  the summoned creatures. Some terrains may not, 
  of course, be suitable for various types of creature. 
  There may not be even a single insect in an arctic 
  waste or an arid desert, but assume the following in 
  a temperate climate:
  1d6  
  result
  1   
  A few miscellaneous insects.
  2   
  Insects as above and one or two birds.
  3   
  A swarm of insects and one or two birds.
  4   
  A cloud of stinging insects.
  5   
  A bird of prey that could attack an opponent.
  6   
  A flight of birds of prey, capable of carrying the
   
   
  caster in flight
  the Book oF spells
  
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  Dragon Warriors
  Darkness: The caster always manages to summon 
  a swarm of insects and a flight of birds of prey to 
  himself (as in 6 above).
  6. Intangibility 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell allows the caster to pass through the 
  thickest of walls as if they were made of air: no bar-
  rier will be able to stop him apart from enchanted 
  metal. (which will cause 1d6 points of damage to 
  his incorporeal body). The spell is risky, particularly 
  if the caster wishes to travel some distance under-
  ground or through a wall. The spell is subject to 
  a normal Expiry Roll and if it wears off while the 
  magician is travelling through something solid, he 
  will be instantly crushed to a pulp. While intangible, 
  the caster cannot cause any damage in combat etc. 
  Darkness: If he wishes, the Darkness Elemental-
  ist may reverse the effect of the spell and cast it on 
  to an opponent, thereby making him ineffective in 
  combat. A normal magical attack vs magical 
  defence roll must be made, of course.
  7. Garrotte 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell (which must be dodged—speed 19) 
  causes a mysterious constricting band to appear 
  around the throat of an opponent, exerting enough 
  pressure to throttle them if the caster so wishes, 
  although the pressure can be relaxed or increased as 
  he desires. The only way to release the grip of the 
  garrotte is for the victim to roll under his Strength 
  on 3d20, in which case he has broken the cord. Oth-
  erwise assume 3 Health Points of damage taken by 
  the victim each round until he is dead.
  Darkness:  If the victim does not evade the spell, the 
  air implodes around his head causing 1d20 points of 
  damage automatically and leaving the victim deaf.
  8. Flight
  The caster may use this on himself and fly through 
  the air for one hour. The spell can only be used on 
  another person by Darkness Elementalists. When in 
  flight, assume that the caster can move through the 
  air at twice normal movement rate. He may carry 
  anything up to his normal encumbrance, but this 
  will usually preclude carrying other people unless he 
  is either very strong or has shed all his equipment. 
  Darkness:  Darkness Elementalists may cast Flight 
  on to other people (their magical attack vs magi-
  cal defence) but can only control that person’s 
  flight whilst they are still in sight. The controlled 
  persons cannot in any way control their own flight. 
  Indeed, the Darkness Elementalist may find putting 
  flight on to one of his enemies and then flying them 
  into the ground from a great height a convenient 
  way of disposing of them.
  9. Spin
  A character may cast this on an opponent (who has 
  a chance to resist its effects). If they fail they will 
  begin to rotate, slowly rising into the air. The rota-
  tion of their body will become quicker and quicker 
  until they eventually fly apart limb from limb. If 
  a Spell Expiry takes place they will immediately 
  return to the earth, over which they will have been 
  spinning at a height of 2m. Assume the character 
  will take 1d2 damage per round of spinning (no 
  armour protection).
  Darkness: The effect is the same, apart from the fact 
  that the victim will bore down into the ground caus-
  ing 1d6 damage per round (no armour protection).
  10. Banshee
  The Elementalist may summon a Banshee, an ani-
  mate vortex of violent, shrieking wind. The Ban-
  shee will deafen anyone within a 10m radius apart 
  from the spell-caster. The Elementalist may direct 
  the Banshee to attack one opponent specified by 
  himself. The Banshee will pursue this victim until 
  it has achieved its goal, which is to implode upon 
  its victim. This implosion causes immediate death 
  on the victim’s part. Summoning a Banshee requires 
  the expenditure of 5–50 (5d10) Experience Points 
  on the part of the caster.
  Darkness: The Banshee thus summoned will not be 
  satisfied by just one victim but will run amok, its 
  shrieking increasing as it sucks in the screams of its 
  victims. It will only dissipate once it has destroyed 
  one hundred victims. A Banshee summoned by a 
  Darkness Elementalist costs the caster 10–100 
  (10d10) Experience Points.
  attack 17, Implosion (Death)  
  Movement: 25m
  defence 12 
   
   
   
   
   
  evasion 8
  magical defence 16  
   
   
  Health Points 18 
  (immune to nonmagical weapons)
  Water Spells
  Water Elementalists must carry a crystal vial of the 
  purest spring water, to maintain spiritual contact 
  
  0
  with their chosen element. Without this contact 
  they are unable to cast any spells.
  1. Rain
  The caster causes a light rainfall in a small area of 
  5m radius; this will last for five minutes and will 
  yield two gallons of drinkable water if it is all col-
  lected. The rain can also be used to extinguish the 
  lights of foes, etc. 
  Darkness: The spell is the same except that the water 
  is now mildly acidic, although this is not immedi-
  ately noticeable when it is being drunk or touched. 
  Treat the water as a mild poison (p.122) if drunk, or 
  as a weak acid which will corrode armour etc. if it is 
  exposed to the water for a long time.
  2. Wave Mastery
  The Elementalist may control the movement and 
  direction of the waves in a radius of 10m around 
  himself, being able to propel any size of ship in a 
  particular direction, even when the ship would oth-
  erwise be becalmed. Similarly, he can reduce wave 
  activity. Thus a 6m wave can be reduced in size to a 
  3m one, and other wave movement can be similarly 
  halved; queasy lords often employ the services of 
  Water Elementalist on a long sea journey.
  Darkness: The Darkness Elementalist may propel 
  other craft away from him using wave mastery. He 
  can also create one mini tidal wave of 6m height and 
  aim it at any given target. A 6m wave will swamp 
  any small craft about the size of a small fishing-
  boat. Other ships can expect to be badly damaged 
  (1d6 Ship Points loss; see p. 214) by being struck 
  by the wave.
  3. Icewall
  The caster may throw up a wall made of solid ice in 
  front of him, around himself, or around an opponent 
  as long as they are standing within the 2m radius of 
  the spell’s effect. The ice wall is 1m thick and will 
  extend 5m to either side of the caster. If the spell 
  is used offensively the victim will be entrapped if 
  he fails to evade the spell speed of 10. It will take 
  one man-hour to break through the ice wall with 
  a weapon although the ice will have completely 
  melted within six hours in a temperate climate.
  Darkness: The ice barrier does not melt and is more 
  impervious to the blows of humanity. As a spell of 
  entrapment it is more useful than the version above. 
  It will take one day for the victim to break through 
  the barrier (assuming he has a sword, axe or mace to 
  use for this purpose) and the ice itself will not melt 
  even in the brightest sunshine.
  4. Walk on Water 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The Elementalist may cast this spell on himself to 
  become able to walk on any watery surface as if it 
  were solid ground. Unfortunately this spell is sub-
  ject to an Expiry Roll, so many an Elementalist has 
  been discomfited by suddenly disappearing beneath 
  the surface on which he was treading in front of his 
  friends. It is therefore perhaps advisable for use on 
  short crossings only.
  Darkness: The Spell Expiry Roll does not apply to 
  the Darkness version of the above spell: instead the 
  caster may walk on the water for exactly one hour 
  before the effects of the spell wear off.
  5. Ice Spear
  A glittering shard of ice, the shape and length of a 
  normal throwing spear, will appear in the Elemen-
  talist’s hand. No matter what the caster’s normal 
  attack is, it will be 20 with this weapon, reflecting 
  the magical homing qualities it is imbued with. The 
  spear is effective over the normal ranges for a javelin 
  (p. 69) and will do (d10, 8). It will instantly dissolve 
  on impact with the target.
  Darkness: The same as above, except that if the ice-
  spear penetrates armour then the victim is subjected 
  to a direct attack spell (caster’s magical attack vs 
  victim’s magical defence) of Paralysis (see p. 93).
  6. Breathe under Water
  The caster will find that without holding his breath 
  he is able to stay underwater for ten minutes at a 
  stretch. At the end of this period he will have to 
  resurface or he will begin to drown. 
  Darkness: The Elementalist may reverse the effect, 
  so that his victim will not be able to breathe nor-
  mal air for ten minutes. Unless he can get to water 
  before he blacks out, he will suffocate on dry land. A 
  successful magical attack vs magical defence 
  roll is required for the spell to take effect.
  7. Blizzard
  Duration: Spell Expiry roll applies
  The Elementalist may call down a thick blanket of 
  swirling ice particles 20m across. He may either use 
  this to conceal himself and the people that he is with 
  (there is a 5m-wide sphere of clear air at the centre 
  of the area of effect), or he may use it offensively 
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  Dragon Warriors
  against opponents. Defensively, anyone entering the 
  blizzard will have their movement rates halved and 
  their visibility reduced to the level of extreme dark-
  ness. The caster, however, will be able to see anyone 
  enter the blizzard from the protected central sphere 
  at its heart. 
   
  Similarly, the Elementalist may make the bliz-
  zard descend on a party of his enemies as long as 
  they are no more than 20m distant. Again, he will 
  be able to see clearly, but they will not be able to 
  unless they reach the heart of the storm at the centre 
  of the blizzard.
  Darkness: The ice particles are razor-sharp. Any-
  one moving through the storm will find that the 
  ice particles do 2 points of damage to naked flesh 
  per round, or will strip away 1 Armour Factor point 
  every round that armour is exposed to them.
  8. Freeze 
  This is an offensive spell which can be directed 
  at any enemy within 60m. A jet of freezing water 
  emerges from the caster’s hands with a speed of 16: 
  if the victim does not evade the jet, he is immedi-
  ately covered from head to toe in freezing ice and 
  will be totally immobilized for ten rounds. Victims 
  must also roll to survive the shock of the cold-water 
  jet. The victim must roll under his current Health 
  Points on d20 or be assumed to have died of shock.
  Darkness: This is similar to the above, except that 
  the speed of the spell is 20.
  9. Lightning
  Although many would categorize lightning under 
  the elements of Air or Fire, its province is properly 
  that of Water, lightning being the harbinger of vio-
  lent storms and deluges. During such a storm the 
  Water Elementalist becomes extremely powerful, 
  acting as a conduit for the supernatural forces of 
  the sky and directing them on to the earth. Holding 
  up a copper rod, which is part of the equipment of 
  all such Elementalists, he will attract the lightning 
  down on to himself, but will not take any damage. 
  The copper rod will then become charged and the 
  Elementalist will be able to do the following with it 
  (three uses):
  1.  Fire lightning bolts at opponents: these bolts have 
  speeds of 20 and cause 12 points of damage. Even 
  if the victim survives this damage, he still has to roll 
  under his remaining Health Points on a d20 or die 
  from the electric shock.
  2.  Animate a corpse: if the rod touches a new corpse (not 
  dead longer than one month) it will become animated 
  and function very much like a Zombie would for the 
  period of a day (for Zombies, see p. 253).
  3.  Create a force field: anyone entering within a radius of 
  20m of the caster will automatically receive a 3-point 
  loss to their Health Points. They will continue to lose 
  another 3 points per round that they remain in the 
  area, or until the effect wears off. It will wear off when 
  the magician shifts his ground.
  Darkness: The caster has five uses of the above pow-
  ers. Alternatively, he can use up the entire charge (all 
  five uses) to animate a single corpse as a permanent 
  Zombie, rather than the type that lasts a single day.
  10. Summon Tidal Wave
  The caster can create a 10m-high wall of water from 
  the surface of a lake or the sea and direct it towards 
  any target he chooses. The tidal wave can wreak ter-
  rible devastation amongst shipping, swamping all 
  but the largest cogs to the extent of 2d10 Ship Points 
  damage. Coastal towns can be flooded—possibly 
  with the loss of hundreds of lives. Ranked characters 
  may survive inundation by rolling equal to or under 
  their rank on 1d12, but even if this roll succeeds the 
  character takes 1d6 Health Points damage. The wall 
  of water can only penetrate about half a mile inland 
  and is only 30m across. Each casting of the spell 
  costs the Elementalist the permanent loss of 1d4 
  Health Points. 
  Darkness: The tidal wave will roll on over land, 
  spurred by some occult power that only those mas-
  ters of the Darkness element are familiar with. Its 
  movement rate is 20mph (50m per combat round) 
  and it will destroy everything in its path. The tsu-
  nami will dissipate according to the normal Spell 
  Expiry Rolls.
  Fire Spells
  All Fire Elementalists wear an amulet of volcanic 
  rock around their necks. Without this amulet they 
  are utterly unable to focus their magical energies.
  1. Candle
  The caster may create a magical candle that will 
  glitter in the air in front of him and will not go out 
  even when it is immersed in water. The candle and 
  its illumination are not visible to anyone else but the 
  caster. It has the range of light of a normal torch 
  (10m) and will last for one hour.
  
  03
  Darkness: The candle will create an area of dark-
  ness around the caster, and people standing out-
  side the range of the candle will only be able to see 
  indistinctly the form within it, no matter if there is 
  strong daylight or other illumination (add 3 to eva-
  sion and defence).
  2. Pyrotechnics 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster may create any illusions involving light 
  and fire he chooses. Thus, he may wish to create 
  the impression of a torchlight procession, fire fairies 
  that flit across the moonlit glades or ghostly shades 
  lurking in graveyards. As with any illusion there is a 
  5% chance of ‘disbelieving’ pyrotechnics. The Spell 
  Expiry Roll applies.
  Darkness: The caster will be able to create monstrous 
  illusions from the shadows or revenants. As above, 
  there is a normal chance of disbelieving these.
  3. Fire Arrow
  The caster may create a fire arrow by placing this 
  spell on an enchanted arrow. It will immediately flare 
  up with occult flames, but these will in no way harm 
  the caster as he notches the arrow on to his bow and 
  shoots. The shot involving the fire arrow will always 
  be as if shot with a bonus of +5 to attack, doing 
  (d10, 10) damage and, of course, setting anything 
  inflammable on fire in the process.
  Darkness: An arrow of darkness will be produced 
  that will do the damage described above with the 
  same attack bonus, etc.
  4. Sheet of Flame 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster may produce a wall of fire, 1m across and 
  5m to either side of him. This may also be used to 
  surround himself or an opponent. Anyone trying to 
  cross this barrier will automatically take 8 points of 
  damage. As a protection to the caster, this wall of 
  fire is a mixed blessing. Although it can protect the 
  caster, the flames also suck away his oxygen supply 
  and, unless he disbands the spell within six rounds, 
  this will be totally used up and he will pass out. If 
  the spell is used in order to trap an opponent, they 
  will have an opportunity to jump out of the mount-
  ing ring of fire that springs up around them. The 
  speed of the fire is 14. Opponents thus trapped will 
  also pass out within six rounds unless the wall is dis-
  pelled or it expires.
  the Book oF spells
  SN
  
  04
  Dragon Warriors
  Darkness: Darkness Elementalists can get the Sheet 
  of Flame to move forward at the rate of 1m per 
  Round.
  5. Protection from Fire 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster becomes immune to all fire damage as 
  long as he has already placed the spell upon himself 
  before entering the combat or danger zone where he 
  is likely to be harmed.
  Darkness: The Elementalist is protected from flame 
  as above. In addition, any offensive spell involving 
  the use of fire will rebound upon the spell caster 
  with their own magical attack.
  6. Extinguish
  The caster will cause all light, whether natural or 
  magical, to be doused in a one mile-radius of him-
  self. He himself will be able to see as if it were broad 
  daylight in this area. The Elementalist may also 
  extinguish fires in this way.
  Darkness: As well as the lights going out in the 
  area, the Darkness version of the above spell will be 
  accompanied by a dank and dismal rain.
  7. Flash
  The Elementalist causes a blinding flash of light 
  to appear in the sky: anyone not consciously avert-
  ing their gaze (roll under Reflexes on 1d20) will 
  be blinded for 2d10 Rounds and must fight at –4 
  attack and –8 defence until the effect is gone. 
  The flash will be visible at a distance of ten miles 
  during the day and fifty miles at night.
  Darkness:  The blindness is permanent and can only 
  be alleviated by Dispel Magic.
  8. Fire Weapon 
  Range 20m
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell, when cast upon a mêlée weapon, will 
  make it glow with a white-hot heat, increasing its 
  armour penetration and its damage factor by 2 each. 
  The weapon will not damage the wielder’s hand in 
  any way.
  Darkness:  The heat of the weapon is so intense that 
  no armour can protect against it at all: the victim’s 
  Armour Factor is assumed to be 0.
  9. Conflagration
  The caster may start a fire at a distance of a mile 
  from where he stands merely by gesturing to the 
  place where he wishes the fire to start, or by conjur-
  ing up in his mind’s eye a place which he has visited 
  in the past week. The fire produced will be of the 
  strength of a roaring bonfire and will easily catch on 
  any combustible material in the area near it.
  Darkness: If the fire is started in a domestic build-
  ing, all the doors and windows of the building will 
  mysteriously jam or lock, preventing the escape of 
  the people inside.
  10. Summon the Holocaust
  The Holocaust is a being made entirely of fire and 
  stands over 3m tall. Its touch will set alight a wooden 
  wall or gradually melt metal objects, and no human 
  can stand beside it for more than a round without 
  being horribly scorched. To summon one of these 
  creatures, the Elementalist needs the bones of one 
  who has been killed by fire and must cast these up 
  in the air, muttering a ritual incantation. The fire-
  being will then appear and serve the caster for one 
  hour on this plane.
  attack 32, Fist of Fire: (d10 +2, 10)
  defence 26 
   
   
   
   
  evasion 8
  magical defence 19  
   
  Health Points 28
  Darkness: The methods and the effect are similar 
  to above, except that after the hour time period the 
  Holocaust will not disband but will begin to act on 
  its own accord, feasting on all the combustible things 
  in the area. It will continue to burn for one day.
  Darkness Spells
  Darkness Elementalists require as a magical focus 
  an Orb of Darkness. At low levels this can only be 
  obtained from a fellow Darkness Elementalist; but 
  at level 8 the Elementalist is supposed to travel to 
  the Lost City of Nem (see the book The Prince of 
  Darkness) to construct their own Orb there.
  1. Catspaw 
  Duration: 10 minutes
  This spell allows the caster to move with absolute 
  silence over all surfaces, be they broad paving stones 
  or brittle twigs. At the same time the character casts 
  no shadow. The character gains +1 stealth for 
  every 2 ranks he has attained. 
  Geas: The absence of shadow will become perma-
  nent after ten uses.
  
  0
  2. Darkeyes 
  Duration: 1 hour
  The character will be able to see perfectly even in 
  pitch blackness. The limits of vision are the same as 
  for a normal character during the day, except that 
  the Darkness Elementalist will be able to detect 
  infinitesimally small movements that would not 
  normally be noticed by a character during daylight. 
  Geas: If a sudden light is produced in front of a 
  Darkness Elementalist using this particular spell, he 
  will be blinded for 1d20 rounds.
  3. Benight 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This creates a zone of darkness 10m across, which 
  the caster can direct over one or more of his enemies 
  if they are grouped suitably. This zone will move on 
  to the opponents with a speed of 20. Anyone failing 
  to dodge will find themselves lost in an area of com-
  plete and utter inky darkness in which their com-
  bat abilities will be reduced as if they were fighting 
  blind. A nameless dread will come over them and 
  they must try to resist the caster’s magical attack, 
  or fall prey to one of the madnesses listed in the 
  Madness Table (see p. 124).
  Geas: If no one succumbs to madness, the caster 
  himself is attacked by a magical attack of 30; if 
  the attack is successful, he goes mad himself (con-
  sult the Madness Table, p. 124).
  4. Curtain of Night 
  Duration: Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The Elementalist casts a wall of darkness in front of 
  himself. This barrier is 1m wide and extends 5m to 
  either side of him. Although the spell caster can see 
  through the barrier, anyone on the other side cannot 
  see back through it. The Elementalist can cast spells 
  through the barrier, but no hostile spell magic can 
  reach him: all spells involving fire or light cast at the 
  barrier will be reflected back on the caster with the 
  same magical attack as the caster’s.
  Geas: If the Darkness Elementalist ever passes 
  through his own Curtain of Night (voluntarily or 
  not), he is attacked by a magical attack equiva-
  lent to his own which, if successful, causes him to 
  fade away to nothingness, leaving behind only his 
  shadow (if he still has one).
  5. Javelin of Darkness
  A mystic javelin appears in the Elementalist’s hands 
  as he casts this spell. If he hurls it at an opponent 
  or opponents, the spear affects them with the cast-
  er’s magical attack. Success leads to their being 
  blinded; although the javelin may only effectively 
  ‘hit’ one opponent (doing (d6, 3) damage if it does), 
  its magically blinding effect will take place within a 
  10m radius of where it lands.
  Geas: A black, star-shaped sooty patch will appear 
  on the palm of the Elementalist’s hand after three 
  successful uses of this spell.
  6. Shadowfall
  The Elementalist casts this spell over a one-mile 
  radius. An eerie premature twilight settles over this 
  area as if it were dusk, even if it is the middle of the 
  day. If the spell is cast at night then the darkness 
  becomes utter and terrible. All creatures in the area 
  are subject to an attack of Phobia (see the Madness 
  Table, p. 124). A character failing to resist will be 
  seized by panic and run for 2–12 hours from the 
  epicentre of the spell (NB: the panic lasts longer 
  than the normal phobia attack). 
  Geas: After three successful uses of this spell, the 
  Elementalist becomes prone to intermittent attacks 
  of sunlight phobia.
  7. Summon the Creatures of the Night
  The sorcerer raises the following dire phantasms 
  from the shadows of the night. These creatures will 
  remain until an hour before sunrise, serving the 
  caster’s wishes (roll 1d6):
  1.  Bats (see p. 238)
  2.  Giant Spider (see p. 250)
  3.  Ghost (see p. 241)
  4.  Hag (see p. 243)
  5.  Wraith (see p. 253)
  6.  Spectre (see p. 250)
  These phantasms are illusory, but unless disbelieved 
  (see p. 103) they will create the same psychic and 
  physical effects as the ‘real’ versions. Characters will 
  therefore take damage, suffer Fright Attacks etc. 
  unless they disbelieve them.
  Geas: Every time the Darkness Elementalist casts 
  this spell he must resist becoming a creature of the 
  shadows, an insubstantial Wraith (see p. 253). Roll 
  a magical attack of 2d8 +1 against the character’s 
  magical defence.
  8. Eclipse of the Moon
  The caster may cause a temporary eclipse of the 
  moon for ten Rounds: this will cause a Fright Attack 
  the Book oF spells
  
  06
  Dragon Warriors
  (see p. 122) on anyone observing it with a strength 
  of 12. Anyone failing to resist the effect of the spell 
  will become permanently phobic about darkness 
  (see the Madness Table, p 124).
  Geas: A shadowy half-moon will appear on the 
  character’s forehead once he has cast this spell three 
  or more times.
  9. Shadow Self
  By a great effort of will, the caster of this spell 
  detaches his self from his body, slipping away from 
  it by means of his shadow (anyone noticing this 
  transformation would see the caster’s shadow flow-
  ing away from him and eventually detaching itself 
  from his body). 
   
  Once at a suitable distance from the old body, 
  the shadow will reform into a corporeal shape that 
  is an exact duplicate of the caster’s body (complete 
  with his persona and ‘soul’) except that he will have 
  Spells of Level Four
  AEGIS*
  NEUTRALIZE 
  TOXIN
  ORACLE
  TURNCOAT 
  VITALITY 
  Spells of Level Five 
  FORCE OF WILL* 
  HELLFIRE 
  SLOW 
  SOULBANE 
  TERMINATE
  ENCHANTMENT 
  Spells of Level Six
  ANNIHILATE
  LUNACY
  PANOPLY* 
  SIGIL OF DESTINY
  VAPORIZE
  lost 1 Health Point permanently in the transition. 
  The old body will continue performing actions for 
  another ten rounds after the Shadow Self has left it, 
  but its Intelligence has been drained to zero and it 
  therefore cannot cast spells.
   
  After this time the body will crumple in on 
  itself rather like a punctured balloon and fall to the 
  ground as a lifeless husk. This spell is obviously use-
  ful to the Darkness Elementalist in an impossible 
  combat situation where death is inevitable. 
  Geas: The permanent loss of 1 Health Point.
  10. Summon Balor, Prince of Darkness
  The eyes of Balor are death and no one has seen 
  him and lived, not even his disciples who dwell in 
  the Lost City of Nem beneath the frozen lake of 
  Nimmur. The geas of summoning Balor is therefore 
  death to the caster, as it is to everyone else within a 
  20m radius.
  These are the spells available to Warlocks. A War-
  lock can only cast spells of levels up to and includ-
  ing his rank. There are some spells that a Warlock 
  is able to cast simultaneously as one action. These 
   
   
  Spells of Level Seven
  NEMESIS 
  PACIFY
  RUNIC WEAPON*
  SPELL SCREEN
  THE TRICKSTER’S HAND 
  Spells of Level Eight
  DEMON PATH
  ENERGY BOLT
  GAUNTLET
  KILLING FRENZY*
  REINCARNATE 
  Spells of Level Nine
  FLYING STEED
  INVULNERABILITY
  SIMULACARUM
  SONG OF BATTLE*
  TELEPORT
  WARLOCk SPELLS
  spells are marked with an asterisk on the spell list 
  that follows. Assuming that he has enough Magic 
  Points, a Warlock can cast two of these asterisked 
  spells in one Combat Round. 
  Spells of Level One
  EYES OF NIGHT*
  HEAL INJURY
  IMPERIL
  PERCEPTION OF SORCERY
  SILENT WARRIOR 
  Spells of Level Two
  CAMOUFLAGE 
  FEARLESSNESS* 
  FORTUNE
  INQUIRY 
  WARNING 
  Spells of Level Three 
  DECEIT 
  ENHANCEMENT* 
  HAVOK 
  ILLUSION 
  TELEKINESIS
  
  07
  Warlock Spells of Level One
  Eyes of Night
  Range: 20m
  Duration: lasts for ten minutes
  The Warlock’s eyes glow brightly, casting a beam 
  of red light to a distance of 20m. This enables him 
  to see perfectly even in utter darkness, and by look-
  ing at something he can illuminate it so that his 
  companions can see it. Use of this spell temporar-
  ily reduces the Warlock’s stealth score by 2 and 
  negates any chance of surprising his enemies.
  Heal Injury
  Range: touch
  The caster can use this spell to recover 1d4 HP when 
  wounded. Alternatively, he can use it to treat an 
  injured comrade. The spell cannot bring a character 
  back from the dead (reduced to –3 HP or below), 
  nor increase a character’s Health Points above his 
  normal score.
  Imperil
  Range: touch
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  For this spell to take effect, the Warlock must touch 
  the intended victim within one Combat Round 
  of casting: that is, his next action after casting the 
  imperil spell must be a successful hit either with his 
  hand or a mêlée weapon. If his Hit Roll fails, the 
  spell is wasted. The spell will pass through cloth-
  ing and armour, however, and does not depend on 
  a successful Armour Bypass Roll. If it takes effect 
  (match caster’s magical attack vs target’s magi-
  cal defence), the victim is rendered more vulner-
  able to wounds. Any wound he takes from a mêlée 
  weapon (i.e. swords, spears, etc., but not arrows or 
  crossbow bolts) while the spell lasts will be for 1 
  Health Point more than usual. A character under 
  this spell thus takes 5 HP damage from a normal 
  sword, 7 HP from a battleaxe and so on.
  Perception of Sorcery
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell enables the Warlock to sense magic 
  within a range of 3m. By concentrating on an object 
  or being, he may be able to determine whether it 
  is enchanted or under the effect of a spell. He is 
  not able to determine anything about the nature 
  or strength of the spell. Perception of Sorcery is not 
  infallible; a d20 roll is made (by the GM) for each 
  object/person scrutinized, and the Warlock only 
  senses any spells present if the roll is under his Psy-
  chic Talent score. (Having got a negative result, suc-
  cessive examinations of the same object/person will 
  continue to yield the same result unless a spell is 
  later cast on it—see the description of Sixth Sense 
  on p. 34). The Warlock must take a full Combat 
  Round for each object or being he wishes to investi-
  gate using this spell.
  Silent Warrior
  Range: 5m
  Duration: lasts one Combat Round
  A phantasmal warrior is created to strike at one of 
  the caster’s enemies, or perform some other action 
  taking no more than one round. The Silent Warrior 
  cannot be harmed, but he can be dispelled by means 
  of a Ring of Negation, Dispel Magic or Terminate 
  Enchantment if there is time to do this before he 
  attacks. He strikes at the end of the Combat Round 
  in which he was created; his attack score is 18 and 
  his greatsword is a (d10, 5) weapon. After this single 
  blow, he fades out of existence.
  Warlock Spells of Level Two
  Camouflage
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies 
  This spell enables the caster to blend in with what-
  ever he is standing against, covering him with the 
  illusion of a stone wall, a hedgerow, an open field 
  or whatever. He adds +2 to his stealth score and 
  suffers no stealth penalty for lack of cover (see 
  p. 63). However, he only gains these benefits when 
  more than 5m from his enemies—at closer ranges 
  the Camouflage spell is ineffective.
  Fearlessness
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies 
  While under this spell, the Warlock cannot be 
  affected by Fright Attacks (see p. 122). The spell 
  prevents him from experiencing the emotion of fear. 
  It does not turn him into a berserker. Low-ranking 
  characters are apt to become a little reckless when 
  using the spell, but more experienced Warlocks will 
  be accustomed to its effects and should be better 
  able to distinguish between lack of fear and lack of 
  caution.
  the Book oF spells
  
  08
  Dragon Warriors
  Fortune
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This is an all-purpose ‘good luck’ charm. It enhances 
  the Warlock’s chance of success in anything he 
  attempts. In game-terms, he may add or subtract 1 
  from any dice roll he makes—but he can only apply 
  its modifier to one dice roll in any given Combat 
  Round. That means that he could increase his 
  chance of hitting an opponent, say, but he could not 
  also increase the chance of the same blow striking 
  through armour. He must declare when he is tak-
  ing advantage of the spell’s effect before making the 
  roll. The spell also may be used to influence rolls 
  made by the GM on the player’s behalf. It cannot 
  influence rolls made by other characters (e.g. a Hit 
  Roll made by the Warlock’s opponent). The Fortune 
  spell itself is excluded from its effect; the caster can-
  not use it to influence its own Spell Expiry Rolls.
  Inquiry
  This spell enables the caster to assess instantane-
  ously all characters within a radius of 15m to deter-
  mine whether they are protected by some defence 
  (such as Spell Screen or Wall of Magic) which shields 
  against direct-attack spells. The caster may also be 
  able to determine the strength of such defences. The 
  chance of doing this is rank ×20%: the GM rolls 
  d100, and if the score is less than or equal to the 
  Warlock’s rank ×20 then he is told the strength of 
  the magical defences. 
   
  If the roll fails (and a 96–100 is always counted as 
  a failure in this case) then the GM gives a mislead-
  ing result within 1d8 Magic Points of the defence’s 
  actual strength. inquiry does not distinguish 
  between the various types of direct-attack shields, it 
  merely informs its caster of the total Magic Points 
  (or spell-levels, in the case of a Mystic) that could 
  be blocked by the shields at the instant of probing 
  (A Spell Screen cannot be distinguished from a 5 MP 
  Wall of Magic, for example.)
  Warning
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  A small bell, apparently fashioned of red gold, 
  appears in the air behind the caster and floats 
  noiselessly along with him when he moves. Being 
  ethereal, it cannot be seized out of the air or sepa-
  rate from the caster by any means. Its function is 
  to produce a warning clangour if he is about to be 
  attacked, thus negating any chance of surprise or 
  shock attack against him.
  Warlock Spells of Level Three
  Deceit
  Range: touch 
  Duration: lasts one day
  The Warlock can apply this spell to a character 
  (including himself) or object so that detection spells 
  will obtain a false reading. He could, for example, 
  apply it to an enchanted talisman so that it would 
  register as non-magical under Detect aura, or use it 
  to make himself appear more or less powerful than 
  he really is to a Mystic using the assessment spell. 
  The spells and abilities which may be fooled by 
  Deceit are: ESP and Premonition, Detect aura and 
  oracle, See Enchantment and assessment, Perception of 
  Sorcery and Warning. The spell always works against 
  characters whose rank does not exceed the War-
  lock’s. More experienced magic-users have a chance 
  (20% per rank higher than the Warlock’s) of real-
  izing they are being deceived.
  Enhancement
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell temporarily increases the Warlock’s 
  Strength and Reflexes: if the characteristic is 17 or 
  less it increases to 18, if it is normally 18 it increases 
  to 19. After the spell wears off, both characteristics 
  are depleted 1 point below their normal scores until 
  sunset. The Warlock can go on to use this spell a 
  second and third time, etc., in the same day—but 
  each use depletes the normal characteristic scores by 
  a further point, and he must not reduce either score 
  below 1.
  Havok
  Range: 12m
  This releases a glittering wave of energy that engulfs 
  a single being; according to legend, it is sometimes 
  possible to glimpse a giant ghostly hawk within the 
  light of the blast. If it hits its target (match spell’s 
  speed of 14 vs target’s evasion), the spell inflicts 
  3d10 HP damage. The damage roll is reduced by 
  the target’s Armour Factor (if any).
  Illusion
  Range: 20m
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  Except for the different Spell Expiry probability, 
  this is identical to the Sorcery spell of the same 
  name (see p. 82). An illusion of up to 2 cubic metres 
  volume can be created, and even if examined closely 
  
  09
  there is only a 5% chance of distinguishing it from 
  reality. An illusory sentry thus looks and sounds just 
  like a real person, and even feels solid to the touch. It 
  can made to seem to attack someone who believes it 
  and (although it is illusory and therefore not able to 
  actually harm him) its sword will make a convincing 
  clang and give off a shower of illusory sparks when 
  it strikes his own.
   
  The illusion can be cast onto a character (includ-
  ing the caster) in order to give a near-perfect dis-
  guise, with the single limitation that the illusion 
  must be equal in at least one linear measurement to 
  the size of the thing it is covering.
  Telekinesis
  Range: 25m
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This is the same as the Mystic spell of the same 
  name (see p. 91). The caster can lift and move an 
  object weighing up to 500 grams (1 pound) with-
  out touching it. Telekinesis does not move an object 
  with any great speed or force—a missile would 
  have a speed of 8;, while a dagger or cudgel could 
  be wielded at half the caster’s normal attack, but 
  would inflict only 2 HP on a successful hit.
  Warlock Spells of Level Four
  Aegis
  Duration: 1d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The aegis spell provides the Warlock with a magical 
  protection which takes effect when he is about to 
  be struck by a weapon (whether in mêlée or by an 
  arrow, etc.) or by an indirect-effect spell (see p. 75). 
  On a roll of 1 on 1d6 the attack is negated.
  Neutralize Toxin
  Range: touch
  Duration: 1d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  While this spell is in effect, poisons that enter the 
  character’s body are immediately neutralized. If the 
  spell is cast on a character after he has been poisoned 
  then it will prevent him taking further damage but 
  will not restore any Health Points already lost.
  Oracle
  Duration: lasts for one minute
  This duplicates a Sorcerer’s ability to contact the 
  spirit Plane and put questions to its denizens (see p. 
  82). Three yes/no questions may be asked within the 
  the Book oF spells
  AH
  
  0
  Dragon Warriors
  one minute the spell lasts, and there is a 75% chance 
  that the spirits will know the answer to each. If they 
  do not know they will answer randomly, and will 
  also do this if the question is phrased ambiguously. 
  Questions about the future or a character’s thoughts 
  will not be answered—the spirits speak only of tan-
  gibles, not speculations and fancies.
   
  It is quite important for the GM to time a 
  player-character who uses this spell. Players should 
  not be allowed to look at a watch, as accurate time-
  keeping devices are very rare in the medieval world 
  of Dragon Warriors.
  Turncoat
  Range: 5m
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  If successful (match caster’s magical attack vs 
  target’s magical defence), this spell causes a single 
  enemy of the caster’s party to switch sides and attack 
  his own comrades. It can only be cast once a fight is 
  in progress, and has no effect on a lone foe (i.e. one 
  who has no comrades to turn against). An affected 
  character does not lose his hostility to the caster—if 
  and when he has slain all his own companions, he 
  will resume his attack on the caster’s party even if 
  the spell is still operating.
  Vitality
  This restorative spell has the effect of adding up to 
  12 HP to the Warlock’s Health Points score when 
  he is injured. It will not take him above his normal 
  (unwounded) Health Points score, of course. Vital-
  ity can only be used to heal the Warlock himself; it 
  has no effect on another character.
  Warlock Spells of Level Five
  Force of Will
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell gives the Warlock the ability to com-
  pletely ignore pain, allowing him to stay in combat 
  until virtually hacked apart if need be. He does not 
  black out on reaching 0 HP and must be reduced to 
  –20 HP in order to kill him. Under the effect of this 
  spell it is thus possible to endure terrible wounds 
  and then use Vitality or Heal injury to restore one-
  self before the spell wears off. Of course, if the Force 
  of Will spell should expire when the Warlock’s HP 
  score is –3 or less, then he dies at once.
  Hellfire
  Range: 15m
  Duration: lasts until dispelled or extinguished
  A character or creature who succumbs to this spell 
  (match caster’s magical attack vs target’s magi-
  cal defence) immediately bursts into flames. He 
  takes 3d6 HP damage every round until the Hellfire 
  is extinguished. Armour gives no protection (it is 
  the victim’s body that is burning), and non-magical 
  armour will be burnt away by the flames, losing 1 
  point from its Armour Factor each round. 
   
  The Hellfire can be countered with Dispel Magic 
  or Terminate Enchantment, or the flames can be 
  beaten out. This requires a roll of 6 on 1d6, but 
  before attempting this, each round the victim must 
  roll equal to or under his rank on d8. Failure means 
  that he starts to panic and can do nothing to save 
  himself. Comrades can also try to put out the flames 
  by pouring on water, smothering them with a cloak 
  or whatever; each character attempting this rolls 
  1d6 and, as before, the flames go out on a roll of 
  6. Helping in this way is risky, though, because any 
  character within 2m of the victim suffers 1d6 HP 
  burn damage every round (in this case, less Armour 
  Factor, if any).
  Slow
  Range: 12m
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies 
  This causes 1-8 beings to move and think at half 
  normal speed (caster’s magical attack vs targets’ 
  magical defence). Slowed beings may only act in 
  alternate Combat Rounds. Unless he has higher 
  reflexes than the Warlock and has thus acted already, 
  an affected character loses his action (see p. 71) for 
  the Combat Round in which the spell is cast.
  Soulbane
  Range: 15m
  With this spell the Warlock can fling a tendril of 
  black fire that burns the psychic essence of the one 
  it strikes (match spell’s speed of 17 vs target’s eva-
  sion). The effect of the spell is to reduce the target’s 
  magical attack (if any) and magical defence 
  by 2d8 points. If the target is wearing enchanted 
  armour then he can reduce the dice rolls by the 
  armour’s magic bonus. Neither score will be reduced 
  below 0, and depleted scores recover at the rate of 
  1 point every Combat Round. Note that this is an 
  indirect-effect spell and is not impeded by Wall of 
  Magic, Spell Screen, etc.
  
  
  Terminate Enchantment
  Range: 5m 
  Terminate Enchantment dispels a single durational 
  spell. As with Dispel Magic, it does not affect spells 
  which were cast with more Magic Points than itself. 
  If he directs it at a character who is under more than 
  one durational spell, the Warlock must specify which 
  spell he is trying to terminate—if he does not, the 
  GM determines randomly which spell is affected.
  Warlock Spells of Level Six
  Annihilate
  Range: 15m
  This silent spell affects a single being of up to 8th 
  rank or rank-equivalent (match caster’s magical 
  attack vs target’s magical defence). The victim 
  is utterly destroyed and cannot be restored to life by 
  any known means.
   
  Special note: If a player-character or important 
  NPC should fall prey to an annihilate spell, the GM 
  may allow the other player-characters to discover 
  some way to bring him back to life. This should 
  not be an easy task—Divination or another magical 
  source might reveal that they can recover his soul 
  only by travelling to another Plane of reality or even 
  venturing into Hell! Retrieving his body would then 
  be another task; perhaps his original body would 
  turn out to be lost forever, and his only hope would 
  be for the soul to be bound into the body of the 
  Warlock who slew him. The idea is that annihilate 
  is a very deadly spell but it should generally be pos-
  sible for the player-characters to achieve even an 
  ‘impossible’ task if they are prepared to persevere 
  with the arduous quest it entails.
  Lunacy
  Range: 2m
  This baleful conjuration can only be employed out-
  doors when the moon is in the night sky. It causes 
  the Warlock’s eyes to fill with the cold, deranging 
  gleam of moonlight. A character facing him in close 
  combat at that moment has an 80% chance of look-
  ing straight into his eyes, and if this happens the 
  character is subject to a Fright Attack of intensity 
  21 (see p. 122). Instead of killing the character this 
  Fright Attack drives him into a state of hopeless 
  insanity. He becomes a mewling halfwit who can do 
  no more than grin and gurgle unintelligibly.
   
  There is a drawback to this spell. In the round he 
  casts it, the Warlock is blinded and consequently at 
  –8 defence.
  Panoply
  Duration: 1d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  An invisible force surrounds and protects the War-
  lock, giving him a +2 bonus to his Armour Factor. 
  If he is wearing mail armour, for instance, he gets a 
  total AF of 6 as long as the spell lasts. 
  Sigil of Destiny
  Duration: lasts one day
  To use this spell, the Warlock predicts something 
  that might befall him or one of his companions in 
  the next twenty-four hours and ‘seals’ his prediction 
  with the Sigil of Destiny. The idea is that by mak-
  ing this prediction he prevents it from coming true. 
  The prediction usually concerns a fatality (“I will 
  be killed by a swordblow” or “Sir Cuthbert will slip 
  while climbing and die from the fall”), though the 
  Warlock can predict a non-fatal occurrence (e.g. “I 
  will be wounded by a sword-blow”). If the occurrence 
  happens as predicted within twenty-four hours, the 
  Sigil is activated and cancels out the effect.
   
  For example, suppose the Warlock predicted that 
  he would be slain by a dragon and this in fact hap-
  pens. The last fatal wound is immediately negated 
  as if it had never happened and combat proceeds—
  no doubt with the dragon wondering why its fiery 
  breath didn’t leave so much as a scorch mark on the 
  armour of this Warlock.
   
  The following limitations apply to the Sigil of 
  Destiny. The prediction must indicate death/wound-
  ing/incapacitation by:
  i. 
  a WEAPON—the weapon type must be specified 
  (sword, spear, etc); the effect of the Sigil will be to 
  negate the crucial wound;
  ii. a CREATURE—any nonhuman species; in this case 
  the weapon (if any) does not need to be specified;
  iii. a SPELL—the spell level and attack mode (direct or 
  indirect) must be specified; the Sigil prevents it from 
  affecting the protected character; 
  iv. as a result of a failed roll on reflexes, Strength (includes 
  poisons) or intelligence—the characteristic involved 
  must be specified; the Sigil allows the character to take 
  the roll again, this time with automatic success.
  The prediction must relate to a single character, and 
  only that character can be saved by the Sigil. Each 
  casting of this spell is good for only one ‘extra life’ 
  and is then used up—you cannot predict taking a 
  the Book oF spells
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
  wound from a Skeleton and thus acquire total invin-
  cibility against every Skeleton you encounter while 
  exploring the Labyrinth of Aktrium. The spell only 
  covers effects that are direct, instant and obvious. 
  Consider a Warlock who, having predicted death 
  from a sword-blow, is struck a non-fatal wound 
  with a sword. The sword happens to be coated in a 
  slow-acting poison from which he dies several hours 
  later. The sword may be said to have brought about 
  his death, but only indirectly (it was actually the 
  poison that killed him). The Sigil would not come 
  into effect in this case.
  Vaporize
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The caster changes into a cloud of reddish mist. In 
  this form he is immune to normal (non-magical) 
  weapons and to indirect-attack spells such as Energy 
  Bolt. He can drift along at a rate of 3m per Combat 
  Round and seep through even the smallest cracks, 
  so only hermetic obstacles like Bastion can bar his 
  way. While in vapour-form the Warlock cannot cast 
  spells, though durational spells that he cast before-
  hand continue to operate.
  Warlock Spells of Level Seven
  Nemesis
  Range: 15m
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This spell increases the effectiveness of any attack 
  the Warlock makes on one selected character within 
  15m: he can adjust his Hit Rolls, Armour Bypass 
  Rolls and damage scores against the character by 
  3 points each. Any spells he casts at the character 
  gain +3 to speed or magical attack (whichever 
  is applicable), and if the spell inflicts damage on its 
  target then the that is increased by 3. If the Warlock 
  can slay his chosen foe while the Nemesis spell lasts, 
  he gets twice the regular experience points award 
  (see p. 129)—but if the foe is killed by someone else 
  or is still alive when the spell wears off, the Warlock 
  immediately loses 1d10 experience points.
  Pacify
  Range: 15m
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  This causes up to 2–12 beings to cease hostilities 
  against the caster (match caster’s magical attack 
  vs targets’ magical defence). They will still be able 
  to attack the caster’s allies, but can take no action 
  which might harm him. Pacify is not an Enthrall 
  spell and affected characters do not become friendly 
  to the caster, they merely acquire a mental block that 
  prevents them from attacking him. If the Warlock 
  attacks a character he has Pacified, that character 
  snaps out of the spell immediately.
  Runic Weapon
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  A magical weapon appears in the caster’s hand or 
  in the hand of a specified character within 12m. 
  This weapon is the colour of blood and shimmers 
  with a strange golden light. It must belong to one of 
  the caster’s chosen Weapon Groups (see p. 38), so a 
  Warlock who specialized in the use of battleaxe and 
  bow could not use the spell to create a magic sword. 
  The runic Weapon is +3 (see p. 137) and unlike a 
  Vorpal Blade it can be put down or freely handed to 
  another character.
  Spell Screen
  Duration: 1d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  Other than its shorter duration, this is the same as 
  the 7th-level Sorcery spell of the same name. A Spell 
  Screen protects its caster from direct-attack spells by 
  reducing any spell cast at him by 5 Magic Points. It 
  does not affect spells cast by the Warlock himself.
   
  A spell which gets through the Screen with 
  reduced strength may still affect the Warlock, but its 
  effective magical attack against him is reduced 
  by the difference between the spell’s level and the 
  number of Magic Points remaining in it.
  The Trickster’s Hand
  Range: touch
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  With this spell the Warlock surrounds himself or 
  one companion with a magical defence against mis-
  siles such as arrows or thrown rocks. Enchanted 
  missiles that are shot at him simply drop out of the 
  air at a distance of 3m. Non-magical missiles are 
  more spectacularly affected: when such a missile 
  gets to within 3m of the protected character it stops 
  in mid-air as though seized by an invisible hand. 
  Suddenly it reverses and flies back towards the per-
  son who shot it. The attacker is thus hit unerringly 
  by his own missile, which penetrates armour in the 
  normal way (Armour Bypass Roll as usual) although 
  it inflicts 1 less Health Point of damage than usual.
  
  3
   
  The spell defends only against missiles targeted 
  at the protected character. An arrow or other projec-
  tile shot past him at another character will be unim-
  peded even if it passes closer than 3m. Any missile 
  weighing more than 20kg (for instance, the shot of 
  a trebuchet or siege catapult) will pass through the 
  spell-barrier without being stopped.
  Warlock Spells of Level Eight
  Demon Path
  Duration: lasts two minutes
  This enables the Warlock literally to walk on air. 
  The effect is accompanied by faint, glowing red 
  ‘stepping stones’ that appear under the Warlock’s 
  foot with each step he takes and then fade as he 
  passes on to the next. He can move safely at normal 
  walking speed, but if he tries to run or fight on the 
  Demon Path he must roll under his Reflexes on 1d20 
  or fall to the ground below.
  Energy Bolt
  Range: 15m
  A thunderous blast of scarlet energy rips through the 
  air to strike 1–3 beings within 15m (spell’s speed of 
  17 vs targets’ evasion). If not dodged, the Energy 
  Bolt inflicts 5d10 Health Points. This damage roll 
  is reduced by the target’s Armour Factor if any—a 
  Basilisk (AF 2) would take only 5d10 –2 HP, etc.
  Gauntlet
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  When this spell is cast, a disembodied gauntlet of 
  glittering gold mail appears in the air within 6m of 
  the Warlock. Gliding through the air at a speed of 
  24m per Combat Round, it will strike at the War-
  lock’s foes or perform other actions for him such as 
  opening chests, fetching items, etc. It can be given 
  a weapon (including a runic Weapon) or can attack 
  with its metal talons (d10, 4). It has attack 20, 
  defence 18, Armour Factor 4, 12 Health Points, 
  evasion 8. It is not affected by direct-attack magic. 
  If its Health Points score is reduced to zero it falls 
  from the air and vanishes in a blaze of red flames.
  Killing Frenzy
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  While under the effect of this powerful combat 
  spell the Warlock is able to make two attacks every 
  Combat Round. The first must be taken at the 
  point in the round when he would normally get his 
  action (see p. 71) and the second at the very end of 
  the round. The Killing Frenzy allows only multiple 
  weapon attacks. If the Warlock does something else 
  such as casting a spell or moving instead of attacking 
  with a weapon he does not get a second action that 
  round. Furthermore, only attacks with a weapon in 
  which the Warlock specializes (i.e. which belongs to 
  one of his chosen Weapon Groups) are affected.
  Reincarnate
  Range: touch
  Duration: lasts until dispelled
  With this spell, any character who has been slain 
  during the previous seven days can be brought back 
  to life in the body of another. The target of the spell 
  (whose body forms the ‘host’ for the reincarnated 
  soul) must be quiescent—unconscious or drugged—
  for the spell to work, and the caster must still match 
  their magical attack against the target’s magi-
  cal defence. If the spell works, the target’s body 
  becomes possessed by the mind and soul of the slain 
  character. Looks, Strength and Reflexes remain 
  those of the host but in all other respects (skills, per-
  sonality, memories, etc.) the reincarnated character 
  is dominant. Unlike an Amulet of Soul Storing (p. 
  143), this spell does not displace the original per-
  sona, which remains dormant within the body. 
   
  In times of psychic stress (whenever the reincar-
  nated character has a direct-attack spell cast at him) 
  the dormant ‘host’ persona may try to reassert pos-
  session of the body and suppress the ‘intruder’ per-
  sona. The reincarnated character rolls 3d6, adds his 
  rank, and subtracts the rank of the ‘host’; he must 
  roll the final total or less on 2d10 in order to retain 
  dominance. If he fails the roll, the ‘host’ persona 
  regains mastery of his own body but the positions 
  are merely reversed, the reincarnated soul is not cast 
  out but remains dormant within the body until ban-
  ished by Dispel Magic or Terminate Enchantment.
   
  The advantage of the reincarnate spell is that it 
  may be used to bring a character back from the dead 
  even if his original body is lost or destroyed. The 
  disadvantages are twofold—first as explained above, 
  and second that there is a small chance (5%) that the 
  soul the caster places in the host body will not be the 
  soul he intended. Reaching into the spirit world is 
  like standing at the mouth of a vast dark cave and 
  yelling for a friend lost within: someone—or some-
  thing—else may come in answer to your call.
  the Book oF spells
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  Warlock Spells of Level Nine
  Flying Steed
  Duration: lasts three hours maximum (see below)
  This is a Warlock’s equivalent of the Destrier spell 
  (see p. 87). It brings a flying Hippogriff to act as 
  his steed for up to three hours. The spell can be 
  cast only during the hours of night and terminates 
  at sunrise if it has not expired before then. (This 
  applies whether or not the sun’s rays actually fall 
  upon the Hippogriff). The spell also ends if the 
  Warlock dismounts.
   
  The Hippogriff is equine in form, but it has 
  wide leathery wings, taloned feet, scales and a nar-
  row, almost reptilian head. Its scintillant golden eyes 
  see equally well in darkness or light. It has attack 
  20, defence 6, magical defence 10 and evasion 
  6. In combat it will bite (d8 +2, 5) or claw (d12, 
  6). Its tough scaly skin gives it an Armour Factor 
  of 3 against non-magical weapons (but AF 0 vs 
  enchanted weapons and indirect-attack spells). It 
  has 20-30 Health Points (roll 2d6 +18) and is 8th 
  rank-equivalent. In flight it can cover more than 30 
  miles in an hour, and can track a quarry across open 
  terrain with 70% efficiency.
  Invulnerability
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  With this spell, the Warlock encloses himself and 
  one companion inside an invisible barrier that is 
  impervious to all spells, ring-effects, creatures, 
  extremes of heat and cold, and all weapons  whether 
  magical or not. Similarly, attacks of this sort cannot 
  pass out of the sphere of effect. Only attacks such as 
  hypnosis or Fright Attacks, which do not depend on 
  anything passing through the force field, can affect 
  those protected by this spell. Unlike an impregnable 
  Sphere (see p. 94), invulnerability allows the caster 
  to move around—but only quite slowly: 5m/round. 
  Note that although the invulnerability spell blocks 
  spells cast at those within it, it can still be eliminated 
  by Dispel Magic or Terminate Enchantment.
  Simulacrum
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The Warlock can create his own double. The Simu-
  lacrum has all of the original’s normal stats: attack, 
  defence, Strength, Health Points, etc. That is, even 
  if the caster’s scores are enhanced or depleted for 
  some reason (such as Nemesis, wounds, etc.) the 
  Simulacrum will only have his normal, unadjusted 
  scores. The only exception is his Magic Points score; 
  the Simulacrum will have the current MP score of 
  the Warlock (after making the deduction for casting 
  this spell). 
   
  The weapons, armour and equipment of the 
  Simulacrum will be non-magical copies of those 
  possessed by the original. The Warlock can see 
  through his double’s eyes (and vice versa) and it will 
  obey his telepathic commands across any distance. 
  Whenever the original or the double takes a wound, 
  succumbs to a spell, etc., there is one chance in six 
  that the other will suffer the same effect; this is indi-
  cated by a roll of 1 on d6.
   
  It is possible to tell the Warlock and his Simu-
  lacrum apart if both are seen together. The dupli-
  cate’s face has a dusky cast and the colours of its 
  robes and armour seem dull in comparison to the 
  original. If it speaks, its voice sounds unnatural and 
  distant. It forms from the caster’s shadow, and while 
  the spell is in effect neither the Warlock nor his 
  Simulacrum casts a shadow or reflects in a mirror.
  Song of Battle 
  Duration: d20 Spell Expiry Roll applies
  The Song of Battle is an eerie cadence that trans-
  forms the Warlock into a ferocious berserker. His 
  eyes begin to glow with a ruby fire and a fine tracery 
  of red sparks covers his armour, accompanied by the 
  stench of brimstone in the air. Intelligent creatures 
  up to 2nd rank and animals up to 4th rank-equivalent 
  have a 30% chance of fleeing in panic if he attacks. 
  He becomes immune to direct-attack magic (Fos-
  silize, Pacify, etc.) and adds 1 to all Armour Bypass 
  Rolls. He also gains +8 attack and +4 defence. 
  While this spell lasts, the Warlock cannot use any 
  other magic.
  Teleport
  Range: 100m
  This is identical to the Mystic spell of the same 
  name (see p. 94). It enables the Warlock to transport 
  himself instantaneously to somewhere within 100m. 
  However, he can only teleport to a place which he 
  can either see when he casts the spell, or where he 
  has been before.
  
  
  AT THE END of this book is a sample introductory 
  adventure scenario: ‘The Darkness Before Dawn’. 
  When you have been GamesMastering Dragon 
  Warriors for a while you will be devising scenarios of 
  your own, but this one is specially written to be easy 
  for a first-time GamesMaster. Read through it now, 
  quite carefully, and try to visualize the scenes. It is 
  like the storyboard for a film, but not yet populated 
  by the principal characters (your players). Once you 
  have looked through the scenario, get a group of 
  players together and take them through it.
   
  This is really the only way to learn how to be 
  a GamesMaster: practical experience. A book can 
  no more explain how to GM than it could tell you 
  how to hang-glide or to play the violin. We have 
  only a few tips and suggestions to offer the prospec-
  tive GM. Skim through these and you are ready to 
  begin. 
  Game-time
  Game-time is not real time. The twenty Combat 
  Rounds that the player-characters spend fighting off 
  a pack of wolves represent two minutes of time in 
  the game world, but the dice rolling and note-keep-
  ing involved might take nearly a quarter of an hour 
  of real time. When the player-characters stop for 
  the night at an inn, you will probably skip through 
  the ten hours or more (game-time) that they are 
  there in a few seconds of real time.
   
  Part of the GamesMaster’s job is to estimate how 
  much game-time is passing. Suppose the characters, 
  wending their way through a wood, come to a river 
  which they must cross. They set about collecting 
  wood to build a raft. An estimate of two hours or so 
  to gather the wood, cut it and lash the raft together 
  is not unreasonable. Other tasks might vary from a 
  few minutes (e.g. finding a jeweller in a large town) 
  to days or weeks (finding a 6th-rank Sorcerer to join 
  them on a quest).
   
  Your estimates of game-time do not have to be 
  completely accurate, so long as they are believable. 
  Don’t ask your players to accept that it takes them 
  half an hour to unpack their adventuring equip-
  ment, or thirty seconds to scale a castle wall! 
   
  You will also need to keep a record of the seasonal 
  flow of game-time. You might begin your campaign 
  in early autumn—both in the game and in real life, 
  say. A few weeks later, the player-characters could 
  have gone through many months of adventuring 
  (particularly if they have done a lot of travelling) 
  and be in the middle of winter. Keep a game-time 
  calendar, and cross off the days and weeks as they 
  pass. 
  Non-player characters
  Apart from the players themselves, every character 
  in your Dragon Warriors world is an NPC (Non-
  Player Character). You play the roles of all the 
  Chapter 
  GAMES
  MASTERING
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
  NPCs. In the space of a few minutes’ gaming you 
  may be called upon to portray a whole gamut of 
  roles—a whingeing beggar who invents a string of 
  ‘rumours’ in exchange for the players’ hard-won sil-
  ver, the honest townsfolk who offer them a reward 
  to dispatch some local menace, the dour forester 
  who shows them the way to a hidden and haunted 
  dungeon, the wily warlock who inhabits it....
   
  In a bad game, all these NPCs are just ‘cardboard 
  characters’ with no reality of their own. In a good 
  game, you will really make them come to life. The 
  players should respond to NPCs as they would to 
  one another. For your Dragon Warriors world to 
  work, your NPCs should be like real people. 
   
  Relationships with NPCs also provide you with 
  a credible excuse for getting the player-characters 
  embroiled in an adventure, which is an important 
  part of the GM’s job. The hackneyed device of ter-
  rified villagers offering twenty, thirty or forty florins 
  if the characters get rid of the Orcs/Goblins/Trolls 
  wears thin after a while. If the players are friendly 
  with an NPC, they have a very good reason for step-
  ping in to get him out of trouble. A player-character 
  applied to join the lord’s retinue and was sponsored 
  by an NPC Knight. The player felt obliged to help 
  when, months later, the NPC was accused of plot-
  ting against the lord. 
   
  The other side of the coin is to have an NPC 
  villain—the mainstay of many a campaign. One 
  such fellow began as a hireling, but betrayed his 
  employers (the player-characters) and ran off with 
  the treasure. Those that got out of the underworld 
  alive swore vengeance, and later undertook several 
  adventures which offered no material gain, in the 
  hope of catching up with him. 
   
  File cards are an excellent way of keeping track 
  of your major NPCs. On one side you can make a 
  few notes about the character—where he lives, what 
  he owns, his personality and his combat stats (if he 
  belongs to an adventuring profession). On the other 
  side, make notes concerning his relationship with 
  the player-characters and other NPCs. 
   
  Major NPCs for whom you will eventually have 
  file cards will probably include: the local lord and 
  several of his principal Knights, the local high-
  ranking Sorcerer, three or four citizens of the town 
  where the player-characters are living, tradespeople 
  whose shops and services the PCs use regularly, the 
  Abbot and a few brothers of the nearest monastery, 
  the leader of a local outlaw band, and any NPC 
  adventurers who habituate the area.
  Hired help
  There is no reason why a party should consist 
  entirely of player-characters. They might hire some 
  NPCs adventurers to increase the strength of the 
  group; even a hired peasant can be useful for carry-
  ing torches, bags of treasure and so forth.
  Hirelings
  Hirelings fall into two groups. Some are adven-
  turers themselves—Knights or Barbarians of low 
  (usually 1st) rank. The majority are just young hot-
  bloods with no special fighting skills (i.e. attack 
  11, defence 5 1d6 +3 Health Points; see Chapter 
  Seven). Adventurers will charge ten florins a day to 
  join in an adventure; untrained hotbloods expect to 
  be paid 2-8 florins (roll 2d4) a day.
   
  NPC adventurers who join the party will gain 
  experience points just as the player-characters do, 
  of course. Hotbloods are not awarded experience 
  points. However, if they continue to adventure with 
  the player-characters and survive six underworld 
  expeditions, they will become Knights of the 1st 
  rank. 
   
  The availability and type of hirelings depends on 
  where the player-characters are looking:
  Village   
   
  30% chance of 1-4 hotbloods; 
   
   
   
   
  10% chance of 1-2 1st-rank Knights or 
   
   
   
   
  Barbarians. Check each month.
  Roadside inn  40% chance of 1-3 hotbloods; 
   
   
   
   
  15% chance of 1-4 1st-rank Knights or 
   
   
   
   
  Barbarians. Check each week.
  Town   
   
  25% chance of 1-10 hotbloods; 
   
   
   
   
  15% chance of 1-4 1st-rank Knights or 
   
   
   
   
  Barbarians. Check each month. 
  Castle   
   
  30% chance of 1-4 hotbloods; 
   
   
   
   
  30% chance of 1-6 1st-rank Knights. 
   
   
   
   
  Check each week. 
  (Hotbloods usually possess just leather armour and 
  a simple weapon such as a flail. Adventurers will 
  have the usual equipment.) 
  Bearers
  Peasants who are too infirm or lazy to work in the 
  field will sometimes agree to accompany the char-
  acters on an adventure and carry their lanterns and 
  equipment. There are usually two or three such indi-
  viduals in any village, and they will work for about 
  fifteen copper pennies a day. 
  
  7
   
  A sum of about twenty florins is usually left with 
  the bearer’s family, for them to retain as compen-
  sation if the player-characters do not bring their 
  employee back alive. Bearers will never join in with 
  combat; if the party encounters a particularly hor-
  rible monster then the bearers must make a morale 
  check (see p. 122) not against their characteristics 
  but against the number of pennies per day they are 
  being paid; and if they fail they will drop what they 
  are carrying and flee.
  Fellow adventurers
  Fellow adventurers are NPCs who join the player-
  characters’ party on an equal footing. Sometimes 
  they are not habitual adventurers, just normal men 
  whom the players have a good reason for including 
  in the share-out. More often, they will be adventur-
  ers of the player-characters’ own rank. 
   
  Locating fellow adventurers is never a matter of 
  just rolling the dice for availability. If your players 
  need a 4th-rank Sorcerer for a specific adventure, 
  insist that they provide some coherent plan of how 
  they will go about finding one. Even if they find the 
  man they need, he may be reluctant to join them—
  act his part, make them convince you that joining 
  their party will be worth his while.
   
  For your convenience in preparing NPC adven-
  turers for the player-characters to meet, and also as a 
  guide to the relative powers and abilities of different 
  ranks, the following tables give the stats for average 
  characters in each Profession.
  Stats for an average Assassin
  rank  abilities
  1st   
  attack 13  
   
   
   
   
  defence 5  
   
   
  magical defence 3 
   
   
  Health Points 9
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 18 
  perception 8
  2nd  
  attack 14  
   
   
   
   
  defence 5  
   
   
  magical defence 4 
   
   
  Health Points 10
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 19 
  perception 9
  3rd  
  attack 15  
   
   
   
   
  defence 6  
   
   
  magical defence 5 
   
   
  Health Points 11
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 20 
  perception 10
  4th  
  attack 16  
   
   
   
   
  defence 6  
   
   
  magical defence 6   
   
  Health Points 12
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 21 
  perception 11
  5th  
  attack 17  
   
   
   
   
  defence 7  
   
   
  magical defence 7 
   
   
  Health Points 13
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 22 
  perception 12
  6th  
  attack 18  
   
   
   
   
  defence 7  
   
   
  magical defence 8 
   
   
  Health Points 14
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 23 
  perception 13
  7th  
  attack 19  
   
   
   
   
  defence 8  
   
   
  magical defence 9 
   
   
  Health Points 15
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 24 
  perception 14
  8th  
  attack 20  
   
   
   
   
  defence 8  
   
   
  magical defence 10  
   
  Health Points 16
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 25 
  perception 15
   9th 
  attack 21  
   
   
   
   
  defence 9  
   
   
  magical defence 11  
   
  Health Points 17
   
   
  evasion 7  
  stealth 26 
  perception 16
  10th 
  attack 22  
   
   
   
   
  defence 9  
   
   
  magical defence 12  
   
  Health Points 18
   
   
  evasion 7  
  stealth 27 
  perception 17
  11th 
  attack 23  
   
   
   
   
  defence 10 
   
   
  magical defence 13  
   
  Health Points 19
   
   
  evasion 7  
  stealth 28 
  perception 18
  12th 
  attack 24  
   
   
   
   
  defence 10 
   
   
  magical defence 14  
   
  Health Points 20
   
   
  evasion 7  
  stealth 29 
  perception 19
  Stats for an average Barbarian
  rank  abilities
  1st   
  attack 14  
    
   
   
   
  defence 6   
   
   
  magical defence 3 
   
   
  Health Points 13
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
  2nd  
  attack 15  
   
   
   
   
  defence 7  
   
   
  magical defence 4 
   
   
  Health Points 14
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
  3rd  
  attack 16   
   
   
   
   
  defence 8   
   
   
  magical defence 5   
   
  Health Points 15
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 14 
  perception 6
  4th  
  attack 17   
   
   
   
   
  defence 9   
   
   
  magical defence 6   
   
  Health Points 16
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 14 
  perception 6
  5th  
  attack 18   
   
   
   
   
  defence 10  
   
   
  magical defence 7   
   
  Health Points 17
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 15 
  perception 7
  6th  
  attack 19   
   
   
   
   
  defence 11  
   
   
   
  magical defence 8   
   
  Health Points 18
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 15 
  perception 7
  7th  
  attack 20   
   
   
   
   
  defence 12  
   
   
  magical defence 9   
   
  Health Points 19
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 16 
  perception 8
  8th  
  attack 21   
   
   
   
   
  defence 13  
   
   
  magical defence 10   
   
  Health Points 20
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 16 
  perception 8
  9th  
  attack 22   
   
   
   
   
  defence 14  
   
   
  magical defence 11   
   
  Health Points 21
   
   
  evasion 7  
  stealth 17 
  perception 9
  10th  attack 23   
   
   
   
   
  defence 15  
   
   
  magical defence 12   
   
  Health Points 22
   
   
  evasion 7  
  stealth 17 
  perception 9
  11th  attack 24   
   
   
   
   
  defence 16  
   
   
  magical defence 13   
   
  Health Points 23
   
   
  evasion 7  
  stealth 18 
  perception 10
  12th  attack 25   
   
   
   
   
  defence 17  
   
   
  magical defence 14   
   
  Health Points 24
   
   
  evasion 7  
  stealth 18 
  perception 10
  gamesmastering
  
  8
  Dragon Warriors
  Stats for an average Elementalist
  rank  abilities
  1st   
  attack 11   
   
  magical attack 15   
   
   
   
  defence 5   
   
  magical defence 5 
   
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
   
   
  Health Points 8 
  Magic Points 3/1/1
  2nd  
  attack 11   
   
  magical attack 16  
   
   
  defence 5   
   
  magical defence 6 
   
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
   
   
  Health Points 9 
  Magic Points 6/2/2
  3rd  
  attack 11   
   
  magical attack 17 
   
   
  defence 5   
   
  magical defence 7   
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 13 
  perception 5 
   
   
  Health Points 9 
  Magic Points 9/3/3
  4th  
  attack 12   
   
  magical attack 18   
   
   
  defence 6   
   
  magical defence 8  
   
   
  evasion 3   
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 6 
   
   
  Health Points 10  Magic Points 12/4/4
  5th  
  attack 12   
   
  magical attack 19   
   
   
  defence 6   
   
  magical defence 9  
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 6 
   
   
  Health Points 10  Magic Points 15/5/5
  6th  
  attack 12   
   
  magical attack 20  
   
   
  defence 6   
   
  magical defence 10  
   
   
  evasion 4   
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 6 
   
   
  Health Points 11  Magic Points 18/6/6
  rank  abilities
  7th  
  attack 13   
   
  magical attack 22  
   
   
  defence 7   
   
  magical defence 12  
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 7 
   
   
  Health Points 11  Magic Points 21/7/7
  8th  
  attack 13   
   
  magical attack 23   
   
   
  defence 7   
   
  magical defence 13  
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 7 
   
   
  Health Points 12  Magic Points 24/8/8
  9th  
  attack 13   
   
  magical attack 24   
   
   
  defence 7   
   
  magical defence 14  
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 7
   
   
  Health Points 12  Magic Points 27/9/9
  10th  attack 14   
   
  magical attack 25  
   
   
  defence 8   
   
  magical defence 15  
   
   
  evasion 5   
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 8
   
   
  Health Points 13 Magic Points 30/10/10
  11th  attack 14   
   
  magical attack 26   
   
   
  defence 8   
   
  magical defence 16  
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 8
   
   
  Health Points 13 Magic Points 33/11/11
  12th  attack 14   
   
  magical attack 28   
   
   
  defence 8   
   
  magical defence 18  
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 8 
   
   
  Health Points 14  Magic Points 36/12/12
   JH
  
  9
  Stats for an average knight
  rank  abilities
  1st   
  attack 13  
   
   
   
   
  defence 7   
   
   
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   Health Points 11
   
   
  evasion 4  
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
  2nd  
  attack 14  
   
   
   
   
  defence 8   
   
   
  magical defence 4 
   
   
  Health Points 12
   
   
  evasion 4  
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
  3rd  
  attack 15  
   
   
   
   
  defence 9 
   
   
  magical defence 5 
   
   
  Health Points 13
   
   
  evasion 4  
  stealth 13 
  perception 6
  4th  
  attack 16  
   
   
   
   
  defence 10 
   
   
  magical defence 6 
   
   
  Health Points 14
   
   
  evasion 4  
  stealth 14 
  perception 6
  5th  
  attack 17  
   
   
   
   
  defence 11 
   
   
  magical defence 7 
   
   
  Health Points 15
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 14 
  perception 7
  6th  
  attack 18  
   
   
   
   
  defence 12 
   
   
  magical defence 8 
   
   
  Health Points 16
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 14 
  perception 7
  rank  abilities
  7th  
  attack 19  
   
   
   
   
  defence 13 
   
   
  magical defence 9 
   
   
  Health Points 17
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 15 
  perception 8
  8th  
  attack 20  
   
   
   
   
  defence 14 
   
   
  magical defence 10  
   
  Health Points 18
   
   
  evasion 5  
  stealth 15 
  perception 8
  9th  
  attack 21  
   
   
   
   
  defence 15 
   
   
  magical defence 11  
   
  Health Points 19
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 15 
  perception 9
  10th  attack 22  
   
   
   
   
  defence 16 
   
   
  magical defence 12  
   
  Health Points 20
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 16 
  perception 9
  11th  attack 23  
   
   
   
   
  defence 17
    
   
  magical defence 13  
   
  Health Points 21
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 16 
  perception 10
  12th  attack 24  
   
   
   
   
  defence 18 
   
   
  magical defence 14  
   
  Health Points 22
   
   
  evasion 6  
  stealth 16 
  perception 10
  Stats for an average Mystic
  rank  abilities 
  1st   
  attack    
   
  magical attack 4 
   
   
   
  defence 6   
   
  magical defence 4 
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 6
   
   
  Health Points 9
  2nd  
  attack 12   
   
  magical attack 15 
   
   
  defence 6   
   
  magical defence 5 
   
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 7
    
   
  Health Points 10
  3rd  
  attack 13   
   
  magical attack 16
   
   
  defence 7   
   
  magical defence 6 
   
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 8
   
   
  Health Points 10
  4th  
  attack 13   
   
  magical attack 17 
   
   
   
  defence 7   
   
  magical defence 7  
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 9
   
   
  Health Points 11
  5th  
  attack 14   
   
  magical attack 18 
   
   
   
  defence 8   
   
  magical defence 8 
   
   
  evasion 4   
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 10
   
   
  Health Points 11
  6th  
  attack 14   
   
  magical attack 19
   
   
  defence 8   
   
  magical defence 9 
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 11
   
   
  Health Points 12
  rank  abilities
  7th  
  attack 15   
   
  magical attack 20 
   
   
  defence 9   
   
  magical defence 11  
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 12
   
   
  Health Points 12
  8th  
  attack 15   
   
  magical attack 21
   
   
  defence 9   
   
  magical defence 12
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 13
   
   
  Health Points 13
  9th  
  attack 16   
   
  magical attack 22
   
   
  defence 10  
   
  magical defence 13
   
    
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 14
   
   
  Health Points 13
  10th  attack 16   
   
  magical attack 23
   
   
  defence 10  
   
  magical defence 14
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 17 
  perception 15
   
   
  Health Points 14
  11th  attack 17   
   
  magical attack 24
   
   
  defence 11  
   
  magical defence 15
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 17 
  perception 16
   
   
  Health Points 14
  12th  attack 17   
   
  magical attack 25
   
   
  defence 11  
   
  magical defence 17  
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 17 
  perception 17
   
   
  Health Points 15
  gamesmastering
  
  0
  Dragon Warriors
  Stats for an average Sorcerer
  Rank  Abilities
  1st   
  attack 11   
   
  magical attack 15 
   
   
  defence 5   
   
  magical defence 5
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
   
   
  Health Points 8 
  Magic Points 4
  2nd  
  attack 11   
   
  magical attack 16 
   
   
  defence 5   
   
  magical defence 6
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
   
   
  Health Points 9 
  Magic Points 8  
   
  3rd  
  attack 11   
   
  magical attack 17
   
   
  defence 5   
   
  magical defence 7  
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
   
   
  Health Points 9 
  Magic Points 12
  4th  
  attack 12   
   
  magical attack 18  
   
   
  defence 6   
   
  magical defence 8  
   
   
  evasion 3   
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 6
   
   
  Health Points 10 Magic Points 15
  5th  
  attack 12   
   
  magical attack 19
   
   
  defence 6   
   
  magical defence 9  
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 6
    
   
  Health Points 10 Magic Points 19
  6th  
  attack 12   
   
  magical attack 20 
   
   
   
  defence 6   
   
  magical defence 10  
   
   
  evasion 4   
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 6
   
    
  Health Points 11 Magic Points 23
  rank  abilities
  7th  
  attack 13   
   
  magical attack 22   
   
   
  defence 7   
   
  magical defence 12  
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 7
   
   
  Health Points 11 Magic Points 25
  8th  
  attack 13   
   
  magical attack 23 
   
   
  defence 7   
   
  magical defence 13  
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 7 
   
   
  Health Points 12 Magic Points 28 
  9th  
  attack 13   
   
  magical attack 24 
   
   
  defence 7   
   
  magical defence 14  
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 7
   
   
  Health Points 12 Magic Points 31
  10th  attack 14   
   
  magical attack 25  
   
   
  defence 8   
   
  magical defence 15  
   
   
  evasion 5   
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 8 
   
   
  Health Points 13 Magic Points 35 
  11th  attack 14   
   
  magical attack 26  
   
   
  defence 8   
   
  magical defence 16  
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 8 
   
   
  Health Points 13 Magic Points 39
  12th  attack 14   
   
  magical attack 28 
   
   
  defence 8   
   
  magical defence 18
   
    
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 8
   
   
  Health Points 14  Magic Points 43
  Stats for an average Warlock
  Rank  Abilities 
  1st   
  attack 12   
   
  magical attack 12 
   
   
  defence 5   
   
  magical defence 4 
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
   
   
  Health Points 9 
  Magic Points 2
  2nd  
  attack 13   
   
  magical attack 13 
   
   
  defence 6   
   
  magical defence 5
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 13 
  perception 5 
   
   
  Health Points 10 Magic Points 4
  3rd  
  attack 14   
   
  magical attack 14 
   
   
  defence 7   
   
  magical defence 6   
   
   
  evasion 3  
   
  stealth 13 
  perception 5
   
   
  Health Points 10 Magic Points 6
  4th  
  attack 15   
   
  magical attack 15 
   
   
  defence 8   
   
  magical defence 7 
   
   
  evasion 3   
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 6
   
   
  Health Points 11 Magic Points 8
  5th  
  attack 16   
   
  magical attack 16 
   
   
  defence 9   
   
  magical defence 8 
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 6 
   
   
  Health Points 11  Magic Points 10
  6th  
  attack 17   
   
  magical attack 17 
   
   
  defence 10 
   
  magical defence 9 
   
   
  evasion 4   
   
  stealth 14 
  perception 6
   
   
  Health Points 12 Magic Points 12
  rank  abilities
  7th  
  attack 18   
   
  magical attack 18   
   
   
  defence 11 
   
  magical defence 10
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 7
   
   
  Health Points 12 Magic Points 14
  8th  
  attack 19   
   
  magical attack 19 
   
   
  defence 12  
   
  magical defence 11 
   
   
  evasion 4  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 7
   
   
  Health Points 13 Magic Points 16 
  9th  
  attack 20   
   
  magical attack 20   
   
   
  defence 13 
   
  magical defence 12  
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 15 
  perception 7 
   
   
  Health Points 13 Magic Points 18
  10th  attack 21   
   
  magical attack 21 
   
   
  defence 14 
   
  magical defence 13  
   
   
  evasion 5   
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 8 
   
   
  Health Points 14 Magic Points 20 
  11th  attack 22   
   
  magical attack 22  
   
   
  defence 15 
   
  magical defence 14  
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 8 
   
   
  Health Points 14 Magic Points 22
  12th  attack 23   
   
  magical attack 23 
   
   
  defence 16 
   
  magical defence 15  
   
   
  evasion 5  
   
  stealth 16 
  perception 8 
   
   
  Health Points 15  Magic Points 24
  
  
  Death
  The fact that he may one day be killed is some-
  thing that every adventurer must learn to accept. 
  The game would be no fun without the possibil-
  ity of dying. In the Dragon Warriors world, death 
  can sometimes be reversed by magic. High-ranking 
  characters may come to see it as one of the haz-
  ards of the job, in fact! For those with access to the 
  mightier spells, death is a serious setback but not 
  the end of the world. 
   
  But miracles cost money—far more than player-
  characters will have at the start of the campaign. 
  For them, fatality is final; if a player’s character gets 
  killed, he must roll up another. This is just what 
  the player of a solo gamebook does, of course. But 
  Dragon Warriors is a multi-player game. Time does 
  not turn back to the start of the adventure simply 
  because one of the characters has been killed. The 
  others will wish to go on with their adventure—so 
  how does the player who has lost his character rejoin 
  the game? 
   
  Suppose you are playing ‘The Darkness Before 
  Dawn’, the introductory scenario on pages 217-
  236, and one of the player-characters is killed in the 
  very first combat, with some feral dogs. (We should 
  add that this is very unlikely to happen! But as an 
  example—.) One way you could deal with this is to 
  make the player concerned your ‘assistant GM’ for 
  the rest of the game, and have him help you plan the 
  monsters’ attacks on the party. His new character 
  makes his debut at the start of the next game. Of 
  course, the drawback is that all the other characters 
  get experience points and treasure from the adven-
  ture, but when the new character joins their group 
  he will have only the initial gear. 
   
  Another way of dealing with the problem is to 
  have the surviving characters return immediately 
  to the nearest village, where they conveniently 
  encounter and immediately befriend the new char-
  acter. Sometimes a GM will stretch credibility even 
  further—“After the fight, you discover that Balin is 
  dead. Suddenly a tall Knight steps from the trees 
  and asks if you need any help. Okay, Bob, this is your 
  new character...” If you are inventive, you may find 
  some clever ways to introduce new characters mid-
  adventure. Try not to make it too contrived—this is 
  a fantasy game, but it should still be realistic! 
  gamesmastering
   JH
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
   
  For the very first adventure, we recommend that 
  you have the player-characters accompanied by 
  two or three NPC adventurers—1st-rank hirelings. 
  Fill in character sheets for these NPCs before the 
  adventure, and if any player-character gets killed, 
  hand the player one of the character sheets. This is 
  his new character.
  OTHER RULES
  Poison
  Poison is not likely to be used by most characters. 
  It is a little difficult to get an enemy to stand qui-
  etly and drink a frothing brew in the middle of a 
  combat. But many monsters have poisonous bites or 
  stings. Often, the virulence of its venom transforms 
  an otherwise minor creature such as a Giant Spider 
  into a particularly terrible foe.
   
  A normal poison requires the victim to roll less 
  than or equal to his Strength score on three six-sided 
  dice. If he makes this roll, he will take some Health 
  Points damage for a few rounds but he should sur-
  vive. If he fails the roll, he dies. 
   
  Weaker poisons require a roll on 2d6; stronger 
  ones require the roll to be made on 4d6. Not all 
  poisons cause instant fatality. Some merely induce 
  sleep, hallucinations or paralysis if the character fails 
  the dice roll. If he makes the dice roll, the character 
  takes no HP damage from poisons of this sort. 
  Morale Checks
  When particularly hideous monsters attack they 
  may induce an element of fright and panic in their 
  foe. This is simulated in Dragon Warriors by deduct-
  ing the creature’s attack score from the added total 
  of the victim’s Rank, Strength and Intelligence.
   
  For example, a Forest Harpy with an attack of 
  9 attacks Balin, a 1st-rank warrior with Strength 
  16 and Intelligence 10 (making a sum of 27). This 
  means that Balin must roll 18 or less on d20 to 
  avoid the consequences of the morale check. Note 
  that once Balin is third level he won’t have to bother 
  checking his morale when faced with creatures with 
  small attack values such as the Harpy’s of 9.
   
  A character who fails a morale check will flee the 
  battlefield for ten rounds before regaining his cour-
  age. Once a player has have failed a morale check 
  against a particular creature he must automatically 
  make a morale check the next time he meets such a 
  creature (even if the circumstances are friendly). The 
  creature will for this purpose have twice its normal 
  attack value: thus if Balin unluckily failed his morale 
  check in the example above, the next time he met a 
  harpy it would have an effective attack value of 18 
  when assessing his morale, and Balin would have to 
  roll a 9 or less on 1d20 to avoid fleeing again.
  Fright Attacks
  A Fright Attack is a supernatural assault made by 
  certain kinds of monsters, usually paranormal ones 
  and ghosts in particular, or by a few specialised 
  spells. It can literally scare the life out of someone.
   
  To resolve a Fright Attack roll 1d12, subtract 
  the victim’s rank, and the result is the number that 
  the attacking character or creature must roll equal 
  to or less than on 2d10 in order to scare its victim 
  to death. If the Fright Attack fails then the victim 
  suffers no physical effects, though you can be sure 
  they are extremely unnerved by the experience.
  Example
  Truk, a 5th-rank Barbarian, is walking along a gloomy 
  dungeon corridor and comes face-to-face with a leering 
  ghost. The ghost rolls a 9 for the strength of its Fright 
  attack. Since Truk is 5th rank, this means that it needs 
  to roll a 4 or less on 2d10 in order to frighten him to 
  death. it rolls a 17, and Truk runs yelling in terror back 
  along the corridor.
  Type of   
   
  Roll Strength  Damage taken even if roll
  Poison  
   
  or under on...  is successful (only for 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  potentially deadly poisons)
  Weak   
   
   
  2d6  
   
  first Combat Round: 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  1d3 HP
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  subsequent Rounds: none
  Normal  
   
   
  3d6  
   
  first Combat Round:   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  1d4 HP
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  second Combat Round: 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  1d3 HP
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  subsequent Rounds: none
  Strong   
   
   
  4d6  
   
  first Combat Round: 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  1d6 HP
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  second Combat Round: 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  1d4 HP
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  third Combat Round: 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  1d3 HP
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  subsequent Rounds: none
  
  3
  Gaze Attacks
  Certain dreaded creatures have a gaze so fear-
  some that those meeting it may suffer dire conse-
  quences—being turned to stone, or hypnotised, or 
  terrified. Anyone who looks into such a creature’s 
  eyes will usually be attacked by a magical attack, 
  as indicated in the creature’s description; occasion-
  ally this will instead be a Fright Attack (see above).
   
  If a creature with a Gaze Attack surprises a party 
  there is an 80% chance that the nearest 1-4 charac-
  ters will look into its eyes. If surprise is not achieved, 
  the chance of this is only 40%. For each Combat 
  Round a character is fighting a creature with a Gaze 
  Attack there is a 40% chance of meeting its gaze. 
  (This chance can be reduced if the character delib-
  erately stares at the ground, but this also means he 
  will be fighting less effectively: for every 10% he 
  reduces the basic chance of meeting the creature’s 
  gaze, he incurs a penalty of –1 from attack and –2 
  from defence.)
  Vision types
  Many creatures have unusual visual or other senses, 
  often capable of seeing far beyond the usual human 
  visual spectrum. The game effects of these senses 
  tend to be that the creatures are better or worse 
  (than humans) at perceiving things under differ-
  ent light conditions. This list describes the different 
  types of vision that creatures can be listed as having, 
  as well as listing the modifiers applicable to each 
  vision type in various conditions of light and dark-
  ness.
  Perception Modifiers
   
   
   
   
   
  Illumination
  Vision type   
   
  no light  
  half-light  bright light
  normal  
   
   
  –7  
   
  (none)  
  +5
  panoptical  
   
  (none)  
  (none)  
  (none)
  darksight  
   
  +5  
   
  (none)  
  –7
  elfsight  
   
   
  –4  
   
  (none)  
  (none)
  gloomsight  
   
  –3  
   
  (none)  
  –5
  Normal vision sees best in daylight, is somewhat 
  impaired in low light levels (as in an underworld) 
  and is useless in complete darkness.
  Panoptical vision operates equally well in all condi-
  tions from total darkness to bright sunlight.
  Darksight, possessed by most Undead and under-
  world creatures, is the reverse of normal vision: 
  the creature sees well in the dark but is dazzled by 
  light.
  Elfsight refers to vision that operates very well in 
  bright light or half-light, and is only marginally 
  impaired by pitch darkness.
  Gloomsight is restricted to a very few creatures. 
  The optimum illumination for this kind of vision 
  is half-light. The creature sees slightly less well in 
  darkness or bright light.
  Curses
  Certain monsters can put Curses on player-char-
  acters, as can evil sorcerers and cursed items. Roll 
  the magical attack of the curse vs the character’s 
  magical defence: if the attack succeeds then the 
  character is cursed. Characters carrying a holy item 
  such as a relic are immune to all curses and needn’t 
  roll.
   
  If a character is accursed during the course of a 
  game, roll once on the table below. Some curses do 
  not take effect immediately. If the curse is a delayed- 
  action one, roll again on the table underneath and 
  make a note in your character records: a player who 
  has (he thinks) escaped the effects of a curse will 
  sometimes succumb to some hideous affliction a 
  year after the event! Characters may try to avoid the 
  effects of a curse by never indulging in activities that 
  might lay them open to one of its effects.
  d100 
  Effect of Curse
  01–05  Character sustains an 8-point wound during 
  combat practice (delayed action)
  06–10  Character sustains a 4-point wound during combat 
  practice (delayed action)
  11–20  Character contracts a disease (delayed action). Roll 
  1d20, then consult the Disease table on p 126.
  21–25  Character suffers food poisoning (treat like a 
  medium poison: occurs next time character eats.)
  26–30  Character suffers a 6-point damage fall (from a 
  horse, from a tree, the side of a building etc.) (This 
  will happen the next time the character is in a fall-
  risk situation.)
  31–35  The character loses his most valuable item 
  (delayed action).
  36–40  The character loses all the money he is carrying on 
  him (delayed action).
  41–45  If the character is sleeping in a building tonight, 
  the whole structure will be burnt to the ground in 
  a terrible fire.
  46–50  The next mirror the character looks into will 
  gamesmastering
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  shatter and the character will find he has lost 1d6 
  Looks points.
  51–55  The character’s weapon shatters in the next 
  combat.
  56–60  The character’s armour falls off in the next combat, 
  leaving him with no AF.
  61–65  The character hears a voice whispering in his head 
  telling him he has been accursed and must go on 
  a pilgrimage to a holy shrine to shrive himself: the 
  character will find that his attack and defence 
  are both temporarily reduced by 1 point. The 
  voice and the bad luck will only cease once he has 
  embarked on a pilgrimage to the nearest shrine.
  66–70  The character exudes an unpleasant odour for one 
  day, causing an effective Looks loss of 10 points. 
  (delayed action).
  71   
  The character loses his sight for one day (delayed 
  action).
  72  
   The character loses his hearing for one day 
  (delayed action).
  73   
  The character loses his speech for one day (delayed 
  action).
  74   
  The character is turned into a toad for one 
  Combat Round.
  75   
  The character is turned into a rat for one Combat 
  Round.
  76   
  The character is turned into a dog for one Combat 
  Round.
  77   
  The character is turned into a donkey for one 
  Combat Round.
  78–83  The next time the character passes underneath 
  the lintel of a door or underneath a leaning ladder 
  something will fall on his head, causing 4 points of 
  damage.
  84–89  The next time the character passes any liquid 
  equivalent or greater in volume to the mass of 
  his own body (rivers, lakes, wine barrels, but not 
  glasses of water or puddles) he will fall into it.
  90–91  The next time the character is transported over 
  water by a boat or a ship, that vessel will sink 
  exactly midway between the point of departure 
  and the destination.
  92–93  The next time the character enters a wood or a 
  forest he will lose his way.
  94–95  The character is haunted by a ghost (see p. 241)
  96–00  The character will lose his next 10 attempts at 
  gambling.
   
   
  Curses: delayed Action
   
   
  d100 
   
   
  Time to take effect
   
   
  01–20   
   
  Within one turn
   
   
  21–40   
   
  Within one week
   
   
  41–60   
   
  Within one month
   
   
  61–80   
   
  Within six months
   
   
  81–00   
   
  Within one year
  Madness
  Some spells, creatures of frightening aspect, etc, 
  have the power to move a character to insanity. 
  When this happens, the GamesMaster makes two 
  dice rolls. The first establishes the degree of insanity, 
  the second the type of madness.
  1d6 roll  
  Degree of insanity
  1-3  
   
  Mild. The character suffers one bout of 
  insanity and then makes a complete recovery.
  4-5  
   
  Intermittent. In any situation where the 
  insanity could take effect, roll d6. On a roll of 
  6, the character suffers an insanity attack.
  6   
   
  Acute. The insanity applies at all times. The 
  second roll determines the nature of the 
  insanity on the table below:
  1d10 roll  
  Madness
  1   
   
  multiple personalities
  2   
   
  paranoia
  3   
   
  hysteria
  4   
   
  phobia
  5   
   
  amnesia
  6   
   
  melancholia
  7   
   
  catatonia
  8   
   
  megalomania
  9   
   
  pathological uncertainty
  10   
   
  obsessive mania
  In each case, a measure of good role-playing is 
  required from the player of the afflicted character. In 
  pure game-terms, the specific effects are as follows:
  Multiple Personalities
  The character develops a split personality. This is 
  rather like two minds inhabiting one body. Each 
  morning when he wakes, there is a 10% chance that 
  the character will have slipped into his alternate 
  personality. This has the same physical character-
  istics as the original (of course), but Psychic Talent 
  and Intelligence are rerolled. The alternate persona 
  begins as a 1st-rank adventurer of any Profession 
  except the original. He gains experience in the usual 
  way, and this experience is carried over until the next 
  time the persona takes hold.
  Example
  Zianfroth the 8th-rank Sorcerer awakens one morning 
  to find he has a new outlook on life. To the astonishment 
  of his friends, he puts on armour and announces that he 
  is now gnushtar Bloodeye, a 1st-rank Barbarian. This 
  insanity persists for over a week, during which time 
  ‘gnushtar’ achieves 2nd rank. Shortly after, he reverts to 
  
  
  his normal persona. if and when his gnushtar persona 
  reasserts itself (in other words if the schizophrenia was 
  not just a mild, one-off case), he will be 2nd rank.
  Paranoia
  People are out to get this man. Worse, they are con-
  spiring to get him. He is likely to see even the most 
  innocuous accident as part of a grand design on his 
  life. The GM must use cunning to create this dis-
  torted viewpoint. Hallucinations and mental blocks 
  will reinforce this. 
   
  For instance, the character might be unable to 
  find his magic amulet even though he is convinced 
  he left it in his treasure chest. Later, he thinks he 
  glimpses it around his comrade’s neck. illusory mon-
  sters might appear to attack the character. He will 
  be sure they are real (in other words the GM gives 
  no hint they are illusory), even believing that he has 
  taken a grievous wound, etc. Such wounds will not 
  actually kill him, but the GM should describe them 
  as if they were real—possibly leading the character 
  to demand healing from his magic-using friends 
  (who cannot see any wound, of course) and becom-
  ing even more enraged and suspicious when they 
  only laugh at his antics.
  Hysteria
  The hysteric is likely to react with panic to any 
  threatening or violent action—even if the action is 
  not directed at him! If a challenge to combat is made 
  in his earshot, swords are drawn in the room where 
  he is standing, etc., then he is subjected to a Fright 
  Attack which, if effective, leaves him paralysed with 
  panic for 2-12 Combat Rounds. The strength of the 
  Fright Attack is equal to the rank of the character 
  whose actions provoked the hysteria—e.g. if a 10th-
  rank character suddenly slammed his fist down on 
  the table in front of the hysteric character then the 
  Fright Attack would have a strength of 10. If several 
  characters are being threatening, the highest rank 
  within the group is used.
   
  Special note: when a character of high rank pan-
  ics, this may cause a wave of mass hysteria among 
  his colleagues. This applies if the hysteric character 
  is 8th rank or higher. When the character succumbs 
  to panic, a secondary Fright Attack (of strength 
  equal to his rank) afflicts all comrades within 5m.
  Phobia
  Phobia can result in a morbid fear of many things. 
  Roll on the table below or make something up.
   
  1D6 
  Phobia
   
  1   
  the dark
   
  2   
  open spaces
   
  3   
  underground or confined spaces
   
  4   
  spiders and snakes 
   
  5   
  magic (not the character’s own magic, luckily!) 
   
  6   
  heights
  Whenever the character is subjected to or in the 
  presence of the thing he fears, he suffers a Fright 
  Attack of 1d12 strength. For every previous time he 
  has succumbed to the phobia, 1 is added to the d12 
  roll. If the Fright Attack takes effect, the character 
  flees in terror for 2–12 Combat Rounds. While flee-
  ing, he takes no notice of where he is going (so long 
  as it is away from the object of his fear). If the phobia 
  attack takes place in an underworld, he may easily 
  become separated from his colleagues and lost.
  Amnesia
  The character finds it hard to remember things. 
  Usually he can remember his name, who his friends 
  are, and so on—but more recent memories easily 
  slip away. There is a 20% chance after any adven-
  ture that he will forget any tricks of swordplay, etc., 
  that occurred to him; this means that he gains no 
  experience for the adventure. There is also a 20% 
  chance that he will forget he owns a useful magic 
  item when he might need it. Magic-using Profes-
  sions have a 20% chance of forgetting the details of 
  a spell and accidentally casting another spell of the 
  same level.
  Melancholia
  Is there any sadder sight than a once-heroic adven-
  turer who has fallen victim to melancholy? He is 
  certain that life is futile and that any action is merely 
  a senseless struggle against the inevitable end. 
  Between adventures he will sink into deep depres-
  sion. When adventuring he behaves with a suicidal 
  recklessness. He will always charge to attack a foe, 
  and if his colleagues retreat he has a 10% chance of 
  fighting on alone to the bitter end. There is also a 
  10% chance that he cannot be bothered to resist a 
  spell cast at him (treat as 0 magical defence or 
  evasion if so), 10% chance that he will lay no claim 
  to treasure or bother to use magic items, etc.
  Catatonia
  When this form of insanity affects a character he 
  ‘freezes’. While frozen he cannot think, move or see, 
  but stands as though petrified. A catatonic attack will 
  gamesmastering
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
  be precipitated by any arbitrary set of circumstances 
  which will initially be known only to the GM, 
  though the character may eventually guess what is 
  bringing on his attacks and thus avoid such situa-
  tions. To give one example: a character might freeze 
  whenever he sees someone light a lantern. Each 
  catatonic attack will last for 1-20 minutes. During 
  this time the player must be sent into another room, 
  as when his character recovers he will know nothing 
  of what has occurred while he was frozen.
  Megalomania
  This madness is the most fun to role-play. The 
  affected character is overbearing and arrogant. If 
  another tries to tell him what to do he will sneer-
  ingly do the exact opposite. He may claim descent 
  from ancient senatorial families and act as though 
  a higher rank than he actually is. He is so sure of 
  his own invincibility that he will not deign to evade 
  indirect-attack spells (Deathlight, etc.)—though he 
  will still take damage, of course. This form of insan-
  ity does have one advantage: the character cannot 
  be brought under control by any spell or hypnotic 
  attack.
  Pathological Uncertainty
  A horrible affliction which renders its victim inca-
  pable of decision-making. There is a 25% chance 
  any time the character wishes to undertake some 
  action (draw a sword, cast a spell, etc.) that he will 
  be stricken with uncertainty. He then cannot make 
  that action until one of his comrades directly sug-
  gests it to him. 
  Example
  Take the case of Caudris. This worthy, seeing his friends 
  beset by zombies, thinks of drawing his sword to aid 
  them. Uncertainty strikes, however, and Caudris hangs 
  back, vacillating. None of his friends have the leisure to 
  tell him to snap out of it, so he has to think of something 
  to do. running away does not suggest itself to this brave 
  fellow, so—since he cannot draw his sword—he decides 
  to use his dagger instead. This time his insanity does not 
  rear its ugly head, and he wades in to help his friends.
  Obsessive Mania
  The minutiae of life take on a painful importance 
  in the eyes of an obsessive character. Any time he 
  performs any action, there is a 20% chance that he 
  will have to repeat that action immediately. After 
  opening a door he might have to close it and then 
  open it again—or he might draw his sword from its 
  scabbard, then feel compelled to sheath it and draw 
  it again. 
   
  In each case there is another check (at the same 
  20% chance) to see if he has to repeat the action 
  a second and third time, etc. If he cannot actually 
  repeat the action (e.g. a Sorcerer just used up his last 
  Magic Points blasting a monster and cannot cast the 
  spell again) he must still go through the motions of 
  doing so.
  Notes on madness
  It is very important to stress accurate role-playing 
  when a character becomes insane. The dice-roll-
  ing should not become the focus of attention at the 
  Diseases and Effects
  Dice roll  
  Disease   
   
   
   
  Symptoms   
   
   
   
   
   
  Health Point and Characteristic Loss per Day
  1–2  
   
  Black Death 
   
   
  Discolouration of flesh with  
   
  Treat the onset of this disease as a strong poison
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  purple and black splotches  
   
  attack. –1 off Strength, Reflexes and Looks.
  3–4  
   
  Leprosy  
   
   
   
  Loss of teeth, hair and fingers   
  Treat as a medium poison attack.  –1 Strength 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  and toes. Yellow pigmentation  
  and Looks
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  of skin
  5–6  
   
  The Pox  
   
   
   
  Small boils over the skin,   
    
  Treat as a weak poison. –1 Looks.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  sweating and shaking
  7–8  
   
  Swamp Fever   
   
  Grey pallor to skin, delirium,    
  –1 Health Point and Intelligence.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  hallucinations
  9–10   
  The Ague   
   
   
  Uncontrollable shivering even   
  –1 Health Point and –1 Reflexes.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  in hot sunlight, etc.
  11–12   
  The Wasting Disease  Constant hunger, loss of weight  
  –1 Health Point and –1 Strength.
  13–14   
  Influenza   
   
   
  Temperature, cold   
   
   
   
  –1 Reflexes.
  15–20   
  Common Cold  
   
  Snivelling   
   
   
   
   
   
  No effect.
  
  7
  expense of portraying a convincingly crazy charac-
  ter. Although all these forms of madness are a real 
  handicap to the affected character, the GM should 
  use some means to integrate the madness into the 
  campaign storyline and thus redress the balance. A 
  mad character who struggles back to sanity should 
  get some experience points for doing so, at least. 
  There are honourable precedents for an afflicted 
  character: Lancelot spent part of his life in the grip 
  of total insanity.
   
  Most people in the Dragon Warriors world will 
  assume that a mad character has been possessed by 
  an evil spirit or is under a curse. Wiser folk (particu-
  larly Adept Mystics) will understand that insanity is 
  sometimes the necessary refuge taken by the human 
  mind beset by traumas.
   
  Madness can be cured by the character being 
  blessed by a priest in front of an altar bearing the 
  relic of a saint. Alternatively, the GM can allow the 
  player to ‘role-play’ the progress of his character’s 
  recovery.
  Diseases
  The table on the previous page contains a few sug-
  gestions for diseases that may be contracted in the 
  Dragon Warriors world. Normally,there will be a 5% 
  chance per month of a player contracting one of 
  these diseases, but a short stay in a damp, rat-infested 
  dungeon, or to a city teeming with the plague may 
  increase the chances to 10% or even 15%. 
   
  If a character has contracted a disease, Health 
  Point and characteristic losses will occur in the small 
  hours of the morning. A character may save against 
  contracting a disease by rolling under his current 
  Strength score on a d20. If he fails he must roll 
  again each day until he either perishes or is cured. If 
  successful, it is assumed he has avoided contracting 
  any disease.
   
  There are, of course medicines brewed by apoth-
  ecaries and magicians that may aid the sufferer, but 
  the first five diseases listed below will either require 
  the successful roll under the character’s Strength 
  outlined above, or magic to cure them. 
   
  All loss of Health Points and characteristics must 
  be considered permanent until the player is cured 
  of the disease. Once they have been cured of the 
  disease, characters will recover lost Health Points at 
  the normal healing rates, and characteristics (apart 
  from Looks which will be permanently affected) at 
  the rate of 1 point per characteristic per week.
  Final advice to the GM
  Following a few simple rules will make your task as 
  GamesMaster a lot easier:
  1. Continually check the characters’ battle order. 
  Make sure the battle order is consistent with 
  where they are—eight people can’t walk abreast 
  in a corridor that’s only 3m wide.
  2. When the characters encounter a monster, 
  remember to check for surprise.
  3. You will need to roll Reflexes for the monster(s) 
  so you know when it/they get to act each Com-
  bat Round. When dealing with a large group of 
  NPC adversaries or monsters, you don’t need 
  to roll a separate Reflexes score for each one of 
  them; this involves too much book-keeping. A 
  single 3d6 roll gives the Reflexes of every indi-
  vidual in the group.
  4. Consider how the monsters would go about 
  attacking the player-characters. Intelligent mon-
  sters should act intelligently. Imagine that you 
  are the monster—what would you do?
  5. Make sure you see all your players’ dice rolls. 
  Make sure they see none of yours.
  6.  If you don’t know the answer—whether it’s 
  about the game’s rules, the background or the 
  adventure—never be afraid to just make it up.
  gamesmastering
  
  8
  Dragon Warriors
   JH
  
  9
  THERE ARE THREE main ways in which char-
  acters are rewarded during their adventuring career. 
  These are Rank, Renown, and Treasure. 
   
  When a character gains sufficient Experience 
  Points she increases in Rank, which makes her more 
  powerful and effective as an adventurer. 
   
  Renown is something of a special case, in that 
  it does not have a numerical value or an obvious, 
  direct use on most dungeon adventures. Still, a 
  character of great Renown is fearsome to his foes, a 
  great assurance to his allies and a significant asset in 
  diplomacy with lords and barons. 
   
  Treasure may include a pouch of gold coins as a 
  reward for saving the local lord’s life, a silver can-
  dlestick looted from a goblin cave, or a mysterious 
  magical potion found deep within an ancient tomb. 
  Treasure falls broadly into two areas—money or 
  goods that can readily be converted to money, and 
  magical or otherwise special items.
  Experience
  Experience is acquired in the form of experience 
  points, which the GamesMaster awards to the 
  player-characters when they perform significant 
  deeds of valour in the course of their adventures.  
   
  Characters advance to higher ranks by gaining 
  experience as a result of their adventures. When 
  a character has accumulated enough experience 
  points, he advances in rank. So experience points 
  are a numerical measure of a character’s accomplish-
  ments. They are awarded principally for two things: 
  surviving an adventure and defeating an opponent.
  Surviving an adventure. 
  You should normally award 5 experience points at 
  the end of an adventure to each character who sur-
  vived. (You may actually decide to award as many 
  as 10 if the adventure was especially perilous—or as 
  few as 1 if the characters were never in real danger. 
  5 points, however, is a working average.)
  Defeating an opponent. 
  Characters should be awarded points for defeat-
  ing their opponents—whether directly (by slaying 
  them in combat) or indirectly (by outwitting them). 
  The points awarded for this will depend on the 
  opponent’s rank or, in the case of monsters, rank 
  equivalent, at the rate of 1 experience point/rank. 
  Defeating an evil 5th-rank Knight is thus worth 5 
  points. These points are distributed at your discre-
  tion among the characters involved.
  Increasing in Rank
  A character’s rank indicates his level of expertise as 
  an adventurer. All characters are 1st rank at the start 
  of their first adventure. 
  Chapter 
  THE REWARDS OF 
  ADVENTURING
  
  30
  Dragon Warriors
  To reach 2nd rank, a PC must have 30 experience points
  3rd rank   
   
   
   
  60
  4th rank   
   
   
   
  90
  5th rank   
   
   
   
  130
  6th rank   
   
   
   
  200
  7th rank   
   
   
   
  300
  8th rank   
   
   
   
  450
  9th rank   
   
   
   
  650
  A further 250 experience points are needed to reach 
  each rank beyond the 9th.
   
  When a character increases in rank, their abili-
  ties also increase, depending on their Profession:
  Assassins  
  +1  to attack each time the character increases in rank.
  +1  to defence when the character reaches 3rd rank, then 
  +1 at 5th rank, +1 at 7th, etc.
  +1  to the character’s normal Health Points score each 
  time he increases in rank.
  +1  to the character’s magical defence for each increase 
  in rank.
  +1  to the character’s evasion upon reaching 5th rank, 
  then another +1 on reaching 9th rank.
  +1  to the character’s stealth and perception each time 
  the character increases in rank.
  Barbarians
  +1  to both attack and defence each time the character 
  increases in rank.
  +1  to the character’s normal Health Points score each 
  time he increases in rank.
  +1  to the character’s magical defence each time he 
  increases in rank.
  +1  to the character’s evasion upon reaching 5th rank, 
  then another +1 on reaching 9th rank.
  +1  to the character’s perception and stealth when the 
  character reaches 3rd rank, then +1 at 5th rank, +1 at 
  7th, etc.
  Knights
  +1  to both attack and defence each time the character 
  increases in rank.
  +1  to the character’s normal Health Points score each 
  time he increases in rank.
  +1  to the character’s magical defence each time he 
  increases in rank.
  +1  to the character’s evasion upon reaching 5th rank, 
  then another +1 on reaching 9th rank.
  +1  to the character’s perception when the character 
  reaches 3rd rank, then +1 at 5th rank, +1 at 7th, etc.
  +1  to the character’s stealth upon reaching 4th rank, 
  then another +1 on reaching 7th rank, and a further +1 
  on reaching 10th rank.
  Elementalists 
  +1  to both attack and defence when the character 
  reaches 4th rank, then +1 at 7th rank, +1 at 10th rank, 
  etc. 
  +1  to the character’s Health Points score when he reaches 
  2nd rank, 4th rank, 6th rank, etc.
  +1  to both magical attack and magical defence each 
  time the character increases in rank, with an additional 
  +1 at 7th and at 12th ranks. 
  +1  to evasion upon reaching 5th rank, then another +1 
  on reaching 9th rank.
  +1  to the character’s stealth and perception upon 
  reaching 4th rank, then another +1 on reaching 7th 
  rank, and a further +1 on reaching 10th rank.
  Mystics
  +1  to attack and defence when the character reaches 
  3rd rank, then +1 at 5th rank, +1 at 7th rank, etc.
  +1  to the character’s Health Points score when he reaches 
  2nd rank, 4th rank, 6th rank, etc.
  +1  to both magical attack and magical defence each 
  time the character increases in rank, with an additional 
  +1 to magical defence at 7th and at 12th rank. 
  +1  to evasion when the character reaches 5th rank, then 
  a further +1 when he reaches 9th rank. 
  +1  to the character’s perception each time the character 
  increases in rank.
  +1  to the character’s stealth upon reaching 4th rank, 
  then another +1 on reaching 7th rank, and a further +1 
  on reaching 10th rank.
  Sorcerers
  +1  to both attack and defence when the character 
  reaches. 4th rank, then +1 at 7th rank, +1 at 10th rank, 
  etc. 
  +1  to the character’s Health Points score when he reaches 
  2nd rank, 4th rank, 6th rank, etc.
  +1  to both magical attack and magical defence each 
  time the character increases in rank, with an additional 
  +1 at 7th and at 12th ranks. 
  +1  to evasion upon reaching 5th rank, then another +1 
  on reaching 9th rank.
  +1  to the character’s stealth and perception upon 
  reaching 4th rank, then another +1 on reaching 7th 
  rank, and a further +1 on reaching 10th rank.
  Warlocks  
  +1  to attack and defence each time the character 
  increases in rank.
  +1  to the character’s Health Points score when he reaches 
  2nd rank, 4th rank, 6th rank, etc.
  +1  to both magical attack and magical defence each 
  time he increases in rank.
  +1  to the character’s evasion upon reaching 5th rank, 
  then another +1 on reaching 9th rank.
  +1  to the character’s stealth and perception upon 
  reaching 4th rank, then another +1 on reaching 7th 
  rank, and a further +1 on reaching 10th rank.
  
  3
  Renown
  For most characters, Renown is based directly on 
  their rank. The GamesMaster should take their 
  rank into account in all or most social interactions, 
  whether with fellow adventurers, commoners, lords 
  and ladies, powerful wizards, arch-villains and even 
  kings. The following table gives a guide as to how:
  Rank  
   
  Renown
  1st–3rd:  
   
  The character has little to no renown, 
  though she probably has a reputation 
  as a stalwart member of her profession: 
  a doughty Knight, a battle-hardened 
  Barbarian, a powerful Elementalist, a wise 
  Mystic, a knowledgeable Sorcerer, a skilled 
  Warlock, or a reliable Assassin.
  4th–6th:   
  By this point, the character is probably 
  well-known among younger, less 
  experienced adventurers, and may be a 
  local hero to the commoners in his area. 
  The nobility in the area will have noted 
  his actions with some interest, and will be 
  likely to hire him to do dangerous, unusual 
  tasks, for significant rewards.
  7th–9th:   
  The character is renowned both in her 
  local area and throughout the kingdom. 
  Troubadours sing of her deeds, and 
  mothers scare children with tales of 
  her foes. She will be regarded as fit to 
  command an army, or head a coven 
  of wizards, or lead a sizable band of 
  Assassins.
  10th–12th:  
  This character may well be famed in 
  several of the Lands of Legend, perhaps 
  with a different alias in each. He may have 
  carved out a significant role among the 
  nobility himself.
  13th +:   
   
  The character is a legendary heroine 
  throughout the Lands of Legend, regarded 
  as almost supernatural in power and origin.
  Note that the GamesMaster should alter the effects 
  of a character’s Renown according to circumstance. 
  A character who has done more villainy than hero-
  ism will be infamous rather than famous; a character 
  who has taken great pains to stay out of the lime-
  light may barely have any Renown at all. 
  Treasure
  Why else would an adventurer choose the hazard-
  ous, questing life he leads, if not to acquire treasure? 
  Well, in fact there could be many reasons for a char-
  acter to go adventuring—vengeance upon an old 
  foe, esteem in the eyes of an adored lady (or lord), 
  the pursuit of glory and excellence in battle, a gen-
  eral desire to confound evil wherever it may lurk.... 
   
  These are just a few of the hundreds of possible 
  motives a player-character or NPC could have for 
  following their errant lifestyle. That being said, even 
  the most ‘verray parfit gentil’ Knight would prob-
  Treasure Types
  Treasure Type  
  Cash 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Gems/Jewellery  
   
   
  Magic items
  Scant  
   
   
  2–20 copper pennies 
   
   
  none   
   
   
   
   
  none
   
   
   
   
   
  1–10 silver florins
   
   
   
   
   
  0–3 (1d4 –1) gold crowns
  Meagre  
   
   
  3–30 copper 
   
   
   
   
  0–3 items worth   
   
  none
   
   
   
   
   
  3–30 silver  
   
   
   
   
  2–20F each
   
   
   
   
   
  0–7 (d8 –1) gold
  Poor 
   
   
   
  4–48 silver  
   
   
   
   
  0–5 items worth   
   
  15% chance of 1 
   
   
   
   
   
  1–10 gold  
   
   
   
   
  50F each
  Moderate  
   
  2 –200 silver 
   
   
   
   
  0–7 items worth   
   
  30% chance of 1–4
   
   
   
   
   
  2 –24 gold  
   
   
   
   
  10–100F each
  Average 
   
   
  10–1000 silver  
   
   
   
  0–9 items worth   
   
  45% of 1–6
   
   
   
   
   
  1–100 gold  
   
   
   
   
  30–300F each
  Good  
   
   
  1000–10000 silver  
   
   
  0–11 items worth   
   
  60% chance of 1–8
   
   
   
   
   
  10–1000 gold  
   
   
   
  100–1000F each
  Bountiful  
   
  2000–12000 silver  
   
   
  0–19 items worth  
   
  75% chance of 1–10
   
   
   
   
   
  1000–8000 gold 
   
   
   
  1000–4000F each  
   
   
  Grand  
   
   
  5000–50000 silver  
   
   
  3–30 items worth  
   
  90% chance of 1–12
   
   
   
   
   
  1000–20000 gold  
   
   
  1000–6000F each
  Fabulous 
   
   
  1000–100000 silver  
   
   
  5–50 items worth  
   
  1–20
   
   
   
   
   
  5000–50000 gold  
   
   
  1000–8000F each  
   
   
  the reWarDs oF aDventuring
  
  3
  Dragon Warriors
  ably admit, however grudgingly, to a certain under-
  current of avarice in his nature.
   
  For the convenience of the GamesMaster, treas-
  ure is divided into nine categories of increasing 
  value, shown in the Treasure Table on the previous 
  page. The values quoted for copper, silver and gold 
  may optionally be present in the form of plates, gob-
  lets and other items rather than coins. This obvi-
  ously makes the treasure more bulky, and generally 
  has the effect of doubling its encumbrance.
   
  The monetary system is decimal. (Historians 
  may take issue with this, but it is the easiest system 
  for game purposes.)
   
  One gold piece, or crown (1C), equals ten silver 
  pieces, or florins (10F), equals one hundred copper 
  pieces, or pennies (100P). Prices are usually given in 
  florins, except for the most expensive items. Gold is 
  rarely used as currency.
   
  When one or more magic items turn up in treas-
  ure, a further roll is needed:
  d100   
   
   
  Item
  01–12   
   
   
  Enchanted armour (p. 138)
  13–29   
   
   
  Enchanted weapon (p. 137)
  30–54   
   
   
  Scroll (p. 138)
  55–79   
   
   
  Potion/Magical compound (p. 138)
  80–93   
   
   
  Amulet/Talisman (p. 141)
  94–97   
   
   
  Ring (p. 144)
  98–00   
   
   
  Unique artifact/relic (p. 145)
  Further tables (see Chapter 13) are then used to 
  establish the exact nature of the item.
  How is the treasure table used?
  The table of treasure types given on the previous 
  page can be used as a GM’s guideline when stocking 
  a dungeon or deciding on an appropriate reward for 
  an adventure. Also, creatures of many sorts hoard 
  treasure that they have stolen or scavenged. When 
  creatures are encountered randomly (see the Dragon 
  Warriors Bestiary), they may have treasure—either 
  carried with them, or in their lair or camp nearby.
   
  Note that the treasures listed for species which 
  live 
  communally—Humans, 
  Elves, 
  Dwarves, 
  Halflings and Orcs—represent the entire hoard of 
  a large community. Volucreths are a special case; 
  adventurers are never likely to encounter an entire 
  society of these belligerent beings!
   
  Common sense must be applied to these tables. A 
  Mummy will not be so obliging as to prowl around 
  its tomb with a sack of gold coins over one shoulder. 
  The cash and jewellery component of its treasure 
  Monsters’ Treasure Hoards
  Monster  
   
   
  Treasure Type (roll d6)
  Apeman  
   
   
  1–5 = none; 6 = scant
  Basilisk   
   
   
  1–2 = moderate; 3–6 = average 
  (often petrified)
  Bat   
   
   
   
  none
  Bear  
   
   
   
  none
  Bull  
   
   
   
  none
  Crocodile   
   
  none
  Deaths Head   
  1–4 = moderate; 5–6 = average
  Dragon   
   
   
  1 = bountiful; 2–3 = grand; 
    
   
   
   
   
  4–6 = fabulous
  Dwarves  
   
   
  1–2 = good; 3–5 = bountiful; 
    
   
   
   
   
  6 = grand (in large stronghold)
  Elemental   
   
  none
  Elves   
   
   
  1–3 = average; 4–5 = good; 
    
   
   
   
   
  6 = bountiful (in Elf–King’s hall)
  Frost Giant   
   
  1–5 = meagre; 6 = poor
  Gargoyle  
   
   
  1–5 = moderate; 6 = average
  Giant Scorpion   
  none
  Ghost   
   
   
  1–5 = none; 6 = good
  Giant Spider  
   
  1–4 = none; 5 = poor; 6 = moderate
  Giant Rat   
   
  none
  Gnome   
   
   
  none
  Goblin   
   
   
  1–3 = meagre; 4–6 = poor
  Gorgon   
   
   
  1–2 = poor; 3–5 = moderate; 
    
   
   
   
   
  6 = average
  Halflings  
   
   
  1–5 = meagre; 6 = poor (in sizable 
  community)
  Hobgoblin   
   
  1–3 = meagre; 4 = poor; 
    
   
   
   
   
  5 = moderate; 6 = average
  Horses   
   
   
  none
  Humans  
   
   
  1 = average; 2–5 = good; 
    
   
   
   
   
  6 = bountiful (in a lord’s castle) 
  Manticore   
   
  1–5 = none; 6 = average
  Obsidiak  
   
   
  none
  Ogre  
   
   
   
  1–4 = average; 5–6 = good
  Orcs  
   
   
   
  1–3 = average; 4–6 = good (in citadel)
  Python   
   
   
  none
  Pazuzu   
   
   
  1–4 = poor; 5–6 = moderate
  Snow Ape   
   
  none
  The Sufiriad  
   
  none
  Tiger   
   
   
  none
  Troll  
   
   
   
  none
  Volucreth   
   
  use NPC Weapons & Equipment 
  table on page 133
  Wild Boar   
   
  none
  Wolf  
   
   
   
  none
  Ghoul   
   
   
  1–3 = meagre; 4–6 = poor
  Mummy  
   
   
  1–2 = poor; 3–4 = moderate; 5 = 
  average; 6 = good
  Skeleton  
   
   
  none
  Spectre   
   
   
  none
  Wight   
   
   
  1–2 = poor; 3–5 = moderate; 6 = 
  average
  Wraith   
   
   
  none
  Zombie  
   
   
  none
  
  33
  may be in a burial chamber some distance from 
  where it is encountered. Hobgoblins can be quite 
  wealthy, but slaying one does not lead to automatic 
  inheritance: the creature’s treasure will usually be in 
  its lair, which more often than not is just a narrow 
  clammy burrow deep in the ground.
   
  On the other hand, intelligent creatures will 
  always carry useful treasure with them. There is 
  no point in owning a +2 sword if it’s lying in your 
  treasure chest at home when a bunch of rapacious 
  adventurers jump out at you. There are a few reasons 
  why a creature might not be using a powerful item 
  (e.g. it’s too holy for the vile monster to touch), but 
  these are the exception.
   
  The treasure possessed by non-player character 
  adventurers is determined using the NPC Weapons 
  & Equipment table above. Adventurers are unlikely 
  to be found with large amounts of gold and silver. 
  They prefer their wealth in the more useful form of 
  enchanted weaponry and items.
  NPC Weapons & Equipment
  Non-player characters who have adventured may 
  have special items of their own. Because of this, a 
  group of adventurers can be among the most dan-
  gerous adversaries that the player-characters are 
  ever likely to face.
   
  When the player-characters encounter a party 
  of NPC adventurers, a table is used to determine 
  whether the latter have special items such as potions 
  and scrolls. The table lists, for each Profession, the 
  chance that the NPC has items of a particular 
  type—and, where applicable, the number of such 
  items that he/she has.
  the reWarDs oF aDventuring
  NPC Weapons and Equipment Table
  Rank  
  Profession  
  Magic  
   
  Magic  
  Scrolls  
  Potions  
  Amulets  
  Rings  
   Typical cash
    
   
    
   
   
  Armour  
   
  Weapons 
  1st  
  Knight  
   
  1%   
   
  2%; 1   
  no  
   
  3%; 1-3  
  no  
  no  
  1d100 florins
    
   
  Barbarian   
  1%   
   
  2%; 1   
  no  
   
  1%; 1-3  
  no   
  no   
  1d100 florins
    
   
  Sorcerer  
   
  no  
   
   
  no  
   
  1%; 1-2 
  30%; 1-3 
  no  
  no  
  1d100 florins
    
   
  Mystic  
   
  no  
   
   
  no  
   
  no  
   
  2%; 1-3  
  no   
  no   
  1d100 florins
  2nd-3rd 
  Knight  
   
  3%   
   
  5%; 1–2  
  no   
   
  15%; 1–3  
  1%; 1–2  
  1%; 1 
  2d100 florins
    
   
  Barbarian   
  2%   
   
  5%; 1–2  
  no  
   
  15%; 1–3  
  1%; 1–2  
  1%; 1 
  2d100 florins
    
   
  Sorcerer  
   
  no  
   
   
  1%; 1   
  5%; 1–4 
  20%; 1–4  
  1%; 1–2  
  2%; 1  
  2d100 florins 
    
   
  Mystic  
   
  no  
   
   
  2%; 1   
  no  
   
  15%; 1–3  
  1%; 1–2  
  2%; 1 
  2d100 florins
  4th-5th 
  Knight  
   
  10%   
   
  20%; 1–2  
  no  
   
  25%; 1–3  
  3%; 1–2  
  3%; 1–3 
  3d100 florins
    
   
  Barbarian   
  8%   
   
  20%; 1–2  
  no  
   
  25%; 1–3  
  3%; 1–2  
  3%; 1–3 
  3d100 florins
    
   
  Sorcerer  
   
  1%   
   
  5%; 1–2  
  25%; 1–4 
  25%; 1–4  
  5%; 1–2  
  5%; 1–3  
  3d100 florins
    
   
  Mystic  
   
  no  
   
   
  20%; 1–2  
  no  
   
  25%; 1–3  
  4%; 1–2  
  4%; 1–3 
  3d100 florins
  6th-7th 
  Knight  
   
  25%   
   
  30%; 1–3  
  no  
   
  35%; 1–3  
  6%; 1–2  
  5%; 1–3 
  4d100 florins
    
   
  Barbarian   
  15%   
   
  30%; 1–3  
  no  
   
  35%; 1–3  
  6%; 1–2  
  5%; 1–3 
  4d100 florins
    
   
  Sorcerer  
   
  5%   
   
  15%; 1–2  
  40%; 1–4 
  50%; 1–6  
  9%; 1–2  
  7%; 1–3  
  4d100 florins
    
   
  Mystic  
   
  no  
   
   
  30%; 1–2  
  no  
   
  35%; 1–3  
  7%; 1–2  
  7%; 1–3 
  4d100 florins
    
  8th-9th 
  Knight  
   
  55%   
   
  60%; 1–4  
  no  
   
  60%; 1–4  
  10%; 1–2  
  10%; 1–3 
  4d100 florins
    
   
  Barbarian   
  40%   
   
  60%; 1–4  
  no  
   
  60%; 1–4  
  10%; 1–2  
  10%; 1–3 
  4d100 florins
    
   
  Sorcerer  
   
  5%   
   
  30%; 1–2  
  50%; 1–4 
  90%; 1–6  
  10%; 1–2  
  15%; 1–3  4d100 florins
    
   
  Mystic  
   
  no  
   
   
  70%; 1–2  
  no  
   
  60%; 1–4  
  10%; 1–2  
  15%; 1–3 
  4d100 florins
  10th+ 
  Knight  
   
  80%   
   
  90%; 1–4  
  no  
   
  75%; 1–4  
  12%; 1–2  
  10%; 1–3 
  4d100 florins
    
   
  Barbarian   
  70%   
   
  90%; 1–4  
  no  
   
  75%; 1–4  
  12%; 1–2  
  10%; 1–3 
  4d100 florins
    
   
  Sorcerer  
   
  5%   
   
  40%; 1–3  
  70%; 1–6 
  95%; 1–4  
  15%; 1–2  
  15%; 1–3  4d100 florins
    
   
  Mystic  
   
  no  
   
   
  95%; 1–3  
  no  
   
  75%; 1–6  
  12%; 1–2  
  15%; 1–3 
  4d100 florins
  
  34
  Dragon Warriors
  Spending the Spoils
  Equipment
  Most people in the medieval world of Dragon War-
  riors live in villages. For them, an exciting bargain 
  on market day would be an exchange of a cow for 
  three pigs and a chicken. But when player-charac-
  ters emerge treasure-laden from the depths of an 
  underworld, they will be looking for purchases of 
  quite a different kind.
   
  To buy or sell most sorts of adventuring equip-
  ment, the best place to go is a castle—or a large 
  town that has grown up around a castle. A good 
  bargain may also be found in some of the smaller 
  market towns and ports. It is only very rarely that 
  an adventurer will find a choice item on sale at a 
  village market. Thus the tables below show a differ-
  ent availability percentage for each of these locales. 
  (Plate armour has an availability of 95%/35%/05%, 
  meaning that it is available in a castle on a roll of 
  01–95 on d100, in a town on a roll of 01–35, and in 
  a village only on a roll of 01–05.)
   
  If the dice roll indicates that the desired item is 
  unavailable, a second check is made after one week 
  if at a castle, two weeks in a town, and one month in 
  a village.
   
  It is worth bearing in mind that the medieval 
  setting of Dragon Warriors does not yet have a capi-
  talist-style market economy. It’s still very much run 
  along feudal lines; there may be an armourer in a 
  castle, but you may not just be able to walk right in 
  and order a suit of plate armour if his feudal lord 
  has him already hard at work making mail hauberks 
  for his troops, or even if his feudal lord doesn’t like 
  the look of you. Availability percentages can only 
  ever be a guideline, as can prices—both can alter 
  enormously depending on local circumstances. 
  Buying and Selling
  Armour
  Item  
   
   
   
   
  Price   
  Availability  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  (florins)  
  (Castle/Town/Village)
  Gambeson  
   
   
  15F  
   
  100%/100%/35%
  Padded Armour 
   
  25F  
   
  100%/95%/25%
  Mail Hauberk  
   
  250F   
  100%/70%/10%
  Mail Armour  
   
  450F   
  100%/45%/05%
  Plate Armour  
   
  800F   
  95%/35%/05%
  Barding (horse armour) 500F   
  95%/15%/01% 
  Weapons
  Battleaxe   
   
   
  30F 
   
  85%/50%/70%
  Bow  
   
   
   
   
  15F 
   
  95%/50%/90%
  Crossbow   
   
   
  100F   
  20%/45%/01%
  Cudgel  
   
   
   
  nothing  
  always available
  Dagger  
   
   
   
  7F  
   
  100%/100%/50%
  Flail  
   
   
   
   
  10F 
   
  85%/50%/70%
  Halberd  
   
   
   
  50F 
   
  80%/40%/05%
  Javelin   
   
   
   
  12F 
   
  80%/40%/10%
  Mace   
   
   
   
  12F 
   
  100%/55%/45%
  Morning Star   
   
  20F  
   
  100%/40%/05%
  Shield   
   
   
   
  30F  
   
  100%/70%/15%
  Shortsword  
   
   
  25F 
   
  80%/80%/10%
  Sling  
   
   
   
  2F  
   
  100%/100%/85%
  Spear   
   
   
   
  15F 
   
  100%/55%/20%
  Staff   
   
   
   
  2F   
   
  100%/100%/100%
  Sword   
   
   
   
  30F  
   
  100%/80%/10% 
  Sword (two-handed) 60F 
   
  80%/20%/05%
  Arrows (six)  
   
   
  3F   
   
  100%/60%/90%
  Quarrels (ten)   
   
  5F  
   
  25%/50%/05% 
  Slingshot (ten)   
   
  1F  
   
  100%/100%/90%
  Quiver   
   
   
   
  4F  
   
  100%/50%/95%
  Adventuring Gear
  Item  
   
   
   
   
  Price   
  Availability  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  (florins)  
  (Castle/Town/Village) 
  Backpack   
   
   
  5F  
   
  100%/90%/80%
  Bedroll  
   
   
   
  10F 
   
  100%/90%/90%
  Flask of oil  
   
   
  4F  
   
  100%/95%/25%
  Flint & tinder   
   
  2F  
   
  100%/100%/100%
  Lantern  
   
   
   
  20F 
   
  100%/95%/20%
  Rations (1 week)   
  7F   
   
  100%/100%/100%
  Rope (10m)  
   
   
  6F  
   
  100%/100%/100%
  Torch   
   
   
   
  1F  
   
  100%/100%/90%
  Waterskin   
   
   
  1F   
   
  100%/90%/100%
  Rowing boat   
   
  150F  
  only near port or river
  Livestock
  Horse   
   
   
   
  250F  
  40%/35%/30%
  Warhorse*   
   
   
  2500F  
  15%/–/– (only 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  available to Knights, 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Barbarians and some 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Warlocks.)
  Dog  
   
   
   
   
  25F  
   
  95%/95%/90%
  Mule   
   
   
   
  50F 
   
  100%/50%/40%
  Property
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Purchase 
   
  Annual Rent
  Cottage 
   
   
   
  25F 
   
   
  200F
  Crafter’s house  
   
  1000F  
   
  100F
  Large townhouse  
  5000F  
   
  500F
  Manor house/hall  
  15,000F 
   
  1,500F
  Small castle 
   
   
  250,000F  
  30,000F
  Land, 1 acre 
   
   
  —  
   
   
  5F
  
  3
   
  Adventurers are some of the few people who 
  regularly buy goods. Ordinary people either make 
  most of what they need within the household, or 
  receive it from their feudal lord; the lord pays crafts-
  men a daily or monthly wage to make goods for 
  him, rather than buying the goods at a retail rate.
   
  All the prices in the Buying and Selling Table 
  on page 134 are given in silver florins. To remind 
  you, one florin is worth ten copper pennies, and ten 
  florins make up the value of one gold crown.
  Trading Magic
  Players frequently want to try buying magic items (or 
  conversely, selling items they have and don’t need). 
  A few words need to be said about this, for there is 
  actually not much of a market in magic items. Sor-
  cerers are solitary and do not like being bothered. 
  Additionally, they have little use for money, so even 
  if a Sorcerer of sufficiently high rank can be found 
  he will not necessarily make anything for the player-
  characters. If he does, he may expect payment in the 
  form of a favour—perhaps a quest he is too old to 
  undertake.
   
  Selling ‘spare’ items is just as difficult. At first 
  it seems like a good way to make some fast money, 
  but consider the problems. If you are an adventurer 
  with, say, a Shielding Charm that you can’t use, how 
  are you going to go about selling it? The only peo-
  ple who are likely to want it are other adventurers 
  (a small and elusive part of the populace) or rich 
  nobles (who would probably have one already). The 
  people you offer it to may not be able to muster 
  anything like its real value. And you had better be 
  heavily backed up by your friends, or you might find 
  yourself parting with your precious Charm at knife-
  point! 
   
  To summarize, magical merchantry can be a 
  risky business, and is not always especially lucra-
  tive—unless you are dealing with folk such as Elves, 
  who really prize any enchanted bauble. But then 
  trading with the Elves is an adventure in itself....
  Armour Types
  gambeson: A gambeson is the most basic armour 
  garment, a lightly padded or quilted doublet that 
  covers the torso, groin, and upper arms. A gambeson 
  is made from 15 to 20 layers of thin cotton or linen. 
  It is very comfortable and fairly light. It’s often 
  worn underneath mail to support the hauberk and 
  provide a little padding, but it can be worn alone by 
  poorer soldiers, or for combat practice.
  Padded armour: This is the next step up from a 
  gambeson. It’s similarly constructed, but has 25 to 
  30 layers of cloth with a final covering of stag’s hide 
  over the torso, perhaps 20 layers of cloth over the 
  arms, and two additional pieces of padded armour 
  covering the fronts and sides of the legs.
  Mail Hauberk: A mail hauberk is a shirt of riveted 
  iron links, coming down to the upper thighs and the 
  elbows. 
  Mail armour: Full mail armour includes a full-
  sleeved hauberk with integral mittens of mail, and a 
  separate pair of mail chausses to cover the legs.
  Plate armour: The ultimate development of armour, 
  plate covers almost the whole body with articulated 
  steel plates. Each suit must be custom-fitted to the 
  wearer, or at least custom-altered. Mail sections are 
  used to reinforce the vulnerable areas, such as the 
  armpits, groin, and backs of legs.
  Dragon Warriors doesn’t make any distinction 
  between characters who wear helmets and those 
  who don’t. Historically, a helm would have been the 
  first piece of armour any soldier acquired, given how 
  vulnerable the head is. Fantasy roleplay adventur-
  ers often have different priorities, including being 
  able to see, hear, and speak without being impeded. 
  Depending on the style of your campaign, you may 
  assume that all the characters wear helmets or other 
  headgear, or none do, or a mixture. There is no game 
  difference either way. 
   
  Remember also that armour is not a one-size-
  fits-all item: good armour must be tailored to the 
  person who will wear it, and while wearing ill-fit-
  ting pieces causes no combat penalties, it will bring 
  jeers and insults from other adventurers. And while 
  Elven armour carries considerable bonuses, it has 
  the drawback of having been made to fit Elves.
  Food and Lodging
  Most people travel only when they have to, and 
  ensure their accommodation before setting out. The 
  abbot who rides to a remote monastery can be sure 
  of broth and a pallet at his destination; a Knight 
  who goes visiting distant parts may carry letters of 
  introduction. Only pedlars, adventurers and beggars 
  indulge in aimless wandering.
   
  Finding a place to sleep in rural areas is not diffi-
  cult. A meagre bed in a barn or stable may usually be 
  the reWarDs oF aDventuring
  
  36
  Dragon Warriors
  had for a few pennies. For a florin, a villager might 
  relinquish his own bed for the night. Roadside 
  inns are to be found on well-used routes and long 
  journeys, and there are also lodging-houses in most 
  towns. A night’s lodging costs one florin for a space 
  on the common-room floor, or four florins for a bed 
  in a (more-or-less) private room. In large towns, the 
  luxurious inns will charge more than twice as much. 
  These inns also provide food, charging a florin or 
  two for supper and five pennies for a jug of wine.
   
  It is also possible to find lodging at a monastery. 
  The monks will not ask for money, though some 
  small donation is considered gracious. Visitors to a 
  monastery are expected to attend services with the 
  monks (often at odd hours) and, if staying for some 
  time, help with various chores. Sorcerers, if they 
  make their Profession known, will rarely be taken in 
  by the monks; rightly or wrongly, they are deemed 
  pagans. 
  Property and Land
  Successful, or even moderately successful, adventur-
  ers may decide they need a base of operations—as 
  a place to recover from adventuring, research new 
  magical techniques, or even build up a mercenary 
  army and spy network with which to seize power in 
  the kingdom. Though prices are given for all these 
  properties, the larger ones are almost never avail-
  able to buy. Usually they would need to be taken 
  by force of arms (and accommodation made with a 
  local overlord), built from scratch (a process taking 
  several years for even a manor house, and requiring 
  the recruitment of labour and sourcing of materials), 
  or else granted to a character for exceptional deeds.
  Cottage: This is barely more than a hut. Typically 
  it will have one room, in which an entire extended 
  family might live (quite possibly with some of their 
  livestock, too). Still, it is reasonably dry, and can be 
  quite cosy with the fire going.
  Crafter’s House: A crafter’s houses will have two 
  floors, with a workshop and possibly a shop-front 
  downstairs, and accommodation for the crafter and 
  apprentices upstairs. Tools and fittings are extra.
  Large Townhouse: This is a big, well-appointed 
  dwelling in an upmarket area. It’s made of good stone 
  and will typically have a wall around it, though it 
  will not have much in the way of grounds. It makes 
  a great status symbol for rich merchants and anyone 
  else who wants to impress.
  Manor House/Hall: A manor house is an important 
  structure for any feudal lord, even if only a knight. 
  It functions as the family home, a means of offer-
  ing hospitality to the owner’s own overlord, a place 
  to house any retainers and staff, a venue for resolv-
  ing disputes and punishing criminals, and possibly 
  a refuge in the event of attack. With a kitchen and 
  hall big enough for banqueting, sizeable cellars and 
  pantries, and some minimal fortification (arrow slits 
  rather than windows on the ground floor, great iron-
  bound oak doors, thick stone walls), the manor house 
  can withstand an attack or even a short siege.
  Small Castle: This is a true castle, with four towers, a 
  keep, a curtain wall, a gatehouse, stables, workshops, 
  and a sally-port. The keep has all the features of the 
  manor house (above), but is larger and more strongly 
  fortified. The kitchens are usually separate from the 
  keep so as to reduce the risk of fire. The price quoted 
  is the cost to have one built: such things are rarely, if 
  ever, bought and sold, and then only by the highest-
  ranking nobles. It would be more usual to acquire an 
  existing castle through an alliance, a marriage, or in 
  settlement of a very large debt of honour.
  Land, 1 Acre: An acre of agricultural land can vary 
  enormously in cost, depending on its quality, what it 
  is suitable for, and what kind of area it is in. Land is 
  almost never available to buy; the price given is the 
  annual rent from the local lord. Player characters 
  must usually persuade a lord to grant them the right 
  to work the land, either as his tenant farmers or (if 
  particularly favoured) as his vassal lords, able to rent 
  the land on to other farmers in exchange for serving 
  the lord with force of arms.
  
  37
  MAGICAL ITEMS FALL into the following 
  groups:
  • Enchanted weapons and armour
  • Scrolls
  • Potions and magical compounds
  • Talismans and amulets
  • Rings
  • Unique artifacts and relics
  Earlier sections (notably Chapter 4) have already 
  described how these items can be created by Sorcer-
  ers and Mystics, given time. But adventurers tend 
  to be impatient people. They rarely wish to devote 
  months or painstaking years to constructing a magi-
  cal device, and much prefer to acquire these things 
  in the form of plundered treasure.
  Enchanted Weapons
  Any item of magical weaponry has a magic bonus: 
  +1, +2 or +3. This indicates how magical it is. The 
  magic bonus is added to the user’s attack, defence, 
  Armour Bypass Rolls and to the damage inflicted 
  on a successful hit. Using the notation of Dragon 
  Warriors, a normal sword is a (d8, 4 points) weapon. 
  Enchanted to +2, the same sword becomes a (d8 +2, 
  6 points) weapon—and its owner gains 2 attack 
  and 2 defence points while fighting with it.
   
  In the case of a missile weapon such as an arrow, 
  the magic bonus is added to the user’s attack, 
  Armour Bypass Roll and (if the arrow strikes home) 
  to the wound it inflicts. Where shields are concerned, 
  the magic bonus is added to the user’s defence.
   
  For any magical weapon found in treasure, two 
  rolls must be made. First to determine the type:
  d100   
   
  Weapon
  01–10   
   
  Arrows (quiver of six)
  11–20   
   
  Battleaxe
  21–30   
   
  Dagger
  31–40   
   
  Morning star
  41–45   
   
  Quarrels (case of ten)
  46–55   
   
  Shortsword
  56–60  
   
  Spear
  61–80  
   
  Sword
  81–85   
   
  Two–handed sword
  86–95   
   
  Shield
  96–00   
   
  Other (halberd, javelin, etc.)
  and then to find out its magical bonus:
  d100   
   
  Magic bonus
  01–45   
   
  +1
  46–80   
   
  +2
  81–00   
   
  +3
  There is a chance that any enchanted item may be 
  flawed; armour as well as weapons. The chance is 
  very small—most flawed items are destroyed by the 
  Mystic who forged them, and many of the remainder 
  are shunned as their baneful powers become known. 
  The chance that an enchanted item is flawed is 3% 
  for a +1 item, 2% for a +2 and 1% for a +3. Mystics 
  may be able to detect the flaw in such an item using 
  their Sixth Sense. If they do not, and a character 
  uses the item, disaster is inevitable (see page 35.)
  Chapter 3
  ITEMS WEIRD
  AND WONDROUS
  
  38
  Dragon Warriors
  Enchanted Armour
  Magical armour also has a magic bonus. In the case 
  of a normal piece of armour, the bonus is added on 
  to the regular Armour Factor. A +2 mail hauberk 
  thus has an AF of 5.
   
  As with weapons, two rolls are made, the type:
   
  d100   
   
  Armour
  01–10   
   
  Padded Armour
  11–50   
   
  Mail Hauberk
  51–70   
   
  Mail Armour
  71–00   
   
  Plate Armour
  And then for the degree of enchantment:
  d100   
   
  Magic bonus
  01–55   
   
  +1
  56–85   
   
  +2
  86–00   
   
  +3
  There are many more enchantments that can be 
  found on weapons and armour throughout the 
  Lands of Legend: weapons that do extra damage to 
  particular species or types of creatures (e.g. dragons 
  or Undead); weapons that let the wielder fight with 
  greater speed or skill; armour that defends against a 
  particular type of attack like fire, cold; pieces with 
  particular spells bound into their very fabric; cursed 
  items that were made for a particular person and 
  will strike viciously against anyone else who tries 
  to use them; weapons that confer extraordinary 
  benefits only if the wielder uses them to complete 
  the purpose for which they were originally made; 
  and far too many others to describe here. Don’t be 
  constrained by the descriptions here: magic (and 
  magical items) should always be more exciting and 
  unpredictable than numbers on a page.
  Scrolls
  Scrolls are illuminated parchments on which a spell 
  is written. By reading the spell aloud, a Sorcerer 
  (not necessarily the Sorcerer who wrote it) casts the 
  spell—but he expends no Magic Points, because the 
  energy for the spell was invested in the scroll when 
  it was written. Once the scroll is used, it disinte-
  grates. Scrolls are one-use items.
   
  Scrolls may be of spells up to the ninth level. 
  Scrolls of first and second level are almost never 
  found because there is no advantage to be gained 
  in inscribing them—each scroll written out reduces 
  the calligrapher’s Magic Point score by 2 until it is 
  used.
   
  A d100 roll determines the level of the spell 
  written on any scroll found as treasure:
  d100 
   
   
  Level of spell
  01–10  
   
  third
  11–30  
   
  fourth
  31–55  
   
  fifth
  56–75  
   
  sixth
  76–90  
   
  seventh
  91–96  
   
  eighth
  97–00  
   
  ninth
  Then roll randomly (i.e. 1d6) to find the specific 
  spell within the level. Spells which can have a vari-
  able number of Magic Points in them will usually 
  have the minimum necessary to cast the spell (4 
  MPs for a Wall of Magic, for example).
   
  If the dice rolls indicate a rune, the scroll is actu-
  ally booby-trapped. Instead of being a scroll of the 
  rune spell, it is a piece of parchment with a rune 
  inscribed on it. The rune will discharge the spell 
  it contains (generally something along the lines of 
  Deathlight or Stasis) as soon as it is unfurled. 
   
  A Sorcerer who finds a scroll does not have to use 
  it in order to find out what spell it is. He will recog-
  nize any spell that he knows—that is not of a higher 
  level than his rank—by looking at it. Only when 
  he reads the scroll aloud is the spell cast. Inability 
  to recognize the spell does not prevent him from 
  reciting it to find out what it does. If Gothique (a 
  1st-rank Sorcerer we met earlier) found a Firestorm 
  scroll she would not have a clue what it did, but she 
  could still read it aloud and so cast the spell.
  Potions and Magical 
  Compounds
  Potions found in treasure will normally be in a flask 
  containing one dose. There is a 20% chance that the 
  potion was incorrectly prepared. Usually this means 
  that it will simply not work, but in a very few cases 
  (whenever the GamesMaster feels like having some 
  fun) there will be some unexpected effect. (So a mis-
  brewed Potion of Occult Acuity might actually take 
  away the drinker’s spellcasting ability for a time, a 
  Healing Potion might inflict a wound, etc.) There 
  will not always be a label on the bottle to say what 
  the potion is; even if there is a label, it might be 
  
  39
  wrong, or illegible, or in a language that the poten-
  tial imbiber can read. A Sorcerer will recognize any 
  potion once he has prepared it himself in the labora-
  tory, from its distinctive odours and colour. Other 
  than this, the surest way to tell what a potion does 
  is to drink it!
   
  For each potion found, the GM rolls d100:
  d100 roll  
   
  Potion
  01–12   
   
  Potion of Dexterity
  13–22   
   
  Potion of Occult Acuity
  23–34   
   
  Potion of Strength
  35–42   
   
  Healing Potion
  43–46   
   
  Replenishment Potion
  47–48   
   
  Amianthus Dust
  49–60   
   
  Potion of Night Vision
  61–62   
   
  Dust of Transformation
  63–64   
   
  Elixir Vitae
  65–66   
   
  Evaporating Potion
  67–68   
   
  Sands of Slumber
  69–76   
   
  Vial of Smoke
  77–78   
   
  Aitheron
  79–80   
   
  Hydon
  81–82   
   
  Lithon
  83–84   
   
  Phlogiston
  85–86   
   
  Potion of Dreams
  87–89   
   
  Theriac
  90–92   
   
  Poison
  93–94   
   
  Potion of Control
  95–96   
   
  Love Philtre
  97–98   
   
  Potion of Truth
  99–00   
   
  Virus Lunare
  The effects of these various concoctions are as fol-
  lows:
  Potion of Dexterity
  Drinking this potion will raise the character’s 
  Reflexes score by 4 points, up to a maximum score 
  of 18. This enables the character to act earlier than 
  he would normally in a Combat Round and may 
  increase his attack, defence and evasion scores. 
  The effect is of course only temporary; a Spell 
  Expiry Roll is applied to determine its duration.
  Potion of Occult Acuity
  This adds 4 points to the drinker’s Psychic Talent 
  score, up to a maximum of 18. This may increase his 
  magical attack (if any) and magical defence 
  scores. A Spell Expiry Roll indicates when the effect 
  wears off.
  Potion of Strength
  This enhances the character’s Strength by 4 points, 
  up to a maximum of 20. His attack and defence 
  scores will be affected and also, possibly, his Armour 
  Bypass Rolls and mêlée weapon damage. Again, a 
  Spell Expiry Roll sets the duration.
  Healing Potion
  This potion has a curative effect on any wounds the 
  drinker has sustained. One full draught is equivalent 
  to a spell of greater Healing, (see page 82) but it is 
  also possible to obtain some benefit from only half a 
  dose (treat as a Lesser Healing—see page 80).
  Replenishment Potion
  When a Sorcerer drinks this potion he recovers 2–8 
  (roll 2d4) expended Magic Points. It will not take 
  him above his normal MP limit. When drunk by 
  a Mystic, the potion allows him to subtract 1 from 
  his next Psychic Fatigue Check die roll (if he is not 
  already psychically fatigued) or give him the ability 
  to cast one ‘free’ spell of up to fourth level (if he is).
  Amianthus Dust
  Sprinkling this heavy black powder over a character 
  will give him limited protection from the effects of 
  flame and excessive heat. He becomes completely 
  immune to normal fire and takes only half damage 
  items WeirD anD WonDrous
   EW
  
  40
  Dragon Warriors
  from supernatural fire (a dragon’s breath, a Firestorm 
  spell, etc.) A Spell Expiry Roll indicates when the 
  effect wears off.
  Potion of Night Vision
  Quaffing this blue-black fluid gives the ability to see 
  in the darkness of night as though it were day. The 
  utter blackness of a dungeon will seem like twilight. 
  The effect lasts for two hours.
  Dust of Transformation
  This must be hurled to the ground at a character’s 
  feet. In a puff of smoke and a dazzling flash he will 
  be metamorphosed into another form. This is like 
  the Transformation spell (p. 89), except that a Spell 
  Expiry Roll applies. The form is predetermined 
  when the ingredients are mixed and so, unless the 
  container is labelled, the usefulness of the dust can 
  only be established by trial—the user might find 
  himself turned into a morose toad!
   
  The most common forms ‘encoded’ into Dust 
  of Transformation are Wolves, Bears, Pythons, 
  Tigers, Bats and Giant Spiders. Gorgons are also 
  favoured: the transformed character does not really 
  acquire ‘the eyes that fossilize’—but any enemy who 
  mistakes him for a real Gorgon won’t know that! If 
  the character wishes to resist being changed by the 
  dust’s power, he must roll 1d20 and score less than 
  or equal to his magical defence.
  Elixir Vitae
  A prized potion. Poured between the lips of a 
  corpse, it has the effect of restoring life. The revital-
  ized character loses 1d3 Health Points and 1 point 
  from each of his characteristics (Strength, etc.) 
  permanently. The potion may not work properly if 
  the character has been dead for more than a month; 
  there is then a 50% chance that he will be raised as 
  a horrible Ghoul instead. After a year and a day of 
  death the Elixir has no chance of working.
  Evaporating Potion
  Moments after imbibing this rancid brew, a charac-
  ter will dissolve into a dank sulphurous mist. This is 
  no bad thing, however, for in ‘mist form’ the char-
  acter is able to drift slowly along at 3m per Combat 
  Round. This means that he can seep under doors 
  or through tiny cracks. Another advantage is that 
  the character will not take damage from nonmagi-
  cal weapons or indirect-attack spells. A Spell Expiry 
  Roll determines when the character returns to his 
  normal form. A character who wishes to resist the 
  potion’s subliming effect can do so by rolling  less 
  than or equal to his magical defence on 1d20.
   Sands of Slumber
  This compound is usually tied up in a flimsy pouch 
  which can be flung at an intended victim. It is then 
  treated as a normal hand-hurled missile. The pouch 
  splits when it strikes the target, scattering the abra-
  sive dust over him. It is also possible to fling a loose 
  handful directly into his face, but this can only be 
  done at point-blank range and is not feasible if the 
  target is weaving about in mêlée. 
   
  The target character must, if hit by the dust, roll 
  less than or equal to his Reflexes to avoid getting 
  the Sands of Slumber in his eyes. If he fails this roll 
  he becomes drowsy (treat as a Weaken spell) and will 
  lapse inexorably into a deep sleep within 2–8 Com-
  bat Rounds. The character can only be roused from 
  this dreamless repose if another approaches him 
  with honest intent to kill him. If this happens he 
  will awaken at once, but otherwise he will sleep for 
  a hundred years. 
  Vial of Smoke
  This volatile mixture is usually stored in a fragile 
  clay bottle or tube of crystal. When the container 
  is smashed, a dense cloud of white fog forms rap-
  idly, billowing out to a distance of 5m. Visibility is 
  nil, even for a character using Clairvoyance. A d6 
  is rolled at the start of each subsequent Combat 
  Round; on a roll of 6, the fog disperses.
  The Elemental Essences
  These four different potions each summon or cre-
  ate an Elemental, which may then serve the user for 
  a time. Each one looks quite different—Aitheron, 
  which materializes an Air Elemental, is a thick res-
  inous substance which must be scattered into the 
  air. When poured into water, Hydon creates a Water 
  Elemental. Lithon is a moist chalky deposit which, 
  mixed with soil or pebbles, causes an Earth Elemen-
  tal to appear. Phlogiston bursts alight at the merest 
  spark and a Fire Elemental will coalesce from the 
  flames. 
   
  The character must make a special roll to see if 
  he can command the Elemental: his rank or less on 
  1d12. A failed roll means that the Elemental is free 
  to enjoy an orgy of destruction, which will usually 
  begin with its summoner. The Elemental will fade 
  after half an hour, unless slain before that.
  
  4
  Potion of Dreams
  This must be imbibed before going to sleep, caus-
  ing the drinker to experience visions of events 
  past, present and future. The intention is to glean 
  something of direct bearing on the drinker, but the 
  potion is unreliable and may reveal a pageant of 
  irrelevant fantasies. Nothing is what is seems to be 
  in the murky realm of the subconscious. Events may 
  appear in symbolic form; the GM just informs the 
  player what has been dreamed, and leaves the latter 
  to interpret it for himself.
  Theriac
  This is a universal antidote which will neutralize 
  any poison in the character’s bloodstream. It does 
  not heal any physical damage (lost Health Points) 
  already inflicted by the poison. 
  Poison
  This covers, as they say, a multitude of sins. The 
  ingredients cost given earlier is for a normal strength 
  poison (roll Strength or less on 3d6 or die). Weak 
  (2d6) poison costs half as much to make. Strong 
  poison costs double. It is also possible to concoct 
  ‘fancy’ poisons—things that only paralyse, weaken, 
  impair reflexes, etc, if the required roll is not made. 
  Most poisons are made to be administered orally, 
  but that is not the only kind. Some Sorcerers make 
  venoms that can be smeared onto a blade or arrow-
  point. Exposure to air renders the venom inactive if 
  the weapon is not then used within one minute (10 
  Combat Rounds). See also page 122.
  Potion of Control
  The character must trick his intended victim into 
  drinking this potion—perhaps by claiming that it is 
  some beneficial substance such as a Healing Potion. 
  The drinker will obey the first person who gives him 
  an order. This control lasts for a full day. It can be 
  terminated prematurely with a Dispel Magic cast 
  with at least 9 Magic Points, and wears off auto-
  matically if the controlled character is ordered to kill 
  himself or a loved one.
  Love Philtre
  This is another potion that the victim must be 
  tricked into imbibing. Unfortunately, unlike Potion 
  of Control, it is completely tasteless and can be 
  mixed with food or drink. The drinker falls in love 
  with the first character of the opposite sex on whom 
  he lays eyes after taking the philtre. This can only 
  be broken by keeping the afflicted character from 
  his beloved for at least a year. Force will probably be 
  necessary.
  Potion of Truth
  The character who drinks this bright golden liquid 
  must give a truthful answer to any question that is 
  put to him during the three minutes that follow.
  Virus Lunare
  This is an obscene brew which no decent Sorcerer 
  would ever dream of preparing. Unfortunately, it 
  must be said that a sizable minority of Sorcerers are 
  hopelessly vile. They make this leprous distillation 
  between nights of the full moon. It must be admin-
  istered to a person whom the Sorcerer must then 
  slay with his own hands. The potion traps a tortured 
  fragment of the victim’s soul within the shell of his 
  corpse; and when the Sorcerer casts reanimate the 
  Dead upon the body it will arise as a Zombie, bound 
  in unending service to him until a second ‘death’ 
  might give it surcease.
  Amulets and Talismans
  The words ‘amulet’ and ‘talisman’ tend to be used 
  interchangeably nowadays. Both are magical devices 
  worn around the neck. If there is any functional dis-
  tinction to be drawn it is that talismans (the first six 
  on the list below) bestow some continual advantage 
  on the user, whereas the powers of amulets (the last 
  six items) are restricted in frequency or duration.
  d100 roll 
   
  Talisman/Amulet
  01–05   
   
  Periapt
  06–12   
   
  Blue Scarab
  13–30   
   
  Abraxus Stone
  31–35   
   
  Auric Pendulum
  36–50   
   
  Eye of Foreboding
  51–60   
   
  Stone of Valiance
  61–65   
   
  Ankh of Osiris
  66–75   
   
  Shielding Charm
  76–85   
   
  Amulet of Sovereignty over Violence
  86–89   
   
  Key to the Dark Labyrinth
  90–96   
   
  Pendant of Alarums
  97–00   
   
  Amulet of Soul Storing
  Only one amulet or talisman can be employed by a 
  character at any given time. If he tries to wear more, 
  their powers will interfere with one another and he 
  will be unable to make any of them work.
  items WeirD anD WonDrous
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  The powers of these items are as follows:
  The Periapt
  This is a simple stone with a hole through it, usu-
  ally mounted on a leather thong. Worn about the 
  neck, it affords some protection against Curses and 
  possession (e.g. by the spirit in an Amulet of Soul 
  Storing). The wearer gets a +4  bonus to  magical 
  defence where such attacks are concerned.
  The Blue Scarab
  This talisman, in the form of a faience beetle on a 
  silver chain, defends the wearer against poison and 
  disease. Whenever he is exposed to any disease (nat-
  ural or sorcerous) or toxin, d100 is rolled. On a roll 
  of 01–15, the attack is completely neutralized.
  The Abraxus Stone
  This enhances the wearer’s recuperative powers. His 
  rate of natural recovery from wounds is speeded by 
  an additional 1 Health Point per day. This applies 
  only to wounds he took while wearing the talisman. 
  This item is an oval of polished white onyx incised 
  with a red glyph.
  The Auric Pendulum
  This consists of a bob of grey marble hanging on 
  a copper rod. When swung within 15m of a large 
  quantity of gold (at least 500 crowns or equivalent 
  weight), the Auric Pendulum swings towards it.
  The Eye of Foreboding
  This is a small globe of rose quartz which glows 
  faintly when anything tries to sneak up on the wearer 
  with evil intent. The warning glow is imperceptible 
  in daylight, but below ground in dungeons, caverns, 
  etc, it will prevent its wearer from being surprised 
  (see pp. 60-61).
  The Stone of Valiance
  This talisman, a small sapphire with a triangle 
  engraved upon it, is said to make its wearer fear-
  less. Any Fright Attack against him, whether due 
  to ghostly manifestation or malevolent sorcery, is 
  halved in strength.
  The Ankh of Osiris
  Once donned, this amulet cannot be removed until 
  its power has been used. It will restore the wearer 
   JH
  
  43
  to life if he or she is killed. This revivification is 
  immediate and, apart from the permanent loss of 1 
  Health Point, ensures full vitality. Having performed 
  its function, the amulet loses all magical power.
  The Shielding Charm
  This amulet takes the form of a silver pentagram 
  on a small tablet of oak. When commanded by the 
  wearer to protect him, the amulet produces a tiny 
  black point in the air, around which images appear 
  shimmering and distorted as above a fire. The effect 
  is accompanied by a faint droning sound. The hov-
  ering black dot moves rapidly to intercept any fast-
  moving object that is about to strike the wearer. The 
  wearer rolls 1d6 for each blow that would otherwise 
  hit him; on a roll of  4–6, the blow is deflected. A 
  Spell Expiry Roll is used to determine how long the 
  effect lasts. The amulet will operate twice in one 
  day, recovering its powers at midnight.
  The Amulet of Sovereignty over Violence
  A sparkling diamond on a white gold chain, this 
  amulet imbues the wearer’s body with supernatural 
  toughness. Any wounds he takes are halved (round 
  fractions up). A normal sword would thus inflict 
  only a 2 HP wound instead of the usual 4 HP. The 
  duration of this effect is set by a Spell Expiry Roll. 
  This amulet operates once per day; once used, its 
  powers regenerate at midnight.
  The Key of the Dark Labyrinth
  A gold key wound with lacquered strands of human 
  hair, this amulet is particularly bizarre in its effect. 
  Any being who wounds the wearer in mêlée while the 
  amulet is in use experiences a sorcerous attack. The 
  effect has a magical attack of 20, matched against 
  the being’s magical defence just like a spell. If the 
  attack works, the being disappears from this world 
  and is transported to a confusing other-dimensional 
  maze. The being must find his/its way through this 
  maze in order to return to the real world; 2d4 are 
  rolled every Combat Round, and on a roll of 8 he/it 
  reappears. A Spell Expiry Roll applies to the effect 
  of this amulet, and once it is used it will not func-
  tion again that day.
   
  Special note: There may come a time when a 
  player character attacks someone using this amulet 
  and suffers its effect. Rather than have him make 
  the 2d4 rolls to abstractly represent his plight, you 
  could actually map out a simple maze and see how 
  long he takes to get through it.
  The Pendant of Alarums
  This is a small steel bar on a steel chain. It enables 
  the wearer to set invisible alarm-spells on the back 
  of doors, the lid of a chest, floors, windows, etc. 
  When any being passes that way, the amulet pro-
  duces a soft chime. To receive the alarm, the owner 
  of the amulet must be within 250m and wearing his 
  amulet at the time. Up to nine different alarm-spells 
  can be set with the amulet, and the warning from 
  each alarm-spell has its own characteristic pitch. 
  (A problem: is the wearer tone-deaf?) If the wearer 
  removes the amulet, any alarm-spells he has set are 
  negated. An alarm-spell is also negated when it is 
  tripped.
  The Amulet of Soul Storing
  This can be made to look like any one of the preced-
  ing amulets and talismans. Its function is to contain 
  the wearer’s soul if he is slain. If another person then 
  puts on the amulet, the soul can attempt to pos-
  sess him. This is resolved like a direct-attack spell, 
  matching the magical attack that the dead char-
  acter had in life against the magical defence of 
  the victim. (If the character did not have a magi-
  cal attack score, his soul attacks with an effective 
  magical attack of 2d6 + his magical defence.) 
  Even if the first attempt at possession fails, the soul 
  can try again and again (once each Combat Round) 
  until the amulet is removed. Successful possession 
  means that the soul takes up residence in the vic-
  tim’s body (acquiring the appearance, Strength and 
  Reflexes of the host but retaining the skills and 
  memories of its original self) while the victim’s soul 
  is displaced into the amulet. 
   
  (Such an amulet found in treasure will often—
  80% of the time—already have a soul trapped within 
  it. Roll 3d4 to find the soul’s rank when alive and 
  d100 for its Profession using the chart below; this 
  yields the appropriate magical attack with which 
  to assail whichever unsuspecting player-character 
  puts the amulet on.)
  d100 roll 
  Profession of trapped soul
  1-10 
   
  Knight
  11-16  
  Barbarian
  17-30  
  Assassin
  31-55  
  Sorcerer
  55-65  
  Mystic
  66-80  
  Elementalist  (1d6 for element: 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  1 air; 2 earth; 3 fire;   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  4 water; 5-6 darkness)
  81-00  
  Warlock
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  44
  Dragon Warriors
  Rings
  Any character with a Psychic Talent score of at least 
  9 can use magic rings. Rings must be worn on the 
  left hand, and wearing more than three at a time 
  will prevent any of them from functioning. Activat-
  ing a ring is an action, taking one Combat Round. 
  Those rings which have charges will be found with 
  3d8 –3; they can be recharged up to the maximum 
  capacity of 21 charges by any Sorcerer of 8th rank 
  or higher. The time required for this is one lunar 
  month per charge. 
   
  One problem with rings is finding out what they 
  do. There are hundreds of different forms a ring 
  might take: a plain silver band, a coiled serpent in 
  bronze, an amythest in a gold setting, an intricate 
  filigree... whatever the maker chose, in fact. Appear-
  ance is no clue to function. Only a few (perhaps one 
  in ten) bear any inscription, so often the only way to 
  find out what the ring is is to try it out.
  Rings Found in Treasure
  d100 roll  
  Type
  01–20   
  Ring of Agonizing Doom
  21–27   
  Ring of the Burning Halo
  28–34   
  Ring of Negation
  35–40   
  Ring of Obedient Parts
  41–45   
  Ring of Psychic Chains
  46–66   
  Ring of Red Ruin
  67–87   
  Ring of Sentinels
  88–00   
  Ring of Teleportation
  The Ring of Agonizing Doom
  Each charge of this ring generates a bolt of emerald 
  lightning which forks out towards the nearest 2–8 
  beings in the direction the ringwearer is pointing. 
  The bolt has a speed of 12 and a maximum range 
  of 20m. Each being struck takes 2d8 HP damage, 
  reduced by his/its Armour Factor if any.
  The Ring of the Burning Halo
  This surrounds the user with a coruscating circle 
  of white fire 2½m in radius. Any being attempting 
  to cross this halo will take 2d6 Health Points dam-
  age; again, armour (or tough skin/scales) protects by 
  absorbing its AF from this damage. Each use of the 
  ring costs one charge and lasts until terminated by a 
  Spell Expiry Roll.
  The Ring of Negation
  A charge of this ring produces a glittering beam of 
  anti-magical energy. This beam can be directed at 
  a single durational spell within its range of 10m. If 
  the spell was cast with 8 Magic Points or less (Mys-
  tic spells: cast at eighth level or less) it is dispelled 
  at once.
  The Ring of Obedient Parts
  When this ring is constructed, an outré entity of 
  unguessable origin and nature is somehow sum-
  moned and trapped within it. Upon command, the 
  entity within the ring will release one of its con-
  stituent sections. A large yellow eye, hand or mouth 
  appears in the air and waits for the ringwearer’s tel-
  epathic orders. These parts can float through the air 
  at 10m per Combat Round (six kilometres an hour, 
  a brisk walking pace) and are prepared to go any 
  distance to serve their master. 
   
  The eye can record visual images and play them 
  back, in the form of a monochrome projection on 
  any suitable surface, when it returns to its master. 
  The hand can fetch and carry anything that a man 
  could lift with one arm. It can sense objects around 
  it, but cannot ‘see’ clearly and thus is unable to wield 
  a sword. The lips will carry messages and return to 
  tell their master what they have heard—unlike the 
  other two forms, the lips have an acoustic sense; like 
  the hand, they ‘see’ only hazy shapes. All three forms 
  hover at a height of no more than 5m above the 
  ground. When one form has returned to the ring, 
  the entity within can be made to send forth another. 
  There is no restriction on the duration or number of 
  uses of this ring, but only one of the three parts can 
  be manifest at any given time.
   
  The three parts have the following stealth and 
  perception scores: 
  Hand  
  —  
  stealth 14, perception 9
  Eye  
   
  —  
  stealth 15, perception 17
  Mouth  
  —  
  stealth 18, perception 12
  All are panoptical.
  The Ring of Psychic Chains
  Sucker bait left around by sneaky Sorcerers. This 
  ring negates a Sorcerer’s or Mystic’s ability to use 
  spells the moment he slips it on to his finger. Mere 
  force is insufficient to remove the ring—this must be 
  accomplished with an 8 Magic Point spell of Dispel 
  Magic or, more drastically, by severing the finger.
  The Ring of Red Ruin
  At the cost of one charge, this ring emits a beam of 
  searing light towards a single target within 20m. If 
  the target fails to dodge (the beam has a speed of 
  
  4
  20), he suffers 1d20 HP damage. Magical armour 
  will reduce the damage taken by its magic bonus; 
  nonmagical armour is ineffective.
  The Ring of Sentinels
  With each charge expended, the wearer can bring 
  an unhuman Knight from another world to fight for 
  him. These Sentinels have blue-white skin, violet 
  eyes that pierce even the total dark of an under-
  world, and wear gilded armour of quite unearthly 
  design. The stats of a Sentinel are:
  attack 16 Two-handed sword (d10, 5 points) 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Armour Factor 4
  defence 10 
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m/round
  magical defence 6 
   
  evasion 4 
  Health Points 1d6 +10   
  stealth 10  
  Rank-equivalent: 4th   
  perception 13 (panoptical)
  For each Sentinel summoned, a Spell Expiry Roll 
  is used to determine how long it remains on this 
  Plane. The ringwearer can summon no more than 
  three Sentinels at a time—he must then wait until 
  one of them is slain or vanishes of its own accord 
  before he can use the ring again.
  The Ring of Teleportation
  This enables the ringwearer to teleport up to 150m 
  instantaneously. He must have some familiarity 
  with his intended destination to be sure of arriv-
  ing safely. A place counts as ‘familiar’ in this context 
  if the wearer has studied it first-hand for at least 
  five minutes in the past hour, or ten minutes in the 
  past two hours, and so on. Any place he has care-
  fully scrutinized for over thirty minutes on two 
  separate occasions counts as permanently familiar; 
  he can teleport to it in perfect safety at any time he 
  is within range. 
   
  If he teleports without taking these precautions, 
  to a location he hardly knows, roll d100. There is 
  a 70% chance the teleport will work properly, a 
  25% chance that it will be to some random location 
  within 150m, and a 5% chance that the ring will 
  turn the wearer inside out and back to front before 
  ejecting him into another dimensional continuum 
  where he is lost forever!  
   
  It is possible to use the Ring of Teleportation to 
  transport someone else; the wearer must physically 
  touch the character he is trying to teleport, and the 
  latter may wish to resist the effect (match the ring’s 
  magical attack of 20 vs the character’s magical 
  defence). Each use of the ring, whether to tel-
  eport the wearer or another character, uses up one 
  charge. 
  ARTIFACTS
  Magical artifacts are usually unique. Most are the 
  fruit of a lifetime—or longer—of work by a dedi-
  cated or crazy magician. Player characters who 
  attain very high rank (15th or more) could attempt 
  to devise artifacts of their own. Powerful magic, 
  unlike modern science, is not always reproducible; 
  artifacts constructed by two different Sorcerers will 
  always differ in some way, even if they have the same 
  general effect. 
   
  Some of the artifacts which could feature in a 
  campaign are given below. GamesMasters should 
  devise their own additions to this list—partly so 
  that the artifacts reflect the mood and setting of the 
  campaign, and partly so that players cannot cheat 
  and find out what a unique item does by looking it 
  up in this book!
  Felgor’s Visor
  The warlord Felgor (called ‘the Reaver’) possessed 
  a helmet with a visor of blue-grey metal fashioned 
  into the aspect of a terrible demon. The character 
  who wears this helmet can cause it to discharge 
  a bolt of raging energy to a distance of 10m. The 
  bolt has a speed of 12. Using the helm drains the 
  wearer—for each Health Point he expends the bolt 
  inflicts 1d4 HP damage on the victim, who subtracts 
  his Armour Factor from the total damage rolled.
  The Tempest Horn
  When this horn is blown, a wind arises from 
  nowhere. Within a minute (10 Combat Rounds), 
  storm clouds will have covered the sky and a local-
  ized tempest, 150m across, will rage around the 
  horn’s user. Within the storm zone, rain driven 
  by the fierce gale reduces visibility to 5m, and the 
  continuous rumble of thunder and shrieking winds 
  make normal communication impossible. Beings 
  items WeirD anD WonDrous
  
  46
  Dragon Warriors
  caught in the storm move at half their normal rate, 
  and flying characters/creatures have a 10% chance 
  each Round of being dashed from the sky. There 
  is also a 5% chance every Combat Round that a 
  bolt of fork lightning will strike 2–12 beings in the 
  storm zone, inflicting 6d6 HP damage (the victim 
  can subtract his AF if he is wearing magic armour). 
  At the very centre of the zone is an area of calm, 
  the eye of the storm, 3m across; thus the user of the 
  horn remains safe from danger. The storm lasts ten 
  minutes and then dies as suddenly as it appeared. 
  The horn is evidently usable only outside, and but 
  once per week.
  The Sword of Darkness
  This thin blade of black metal is said in some folk-
  tales to have been forged by the Devil himself, and 
  most warriors would be loath to use it in spite of its 
  magic. It confers no bonuses to the wielder’s Com-
  bat Factors, but uses a 20-sided dice for Armour 
  Bypass Rolls and inflicts a 5 HP wound. The sword 
  has a certain sentience (reputedly evil) of its own. 
  It can make its wishes and feelings known to its 
  owner by empathy, and has three spells which it can 
  use once a day: Shadowbolt, Mantlet and Nova. It 
  casts these at its own whim, not necessarily when its 
  owner needs them.
  The Crown of Truth
  Whoever wears this unadorned circlet of gold has 
  a 75% chance of seeing through any illusion at first 
  glance. Touching the illusion will cause it to vanish.
  St. Goldmund’s Locker
  This is a wooden casket of moderate size, bound 
  with bands of iron. It counts as two items for encum-
  brance purposes; but in fact up to fifteen items, each 
  as big as a man, can be fitted within! Placing an item 
  in the locker takes one Combat Round; removing 
  an item takes two Combat Rounds.
  The Torc of Continual Restoration
  This very powerful magical item continually regen-
  erates the body of the character who wears it. He or 
  she heals at the rate of 1 Health Point per Combat 
  Round. Lost limbs or organs will grow back within 
  an hour, and even if the character is killed he will rise 
  from the dead once the Torc restores him to positive 
  Health Points. The only type of wound not restored 
  by the Torc is that caused by fire—including natural 
  flame, spells of Dragonbreath, Nova or Firestorm, the 
  breath of a dragon, etc. Once fixed around a char-
  acter’s neck, the Torc will clamp shut; it can only be 
  removed when the character is dead.
  Flying Carpets
  A number of famous wizards created flying carpets. 
  The great sorcerer Norfengu even built a flying pal-
  anquin! The exact powers of flying carpets differ, but 
  most will bear a load of four or five people at speeds 
  of up to 75 km/hour. To operate a flying carpet one 
  must know the command words to make it come, 
  land, take off, fly straight on, turn left, turn right, 
  gain altitude and lose altitude. Sometimes the last 
  two commands are subsumed into the land/take-
  off commands. Some carpets have a wider range 
  of commands. Aktrium the Mage made his flying 
  carpet respond to the tunes he played on a flute, 
  but was undone when a Hobgoblin piper mimicked 
  his notes. To gain maximum manoeuvrability, the 
  renowned Ranulf Deathgaze created a flying throne 
  that responded to his thoughts, though with the 
  drawback that he needed full concentration to oper-
  ate it and could not cast spells while in flight.
  The Sceptre of the North
  This is a short rod of silvery metal with a glyph-
  incised sphere at one end. Pressing a catch on the 
  side releases a tremendous bolt of force that will 
  demolish stout doors, blast 20cm into solid rock, 
  or deal 4d10 HP damage to a being who fails to 
  evade it (speed 14). The beam is quite narrow, so it 
  will strike only a single person, and the range is 5m. 
  The Sceptre operates three times and then takes 48 
  hours to recharge itself. This device was invented by 
  the Companions of the Ice, reclusive priests of the 
  nemesis-god Angaril, and it is rumoured that they 
  constructed at least ten such sceptres to further their 
  nefarious goals.
  Orric’s Slates
  Though well-versed in powerful sorcery, Orric was 
  a gentle priest who loved scholasticism. He made 
  two slates with the property that whatever is written 
  on one will appear at the same time on the other, 
  regardless of the distance between them. (Charac-
  ters may, of course, come across one without the 
  other—unkind GMs, take note!)
  The Mirror of the Moon
  The owner of this strange device can cause it to 
  create a soulless, nearly mindless simulacrum of a 
  
  47
  single opponent within 5m. The simulacrum has 
  the fighting skills and other characteristics of the 
  person it resembles—and also has duplicates of his 
  arms and armour, though it has not the wit to use 
  any magical devices he happens to possess. It will 
  attack its original to the exclusion of all else—using 
  only physical attacks, for it can neither use magic 
  nor be affected by it. Once it has slain the original, 
  it fades from existence. If the original defeats the 
  simulacrum, the Mirror shatters; otherwise it can be 
  used once a week.
  The Cloak of Invisibility
  Whenever this dark red cloak is donned, the wearer 
  becomes invisible to the eyes of any character below 
  6th rank. However, the wearer must exert some con-
  centration for the Cloak to work properly. If his con-
  centration is broken (for instance, if he is wounded, 
  or wishes to attack, or cast a spell) he appears as a 
  flickering shadowy form to characters of 1st to 5th 
  rank, though he retains full invisibility where nor-
  mal mortals (i.e. unranked characters not belonging 
  to an adventuring Profession) are concerned.
  Wristband of Extreme Luck
  This faceted jade vambrace enhances the wearer’s 
  luck in dire emergencies. In game-terms, its powers 
  apply whenever a dice roll is being made and only 
  one specific number will be of benefit to the wearer. 
  In these cases, 1 is added to or subtracted from the 
  roll, as needed. 
   
  For example, if the wearer were trying to strike 
  an opponent whose defence is higher than his own 
  attack, he would normally hit only on a 1 on d20. 
  The Wristband subtracts 1 from the die roll, mean-
  ing that he hits on a 1 or a 2.
  items WeirD anD WonDrous
   JH
  
  48
  Dragon Warriors
  Relics
  A relic is a tooth, bone, lock of hair or other frag-
  ment of a saint’s mortal remains. Such fragments 
  may be stored within a reliquary—often a crucifix 
  or sword-pommel—and have power against unholy 
  beings. The exact powers of relics vary. All give the 
  owner some chance of sensing great evil when it is 
  present in an object, place or person. Other powers 
  should ideally be at the discretion of the Games-
  Master, who may or may not wish to follow these 
  guidelines:
   
  First roll 1d10 for the quality of the relic:
  d10  
  Quality  
  Powers
  1–2  
  holy 
   
  10% chance of sensing evil; one 
    
   
   
   
   
  additional power—roll 2d6 –l and 
    
   
   
   
   
  consult the table below.
  3–7   
  saintly  
  20% chance of sensing evil; two 
    
   
   
   
   
  additional powers—roll 2d6 for each 
    
   
   
   
   
  on the table below.
  8–9   
  perfect  
  40% chance of sensing evil; three 
    
   
   
   
   
  additional powers—roll 2d6 +1 for
    
   
   
   
   
  each on the table below.
  10  
  godly  
  80% chance of sensing evil; three 
    
   
   
   
   
  additional powers—roll 2d6 +3 for 
    
   
   
   
   
  each on the table below.
  Then roll for additional powers as indicated:
  2d6 Roll  
  Power of Relic
  1  
   
   
  +1 defence vs Boggarts, Goblins, 
  Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Spriggans and 
  Trolls.
  2  
   
   
  +1 magical defence vs Hobgoblin and 
  Boggart sorcery.
  3  
   
   
  +1 defence vs Hags and Undead.
  4  
   
   
  +1 attack vs Boggarts, Goblins, 
  Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Spriggans and Trolls.
  5  
   
   
  +1 attack vs Hags and Undead.
  6  
   
   
  +1 magical defence vs Elven magic.
  7  
   
   
  +1 magical defence vs Hag, Spriggan or 
  Undead magic.
  8  
   
   
  +1 magical defence vs all sorcery.
  9  
   
   
  +2 defence vs Boggarts, Goblins, 
  Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Spriggans, Hags, 
  Trolls and Undead.
  10   
   
  +2 attack vs Boggars, Goblins, 
  Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Spriggans, Hags, 
  Trolls and Undead.
  11   
   
  +2 magical defence vs Hag, Hobgoblin, 
  Spriggan, Boggart and Undead magic.
  12   
   
  Immunity to Fright Attack, Vampire 
  mesmerism and the bark of a Barghest.
  13   
   
  Power to exorcize Ghosts.
  14   
   
  Inflict twice normal damage vs Undead.
  15   
   
  Power to drive away the Undead (takes 
  three Rounds).
  GamesMasters may wish to restrict the use of relics 
  to devout characters. Sorcerers are not evil, but the 
  power they use is intrinsically pagan and they are 
  consequently unable to benefit from a relic.
   
  Abbeys prize these items because ownership of a 
  relic confers status. If a relic is taken to the monks 
  then they may pay well for it. However, if they see 
  any excuse for deeming the owner unworthy (and if 
  he is not of too high rank!), they will simply confis-
  cate the relic and throw the character out!
  
  49
  ‘a myth is a pure and absolute imagination; a legend has 
  a basis of fact, but amplifies, abridges or modifies that 
  basis at pleasure.’ —rawlinson
  EVERY ROLE-PLAYING campaign needs a set-
  ting. Without a fantasy world to be the backdrop 
  for their escapades, players are losing out on nine-
  tenths of the role-playing experience.
   
  Many GamesMasters enjoy constructing their 
  own fantasy worlds, and often the world creation 
  becomes a two-way process as the GM incorporates 
  elements suggested by the players. That takes a lot 
  of time, of course. The GM must prepare maps, lists 
  of languages, details of calendar and weather—and 
  much besides—before the campaign can begin. But 
  this is a lot of work, so here you have the essential 
  material for setting a role-playing campaign in the 
  world of Legend.
   
  One book cannot go far towards describing 
  every detail of a fantasy world. In any case, it is 
  the prerogative of each individual GamesMaster 
  to give his/her campaign its ‘fine tuning’—the dis-
  tinct flavour that makes it unique. Different groups 
  have different styles. Some may choose to role-play 
  dauntless Crusaders marching south with the ban-
  ner of the ‘True’ Faith, charging into battle against 
  the pagan horde. Others will prefer to take the part 
  of Ta’ashim warriors, defending civilization against 
  the crude infidels from the north. 
   
  Some will choose to focus on the broad canvas 
  of Legend—trading and politicking their way to 
  power in the courts of kings, getting involved in 
  assassination and skulduggery in Ferromaine, or 
  siding with various factions in the power struggles 
  of the Tamorian Senate. Those with a taste for low-
  key adventures can take a small section of Legend 
  and develop it with meticulous care. 
   
  For others with more exotic tastes there are always 
  the areas we have included off-map: the theocracy 
  of Batubatan, with its gold temple-towers scraping 
  the very floor of Heaven; the majestic land of Minj, 
  awhirl with coloured silks and the clash of cymbals; 
  Khitai, the empire that has endured throughout 
  Time, where a ponderous bureaucracy involves 
  itself in ever-greater refinements of etiquette and 
  philosophy; or war-torn Yamato, where the haiken 
  swordmasters follow their ethic of honour even if it 
  leads them to ritual suicide.
   
  Or, if you prefer, take a different time period. Set 
  your campaign in the days of the Selentine Empire, 
  or in the heyday of Ancient Kaikuhuru—or move 
  forward to the Age of Discovery, when ships open 
  up a new world beyond the western ocean. In this 
  future time the old class divisions are crumbling as 
  merchants buy noble titles, and old aristocrats sink 
  into the peasantry. Musket and rapier have taken 
  the place of bow and broadsword. Possibly sorcerers 
  will not be the rare and solitary folk that they are in 
  medieval legend. There may even be a ‘Magician’s 
  Guild’!
   
  What I am saying is that GamesMasters can 
  make their own campaign. You do not need to be 
  constrained by what is set out in this book (change 
  any bits you dislike, in fact) but there is plenty of 
  Chapter 4
  THE LANDS
  OF LEGEND
  
  0
  Dragon Warriors
   AL
  
  
  detail here if you do not have the time to make up 
  your own. However, players should respect their 
  GamesMaster’s decision; the campaign is his, and 
  he must have the final say. If you disagree with what 
  he says, you can always quit the campaign—or start 
  your own!
  The Lie of the Land
  The world of Dragon Warriors has a name: Legend. 
  It is a place of warring nobles and mysterious wiz-
  ards—a place for adventures. But there is a ‘real life’ 
  behind the adventuring scenes. The country of Elle-
  sland is described here in more detail than the rest 
  of the world, and will be the focus of many of the 
  published adventures for the game. But you should 
  not feel constrained by that!
   
  The GamesMaster should remember one thing 
  in particular. Players may read these chapters about 
  the game-world, but their characters will not know 
  very much about the world unless you, as GM, tell 
  them. A character who knew everything about Leg-
  end that is included here would have a very high 
  level of general education. If players make use of 
  information that they (as characters) do not have 
  access to, then the GM should change a few key 
  details here and there so as to give them a surprise. 
  A nasty surprise….
  Cornumbria
  Ellesland (pronounced ‘EL-ess-land’) comprises 
  five nations: Albion, Cornumbria, Thuland, Glis-
  som and Ereworn. It is in Cornumbria and in 
  Ereworn that the original natives of Ellesland still 
  predominate. At one time they ruled from shore to 
  shore, but their fierce armies were broken by the 
  legions of Selentium in ancient times, and the peo-
  ple became citizens of the Empire. Later, when the 
  legions departed to protect the core of the Selentine 
  Empire (by then under serious threat from constant 
  barbarian incursions out of the western plains), the 
  Elleslanders were prey to attacks from the mainland. 
  Finally they were driven back to Cornumbria by the 
  invaders.
   
  Authority in Cornumbria is centred on the 
  lofty hill-forts where the chieftains and their grim 
  thanes overlook the moors and valleys of their land. 
  The High King is elected at the meeting of all the 
  chieftains, and it is also not impossible for such an 
  assembly to strip the High King of his rank (though 
  this has happened only rarely).
   
  Cornumbria was brought into the True Faith in 
  the latter days of Selentium and has remained so 
  since then. Perhaps harking back unconsciously to 
  their ancestral tradition of a wild, solitary priest-
  hood, Cornumbrian priests have opted for a monas-
  tic Church with no central authority. The monks 
  live in the most inaccessible and uncomfortable 
  places—not just abbeys on chilly, windswept sea 
  cliffs, but even in caves and on barren islands. They 
  are famous for their learning and their works of art. 
  (The illuminated manuscript known as The Book of 
  Dathnan, of which there are five copies, is widely 
  considered the grand masterwork of limnery.) 
  However, the monastic Church of Cornumbria is 
  effectively autonomous from the Selentine Church, 
  and for that reason is regarded with some suspicion 
  by priests of the neighbouring countries.1
  Albion
  The ancestors of the current inhabitants of Albion 
  were reavers from the mainland—mainly from the 
  region now called Chaubrette. They were originally 
  heathens with the same grizzled warrior-gods as 
  the Thulanders, but the True Faith now predomi-
  nates. Trade routes extend far to the south and west, 
  providing the lords of southern Albion with a rich 
  source of taxes. With their coffers full, they are free 
  to indulge their incessant squabbles.
   
  This is a feudal society. Land is held by lords 
  from the king. Originally this meant that there was 
  a ‘pyramidal’ pecking order: the king ruling over his 
  vassals, the dukes and earls, many of whom have 
  vassal lords of their own. Most lords have castles 
  where their retinue of knights and men-at-arms 
  reside with them. Some knights have lands of their 
  own and they, as well as some of the minor nobles, 
  oversee their estates from manor houses. The peas-
  ants are the foundation of the feudal society. They 
  work the land of the manor, which may be only one 
  of many in the lord’s fief.
   
  That is the system in theory. In practice, like most 
  feudal societies, it is somewhat upset by the rise of 
  the merchant class. Merchants become wealthy 
  without themselves producing wealth, but just by 
  buying, transporting and selling the goods and pro-
  1 
  Though the occasional accusations of black magic or even devil worship 
  are surely unfounded.
  the lanDs oF legenD
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
  duce of others. Specialized crafts also develop, so 
  that, whereas in a small village a family must build 
  their own house, make their own clothes, etc., in a 
  town it is possible to pay someone else to do this. 
  Eventually the craftsmen organize into guilds and 
  insist that you use guild members to build your 
  house and so on. The towns achieve autonomy from 
  the local lord, receiving their charter direct from 
  the king. The citizens of Port Clyster, for example, 
  are freemen—not the vassals of Baron Aldred, nor 
  of any other lord. Technically, a serf can obtain his 
  freedom by escaping to a town such as Clyster and 
  remaining there for a year and a day.
   
  Tradition and mutual obligation are strong forces 
  in Albionic society. The peasants work hard for their 
  lord, but they are also under his protection. The 
  knights who fight and even die in the lord’s name 
  also thrive by his beneficence. The king bestows the 
  land, but in return he can call on his lords in time of 
  war.
   
  Albion’s king, Hadric, has his court in the city 
  of Ongus. Hadric is a weak king and a poor judge 
  of character. This unpromising mix means that he 
  has surrounded himself with ruthlessly self-serving 
  advisers. Untold damage has been wrought in the 
  last ten years of Hadric’s misrule: the lands of loyal 
  vassals have been stripped away, unworthy men have 
  been ennobled, and peasants have suffered under a 
  yoke of hard taxation. In the north, old foes like 
  Aldred, Baron of Gorburn, and Earl Montombre 
  care little for the king’s law. They have their own 
  grudges to pursue.
   
  The towns of Albion tend to be quite small. Apart 
  from the larger ports and market towns, most have 
  grown up around a lord’s castle—a place where the 
  citizens can be sure of protection in times of trouble! 
  Others may co-exist with a strongly fortified abbey. 
  Confined within secure walls, a town’s population 
  is unlikely to number more than a thousand. In all 
  the country, only about a dozen cities have popula-
  tions in the tens of thousands. The overwhelming 
  majority of the people live in manors consisting of 
  perhaps twenty cottages.
  Thuland
  The country north of Albion is a high, craggy place 
  split by deep river valleys and cold blue lakes. The 
  people—settlers from across the Mergeld Sea, both 
  from the Mercanian Coast and from the outer Thu-
  lan islands to the north—are barbaric and fierce, 
  often at war with their neighbours. Lords sit out 
  the winter in smoky mead-halls, surrounded by 
  their housecarls, waiting for the summer months of 
  reaving. Wandering priests brave hostility and harsh 
  weather in order to bring the True Faith to the peo-
  ple. In this they are hampered by the same rugged 
  geography that prevents any real centralization of 
  power.1 Some of the lords have been converted, 
  but even they show no inclination to completely 
  reject the old gods of their ancestors—Wotan, Tor, 
  Loge and the others. The merchants here are also 
  minstrels, welcome to barter their wares if they can 
  regale the hall-heroes with stirring tales. The serfs 
  who till the land have no rights. To their lords they 
  are of little more importance than animals. 
  Ereworn
  In the far north, the influence of law is scarcely 
  felt at all. Brigands and masterless knights roam 
  unchecked about the foothills of the Pagan Moun-
  tains. The racial stock is mostly native Elleslander, 
  with an admixture of Mercanian and Algandian 
  blood.2 The gods worshipped here are the strange 
  primeval deities that the Druids called upon—Lah-
  mfada, Kernanu, Morkaan; shadowy entities of the 
  forest and mountains.3 The True Faith is not recog-
  nized at all.
   
  The lords of Ereworn are either mad or irre-
  deemably steeped in evil. Some are both. Vendettas 
  among themselves and wars against Thuland, Cor-
  numbria and Albion form the yearly round. The 
  throne lies empty while numerous claims to the 
  succession are made. Assassination is the accepted 
  means to advance one’s cause, and an entire subcul-
  ture—the Clan of Harbingers, who live in solitary 
  mountain villages and are roughly equivalent to 
  1 
  The court of the King of Thuland is located at Katorheim. His rule is 
  strong enough on the island itself, but the Thulan lords across the sea in Elle-
  sland may really be considered to rule over semi-autonomous duchies.
  2 
  Mercenaries from the continent were employed by both sides in the ‘Black 
  War’ fought between Cornumbria and Ereworn some three hundred years 
  ago. after hostilities dwindled down into the customary skirmishing, the 
  mercenaries stayed on and gradually became absorbed into the native popu-
  lation.
  3 
  Most of these gods were ‘discredited’ in the conversion of Cornumbria 
  by the time-honoured proselytizing technique of equating the gods of the old 
  religion with the devils of the new. as far as the average Cornumbrian is 
  concerned, therefore, his northern neighbours are devil-worshippers. gener-
  ally this is a bit of a slur—the old gods are elemental and uncivilized, but not 
  intrinsically a force for evil. However, some of the crazier lords (e.g. Duke 
  Darien—see the adventure-book The Elven Crystals) revere still stranger 
  gods. Balor and rimfax were demons even in the Druids’ pantheon, and 
  there can be no doubt that they appeal to all that is vile in the human heart.
  
  3
  Japan’s ninja—has developed to cater to this need. 
  At present Duke Darian holds the old king’s for-
  tress, Castle Ereworn, but he is too canny to put his 
  life at risk by claiming the crown.
   
  Merchant-adventurers seldom brave the ports of 
  Ereworn, for villains lurk as thick as shadows and 
  one’s life may be lost as easily as one’s merchandise. 
  Outside the towns, the countryside is bleak and 
  scattered with crude forts and peasant hovels. Many 
  villages are deserted because of the Black Death that 
  has claimed many of the people in recent years. At 
  night the peasants shutter their windows and cower 
  by the fireside while goblins dance on the rooftops 
  and the Devil, they say, stalks the land with his two 
  hounds—Pestilence and Plague.
   
  Deep within the Pagan Mountains, beyond the 
  bandits’ foothills, a number of proud Dwarves dwell. 
  Rarely seen by people, these Dwarves are vaguely 
  aware of the problems of Ereworn, and long ago 
  withdrew from all diplomatic and mercantile con-
  tact with the humans of the kingdom.
  Glissom
  The social structure, customs and religion of this 
  small country resemble those of Ereworn. You will 
  find a description of it in the adventure-book The 
  Prince of Darkness (see page 255).
  The Stranded Isles
  A few words will suffice for these forlorn islands 
  which are located dead west of Ellesland in the 
  Hadran Sea. They are permanently covered by a pall 
  of mist, for they lie at a point where the winds are 
  still. We must rely on mariners’ tales for our knowl-
  edge of the isles—as, for example, in the logbook of 
  Olo of Cornumbria, whose ship was becalmed there 
  for ten days. Olo wrote that “the sea was like a pane 
  of blue glass, the mist like drifting strands of silk”. 
  Several of his crew claimed to see wild naked figures 
  leaping among the cliffs by the shore, but there is 
  some evidence that they had by this time resorted 
  to drinking salt water. Only adventurers would have 
  any reason to journey to this forsaken corner of the 
  world.
  The North-west Mainland
  The people of Chaubrette, Algandy and Kurland—
  the three great kingdoms of the north-west penin-
  sula—incline to the view that the Elleslanders are 
  simple ruffians, with coarse ways that set them little 
  above their barbaric neighbours. Occasional wars 
  across the Glaive1 over the years have caused much 
  ill-feeling and doubtless fuelled this prejudice.
   
  The royal families and nobilities of these coun-
  tries are strongly linked by blood—and, in fact, 
  there are also ties with some of the lords of Albion.2 
  The last twenty years or so have been relatively 
  peaceful. The land is fertile, trade profitable. Life 
  is comfortable even for the peasantry. The robber 
  knights, who had been marauding and trouble-
  making through the length and breadth of the land 
  for centuries, have been given an acceptable outlet 
  for their rapaciousness in the form of the Crusades.3 
  The Age of Chivalry is thus flowering, and warlike 
  energies are channelled into such sport as tourneys, 
  jousts and steeplechases. The perfect gentle knight 
  of an elegant castle in, say, Chaubrette cuts a very 
  different figure from his rough Elleslandic cousin, 
  sitting in a draughty keep, clutching a wench in one 
  hand and a brimming mead-horn in the other.
   
  From a geographic point of view, these lands are 
  generally higher and more mountainous than Elle-
  sland. Climate is similar, warmed by south-westerly 
  ocean currents from the tropics.4 These lands are 
  more densely populated, and large tracts of forest 
  have been cleared for farming.5
  The Gouge
  This is a deep rift-valley that cuts like a scar through 
  the Drakken Peaks. The wind that screeches along it 
  carries a permanent bitter chill. From some moun-
  tain tops along the edge of the Gouge one may look 
  1 
  The glaive: the channel separating Ellesland from the mainland.
  2 
  as an example, Montombre’s wife Talia is a niece of the King of 
  algandy.
  3 
  The idea of the Crusade was formed jointly by the Pontiff and King 
  Vergang of algandy. Nominally a Holy War, it was more truthfully a way of 
  getting these troublesome knights out of ‘civilized’ regions and putting them 
  somewhere that they could grab land to their hearts’ content.
  4 
  Krarth and the Mercanian Coast do not receive the benefit of these 
  warm currents and are correspondingly colder than Ellesland even though at 
  much the same latitude. Krarth in particular is a flat country subject to winds 
  off the polar ice. Temperatures drop to –30° Celsius or lower in winter and 
  rarely attain +15° in midsummer. Contrast this with the mean annual range 
  of –6° to +28° Celsius for albion.
  5 
  Even so, some 10%–30% of the countryside is wild forest. areas which 
  appear close together on the map may be quite isolated from one another. a 
  traveller might easily encounter a forgotten palace enclosed by tangled woods 
  barely a day’s ride from a bustling town. This is particularly true of algandy, 
  whose woodland areas have an ill and eerie repute. There are times of the year 
  when the moon raises a luminous ground-mist from the rotting leaves, and 
  faerie sorcery drips from the boughs of old oaks….
  the lanDs oF legenD
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  AL
  
  
  down upon thick clouds crackling with an intense 
  storm. The crashing thunder may indeed be, as the 
  myths claim, the gnashing of the dragon Helgyrak 
  as he stirs in his sleep.
   
  No boat has ever navigated the length of the 
  Gouge, but it is crossed at one narrow point by an 
  extraordinary edifice called the Rathurbosk. This 
  is a sprawling bridge-city covered with marvellous 
  edifices and honeycombed with innumerable cham-
  bers and corridors that run throughout its structure. 
  Particularly remarkable is the central tower, sup-
  ported by flying buttresses, which houses a time-
  keeping device.1 The bridge was constructed in the 
  distant past by the magi of Spyte (see later) in order 
  to facilitate trade between Krarth and the lands to 
  the south. Elaborate laws were established so that 
  merchants would know the Rathurbosk was a safe 
  place to go and trade. 
   
  The visitor will approach the Rathurbosk 
  through a sprawling township that has developed 
  on the south side of the Gouge. The townsfolk trade 
  with the bridge-dwellers and offer their daughters 
  for marriage. If he arrives after dark, our visitor must 
  stay at an inn in the town, as the gates of the Rathur-
  bosk are closed from dusk till dawn. In the morning, 
  he may approach the sweeping structure. Perhaps a 
  moment of trepidation takes his breath away as he 
  gazes down into the dizzying gulf and wonders at 
  the sorcery that supports this unique bridge. He will 
  sign his name in the gatebook (or more probably 
  have it written for him) and then pass through into 
  a tiered plaza that climbs the curve of the bridge. 
  Evidence of decaying grandeur surrounds him in 
  the broken windows patched with animal hide and 
  the moss that covers the cracked flagstones. Militia 
  in their ornate uniform will greet him and politely 
  request his weapons. If he demurs, they will point 
  out that the traders who come here prefer things 
  this way. The weapons will be returned when the 
  visitor leaves, of course, but if he refuses to be dis-
  armed then he must turn back now. Otherwise he 
  will be directed past one of the naming-spires that 
  stand at points throughout the Rathurbosk to a tall 
  building across the plaza: the Flynt Ridd tavern. A 
  high doorway admits him to the common hall of 
  the tavern—a narrow cathedral-like chamber that 
  1 
  This is a clock, of course. it may be the only true mechanical clock in all of 
  Legend. Water-clocks are used in the New Selentine Empire, but evaporation 
  can make them untrustworthy. Similarly, a draught can make a marked can-
  dle burn faster, and measurement of one hour using such a candle can be out 
  by twenty minutes or more. Hour-glasses are known throughout the world, of 
  course, but the cost of glass makes them expensive.
  extends up several storeys. Through the perpetual 
  haze of smoke2, gable-windows from the more 
  expensive guestrooms can be seen overlooking this 
  hall.
   
  The hereditary keepers of the Rathurbosk are 
  organized into a number of ancient clans, each with 
  its own specified function. The duul Guidor clan 
  are the administrators, and their head is called the 
  Collector—i.e. the collector of tolls and trade taxes. 
  Many of the subsidiary families who were origi-
  nally instated as the armed garrison have become 
  absorbed into this clan, so the duul Guidors also 
  enforce the law. Trilothi duul Guidor, eldest son of 
  the present Collector, is thus head of the Rathur-
  bosk Guard. Since the Blasting of Spyte many of 
  the families have become slightly inbred and some-
  what mad. Emil duul Guidor, great-grandfather 
  of the present Collector, was notorious for levying 
  whimsical tolls on any adventurers who wished to 
  cross into the interior of Krarth.3 Our visitor may 
  meet such notables as Hiabuor the librarian, Rauk 
  the wizard, Vaturien the message-taker, or florid 
  Gutmooto, who keeps the Flynt Ridd—and he may 
  end up doubting the sanity of any of them!
   
  Beyond the Rathurbosk, a number of Dwarven 
  settlements can be found extending deep within the 
  Drakken Peaks on all sides. The Rathurbosk has 
  a sizeable Dwarven population, with about one in 
  seven of the inhabitants being Dwarves. This can 
  make it an excellent base from which to contact the 
  other Dwarven settlements, for whatever purpose. 
  krarth
  Great heroes seeking treasure or magic power might 
  have good cause to undertake the journey to Krarth. 
  Few others would care to do so. It is a desolate 
  expanse of tundra—bleak marshland even at the 
  height of summer, ice-locked wastes in winter. The 
  people eke out a cheerless existence, surviving on 
  stringy plants and eels and warming themselves by 
  sputtering peat fires. When the pack-ice closes like 
  an iron fist around the coast, and bitter winds sweep 
  down from the glaciers in the north, even the mas-
  2 
  This is not just from the huge fire that burns in the tavern hearth. Many 
  of the patrons smoke pipes stuffed with tabac, an evil smelling narcotic weed 
  that grows in south-eastern Krarth. The persistent side-effects of this weed 
  may explain why most people on the rathurbosk seem at least a little crazy.
  3 
  Hook the outlaw, for example, when fleeing from justice in algandy was 
  allowed across in return for the most outrageous lie he could invent, but the 
  captain of the soldiers sent in pursuit of him had to pay 1 gold Piece for each 
  of his men.
  the lanDs oF legenD
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
  sive granite citadels give little shelter from the cold. 
  In trade, this land can offer only timber (from the 
  monumental conifers in the south-east), furs and 
  slaves. Such things can be had elsewhere, and mer-
  chants who are interested will in any case venture no 
  further than the trading-town of Rathurbosk.
   
  At one time this land was under the absolute 
  dominion of magus-lords who derived their pow-
  ers from the demonic gods they worshipped. Every 
  seven years they would gather in the eldritch fortress 
  of Spyte to commune with their gods and, in doing 
  so, renew their sorcerous energies. At the last con-
  vocation, nearly two centuries ago, something went 
  wrong. Waiting beyond the sealed gates of the city, 
  the magi’s servants heard nonhuman voices raised in 
  anger. 
   
  Screams were heard and strange lights danced 
  on the walls. Running in mortal fear for their lives, 
  the servants looked back to see lightning streaming 
  up into the sky from the smouldering inner towers 
  of Spyte. Some fled into the wilderness, but oth-
  ers waited for their masters at a distance of many 
  miles from the city. Days of silence passed, then 
  the ground began to tremble and crack. A moat of 
  flame opened around Spyte, spewing gobs of mol-
  ten rock far around. As the flames died down, the 
  servants saw that Spyte now stood on an isolated 
  pinnacle of rock, surrounded by a vast fissure that 
  went right into the bowels of the earth. There was 
  no way across, even if any had dared to enter the 
  place. They could see that many of the towers had 
  fused in the heat of the inferno, causing stone walls 
  to twist like candle-wax. They waited long for their 
  masters—some, blindly faithful, until the end of 
  their days. But no one ever emerged.
   
  The apprentices or heirs of the various magi 
  took over their position of power in Krarth and thus 
  founded a new nobility that rules to this day, but 
  they have failed to master the secret lore of their 
  predecessors. The shrines of the demon-gods no 
  longer glitter with magical energy. The present-day 
  magi scour their ancestral castles for secret sanctums 
  where they might uncover the powers of old. They 
  pore over the dusty grimoires and recite the arcane 
  formulae to no avail. By the standards of those lost 
  magi of old they are mere dabblers, no more compe-
  tent than any common sorcerer—and some not even 
  that. They have taken the titles and emblems1 of the 
  1 
  The magi represented themselves by emblems; each showed the wand of 
  the magus to whom it belonged. The elaborate designs of these wands were 
  precisely specified, just as in other lands a knight or lord will have his personal 
  magi, usurped their old citadels, assumed overlord-
  ship of their subjects—but it is all a sham.
   
  Some of the magi may be mentioned in order to 
  give the reader an accurate picture. The Byl lineage 
  is traditionally powerful, but is represented at the 
  moment by one who hardly lives up to the tradition. 
  Aytarn, the Magus Byl, is a young and inexperi-
  enced sorcerer. He assumed the title after his father 
  disappeared on an expedition across the tundra, but 
  he has taken little interest in the duties this should 
  entail. He has grown into a pasty, grossly fat youth 
  who dallies with his servants and allows his father’s 
  library to gather dust. The Byl manuscripts are rich 
  with potent spells, if only they could be decoded; 
  one of the original magi once chained the Malgash 
  (p. 247). This unworthy successor to the title shows 
  no interest in recovering the old secrets, and is not 
  likely to leave any heirs.
   
  Rakov, Magus Lim, is generally believed to be 
  a vampire—or if not then some other vile form of 
  undead. He draws an awful tax from his subjects:
  one maiden every new moon. After he has drunk 
  his full, the girl joins his earlier conquests. His 
  undead ‘wives’, discarded and nearly mindless, roam 
  the tundra unchecked, stalking and finally devour-
  ing their prey after enticing them with promises of 
  warmth and glimpses of their comely fairness.
   
  The Tor magi were also a powerful line. The cur-
  rent Magus Tor, Laglor, is a true descendent of the 
  ancient lineage; whereas most of the magi slain in 
  Spyte left only apprentices to assume their place, 
  Magus Tor’s wife had already given him an heir. The 
  inner arcana of the family rituals were lost, but the 
  magical power is strong in Laglor’s blood and he is 
  an accomplished sorcerer.
   
  There are several female magi—or, more prop-
  erly, fatae. Fatae Uru (whose personal name is Jani) 
  has no sorcerous ability, but is a wily politician. 
  Planning a dynasty under which Krarth’s ancient 
  glory could be restored, she seeks to form an alli-
  ance by marriage with Laglor. Such a union would 
  significantly alter the current balance of power, and 
  many of the other magi and fatae can be counted 
  upon to oppose it.
   
  There are dozens of other magi—too numerous 
  for each to be described in detail here. Most are, 
  in any case, of little interest—merely engrossed in 
  coat-of-arms. The wand of the Magus Byl is described as ‘a golden ell with 
  nine ebon studs; three volutes enrubied and a black-and gilt gryphon atop’ 
  and so on. The genuine wands were presumably lost in the Blasting of Spyte, 
  but the present magi carry facsimiles.
  
  7
  personal indulgences and petty vendettas amongst 
  themselves, taking no notice of the affairs of the 
  world.
   
  And what of Spyte? Does it hold the old power, 
  the wands of the true magi and the means to sum-
  mon the ancient demon-gods? Many adventurers, 
  believing that it does, have made the journey to 
  the Cauldron (the local name for the chasm sur-
  rounding the ruins). Even in summer, the journey 
  is an arduous trek along disused roads and through 
  slushy quagmire. Hunger, the elements, disease and 
  wild beasts all take their toll. With a good guide 
  and much luck, travellers may eventually reach the 
  Cauldron—first glimpsed by the towering clouds 
  of steam that it belches up into the frigid air. Then 
  comes the problem of reaching the walls of Spyte. 
  Even if this is somehow accomplished, there must 
  be untold horrors pent up within. Few have ven-
  tured into Spyte since the Blasting, and of those not 
  one has returned.
  The Mercanian Coast
  The Mercanians are a loose alliance of tribes or clans. 
  Agriculture is the foundation of their economy, but 
  in centuries past they frequently supplemented this 
  with raids across the Mergeld Sea in their fearsome 
  dragon-prowed ships. Mercanians are famous for 
  their seamanship, and they were able to raid the 
  Cornumbrian or Erewornian coast as easily as that 
  of Albion. Usually a lookout would spy the raiders 
  approaching and the villagers fled from their homes, 
  leaving the Mercanians to pillage what they wished 
  end depart without bloodshed. Actual violence 
  rarely occurred, but still the Mercanians gained a 
  reputation for ferocity surpassing even their cousins 
  in Thuland. They have kept their reputation to this 
  day.
   
  The raids each summer needed extensive and 
  costly preparations—not always with a guaranteed 
  return on the investment, as a hostile lord might 
  be ready to repulse the attack. Eventually some 
  Mercanians thought of a way to avoid this. Seeing 
  plentiful lands and a comfortable climate in Elle-
  sland, they settled and built homesteads in which 
  to pass the winter months. If troubled by the local 
  lords they fought at first, but more often they agreed 
  on some tribute. Eventually they turned to farming 
  and became much like the lord’s other vassals.1 Few 
  1 
  There are two such Mercanian settlements south of Braying Cross, in 
  Montombre’s fief. The people of Torston and Sigurdingham speak Elleslan-
  families of Albion are without some faint trace of 
  Mercanian blood somewhere in their lineage.
   
  Rapine and pillage is one way of acquiring wealth. 
  It is not without its share of risk. The Mercanians 
  today are better known as traders than as raiders. 
  The greatest of the jarls have filled their coffers with 
  the fruits of trade around the Coradian ports. It is 
  not unknown to see a Mercanian trading vessel even 
  as far south as Opalar, or wending its way up the 
  junglebound waters of the Mungoda!
   
  Mercania cannot be considered as a single 
  country, even though its sailors have explored far 
  and wide and its warriors have fought in countless 
  battles. The jarls are independent chieftains—land-
  owning lords who convene occasionally at an assem-
  bly called the Thing to decide on joint ventures and 
  matters of mutual interest. A great assembly of the 
  very highest jarls, called the Althing, is theoretically 
  held once every five years. In practice, petty jealous-
  ies and grudges held for generations prevent the 
  Althing from becoming a more frequent or influen-
  tial gathering.
  The Trackless Ooze
  This is an area of marshes, lakes and desolate land 
  cobwebbed by foetid rivers. The people who live 
  here dwell in reed huts that sit on stilts above the 
  dank ground. The life they lead is not one to be 
  envied: poling themselves along the cold waterways 
  on crude rafts, they forage for water-rats, fish and 
  edible fungi. They must salt and store what they can 
  in the summer months. Winter often brings bliz-
  zards and a deathly coldness that lies on the land 
  like a shroud until the spring comes again.
   
  Not only humans live in the inland waterways. 
  There is also a strange species, known to scholars as 
  ‘newtlings’ (the river-folk call them ‘mud thrashers’). 
  These amphibious creatures have a long-limbed 
  upper body not unlike a man’s, but from the waist 
  they have a long, flattened tail which enables them 
  to swim through the mud and water of the Ooze. 
  Their faces are wide and squashed-looking, with 
  a rather comical expression. The rubbery lips are 
  continually parted as they swim (or thrash) along, 
  to allow the creature to suck in the river-weed on 
  which it subsists. Newtlings are small, the size of a 
  dic with a few Mercanian words, follow the True Faith rather than their 
  ancestral gods, pay homage to Montombre and serve in his army. only their 
  physical appearance (Mercanians are tall, pale-skinned and flaxen-haired) 
  sets them apart from any other albioman.
  the lanDs oF legenD
  
  8
  Dragon Warriors
  large dog, and may or may not be intelligent. The 
  river-folk consider their flesh a delicacy, and hunt 
  them mercilessly.
   
  Along the coast live the Vassklavi fisherfolk. For 
  them, winter can be a good time. If the sea freezes 
  they may range far on the pack-ice—even as far as 
  the Isle of Yggdras, where the meat of bears and 
  wolves can be had.
  The kingdom of Wyrd
  In earlier times this land was a vassal state of Krarth. 
  Since the Blasting of Spyte, the Witch-King has 
  been independent of the magi’s authority. He calls 
  the current magi ‘pretenders’ and refuses to recog-
  nize their right to rule. Clad in his silvered finery, he 
  has ruled from his Palace of Eternal Dusk for more 
  than five centuries. Within the borders of his land, 
  nature must bend to this great sorcerer’s will. His 
  subjects live in fear of his power, for he may visit any 
  of them—even the lowliest peasant—in dreams and 
  apply nightmarish torments if he finds they have 
  done anything that angers him.
   
  An elaborate social structure applies in the 
  Witch-King’s land—and there have been few trav-
  ellers to give an accurate account of it. Three prin-
  cipal classes hold sway: the Armigers, the hereditary 
  warrior-caste; the Solons, who administrate; and 
  the Seers, who roam freely, perhaps as mediators 
  with the common people, and are not subject to the 
  Witch-King’s occult blandishments. 
   
  The ancient gods of Krarth are worshipped here, 
  and no missionary can ever bring these people the 
  True Faith as long as the Witch-King sits upon his 
  shadowed throne.
  Yggdras Isle
  Nominally a client-state of Krarth, this cold, wind-
  swept land is sparsely populated but rich in timber 
  and ores. Its people, famed for their overweening 
  arrogance in the face of stark adversity, must pay a 
  yearly tribute of gold and iron to the magi. Ancient 
  buildings of blue-veined marble still stand here as 
  enigmatic reminders of an earlier, prouder culture. 
  The people of Yggdras hold markets in the walls of 
  these ruined cities but do not live in them.
   
  A legend states that the great Tree of Life is to be 
  found somewhere on this island. He who eats of its 
  fruit gains wisdom and mystic insight akin to that 
  of a god. Footnotes to the legend sometimes add 
  that the last god to pluck fruit from its boughs still 
  lingers here—dread Wotan, Father of the Heavens. 
  We may assume that he would not readily permit 
  others to reach it!
  The Gnawing Waste
  This is a wild country of glacier-split mountains, 
  merciless blizzards and soaring conifers. The peo-
  ple are reindeer-herdsmen and hunters. Dour and 
  uncommunicative, they worship their ancestral spir-
  its in hearth-altars and show no interest in stran-
  gers.
   
  To the east lies the uncharted Svartgard Forest. 
  Amid the black boles of strange silver-needled firs 
  lurk all manner of primeval terrors: Night Elves, 
  Trollbears, flickering Eidolons and macabre Ice-
  Ghouls. No one ventures here.
  The New Selentine Empire
  Sometime after the conversion of the Empire to 
  the True Faith, sectarian divisions brought about 
  a split. Madrox Cosmogoran, commander of the 
  First Legion, proclaimed himself Imperator at the 
  mountain stronghold of Tamor (then a remote fort 
  quite unlike the mighty city it has since become). 
  Any quarrel the Imperator in Selentium may have 
  had with this move was precluded when the south-
  ern part of the Empire finally collapsed as a result 
  of barbarian attacks from the area that is now the 
  Sultanate of Opalar.
   
  The New Selentine Empire is thus all that 
  remains of the empire that once encompassed most 
  of the mapped lands of Legend. Adapting their 
  military techniques to oppose the Khanates to the 
  east, over the centuries the legionaries of old Selen-
  tium became the Tamorian Cataphracts—grandly 
  armoured knights on heavy warhorses. They 
  expanded southwards, bringing parts of the old 
  Empire under their dominion until they acquired 
  the present territories. In the end they even sealed 
  off the corridor of land by which the nomads could 
  sweep west to sack Selentium. This is what earned 
  them their soubriquet—‘the Bastions of the Faith’.
   
  Nevertheless, the Empire is a heterodox state. 
  According to their beliefs, the Saviour was ‘pro-
  moted’ to godhood by his actions in much the way 
  that the Imperators of old were deified after their 
  death. The Selentine Church, however, teaches that 
  the Saviour was preordained to bring salvation to 
  
  9
  the world—literally, that he was the Son of God. 
  The two factions are in almost complete agreement 
  on the Saviour’s teachings and on the nature of God 
  Himself, but this one doctrinal difference is enough 
  to separate the Tamorian Church from Selentium. 
  Of course, it is on just such trivial wrangling that 
  sectarian divisions are always formed.
   
  The Empire is organized along superficially 
  feudal lines, but there is still some sense of the old 
  Republican ideals. Land is held by tenants from the 
  patres, or nobles. But unlike a truly feudal society 
  there are no serfs. Each man is technically free1 and, 
  though he may owe military service to the Imperator 
  and the State, is not obligated to render such serv-
  ice to his Lord without due payment. The essential 
  difference between this arrangement and feudalism 
  derives from the Empire’s monetary economy. Peo-
  ple are paid for their services, are taxed in turn by 
  the State, and civil matters such as administration 
  and defence are supported by this revenue. Simple, 
  all-encompassing law replaces the ties of duty and 
  1 
  There are slaves, of course—captured in war from among the eastern 
  nomads or bought from Krarth or the ooze. But these are not citizens of the 
  Empire.
  obligation that bond the feudal nation together.
   
  All classes of citizen have some influence on the 
  running of the Empire by means of the Centurial 
  Assembly, in which all clans are represented. A sim-
  ple ploughman may be a lowly individual indeed, 
  but his clan—the extended family-group to which 
  he belongs—will not be wholly lacking in influence. 
  The Centurial Assembly agrees all appointments 
  to the Senate at Tamor. Of course, some clans have 
  more influence than others. The patrician clans, in 
  point of fact, hold the majority vote over all other 
  classes. The Senate, comprising the hundred or so 
  wealthiest landowners, can petition the Impera-
  tor and require him to account for his decisions 
  before them. Without their support his reign would 
  be short-lived. Technically the Imperator has sole 
  power to appoint his successor (usually his heir), 
  but the Senate must be consulted. On at least three 
  occasions they have forced a different succession to 
  the throne.2 The Imperator at this time, Ardax Balt-
  2 
  Most notably in 885aS, when the then-imperator’s eldest son was 
  widely considered to be too unstable and indolent to rule. The Senate pre-
  ferred one of their own number, Kataxu Hirgandan. a compromise was 
  reached by marrying Kataxu to one of the retiring imperator’s daughters.
  the lanDs oF legenD
   JH
  
  60
  Dragon Warriors
  issa, has the solid backing of his Senate. Militarily, 
  economically and politically, the Empire has rarely 
  been stronger.
   
  A visitor would find much to marvel at within 
  one of the great cities of the Empire. Colossal mar-
  ble entablatures stand above the entrance to civic 
  buildings, showing in their sculpted friezes the past 
  and present glory of the Selentine Empire. With 
  great ingenuity, the Empire’s engineers have built 
  sewers to channel waste out of the city, plumbing 
  to bring water to the richer homes and even a sys-
  tem of underfloor heating to keep houses warm in 
  winter. Streets are paved—a sharp contrast to the 
  muddy ditches that run through most western cities. 
  Great braziers burn at the street corners by night, 
  illuminating the stone facades of the buildings and 
  casting a ruddy light on the bustling nightlife of 
  entertainers, merrymakers and prostitutes. Militia 
  patrols are ever-present, and any felon is assured 
  of a swift arrest—though usually a fair trial also. 
  Beyond the city walls, the traveller from the west 
  would still have much to wonder at. The uncom-
  promisingly straight roads that were the arteries of 
  the old Empire criss-cross the landscape, allowing 
  trade to move swiftly and safely between the towns. 
  Advanced farming techniques ensure a rich harvest 
  year after year.
   
  Nowhere else in the world of Legend are the 
  magic-using professions so organized. Here there 
  are academies into which a child with promising 
  pyschic gifts can be placed at an early age. This is 
  how the army of the New Selentine Empire staffs 
  its sorcerous contingents—companies of martial 
  mages trained for their specialized tasks of espio-
  nage, camouflage, morale, battlefield healing, and 
  mass devastation. The sight of the massed ranks 
  of Selentine military strength—patrician Cata-
  phracts in gleaming armour, riding forth on giant 
  warhorses; hawk-nosed mages in their palanquins, 
  surveying the disposition of troops and producing 
  augeries; scurrying infantrymen closing into forma-
  tion with immaculate precision—is a spectacle no 
  less fearsome than the nomad hordes they must 
  hold in check.
  The Nomad khanates
  An expanse of temperate grasslands and scrub lies 
  to the east of the New Selentine Empire. It has 
  never been explored or mapped; its exact limits are 
  unknown. Somewhere further east and south are 
  the strange, tradition-steeped lands of Khitai and 
  Yamato. More southerly are the rich countries of 
  Minj and Batubatan1, and the Palace Under Heaven 
  where the Emperor of the Nine Mountains holds 
  court. In the south-west, the grasslands must abut 
  the far fringes of Opalar. But a traveller wishing to 
  visit any of these exotic places would take the sea-
  ward passage along the Gulf of Marazid, not travel 
  across the grasslands. These wild plains are the 
  home of nomad peoples as fierce and untamed as 
  the landscape they inhabit.
   
  The nomads are horse and oxen herders who 
  move continually as the seasons and the abundance 
  of grass for the herd dictate. They obtain everything 
  from their herd—the horses are steeds for war or 
  hunting, cattle draw the tribe’s wagons. Both are 
  a source of meat and clothing and bone utensils. 
  Horn and sinew are used in the construction of the 
  nomads’ composite bows, which in the hands of a 
  skilled archer2 can rain arrows on their enemies at a 
  range of over 200 metres.
   
  The social organization of these people consists 
  of extended tribe-alliances whose ruler is called a 
  Khan. The balance of power shifts as tribes change 
  allegiance and as incautious Khans are assassinated. 
  At the time of writing, the principal power resides in 
  Sitai Khan of the Oshkosa. Other khanates are the 
  Katagai, the Gunguska, the Khanate of the Sweep-
  ing Vast, the Khanate of the Black Pavilion, and the 
  Hunkunkai.
   
  One westerner is famous for his travels among 
  these wild people. Niccolo of Wissenstein was sent 
  in a party of explorers from the court of King Vor-
  lest of Kurland, who charged them with discovering 
  a safe land-route to Khitai. Niccolo quickly learned 
  the nomads’ tongue and set about his task; trying to 
  establish contact with the Khans and make a deal 
  with them guaranteeing ‘safe conduct’ for Kurlish 
  caravans. In this he was not successful3, but he did 
  produce a record of nomadic life which is quite 
  unique. His visit to a nomad’s home occurs early in 
  the account of his travels:
   
  “The clan are continually on the move, and for 
  this purpose carry their homes with them. When the 
  time comes to make camp, a family can set up one 
  1 
  Batubatan (pronounced Ba-too ba-TaHN), a rarified land of golden 
  temples where the people (yak herders and craftsmen) are almost outnumbered 
  by their serene priests. Supposedly this was the native country of Sa’aknathur 
  the wizard.
  2 
  Bear in mind that most warriors of the tribe begin their training with 
  the bow in early childhood.
  3 
  and notoriously punished by Vorlest as a result.
  
  6
  of these homes in under an hour. First a prepared 
  lattice of willow hoops is raised, this being secured 
  in the ground with heavy pegs. Large bolts of felt 
  are wrapped onto this framework to form the walls 
  of the home. The felt and the ropes used to lash the 
  structure together are made from horsehair, and the 
  clan’s herd animals provide oils to make the home 
  proof against cold and rain. The finished home is a 
  roughly circular tent which the steppe people call a 
  gyur.
   
  “Invited into one such tent, I found the inte-
  rior decorated with rugs and trinkets. The cen-
  tral part of the roof, above the fire, is left open as 
  one also finds in the mead-halls of Mercania and 
  Thuland. Despite this, I can attest that the home 
  remains warm and comfortable even when the bit-
  terest steppe wind is blowing outside. My own host, 
  whose name was Shweymar, invited me to sit beside 
  him on the brown rug occupying the northernmost 
  third of the floor, opposite the entrance. This was a 
  great honour, as the steppe people keep this area for 
  the head of the household, his elders and guests of 
  high status. Behind us were several idols depicting 
  Shweymar’s household deities. In front of this area 
  of high status, the floor is divided into two other 
  sections. To the left of the doorway sit the women 
  and children. The host’s sons and younger male 
  guests sit on the right. Utensils for cooking and 
  other household purposes are kept in the left-hand 
  area while weapons are placed in a rack between the 
  right-hand area and the host’s rug.
   
  “I was to discover that this tradition of signify-
  ing status extends throughout the steppes, even to 
  the homesteads of the citadels.1 Whether this is 
  happenstance or real evidence that the tribes once 
  belonged to a single unrecorded civilization—this 
  question can never be answered.”2
  Ferromaine
  Ferromaine, with a population of nearly a quarter of 
  a million, is the largest city of the north. Approach-
  ing from the sea, even a voyager who is jaded by 
  the splendour of other rich Coradian ports cannot 
  1 
  indeed, not all of the steppes barbarians live a nomadic life. There are 
  some citadels—rather squalid, mud-brick forts, in fact—but these are really 
  ‘depot towns’ and have a very small permanent population. although Niccolo 
  seems to assume the citadel dwellers to be just a settled faction of barbarian 
  society, this was probably because he was drawing a parallel with the coun-
  try/town relationship in his native land. There is deep distrust between the 
  rugged nomads and the handful who choose a settled life ‘within the walls’.
  2 
  Those interested in reading more of Niccolo’s travels may find copies 
  of his manuscript in the abbey at Wissenstein, the library of the Pontiff in 
  Selentium or in the Vassilvio family library in Ferromaine.
  fail to be impressed. More than a hundred elegant 
  towers point to the sky. The tallest is more than sev-
  enty metres high, and each is covered with rococo 
  decorations in an effort to outdo the splendour of its 
  neighbours. These are the homes of the Ferromaine 
  aristocracy—not lords of warrior stock, but wealthy 
  merchants and bankers. Striding through the broad 
  avenues, one passes the great palaces of the wealthi-
  est families—the Senfritis, the Cotulios, the Vassil-
  vios, the Sentapolos and others. It is easy to imagine 
  the groomed, velvet-coated scions of these families 
  as they shut themselves off behind marble facades 
  and caress their overflowing treasure chests with 
  furtive glee.
   
  Marvellous cathedrals and public buildings are 
  everywhere in abundance. Sun sparkles off the har-
  bour, bathes the pale stone of the Dyuch’s3 palace in 
  a soft gold glow, glitters back in rainbow shards from 
  magnificent stained-glass windows. The merchant-
  patricians are eager to display their wealth and piety, 
  and vie with one another in patronage of the arts. 
  Walking back from the harbour and through the 
  upper-class districts, one reaches the usual crowded 
  jumble of shops and houses to be found in any town. 
  Narrow streets stretch on like a maze—cobbled 
  lanes where we can peer through the latticed shop-
  windows at fine glassware, roast meats, spicy buns 
  and cakes, jewellery, fine silks and cloths, bottles of 
  wine and brandy, or enticing artifacts brought from 
  distant lands. Even here in the backstreets we find 
  signs of Ferromaine’s wealth all around. 
   
  But it would have been a different story if we 
  had walked along the quays at the waterfront. Here 
  the hovels of the shanty town huddle like desperate 
  lazars on the fringe of the glittering city. Longshore-
  men wait with sullen eyes for the next flotilla of 
  ships, when they can earn a handful of silver mata-
  pans for days of backbreaking work. Beggars and 
  crippled adventurers work the avenues of the city in 
  shifts. Thieves skulk in the dark corners where the 
  Ferromaine militia will never find them. The stink 
  of poverty hangs in the air; the stench of humanity 
  inhumanly treated.
   
  Beyond the city lie more pleasing vistas. We 
  walk up the road into the hills, perhaps passing the 
  palanquin of a nobleman borne by grunting, black-
  3 
  The Dyuch is the chief magistrate of the Ferromaine republic—a very 
  influential position. Technically he is supposed to relinquish all business con-
  cerns to ensure his decisions are impartial. in practice, he quickly becomes rich 
  and fat on ‘inducements’ (bribes) paid to him by various factions. His term of 
  office is seven years, but it is rare for a Dyuch not to be re-elected.
  the lanDs oF legenD
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
  AL
  
  63
  skinned slaves. The ermine-trimmed curtains of 
  the palanquin hang open, and we can see the noble 
  enjoying sweetmeats popped into his full-lipped 
  mouth by a rouged harlot. He raises languid eyes 
  in our direction, perhaps gives an indulgent wave of 
  his plump, ring-laden hand. With six good Kurlish 
  mercenaries in his retinue, he does not fear bandits.
   
  The nobles have their summer villas up here 
  in the hills. It is close enough to the city to keep 
  a watchful eye on business, but far enough out to 
  avoid the noise and stench and bustle of city life. 
  Behind the hills, roads meander out towards the 
  towns and villages and other cities, smaller and sub-
  servient, belonging to the Ferromaine League. We 
  see a landscape of church steeples, vineyards and lit-
  tle stone cottages. A day’s walk inland and we would 
  come to the border of the Selentine Empire.
   
  There are simple explanations for Ferromaine’s 
  economic ascendency, and they may be briefly 
  sketched here. For reasons connected with its 
  strongly agricultural base, the Selentine Empire 
  forces low interest rates. A merchant gains little 
  by undertaking a risky long-range venture, because 
  most of his profit will be taken by the ravenous 
  Selentine exchequer. Ferromaine is gifted by its 
  geographical location: a city built on several islets 
  in the Liederkehn estuary, it was destined for inde-
  pendence. In view of the wealth its fleets bring in 
  through the Coradian Sea, the Empire had to make 
  a deal. The Republic of Ferromaine was granted 
  exemption from the taxes of the rest of the Empire 
  provided it acknowledged the nominal suzerainty 
  of the Imperator. Clearly this appealed more to the 
  Ferromaine merchants than ‘going it alone’. The 
  security that came from being under the Empire’s 
  wing gave them an ideal economic climate for the 
  most daring ventures.1 Their fleets opened up trade 
  with the Ta’ashim states, and with Khitai and Batu-
  batan beyond.
  Emphidor and neighbouring countries
  Emphidor’s day is done, and not much need be said 
  of these lands today. A number of fisherfolk ply the 
  waters around the Emphidian islands, while inland 
  one finds simple communities of sheep farmers. The 
  marble ruins of the Golden Age line the coast, but 
  the modern Emphidians shun these signs of their 
  1 
  But Ferromaine is not without a choice. if they were not getting a good 
  enough deal from the Empire, the High Councillors could always switch alle-
  giance to Kurland.
  heritage with a mixture of awe and superstitious 
  dread. They are a dull-souled, resigned, conserva-
  tive race—as if the magnificence of their past has 
  drained away their spirit. They bring a fatalism of 
  the sort found in the Emphidian Tragedies to their 
  faith and daily life. The region is poor in minerals 
  and worthwhile exports. The only ships that dock 
  here are those of eager adventurers, bound for the 
  stygian labyrinths below the ruined acropolises and 
  fallen colonnades.
   
  In Molasaria, Analika and Hudristania the story 
  is slightly different but no less bleak. Tiny villages 
  squat miserably in the isolated mountain passes, like 
  birds’ nests huddled into a crag for shelter. Fright-
  ened peasants quake under the rule of a hundred 
  local despots. Terror soars aloft on membrane-
  ous wings by night and sifts the carrion in lonely 
  churchyards—for this is the traditional home of 
  vampires, ghouls and werewolves. Black-clad priests 
  trek from valley to valley, but the peasants are always 
  torn between faith and fear. Spend a few days in any 
  of the mountain villages and you will see a funeral 
  procession wending a path down through the nar-
  row streets—old men whose lined faces show the 
  scars of many losses, grim youths with jaws set in 
  sullen defiance, veiled women sending up a shriek-
  ing lament, and wailing children who have yet to 
  learn the injustice into which they have been born. 
  The mourners are led by a priest with a silver cruci-
  fix on his breast. 
   
  Watch and wait—after the procession has gone 
  past, once the wailing and the clanging of the 
  priest’s bell have faded into the distance, you may 
  see another figure pass by. He follows the mourn-
  ers at a respectful distance, his eyes showing only 
  a weary determination. On his back he has a heavy 
  knapsack. After the coffin has been lowered into the 
  ground, the priest will linger to pay this man a few 
  silvers before hurrying back with the other villagers 
  to bolt his door. The stranger opens his knapsack and 
  prepares the items he will need. He is a draktoter—a 
  profession that combines gravedigging with another 
  unpleasant duty. He takes the mallet and stake from 
  his sack and turns towards the open grave. It is his 
  job to see that the ranks of the nosferatu will not be 
  joined by this unfortunate soul.
  Selentium and the Asmulian lords
  At one time Selentium was the capital of the 
  world—at any rate, of the western world mapped 
  the lanDs oF legenD
  
  64
  Dragon Warriors
  out in this book. It began as a city-state on the east-
  ern rim of the post-classical Emphidian Empire. 
  Through the citizens’ modern approach to govern-
  ment, trade and warfare, Selentium quickly grew 
  to become the strongest power south of Krarth. Its 
  legions swarmed rapidly across the face of the map, 
  building reliable roads that drew the trade and taxes 
  to the centre of the Empire. The troops of decadent 
  and decaying Kaikuhuru had already fallen before 
  the might of Emphidor; now they collapsed com-
  pletely. Pharaoh fled into the desert and a Selentine 
  governer was installed at Siout (now Amsa’im). In 
  the far corner of the world the legions met with 
  equal success against the belligerent warlords of 
  Algandy and the savage tribes of Ellesland.
   
  The heyday of the Selentine Empire lasted until 
  100AS, then a series of administrative blunders and 
  problems of finance began to gnaw at the territories. 
  Attacks from Thuland, southern Kaikuhuru and the 
  Eastern Steppe intensified, and the legions were 
  stretched beyond capacity. Little by little, Selentium 
  lost her grip on the world.
   
  Though the Old Empire is gone—and only 
  its shadow is now visible in the New Empire of 
  Tamor—Selentium is still vitally important as the 
  spiritual centre of the west. Albion, Cornumbria, 
  Algandy, Chaubrette, Kurland, Emphidor, Molas-
  aria—these are the lands of the True Faith, the new 
  religion which swept away the primitive older gods 
  of the Empire. The True Faith was founded by a 
  fisherman called Gatanades, now known through-
  out the western world as ‘the Saviour’. His teach-
  ings were initially scorned by the corrupt emperors 
  of Selentium, and Gatanades himself died a martyr. 
  But as the collapse of the Empire accelerated, the 
  Emperor Josturox decided it would be expedient to 
  adopt the new religion to which so many of the peo-
  ple were turning. The True Faith became ensconced 
  in the official Church of Selentium.
   
  So it has remained. Selentium has been sacked 
  more than once by barbarian hordes, and it has not 
  always been safe for the Pontiff to reside there. At 
  times the cardinals of the Church have been in the 
  pocket of one Asmulian baron or another, voting 
  and making proclamations according to their pay-
  master’s wishes. But now the New Empire is strong 
  enough to hold off the waves of barbarian attack 
  and so Selentium is secure. This is particularly ironic 
  because the Church of the New Empire stands on 
  the brink of heterodoxy from the viewpoint of the 
  Selentine Church. Doctrinal distinctions are fine 
  and need not be explored here, but much is made 
  by theologians of the image of the Pantocrator—a 
  stern aspect of the Saviour as ‘Judge of the World’ 
  rarely seen outside the New Empire. Some believe 
  the Pantocrator is based on an earlier deity of the 
  Old Empire and not on the Saviour at all. 
   
  The cardinals in Selentium would not deny that 
  the Tamorians are devout, but they claim that devo-
  tion is awry. In answer, the Tamorians point at some 
  of the odder beliefs of the Selentines. One example is 
  the tripartite nature of God: the Fist of God, which 
  metes out destruction to sinner and infidel; the Eye 
  of God, which watches men’s souls and judges them 
  for Heaven or Hell; and the Mouth of God (the 
  Saviour himself) which speaks in the heart so that 
  one may know Good from Evil. A further analysis 
  of these theological squabbles is best sought else-
  where, and it need only be noted that the differences 
  between the Selentine and Tamorian Churches are 
  receding into the background somewhat as the 
  threat of the Ta’ashim faith brings a unifying force.
  The Ta’ashim lands
  Ta’ashim is many things: the name of a region, of 
  a faith and of a people. The Ta’ashim states today 
  occupy the part of the world where, a thousand 
  years ago, we would have found the remnants of 
  Kaikuhuru and the southern provinces of the Selen-
  tine Empire. After the collapse of the Empire’s con-
  trol it took hundreds of years for a central authority 
  to build up. The unifying force that finally made 
  this possible was Ta’ashim—literally, ‘the Word of 
  God’—an intricate blueprint for life and worship, 
  set down by the Illuminate Akaabah in the sixth 
  century AS.
   
  Akaabah was an administrator at Dhulan1, a 
  trading city whose population was a shifting mix 
  of desert nomads, settled agriculturalists and mer-
  chants from far and near. Pondering the problems 
  this caused, Akaabah gained the insight to set down 
  the first chapters of his Ta’ashim codex. These deal 
  principally with law and government. That they are 
  a work of particular brilliance can be seen from the 
  success with which they were applied. A century 
  after the Illuminate’s death, his teachings had made 
  possible the creation of an empire of more than five 
  million souls.
   
  Divisions soon formed in the Ta’ashim world. 
  Differences of geography, language and doctrine 
  1 
  ‘Thu-LaHN’, with the ‘Dh’ pronounced as the ‘th’ in ‘thy’.
  
  6
  saw to that. Zhenir was the hub from which the 
  Ta’ashim faith spread, ruled with an iron hand by the 
  Caliph whose title proclaims his absolute authority 
  in both the secular and spiritual realms. The capital 
  was at Demkhor, the Sacred City, where the Illumi-
  nate retired to compose the more reflective chapters 
  of his work.1 The Emirate of Marazid was originally 
  an extension of Zhenir, the Emir only a provincial 
  governor. This was also true of Opalar, though it 
  was not long before the Emir here proclaimed his 
  independence. In the ninth century, badawin pres-
  sure installed a new Caliphate dynasty. The new 
  administrators and generals were desert nomads, 
  more fiercely zealous than those they replaced. For 
  these fundamentalists, the Holy City was not a 
  place for the subterfuge, compromise and ignobility 
  on which all governments thrive. The Caliph’s court 
  remained at Demkhor, but the capital was moved 
  to Dhulan. This move did not diminish the impor-
  tance of the Holy City, but reinforced it. Many other 
  changes—most of them carried out with sword and 
  fire—led to this period being known as The Purging 
  of the Law.
   
  In Marazid, this change of dynasty was not 
  appreciated. The Emir and his courtiers, cousins of 
  the old Caliph, grieved for his death and denied the 
  new regime’s authority. The fact that Zhenir was 
  now enforcing a strict return to basic Ta’ashim did 
  not endear the new Caliph to Marazid or Opalar, 
  where a rich and comfortable life meant that people 
  were less interested in harsh disciplinarian doctrines. 
  Despite this, Marazid’s rejection of the new Cal-
  iph must be seen as only nominal: trade continued 
  as before, marriages were arranged to ally the two 
  dynasties, the pilgrim traffic to Demkhor suffered a 
  few hiccups2 and then went on unimpeded.
   
  Opalar might have had stronger objections, but 
  these were forestalled by an invasion of the Qadik 
  nomads from the hills and grassy slopes east of 
  Harogarn. In 820AS these nomad bands swept 
  south along the Isis, and in the following year they 
  took the capital city of Amsa’im. The Emir fled 
  with his life to Marazid.3 The Qadik leader (there 
  1 
  The second section of the Ta’ashim holy texts deals with the individu-
  al’s relationship with, and moral obligations to, god. orthodox Ta’ashim 
  includes a third cycle of chapters—apocryphal stories about the illuminate’s 
  teaching, collected after his death. The unorthodox Marijah sect denies the 
  importance of these later chapters.
  2 
  Some pilgrims from Marazid were attacked in the Kaikuhuran Desert 
  by badawin. These tribesmen had been the allies of the new Caliph in his 
  climb to power, but he was not slow to clamp down when their zeal was 
  breaking the lucrative flow of pilgrims northwards.
  3 
  Since he also found time to gather twenty wives, most of his sons and 
  had been several warbands involved, but a series 
  of illnesses reduced the number of leaders to one) 
  shrewdly rejected the position of Emir. This would 
  only mean his inheriting the previous incumbent’s 
  bad relations with the Caliph. Instead he proclaimed 
  himself Sultan—a title indicating his earthly power 
  by making no claim to spiritual authority. Essentially 
  he was saying to the Caliph, give up any claim to my 
  realm, and in matters of the faith I will defer to you. 
  The Caliph saw no possibility of directly recover-
  ing control of Opalar, and responded by naming 
  the Sultan ‘The Fist of Ta’ashim’. Inspired by this 
  honour, the Sultan began to mete out retribution 
  against the moral laxity he saw among his new sub-
  jects. This lasted a generation or two, but the old 
  Selentine/Kaikuhuran bureaucracy still shuffles the 
  papers in Opalar.4 These civil servants, descendants 
  of the original Kaikuhuran race, usually manage 
  to absorb each new ruler into their imponderably 
  ancient culture. Before long, strict Ta’ashim relaxed 
  and things went on as before.
   
  This is the situation today. The Caliphate of 
  Zhenir, taking its authority from Ta’ashim law, 
  forbids trade with infidels and enforces low rates 
  of interest. Revenue is gathered from trading with 
  the other Ta’ashim states5, but Zhenir is poor in 
  resources (except for silver from western Harogarn) 
  and depends on Marazid and Opalar for grain, paper 
  and salt. Its economy is very reliant on the pilgrims 
  flocking to Demkhor.
   
  Marazid and (to a lesser degree) Opalar are the 
  ‘progressive face’ of Ta’ashim. They trade with the 
  northern infidels—and even with the savages who 
  daughters, and an honour guard of sixty opalarian warriors, his departure 
  cannot have been unduly hurried. always a wily politician, he probably had 
  no difficulty finding the right Qadik faction and offering the right bribes.
  4 
  as the old Kaikuhuran adage goes: ‘Princes come and Pharaohs go, but 
  the nod of Viziers makes the isis flow.’ The shadow of Kaikuhuru lingers 
  today in opalar even though the old racial stock has been swamped and sub-
  merged by more than one wave of invaders. among the modern physicians, 
  scribes and accountants there are many who can trace their ancestry back to 
  the Kaikuhuran aristocracy. There are also a few out-of-the-way areas where 
  you will still find fresh offerings of grain and beer placed each day on the 
  weathered idols of re’atn, Set, Horns, K’nemu and the other old gods.
  5 
  The lands of the Ta’ashim faith are intrinsically richer in the kind of 
  commodities which are easy to transport: silks, pearls, precious metals, etc. 
  Merchants are held in high esteem. This contrasts with the north, where most 
  communities must be as self-reliant as possible and most resources are such 
  things as timber and furs, which are not cost-effective to transport over long 
  distances. Poor roads, lawlessness and the plague have all contributed to stifle 
  trade in the north (except around the Coradian Sea and up around the coast 
  to southern albion). The overall effect of these factors has been to make the 
  Ta’ashim countries more peaceful and generally more advanced, though at the 
  cost of losing the raw aggression which drives the northerners to expand their 
  domains.
  the lanDs oF legenD
  
  66
  Dragon Warriors
  live across the Gulf. They have developed some of 
  the finest art to be found in all Legend: mystics 
  compose poems of great beauty and insight; the cit-
  ies, glittering with wealth, are filled with marvel-
  lous spires, minarets and arches; sculptors and artists 
  produce works of breathtaking grace, representing 
  the profound glory of God with abstract imagery; 
  mathematicians and astronomers study the universe 
  and find God’s pattern in everything around them.
  The Principalities of the Crusade
  The Crusades have been the great propaganda coup 
  of the Selentine Church. It may be unfair to see 
  them as an expedient enterprise—a self-serving ruse 
  of the Pontiff. Certainly, thousands of warriors and 
  pilgrims made the arduous journey south sustained 
  only by their faith. For the majority who took part, 
  there was no ulterior motive. The aim of the Cru-
  sades was clear and just: to ‘liberate’ Ibrahim, birth-
  place of the Saviour, from Ta’ashim occupation.
   
  But this view ignores the fact that a city is not a 
  collection of historical sites, but a living populace. 
  The people of the Holy City of Ibrahim follow the 
  Ta’ashim faith, and have little interest in the theo-
  logical arguments of priests in far-off Selentium. 
  Furthermore, in spite of its avowedly religious basis, 
  the Crusade has done several notables a lot of purely 
  financial and political good. 
   
  Merchants throughout the North (and par-
  ticularly in the Ferromaine League) began to lend 
  money to would-be Crusaders in need of finance. 
  The opening of pilgrim routes meant also the open-
  ing of better trade routes—guarded not by merce-
  naries demanding huge sums of silver, but by zealous 
  knights for free. Many merchants could already see 
  their warehouses filling with Ta’ashim silks, spices, 
  ivory and gems. 
   
  The Church also made loans, at such high rates 
  of interest that some old noble families were reduced 
  to penury. As if there were not enough God-fearing 
  young warriors ready to crowd the decks of the Cru-
  sade ships, the Pontiff added another inducement. 
  Any man ‘taking the cross’ south would be remitted 
  half the time he would otherwise spend in Purga-
  tory.
   
  Rapacious robber-knights and mercenaries also 
  wanted a piece of the action: lands were being carved 
  off the flanks of Ta’ashim and these disreputables 
  were quick to grab their share. The crowned heads 
  of the north were pleased, as the removal of these 
  troublesome types from their own domains meant 
  that it was easier to keep order.
   
  The first areas taken were the coastal provinces 
  just south of Molasaria, for here the Crusaders could 
  build up a power-base against the Ta’ashim.1 Zhenir 
  and Marazid had been at odds for some years, and 
  delayed so long in marshalling a united front that 
  the northerners had taken an area as big as Algandy 
  and laid siege to Ibrahim before they could act. Two 
  years later a renewed Ta’ashim initiative pushed the 
  Crusaders out of Ibrahim and halfway back to Cres-
  centium, and the situation has bean see-sawing back 
  and forth ever since.
   
  The Crusader lands currently comprise four 
  separate principalities. Ibrahim itself is supposedly 
  held by Fengor Svartsen, a Mercanian warlord, in 
  vassalage to the Pontiff himself. Boundaries fluctu-
  ate continually owing to internal as well as external 
  pressure. It is important to remember that the Prin-
  cipalities are occupied territory. The northerners 
  rule, but they have to co-exist with the natives of the 
  region. Pushing through the bazaar in Crescentium, 
  you will see a dozen olive-skinned Ta’ashim for 
  every white northern face. At dusk the Ta’ashim call 
  to prayer mingles with the church bells of the set-
  tlers. And, as in every occupied province, the threat 
  of rebellion and murder is always present. In every 
  narrow alley and starlit doorway, behind the palms 
  that line the streets and in the cool cellars under the 
  houses, assassins gather and plot. Marijahs travel 
  from Opalar to render their unique services, and find 
  that it is not only the Ta’ashim natives who are eager 
  to employ them. Rival factions within the Crusader 
  governments also join the ‘masked pavane’, as they 
  call the game of politics: bargaining to have their 
  own superiors slain, or disposing of difficult under-
  lings. The Knights Capellars in particular (a group 
  notorious for their willingness to use any means to 
  achieve their goals) are known to have contact with 
  Marijah groups, and presumably employ them in 
  various convoluted schemes.
  Harogarn
  The Harogarn mountain range provides a natural 
  eastern boundary to Zhenir. The lower hill slopes 
  in the western part of the range are occupied by yak 
  1 
  Crescentium became their capital. Prince Estabulo of algandy, com-
  mander of the first wave of attacks, surveyed Crescentium from one of the 
  three hills overlooking its harbour and declared it “a splendid city, like a host 
  of pearls and gold laid on a cloth of green velvet.”
  
  67
  herdsmen who follow the Ta’ashim faith and accept 
  the suzerainty of the Caliph. These territories are 
  the area designated as Ta’ashim Harogarn on the 
  map.
   
  Deeper into the heart of the range are the cav-
  erns of several Dwarven settlements. These folk are 
  jealously proud of the veins of ore running through 
  their mountainous abodes. Ta’ashim warriors some-
  times come to conduct ‘hit-and-run’ mining opera-
  tions, particularly for gems and precious metals. 
  The carnage and ruin they leave behind after these 
  missions explains the hatred that the Dwarves of 
  Harogarn feel for mankind.
   
  Gonhala is a high plain to the east of the major 
  peaks. Inhabited by Centaurs and a few primitive 
  human settlements, parts of the plain are strewn 
  with semiprecious gems—or so the story goes. At 
  the western edge of Gonhala Plain, the mountains 
  rise steeply to form the Olympian peaks of Mount 
  Danak, Mount Lurken and Mount Vasgor—named 
  for the three Titans of the Gate of Time in Ancient 
  Emphidian myth.
   
  Legend says that tributaries of the Styx can be 
  found here. A wide rock shelf overlooks the plain 
  from a height of some two hundred metres. On this 
  rock shelf, which is about five hundred metres wide, 
  stands the ruinous Citadel of the Shadowlords. 
  Through this broken tangle of deserted buildings 
  it is possible to enter the magic-laden underworld 
  where the Shadowlords lie buried.
  The Mungoda rain-forest
  Our imaginary travels have brought us to the ‘Dark 
  Continent’ of Legend, which remains almost com-
  pletely uncharted. Much of this continent comprises 
  the giant Mungoda river-basin. Across the hinter-
  land spreads the endless luxuriant growth of the 
  Mungoda jungle. Inland, above the flood plain of the 
  Mungoda and its tributaries, fantastically tall trees 
  like the pillars of a cathedral reach far up into the 
  azure sky. An impenetrable canopy of green-black 
  screens out the daylight so that little undergrowth 
  is to be found on the forest floor. Walking through 
  a spongy morass of fungi and rotting vegetation, a 
  traveller could almost fancy he is walking on the 
  ocean bed, as the tropical light is tinged a flowing 
  green by the spreading leaves above. Orchids and 
  many other flowers provide splashes of rich golds, 
  blues and reds to this eerie scene. Moss-coloured 
  sloths1 inch along the twisted boughs and screech 
  to one another when night falls. Tangled strands of 
  poison ivy twine around the trees. Monkeys chatter 
  and crash from branch to branch, alarming exoti-
  cally plumed parrots which take flight at once in a 
  blaze of copper-gold and emerald.
   
  Closer to the rivers, the jungle takes a different 
  form. The headwaters of the Mungoda tributaries 
  lay down a rich loam when they flood. Silk cot-
  ton trees more than fifty metres tall rear like castle 
  buttresses from the mud. Around their squat bases 
  sprout ferns, cacao trees, palms and a profusion of 
  flowering bushes. Further downriver, jungle of this 
  sort gives way almost entirely to palms, as there are 
  no longer enough nutrients in the floodwater to sat-
  isfy the giant buttress-rooted trees.
   
  At its mouth the Mungoda River is several miles 
  wide. Particularly to the south it is fringed by the 
  extensive mangrove swamps of the Cosh Goyopë2 
  region. The natives of these swamps punt their 
  log canoes between the stilt-like roots of the man-
  grove trees when foraging or hunting—but they 
  must be watchful to avoid the reptilian Dracomen 
  who thrash clumsily through the reeds and muddy 
  shallows. The river-people sometimes trade with 
  Ta’ashim or Coradian merchants. Slaves, monkeys 
  and parrots all fetch a good price as curiosities back 
  home. Also prized are some spices and dyes and the 
  woods (such as ebony, rosewood and mahogany) 
  brought from upriver by other tribes.
   
  Considerably further south, close to the equator, 
  are the territories of the Volucreth. Nothing can be 
  added beyond what has been said on page 252 and 
  in the Dragon Warriors Bestiary about these war-
  lusty creatures. Travellers should avoid this area.
   
  North of the Mungoda jungle, the land rises 
  gently to form the Thanagost Peaks. Majestic coni-
  fers and breathtaking waterfalls may be seen as one 
  climbs out of the drenching jungle into the sharp 
  landscape of the highlands. A few isolated tribes of 
  hunters live here, scattered among the lower valleys. 
  Higher still, beyond the ancient plateau, the moun-
  tains rise dizzyingly until they are lost in snow and 
  clouds, and probably no living thing has ever seen 
  the topmost peaks.
   
  Beyond the Thanagost range, the land drops 
  steeply towards the rim of the desert. In places the 
  1 
  reported by one expedition to be ‘animated growths of clumped moss or 
  grey-green fungus that move—albeit slowly—and devour other vegetation 
  as a man eats meat’.
  2 
  Pronounced ‘Cosh goy-oPEH.’
  the lanDs oF legenD
  
  68
  Dragon Warriors
  slopes are vertical up to six hundred metres, leading 
  to the desert-dwellers’ name for these cliffs—‘the 
  Wall of the World’. Doubtless the unexplored Desert 
  of Songs holds many dust-choked ancient ruins, but 
  adventurers must beware of at least one shadowy 
  menace. A prehistoric civilization here had the cus-
  tom of burying their dead in cave tombs—niches 
  and tunnels cut into the rock-face. The tombs are 
  now riddled with Grave Gaunts which scavenge 
  across the drifting sands by night.
  EW
  
  69
  ONE WAY TO understand a place is to look at its 
  folklore and myth. Legend is a world rich in magic, 
  and many of its myths are more than half-true. 
  Here, folklore does more than reflect the world and 
  the people—it is the very essence of Legend. The 
  following miscellany of characters, underworlds and 
  magic items should give the GamesMaster and his 
  players some of the flavour of life in this strange 
  world.
  The Altar of Jusjurandus
  Jusjurandus was an apparitor, or attendant deity, of 
  the old Selentine God of War. In Selentine theol-
  ogy his particular provinces were fidelity, obedience 
  and honour. When warriors or others wished to 
  pledge an oath of comradeship, they would go to 
  the altar in his temple at Selentium. This altar has 
  two upcurving ‘horns’, and the oath-takers would 
  each grasp one of the horns as they swore their 
  allegiance. According to the legend, any man who 
  broke his oath later would suffer retribution accord-
  ing to the seriousness of his treachery. If his friend 
  suffered permanent dishonour, harm or death as a 
  result, the oathbreaker would succumb to incurable 
  madness (see p. 124). Lesser consequences would be 
  punished with some form of curse (see p. 123) or ill 
  fortune. The GM should note that the oath had to 
  be mutual if the deity were to enforce it.
   
  The Altar of Jusjurandus is now owned by the 
  Senfriti family of Ferromaine.
  The Armoured One of Skiosonar
  This delicate-seeming android was constructed by 
  one of the nameless Wizards of the Pall of Dread, a 
  secret mystic sect of ancient times. It has two arms 
  and two legs, but its superficially humanoid shape is 
  belied by closer inspection. Its form is bizarrely slen-
  der, elegant, with stilt-like limbs and tapering face 
  suggesting a huge bipedal insect rather than a man. 
  Though it appears fragile, the greyish-white metal 
  from which it was forged is stronger than steel.
   
  There is a small hatch in the Armoured One’s 
  narrow chest, and this opens to reveal a chamber 
  lined with striations of red crystal. If the heart from 
  one who has been dead not more than eight hours is 
  taken and placed in the Armoured One’s chest, the 
  metal limbs will begin to twitch with life. Within 
  ten minutes the android will arise—now with all 
  the memories and skills of the slain character. (Note 
  that the character’s soul is not actually brought to 
  reside in the Armoured One. Only the raw intellect, 
  devoid of human compassion, is reincarnated in the 
  android’s body. A resurrect spell cast later would 
  restore the original character to life, but lacking all 
  memories of his previous existence. The resurrected 
  character would in this case act as 1st-rank as long 
  as the Armoured One continued to operate using 
  his personality.)
   
  A persona reincarnated in the Armoured One’s 
  body retains his own Intelligence and Psychic Tal-
  ent scores but has the physical characteristics of the 
  Chapter 
  THE LORE 
  OF LEGEND
  
  70
  Dragon Warriors
  android: Strength 9 and Reflexes 18. Its design is 
  not human enough for a Looks score to be relevant. 
  The reincarnated character keeps the Profession 
  and rank of his previous life. His Health Points 
  score becomes only 10, but in the android body he 
  has a natural Armour Factor of 6. He cannot wear 
  heavier than leather armour on top of this, because 
  the body is not able to sustain a heavy load. The 
  android’s eye-lenses see equally well in darkness or 
  bright light, giving the character panoptical vision 
  (see p. 123).
   
  The Armoured One is affected normally by 
  indirect-attack spells. Direct-attack spells that take 
  effect will harm only the human heart that beats 
  inside its chest. A Fossilize spell would turn the 
  heart to stone without affecting the android body. 
  The heart could then be removed and a new one 
  installed in its place. The enchanted metal of the 
  Armoured One’s body repairs itself naturally at the 
  rate of 1 HP per day. Healing spells have only half 
  their normal effect when used to repair the android 
  body. All potions are useless.
   
  Two factors govern the use of the Armoured One 
  in a campaign. First, a character who is restored to 
  life in the android body is soulless. If this happens 
  to a player-character he becomes an NPC control-
  led by the GamesMaster. Only if his soul is brought 
  back and his original body restored by resurrect 
  (see p. 89) should he be allowed to continue with 
  the character—now an amnesiac whose memories 
  have been ‘stolen’ by an insectoid metal monster! 
  Secondly, the GM should avoid referring to the 
  Armoured One as an ‘android’. This suggests a sci-
  ence-fictional basis which is inappropriate to the 
  medieval world of Legend. As far as the characters 
  are concerned, the Armoured One is just another 
  magical horror in the tradition of living statues and 
  metal-skinned demons.
  The Casket of Fays
  This is a small silver-bound pine coffer. Each time 
  it is opened, some strange and unpredictable effect 
  results. This is determined by a random roll on the 
  part of the GamesMaster. The effects are:
  1.  A tendril of green flame snakes out of the casket to 
  strike a single target within 10m. The user can specify 
  the target; if he does not then the flame will double 
   EW
  
  7
  back and hit him. Treat this as a Dragonbreath spell.
  2.  Everyone within 10m is struck dumb for one minute. 
  This will not prevent a Mystic from casting spells, 
  but Sorcerers, Warlocks and Elementalists will be 
  temporarily deprived of their magic.
  3.  A haunting siren song emanates from the casket. 
  Characters in earshot (roughly 100m in the open) 
  must roll equal to or under their rank on 1d10 or stand 
  entranced. The roll must be made each round unless 
  the character can block his ears. The duration of the 
  song is set by a Spell Expiry Roll unless cut short by 
  closing the casket.
  4.  A foul plague of grey rats pours from the casket 
  and rushes away in all directions, only to vanish 
  mysteriously when they reach cover such as a wall, 
  thicket or shadows. They attack no one, but all 
  characters in the vicinity have a 10% chance of 
  contracting the Black Death (see p. 126).
  5.  A random Sorcery spell of 1st–8th level is cast upon 
  any one specified character within 10m. The user of 
  the casket does not know in advance what this spell 
  will be—he might thus give a foe armour, or Fossilize a 
  comrade.
  6.  Utter darkness fills a zone of 10m radius, and no 
  creature or spell can see within it. This effect also 
  prevents the user from seeing. The darkness lasts until 
  cancelled by a Spell Expiry Roll or until the lid is 
  closed.
  7.  An illusory duplicate of one (randomly determined) 
  character within 10m is formed. This moves 
  and speaks according to the casket user’s mental 
  commands, but has no power to harm a character even 
  if believed. Unless dispelled by shutting the lid, it lasts 
  until its Spell Expiry Roll comes up.
  8.  An unaccountable blizzard blows out of the casket, 
  affecting anyone in front of it in a roughly 90° arc to 
  a distance of 10m. Torches and unshuttered lanterns 
  are extinguished and characters must roll under their 
  Strength on d20 each round or pass out from the 
  extreme cold. The blizzard lasts 1–6 Combat Rounds 
  whether or not the lid is closed. A character caught in 
  it for more than four rounds suffers 1d6 HP frostbite 
  damage (but only 1d4 if clad in thick furs, protected by 
  a Survival spell, etc.)
  9.  The user opens the casket and pulls out a Spriggan 
  (for stats, see p. 251.) There is a 70% chance that the 
  Spriggan will attack a character whom the user points 
  out, and a 30% chance it will attack one of his own 
  companions (though it will never turn on the user 
  himself). The Spriggan does not vanish until it is 
  killed.
  10. A booming voice from the casket’s depths speaks the 
  name of the most powerful character within 10m. 
  Only if there is no other person within 10m will 
  the user be named. The victim suffers a 1d20 Fright 
  Attack (see p. 122) which if it takes effect, leaves him 
  rigid with fear for 2-8 Rounds.
  11. A storm of pine needles streams from the casket. 
  Anyone within 10m who was facing the user must roll 
  under Reflexes on 1d20 or be blinded for the next 2-
  12 rounds. The effect lasts for five rounds, and no one 
  can approach the user until it subsides. It is impossible 
  to close the lid while the pine needles are shooting out.
  12.  Seven vampire bats (see p. 238) flap out of the casket 
  and swoop to attack a foe indicated by the user. Unless 
  slain, these creatures remain until dissolved into 
  shadows by a Spell Expiry Roll. If the casket is shut 
  before they have vanished, they abandon their original 
  victim and return to attack the user.
  13.  Dank fog swirls around the user. There is a smell of 
  soil and trees and cloying mushrooms. Tall figures 
  glide forward, then half-glimpsed hands wrench the 
  casket from him. The fog dissipates, leaving no trace of 
  the mysterious figures or the Casket of Fays.
  Unless otherwise stated above, the user of the Cas-
  ket of Fays is not harmed by any of its effects.
  The Crown of kings
  This talmi-gold crown, studded with topaz, garnets 
  and rubies, was worn by Guillarme II, the Great 
  King who unified Kurland. The crown is imbued 
  with some of Guillarme’s legendary charisma, so 
  that whoever wears it becomes a natural leader of 
  strong character and authority. The wearer’s rank is 
  considered to be three steps higher than is actually 
  the case insofar as Fright Attacks, certain spells, etc, 
  are concerned. (Note this does not enhance any of 
  the character’s scores such as attack or magical 
  defence—he only obtains a brevetcy of +3 ranks.)
   
  The character is also able to command others by 
  the sheer forceful strength of his personality. There 
  is a limit to how far this aura of charisma extends, 
  however. While everyone will find the character per-
  suasive and charming, he can directly command but 
  thirty normal men at one time. Ranked characters 
  (i.e. those belonging to an adventuring Profession) 
  are of a more indomitable and independent nature, 
  and the wearer of the crown can command a total 
  of only ten characters of 1st rank, five characters of 
  2nd, or some other combination amounting to 10 
  character-ranks. Nor can he overpower the will of 
  any character whose rank is higher than his own 
  brevet rank.
   
  In order to exert command over another, the 
  wearer must approach him in cordial circumstances 
  (not in the midst of battle!) and engage him in con-
  versation for one minute. At the end of this time 
  he rolls 3d6, adds his brevet rank and subtracts the 
  rank of his intended underling. The result is the 
  number that he must roll equal to or less than on 
  2d10 in order to bring the character into his control. 
  the lore oF legenD
  
  7
  Dragon Warriors
  (A failed dice roll will result in the character becom-
  ing extremely hostile to the crown wearer thereafter, 
  and thus only one attempt can ever be made on a 
  given character.) 
   
  If swayed by the wearer’s words, however, the 
  character becomes his sworn henchman, serving loy-
  ally until and unless the wearer frees him from com-
  mand (at which point his former master becomes 
  a hated foe, incidentally) or unless he is ordered to 
  perform some obviously suicidal act. If this happens, 
  he gets a special roll to break free of the command at 
  once: under his Intelligence on 1d20. 
  Dragon Pearls
  These lustrous pearls are formed when a Black 
  Dragon (see the entry for Shen Lun on p. 250 and 
  in the Dragon Warriors Bestiary) achieves Adept-
  hood and thus becomes a human. Black Dragons 
  themselves hardly being common, such pearls are 
  correspondingly very rare.
   
  A Dragon Pearl multiplies the value of things 
  fivefold. If left overnight in a backpack containing 
  20 Gold Pieces, in the morning it will have turned 
  them into 100. Place it in a nearly empty jug of wine 
  and by sunrise you will have drink aplenty. The max-
  imum rate at which this power can operate is to turn 
  roughly 200 Crowns (in whatever form) into 1000 
  Crowns in a single night—but this is still enough, of 
  course, to make a character very wealthy.
   
  The GamesMaster should bear in mind that sud-
  den riches may be a mixed blessing. Envious souls, 
  seeing the character’s newfound wealth, may suspect 
  the use of magic and try to steal the pearl. And a 
  sudden influx of gold or gems onto the market will 
  cause the value to drop, arousing the enmity of jew-
  ellers’ guilds and indeed anyone who keeps much of 
  his wealth in the form of treasure.
   
  If swallowed by a domestic animal such as a dog 
  or cat, the pearl will transform it into a fearsome 
  monster of giant proportions. Best for its former 
  master if he has always treated it well, for the animal 
  will remember old grudges and can attack with the 
  strength and speed of a sabretooth tiger! 
   
  If a man swallows the pearl, his eyes immedi-
  ately begin to shine with azure light and smoke 
  gushes from his mouth. His body grows and twists 
  and darkens, until within minutes he has become a 
  Black Dragon. All memory of his former life is soon 
  lost. Then he ascends to the heavens and the long 
  cycle of spiritual awakening must begin again....
  Elven paraphernalia
  This standard equipment of Elven manufacture 
  are ‘common’ magical items. They are most eas-
  ily bought in Algandy, where the forests are all but 
  infested with Elves—but even here availability (see 
  p. 134) is only 5% per month, and purchase costs will 
  be twenty times that of the man-made equivalents.
   
  Elven cloaks are usually green, sometimes black 
  or russet-brown. They make the wearer more dif-
  ficult to notice when he is standing in shadows or 
  woodland. A human wearing such a cloak gets a +3 
  stealth bonus, and when camouflaged against a 
  forest background will never be seen by a non-Elf 
  below 2nd rank.
   
  Elven boots assist their wearer to move swiftly 
  and quietly. Worn by a human they give a +3 
  stealth bonus (not cumulative with the effect of 
  an Elven cloak) and allow him to traverse forested 
  terrain as though it were open country (i.e. a move-
  ment rate of 25 miles a day—see p. 211).
   
  Elven bows confer skill at archery. A human who 
  has an Elven bow adds 2 to his attack score when 
  shooting with it.
   
  The reader should understand that these items 
  are not what give Elves their special abilities. An 
  Elf dressed in man-made clothing and carrying a 
  normal bow would still have his stealth and archery 
  skill. Elven paraphernalia is magical by virtue of the 
  fact that it was made and used by Elves—the ‘faerie 
  folk’. When used by a mortal, some of that faerie 
  magic rubs off.
  The Ghosts of the Magi
  These are five small luminous objects that hurtle 
  through the night sky above Krarth. With a good 
  eye they can be variously seen in other regions also, 
  but it is above Krarth that they are brightest. The 
  peasants of Krarth believe them to be the spirits of 
  the five greatest original magi, cast into the upper 
  heavens by the Blasting of Spyte (see p. 156). The 
  five are known by these names: Red Death, Blue 
  Moon, Plague Star, Gift Star and White Light. The 
  Krarthian peasants believe they will come into con-
  junction above Spyte in the year 1000AS, where-
  upon the gates of that deathly city will be hurled 
  open. Astronomers of Khitai or the Ta’ashim lands, 
  where the world is known to be round, could pos-
  sibly map these moons’ orbits and calculate any con-
  junction—though this has not been done.
  
  73
  Hand of Glory
  The bodies of those who died by violent means are 
  often sought out by practitioners of necromantic 
  sorcery. Violence and hatred charge the corpse with 
  strong magical forces. One item that makes use of 
  such forces is the Hand of Glory, the severed and 
  dried left hand of a suicide. If a candle is placed 
  in the fingers and bound in place with strands of 
  human hair, it gives off a wan light that only the 
  hand’s maker can see by. If lit and carried into a 
  house or castle by night, it prevents sleeping charac-
  ters of lower than 1st rank (i.e. those not belonging 
  to an adventuring Profession) from awakening. The 
  Hand of Glory will burn for about fifteen minutes 
  and can be extinguished only by blood, milk or holy 
  water.
   
  In principle, anyone who knew how could make 
  themselves a Hand of Glory. No spells are required, 
  as the dead body already contains the necessary magic 
  by reason of its unholy death. Few people do know 
  how to make a Hand of Glory, however. This kind 
  of learning is rarely found in the monastic libraries 
  of Legend. Moreover, the graves of suicides are dif-
  ficult to locate. Like murderers they are buried in 
  unconsecrated ground. But whereas a murderer will 
  at least be buried at the point where two roads meet 
  to make the sign of the cross, a suicide’s sin forbids 
  even that. He will be placed in an unmarked grave 
  by the wayside or in the woods. The raw material 
  needed for making a Hand of Glory is not easy to 
  come by.
  Helgrim’s Hand
  History does not tell us how this item came to be 
  made. Used for many years by the legendary Helgrim 
  the Warlock, it has acquired his name by association. 
  In its normal state, the Hand is a bulky gauntlet of 
  silvery-grey metal with a large blue gem set into the 
  back. When it is put on, there is a moment of intense 
  agony as it welds itself to the wearer’s hand. When 
  this has passed, the Hand will actually be a part of 
  the wearer, having transformed the hand within to 
  living metal. It can only be removed by amputation, 
  or if the wearer is slain.
   
  Helgrim’s Hand is so powerful a magical artifact 
  that it possesses a kind of sentience—which, some 
  myths say, is the spirit of Helgrim himself. It can 
  completely dominate a character of 1st–3rd rank 
  and exerts strong influence over a wearer even as 
  high as 6th rank. Wherever possible it will try to 
  lead its wearer into extreme danger, intending that 
  he should either become powerful and experienced 
  enough to fittingly wield its power, or else die in the 
  attempt.
   
  The Hand is bulky. A Sorcerer or Elementalist 
  who wears it has a 5% chance of miscasting any spell 
  he tries. It throws the wearer slightly off balance, 
  causing the loss of 1 point from evasion. A right-
  handed character must fight with his weapon in the 
  other hand, because the Hand is too heavy to swing 
  accurately. This results in a penalty of –1 to both 
  attack and defence. (Note that all Sorcerers are 
  left-handed. The chance of other characters being 
  left-handed is about 15%.)
   
  Despite these disadvantages, Helgrim’s Hand 
  is a useful possession. It has a number of functions 
  which are used by expending ‘charges’. The Hand 
  continually replenishes charges by drawing energy 
  from the cosmic flux, thus regaining one charge 
  each Combat Round (10 charges per minute) up to 
  its maximum level of 100 charges. The various func-
  tions are as follows.
  Illumination: This creates a zone of light in a 5m radius 
  around the user. This light does not negate the chance of 
  surprise. Illumination costs 1 charge per Combat Round 
  to sustain. 
  Survival: This is identical to the Mystic spell of the same 
  name (p. 93), except that it costs 1 charge per round.
  Allseeing Eye: Again, this is like the Mystic spell (p. 91) 
  and costs 1 charge per round that it is sustained.
  Protection: 2 points are added both to the user’s Armour 
  Factor and to his magical defence score. Use of this 
  power consumes 2 charges per round. 
  Levitation: This gives the same effect as the 7th-level 
  Mystic spell (p. 93), at a cost of 4 charges per round.
  Lightning: A crackling discharge of electrical energy 
  can be unleashed from the gem in the back of the Hand. 
  This can be used in any of three modes, and each use (in 
  whatever mode) costs 10 charges. In focused mode, the 
  bolt can strike one target within 5m; it has a speed of 15 
  and inflicts 7d6 HP damage if it hits. In standard mode it 
  strikes 1–4 targets within 10m; it has a speed of 14 and 
  inflicts 4d6 +4 HP to a character who fails to evade. In 
  diffuse mode it can strike 1-6 characters within 15m; its 
  speed in this case is 13, and the damage for a successful 
  hit is only 2d6 +4 HP. In each case, the target subtracts his 
  Armour Factor from the damage roll.
  Any or all of these functions can be employed simul-
  taneously, but only one can be activated in any given 
  Combat Round. Once activated, a durational func-
  tion (i.e. any except Lightning) continues automati-
  cally every round until the wearer cancels it.
  the lore oF legenD
  
  74
  Dragon Warriors
   
  There is one final property of the Hand that 
  makes it quite difficult to obtain. When its wearer 
  is killed, it immediately vanishes. Its inherent magic 
  instantaneously transports it to a large treasure 
  hoard somewhere else in the world, there to await 
  discovery by another who would use its power.
  The High king’s Cauldron
  This silver cauldron was given to the High Kings of 
  the Madhir race1 by their Elven gods. Though far 
  too large to carry about on adventures, it is an item 
  of extraordinary power—perhaps the greatest of all 
  magical items. It has the property of returning the 
  dead to life.
   Even if only a small fragment of the slain charac-
  ter remains, perhaps no more than a tooth or one 
  finger-joint, the cauldron can resurrect him. The 
  fragment must be placed in the cauldron at the sol-
  stice or equinox, as the last rays of the sinking sun 
  disappear before the night. One man or woman, a 
  comrade of the character, must keep watch over the 
  cauldron all night, but whatever sounds or lights 
  come from it he/she must not lift the lid and look 
  within. To do so would be to risk insanity, as well as 
  undoing the enchantment and cursing the renascent 
  character to eternal death.
   
  The vigil ends at dawn, when the slain charac-
  ter emerges from the cauldron completely restored 
  to full vitality, with none of his powers or faculties 
  diminished. But there is one drawback. The Elves, 
  having no souls themselves, made no allowance for 
  the soul in the spells with which they made the 
  cauldron. A character brought back from the dead 
  in this way has lost his soul—he will not reflect in a 
  mirror, nor can he walk upon hallowed ground. Nor 
  can he be restored to life in the future by spells or 
  potions.
   
  The High King’s Cauldron functions on only 
  four nights of the year, as mentioned above.
  The Immortal God-king
  In times so ancient as to be beyond present-day 
  reality, the stately empire of Kaikuhuru spread like 
  a tapestry of gold and silk along the banks of the 
  Isis....
   
  Jasmine-scented night breezes stir the fronds 
  of tall palms and waft between the elegant tents of 
  Pharaoh’s encampment. An imperial falcon takes 
  1 
  The Madhir were the ancient inhabitants of eastern Ellesland.
  flight, stark for a moment against the swollen moon. 
  It is a night such as only the desert knows, where a 
  million stars glimmer through limitless dark.
   
  Imref Kharid is Pharaoh in these far-off times. 
  We see him with his courtiers and high priests: a 
  tall, imperiously handsome man in gilt-edged sable 
  robes. Two long jewelled daggers hang from his belt. 
  We know this is no soft, lazy, comfort-seeking mon-
  arch. Imref Kharid has just slain his predecessor and 
  ushered in the IXth Dynasty by force of arms. The 
  Xth Dynasty will soon replace him, as the fragments 
  of history that have come down to us through the 
  millennia tell a tale of betrayal and lost causes. One 
  of these men whom we see Imref Kharid addressing 
  in our dream—one of these men will turn against 
  his proud lord. An army general, Khorhepsha, will 
  be placed on the throne he has lately won. Assas-
  sins wrapped in black will come for Imref Kharid: 
  not two or three silent skulkers, but a horde of 
  bloodthirsty cutthroats. He will barely escape with 
  his life. He flees into the desert and draws a sand-
  storm about him like a cloak, stinging the eyes of his 
  enemies and taking him beyond the reach of mortal 
  men. How it must canker in the breast of this proud 
  warrior, that he departs his empire like a common 
  thief! His words seem to echo to us through the gulf 
  of a million scorching desert days, a million velvet 
  nights: ‘I shall not rest till the usurpers are scattered 
  to the nine winds and I sit again upon my rightful 
  throne.…’
   
  The unimaginable years hurtle past like pebbles. 
  We are again in the present day. Western knights 
  storm the citadels of the Ta’ashim, forcing them back 
  from the walls of the holy city, Ibrahim, and carv-
  ing the Principalities of the Crusade in their wake. 
  Unified by this threat from without, the Ta’ashim 
  empires cease their doctrinal squabbles and unleash 
  their deadly harbiyan horsemen. A gruelling war 
  stretches across many years and spells the death of 
  good and bad men on both sides.
   
  Some Crusaders tell stories now of a stranger 
  who lives on the desert fringes. Sometimes when 
  a knight is wounded or set upon by Ta’ashim war-
  riors, this stranger comes out of nowhere and hurls 
  himself like a demon into the fray. He seems of the 
  Ta’ashim race himself, yet he slaughters his country-
  men without mercy. Once he has slain or driven off 
  the Moors, he may help the knight back to within 
  sight of a Crusader fort. But he never speaks, this 
  stranger with his suncracked lips, and his eyes are 
  like the distant stars of a Kaikuhuran night. He 
  
  7
  departs as mysteriously as he came. He seems to be 
  but a mirage, a fancy cooked up in the baking brains 
  of many a lost and frightened soldier. He wears 
  robes of black and gold and fights with two jewelled 
  knives, and in the Crusaders’ barracks they call him 
  ‘the Immortal God-King’, and wonder why he hates 
  the Ta’ashim so.
  The Masque of Impenetrable Deceit
  The mage Yashantu, renowned for his wiles, served 
  several Imperators of the Selentine Empire as an 
  emissary and spy. By his power of cloaking himself 
  in a seeming—an indetectable illusion—he could 
  pass wherever he wished.
   
  A residue of Yashantu’s illusion-magic remains 
  even today in the mask he always wore to conceal 
  his true face. The mask is of ivory and gold-filigreed 
  alabaster upon which the shape of three coiled ser-
  pents is picked out in flecks of topaz. A magic-user 
  who wears it can activate its properties by expend-
  ing power equivalent to a 4th-level spell (i.e. a Sor-
  cerer, Elementalist or Warlock pays 4 Magic Points; 
  a Mystic makes a 4th-level Psychic Fatigue Check). 
  The mask then causes its wearer to look, smell, 
  sound—and even feel!—like any other character 
  he wishes to impersonate. Another character must 
  look very carefully to see through this illusion, and 
  even then the chance is only 1%. The effect can be 
  Dispelled or Terminated like any normal 4th-level 
  enchantment. Otherwise it has a duration of three 
  hours. The wearer can cancel it before this time by 
  removing the Masque. To sustain the illusion for 
  longer than three hours, or to change his disguise 
  while the Masque is operating, he must expend 
  more spell-energy.
  Nostro’s Boots of Striding
  Nostro the Miracle-Worker, demihuman mage of 
  Selentine Ellesland, made these enchanted boots 
  from the skin of an Elven lord. They have the char-
  acteristic of allowing whoever wears them to travel 
  rapidly and tirelessly across any solid terrain. The 
  wearer can move at 18m per Combat Round—a 
  swift, unflagging jog. He can even go to sleep and 
  the boots will keep striding, taking him where he 
  wishes to go. He can cover some 160 miles in one 
  day. The boots do not assist in crossing marshes, riv-
  ers or sea.
  The Onyx Prowler
  This is a little mannikin of luteous onyx jointed with 
  metal rings. When a silver stud on its forehead is 
  touched, the mannikin comes to life. It understands 
  commands spoken in Ancient Emphidian, its main 
  function being to spy or steal for its master. It has a 
  stealth score of 26 and a perception score of 20. 
  (Treat its vision as elfsight—see p. 123.) It can pick 
  locks and climb as an 8th-rank Assassin with Pick-
  lock skill (picked twice), Climb Skill (picked twice) 
  and Reflexes of 18. It will always attempt to avoid 
  combat, as it is too small to use any weapon—except 
  perhaps a poisoned needle. It has defence 15, eva-
  sion 7, Armour Factor 2 and 2 Health Points. It 
  moves at 16m per Combat Round.
   
  Once activated, the Prowler will function for 
  three hours. After this time it again becomes a life-
  less mannikin. Without specific orders to the con-
  trary it will break off its mission and start back to its 
  master after two and a half hours. If asked to spy for 
  him, it returns to deliver an account of what it saw. 
  It uses the Ancient Emphidian language, of course. 
  The report will be constructed out of a number of 
  standard phrases stored in its crystalline brain. These 
  are the phrases it was taught by the unknown wizard 
  who created it. It has hundreds of these phrases—a 
  complete command of basic Emphidian—but can-
  not add to them. Thus it cannot report on specific 
  matters. A report might be something like: ‘Three 
  men met. One wore red. One was a warrior. They 
  discussed military logistics. The one in red... disa-
  greed with the others.’ It could not give the names 
  of the men it spied on, the names of the fortresses or 
  countries discussed in their plan, or a detailed expla-
  nation of why the men failed to agree. In general, the 
  GM should assume that the Prowler’s reports will 
  only convey about 75% of the details it observed.
   
  Each time the Prowler is activated, some of the 
  magical life-energy stored in it is used up. When it 
  is first acquired by a character, the GM should roll 
  2d6 to determine how many ‘lives’ it has left. Once 
  the character has used it this number of times, it 
  becomes no more than a simple onyx doll.
  Places of magic and mystery
  The world of Legend abounds with haunted ruins 
  and underworlds. The fortress of Sa’aknathur has 
  already been mentioned, as have the fused remnants 
  of Spyte and the crumbling Citadel of the Shadow-
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  lords. Another area of interest is the Trickster’s Hall, 
  a staefheall built to gigantic, even godlike, propor-
  tions and said to lie somewhere in the mountains 
  of Thuland. A host of other rumours recount the 
  famous places of ancient treasure: the desert pyra-
  mids where the God-Kings of Kaikuhuru sleep in 
  death; the Garden of Columns, the titan Shab-ad-
  Din’s elaborate henge, where some of the standing 
  stones are said to be the vitrified bodies of careless 
  adventurers; the marvellous Tower of Brass, which 
  is located in the gnat-infested mire known as the 
  Swamps of the Jinn; the lost city of Rakundus, out-
  post of the Selentine VIth Legion in the grasslands 
  of the far south; the Temple of Faresh in the moun-
  tains along the Marazid coast—this temple is said 
  to be walled with gold, and its towers and undying 
  guardians flicker with a blue fire; the creeper-clad 
  ruins of the Mungoda jungle, etc., etc.
   
  A few other antique places may be described in 
  more detail. Skulldance Castle, in the Sleetmarsh, is 
  so named because those few who escaped its gates 
  have been unable ever to find it again. It has even 
  been suggested that this dingy, brooding edifice 
  moves at random through the mists of the swamp. 
  This may be mere superstition; the castle is the 
  home of Cathedron1, and may just be well hidden, 
  or warded from unwanted attention by a cloak of 
  his sorcery. Based on a few more-or-less reputable 
  accounts, it seems that Cathedron’s spirit has out-
  lived his physical body and still holds dominion 
  within Skulldance Castle. If true, this is almost cer-
  tainly due to the power of his Ebon Staff, an occult 
  device he plundered from the demonlord Feshtis in 
  the fourth century AS.
   
  Alaflak, the stronghold of the Marijah cult, is 
  described here for want of a more appropriate sec-
  tion in which to mention it—though swarms of 
  Marijah assassins inhabit this secret citadel, and only 
  an adventurer of extraordinary bravery or madness 
  would think to venture there. Alaflak is an elusive 
  place. It may be located somewhere in the moun-
  tains east of Ta’aqan, in Opalar, but many believe it 
  has no physical existence in this world. Alaflak, built 
  in seven concentric rings corresponding to the seven 
  Elements of Ta’ashim philosophy, is reached through 
  1 
  Cathedron the Unbidden, one of the seven ‘Eternal Wizards’ of Legend 
  whose number also included Sa’aknathur, Torso the Necromage, Chang the 
  Stormrider, and (possibly) imref Kharid.
   JH
  
  77
  the Nine Gates of the Winds: secret invisible ‘door-
  ways’ which enable the Marijahs to confound their 
  foes by coming and going as they please.
   
  All adventurers know of the Tombs of Kala, a 
  famous underworld below the city of Chalidexor 
  on the Emphidian island of Kaxos. Pillared halls, 
  bewildering tomb-and-temple complexes, mar-
  ble galleries, and dusty corridors stretch for miles 
  underground, descending in levels of increasing 
  danger—and the greater the danger, the greater the 
  possible treasure! Some parts of the underworld are 
  flooded and must be explored by boat. A murky 
  radiance still shines from nowhere in the deep-
  est levels, a last vestige of the power of long-dead 
  sorcerers. With sword or scroll at hand, parties of 
  adventurers tread warily along the echoing passages 
  and masonry-strewn chambers. One may come 
  across a subterranean courtyard where the splashing 
  waters of a fountain are frozen forever, an unchang-
  ing tableau where each water droplet hangs like a 
  diamond in the air. Another chamber might contain 
  a series of burnished copper mirrors wherefrom the 
  faces of Ancient Emphidian sages still speak to pas-
  sers-by. Beyond that, catacombs bring us to a vast 
  hall ringed with telamons; delicate simulacra dance 
  a slow, unending pavane without realizing that the 
  music of their masters faded fifteen centuries ago. 
  A hundred unexplored passageways lead on from 
  here, and each might take a party to unimaginable 
  wealth—or the way to dusty death.
   
  Legend has many other such sites beyond the 
  boundaries of the map in this book. Khitai has many 
  underworlds, as one would expect of so venerable an 
  empire. The folktales of Minj speak of the Drifting 
  Pavilion of the Mystagogue, which floats through 
  the skies and which only an enlightened Adept 
  can ever hope to reach. In an isolated wayside inn 
  among the mountains of Batubatan, one can hear 
  fireside tales of Gungun the Witch, a horrid entity 
  who skulks about her hut of human bones—or of 
  the Sacred Vistas of the Moon, a place within the 
  heart of the unscaleable Mount Tlingat. It is impos-
  sible to voyage among the rough barbarians of the 
  Eastern Steppe without hearing their (doubtless 
  embroidered) tales of treasure vaults and empty cit-
  adels far out across the plains. Sailors bring back the 
  myths of Yamato and still more distant shores: of 
  castles of living coral rising from the ocean depths, 
  of ghost-hulks whose rotting timbers creak with the 
  weight of stolen gold, of lights that seem to mark 
  out submerged cities, of islands patrolled by unliving 
  monsters, of exotic ports full of dark pleasures and 
  deadly perils, and of comely wenches who dance on 
  the grey waves and entice poor mortals to join them 
  in flickering palaces built from stormclouds.
  Sa’aknathur (SAH-ahk’ nath-UR)
  This is the ‘Millennial Sorcerer of the West’ to whom 
  Ancient Kaikuhuran texts refer. He was said to be 
  able to call ships to him by the power of the winds, 
  splitting them and taking their rich cargoes as a gull 
  feasts upon a snail. Even the Kaikuhuran wizard 
  Chefru, who served nine pharaohs, respected his 
  might and paid him a toll of three Demon Names. 
  He lived on the Grey Rock, an island in the Sea of 
  Lament, and could lower the sea around the strait 
  to expose jagged reefs, thus controlling sea traffic 
  to neighbouring ports. In latter days he no longer 
  commanded this power, but was still vexatious to 
  shipping until slain c.450AS by Hunguk the Pirate-
  King. His ruinous fortress still stands and has never 
  been fully explored.
  Sa’aknathur’s Marvellous Cabinets
  These two large cabinets are made of mahogany 
  from the Eastern Steppes and decorated with 
  numerous copper bosses. They were supposedly 
  constructed by the legendary wizard of the south-
  ern sea. They can be used as a teleportation system: 
  a character who steps into one of the cabinets will 
  instantaneously be transported to the other. There 
  is no range limitation, but it is only the character 
  himself who is transported—all his possessions, 
  including clothing and weapons, are left behind in 
  the first cabinet. Each use of the cabinets uses up 
  one magical ‘charge’, of which they will have 1-100 
  when found.
   
  One of the cabinets is rumoured to lie in the 
  storage vaults of the Knights Capellars at their 
  headquarters on Sandraust Island. The whereabouts 
  of the other is uncertain, though a location some-
  where in the labyrinth beneath Sa’aknathur’s ruined 
  fortress seems probable.
  The Seven Arrows of Athgeld
  Athgeld was a famous outlaw of Ellesland who was 
  given seven magic arrows by his mentor, Nunn o’ 
  the Yeth. Six of these arrows had the property that 
  they would hit and kill whatever they were loosed 
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  at. The seventh would veer in mid-air in order to 
  strike dead the man who shot it.
   
  A character who finds and uses the arrows is 
  indulging in a sort of ‘Russian roulette’. The Games-
  Master rolls every time one of the arrows is shot, 
  to determine whether it is in fact the cursed arrow. 
  There is no way to find this out without actually 
  using the arrow—oracle, Sixth Sense, etc., give no 
  information one way or the other. Each arrow can 
  be used only once and then loses its enchantment.
   
  It is not known if any of the arrows were ever 
  actually used by Athgeld, but history records that 
  he died of a spear-wound, so certainly he never shot 
  the cursed arrow.
   
  By some accounts, Nunn was a wise Mystic who 
  lived in the woods and befriended Athgeld, teaching 
  him his skills in the use of bow and psychic force. 
  Other sources personify him as the Devil, horned 
  and cloven-hoofed, and state that the seventh arrow 
  will claim the archer’s soul as well as his life. The 
  reader is left to choose for himself between these 
  two versions of the tale.
  The Spear of Screaming Souls
  This appears to be an ordinary spear of black iron 
  with indecipherable engravings along its haft. In 
  combat it counts as an ordinary +1 magical weapon. 
  However, if it deals the death-blow to a human 
  character it then draws his psychic essence—his 
  spirit—into itself. The wielder can call upon spirits 
  caught in the Spear to aid him in moments of peril. 
  The action of calling upon them takes one Combat 
  Round, and the spirits will take form 1–4 rounds 
  after that. The spirits of characters below 5th rank 
  fight as Skeletons, characters who were 5th–8th 
  rank in life are represented as Ghouls, and those of 
  higher rank return to unlife as Wraiths. Notwith-
  standing the creature stats used, all spirits held and 
  summoned back by the spear appear as ragged, half-
  glimpsed images like shadows seen through smoke.
   
  When the spirits are released by the spear, the 
  wielder must roll to see if they obey him. This is 
  determined by taking the wielder’s rank, adding 
  1d20 and then subtracting 2d10. The final result 
  is the highest rank among the spirits who will do 
  the wielder’s bidding. Any spirits who were a higher 
  rank than this when alive will turn on him. Sup-
  pose that Eshmiel, current owner of the spear, calls 
  upon its entrapped spirits. In life, two of these char-
  acters were 3rd rank, one was 5th and one was 8th. 
  Four shadowy spirits thus appear to hear Eshmiel’s 
  entreaties. Eshmiel himself is 6th rank; his d20 roll 
  is a 12 and his 2d10 roll is an 11. So 6 + 12 – 11 = 
  7. All except the spirit who was once an 8th rank 
  character will thus do his bidding.
   
  Once called forth, the spirits will remain until 
  a regular 2d6 Spell Expiry Roll indicates they van-
  ish. They do not return to confinement in the spear 
  when this happens: having been summoned again to 
  this plane of reality, they are free to disappear into 
  the afterlife.
   
  Spirits caught in the spear remain trapped for a 
  period of one week. If the wielder does not summon 
  them in this time they depart automatically.
   
  Only human characters can be trapped by the 
  Spear of Screaming Souls. Nonhumans and ani-
  mals can, of course, be killed with it—just as with 
  any weapon—but their souls (if any) are not drawn 
  within. While a character’s spirit is trapped in the 
  spear, he/she cannot be restored to life by resurrect 
  spells and the like.
  Stygian Waters
  The source of Stygian Water is the miasmic River 
  of Despair which separated the realms of the liv-
  ing from the dead in ancient Emphidian mythol-
  ogy. Few adventurers will ever gaze upon that black 
  river—except perhaps when they finally come to 
  cross it. But the world of Legend is a magic world, 
  where the substance of old myths sometimes spills 
  over into reality. Fonts and pools filled with Sty-
  gian Water can sometimes be found in the dark-
  ness of underworlds. Although it does not respond 
  to detection spells such as See Enchantment it can 
  easily be identified: it deadens all sensation in any 
  area of flesh it touches. It does not feel wet to the 
  touch, therefore; if one dips a hand in there is only a 
  momentary coldness. Nor can it be tasted.
   
  Any part of the body that is immersed in Sty-
  gian Water becomes permanently invulnerable to 
  normal weapons. The treated areas of skin become 
  grey and unfeeling and will turn aside any blow 
  from a nonmagical weapon, claws, talons, etc. (but 
  not enchanted weapons or spells). It appears to be 
  the perfect defence, but there is a risk. Immersion 
  in Stygian Water can cause death, the chance of 
  this increasing with the body area that is immersed. 
  A character who bathes in the water must specify 
  how much of his body he is immersing. For game 
  convenience this percentage should be a multiple 
  
  79
  misleading. For instance, some tales are told of 
  Ascians, people who cast no shadow. This story 
  began with the plain fact that in the far south on 
  the equator, people cast no shadow at noon. With 
  retelling, the story became more fanciful. Now one 
  often hears of these Ascians—apparently soulless, 
  they are forced to serve the shamans who keep their 
  shadows in sealed huts. This is not true, but arose 
  when a sailor misunderstood what a colleague told 
  him about the Ascians’ religion.
   
  Another tale often told concerns the Arachnanths, 
  a race of spider-folk inhabiting the upper reaches 
  of the Mungoda River. Some versions of the tale 
  describe these creatures as having the bodies of men 
  but with six hairy arms and a spider-like head. A dif-
  ferent version claims that the people of this region 
  are not hybrids, but normal men who are enslaved 
  by a race of giant spiders. When the spiders wish 
  to go hunting, they climb onto a man’s back and 
  ride him like a steed. Those who favour this theory 
  believe that the ‘manspider’ legend derives from an 
  explorer having caught a brief glimpse of one of 
  these spiders riding its human slave.
   
  There are many other half-truths and fables to 
  be heard: of the acephalous natives of the tropical 
  islands of Adamastor (probably a garbled account 
  of orangutans), the fierce women warriors who once 
  dwelt in mountainous Emphidor (certainly based 
  on a satirical statement by the Ancient Emphidian 
  philosopher, Cathanalides), the gleaming phantoms 
  who dance in the sky above the Rymchaeld Sea, 
  the glimpses of the Infinite Paradise that a thirsty 
  men may see when staggering, close to death in the 
  Kaikuhuran Desert, and of the carnivorous under-
  growth of the Mungoda.
   
  Furthermore, in a world like Legend the divi-
  sion between myth and reality is neither clear-cut 
  nor constant. One man’s lie may become the next 
  man’s folktale—then the belief of a whole genera-
  tion. If sufficient people believe something strongly 
  enough, it may slip into the real world. To cite one 
  case: a learned scholar would realize that stories 
  of Centaurs were originally based on a prehistoric 
  encounter between horse-riding pastoralists and 
  incredulous hunter-gatherers. To the hunter-gath-
  erers, our scholar might say, it must have seemed 
  that horse and rider were a single beast. A logical 
  view—except that Centaurs definitely do exist, as 
  countless adventurers who have visited the Gonhala 
  Plain can attest. Logic alone is not enough, in the 
  strange world of Legend.
  of ten—10%, 20%, etc.—and the chance of instant 
  death is equal to 25% plus the percentage body area 
  immersed. A character who tried to immerse 70% of 
  his body would thus have a 95% chance of dying on 
  the spot! A character who survives this perilous bath 
  is partially invulnerable. Whenever he is struck by a 
  nonmagical weapon, he rolls percentile dice to see if 
  the blow actually hits a treated area of his body, in 
  which case it is negated.
   
  One should not bathe more than once in this 
  magical liquid, as a second immersion is invariably 
  fatal.
   
  Historical note: Magister Praetorius, a notable 
  wizard of the Selentine Empire, built for himself a 
  completely invulnerable undead warrior by using an 
  amalgam of fragments from several immersed bod-
  ies. A series of events brought the wizard and his 
  monster to the Rymchaeld Sea, where they were cast 
  adrift on a raft. The monster turned upon its creator 
  and continued to vent its mad rage on his lifeless 
  body until the biting cold froze it into immobility. 
  Centuries later it was found by mariners and taken 
  south whereupon, being undead, it reanimated and 
  began to maraud unchecked along the Mercanian 
  coast. It was finally slain by Hraefgahl Stormrun-
  ner who, taking his cue from the trickster-god Loge, 
  left it drugged meat and then drove his spear down 
  its throat as it slept. Its innards were not invulner-
  able.1
  Travellers’ tales
  In any world which has not been thoroughly mapped, 
  strange stories of distant lands will be rife. Legend 
  is no exception. Of course, magic really works in 
  Legend. This means that many such stories actu-
  ally turn out to be true. But the GM should always 
  remember that a ‘realistic’ campaign is best—too 
  many incredible things spoil the game. When the 
  player-characters are picking up rumours in taverns 
  or from old adventurers, season those rumours with 
  plenty of half-truths and whimsy. Many travellers 
  will have found that if they tell the most outrageous 
  lies they can invent, people are more in awe of their 
  exploits than if they told the bald truth. Much of 
  what the player-characters hear will therefore be 
  1 
  This story is told in the Saga of Hraefgahl and Hanori. it may be that 
  the drug was supplied by Loge as one would not expect an undead creature to 
  succumb to any earthly draught. No reference is made to this, however, in the 
  Saga.
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  The Wendigo Pelt
  Hunters from the Isle of Yggdras brought back this 
  pelt after an expedition across pack-ice and through 
  the Svartgard Forest. It is a large and heavily furred 
  pelt, but completely unblemished as though just 
  a scrap of a very much larger coat. The celebrated 
  authority Nagonto Qua examined it and pronounced 
  it to be part of the mane of the Wendigo, an arctic 
  demon, which the demon must have lost in battle 
  against some other monster of the northern wastes. 
  The pelt is grey-white with a faint tinge of blue. It 
  exhibits several magical properties. These are listed 
  below, and there are probably many other powers 
  that have not yet been discovered.
   
  A character who stands on the pelt and speaks 
  the secret names of the Four Winds (to be found 
  in several of the ancient texts of Krarth) will be 
  transported across vast distances in the blink of an 
  eye. The pelt will take one character to any place he 
  specifies, setting him down on open ground within 
  15 kilometres of the exact spot. It will do this only 
  on nights of the new moon.
   
  Another of the pelt’s effects is metempsychosis, 
  the moving of souls from one body to another. If 
  two human characters go to sleep together under the 
  pelt, they will awaken to find they have exchanged 
  bodies (or exchanged minds, depending on one’s 
  viewpoint). This property was discovered by chance. 
  Llaria the Seeress and her bodyguard Gunthur the 
  Red apparently used the pelt as a coverlet. When 
  they woke, the barbarian found himself in the wom-
  an’s body and Llaria was startled to see she had the 
  iron thews and bristling beard of her brawny lover! 
  Naturally they redressed matters as quickly as possi-
  ble by sleeping under the pelt again on the following 
  night.
   
  The third known property of the Wendigo 
  Pelt is that one who wraps himself in it will know 
  whenever lies are spoken. It has this property at all 
  times.
   
  The last of the pelt’s magical effects works only 
  when the moon is full. An Air Elementalist who 
  stands on the pelt as he casts a durational spell will 
  find that spell lasts until daybreak. This applies to 
  one spell per character.
  The Whispering Hat
  Any thief would be pleased to own this black felt 
  hat, which operates without expending magical 
  ‘charges’ or the like. If turned inside out and placed 
  in front of an arch or doorway, it gives rise to an 
  unreal translucent figure. The figure has the vague 
  shadowy outline of a tall man in a spreading cloak 
  and wide hat. It does not move or fight, being merely 
  a visual manifestation of the spell the Whispering 
  Hat casts. Even the loudest clamour and shouting 
  is muffled by this spell so that from the other side 
  of the arch/doorway it can be heard only as a faint 
  susurration—hence the name.
  The Witch-Baubles of kao
  These rounded pebbles of green-and-blue jadeite 
  were brought back from the Isle of Kao, an offshore 
  province that the Khitan Empire had forgotten it 
  possessed. Captain Glathook, who found them, 
  reported to his employers in Ferromaine that the 
  shamans of Kao believed them to be sacred relics 
  of the god Nkel-Nkar, Who Recites the Cosmos. 
  In the mythology of Kao, this all-knowing god had 
  been blinded and his million jade eyes scattered 
  throughout the world. The stones Captain Glat-
  hook’s men called ‘witch baubles’ were supposedly 
  the eyes that had fallen on Kao.
   
  Originally a set of sixteen, several were lost 
  before the collection came into the hands of Prince 
  Lorquilo, the present owner. For years no one real-
  ized what magic power they contained, but when 
  Lorquilo’s court-sorcerer examined them he was 
  quickly able to give a full account of their function. 
  Each bauble stores knowledge of a specific spell. If 
  their owner belongs to a magic-using profession he 
  can draw on that knowledge to cast the spell even if 
  it properly belongs to a different spell-canon. One 
  of the baubles, for example, was found to hold the 
  intangibility spell; Lorquilo’s sorcerer was able to 
  cast this (at a cost of 8 Magic Points) though it is 
  normally available only to Mystics.
   
  The baubles have a secondary benefit which 
  their owner gains whether or not he is a magic-user. 
  When attacked by one of the spells specific to the 
  witch-baubles, he adds +2 to his magical defence. 
  This only applies, of course, to direct-attack spells 
  (see p. 75).
   
  The witch-baubles respond to the aura and per-
  sonal power of the person who possesses them. If 
  their user is 10th rank or higher they will float in the 
  air at his mental command and trail along behind if 
  he walks away without them. Their effects apply as 
  long as he is within 3m—if forcibly moved beyond 
  
  8
  this range they fall from the air and will respond 
  to the next character who touches them. If their 
  user is of 6th–9th rank he can make use of their 
  power within the 3m range but they will not levitate 
  around him. A character of 5th rank or lower must 
  actually be in physical contact with the baubles in 
  order to use them.
   
  (It is left for the GamesMaster to determine 
  what spells are present in any witch-baubles the 
  players find. Usually spells will be 4th–8th level, 
  with a scattering of lesser or greater conjurations. 
  The Mystic/Sorcerer/Elementalist/Warlock spell-
  canons are represented in the ratio 4/1/2/1 because 
  of the proportions of such spell-casters among the 
  shamans of Kao. Presumably the spell in a witch-
  bauble could be changed in some way—like re-tun-
  ing a radio! Characters who think of that will have 
  to devise a plausible means of doing so.)
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   JH
  
  83
  THIS CHAPTER GIVES more information 
  about the cultures, languages, and traditions of the 
  Lands of Legend.
  Languages
  For simplicity of play, it is assumed that a character’s 
  command of a language can be categorized into one 
  of three levels:
  Basic: At this level the character knows almost noth-
  ing of the language—just a smattering of vocabulary 
  at the very most. By wracking his brains he may be 
  able to remember the words for ‘hungry’, ‘cold’, 
  ‘mercy’, etc. (Roll under Intelligence on 1d20 to 
  see if this is so—or else tell the player a few made-
  up words and see if he really can remember them.) 
  Grammar is quite beyond him.
  Intermediate: At the second level the character is 
  fairly conversant with the language. He can fol-
  low anything said to him (perhaps misunderstand-
  ing it only if the GM rolls a 20 on 1d20), and can 
  make himself understood most of the time. Simple 
  concepts (“You wait here by the door and see that 
  no one enters”) can always be communicated, and 
  more difficult sentences involving careful grammar 
  (“I think that he would have done that if I had not 
  been about to do this”) will make proper sense if the 
  character rolls under his Intelligence on 1d20.
  Fluency: This is the third and final level. The char-
  acter can now think in the language. Apart from 
  his accent (less noticeable if he learns the language 
  when young), he could be taken for a native. Extrav-
  agant and courtly speech does not necessarily follow 
  from this. If the character learns the language from 
  a foreign monk he will speak it in an educated and 
  upper-class manner. If he picks it up by living in the 
  back streets of a foreign town, he will learn a lower-
  class way of speaking.
  Learning a language
  There are two ways to learn a language: employ a 
  tutor, or live among native speakers. (Actually, the 
  ideal way is to combine both methods.) The former 
  method is more expensive but is also more reliable; 
  if you are dumb, you might never figure out the lan-
  guage from day-to-day usage. In order to learn how 
  to write you must have a tutor.
   
  All languages are categorized according to how 
  difficult they are to learn. Elleslandic has a large 
  vocabulary but its grammar displays few irregulari-
  Chapter 6
  LIVING IN THE 
  LANDS OF 
  LEGEND
  
  84
  Dragon Warriors
  ties and it is consequently undemanding. Bacchile 
  has many convoluted constructions and words that 
  must be declined, making it an arduous language 
  to master. In the extreme, the Tsutsuneng tongue 
  of Khitai, with its dependence on word order, pro-
  nunciation and even pitch, is a very challenging lan-
  guage for most westerners. These are the degrees of 
  difficulty:
  SIMPLE  
   
   
   
  Coradian traders’ argot
  UNDEMANDING 
   
  Elleslandic: Latter 
  Mercanian; Nascerine; 
  Visic; Algandarve, Angate; 
  Beaulangue
  COMPLEX 
   
   
   
  Old Mercanian; Opalarian; 
  Bacchile; Kurlish (Old and 
  modern forms); Lughwyd; 
  Emphidian; Low 
  Cabbandari; Dakkandi; 
  Klav; Unno; Raukil
  ABTRUSE 
   
   
   
  Tsutsuneng; Ancient 
  Kaikuhuran; High 
  Cabbandari; Etya’be’yely
  Languages are often related, and knowing one lan-
  guage helps when it comes to learning others that 
  are similar. The way in which the various languages 
  are related is set out in the Languages of Legend 
  diagram below.
   
  The effective difficulty of a language is reduced 
  by one step if it is distantly related to another 
  language that the character already knows. If it is 
  closely related its effective difficulty is reduced by 
  two steps. The advantage is less if the character is 
  not fully fluent in the first language; a small table is 
  perhaps the best way to show this:
  Relation 
   
  between  
   
  First language already known to…
  languages  
  intermediate 
   
   
  Fluent
  Close 
   
   
  One step easier  
   
  Two steps easier
  Distant  
   
  No advantage  
   
  One step easier
  
  8
  ing—just enough to point at things and say “How 
  much!”—and never acquire the grammar.
   
  Every two months the character lives among 
  native speakers of the language, he gets to roll d100. 
  The percentage chance that he will increase his 
  command of the language by one level is as follows:
   
  SIMPLE language  
   
   
   
  70%
   
  UNDEMANDING language  
  30%
   
  COMPLEX language  
   
   
  15%
   
  ABTRUSE language  
   
   
  6%
  These figures are modified by Intelligence: –10% if 
  the character’s Intelligence is 5 or less; –5% if this 
  score is between 6 and 8; no modifier for an average 
  score of course; +5 % for a score in the range 13 to 
  15; +10% if it is 16 or more.
  Combined method
  The best way to learn is to engage a tutor at the 
  same time as living in a community where everyone 
  speaks the language. This way you can put what-
  ever you learn each day to practical use. The char-
  acter gets to roll d100 as under ‘Learning by Usage’ 
  above, but this roll is made every six weeks rather 
  than every two months. Moreover, even if the rolls 
  have failed it will never take the character longer 
  to improve his knowledge of the language than the 
  times listed for normal tutorial improvement.
  Example
  Torlon has decided to live in Hakbad for a while in 
  order to learn Nascerine. He rents a small rooftop apart-
  ment overlooking the spice vendors’ market. after a day 
  or two he meets a haughty Ta’ashim scholar who offers 
  to tutor him. Turlon’s intelligence is 13, so his chance 
  of picking up the language by everyday usage is 35%. 
  Because he is also being tutored he makes the roll after 
  every six weeks. Even if he somehow fails the roll three 
  times in a row, however, he will automatically acquire 
  intermediate command of the language after six months 
  (the usual period for tutored improvement).
  Ancient languages
  Reading old manuscripts is about the only way 
  for the people of Legend to learn about the past. 
  Monks take an abiding interest in ancient languages 
  for this reason. Adventurers are also interested in 
  old manuscripts—but usually with a view to discov-
  ering important myths and maps that could lead to 
  treasure. Most well-educated people speak Bacchile 
  Example
  Torlon, a merchant of albion, wishes to learn Visic so 
  that he can expand his trade into Thuland. He is of course 
  fluent in Elleslandic (his native tongue), and since the 
  two languages are distantly related he can study Visic as 
  though it were a simple language.
  The procedure for learning a language can now be 
  explained:
  Learning from a tutor
  A tutor must first be found. ‘Tutor’ in this context 
  does not have to mean a professional instructor—
  any native or fluent speaker of the language will do, 
  so long as he is prepared to devote his time to teach-
  ing the character. His fee will depend on what he 
  could be doing if he was not teaching the character. 
  A humble sailor from the Ta’ashim lands will expect 
  rather less than a silk-robed merchant from the same 
  region. The availability of tutors varies so widely 
  that it must be left to the GM. As a rule, tutors are 
  easiest to find in bustling cities (particularly ports) 
  where people from many different countries come 
  to trade. The ideal is probably to learn from another 
  player-character.
   
  The time taken to increase by one level in the 
  language (i.e. from no knowledge to intermediate or 
  from intermediate to fluent) is as follows:
  SIMPLE language  
   
   
   
  three months
  UNDEMANDING language  
  six months
  COMPLEX language  
   
   
  one year
  ABTRUSE language  
   
   
  one to six years 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  (roll 1d6)
   
  This assumes at least four hours a day can be devoted 
  to studying and practising the language.
   
  Special note: Ancient Kaikuhuran and Lughwyd 
  are ‘dead’ languages with no spoken form. A char-
  acter who studies either of them will automatically 
  learn the appropriate script (Qemor Hieroglyphs or 
  the Kell alphabet). This takes no longer than learn-
  ing a spoken language—the time spent becoming 
  familiar with the scripts replaces the time that would 
  be spent learning pronunciation.
  Learning by usage
  Living among foreigners is a great way to pick up 
  their language. If you can’t make yourself understood 
  you will end up going hungry, and sheer necessity 
  is a hard taskmaster. Unfortunately this method is 
  not always very reliable. You may learn a smatter-
  living in the lanDs oF legenD
  
  86
  Dragon Warriors
  (the language of the Selentine Empire) and in this 
  sense it is a sort of ‘lingua franca’ among learned 
  adventurers.
   
  Kaikuhuran is not spoken today—no one 
  knows how the ancient hieroglyphs should be 
  pronounced—but it is useful for those wishing 
  to explore the pyramids of the pharaohs. Ancient 
  Emphidian is rarely spoken except by fussy old ped-
  ants, but it is similarly useful when one delves into 
  the labyrinthine ruins of classical Emphidor.
   
  Other ‘dead’ languages include Old Mercanian, 
  Old Kurlish, Lughwyd (not spoken), and the Mil-
  lennial Song, the lilting tongue of Ancient Batuba-
  tan. 
  Modern languages
  The following are the major languages of present-
  day Legend:
  Language  
   
   
   
  Where spoken
  ELLESLANDIC   
   
  Cornumbria, Albion
  VISIC  
   
   
   
   
  Thuland, Ereworn, Glissom
  LATTER MERCANIAN Mercanian Coast
  CABBANDARI  
   
  Krarth, Kingdom of Wyrd
  DAKKANDI  
   
   
  Yggdras
  ALGANDARVE  
   
  Algandy
  BEAULANGUE  
   
  Chaubrette
  KURLISH  
   
   
   
  Kurland, Asmulia
  EMPHIDIAN  
   
   
  Emphidor
  ANGATE  
   
   
   
  New Selentine Empire, 
  Ferromaine League
  OPALARIAN  
   
   
  Opalar
  NASCERINE  
   
   
  Zhenir, Marazid, Harogarn
  ETYA’BE’YELY  
   
  Eastern Steppes (various 
  tribal dialects)
  KLAV  
   
   
   
   
  Molasaria
  UNNO 
   
   
   
   
  Hudristania
  RAUKIL  
   
   
   
  Analika
  It is unnecessary to detail the diverse tongues of 
  smaller ethnic and racial groups—the Wembun dia-
  lects of the Trackless Ooze, Bakkatun (the language 
  of the Gnawing Waste), the various language-groups 
  of the Mungoda River peoples, etc.
  Special languages
  Arcane
  All Sorcerers know this language, derived from 
  chants and spell-formulae handed down from 
  ancient times. Because it is tied directly to real 
  physical effects (a Sorcerer knows when he has his 
  pronunciation right because only then do his spells 
  work) and is spoken by demons and spirits, it has 
  hardly changed in thirty centuries. Old magical 
  papyri left in the pyramid-tombs of Kaikuhuru can 
  be read and used by the Sorcerers of modern times.
   
  Unsurprisingly, Arcane differs from all other 
  languages. It is intended for unleashing and control-
  ling occult forces, and everyday concepts cannot be 
  expressed. Two Sorcerers from opposite corners of 
  the world could use Arcane to discuss their theories 
  of magic, but they would be hard pressed to discuss 
  rising prices or taxation. The nature of the language, 
  in fact, does not allow for simple unequivocal state-
  ments.
   
  The written form of Arcane is quite straightfor-
  ward, and any Sorcerer above the level of novice can 
  read all texts without difficulty. Understanding what 
  he is reading is another matter. The ‘grammar’ and 
  vocabulary of the language build up in layer upon 
  layer of increasing complexity, so the Sorcerer has 
  little understanding of the higher forms of Arcane 
  until he has increased his knowledge of the underly-
  ing magical principles. This explains why a Sorcerer 
  of 1st rank can read a scroll of resurrect. He knows 
  how the words must sound and can recite them, 
  even though he has no idea of their meaning (any 
  more than you or I would understand a passage that 
  we read aloud from an academic textbook on sub-
  nuclear particle physics).
   
  Special note: Mystics, Warlocks and Elemental-
  ists do not have their own professional equivalents 
  of Arcane. Mystics cast spells by the direct action 
  of their inner self upon the real world. Elemental-
  ists command the powers of nature through main 
  force of will. Warlocks recite their spells using the 
  language in which they were taught; some words 
  of Arcane are incorporated, but the proper somatic 
  gestures are the most important factor in Warlock 
  magic.
  Coradian trader’s argot
  The merchants of the Coradian Sea have developed 
  this simple tongue for bartering with one another. It 
  can be used to haggle (“I’ll give you 200 florins per 
  keg”), to specify quantities of numerous products 
  (“I’ll take all your stock of silk/wine/corn/timber...”), 
  to point out deficiencies in a cargo (“This brandy 
  is tainted with vinegar!”), to arrange rates of inter-
  est (“Pay me by the end of the month, or I’ll want 
  an extra 50 florins per day after that”) and even to 
  make insults (“Your tongue is a warty protruberance 
  that is slimy with lies”).
  
  87
  Literacy
  Most people in the medieval world of Legend are 
  illiterate. In order to be able to read and write a 
  given language you must (i) know the language to 
  at least intermediate level; and (ii) know the script in 
  which it is written.
  Learning a script
  Learning to read is a question of interpreting 
  scripts—alphabets, in other words. It is possible to 
  know how to read a particular script, and thus inter-
  pret what the written characters might sound like, 
  without knowing the meaning of the word in ques-
  tion. Elleslandic uses the Classic script also shared 
  by many other languages, so a literate Elleslander 
  travelling through Kurland, for example, would be 
  able to read out a sign saying ‘Hangistrare—Vo 
  Boray’ without knowing that this was Kurlish for 
  ‘Beware—bandits’.
   
  Once a script has been mastered, the charac-
  ter will be able to read and write any language he 
  knows1 that uses that script. Essentially a script is a 
  way of representing sounds on paper. Different let-
  ters may vary in their phonetic value2 but it usually 
  takes only a day or two to pick up the variations once 
  one knows the script. Misspelling is not much of a 
  problem because spelling will not become standard-
  ized until the invention of movable type printing in 
  about three hundred years’ time.
   
  Scripts must be taught. They cannot be acquired 
  by casual browsing. Tutors are considerably rarer 
  and more expensive because literacy is not a major 
  feature of the western areas of Legend. The various 
  scripts (and time taken to learn them) are as fol-
  lows:
  Classic (six months to learn) is used for Elleslandic, 
  Kurlish, Beaulangue, Algandarve and Bacchile. Its 
  widespread use derives from the fact that it was the 
  1 
  if the character’s command of a language is only intermediate then a 
  d20 roll against intelligence must be made when he tries to read or write 
  something, just as when he is trying to understand the spoken form.
  2 
  Compare for instance the pronunciation of the French ‘faux-fuyant’ 
  with English ‘taught’, ‘buy’, and ‘truant’.
  living in the lanDs oF legenD
  EW
  
  88
  Dragon Warriors
  legislative script of the Selentine Empire. The sharp, 
  stately figures of this script can still be read on the 
  old villas and monuments erected in the time of the 
  legions. The current form of Classic is very similar 
  to the sort used then.
  Nikkar Runic (six months to learn) is a spare, lin-
  ear script that developed from characters cut into 
  wooden plaques by the priests of old Mercania. It 
  is used for Old Mercanian, modern Mercanian and 
  Vasic.
  Emphidian (nine months to learn) is used for the 
  ancient and modern forms of that language. Some 
  of its cursive figures can be seen in the sinuous, fluid 
  alphabet of...
  Jezant (nine months to learn), the script used for all 
  Ta’ashim languages—Nascerine, Opalarian, etc.
  Qemor Hieroglyphs are seen only in the tombs of the 
  God-Kings of Kaikuhuru. This script was unwieldy 
  and useless for practical purposes, and died with 
  the Kaikuhurun language. Only tomb-robbers and 
  some scholars can read it today.
  Kell is used only for Lughwyd, the language of pre-
  historic Cornumbria.
  Majestic (one year to learn) is the bizarre alphabet 
  used by the magi of Krarth for the High form of 
  their language, Cabbandari.
  Khitai Pictograms (two years to learn) are an 
  immensely difficult script to master. There is no 
  phonetic scheme, so each pictogram must be mem-
  orized—and there are thousands. This script is used 
  for Tsutsuneng and similar languages. In the land 
  of Yamato, which lies beyond Khitai, it has been 
  adapted into a more rational phonetic system.
  All of the learning times given assume a minimum of 
  four hours of tutoring a day. Note that there are cer-
  tain languages (those of the north-eastern nomads, 
  the primitives of Cosh Goyopë, etc) that have no 
  written form. Also, there are two languages which 
  no longer have a spoken form: Ancient Kaikuhuran 
  and Lughwyd. These must be acquired from a tutor 
  and the scripts (Qemor Hieroglyphics and Kell 
  respectively) must be learned at the same time.
  The Calendar
  The calendar of the north-western lands differ 
  slightly from our own, but for game purposes the 
  differences are ignored in this book. Since much of 
  the known world was at one time under the sway of 
  the Selentine Empire, the old Reman Calendar of 
  the Empire is still used. In this system, the standard 
  year is 365 days long, with an extra day every fourth 
  year to keep the calendar in line with the seasons. 
  The year consists of twelve months, whose names of 
  course vary according to the language one is speak-
  ing. These are the Elleslandic months:
  Forst-monath Usually the coldest month, 30 days 
  long. The working year begins with the first Syfsdae 
  after Twelfth Night. This is a time when villagers 
  make repairs to their houses and tools.
  Thawian-monath 31 days long. Southern winds 
  usually bring a thaw (winters are shorter than we 
  know them), but often the chill on a thaw-wind is 
  very bitter. This is the leanest time, as most of the 
  winter supplies will be exhausted. Many die if the 
  last harvest was a poor one.
  Ploh-monath 30 days. The ploughs are brought out 
  to break up the hard-packed soil.
  oster-monath 31 days. So called because Easter 
  always falls in this month, but the precise date is 
  derived from a lunar calendar and the procedure is 
  known only to the Pontiff and his officials in Selen-
  tium.
  Harel-monath 30 days. The seed is sown and the 
  earth harrowed.
  Eath-monath 31 days. With the coming of summer, 
  sheep are shorn and manure (not a plentiful com-
  modity) spread on the fields.
  Waed-monath 30 days. The first Freyasdae of Waed-
  monath marks the celebration of midsummer. Most 
  of the rites performed are pagan in origin.
  Heorfest-monath 31 days long. The harvest is brought 
  home, much cider drunk, and festivities enjoyed 
  through the warm summer evenings.
  arn-monath 30 days. Most of this month’s work is 
  centred on the village barn, where grain must be 
  threshed, tallied and stored.
  Halig monath 31 days. Autumn leaves carpet the 
  ground, a chill creeps into the blustery air. Prepa-
  rations begin for the coming winter. Firewood and 
  nuts are gathered, winter corn sown, animals killed 
  and meat salted. Repairs must be done on the manor 
  house if the lord is to spend the winter there. This 
  work also takes much of the following month.
  Bael-monath 30 days. The nights draw in and the 
  working day is short. Villagers huddle by their 
  hearths. Traditionally this is a time when darkling 
  forces stalk the land, and the superstitious do not 
  
  89
  venture out after nightfall. Bael-monath rarely 
  passes without the first flurry of snow.
  Yeol-monath 30 days (31 days if a leap-year). There 
  is little work except for foraging and-repairs. Many 
  animals will have already been slaughtered and the 
  meat salted. Pigs forage for themselves through the 
  autumn, so the older ones are killed now to provide 
  fresh meat for the twelve-day Feast of St Stephan. 
  The villagers also dine well on roast chicken, bread, 
  cheese and mulled ale. They eat heartily, knowing 
  that they must tighten their belts in the coming 
  months.
  There is no fixed length for the week. In Ellesland, 
  Algandy and Chaubrette it is seven days, but Kur-
  land retains the old eight-day week of the Selentine 
  Empire. The Elleslandic days are:
  Haligdae (the Sabbath) 
  Syfsdae 
  Tyrsdae 
  Wotansdae 
  Torsdae 
  Freyasdae 
  Boldursdae
  (The correspondence to our own real-life week is of 
  course deliberate—a measure of ‘poetic licence’ so 
  that players will find the Elleslandic weekdays easy 
  to remember.)
   
  The passing of the years is reckoned from the 
  supposed date of the Saviour’s martyrdom. Using 
  this as a basis, the present year is 993AS.1
  Crime & Punishment
  It is impossible in the space of one section to give 
  much more than an overview of the laws that per-
  tain in Legend. The following must be taken with 
  this caveat in mind.
   
  Because adventurers often tread close to the 
  boundary between law and crime, complex legal 
  cases may arise in the campaign. The GM should 
  work with two basic principles in mind. First, the 
  countries of this part of Legend are in an early 
  feudal stage of development. This means that the 
  1 
  aS = anno Sancto, ‘in the holy year’. Dates before the martyrdom are 
  suffixed by PD, which denotes ‘prior to deliverance’. again we are taking 
  liberties by translating the Bacchile and Elleslandic into Latin and English 
  equivalents.
  most heinous crimes imaginable are those involv-
  ing betrayal of one’s liege lord—or (because feudal 
  obligation works both ways) unfair treatment of a 
  vassal. This has to be the case, as crimes of this sort 
  strike at the very heart of feudalism. Crimes such as 
  blasphemy and sacrilege are also dealt with severely, 
  as the Faith is a cornerstone of the feudal state—it 
  establishes the nobility’s ‘divine right’ to rule.
   
  Secondly, players will soon find that ‘justice’ 
  in Legend is barely recognizable by modern-day 
  standards. Extraordinary defences may be put for-
  ward and accepted. (“True, the man died by my 
  hand. But ‘twas my sword that must take the blame, 
  fashioned as it was by the pagan hermit Bruno the 
  Wild.”) Guilt or innocence will more often hinge on 
  one’s skill with a weapon—or one’s ability to pluck 
  a poker from the fire without flinching—than on 
  ‘truth’. Hearsay or outright fabrication are admiss-
  able in court.
   
  Only in the towns would a traveller from our 
  own world see the beginnings of justice as we know 
  it. The Guilds are more interested in fair trading 
  and price controls than on the niceties of feudal 
  obligation—and few guildsmen are handy with a 
  sword, so their civil courts use juries instead of trial 
  by combat.
   
  There are six types of court: the King’s Court, 
  the Court of High Justice, the Manor Court, the 
  Ecclesiastical Court, the Civil Court and the Mar-
  ket Court. We shall consider each in turn:
  The King’s Court is also known as the Circuit Court 
  because the magistrates continually travel the length 
  and breadth of the land. The purpose of this court 
  is to try any freeman or townsman accused of a seri-
  ous crime such as robbery on the King’s highway, or 
  murder. Formerly, cases of this sort would have been 
  heard by the local lord or his steward, but all too 
  often this meant summary judgements and harsh 
  sentences—not just for the guilty man, but for his 
  immediate family as well! Kings began to see that by 
  providing the common people with a fair recourse 
  to justice, they consolidated their own position as 
  gracious rulers to whom all could turn.
   
  In recent years, at least in Albion, this ideal has 
  become tarnished. The King is too ineffectual a ruler 
  to prevent his lords exercising their autocratic edicts. 
  Many of the more ruthless lords apply inducements 
  (both covert and open) to prevent people using the 
  Circuit Courts. The system also depends on the 
  Circuit magistrates being honest men, and in recent 
  living in the lanDs oF legenD
  
  90
  Dragon Warriors
  years this has not been so. In Albion many are now 
  saying that “the saints sleep and Hadric nods on his 
  throne”. Often people choose the Manor Court (the 
  devil they know…) rather than facing an arduous 
  journey to town and a hefty bribe to get justice from 
  the King’s magistrates.
   
  Most of the offences tried by the Circuit Courts 
  carry the death penalty (usually by hanging).
  The Court of High Justice exists to adjudicate griev-
  ances between a lord and his vassals. Any proven 
  member of the nobility or gentry can apply to be 
  tried under this court. If the defendant is a vava-
  sour—a landed knight or minor noble—his case is 
  heard by the other vassals of his liege. If he is a great 
  lord himself, the matter is judged by an assembly of 
  the other great lords who are his peers. In the lat-
  ter case, the King or one of his representatives will 
  preside.
   
  If the case reaches an impasse, the plaintiff and 
  defendant may wish to take their case to a higher 
  authority. Trial by combat is arranged, using what-
  ever armour and weapons they can both agree to. 
  Each must swear an oath before God that he bears 
  no talismans or rings, has imbibed no magic potion 
  and will not call upon sorcery in the battle. They 
  begin to fight at noon, and if the defendant is still 
  standing at sunset then it is thought that God has 
  judged in his favour—he is acquitted. In Chaubrette 
  and Algandy, where decades of peace have bereft 
  many a knight of his fighting spirit, a man may have 
  a champion to fight on his behalf. This tends to 
  make nonsense of the whole idea, of course.
   
  A vassal who is shown to have betrayed his oath 
  of fealty to his liege usually faces death by behead-
  ing. At the very least his lands are stripped away 
  and he suffers the degradation of becoming a lord-
  less wanderer. At worst, his sons will be executed 
  along with him. A lord who has not been true to 
  his vassals may have to cede some of his lands. Very 
  rarely (only after repeated offences and if the King 
  is strong enough) he will forfeit the entirety of his 
  fief.
  The Manor Court, held in the great hall of the 
  manor house (or sometimes in the church or by 
  the oldest tree in the village) is where the lord or 
  his steward deals with the affairs of the village and 
  surrounding area. Misdemeanors are not the court’s 
  only concern, as this is also the place to discuss all 
  village business. Decisions are made about when to 
  sow and when to harvest, which beast to claim as 
  heriot1, whether to grant a serf permission to marry 
  off his daughter, and so on.
   
  All freemen of the village attend the Manor 
  Court, which usually meets every six weeks. After 
  attending to village business, grievances are brought 
  to the lord’s attention. A man may claim that the 
  miller took too much of his grain (millers are pro-
  verbially the scoundrels of village life), that a serf 
  shirked his duties on the demesne, or that his plough 
  was vandalized and he believes his neighbour to be 
  responsible. The lord consults with the freemen 
  before passing judgement—and woe betide the serf 
  or cotter who has transgressed against his betters! 
   
  If one freeman accuses another, the weight of 
  opinion will usually decide the matter. If other free-
  men are unable to advise the lord, or if their judge-
  ments are contradictory, he may order the litigants 
  to undergo trial by ordeal. In one form this requires 
  the accused to take a stone out of a pot of boiling 
  water. If the scald festers, God has pronounced the 
  unfortunate fellow guilty. Freemen may also ask for 
  trial by combat, though the lord is not bound to 
  grant it. One of the litigants could be an obviously 
  more capable fighter, and the lord will be aware that 
  freemen rarely have the wherewithal or opportunity 
  to hire themselves a champion.
   
  The penalty applied by a Manor Court is usually 
  a fine or a spell in the stocks. Fines or confiscation 
  of livestock will hit hard in winter, so this is when 
  villagers are usually on their best behaviour.
  The Ecclesiastical Court has jurisdiction over any 
  heretic, blasphemer or sacrilegist. In practice, 
  since an unproven charge lays the accuser open to 
  a counter-claim for slander, the wealthy and pow-
  erful are rarely summoned before an Ecclesiastical 
  Court. Such courts also seem to attract trumped-up 
  charges. If you have a rival whom you would like 
  to get rid of, the best way is to bribe a few prestig-
  ious witnesses into branding him a heretic. This is a 
  favourite tactic for a king dealing with an intransi-
  gent baron: if the heresy charge holds and the baron 
  is excommunicated, many of his men-at-arms will 
  desert him.
   
  Additionally, a churchman accused of any crime 
  may have his case tried by an Ecclesiastical Court 
  rather than a secular one. The trouble is that Eccle-
  1 
  Heriot: a death-duty applied to villeins. Technically, the lord claims the 
  villein’s best beast, but if he is a lenient man he will probably make do with a 
  not-too-obviously mangy substitute!
  
  9
  siastical Courts are very lenient when dealing with 
  secular offences, and even a church doorkeeper has 
  recourse to them. Thus a great many men who are 
  not legitimate churchmen almost have carte blanche 
  to treat the law with impunity. In southern Albion, 
  in fact, a man proves himself a ‘churchman’ before 
  the law if he can read from the Scriptures in Bac-
  chile (see p. 185).
   
  Ecclesiastical Courts may use the death penalty 
  (by burning or impaling) in serious cases, but usu-
  ally do no more than demote the criminal in the 
  Church hierarchy. If he bribes the right people even 
  a heretic can get off lightly: an excommunication or 
  anathema, rather than being burned at the stake.
  The Civil Court, organized under the mayor and 
  guildsmen of a town, deals with cases of theft, van-
  dalism, dishonest trading and the like. It will usu-
  ally impose a fine. In the case of a mugging or (still 
  worse!) damage to property, the penalty is more 
  likely to be mutilation—perhaps loss of an ear, eye 
  or hand. Imprisonment is usually a last resort, to be 
  used only when the case is outside the Civil Court’s 
  jurisdiction1 and must wait for a sitting of the King’s 
  court. Keeping a prisoner costs the town money for 
  food, guards, etc. If the King’s Court is not due for a 
  visit in the next month or so, the town council may 
  decide their prisoner is not worth the expense. In 
  this case they will probably arrange for him to com-
  mit ‘suicide’ in his cell.
  The Market Court exists to deal on the spot with any 
  offender at a market. A trader who dilutes his ale or 
  short-changes his customers, faces a hefty fine or a 
  day in the pillory. One who dodged the market toll 
  would be expelled after having his forehead branded 
  so all might know him to be dishonest. Only affairs 
  of the market itself are dealt with, and any criminal 
  offences are referred to the Civil Court of the town. 
  Market Courts are usually scrupulously fair, as it is 
  in the interest of all traders involved that they keep 
  the trust of their customers. It is a waste of time 
  offering a bribe—indeed, there is rarely the oppor-
  tunity to do since all cases are heard immediately in 
  full public view.
  Any crimes committed by player-characters will 
  probably fall under the jurisdiction of a Civil Court 
  or the King’s Court. The rules provided here apply 
  to these courts. Other courts (especially the Manor 
  1 
  Crimes such as arson, smuggling or treason.
  and Ecclesiastical Courts) depend so much on tri-
  als by ordeal, circumstantial evidence and special 
  appeals (i.e. bribes and blackmail) that they cannot 
  be encapsulated in a few tables of rules. The work-
  ings of those courts must be gamed between GM 
  and players.
  Coming to court
  There are quite a few steps to go through before a 
  criminal is actually brought before a court.2 These 
  are set out below:
  1. Does anyone witness the crime?
  2. If there are witnesses, what do they do about it?
  3. If tracked down and apprehended, can the felon bribe 
  his way out of trouble?
  4. If brought to court, can he bribe the judges? 
  5. If found guilty, what sentence will he get?
  Witnesses
  In some cases it is obvious that plenty of people 
  saw the character commit his crime. If I walk into a 
  goldsmith’s shop in broad daylight, run the proprie-
  tor through and grab a handful of jewellery then I 
  have probably been seen doing so by at least a dozen 
  people. A roll is only made on the table below if the 
  characters make some effort to avoid attention or if 
  the crime is committed at a time or place where few 
  people are about. If they just blunder about they are 
  bound to be spotted.
  Scene of  
   
   
   
   
  Chance and number 
  crime 
   
   
   
   
   
  of possible witnesses
  Towns (busy area)  
   
  day: 95% of 2–12   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  night: 45% of 1–6
  Town (backstreet)  
   
  day: 60% of 1–8  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  night: 30% chance of 1–6
  Village  
   
   
   
   
  day: 85% of 1–10 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  night: 15% of 1–3
  Major highway  
   
   
  day: 40% of 1–6 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  night: 5% of 1–2
  Deserted area, wood, etc. day: 25% of 1–6 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  night: 1% of 1–2 
  2 
  generally, crimes openly commited by player-characters are the result of 
  bad gamesMastering, bad role-playing, or both. The classic example is when 
  the players take a dislike to an obstructive NPC, sneak into his shop/home late 
  at night and kill him. This has to be considered as bad role-playing, because 
  how often would a sane person murder someone out of petty annoyance, even 
  in the turbulent society of the Middle ages? Unless the player has made a 
  consistent effort to portray himself as a psychopath, the gM would have to 
  consider applying an experience-point penalty (around 10 points, say) for 
  bad characterization. Hopefully this sort of heavy-handed gMing will not 
  be necessary. Players should role-play because that is the fun of the game, not 
  because they risk losing experience points if they don’t.
  living in the lanDs oF legenD
  
  9
  Dragon Warriors
  Note that this table gives the number of possible wit-
  nesses. These are people who stray upon the scene at 
  the crucial moment and may or may not notice what 
  is going on. The criminal is allowed a Stealth Roll 
  to see if he goes unnoticed. For this, the GM must 
  have perception scores for the potential witnesses. 
  He makes a d20 roll to see who they are:
   
   
   
   
   
  Normal  
  Ranked  
   
  Guard
   
   
   
   
   
  man 
   
  character 
   
  militia
  Town  
   
   
  1–13 
   
  14–15  
   
  16–20
  Village  
   
   
  1–18 
   
  19  
   
   
  20
  Highway  
   
  1–17 
   
  18–19  
   
  20
  Countryside 
   
  1–16 
   
  17–18  
   
  19–20
  Normal men have a perception of just 4. For 
  ranked characters, determine their experience by 
  rolling 3d6 –8, counting results below 1 as 1st-rank, 
  and then refer to page 62. Members of the militia or 
  town guard will usually be Knights of 1st–3rd rank, 
  and will therefore have a perception score of 5. The 
  GM may throw in a high-ranking officer, of course, 
  if the players are getting away with murder…
  What do the witnesses do?
  Militia and guards are employed by monarch, lord 
  or town council to enforce the law. If they see some-
  one in the process of committing a crime they will 
  probably step in to arrest him. Ordinary men, on the 
  other hand, want nothing so much as a quiet life and 
  will generally avoid getting involved, though they 
  might raise a hue and cry. Other ranked characters 
  as indicated by the last table could be grand gentle-
  men or nobles—or just scurvy adventurers like the 
  player-characters. Probably quite powerful, they will 
  not hang back out of fear. Whether they try to stop 
  the criminals depends on who they are and what 
  they stand to gain.
   
   
   
   
  Do   
  Raise hue Extort   
  Try to
   
   
   
   
  nothing  & cry  
  chantage 
  apprehend
  Ordinary  
  1–6  
  7–14  
  15–18  
  19–20
  men
  Ranked  
   
  1–5  
  6–7 
   
  8–13 
   
  14–20
  characters
  Guards or   
  1–2  
  3–4 
   
  5–6  
   
  7–20
  militia
    
  The following modifiers are applied to the d20 roll:
  Town  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  —
  Village  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  –1
  Countryside 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  –2
  Night-time  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  –1
  Witnesses outnumber felons by 2:1  
  +3
  Felons outnumber witnesses by 2:1  
  (roll d8 not d20)
  Raising a hue and cry will result in an irate mob 
  chasing the felons. The size of the mob will depend 
  on where this is all taking place. In the country, 
  1–8 foresters or peasants will gather wielding staves, 
  pitchforks, axes or ploughshares as appropriate. In a 
  village, the mob will consist of 2–20 freemen, serfs 
  and cottars. The freemen will all have swords and 
  stout longbows; if the felons try to escape into the 
  surrounding countryside they may form a ‘posse’ to 
  pursue—and send at least one man to fetch the lord 
  and his knights. A hue and cry is most successful 
  in a town, where it will quickly generate an angry 
  group of traders and workmen at least 8–80 strong.
   
  Chantage is ‘hush money’. Witnesses approach 
  the felons (either straightaway or later on when they 
  think they’ve got away) and demand payment not to 
  go to the authorities. Only one of the witnesses will 
  actually approach the felons, usually with the tradi-
  tional line, “My friends know who you are; if any-
  thing happens to me…” The actual sum demanded 
  as chantage is up to the GM. It will depend on how 
  much the witnesses think they can get. As a guide, 
  assume perhaps 25 florins in the case of a mugging, 
  50 florins for a theft, and 100 florins or more for a 
  murder (according to who the victim was).
  On-the-spot ‘fines’
  If a felon is cornered by soldiers or members of the 
  town guard there is a chance they will levy an on-
  the-spot fine (actually a bribe) not to take him in. 
  The chance of this depends on three factors: the 
  seriousness of the crime, the honesty of the militia, 
  and the chance they think they have of making an 
  arrest. Faced with a group of reasonably well-armed 
  adventurers they would prefer to take a bribe rather 
  than risk their necks in a fight.
   
  If the characters have a chance to offer a bribe, 
  they must make the minimum bribe appropriate to 
  the crime. If they offer less, the militia will just take 
  the bribe and then arrest them anyway (unless they 
  look too tough). Minimum bribes are roughly as 
  follows:
  
  93
  50 florins for a minor crime such as mugging or picking 
  the pocket of an unimportant person (villein, town menial 
  or riffraff).
  100 florins for a more serious crime such as stealing 
  from or mugging a freeman or townsman—or killing an 
  unimportant person (a cotter, riffraff or charcoal-burner).
  300 florins or more to ignore a very serious crime. 
  These include smuggling, theft or destruction of a lord’s 
  property1, killing a freeman or townsman, damaging 
  Church or town property, etc.
  500 florins or more for a heinous crime—treason, rioting, 
  arson, attacking a member of the gentry or nobility, killing 
  a member of the militia2, etc.
  The GM first decides on a Bribe Rating for the 
  militia, according to the guidelines below. The lower 
  the Bribe Rating, the more honest they are:
  Type of militia  
   
   
  Bribe rating
  Pressed levies  
   
   
  10
  Town militia 
   
   
   
  7
  Noble’s men-at-arms  
  5
  Soldiers of the King 
   
  3
  Elite troops3 
   
   
   
  2
  To see if the bribe is accepted, the GM rolls 1d20. If 
  the score is less than their Bribe Rating, the militia 
  take their pay-off and let the characters go. The fol-
  lowing modifiers are applied to this roll:
  –4  if the felons outnumber the militia by 3:2 or more
  –2  if the felons outnumber the militia by up to 3:2
  +1 if the militia outnumber the felons by up to 3:2
  +2 if the militia outnumber the felons by more than 3:2
  –1 if twice the minimum bribe is offered
  –2 if three time the minimum bribe is offered
  +5 for a heinous crime
  +3  for a very serious crime
  –1  for a minor crime
  –1 if in a town
  +1 in a village
  –1 on the highway or in the countryside
  Note that a roll of 20 (before modifiers) always indi-
  cates that the bribe is refused. In this case the militia 
  are just managing to choke back their rage. Any fur-
  ther trouble, and the felons will probably not live to 
  see the gaol-house!
  1 
  This covers poaching, and also the murder of a villein.
  2 
  Not technically a ‘heinous’ crime as far as the law is concerned, but 
  soldiers usually reserve their own brand of ‘rough justice’ for someone who 
  harms one of their own comrades. When feelings run high, a large pay-off is 
  required.
  3 
  e.g. the Knights Capellars, often charged with enforcing the law in the 
  Principalities of the Crusade.
  ‘Reasoning’ with the judges
  It is still possible to squirm out of trouble after being 
  arrested, but it costs a lot more. In order to bribe 
  the judges and court officials, the character must 
  have access to them. This is easy if the character is a 
  person of some status—a noble, priest or well-to-do 
  merchant. Characters of more lowly standing will 
  have to bribe their gaolers to arrange a meeting, and 
  this costs 50 florins regardless of the crime. A Bribe 
  Rating for gaolers is irrelevant; they always take 
  whatever they are offered, then a d6 roll is made:
  1d6 roll  
  Result
  1 
   
   
  gaolers pocket bribe and do nothing.
  2–3  
   
  gaolers pocket bribe and later beat the 
   
   
   
  character up to get any more money he has.
  4–6  
   
  gaolers accept bribe and arrange for character
   
   
   
  to meet a court official as requested.
  Assuming the character gets access to the judges, 
  he may attempt to bribe them. Ideally this should 
  be phrased in a way that does not force the judge to 
  acknowledge the payment as a bribe. (For example: 
  “Ah, Lord Jathurno, I understand you will be offici-
  ating at my trial. I regret this misunderstanding has 
  brought me into a public court, and I am making 
  you a small gift to recompense you for the trouble 
  my rash actions have caused.” To which one would 
  hope the worthy Lord Jathurno to reply: “Your gift 
  is magnanimous, sir. It shows a noble heart, and I 
  perceive that many false accusations have been lev-
  elled in this case. I think you need have no fear, as I 
  am now inclined to view the charges against you as 
  a tissue of mischievous nonsense….”)
   
  The amount that must be offered to judges for a 
  successful bribe is ten times the sums listed above for 
  bribing militia. The minimum bribe to get off an 
  arson charge would thus be 5000 florins. Each mul-
  tiple of the minimum amount gives a 25% chance 
  that the character will be found Not Guilty. Return-
  ing to the example of a charge of arson, a bribe of 
  15,000 florins would give a –75% modifier to the 
  chance of conviction.
   
  Apart from bribes to the judges, other factors 
  have some influence on the trial’s outcome. These 
  are summarized in the Chance of Conviction Table 
  on the next page. The base chance that the character 
  will be found Guilty (before applying any modifiers) 
  is (5d20)%. Once all bribes have been paid and all 
  modifiers tallied, percentile dice are rolled for the 
  court’s verdict.
  living in the lanDs oF legenD
  
  94
  Dragon Warriors
  Chance of Conviction
  Factor  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Modifier
  Base chance 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  +(5d20)%
  Bribe to judge  
   
   
   
   
   
  –25% per 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  minimum bribe
  Minor crime 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  (2d20 –30)%
  Serious crime  
   
   
   
   
   
  (2d20 –20)%
  Heinous crime  
   
   
   
   
   
  +(4d10)%
  Reputable eye-witness testimony  
  15% (+ or –)
  Accused is innocent 
   
   
   
   
  –25%
  Accused is only an accomplice  
   
  –10%
  Accused is a foreigner or riffraff 
   
  +20%
  Other factors  
   
   
   
   
   
  at GM’s discretion
  The procedure may be clarified by an example. 
  Emek, a barbarian from Cosh Goyopë, is with a 
  group of colleagues in Ferromaine when they start 
  a backstreet brawl. A man is killed. Later the mili-
  tia track Emek to his hostelry—a Mungoda native 
  is not difficult to trace in Ferromaine! Emek tries 
  bribing them, but he does not realize that the man 
  whom his colleagues killed was a younger son of 
  the Senfriti family. His 300-florin1 bribe is woefully 
  inadequate for such a crime. The sneering militia 
  1  
  actually 300 silver matapans, this being the coinage of the Ferromaine 
  League.
  captain takes the money and then roughs up Emek 
  for his impudence before frog-marching him to 
  gaol.
   
  Languishing in his cell, Emek is visited by his 
  colleagues. Among the people of his race, honour 
  and loyalty are paramount. He will not rat on his 
  friends even though it means taking all the blame 
  himself. His colleagues pay out a few routine bribes 
  to get him better food and treatment, and also con-
  tact the magistrates with an offer of 5000 matapans. 
  This is duly accepted.
   
  The case comes to trial. The GM begins by roll-
  ing 5d20 for the base chance of conviction: a score 
  of 31 indicates that things stand initially in Emek’s 
  favour. The bribe given by Emek’s colleagues and 
  adventuring partners reduces this to 6%. Random 
  factors amount to an additional 4d10% in the case 
  of a heinous crime (greater and more exact than for 
  lesser crimes, where not so much care is taken over 
  the evidence), and this roll brings the chance of con-
  viction to 36%. Emek’s colleagues are not prepared 
  to testify as witnesses, of course—but an officer of 
  the militia saw the crime and gives evidence against 
  him. So far the total chance of conviction is 51%. 
   
  The fact that Emek was only an accomplice (in 
   JH
  
  9
  fact, his friend Dunston struck the fatal blow) works 
  in his favour, but is more than countered by the fact 
  that he is a foreigner—a ‘savage’ in the eyes of the 
  Ferromainians. 
   
  The final conviction chance comes to 61%. Rolls 
  of 01–61 on percentile dice will indicate a Guilty 
  verdict. The GM rolls a 58: “While not all the evi-
  dence has been clear-cut, it is the opinion of this 
  court that your barbaric instincts got the better of 
  you and, along with person or persons as yet uni-
  dentified, you did slay Master Marco Senfriti fol-
  lowing a dispute over a young woman. As you have 
  obstinately refused to name your accomplices, I 
  have no choice but to devolve the entire burden of 
  blame upon your shoulders. It is the sentence of this 
  court…”
   
  Note that a percentile roll of 01–05 always indi-
  cates a conviction. Luck works more rarely in a fel-
  on’s favour, but a roll of 100 is always Not Guilty.
  Passing sentence
  Sentence depends on the crime and on the criminal. 
  If Master Marco Senfriti had been murdered by one 
  of his own well-to-do cronies rather than a barbaric 
  stranger, the court might have been more lenient. If 
  Emek had stolen a loaf of bread instead of killing 
  the son of a Ferromaine notable there would be no 
  threat of execution.
   
  Two factors determine the court’s sentence. The 
  first is the relative status of felon and victim. Find 
  both of these on the list below and subtract the fel-
  on’s status from the victim’s status:
  Social class  
   
   
   
  Status number
  Nobility1 
   
   
   
   
   
  8+
  Gentry2 
   
   
   
   
   
  6–7
  Craftsman  
   
   
   
   
  4–6
  Professional 
   
   
   
   
  5–6
  Tradesman  
   
   
   
   
  4
  Menial3 
   
   
   
   
   
  3
  Freeman 
   
   
   
   
   
  5
  Villein  
   
   
   
   
   
  3
  Cottar  
   
   
   
   
   
  2
  Rifraff, outcast, barbarian  
  1
  Applying this system, we find that Emek has Status 
  Number 1 and his victim, being a younger son of 
  the Senfriti family, counts as Status Number 7. His 
  sentence category will thus be found on the column 
  labelled ‘+6’ of the Crime Status Matrix, at the bot-
  tom of this page.
   
  Obtaining the appropriate letter from the matrix, 
  we can now pass sentence4:
  A Death (hanging, drawing and quartering)
  B Death (hanging or beheading) or Life Imprisonment
  C First offence: Mutilation (loss of eyes and one hand) 
   
  Second offence: Death (burning)
  D First offence: Mutilation (loss of one hand) 
   
  Second offence: Blinding 
   
  Third offence: Death (hanging)
   
  (continues on next page)
  1 
  This includes city dignitaries such as guild Masters, even if they are 
  not strictly speaking members of the nobility. High positions in the clergy 
  (bishoprics, etc.) are usually held by nobles anyway.
  2 
  Lesser city dignitaries and church officials are of this status regardless of 
  birth.
  3 
  Except for militia, who are counted as Status Number 4.
  4  
  if the judge took a bribe but did not deliver a Not guilty verdict, he will 
  probably commute the sentence by one step.
  CRIME STATUS MATRIX
   
   
   
  Status differential (victim’s status minus criminal’s status)
  Crime  
   
  –6 
  –5 
  –4 
  –3 
  –2 
  –1 
  0 
  +1 
  +2 
  +3 
  +4 
  +5 
  +6
  Treason1 
   
  A 
  A 
  A 
  A 
  A 
  A 
  A 
  A 
  A 
  A 
  A 
  A 
  A
  Arson  
   
  F 
  E 
  C 
  C 
  C 
  C 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  A 
  A 
  A
  Rioting 
   
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B
  Murder 
   
  F 
  E 
  D 
  D 
  C 
  C 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  A 
  A
  Rape  
   
  F 
  F 
  E 
  E 
  D 
  C 
  C 
  C 
  C 
  B 
  B 
  A 
  A
  Smuggling 
   
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B 
  B
  Vandalism 
   
  G 
  G 
  F 
  F 
  F 
  E 
  E 
  E 
  E 
  D 
  D 
  D 
  C
  Theft  
   
  G 
  G 
  F 
  F 
  F 
  F 
  E 
  E 
  E 
  E 
  D 
  D 
  C
  Mugging 
   
  G 
  G 
  F 
  F 
  E 
  E 
  D 
  D 
  D 
  C 
  C 
  B 
  B
  Pilfering2 
   
  H 
  H 
  H 
  G 
  G 
  G 
  F 
  E 
  E 
  E 
  D 
  D 
  C
  1 
  a very high noble found guilty of treason may suffer merely exile or life imprisonment. 
   
  This depends on the resources he can bring to bear (huge bribes and so on).
  2 
  For convenience, ‘pilfering’ is considered to be a theft of under 30 florins.
  living in the lanDs oF legenD
  
  96
  Dragon Warriors
  E First offence: Public Flogging (80 lashes) 
   
  Second offence: Disfigurement (loss of ears/nose) 
   
  Third offence: Mutilation (loss of hands)
  F First offence: Public Flogging (40 lashes) 
   
  Second offence: Flogging (80 lashes) 
   
  Third offence: Gaol (2–20 years)
  G First offence: Public Flogging (20 lashes) 
   
  Second offence: Flogging (40 lashes) 
   
  Third offence: Gaol (2–12 years)
  H First offence: Warning and Fine (50 florins) 
   
  Second offence: Pillory (1–6 days) 
   
  Third offence: Branding 
   
  Fourth offence: Gaol (1–6 years)
  It is always possible to get a Mutilation or Blind-
  ing sentence commuted to a Public Flogging and a 
  fine of 1000 florins. By paying a fine of 500 florins, 
  one can get a sentence of Disfigurement commuted 
  similarly. Any other sentence (except death!) will be 
  waived altogether in return for 500 florins.
   
  Paying over an additional 1000 florins to the 
  court will usually mean that the conviction is struck 
  from the record. That means that a subsequent con-
  viction will then be treated as a ‘first offence’, and 
  this is the get-out clause for a number of well-off 
  habitual criminals (such as Flodorien Sentapolo, a 
  young bravo guilty of regular petty offences around 
  Ferromaine.)
   
  After sentence has been passed, the GM should 
  always allow player-characters a few days (while 
  waiting for the executioner to arrive, or whatever) in 
  which to organize an escape attempt.
  Wargames
  “Spring is with us again,” wrote the warrior-monk 
  Ethmund of Jarrelbury. “The flowers blossom, the 
  birds sing, the land is sweet with God’s abundance. 
  Gather to your lords, O knights! Churn the soil 
  with your horse’s hooves! Break your spears on the 
  enemy’s breast, spill streams of blood across the 
  ploughed fields. Exult in the glory and the honour 
  of war!”
   
  It is clear from these words that the ruling class 
  (into which Ethmund was born) see war as more 
  than just a means to extend territory and fill empty 
  coffers. It is their whole way of life. A gentleman is 
  trained from earliest childhood in the martial arts. 
  By a relentless curriculum of bruising stave fights, 
  hunts, steeplechases and archery contests he grows 
  to adulthood—his body hardened with muscle and 
  accustomed to endure aching wounds, his mind 
  trained in the tricks and stratagems of battle.
   
  Life in a cold, grim castle has scant pleasures. 
  Hunting, feasting and falconry are the knight’s 
  entertainments. (To this list we can add, in a few 
  wayward cases, roistering among the peasants. Not 
  infrequently a villein’s son will bear a curious resem-
  blance to the lord of the manor.) The cultural diver-
  sions that a well-to-do merchant may enjoy in the 
  larger towns and cities are unknown in the country. 
  It is hardly surprising that when there is no mili-
  tary campaigning to keep them busy, knights find 
  outlets for their boredom—games of war that not 
  only relieve the tedium but also enable them to keep 
  their warrior skills honed.
   
  Games such as the tourney and the joust prob-
  ably had their origins in disputation (see p. 211) 
  and skirmishes ‘for fun’. These activities evolved out 
  of the knightly spirit, and were combats in deadly 
  earnest even though free of rancour. But there are 
  areas where it seems that war is going out of fashion. 
  Decades ago the lords of Chaubrette, Algandy and 
  the coastal principalities of Kurland were constantly 
  at one another’s throats. Barely a year would pass 
  without one old grudge or another erupting into 
  war. Livestock and slaves would be taken; smoke 
  would go up from the peasants’ crofts. But a number 
  of factors have begun to change the age-old ways. 
   
  The increasing strength of centralized govern-
  ment and reliability of law means that disagree-
  ments can often now be settled judicially, by peti-
  tioning the King. Developments in farming (the 
  yoke and three-year crop rotation) have led to 
  greater prosperity, so the need for war is less. Many 
  nobles now have a vested interest in peace, as they 
  are beginning to dabble in mercantile activities and 
  have found this even more profitable than their tra-
  ditional source of revenue (the land). The typical 
  motive that usually drove a lord to war was to seize 
  land from his neighbours, but trade flourishes in 
  safe, untroubled times. A lord who starts a war will 
  find his trading overheads going up—he could end 
  up poorer, even if he wins the war. Lastly, many of 
  the more troublesome and belligerent knights have 
  been safely enticed away from civilized lands, hav-
  ing found their own form of heaven in the endless 
  campaigning of the Crusades. Now these countries1 
  1 
  Until recently it would have been possible to include albion in this 
  list—at least the southern shires of albion, rich in agricultural land and 
  undisturbed by Mercanian raids. But King Hadric’s weakness changes mat-
  ters. The trend has reversed; the barons have begun to war again.
  
  97
  have become relatively peaceful and are entering 
  their age of high chivalry. The tourney and the joust 
  have become formalized games, with specific rules 
  to minimize the risk of injury.
  The tourney
  Tourneys take the form of a battle in miniature. A 
  host of knights gather at a meadow. They may send 
  out a general announcement to take on all com-
  ers, or the tourney may be a regular event. The Fay 
  Bridge tourney, in Ellesland, has become virtually 
  an annual fair. When many knights have gathered 
  there are days of feasting and plotting. Knights who 
  have heard of another’s prowess may seek him out 
  with a challenge to single combat—and old scores 
  may be settled, either in open combat or through 
  the services of an assassin. After several days an 
  area of meadow is fenced off to form the lists. Any 
  knight may ride into the lists, heave about him with 
  sword and spear as he wishes, and ride out when he 
  needs to rest or rearm. 
   
  If a knight can down a foe or force him to cry 
  ‘craven’, he may demand a ransom. The amount 
  will have been prearranged at the start of the tour-
  ney, when an exact formula measuring the worth 
  of a man’s ransom against his status will have been 
  agreed. The sum will typically vary from some 500 
  florins (for the poorest and humblest knight) to 
  5000 florins or more for a great noble. Strategy as 
  well as simple weaponskill plays its part, of course, 
  and bargains are often struck in advance. You may 
  ally with Worstan the Wild to bring down Bretwald 
  of Klavaynall and agree to split the ransom—but 
  beware, for Worstan might get together with Bret-
  wald before the lists and arrange to double-cross 
  you!
   
  The climax of the tourney is the mêlée. This is 
  like the lists, but there is no boundary to the bat-
  tle zone. A hundred knights may divide into five 
  factions of twenty men each and ride into combat. 
  Most are quickly unhorsed and the affair soon turns 
  into a series of skirmishes as each group finds oth-
  ers to fight. As before, diplomacy is important and 
  groups may band together or suddenly split apart 
  as some of their members switch allegiance at a 
  prearranged signal. A knight who flees may be pur-
  sued into woodland or open country. If he is caught 
  he must stand his ground or surrender and suffer 
  parole. (Honour forbids a second escape attempt 
  after one has surrendered.) If he can evade his pur-
  suers until nightfall then the mêlée ends and he can 
  return safely, with his reputation a little tarnished 
  but his wealth intact.
   
  In the heat of battle, tempers rise. The idea is to 
  take an opponent for ransom, but deaths do occur—
  especially in the mêlée. One factor that discourages 
  this is the payment of wergeld—a sum that must be 
  paid to a knight’s family by his killer if he is slain in 
  the lists or the mêlée. Wergeld is usually the same 
  sum that the knight would have been worth for ran-
  som. Sometimes an indignant knight will refuse to 
  pay up, claiming that the accident was the other’s 
  fault, and the deceased’s relatives will then usually 
  take up the matter. This is one of the many ways 
  that grudge fights may be spawned. A knight who 
  slays another in agreed single combat is not liable to 
  pay wergeld. It applies only in the press of lists or 
  mêlée, where frayed tempers and over-exuberance 
  might otherwise lead to wholesale slaughter.
   
  Virtually anyone may participate in a tourney. 
  A horse and a suit of armour are all one needs to 
  establish one’s credentials. In practice this usually 
  means that only Knights and Barbarians take part. 
  (Barbarians are uncouth, but Knights do not object 
  act because pitting yourself against a berserk Bar-
  barian is a good test of nerve and skill.) Theoreti-
  cally a Warlock, Sorcerer, etc., could take part—but 
  these Professions are very rare, and if they feature 
  at a tournament it is likely to be behind the scenes 
  (Cursing your opponent before he enters the lists 
  or whatever) rather than mucking in on horseback. 
  An open display of magic would be frowned upon, 
  to say the least. A Warlock who thinks it is great 
  fun to unman five bold Knights with a Pacify spell 
  obviously does not know the meaning of the word 
  ‘vendetta’.
  The joust
  This is a much more civilized affair. Gloriously col-
  oured pavilions are set up before the grand white 
  battlements of a wealthy nobleman’s castle. Pennants 
  flutter in the breeze. Splendid in their livery, bright 
  shields sparkling in the sunlight, knights parade on 
  proud chargers vying for a lady’s favour. Riffraff are 
  excluded. You must have been born into the gentry 
  or nobility to take part. Common soldiers who have 
  been knighted for distinguished bravery or some 
  other vulgar reason are not permitted.
   
  In fact, this exclusive ruling is the unattainable 
  ideal. It operates only in Chaubrette and southern 
  living in the lanDs oF legenD
  
  98
  Dragon Warriors
  Albion, where the ruling class do not want their 
  pride (or hauberks) dented by the professionals who 
  ‘do the rounds’ of jousts for a living. 
   
  In other parts of the world it is usually possible 
  to get into a joust as long as you have the prerequi-
  sites—horse, armour and lance. Rough-hewn gentry 
  of Kurland have no incentive to exclude low-born 
  opponents, for they have not themselves yet been 
  softened by prosperity and peace. The hellraising 
  knights of the Holy Realm will joust with all comers 
  on the fields of Crescentium. Danton of Breyberg 
  was said to call on the Devil himself to take up his 
  challenge, but history records that it was a swarthy 
  Ta’ashim warlord, jocularly accepting on the Devil’s 
  behalf, whose spear-point found Danton’s proud 
  heart.
   
  Noble entertainments accompany the joust. 
  There is feasting and drinking, usually al fresco amid 
  the pavilions like a modern barbeque. Balladeers 
  evoke the halcyon days with their epic tales. Older 
  knights may watch the vigorous activities of the 
  youngsters with a wry gaze, then go off to their fal-
  conry. Dashing knights woo fair damsels with suave 
  gentility, according to the precepts of courtly love. In 
  the far southern kingdoms the scene may be slightly 
  different—the Ta’ashim call to prayer goes out from 
  minarets through the velvet dusk, heady fragrances 
  waft from the hookahs, and dancers in jewels and 
  silk perform for the assembled warriors.
   
  As at a tourney, there will be some grudge fights 
  to decide who has wronged whom, or who is the 
  mightier. These battles are outside the normal 
  sphere of the event, and are frowned upon by most 
  of those present.
  Who attends the event?
  When a joust or tourney takes place in the cam-
  paign, the GM first needs to determine how many 
  warriors are participating. This is typically given by 
  a roll of 10d12 +10, though the number may then 
  be adjusted up by as much as 100% in a populous 
  area or if the event is a well-known one (e.g. the 
  Fay Bridge tourney mentioned earlier), or down by 
  perhaps 50% in a remote rural area.
   
  This is just the number of actual participants—
  or potential participants—in the event. They will 
  be lords (or chieftains) with their knights (or hall-
  thanes). Each lord will be attended by 3–18 knights, 
  so the GM can use this procedure to subdivide the 
  participants into separate households. For instance, 
  if a total of thirty warriors were attending, the GM 
  might find that these were three lords accompa-
  nied by seven, nine and eleven knights respectively. 
  Optionally, a few of those attending a tourney may 
  be lordless warriors (not a highly regarded sort of 
  person) or champions who choose to conceal their 
  true allegiance and identity.
   
  Along with the warriors themselves there will be 
  many others attending—wives, daughters, servants, 
  advisers, priests. The last is an especially important 
  figure. The tourney should be a non-fatal (though 
  hardly bloodless) affair, but God often wills it 
  otherwise. Not many warriors would care to fight 
  without their confessor near at hand. However, the 
  priests who attend tourneys are usually monks, as the 
  Church has forbidden its clergy to become involved 
  because tourneys provide a too-popular alternative 
  to the Crusade.
   
  Along with these fine gentry and nobility there 
  will be a host of hangers-on: entertainers, charla-
  tan soothsayers who declare which days are most 
  auspicious for fighting (for a price), armourers from 
  nearby villages or towns who know there will be 
  plenty of work for them, merchants who come to 
  sell fine silks and furs to the ladies while their lords 
  clash in the lists, and others. Some members of the 
  more mysterious Professions may attend, openly or 
  otherwise. This is best determined by the GM, but 
  if a random procedure is needed then use the fol-
  lowing guidelines:
  15% chance of 1–4 Sorcerers (or Elementalists if the 
  event is taking place in northern Ellesland or along the 
  Mercanian coast). These will generally be court magicians 
  who travel with a lord’s retinue in order to provide healing 
  spells and augeries as needed.
  10% chance of 1–4 Warlocks, who will probably be taking 
  part and may or may not choose to be open about their 
  powers. Remember that the inner arcana of a Profession 
  is not general knowledge as far as other Professions are 
  concerned. The average Knight or Barbarian has no idea 
  what a Warlock can do (i.e. player-character Knights and 
  Barbarians should not cheat by looking at pages 38-40), 
  and any remotely mysterious participant who seems 
  unnaturally lucky at a joust may find himself accused of 
  being a Warlock.
  5% chance of 1–3 Assassins. These will appear to be 
  typical attendees—minstrels, traders, acrobats, local 
  woodsmen or whatever. An Assassin might even disguise 
  himself as a Knight, but he will only be a nominal 
  participant. His real reason for being at the tourney will be 
  something sinister, of course.
  
  99
  10% chance of 1–3 Mystics. Members of this Profession 
  come from all strata of the feudal society. Many are fiercely 
  independent foresters or shepherds, but sometimes even 
  a lord’s son may be drawn to the Mystic Way. Those 
  attending a tourney or joust will usually be younger sons 
  (or daughters) of the presiding lord, or friends of the 
  combatants.
  As for the participating warriors themselves, the 
  GamesMaster chooses their ranks (their abilities are 
  on the tables on pages 117-120). Prestigious events 
  such as that at Fay Bridge will attract participants of 
  a higher rank than smaller local tourneys. Very few 
  1st-rank characters would be rash enough to take 
  part knowing they might be up against the flower 
  of the kingdom’s chivalry. Once their rank has been 
  established, each non-player warrior can then be 
  equipped according to page 133. By reason of his 
  wealth, a noble should be equipped as though he 
  were three ranks higher than he actually is.
   
  A lord will only take part in the event himself if 
  he is at least 4th rank. In any case, he is under no 
  obligation to accept a challenge to personal com-
  bat from one of lower status. If this happens, the 
  lord will usually send one of his knights to meet 
  the challenge on his behalf. In theory this is so that 
  the lord’s champions can test an opponent’s mettle 
  and see if he is worthy to stand against their liege. 
  Behind the patina of self-deception, the truth is, of 
  course, that no lord wants to lose face by losing to a 
  social inferior. 
   
  A lord cannot refuse a challenge from an equal, 
  however. If this occurs and the challenged lord is 
  obviously outclassed, there may be some behind-
  the-scenes bartering to ‘induce’ the other to with-
  draw his challenge. Alternatively, any Assassins on 
  hand may make themselves known to the challenged 
  lord and offer their services—“Ah, were an uniden-
  tifiable illness to suddenly strike down the Earl of 
  Hurstington, then you would be spared any risk of 
  embarrassment or injury, my lord....”
  Ransom
  At a tourney, a man’s ransom is assessed by the 
  Marshal of the Tournament. If the event is being 
  held near a castle, the Marshal will be the steward 
  or other senior retainer of the local lord. Otherwise 
  he will be a veteran chosen by common consent. 
  Ransom depends on wealth, status and skill. For a 
  typical combatant, the following formula is used to 
  determine the total to be paid:
  Ransom = rank × 200 florins
   
   
   
  + half the cash the character is travelling with
   
   
   
  + 20% of the value of the character’s armour 
   
   
   
  and main weapon
  With regard to the last factor in this equation, the 
  Marshall will assess any form of magical armour 
  or weaponry at 2,000–24,000 florins above its base 
  (unenchanted) value. This is because an experienced 
  warrior can tell quite quickly if a suit of armour or 
  a sword-blade is enchanted, but he cannot easily 
  determine how enchanted.
   
  Status applies a further modifier to the ransom 
  amount derived as above:
  Character is...  
   
   
   
   
  Adjustment to ransom
  A Barbarian  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  –10%
  A lordless wanderer 
   
   
   
   
  –20%
   
  (this includes most adventurers)
  A known Warlock   
   
   
   
   
  –10%
  One of the nobility  
   
   
   
   
  +25%
  A lord’s heir  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  +75%
  A lord   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  +175% or more
  Besting a character at a tourney does not give one 
  title to his possessions. He may offer his armour or 
  horse in lieu if he has insufficient funds to pay. If 
  for some reason he or his family cannot meet the 
  stipulated ransom, he must swear allegiance to the 
  warrior who bested him.
   
  Ransom at a joust is somewhat different. Best-
  ing a character entitles one to claim ransom as 
  above—but one also gains disposal of all equipment 
  the character was using when he fell/surrendered. 
  This includes his horse if he was knocked from the 
  saddle. 
   
  It is considered good form to allow the van-
  quished character1 to buy back the equipment. 
  Charging more than three times the base value for a 
  magic item is thought exorbitant—and such lack of 
  charity would surely bring bad luck. Any transgres-
  sion against the rules of acceptable behaviour will 
  certainly result in the offender being excluded from 
  future jousts.
  Jousting rules
  In a joust, two warriors with lances charge one 
  another on horseback, each attempting to knock the 
  other from his saddle. If both are still in the saddle 
  after three charges2, they dismount and continue the 
  1 
   or his family if he was slain.
  2 
   or if both of them fall together.
  living in the lanDs oF legenD
  
  00
  Dragon Warriors
  fight with sword and shield. This goes on until one 
  of them falls or surrenders.
   
  The jousting rules are slightly different from 
  normal Dragon Warriors combat. As the combat-
  ants meet, both Hit Rolls are made simultaneously. 
  There is a chance that a successful blow will glance 
  off the opponent’s shield; this is indicated by a roll 
  of 1–2 on 1d6. Otherwise, a character who is hit 
  must roll under his Strength + rank + Reflexes to 
  stay in the saddle. This roll is made on 3d20 if he is 
  riding a warhorse and 4d20 if it is a normal horse.
   
  The lances are blunted to avoid serious injury, 
  but a successful hit will still inflict 3d4 HP dam-
  age. Armour will give some protection by absorbing 
  its AF from the damage roll. A lance-propelled fall 
  from the saddle of a charging horse can also be quite 
  painful. Usually the only damage taken will be 1d6 
  –2 HP1 but there is a 15% chance of a more serious 
  injury. If this is indicated, roll on the table to the 
  right.
   
  Non-fractures are split evenly between sprains 
  and dislocations. In all cases, unless magic is 
  employed the healing times are the same: 1–10 days 
  for a sprain, 1–12 weeks for a dislocation, 4–6 weeks 
  for a fracture. 
  1 
   This assumes that some form of armour is worn—see p. 64
   SP
  Joust Fall Damage
  d100 roll 
  Nature of injury
  01–20  
  Sprained/dislocated shoulder: regardless of 
  armour, character takes a 1d4 HP wound; 
  he fights as though Weakened (p 80) until 
  injury heals.
  21–45  
  Sprained/dislocated arm: character takes 
  1d3 HP wound and is at –2 off both 
  attack and defence until healed.
  46–75  
  Sprained/dislocated leg: character takes 
  1d3 HP wound; until healed, he loses 1 
  from both attack and defence, halves 
  his evasion and movement rate, and 
  cannot run.
  76–85  
  Broken arm: character takes a 1d4 HP 
  wound; he loses 2 from both attack and 
  defence and cannot use two handed 
  weapons (including bows) until the 
  fracture heals.
  86–97  
  Broken leg: the character takes a 1d4 HP 
  wound; other effects are as for a sprained 
  leg, above.
  98–100  
  Broken neck: character dies unless a spell 
  of greater Healing is cast upon him within 
  one minute, and even then he cannot 
  fight for the next 1–3 days; Miracle Cure 
  is also needed 20% of the time to prevent 
  paralysis.
  
  0
   
  Dislocations involve torn ligaments and may 
  recur unless Miracle Cure or Purification is used to 
  effect a permanent cure. The chance of this is 2% 
  each month—and the GM will also use his own 
  judgement at other times (e.g. a dislocated knee 
  may well be put out again in a fall).
  Other combat entertainments
  Two other ‘wargames’ exist that do not belong to 
  the knightly tradition of Ellesland and the western 
  countries. These are the elaborate duels of the Tamo-
  rian Arena and the terrible Battlepits of Krarth.
  Tamorian Arena
  The arena at Tamor represents a return to the admi-
  ration of martial skills known by the patricians 
  of the early Selentine Empire. In olden times it 
  would have been two enslaved gladiators with net 
  and trident who fought one another in the arena. 
  Somewhat later, as the Empire became bloated and 
  decadent, the mob demanded baroque variations 
  on the theme—from the seats where the patricians 
  once nodded and applauded their appreciation of an 
  elegant feint or parry, the crowd now roared ecstati-
  cally at each new sadistic spectacle. 
   
  The decadence was dispelled by the influx of 
  barbarian invaders and the rise of the True Faith. 
  The sands intended to soak up the gladiators’ life-
  blood have been swept from the arena floor. It is 
  now a marble-paved plaza where duels and contests 
  involving up to a dozen participants are held. Any-
  one can present himself, with up to five compan-
  ions, to the Overseers of the arena in Tamor. They 
  will assess the overall skill of the character(s) and 
  then post his/their challenge throughout the city. 
   
  Once another team of equal skill has been located 
  to take the challenge, both sides agree on the nature 
  of their contest—they may choose a wrestling match 
  or a bout of fisticuffs, an archery contest or a battle 
  with full weapons and armour. In the last instance, 
  limits must also be set: to first blood, or until sur-
  render. Contests to the death are not permitted, 
  and any character who deliberately brings about 
  the death of an opponent faces a charge of murder 
  under Selentine law. 
   
  Usually there are events at the arena two or three 
  times a week. One may sit in the spectator stands or, 
  if the current battle is not of interest, wander down 
  corridors that lead to halls behind and beneath the 
  arena. A plethora of subsidiary entertainments take 
  place here—acrobats, courtesans and musicians will 
  perform for a few coins, and there are stalls where 
  one may buy wine or herbal drinks, souvenirs of the 
  arena, or even consult a fortune-teller. 
   
  The usual question put to the fortune-tellers 
  concerns who will win the forthcoming event in 
  the arena, for the ‘hazardines’ (who cover bets) are 
  ever-present and vast fortunes may be wagered on a 
  professional contestant with several victories under 
  his belt. (Signs on a fortune-teller’s booth proclaim 
  his past successes, if the traveller can read the spiky 
  Classic script—e.g. ‘Bakrus the Allseeing: foretold 
  the victory of Lubo Halfspear, the calamitous defeat 
  of Ulochus Garexa in the year 981AS, etc., etc.’ 
  Most of these fellows are charlatans, of course, and 
  some are in partnership with the hazardines.)
  Battlepits of Krarth
  The Battlepits of Krarth are not a place for hon-
  ourable duels or the clash of chivalric heroes. These 
  sprawling tunnels extend for miles under the wintry 
  marshland of the north, occasionally opening into 
  subterranean chambers or into high walled amphi-
  theatres that are open to the sky. Every thirteen 
  lunar months the magi of Krarth each assemble their 
  champions. These are usually captives or slaves bred 
  for the purpose, but sometimes an adventurer will 
  travel to Krarth and offer himself to one of the magi 
  as a participant. The champions are armed with 
  various odd tools, weapons and clues before being 
  released into the battlepits at different points. The 
  magi gleefully view their progress in antique scry-
  ing-spheres and may intervene magically to help or 
  hinder within carefully prescribed limits. 
   
  The contest ends when a champion locates the 
  Emblem of Victory somewhere in the labyrinth 
  and returns with it to safety. To do so he must pass 
  through numerous magical wards—a hall of gold 
  mirrors which reflect the character as members of 
  other Professions and bring these to life to fight him; 
  a corridor where some of the flagstones are illusory, 
  and the character must know or deduce the numeri-
  cal sequence of these or plunge into a necromantic 
  void; a maze which is patrolled by Lanadares of 
  the Brazen Heart, a beauteous female android who 
  sets conundrums and attacks if they are answered 
  wrongly; a fungus garden where the character must 
  find the hidden exit before he is poisoned by the 
  insidious spores that fill the air; and the Chasm of 
  Broken Chains, whose bridge leads to safety but one 
  must first face the revenants of the three deadliest 
  living in the lanDs oF legenD
  
  0
  Dragon Warriors
  foes from one’s past. Victory means freedom—and 
  a lavish reward.1
  Experience points
  Experience awards for victory in a wargame will 
  depend on how close it is to real battle conditions. 
  All fights to the death are worth full experience 
  points, of course. The object in a joust or tourney 
  is usually to incapacitate your foe or force his sur-
  1 
  The purpose of this slaughter ritual is not just ‘entertainment’. By his 
  champion’s victory a magus gains wealth, territory and concessions from his 
  fellows. any disputes outstanding from the previous year are settled in his 
  favour. Some even say he gains the esteem of the gods.
  render, however, and this is worth only half the 
  usual experience points. In some special cases the 
  award will be reduced even further—if you bribe a 
  knight beforehand to surrender to you, you get no 
  experience for having beaten him! Victories in the 
  Tamorian Arena are only ever worth half experience 
  because duels to the death are forbidden. Characters 
  get full experience for fighting their way through the 
  Battlepits of the Magi, where no quarter is asked or 
  given.
   EW
  
  03
  YOUR OWN DragoN WarriorS game may 
  be set in the Lands of Legend, with a strong flavour 
  of late Dark Ages and early Medieval Europe. This 
  is the setting used for the adventure scenarios in 
  this book. But this is only one possible background 
  for your adventures. History and literature provide 
  hundreds of others that you and your players might 
  prefer. This chapter explores some alternate cam-
  paign settings, as well as offering a few rules options 
  for the GM to consider when devising a campaign 
  setting.
   
  If you do choose to set your game in the Lands 
  of Legend, there are still several variations you may 
  introduce. Your own Lands of Legend need not 
  be precisely the same as those of other campaigns; 
  probably it cannot be, even if you wanted it to be! 
  The World-Building section, below, includes a basic 
  check-list that will be useful to anyone who wants 
  run a Dragon Warriors campaign, whether in Leg-
  end or not.
  World-Building Checklist
  1. Inspiration. Decide on the basic inspiration 
  for your campaign setting. The best settings are 
  often those that draw inspiration from only a small 
  number of sources—for example, a setting with the 
  inspirations of Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age 
  (see below) meets Pre-Columbian Mexico (also see 
  below) may be stronger and more tightly focused 
  than Howard’s Hyborian Age meets Pre-Colum-
  bian Mexico by way of the Lands of Legend and 
  Tolkein’s Middle-Earth with a dash of the Werewolf 
  mythology of medieval France. The latter is likely to 
  end up as a confused, messy patchwork of a setting, 
  though a top-class world-builder and GM might 
  still be able to run some great games in it, and some 
  players and GMs may prefer such a setting despite 
  its somewhat haphazard nature. (Arguably, several 
  of the great fantasy worlds of swords-and-sorcery 
  literature are similarly patchwork, anyway.) 
   
  Often the inspirations for a campaign will be more 
  important to the style of the game and the GMing, 
  than to the geography of the setting itself; a game 
  set in the Lands of Legend, but strongly inspired by 
  Fritz Lieber’s Nehwon stories (see below) will have 
  themes, protagonists, adventures, and a focus that 
  are very different to a Lands of Legend campaign 
  that is more influenced by Gene Wolfe’s Book of 
  the New Sun (see below).
  2.  Culture. This is where you can narrow the 
  focus still further. Culture will inevitably be based 
  on what you’ve decided in (1) above. What is the 
  predominant culture of the nation or region where 
  most of the adventuring will take place? What are 
  the cultures of its neighbours—in particular, of its 
  enemies?  
  3. Magic & Fantasy. How ‘high fantasy’ or indeed 
  ‘low fantasy’ do you want your campaign to be? Are 
  there to be magic shops in every village, arch-mages’ 
  Chapter 7
  SETTING  YOUR 
  CAMPAIGN 
  
  04
  Dragon Warriors
  towers in every town, dragons menacing every 
  maiden? This is the world of High Fantasy. It’s 
  not very well supported by Dragon Warriors, which 
  tends to fit a Mid- to Low Fantasy setting. Still, it 
  can be done with these rules—it’s just a question 
  of tweaking the setting, with very little needing to 
  be done to the rules. Low-Fantasy games are per-
  haps more closely based on real-world medieval 
  or dark ages history, with (at most) just sufficient 
  magic around to validate peasants’ beliefs in the 
  supernatural—Sorcerers, Elementalists, Warlocks, 
  and Mystics are rare indeed, and it is possible that 
  the GM will disallow players from portraying all or 
  some of the classes. 
   
  It would be possible, though perhaps less enjoy-
  able, to use the Dragon Warriors rules for a setting 
  with no magic at all. The only characters would be 
  Knights and Barbarians, with perhaps the very occa-
  sional Assassin (and arguably, with the even more 
  occasional Mystic, since Mystics’ powers are at least 
  nominally psychic in origin rather than magical).
  4. Non-humans. This is closely related to (3) 
  above. Almost every campaign will have some kind 
  of non-human but sentient creatures, but that could 
  range from almost none (just the occasional, unique 
  sorcerous experiment, or degenerate remnant of a 
  long-vanished species, or demonic creature from 
  another plane of existence), to a world in which 
  Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, Orcs, etc., all have their 
  own kingdoms and even empires, trading with 
  humans, going to war, and so on. Even the Land of 
  Legend is designed so as to allow the GM a great 
  deal of flexibility in this respect—there are one or 
  two non-human settlements mentioned in Chapter 
  14, but it is very easy for the GM to rule that there 
  are no significant non-human populations any-
  where… or just as easy for the GM to have Elven 
  Kingdoms in every woodland and great Dwarven 
  cities under every mountain. 
   
  Of course, whether the GM allows PCs to be 
  Elves or Dwarves must also be considered. There 
  are many potential disadvantages to this. The 
  more inhuman a character looks, the less he will be 
  accepted in human communities, whether rural vil-
  lages or the courts of kings. You may decide that 
  in your game-world nonhuman communities keep 
  themselves well away from human settlements, 
  many people may only see a handful of non-humans 
  in their entire lives, and the typical reaction to non-
  humans is not likely to be one of friendly curiosity. 
  Think how your players react to a Goblin or Orc, 
  and ask why an NPC would react any differently to 
  a nonhuman who happens to be a PC.
   
  Remember too that non-humans think differ-
  ently to humans: not only will they have other val-
  ues, goals and beliefs but their whole way of sensing, 
  describing, analysing and understanding the world 
  may be completely alien. They may also have only 
  a partial grasp of human languages—or none at all. 
  Playing a character like this is a challenge for an 
  experienced role-player, and not one to be under-
  taken lightly. 
   
  Any player wanting to undertake this path must 
  also come up with a rationale for why their character 
  would want to adventure among humans, and for 
  that matter a reason why the other characters would 
  accept them.
  5. Genders. You may have noticed that almost all 
  the characters given in the examples in this book 
  are male. The world of Legend is based on medieval 
  Europe, a male-dominated society where law and 
  tradition made it hard for women to gain power, 
  learning, influence or respect. But history remem-
  bers many who did: Boudica, Joan of Arc and Eliza-
  beth I, to name just three.
   
  As GamesMaster, if a player wants to create a 
  female character in your game then of course you 
  should let them. Character generation and the game 
  rules are the same for both genders. Plus—and this 
  shouldn’t have to be said—there’s nothing wrong 
  with boys playing female characters, or with girls 
  playing male characters. In Shakespeare’s time every 
  female role on stage was played by a man, and if it 
  was good enough for him it’s good enough for you.  
   
  How women—and therefore women PCs—are 
  regarded in Legend or your own game-world is 
  completely up to you. You may want to maintain a 
  historical feel, so that women who enter the adven-
  turing professions are unusual, and perhaps looked 
  down on by their male counterparts. For example, 
  some hirelings might refuse to work for a female 
  Knight while others refuse to acknowledge her rank 
  or engage her in combat; and female magicians are 
  denied access to some of the libraries, guilds and 
  gatherings of their order that they need in order to 
  learn new skills and spells. In this case some women 
  will choose to disguise themselves and live as men 
  to gain the status that society denies them. 
   
  Alternatively you may choose to make women the 
  equal of men in all things, socially as well as physi-
  
  0
  cally, so that when your player-characters encounter 
  a knight in full armour they have to wait until they 
  remove their helmet to discover their gender, and 
  it’s quite normal to come across female rulers, gen-
  erals, bishops and high-ranking magic-users.  
   
  Or you may want to create a world where women 
  are in charge and men are kept down by the status 
  quo, so that players with male characters must strug-
  gle to gain acceptance, and put up with the sort of 
  everyday prejudice and harrassment described two 
  paragraphs above. 
   
  You can invent new social orders, or borrow ones 
  from obscure present-day real-world cultures: there 
  are still places, for example, where any woman can 
  declare herself to be legally a man, and their society 
  will accept them as effectively male from then on. 
  Or you can find a point between all these possibili-
  ties that works for you and your players. 
   
  Finally, you can decide that different parts of 
  the world treat men and women differently: some 
  follow equality while others veer into pro-male or 
  pro-female societies. And woe betide the party of 
  boorish sexist adventurers who find themselves 
  shipwrecked in a land where the status quo goes the 
  other way.
  6. Rules changes. Dragon Warriors is, by design, a 
  very simple, easy-to-use game system. That makes 
  it very easy to modify, if that’s what you want, to 
  suit your game setting. Easiest is removing rules 
  and whole areas of the game—we touched in 
  (3), above, on the idea of removing magic from 
  the game entirely. Some games may focus less on 
  money, with player characters simply being assumed 
  to start adventures with whatever they need (or in 
  some cases, start adventures with nothing at all), in 
  which case most of the prices and purchasing info 
  in Chapter 12 will be irrelevant. Other games may 
  have a single ‘Common Language’ in which case 
  there is no need for rules on languages—everyone 
  understands one another. A little tougher is adding 
  new rules, or heavily modifying the existing ones. 
  The GM might decide that a particular setting war-
  rants a new, or heavily restructured magic system, 
  or different types of weaponry. A few sample rules 
  variants can be found at the end of this chapter.
  Other Worlds
  Legend is one possible setting for your Dragon 
  Warriors campaign. History, cinema and literature 
  provide hundreds of others that you and your play-
  ers might prefer. Here are some alternative sugges-
  tions.
  Feudal Japan
  Sixteenth-century Japan was wracked with constant 
  strife and intrigue between the mighty clans. The 
  daimyo (lords) and their samurai ruled, and peasants 
  had little say. A samurai could even slay a peasant for 
  no reason other than testing the edge of his sword!
   
  Japanese society at this time was in many ways 
  very like early medieval Europe. If you were to run 
  Dragon Warriors adventures in this setting, Knights 
  would become Samurai. (A very close equivalence, 
  as the two words both mean —roughly speaking—
  ‘one who serves’.) Barbarians would be the fierce 
  Yamabushi, warrior ‘monks’ of the mountains. Mys-
  tics correspond to the adepts of Zen, ascetic monks 
  who were believed to harness uncanny psychic pow-
  ers. Elementalists are the Shugenja wizards, while 
  Warlocks become the Kiai Masters who combine 
  martial and magical skills. Lastly, I suggest that Sor-
  cerers and Assassins are both interpreted as Ninja. 
  The ninja are nowadays thought of as stealthy mar-
  tial artists, but in their day they were night’s own 
  black agents, the practitioners of magic.
   
  An excellent sourcebook for Japanese campaigns 
  is S. R. Turnbull’s The Book of the Samurai. Also look 
  at Richard Storry’s The Way of the Samurai. More 
  esoteric but very enlightening is Musashi’s Book of 
  Five rings.
  Pre-Columbian Mexico
  Little enough is known of the civilizations of Mes-
  oamerica that a GamesMaster who wishes to use 
  this setting can make of it what he will. A campaign 
  could be set in the time of the Maya, for instance, 
  and the events of the campaign could be set against 
  (or even explain) the collapse of the Classic Period.
   
  The last great Mesoamerican empire was that of 
  the Aztecs. This society had three fighting orders: 
  the Eagle Warriors, the Jaguar Warriors and the 
  Arrow Warriors. These may be made to correspond 
  (though I make no pretence to historical accuracy 
  here!) to Knights, Barbarians and Assassins respec-
  setting your Campaign
  
  06
  Dragon Warriors
  tively. Player-characters of the appropriate Profes-
  sion should not automatically become members of a 
  fighting order, however; they must win the right by 
  proving themselves in battle—and perhaps cultivate 
  a few NPC sponsors as well.
   
  The dark priests of the shadowy god Tez-
  catlipoca (‘Smoking Mirror’) are the Aztec Sorcer-
  ers, while the priests of benevolent Quetzalcoatl 
  (‘Feathered Serpent’) are Mystics. Warlocks are the 
  martial priests of Huitzilopochtli (‘Hummingbird 
  Wizard’), deity of sun and war. Elementalists can 
  be used to represent the last magicians of the now-
  faded Maya.
   
  There can be no better book for the prospec-
  tive GamesMaster than Gary Jennings’ aztec. This 
  magnificent novel not only creates a totally credible 
  version of Aztec society but also has enough ideas 
  and plotlines to fuel a campaign for years.
  Roman Britain
  The Roman occupation of Britain is an excellent 
  backdrop for a Dragon Warriors campaign. Players 
  may identify with the invaded Britons—or with the 
  Roman legionaries, outnumbered in a hostile land. 
  An energetic GamesMaster could even run two 
  groups of players on opposing sides.
   
  Barbarians and Elementalists are the British war-
  rior-nobles and druids. Assassins can be used both 
  as the ‘guerillas’ of the Britons and as the Roman 
  scouts (LRPs of SPQR, so to speak) who ranged 
  the forest in search-and-destroy missions. Knights 
  and Warlocks feature in the game as the legionaries 
  and their attendant priests of Mars. A few Sorcerers 
  could be explained away as wandering mages from 
  Egypt. If the campaign is set a century or so later, 
  when the occupation has been consolidated, the 
  cultists of Mithras can be introduced also. Some of 
  their priests can then be Mystics.
   
  There are many good sourcebooks for this 
  period. Peter Clayton’s Companion to roman Britain 
  has much useful and inspirational detail. 
  When considering a historical basis for Dragon 
  Warriors, the first step is to find out as much as 
  you can about the period. If the campaign is set 
  in a world of your own creation you can make up 
  details as needed, but if you are using a real time 
  and place then you need to know at least as much 
  about it as your players do! There are several series 
  of the ‘Everyday Lives’ sort, and few periods in his-
  tory are not covered. It would be churlish of me not 
  to mention the help I have had in creating Legend 
  from Michael Wood’s stirring in Search of the Dark 
  ages, Pierre Miquel’s Knights and Castles and Mor-
  ris Bishop’s Book of the Middle ages. The last is an 
  indispensably informative work, enlivened by the 
  author’s dry sense of humour. 
   
  Try dipping into Lewis Thorpe’s translation of 
  Gregory’s History of the Franks if you can find it. The 
  sixth century is not quite like Legend as described 
  in this book (I had the tenth to twelfth centuries 
  vaguely in mind), but the History is full of amusing 
  anecdotes.
  Settings from fantasy literature
  Alternatively, you might base your campaign on a 
  favourite novel. J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth and 
  Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age may seem obvi-
  ous candidates, but the problem with choosing a 
  too-familiar setting is that your players can read the 
  books and learn more about the world and its his-
  tory than their characters ought to know. Still, both 
  have been used as game settings, whether with offi-
  cial game rules or not, by many thousands of GMs.
   
  Fortunately there are many less well-known 
  works of equal or greater merit. Jack Vance’s Lyon-
  esse (from the novel of that name) is a fay and intri-
  cately detailed world. Vance provides a map, geneal-
  ogy and full picture of the morass of alliances and 
  wars between his various kingdoms. With very little 
  work it could become the background for an FRP 
  campaign. Vance’s other novels are also worth read-
  ing, though not all feature settings that would be 
  suitable as game worlds. His Dying Earth cycle The 
  Dying Earth, The Eyes of the overworld, Cugel’s Sage 
  and rhialto the Marvellous—all read very much like 
  the adventures of characters in a picaresque cam-
  paign, and have been used as the basis for the Dying 
  Earth FRP game.
   
  There are dozens of scenario ideas, too, in Pro-
  fessor M.A.R. Barker’s Tekumel novels: The Man of 
  gold and Flamesong. Barker is not as accomplished 
  an author as Tolkien (to whom he is often com-
  pared), but his imagination is unequalled and his 
  fantasy world of Tekumel is, to my mind, the most 
  meticulous and rich creation in all fantasy literature. 
  Since Barker is himself a GamesMaster—and one 
  of the grey eminences of the FRP hobby—you will 
  find his world covers all the details that role-players 
  find important.
  
  07
   
  Fritz Lieber’s Nehwon books (Swords in the Mist, 
  etc.) are justly popular. I like his world because it is 
  restrained—low in magic but high in eeriness and 
  atmosphere. All his characters are human—well, 
  you have to wonder about Ningauble of the Seven 
  Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face; but at least 
  there are no clichéd ‘elven bards’, ‘merry dwarves’, 
  or ‘grumpy gnomes’ to clutter up Nehwon’s land-
  scape. A campaign could be set there without much 
  effort.
   
  Lack of space forces us to pass over many other 
  famous fantasy authors. Michael Moorcock’s Elric 
  books have been translated into FRP form in the 
  game Elric of Melnibone. The Chronicles of Corum, 
  based on Celtic myth, are much better. Roger 
  Zelazny’s amber series hardly demonstrates the 
  quality of invention of which he is capable, though 
  it has been used as the base for the excellent amber 
  FRP game; better still, take a look at Lord of Light, 
  which could make a quirky campaign. Also of inter-
  est are Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, LeGuin’s 
  Earthsea novels, Lupoff’s Sword of the Demon and 
  Jennings’s The Journeyer. And of course, the clas-
  sic fictional works such as Beowulf, gawain and the 
  green Knight, Don Quixote and Le Morte D’arthur 
  are all vital references with which every GamesMas-
  ter and player should be familiar.
   
  A final note. If you do not like our Dragon War-
  riors world and cannot find one in all of history or 
  fantasy to suit you, you can always invent your own. 
  Many autocratic GamesMasters (myself included) 
  do this because it gives them total control of the 
  campaign background. Nobody can whip out a copy 
  of the book and tell you you’re wrong about what 
  happened to Charlemagne/Sauron/Balin/Hygelac. 
  Putting a world of your own together is a monu-
  mental labour, but most GMs (and players, fortu-
  nately!) would agree that it is worth the effort.
  RULES VARIANTS
  Gamers have been modifying roleplaying games for 
  as long as there have been roleplaying games. Eve-
  ryone, and every group, has slightly different tastes. 
  We like the Dragon Warriors rules very nicely just 
  as they are, but if your tastes are different, here’s a 
  few options and variations. We recommend that the 
  GM and players think long and hard before using 
  variant rules, though. Several of them will signifi-
  cantly alter the way a game is played. For example, 
  making combat more lethal may be favoured by 
  some on the grounds of ‘realism’—but others in the 
  same group may relish the heroic way in which their 
  characters are able to fight on despite their wounds, 
  and may feel that a more ‘realistic’ game is simply 
  less enjoyable. It all depends on the group.
  Variable Damage
  Some people prefer weapons to do a variable amount 
  of damage, rather than a standard amount with each 
  hit. This involves an extra roll in each attack, and 
  so will inevitably slow the game down if adopted, 
  and also has the effect of making combat less pre-
  dictable (which will tend not to favour the PCs, in 
  the long run). Add on any bonuses for high strength 
  or magical weapons to the rolled damage as usual, 
  rather than altering the type of die rolled.
  Regular Damage 
   
  Variable Damage Die
   
  2 
   
   
   
   
   
  1d3
   
  3 
   
   
   
   
   
  1d4
   
  4 
   
   
   
   
   
  1d6
   
  5 
   
   
   
   
   
  1d8
   
  6 
   
   
   
   
   
  1d10
  More Lethal Combat
  For a game in which the characters should be truly 
  scared of combat, and should use whatever means 
  they can to avoid fighting (or to stack the odds mas-
  sively in their favour if it is inevitable), make the 
  combat system a little more lethal. There are several 
  ways this can be done—pick one, or several, accord-
  ing to taste:
  No increase in Health Points
  Each character has exactly the number of HP she 
  started out with, rather than increasing them every 
  rank. This can make combat especially deadly 
  at higher levels, when characters will be flinging 
  around the most powerful spells or swinging magi-
  cal swords. Another option is to reduce the rate of 
  increase in HP, so that characters gain +1 HP only 
  every 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level, rather than every level. 
  Long-term Injuries
  Any time a character is reduced to –1 or –2 HP (i.e. 
  very close to death) he receives a permanent injury 
  that cannot be fully healed even by the most skilled 
  chirurgeon or blessed relic. Refer to the Permanent 
  setting your Campaign
  
  08
  Dragon Warriors
  Injuries Table below to determine the nature of the 
  injury. All injuries are cumulative, and of course, 
  permanent.
  Permanent Injuries Table
  2d6 Roll 
  Injury
  2 
   
   
  Severed arm or hand. Roll 1d6:
   
   
   
   
  1 
  Left hand
   
   
   
   
  2 
  Right hand
   
   
   
   
  3 
  Left arm just below elbow
   
   
   
   
  4 
  Right arm just below elbow
   
   
   
   
  5 
  Entire left arm
   
   
   
   
  6 
  Entire right arm
  3 
   
   
  Lost eye. Roll any die; even number = right 
  eye, odd number = left eye. Character’s attack 
  and defence have a –1 penalty when in 
  mêlée combat (ranged combat is unaffected); 
  perception score is reduced by 2.
  4 
   
   
  Injured joint; Reflexes score is reduced by 1.
  5 
   
   
  Injured muscle; Strength score is reduced by 1.
  6-8  
   
  Scar; Looks score is reduced by 1.
  9 
   
   
  Lame; character can no longer run (if rolled 
  again, treat as Severely Lame).
  10  
   
  Head injury. Roll 1d6:
   
   
   
   
  1–4  
  Intelligence score reduced by 1
   
   
   
   
  5–6  
  Psychic Talent score reduced by 1
  11  
   
  Severely lame; character can no longer run; 
  walking movement is reduced by 1d3m; 
  evasion and stealth are reduced by 1.
  12  
   
  Severed leg or foot. Roll 1d6.:
   
   
   
   
  1  Left foot
   
   
   
   
  2  Right foot
   
   
   
   
  3  Left leg just below knee
   
   
   
   
  4  Right leg just below knee
   
   
   
   
  5  Entire left leg
   
   
   
   
  6  Entire right leg
  Shock or knockout rule 
  Any time a character is severely injured by a single 
  blow (5 or more damage to Health Points in one 
  blow, leaving her with fewer than 10 Health Points 
  remaining) she has a chance of being knocked out, 
  or passing out from the extreme pain of the injury, 
  even is she still has 1 or more Health Points remain-
  ing. She rolls 1d10; if the result is equal to or lower 
  than her remaining Health Points, she may continue 
  to act as normal, but if it is higher she is unconscious 
  for 1d6 rounds.
  Mooks
  ‘Mooks’ is a gaming term for unimportant oppo-
  nents, unimportant at least in relation to the char-
  acters—the kind of foes that exist solely to be mown 
  down by the heroes, such as the Cardinal’s Guards 
  in a Three Musketeers game, or the wave upon wave 
  of skeletal warriors protecting an evil necromancer. 
  Some players like to have special rules for such foes, 
  so that defeating them is satisfyingly easy in the 
  characters’ constant quest to wade through more 
  and more gore.
   
  Since Dragon Warriors weapons do a standard 
  amount of damage, the easiest way to allow for mooks 
  is to simply grant them significantly fewer Health 
  Points than the player characters have—typically 3 
  or 4 Health Points will do the trick. This means that 
  any hit from a typical weapon will be sufficient to 
  put them out of the fight. For even more mookish 
  foes, simply rule that any successful strike (even an 
  unarmed one) will automatically bypass any armour 
  worn and knock out or kill the foe.
  More Critical Hits
  Some players and GMs love the excitement of 
  rolling a ‘Critical Hit’, an attack which deals extra 
  damage through happening to strike a particularly 
  vulnerable area. Note that as with Variable Damage 
  (see above), this introduction of additional random-
  ness to combat will tend to make life harder for the 
  player characters, on balance. 
   
  As it stands, the Critical Hit rule (on page 66) 
  says that a Hit Roll of 1 is always a hit and ignores 
  armour. You can make this more deadly by decree-
  ing that a roll of 1 does double damage; or you can 
  take it a stage further and say that rolls of 1 do seri-
  ous injury—you could use the Permanent Injuries 
  chart opposite, or even make up your own to include 
  flesh wounds, stabs through the heart, beheadings 
  and bisections.
   
  As GamesMaster, it’s your decision whether only 
  PCs are able to deal critical hits to their opponents, 
  or if the party will be receiving as well as dispensing 
  this increased level of injury. Be warned that while 
  critical hits can make the more vivid, they also make 
  it a good deal more deadly.
  Fate Points
  Some types of game may benefit from the introduc-
  tion of ‘Fate Points’ to allow characters to survive 
  what would otherwise be certain death. Though 
  this may seem to make life easier for the players, the 
  actual effect is often more to increase excitement; 
  the GamesMaster can run his game with ‘no holds 
  barred’, so that characters who do foolish things 
  
  09
  rapidly lose Fate Points. The loss of a Fate Point, 
  while not so severe as the loss of a character, is still 
  permanent; it brings your character inexorably closer 
  to death. Fate Points are best used for a game which 
  would otherwise be so harsh as to cause players to 
  be rolling new characters every single game session.
   
  In such a game, all characters start out with 3 
  Fate Points. Any time a character would usually die, 
  she instead spends a Fate Point and miraculously 
  survives—she has been left for dead by the invading 
  Orc army, or she swims half-alive out of the river 
  at the bottom of the ravine, or she otherwise cheats 
  the death that appeared to be inevitable. 
   
  Whether characters can regain used Fate Points, 
  perhaps by achieving great success, or doing self-
  less deeds, is up to the GM. A game in which Fate 
  Points can never be recouped can make for a more 
  epic feel, with players knowing that each apparent 
  “death” brings them closer to final death….
   
  If you use both Fate Points and Long-Term 
  Injuries (see above), you may want to roll on the 
  Permanent Injuries Table each time a character uses 
  up a Fate Point.
  More Skills
  Assassins, Knights, and Warlocks all gain a choice 
  of special skills, whether combat-related or more 
  generally useful. Some players feel frustrated that 
  their characters aren’t a bit more all-round capable; 
  they might want to play a Barbarian with the Climb 
  skill (usually only accessible to Assassins), or a Mys-
  tic who can Track. 
   
  We prefer the system just as it is, since it keeps 
  skills sought-after. They are truly special abilities, 
  above and beyond the norm, the product of half a 
  lifetime’s dedicated study and practice. Still, if you 
  want more flexibility, the easiest way is to allow each 
  character to have one (and only one) skill or special 
  ability from another Profession, subject to GM veto. 
  This represents a character who has had significant 
  cross-training in the arts of another character class, 
  or who once followed a different profession at quite 
  a high level. The GM will determine what penalty 
  the character must suffer for their deviation from 
  the normal character class; the Barbarian who can 
  Climb, for example, might be unable to go Berserk, 
  or might only be able to wear up to a mail hauberk 
  before suffering combat penalties.
  No Shopping
  This is more of a game style issue than anything else. 
  Some players, given half a chance, will spend a good 
  hour of each game session rolling for the availability 
  of obscure items they wish to purchase, so that their 
  character sheets resemble shopping-lists and their 
  characters are laden down with more gadgets than 
  a top-of-the-range Swiss Army Knife. At its worst, 
  this can slow the game down more than a little, and 
  give it the feeling of a resource-management simu-
  lation rather than an RPG.
   
  Some groups may prefer to start each adven-
  ture in the thick of the action; in this case, the GM 
  describes what equipment their characters have to 
  start with, if any (an adventure which commences 
  with a shipwreck, or with the party captured by can-
  nibals, may mean they begin with no equipment at 
  all). In such a game, adventurers don’t go shopping; 
  they loot what equipment they need from fallen 
  foes, or make it themselves. When they come home 
  laden down with treasure, they don’t start working 
  out which new weapon they can buy, or whether 
  they can afford a townhouse yet; they do as adven-
  turers have always done in history and legend alike, 
  squandering the lot on wine, games of chance and 
  good company. 
   
  Such a game doesn’t really call for additional 
  rules; rather, it strips them away. It will not need 
  either the price lists in Chapter 12, or indeed any 
  information about what money the characters 
  have (beyond either “down to the last coins in your 
  purse” or “laden down with the loot of a thousand 
  princes”). 
  setting your Campaign
  
  0
  Dragon Warriors
   JH
  
  
  THE DragoN WarriorS world is a lot like 
  our own during the Middle Ages. Common people 
  do not travel much. A villager might live his whole 
  life without ever going more than a day’s journey 
  from his home. Lords travel widely with their men-
  at-arms, patrolling the manors of their fiefs, and 
  others such as minstrels and friars may wander far 
  and wide. But almost everybody avoids the desolate 
  tracts of moorland and forest (known as ‘the waste’) 
  where unearthly creatures stalk. 
   
  Almost everybody. These are just the kind of 
  places where adventurers will often be found. After 
  all, it stands to reason that any place worth pillag-
  ing must be some way from civilization—the more 
  accessible ruins and underworlds would have been 
  plundered of their treasure long ago. Therefore it 
  is likely that the player-characters will begin many 
  of their adventures with a journey across country or 
  even over the sea to reach the location where most 
  of the action will take place. 
   
  You will begin with a rough map of where the 
  adventure locale (dungeon, ruin, etc.) is situated. 
  The following table shows how long the characters 
  will take to get there. You may decide to skip through 
  the journey and get on with the adventure you have 
  planned. (“Okay, you leave the village where you’ve 
  been staying. You pass through forest and low hills 
  and arrive at a ruined tower after four days.”) Alter-
  natively, you could provide an appetizer to the main 
  adventure by giving the characters some encounters 
  en route. These can be randomly generated, or used 
  to introduce the group to this new country.
  Outdoor Travel
  Terrain  
   
  Distance covered in one day
  Open country on foot  
   
   
  25 miles
   
   
   
   
  on horseback  
  40 miles
  Forest   
   
  on foot  
   
   
  15 miles
   
   
   
   
  on horseback  
  20 miles
  Hills   
   
  on foot  
   
   
  20 miles
   
   
   
   
  on horseback  
  25 miles
  Swamp  
   
  on foot  
   
   
  10 miles
   
   
   
   
  on horseback  
  10 miles
  Arctic   
   
  on foot  
   
   
  5 miles
   
   
   
   
  on horseback  
  10 miles
   
   
   
   
  on sled  
   
   
  20 miles
  Desert   
   
  on foot  
   
   
  15 miles
   
   
   
   
  on horse/camel  
  30 miles
  River   
   
  by boat  
   
   
  40 miles
  You can, if you wish, generate ‘random encounters’ 
  for the journey: sets of tables are provided for this in 
  the Dragon Warriors Bestiary. A chance of encoun-
  ter is given for each terrain type; you check for this 
  twice each day, at dawn and dusk. If an encounter 
  is indicated, it will occur at some random time in 
  the following twelve hours. Adventurers always take 
  turns standing guard when camping for the night! 
  Disputations
  One feature of travel not covered elsewhere is the 
  disputation. A powerful character—often a Knight, 
  but in a few instances a Sorcerer—sets up a pavilion 
  at a crossroads or ford and challenges all comers to 
  single combat. This occurs rarely, but nevertheless 
  may lead to an entertaining sequence.
  Chapter 8
  TRAVEL  AND 
  HAZARDS
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
   
  A Knight who is disputing another’s right to pass 
  will be of 4th to 6th rank. (Lower ranks are too weak 
  for so bold a stance; higher ranks have better things 
  to do.) He will challenge only other Knights, though 
  he’ll not refuse combat with a Barbarian. When the 
  duel is between two Knights, neither will purposely 
  attempt to slay the other. If one is losing, he may 
  surrender without dishonour. A disputing Knight 
  who wounds another he has challenged is obliged 
  to feed him and tend his wounds before allowing 
  him on his way. Barbarians are excluded from this 
  gentlemanly conduct, however; the Barbarian who 
  meets a disputing Knight in combat must expect to 
  fight to the death.
   
  When the disputing character is a Sorcerer, only 
  combats with other Sorcerers are sought. Charac-
  ters of other Professions will not be challenged. The 
  disputation will often take the form of scholarly 
  debate and a comparison of spell-expertise. Only if 
  this eminently reasonable interlude is refused will 
  the disputing Sorcerer resort to combat.
   
  Honour and reputation are the main motives for 
  a disputation, but the character also gets the chance 
  to improve his skill. A Knight who bests another 
  in the ‘friendly combat’ described gets experience 
  points—but only half what he would get normally, 
  because the risk is less than it would be under true 
  ‘combat conditions’. In a real grudge-fight with a 
  Barbarian, where either combatant might die, full 
  experience points are awarded. 
   
  The intellectual disputation of the Sorcerer pro-
  vides some experience, but only 1 experience point 
  for an encounter with a character of higher rank. A 
  discussion with a Sorcerer of equal or lower rank 
  than one’s own has but a 20% chance of yielding 
  an experience point. A Sorcerer can only gainfully 
  dispute once with any given Sorcerer he encounters; 
  two Sorcerers who go on disputing with one another 
  day in and day out will never go up in rank! 
   
  In the rare cases when a disputation between Sor-
  cerers turns into an exchange of spells, they will duel 
  to the death. Sorcerers have no concept of Knightly 
  honour. In such a duel, the victor of course gets full 
  experience points for vanquishing his opponent.
  Underworlds
  Hazardous though the untamed countryside of 
  the Dragon Warriors world can be, it is nothing to 
  the mortal dangers to be faced in the magic-laden 
  underworlds. Underworlds (a term used to include 
  any labyrinth, catacomb or dungeon inhabited by 
  monsters and things of the occult) are the ‘high risk’ 
  areas where adventurers get down to the gruelling 
  business of fighting the creatures of evil and darkness 
  and wresting from them their ancient treasures.
   
  Any underworld should be designed to take 
  account of the characters’ particular skills and adven-
  turing tastes. If the players have predominantly cho-
  sen to be Barbarians, for example, you will doubtless 
  arrange fewer fights with Undead than if they had 
  chosen to play Sorcerers. Similarly, you will not have 
  a group of four 1st-rank player-characters ambushed 
  in an underworld corridor by a Dragon. 
  Long-Distance Travel
  The use of a complete fantasy world as a campaign 
  backdrop will logically widen the scope of adventures. 
  Brief jaunts across the downs to raid an ogre’s keep 
  will be replaced by long-range planning. Adventur-
  ers of any mettle will quickly set their sights on the 
  ruins of Sa’aknathur’s fortress, the Citadel of the 
  Shadowlords, or one of the Kaikuhuran pyramids.
   
  This will involve a lot of travelling. This aspect 
  of the game can involve considerable book-keeping, 
  and the GamesMaster will find it is worth learning 
  a few tricks of the trade:
  1. Prepare a game-time calendar for the journey. 
  Any worthwhile campaign should have a calendar 
  anyway, but for an extended period of travel it is 
  vital. Keeping track of how long the journey takes 
  is particularly important if the GamesMaster is 
  weaving in some concurrent plot elements: an NPC 
  party trying to beat the player-characters to their 
  destination, political upheaval in the Crusader lands 
  that could impede their progress, etc.
  2. Work out the total distance the player-characters 
  will be travelling before they set out. This way you 
  will know how many miles they have to go through 
  forest, open country, etc, between each major town. 
  A marker can be used to show the party’s rough 
  location, but it is neither necessary nor realistic to 
  pinpoint them on the map at all times.
  3. Major areas of forest are marked on the map, 
  but throughout much of the north-west (Kurland, 
  
  3
  Chaubrette, Algandy, Ellesland and Thuland) even 
  terrain indicated as ‘open country’ is in fact cob-
  webbed with swathes of woodland. It would be con-
  fusing and unplayable to depict all such areas on a 
  map of this scale. Instead, the GamesMaster should 
  allow for the fact that about 20% of the open country 
  of these lands will consist of thinly populated forest. 
  This makes no significant difference to the travel 
  times quoted on page 211, but does mean that the 
  chance of finding human settlements is lower, and 
  parties are more likely to encounter wild animals or 
  monsters. Some will flee, but others will attack if 
  they feel their territory has been invaded.
   
  The GamesMaster should also reflect this fact 
  by means of incidental descriptions, as the flavour of 
  the game is enhanced considerably when the players 
  have an accurate picture of their surroundings. For 
  instance: ‘You leave the thickly wooded countryside 
  of Kurland behind you and move down the coast 
  towards Asmulia. Within the space of a few days 
  you notice the sharp contrast. The landscape you 
  are now riding through is sparsely wooded—unlike 
  Kurland, where you could usually only tell your 
  next destination by a plume of hearth-smoke rising 
  above the treetops, here you can see villages from 
  miles off. Across the valley you see a villa beside an 
  olive grove. Vines grow on the north of the valley, 
  but here on the south you find only scrub. The scent 
  of juniper and lavender wafts on the breeze...’
  4. Very long journeys often mean that a game-time 
  period of many months may be skimmed over in a 
  matter of a few minutes of real-time. However, it is 
  not in the best interests of the game to be too quick 
  about this. A sense of the ludicrous may creep into a 
  game where the GamesMaster says something such 
  as, ‘You ride south through Algandy, spend a few 
  days in Ferromaine where you charter a ship, then 
  you sail across the Coradian Sea and down the Gulf 
  of Marazid until you reach the mouth of the Mun-
  goda River after about a month. You find a guide 
  and bearers and make your way inland through thick 
  jungle, finally arriving at the ruined temple Sengool 
  told you about three months after you set out.’
   
  Such an introduction is implausible and does lit-
  tle justice to the adventure that is to follow it. I rec-
  ommend that you never spend less than half an hour 
  gaming each campaign month. Something of interest 
  must happen in that time. Devise a meeting with 
  officials in Ferromaine—are the player-characters 
  stung for duty tax, wrongfully arrested by the city 
  guard? Embroil them in a subplot which may take 
  up the whole gaming session (though try not to lose 
  the impetus of the main adventure in doing so). As 
  a last resort, at least throw in a preplanned ‘random’ 
  encounter. 
   
  One useful trick that allows you to move through 
  game-time at an accelerated rate is by means of a 
  film-like montage. Wait for the players to begin a 
  discussion amongst themselves—a plan of action, 
  an argument over spoils, or whatever—then run 
  them fairly freely through their journey, interjecting 
  briefly sketched events or remarks from NPCs, such 
  as the ship’s captain, at intervals to show that time is 
  passing. As in a film, a few minutes’ action can thus 
  be made to seem to cover days or weeks.
  5. Be strict, especially when the player-characters 
  move into unexplored regions. Liberally enforce any 
  hardships or difficulties that emphasize that they 
  are not just going for a stroll along a country lane! In 
  the Kaikuhuran Desert lack of water may be more 
  of a threat than any mummified monster. Adven-
  turers in the Mungoda jungle will have to contend 
  with insects, drenching humidity, disease and slow 
  progress (possibly less than a mile a day along the 
  lower reaches of the river).
  6. Language barriers will be an obstacle on many 
  long journeys. The player-characters will need to 
  hire an interpreter or learn the necessary languages 
  themselves. Otherwise there will inevitably be mis-
  understandings. Remember that even if they find a 
  way to communicate, they may be unaware of the 
  local customs and unwittingly offend someone. In 
  Khitai, for instance, it is a mortal insult to approach 
  someone with your hands behind your back. To do 
  this to a mandarin or government official could 
  result in torture or death.
  Sea Travel
  Vessel types
  Ships are of two basic types. Longboats (strictly 
  speaking, longships) have a single square sail and up 
  to fifteen pairs of oars. They are steered with a single 
  oar slung on the starboard (‘steering board’) quarter. 
  The sail is used for long journeys while the oars are 
  brought into play for rapid manoeuvring and inshore 
  travel anD hazarDs
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  travel. Life on board is uncomfortable, as there is 
  rarely more than a stretched tarpaulin for shelter 
  and the sides are so close to the waves that the crew 
  must bale incessantly in rough weather. Neverthe-
  less, these are ideal warships and are employed as 
  such by most northern nations.
   
  Trade around the coastal waters of the north is 
  flourishing. Ports all around the Coradian Sea thrive 
  on the exchange of fish and iron from Ellesland and 
  the Mercanian coast, salt and silver from Kurland, 
  Algandian timber and copper from the Empire. 
  To transport their goods, the merchants use cogs—
  heavy double-ended ships with a rudder and single 
  mast. They carry larger cargoes than longships, and 
  can be run by a smaller crew, but are slower and less 
  manoeuvrable. A cog can rarely outrun a longship, 
  but it has advantages of height: standing some 5 
  metres out of the water (as compared to 1 metre for 
  a longship) makes it difficult to board.
  Ship characteristics
  The following information summarizes game-
  rules for various ships. optimum crew indicates the 
  number of officers and ordinary seamen needed to 
  run the ship efficiently. (If a full crew is not avail-
  able, see the section on Undermanning, below.) Fur-
  ther passengers/cargo is the additional load the ship 
  can take on board. Men require space to move and 
  breathe, so a single passenger occupies 250kg worth 
  of cargo space. This figure assumes a passenger with 
  minimal possessions and who is willing to endure 
  rather cramped conditions. (Crusaders, for instance, 
  typically make the passage south on bunks 0.6m 
  wide by 1.5m long; each man must lie with his head 
  between the next man’s feet.) An adventurer with 
  his weapons, armour, treasure-chest, occult books 
  and other paraphernalia will occupy at least twice 
  the space. Ship Points (explained in greater detail 
  later) are the vessel’s equivalent of Health Points. 
  Storm damage reduces Ship Points, and if they reach 
  0 the ship sinks. Cost to buy is self-explanatory; this 
  sum does not include the wages of the crew or the 
  cost of routine maintenance.
  Small longboat
  optimum crew: 1–3 officers; 50 oarsmen 
  Further passengers/cargo: 20 men/5000kg 
  Ship Points: 10   
   
   
   
  Cost to buy: 5000 florins
  Medium longboat
  optimum crew: 2–6 officers; 70 oarsmen  
  Further passengers/cargo: 30 men/7500kg 
  Ship Points: 15   
   
   
   
  Cost to buy: 6500 florins
  Large longboat 
  optimum crew: 4–10 officers; 170 oarsmen  
  Further passengers/cargo: 50 men/12,500kg 
  Ship Points: 25   
   
   
   
  Cost to buy: 10,000 florins
  Small cog
  optimum crew: 1–2 officers; 10 sailors   
  Further passengers/cargo: 50 men/12,500kg 
  Ship Points: 18   
   
   
   
  Cost to buy: 15,000 florins 
  Medium cog
  optimum crew: 2–4 officers; 20 sailors   
  Further passengers/cargo: 100 men/25,000kg 
  Ship Points: 25   
   
   
   
  Cost to buy: 30,000 florins 
  Large cog
  optimum crew: 5–7 officers; 30 sailors   
  Further passengers/cargo: 150 men/37,500kg 
  Ship Points: 32   
   
   
   
  Cost to buy: 50,000 florins
  For comparison, a standard five-man rowing boat 
  has 2 Ship Points and costs about 75 florins.
  Weather at sea 
  At the start of any sea voyage, the GamesMaster 
  decides on the wind conditions for the day of depar-
  ture. Each day of the journey, a d6 is rolled to see if 
  and how the wind changes:
  Previous day’s wind
  calm 
  breeze  
  gale  
  storm 
   
  Result
  – 
   
  – 
   
   
  1 
   
  1 
   
   
  2 degrees calmer
  – 
   
  1–2  
   
  2 
   
  2–4  
   
  1 degree calmer
  1–3  
  3–4  
   
  3–4  
  5–6  
   
  No change 
  4–5  
  5 
   
   
  5–6  
  – 
   
   
  1 degree stronger
  6 
   
  6 
   
   
  – 
   
  – 
   
   
  2 degrees stronger
  Example
  a party of adventurers set out on a fine day from Port 
  Beltayn, with a brisk breeze billowing out their sails. 
  rolling at dawn for the next day’s weather, the games-
  Master gets a 5, so the wind increases one degree to 
  become a gale. The following day he rolls a 1: the wind 
  drops and the ship lies becalmed.
  Making headway
  The wind speed, found using the rules above, is 
  what determines how far a ship can sail in a day: 
  The figures given here assume a full day’s sailing in 
  the open sea, but in fact longboats usually skirt the 
  coast and put in to land at night. Camping on the 
  shore is safer and more comfortable than sleeping at 
  sea, and means that the large crew can forage rather 
  
  
  than overburden the ship with all the provisions 
  they need for the journey.
  Distance covered under sail in 24 hours
   
   
   
   
  Longship 
   
   
  Cog
  calm 
   
   
  0–3 miles  
   
  0–3 miles
  breeze  
   
  4d20 miles  
   
  3d20 miles
  gale  
   
   
  9d20 miles  
   
  8d20 miles
  storm  
   
  1d100 miles in random direction
  The advantage of a longboat is that it can use its oars 
  if the wind is low. Cogs also carry oars, but too few 
  to do more than scull them along when becalmed. A 
  full day’s rowing is not feasible unless one has tire-
  less undead or automata to man the oars.
  Distance covered under oar in 12 hours
   
   
   
   
  Longship 
   
   
  Cog
   
   
   
   
  60 miles 
   
   
  5–10 miles
  Rowing in a storm is not possible in a cog. A long-
  ship may use its oars during a storm to try and hold 
  its position; it. is then blown only 3d20 miles in a 
  random direction. This is only possible for the first 
  day of the storm.
  Storms
  A storm at sea is one of the worst dangers a ship 
  can face. Longships are particularly prone to storm 
  damage and will usually head for land if the captain 
  thinks a storm is brewing. The GamesMaster checks 
  for this by making the d6 roll for the next day’s wind 
  and then making a d20 Intelligence roll on behalf of 
  the captain. If the d20 roll is less than the captain’s 
  Intelligence he has correctly forecast a change in the 
  wind up to four hours before it actually occurs.
   
  The chance of a ship taking damage during a 
  storm depends on the ship type and on how long 
  the storm continues:
  Chance of storm damage
   
   
   
   
  1st day  
   
  2nd day  
   
  3rd day on
  Longship  
  20% 
   
   
  30% 
   
   
  45%
  Cog 
   
   
  10% 
   
   
  15% 
   
   
  20%
  Make the percentile check each day. Once the ship 
  sustains damage, its chances of taking further dam-
  age are increased by 5% until repairs are made.
   
  The first time a ship takes damage it loses 1d6 
  Ship Points. (These are the vessel’s equivalent of 
  travel anD hazarDs
   JH
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
  Health Points and are listed above.) If damaged 
  again before making repairs, it loses a further 2d6 
  Ship Points each time. A damaged ship should be 
  repaired without delay—‘a stitch in time...’ etc.
  Ship Points lost Result(s)
  up to 4  
   
  Ship requires light repairs which can 
  be carried out while under way. Repairs 
  restore 1–2 SP per day.
  5–8  
   
   
  More serious damage. The ship must be 
  beached before repairs can take place, and 
  these will restore 1–3 SP each day. Once 
  remaining repairs are reduced to 4 lost 
  SP or less, ship can be relaunched—or 
  repairs can continue at this rate until fully 
  seaworthy again.
  9–14 
   
   
  Very serious damage. Ship has a 25% 
  chance of foundering each day it remains 
  at sea. Movement is reduced to half 
  normal. Once in harbour, the ship can be 
  repaired at the rate of 1 SP every two days 
  until 8 or fewer SP remain to be repaired.
  15–17  
   
  Heavy damage. Sails, rigging and mast are 
  destroyed and oared progress is slowed to 
  1d6 miles per day. Ship has a 75% chance 
  of foundering each day.
  Notwithstanding these damage ratings, a ship 
  always breaks up and sinks immediately if its Ship 
  Points score is reduced to zero. Characters who roll 
  under their Reflexes on d20 have clung to a piece of 
  wreckage; others drown.
  Lost at sea
  Getting lost is something best left to the Games-
  Master. It should be used as part of his planned 
  gaming session rather than featuring as a regular 
  hazard. Note, however, that travellers blown off-
  course by a storm will not know exactly how far it 
  has moved them—they will have to estimate their 
  new position based on the direction in which the 
  wind was blowing.
   
  Navigation is usually just a matter of following 
  the coastline. Other indicators of position are the 
  sun, the Pole Star and the Ghosts of the Magi (five 
  small heavenly bodies that orbit low and quickly 
  around Legend—see a[pge 172). If there is a fog 
  (which is again a matter left to the GamesMaster’s 
  whim) such navigation may not be possible. This is 
  the time when sailors seize their crucifixes and pray 
  that fate will not hurl them onto the Stranded Isles, 
  the Reefs of Moganstruder, the Atoll of Gargana 
  the Beautiful, or a dozen other notorious hazards.
  Undermanning
  A ship can function with a reduced crew. At crew 
  levels down to 50% of the optimums given above, 
  the ship will still be able to move at half-speed; the 
  chance of taking damage in a storm increases by 
  +10%. If the crew is depleted further. the ship will 
  only be able to scull along at about 10 miles a day. 
  The chance of taking storm damage is doubled.
   
  Ships’ crews may suffer attrition owing to storms 
  (at the GamesMaster’s discretion) and sea monsters. 
  This is more likely to affect the ordinary seamen 
  than their officers, who are careful to avoid unneces-
  sary risk.
  The cost of sea travel
  The cost of buying a ship outright has already been 
  given. Even with the means to do so, characters 
  might prefer to charter the vessel for one specific 
  journey or merely to pay for their berth on a vessel 
  going in the right direction.
   
  Paying for a berth is possible for any voyage to 
  a common destination. It is easy to find a trading 
  ship that will be sailing from Breylak to Ferromaine, 
  say, and for an agreed sum the captain will probably 
  take on a few passengers. Deck passage costs in the 
  region of 50 florins per hundred miles. This secures 
  the passenger a small space barely 1m by 2m. He 
  must bargain for food separately, or bring his own 
  provisions, and is expected to muck in with the sail-
  ors when needed. Larger sums bring more comfort 
  and privacy, of course. 200 florins per hundred miles 
  will likely induce the captain to make his own bunk 
  available! Cogs usually have ample space for those 
  willing to pay their way. The captain of a longboat 
  will expect travellers to work their passage—free-
  loaders are not appreciated, but of course the cost of 
  the journey is considerably less (about 20 florins per 
  hundred miles).
   
  When a large group wish to travel together, they 
  must charter a boat between them. This is also nec-
  essary when one intends to travel to an uncharted 
  or rarely visited area. The ship-owner will base his 
  fee on the riskiness of the voyage. A journey to the 
  mouth of the Mungoda River or beyond the Sultan-
  ate of Opalar to Minj might incur a 25% chance of 
  disaster. The shipowner doubles this (to be on the 
  safe side) and thus charges 50% of his ship’s total 
  value as the charter fee. The wages of officers and 
  crew must be paid in addition to this—and they will 
  expect a 50% bonus as ‘danger money’.
  
  7
  Chapter 9
  THE DARkNESS 
  BEFORE DAWN
  An introductory scenario for 4-6 1st-rank characters 
  By Frazer Payne
  How to GM this adventure
  THIS ADVENTURE IS designed to show you 
  how to structure and run a typical Dragon Warriors 
  scenario. Each location where the characters may go 
  is described in its own section, called a scene, along 
  with any non-player characters they may meet there. 
  At the end of each scene you’ll find a list of likely 
  choices the players might make and directions to 
  the appropriate scene. 
   
  For example, you might see “If the players take 
  the overgrown left path, turn to scene 7, The Secret 
  Path. If they follow the stream, turn to scene 8, The 
  Cottage”. All text in italics may be read directly to 
  the players. You can paraphrase it if you prefer.
   
  Several sections also include boxed text. Here 
  you will find an explanation of why certain events 
  and locations appear in the adventure. Read back to 
  back, these boxed sections form a guide to GMing 
  and writing your own adventures. Read them at your 
  leisure; you don’t need to refer to them while you are 
  running the game. 
   
  On the next page is a diagram showing the path 
  the story will take. This is based on the structure 
  of a traditional folk-tale or myth. You don’t have to 
  draw one of these diagrams for your own scenarios, 
  or structure them the same way, but this one will 
  help you understand what is happening in this par-
  ticular adventure, and why events occur in a certain 
  order. Notice also the line at the top, showing how 
  the level of action and tension grows from event to 
  event, until it peaks at the climax.
  GamesMaster’s Overview
  The characters arrive at Maiden’s Vale, a village 
  under a curse. If a child is born on the night of a full 
  moon, two nights later a strange house appears in 
  the forest. At daybreak three days after its birth, the 
  child will ail and pass away. Local legend tells how 
  the mistress of the house, a ‘White Lady’ known as 
  Queen Fhionn, eternally mourns her own lost child 
  and so steals the lives of others. Over the years many 
  have attempted to reach the house and defeat this 
  evil spirit. No one has ever returned.
   
  The local lord, Sir Olvar, and his wife Lady 
  Angela have long been envied by their cousin, the 
  scheming Maxim Le Cloche.
  
  8
  Dragon Warriors
   
  Two days ago, on the night of the full moon, 
  Lady Angela gave birth to a son. A storm began and 
  the lights of the white house appeared between the 
  lashing branches of the trees high on the wooded 
  slopes above the town. Sir Olvar rode out to seek 
  the house and demand of Queen Fhionn that she 
  spare his child.
   
  As soon as Sir Olvar had departed, Le Cloche 
  seized control of the manor house and ejected Lady 
  Angela and her child, who have taken shelter in her 
  cook’s humble cottage. He has brought in a band of 
  hired thugs from nearby towns to enforce his strict 
  new rule. Le Cloche assumes that Sir Olvar will 
  never return and the child will fall foul of the curse, 
  leaving him heir to the title of Lord of Maiden’s 
  Vale. But when the characters undertake to find Sir 
  Olvar and rid the village of Queen Fhionn, he takes 
  steps to ensure they never reach their goal.
  N
  Action
  Beginning
  Te call to adventure
  Preparation
  Te Manor
  Angela’s Cottage
  Solly and the 
  wolves
  Te Eaves Gate - 
  Often a wise-man or 
  ‘gatekeeper’ can be 
  found at this stage...
  Middle
  Entering the forest
  Tests of mind and
  body
  A series of challenges,
  increasing in diﬃculty.
  Te players have 
  several choices, but, 
  one-way or another, 
  they will meet all the 
  crucial encounters.
  Te ‘inner cave’ is the scene for the ﬁnal 
  battle, where both wits and strength are 
  tested. In traditional myths, a balanced 
  sense of self is rewarded. Are the players 
  ‘worthy’ of success? Te shadow of death 
  is at its closest here.
  A gatekeeper often 
  appears here, too (in 
  this case, Old Mab) 
  giving aid or advice.
  End
  Te ‘inner cave’
  Gaining the prize
  Journey home
   FP
  Pre-game preparation
  This is probably the first time the players’ characters 
  have adventured together, or at all. The question is: 
  why should they work together, rather than wander 
  off to achieve their own personal goals?
   
  Your first task as a GM is to encourage the 
  players to think of reasons why their characters are 
  bound together. Try asking the players to write a 
  brief background history for their character, includ-
  ing their mannerisms, motivations, and family life.
   
  Next, invite the players to briefly discuss ways 
  in which their characters might be connected with 
  at least one other in the party (“She’s my friend,” 
  “I know of him by reputation only,” “We are twins” 
  etc). This adds depth to the characters.
   
  Now when a companion gets into trouble, the 
  others will not simply shrug and continue filling 
  their backpacks with treasure, but charge to the res-
  cue. This makes for a richer game for all concerned. 
  Of course, some of the connections might be nega-
  tive rather than positive (“I secretly harbour a ven-
  detta against him, and am waiting for my chance to 
  strike!”) but such connections should be rare. Too 
  many of these, and the party will scatter rather than 
  bind together.
   
  Since this is their first adventure, we are going 
  to take the opportunity to contribute to the back-
  ground history of one of the characters in particular. 
  This will ensure they are deeply committed to com-
  pleting the adventure.
   
  
  9
  the Darkness BeFore DaWn
  Choose the player whose character is the most high-
  born (such as a knight). This character is going to 
  begin the game with a mission. Read out the follow-
  ing to that player, allowing all the players to hear:
  a few days ago you were called to your father’s private 
  chamber.
   
  “i have good news,” he told you. “Your second cousin, 
  the Lady angela and her husband, Sir olvar, will 
  shortly be blessed with a child. They deserve all the sup-
  port our family can muster. i want you to escort Mother 
  Clay to their village, Maiden’s Vale. She’s the finest nurse 
  for leagues around, and sure to bring the child up to be 
  proper and strong.”
   
  Beside your father, hunched on a stool, was the old 
  crone known as Mother Clay, a faithful retainer to your 
  family since before written history. She is thought of 
  fondly by the elders of the family, and with vague dread 
  by the youngsters. You have been subjected to her foul-
  tasting ‘cures’ on more than one occasion.
   
  “When you present yourself to them,” your father 
  continued, “give them this gift with the best wishes of 
  our family, and place yourself humbly at their service. 
  if you are determined to be someone of substance in this 
  world, this will set you on that road.
   
  “The way to Maiden’s Vale is long, and not without 
  some small danger. Take some friends who you trust.
   
  “Sometimes you let your heart rule your head. Stay 
  sharp, and bring honour to our family. Dismissed.”
   
  Your father then handed you a package and a letter 
  bound with the family seal. By his gruff manner it was 
  clear that this meeting was at an end.
  The package, should anyone open it, contains a 
  finely crafted wooden doll. Its teeth are made of 
  pearl, and its eyes of blue lapis lazuli. The letter, 
  addressed to Sir Olvar, explains who the character is 
  and expresses the assurance that he will be of service 
  to Sir Olvar in any endeavour.
   
  The player’s character will know of Maiden’s 
  Vale: it lies in the west of Baron Aldred’s fief, at 
  the edge of Helfax Wood and the first peaks of the 
  Shriven Hills, but too small to appear on any map.
  Scene 1:  
  On the Road
  Read this out loud to all the players:
  You have been on the road for several days now. For the 
  last two it has rained incessantly. To make matters worse 
  AL
  
  0
  Dragon Warriors
  Mother Clay has done nothing but complain about her 
  various ailments. Still, there is not much further to go. 
  as night approaches, you look forward to the comfort of 
  a warm bed for the night, and the chance to show your 
  quality to your cousin and her husband. You think fondly 
  of the rich rewards their patronage might bring.
  At this point it can be helpful to invite the players to 
  describe the appearance of their characters to each 
  other. If the players are reticent about speaking in 
  character at this stage, don’t worry. It can take a while 
  to relax into roleplaying. Just keep the action mov-
  ing along. Stress how the sound of the rain makes 
  it hard to be heard, how everyone’s hair is plastered 
  to their faces, and how freezing water is soaking 
  through their travel-cloaks and running down their 
  necks. Feel free to improvise the ramblings of the 
  old crone, Mother Clay. She is unhappy about hav-
  ing to travel at her age, and dismissive of the young 
  folk who have been assigned to protect her.
   
  Once the players have had time to banter in-
  character, go to the next scene.
  Scene 2:  
  Solly in the Stocks
  The track winds northwards up a hill, so sodden that it 
  is more like a muddy river than a road. Cresting the top, 
  you find yourself looking down on the village of Maid-
  en’s Vale: a huddle of ancient stone houses weighed down 
  by moss-coated thatched roofs, in a valley of dark wood-
  land. No glimmer of welcoming firelight can be seen in 
  the windows, or wood-smoke curling from the chimneys. 
  The village looks deserted. in the centre is a small square, 
  overshadowed by a manor house remarkable for its even 
  greater age. it stands a storey higher than the rest, with 
  walls made of wattle around row upon row of mill 
  stones, giving it an armoured appearance.
   
  Beside the road is a huge oak tree. its thick boughs, 
  bent by age, rest on the ground. Fixed between two of 
  them is a wooden stocks. a bedraggled man sits on a 
  third bough, his head and hands locked into the rough 
  wood shackles. He looks scared.
   
  Dark shapes are circling the foot of the tree—a pack 
  of feral dogs. They stop trying to reach the prisoner, and 
  instead lope towards you, tongues lolling hungrily.
  There is one feral dog for each member of the party. 
  The village is still a quarter of a mile away. If the 
  party try and outrun the dogs, describe how Mother 
  Clay cannot keep up. They will have to fight.
  Feral dogs
  attack 12, Fangs (d4, 3)  
  AF 0
  defence 3  
   
   
   
   
  Movement 12m(25m)
  magical defence 1 
   
   
  Evasion 3
  Health Points 5 
   
   
   
  stealth 16
  Rank-equivalent: 1st 
   
   
  perception 11
  Remember that combatants take turns, those with 
  the highest Reflexes go first. The feral dogs will not 
  attack Mother Clay, who will avoid them by staying 
  in the party’s midst. They are hungry, and will fight 
  to the death.
   
  After the fight, the players may choose to ignore 
  the man in the stocks. In this case, describe how 
  Mother Clay breaks from her monologue of ills 
  and squints at the man. “Solly? Is that you? What 
  are you doing out here?” she cries, and bustles over 
  to him, tutting. She knows him as a long-serving 
  member of Olvar’s household. If the player-charac-
  ters approach the man, read out the following:
  as you approach, the man’s expression of gratitude 
  turns to confusion, then pain. Something whizzes from 
  amongst the higher branches to hit him on the head! 
  You see a scrawny squirrel further up the tree, throwing 
  acorns at the forlorn prisoner. From its chirruping, it 
  seems to be enjoying itself. it is remarkably accurate.
  The strange creature will evade all attempts to catch 
  or injure it before escaping through the tree tops. 
  This squirrel is important to the adventure later on.
  scrawny squirrel
  attack Not applicable  
   
  AF 0
  defence 9  
   
   
   
   
  Movement 15m(20m)
  magical defence 6 
   
   
  evasion 8
  Health Points 10  
   
  The man is Solly, a servant in Sir Olvar’s household. 
  If the players ask why he is in the stocks, read out 
  the following:
  “all i did was show surprise when Maxim Le Cloche 
  came barging into the manor house yesterday morning. 
  Next thing i know, he’s dragged Lady angela from her 
  bed and cast her and her newborn into the street. Well, 
  of course, i asked him on whose authority he had the 
  right to treat her ladyship so. He says, ‘on the authority 
  of the new lord of the manor—me!’ Then he charges me 
  
  
  with looking at him funny, orders me whipped till i’m 
  on my knees, and has me locked up here!”
  The stocks are about eight feet off the ground. 
  Characters will have to climb the tree to free Solly. 
  If they do, they’ll notice that his back is bruised and 
  bloody from a severe beating. Although he is miser-
  able, he will resist being freed: if he escapes from the 
  stocks he will be deemed a homeless outlaw, leaving 
  his family at the mercy of Le Cloche. If freed he will 
  ask to be locked up again. If the players refuse, he 
  thanks them grudgingly: “I’ll hide myself, and hope 
  Le Cloche gets his come-uppance soon!” He shrugs 
  and runs off into the forest.
   
  If the players ask him questions about what has 
  been going on, refer to the Local Knowledge section 
  on pages 223-224. Solly will supply some or all of 
  this information, depending on the questions asked 
  of him, but won’t offer information on matters he 
  isn’t asked about.
   
  When the players are ready to continue onwards, 
  go to Scene 3: About Town.
  This section of the adventure serves several purposes. 
  Firstly, it illustrates the hardships of medieval ‘law’: 
  a feudal lord literally owns the lives of the peasants 
  in his domain. It is worth reminding players of such 
  cultural details early on in a game. It helps them 
  get into character. Secondly, we have the squirrel: a 
  quirky little thing, it represents the fey strangeness 
  which is at the heart of a good Dragon Warriors game. 
  This squirrel is going to show up again later on… 
  and display increasingly strange behaviour! Thirdly, 
  it contains a fight. Like fictional adventures, role-
  playing sessions often start with a ‘warm-up’ fight. 
  It helps to grab the audience’s attention.
  Scene 3:  
  About Town
  As the player-characters enter the village of Maid-
  en’s Vale read the following text to them:
  You make your way north down the hill and through 
  the village gate. The gate stands open and the gatehouse 
  is deserted.  The street is empty and the cottages have 
  shuttered windows. Every door is firmly closed. Many 
  are decorated with charms to ward off evil spirits: sprigs 
  of heather, dried frogs and rabbits’ feet.
   
  You reach the central cobbled square, with the manor 
  house standing proudly on its north side. opposite the 
  manor is a small inn. There is a faint light from within. 
  a bearded face peers out at you, then ducks inside. How-
  ever, the door remains ajar.
   
  The road continues north-east, sloping down to 
  a bridge over a stream. There it passes through a gate 
  before turning east towards the black edges of the forest.
  The townspeople have hidden themselves away, ter-
  rified of the White Lady, and of Maxim Le Cloche. 
  They will suppose that any strangers are here to join 
  Le Cloche’s band of thugs hired from nearby towns, 
  and want to avoid all contact.
   
  Player-characters examining the cottages will 
  find the doors and shutters are stout and firmly 
  barred. They may try listening to ascertain if there 
  is anyone at home. Roll on behalf of the townspeo-
  ple inside. Their stealth score is 12. Deduct the 
  listener’s perception score. This gives the number 
  you must roll lower than on 2d10 in order for the 
  townspeople to avoid detection. If the townspeople 
  fail, the players will hear stealthy movement and 
  fearful whispering. If a character bangs on the doors 
  a voice will cry out from within: “Go away! We want 
  no trouble!” then only silence.
   
  If the PCs decide to break into a house, they will 
  find that the window shutters are as stout as the 
  doors, so the break-in is handled in just the same 
  way: anyone with Strength 17 or more will break 
  the door/window shutter first time, while weaker 
  characters must roll under their Strength on 1d20. 
  Every attempt costs 1 Health Point, successful or 
  not.
   
  If the characters force entry to a home, read out:
  The house consists of a single, cramped room. The only 
  light comes from a lantern on a table in the centre, shut-
  tered to release the faintest glow. in the far corner a 
  terrified villager brandishes a shovel, his family cower-
  ing behind. “get out of here! We want no trouble!” he 
  shouts.
  He will fight to the death to defend his family and 
  home if necessary, but this is an unlikely course of 
  events. The players should be able to calm the man 
  and assure him of their trustworthiness. If ques-
  tioned, the man and his family will be able to share 
  some of the information found in the Local Knowl-
  edge section.
   
  If the PCs ask for shelter, the villager will rec-
  ommend that they visit the more comfortable inn 
  the Darkness BeFore DaWn
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
  nearby. There is no space for them in this single-
  room home.
  Typical townsman
  attack 11, Pick (d8, 6 points) AF 0
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 6 
   
   
   
  stealth 12
  Rank: 1st  
   
   
   
   
  perception 4
  If the players visit the inn turn to scene 3a: The Inn. 
  If they continue north-east along the road, turn to 
  3b: Lady Angela’s Refuge. Or they can visit 3c: The 
  Manor House.
  Scene 3a:  
  The Inn
  You push open the door to find yourself in a deserted 
  common room. Stools surround a single large table and 
  barrels line the far wall. a stout man with a magnificent 
  red beard and a filthy apron enters from a door there. He 
  looks cautious, yet hopeful.
   
  “Hello to you, good people. Welcome to my inn. Er… 
  if you don’t mind my asking, what are you doing in 
  Maiden’s Vale at this late hour?”
  The characters have found “The Inn with No Name” 
  (so called because it is such a poor example of the 
  type that it can hardly be called an inn at all). It has 
  only one guest room. The innkeeper, Bulbin, can also 
  offer a rough wooden pallet with a handful of straw 
  in the common room. The players may argue about 
  who should get the guest room; let them. Before 
  they get a chance to sleep, Bulbin will pester them 
  with questions about their mission. He will remark 
  upon their weapons (until recently it was unusual to 
  see heavily armed people in the area). He will ask 
  them if they are here for Lady Angela and Sir Olvar, 
  or for Maxim Le Cloche, worried that they may be 
  recruits for Le Cloche’s band of thugs.
   
  When he is sure that the characters are here for 
  Lady Angela, he will call through the rearward door 
  for his young servant, Sprout.
  “Sprout, go and get Sethun. He’ll want to meet our visi-
  tors, i’m sure. and they’ll be interested to meet him, or 
  i’m a fool.” The boy runs off into the rain. a short time 
  later, he returns, accompanied by a gaggle of frightened-
  looking townsmen. They eye you with suspicion.
   
  “it’s all right, Sethun. They’re here for Lady angela. 
  This gentleman/gentle lady here is her cousin!” says Bul-
  bin, cheerful.
   
  The leader of the group, a small, care-worn man 
  named Sethun, comes forward to peer at you. “if that’s 
  true, you come in just the nick of time. i beg of you sires, 
  bring back our dear Sir olvar, and rid this town of that 
  terrible she-devil, Queen Fhionn.”
  These are elders and traders of high standing in the 
  village. They will ask the characters to visit Lady 
  Angela immediately, saying, “By day-break it’ll be 
  too late for her and her baby.” If pressed, they will 
  offer to pay 50 florins for the party’s assistance. Both 
  the elders and Bulbin can supply information found 
  in the Local Knowledge section, if asked.
  BulBin/sethun/6 elders
  attack Not applicable  
   
  AF 0
  defence Not applicable 
   
  Movement 10m (20m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 5  
   
   
   
  stealth 12
  Rank: 1st   
   
   
   
   
  perception 4
  If the party agree to visit Lady Angela, they must 
  first pass by 3c: The Manor House.
  Scene 3b:  
  Lady Angela’s Refuge
  The road leads to a bridge over a stream. By the bank 
  is a low cottage with a mill wheel, clogged with weeds. 
  Storm water has raised the stream, and water courses 
  across the street.
  Lady Angela and her child have sheltered here, in 
  her cook’s cottage. The cook, Gayble, is fiercely pro-
  tective of her mistress, and will quiz the PCs about 
  their credentials before she will open the door.
   
  Lady Angela is sitting in a rocking chair beside 
  the fire, wrapped in a blanket. A cot at her feet holds 
  her sleeping child. When she hears the characters 
  are here to offer their service, she murmurs the fol-
  lowing:
  “it gives me hope to see you here. i have never been in 
  such sore need of help. My husband is gone, and i fear i 
  will never see him again, and at daybreak, this terrible 
  curse may steal my child from me as well!” Her voice 
  cracks, and her eyes fill with tears. “it is a terrible thing 
  
  3
  i must ask of you: please will you bring olvar back to me 
  and save my child?”
  If the characters hand over the present they have 
  been carrying, read out the following:
  With a weak smile, the lady unwraps your gift, but the 
  smile fades. inside is a beautifully crafted doll with pearl 
  teeth and eyes of lapis lazuli. it looks very like her own 
  child. By morning, this could be all she has left! Mother 
  Clay plucks it from her hands and shoves it back to you. 
  “really! That’s not what the poor girl wants to see right 
  now, is it! Now you go and sort this out, right away!”
  Lady Angela stares into the fireplace, so filled with 
  grief she can speak no more. However, Gayble the 
  cook can answer further questions. Refer to the 
  Local Knowledge section as required.
   
  Gayble gives each PC a thick-crusted loaf, filled 
  with hot vegetables. She is an excellent cook: when 
  eaten it will restore 1 Health Point.
   
  From here, the PCs may visit 3a: The Inn, or 3c: 
  The Manor House. If they wish to start their quest, 
  go to Scene 4: The Eaves Gate Keeper. 
  Note how the mission is presented as a race against 
  time. This is a useful device to ensure you keep the 
  players’ attention. Since we want them to enjoy an 
  exciting finale, we will ensure that they make it to 
  the white house in the nick of time… but they don’t 
  need to know that. Maintain the tension!
  Scene 3c:  
  The Manor House
  You enter the village square. The manor house casts a 
  moon-shadow across it, black and foreboding. a figure 
  appears at an upper window, silhouetted in firelight, 
  watching you. But when you look up, it retreats from 
  view and seconds later shutters are closed across the win-
  dow from the inside. You can hear many rough voices 
  singing in the hall, the rhythmic banging of swords on 
  tables, and breaking crockery.
  It is almost impossible for our party of 1st-level 
  adventurers to break into the mansion. The doors 
  and window-shutters are extremely strong, and there 
  is a sizeable group of armed thugs housed inside, 
  who will answer any attempts at communication 
  with crude insults and threats.
   
  If the players decide to force their way in, they 
  will have to break a door or window shutter. Anyone 
  with Strength 18 or more will break the door/win-
  dow shutter first time, while weaker characters must 
  roll under their Strength minus 5 on 1d20. Every 
  attempt costs 1 Health Point, successful or not.
   
  Any breach will be defended by the raging mer-
  cenaries. If one is killed, two more will step up to 
  take his place until the party retreat. At this, the 
  mercenaries will block up the breach with stout 
  tables. There are ten thugs in all, but the townspeo-
  ple believe there are double that, and are terrified of 
  them.
  10 typical thugs 
  attack 11, Mace (d6, 4 points), Spear (2d4, 4 points)
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  AF 0
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 6 
   
   
   
   
  stealth 12
  Rank 1st 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  perception 4
  In this scene a frontal assault on our main villain, 
  Le Cloche, should be discouraged. Players need to 
  realise that, while they are heroes, they are not all-
  powerful! It is quite reasonable to tell your players, 
  “This fight looks hopeless” if such is the case. 
  From here, the party may visit 3a: The Inn, or, if they 
  wish to start their quest, they will pass by 3b: Lady 
  Angela’s Refuge. If the party try and spot Queen 
  Fhionn’s white house on the hillside above the town, 
  read the following:
  You scan the forested hills overlooking the town. To the 
  east, perhaps two miles away, you can make out a glow 
  amid the trees. There is something there, the colour of 
  old bone.
  Local knowledge
  The player-characters will want to ask questions of 
  people in the stricken village. Here is what the aver-
  age villager knows (you don’t need to memorize this, 
  but refer to it as and when the characters question 
  someone). You can use some or all of the informa-
  tion to answer a question, and ad-lib how the indi-
  vidual words his response.
  Maxim Le Cloche, Lord Olvar’s cousin
  “He is power-hungry, and uses whatever influence he 
  has to enjoy a fine lifestyle… but he keeps it all hidden 
  from Sir olvar. around olvar, he’s all sweetness and 
  the Darkness BeFore DaWn
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  light! He’s recruited a bunch of foreign thugs to act as his 
  henchmen.”
  Sir Olvar, much loved by the villagers
  “if olvar has a weakness, it is to think the best of people 
  (particularly Le Cloche). He didn’t even have a militia 
  or any guards in the village. Sir olvar left the town two 
  days ago on horseback to confront the White Lady and 
  save his newborn child.”
  Lady Angela, a just and kind mistress
  “She’s taken refuge from Le Cloche in her cook’s cottage, 
  where she awaits news of her husband, Sir olvar. She 
  is beside herself with worry for her husband, and for her 
  child, the poor thing.”
  The White Lady, Queen Fhionn, a terrible spirit
  “No one alive has seen her, but her white house has 
  appeared in the eastern hills overlooking the town on 
  several occasions over the years, only when the moon is 
  nearly full and a child is due to be born. Whenever it 
  appears, there’s a terrible storm (much like the one that is 
  raging now). at daybreak of the third day after its birth, 
  the poor little mite falls sick and passes away. They say 
  the white Lady spirits their little souls away, but no one 
  knows why.”
  “Many brave folk have attempted to put an end to the 
  evil creature, but none have returned from the white 
  house. once her evil work is done, the house disappears 
  and the storm blows out.”
  “There’s little hope of ever seeing good Sir olvar again. 
  These are dark times indeed.”
  The Manor House
  “The home of Sir olvar and Lady angela. With Sir 
  olvar gone, and little hope of his ever returning, Le 
  Cloche has seized control of it, casting out angela, along 
  with her new-born child and her servants.”
  Scene 4:  
  The Eaves Gate keeper
  You cross the bridge over the raging water and head 
  north out of the village. ahead, the road turns east and 
  plunges beneath the forest’s black eaves. Marking the 
  edge is an ancient stone wall with a ramshackle gate-
  house built into it. an old man stands in the porch with 
  a lantern. a raven is perched on his shoulder.
  The old man is Porthawr. He and his raven Grist-
  bitten have guarded the ‘Eaves Gate’ for many years. 
  If questioned, he can provide some or all of the 
  information found in the Local Knowledge section.
   
  In addition, he can tell the party the following: 
  within the hour a grim-looking group has passed 
  through this way without a word. Porthawr didn’t 
  recognise any of them, and he can’t count so can’t 
  give an exact number. “Between one hand and two,” 
  is his best guess.
   
  These men were Le Cloche’s mercenaries, sent 
  to ambush the party and stop them completing their 
  mission. Le Cloche was forewarned by a treacher-
  ous tradesman from the inn.
  Scene 5:  
  Entering the Forest
  It is night, and although the moon is still almost full 
  the combination of the heavy rain, the trees and the 
  stormclouds covering the sky mean that there is not 
  enough light for the party to see the path clearly. 
  They can use magical lights such as Moonglow (page 
  80), or if they have thought to bring torches or lan-
  terns they can use those. Alternatively they can bor-
  row three torches from Porthawr, who hands them 
  over grumbling under his breath, or head back into 
  town to borrow a lantern. A properly made torch 
  will not go out in the heavy rain; one improvised 
  from branches will. More information on illumina-
  tion is on page 60. 
   
  If the characters try to traverse the forest without 
  following a path, they will find that the trees are 
  extremely old and dense, with thick thorn bushes 
  and vines growing between them. Movement is 
  slowed to a quarter of its usual speed. In this case, 
  describe their difficult journey through the trees and 
  their discovery of an old path. Have this path lead 
  to the next scene, no matter which direction they 
  choose to go in.
  Scene 6:  
  The First Ambush
  The path continues to wind upward through the gloomy, 
  dripping forest. The pouring rain makes it hard to see 
  far. Eventually, the path leads to a clearing. on the far 
  
  
  side is a chalky cliff face, ten metres high, running north 
  and south. Near the bottom, tied to a tree root, is a dap-
  pled grey horse.
  This is Sir Olvar’s horse, abandoned when he real-
  ised he could go no further on horseback. Five of Le 
  Cloche’s mercenaries are hiding atop the cliff, wait-
  ing to push boulders onto climbers. Having done 
  so they will escape eastwards, looking for the next 
  chance to attack.
   
  If the PCs examine the cliff, they will see fresh 
  scrape-marks where someone has climbed it. The 
  rain has washed most of the marks away, and it 
  is impossible to see how many people made the 
  climb.
   
  The cliff runs for half a mile around the hill in 
  both directions. Aside from this clearing, its base is 
  clogged by trees and undergrowth (reducing move-
  ment to a quarter). With time against them, the 
  PCs must climb the cliff.
   
  The climb has a difficulty factor of 13. A char-
  acter with a reflexes score at least equal to the dif-
  ficulty factor succeeds automatically. Those with a 
  lower score must roll under their reflexes on 1d20. 
  If they fail, they will fall at a random point in the 
  climb. See Falling on page 64 to calculate any dam-
  age sustained.
   
  As soon as any of the player characters is 7 metres 
  up, one large boulder will roll down towards each 
  climber. Each boulder has a speed of 11. Deduct the 
  targets’ evasion scores from this number. You must 
  roll equal to or less than this result on 2d10 to hit 
  them with a boulder. A roll of 2 automatically hits, 
  while a 20 automatically fails. The boulders’ dam-
  age rating is 1d6, 3 points. Anyone hit by a boulder 
  must subtract the amount of damage taken from 
  their reflexes and then roll under that on 1d20. If 
  they fail, they fall off the cliff.
   
  Once each mercenary has released one boulder, 
  they will scatter into the darkness.
   
  If any PC archer stays back to give covering fire 
  to the climbers, he will glimpse the mercenaries 
  above as they prepare to release the boulders. To use 
  a ranged weapon, a character must simply roll under 
  his attack score on 1d20. 
   
  However, the roll total is modified by a number 
  of factors. The mercenaries make difficult targets: 
  they are at short range (no adjustment), crouching 
  (+2), moving quickly (+4), and it is dark and raining 
  heavily (+3), a total of +9 to the hit roll. Each archer 
  will have time for just one shot before the mercenar-
  ies disappear, driven back by the arrows. Any merce-
  nary killed in this way will fall dramatically from the 
  cliff.
  The Cliff Top
  The top of the cliff is clear for 20 metres in all direc-
  tions before the forest resumes.
   
  If, by some cunning ruse, a character reaches the 
  top of the cliff before the mercenaries release the 
  boulders, they will see five men crouched in hiding 
  near the cliff ledge. It is possible an attacker will get 
  surprise on them (by rolling a 1 on a d6).
  5 Thugs
  attack 11, Mace (d6, 4 points), Spear (2d4, 4 points)
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  AF 2
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 6  
   
   
   
   
  stealth 12
  Rank 1st   
   
   
   
   
   
  perception 4
  If the fight goes badly for them, the mercenaries will 
  rout: PCs attacking them get one free attack at their 
  unprotected backs (0 defence) before they can get 
  away.
   
  If a player-character jumps off the cliff, using the 
  treetops below to break his fall, the difficulty factor 
  is 12. If his reflexes are lower, he must roll under 
  his reflexes on 1d20. If successful, he becomes 
  lodged safely in the tree. If he fails, he falls through 
  the branches, sustaining 1d6 damage (as if he fell 5 
  metres, rather than 10).
   
  A path leads uphill and eastwards (turn to Scene 
  8: The White Lady Abroad). Another, more of an 
  animal run than a path, leads around the hill to the 
  north (turn to Scene 7: The Ruins).
  Scene 7:  
  The Ruins
  What at first you take for tree-stumps you realise are 
  piles of rubble, half hidden by leaf-mould, or crumbling 
  beneath the root systems of trees. The path dwindles to 
  nothing. You find yourself amongst ruins which have 
  been smothered by the forest.
  These are the ruins of an ancient village. Only one 
  structure still has a section of roof intact under 
  which to shelter from the rain. It is a dead end. The 
  sensible thing would be to turn back. 
  the Darkness BeFore DaWn
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
  Not all events and encounters should revolve around 
  the characters, or relate to their concerns. This helps 
  make the game world feel more realistic.
   
  To keep your players on their toes, you can ask 
  them to make rolls ‘to see if they spot anything’. No 
  matter what they roll, tell them it wasn’t enough for 
  the difficulty factor you had in mind. They’ll think 
  they’re being stalked!
  Scene 8:  
  The White Lady Abroad
  as you climb, a scream of terror echoes through the trees 
  followed by the sound of something crashing through the 
  trees to your right and left.
  Le Cloche’s mercenaries have encountered Fhionn. 
  She has enslaved some of them, while the rest have 
  scattered into the dense forest in blind panic. The 
  characters won’t see them in the dark, but they will 
  hear them crash through the trees, down the hill 
  and away.
   
  If the player-characters continue onwards, read 
  the following:
  The path becomes a crude stairway carved into the chalk. 
  The hillside is clear of trees, but covered in black, foetid 
  bracken which grows as tall as a man. Looking back, 
  you can see Maiden’s Vale far below. at the upper edge of 
  the clearing the path meets another, running north and 
  south, that disappears back into dense woodland.
  As the party make their way towards the junc-
  tion…
  a white figure appears at the junction above you: a 
  woman dressed in white samite and adorned with silver 
  jewellery. Her garments undulate, as if blown by a dif-
  ferent wind, and her bare feet hover above the ground. 
  She turns towards you and her eyes are blank orbs. 
  Behind her are stumbling, mud-soaked figures, among 
  them a young knight who can only be Sir olvar. His 
  eyes are locked in adoration upon the ghostly form. 
   
  The White Lady stretches her mouth in a feral hiss. 
  The ground trembles. She turns and leads the men away 
  along the northern path.
   JH
  
  7
  Queen Fhionn is a White Lady. She appears as a 
  woman of haunting beauty, dressed all in white. She 
  has the power to enslave her enemies before leading 
  them into the demonic plane and the clutches of 
  her master, the demon prince Fengris. However, the 
  children she spirits away suffer a gentler fate. Their 
  spirits dwell beside a hidden magical pool, and will 
  be freed when she is defeated.
   
  Queen Fhionn is an unusual example of her type: 
  she began life as a human. She burns with a desire 
  for vengeance on the living, and uses a powerful 
  magical altarstone shaped like a cradle, which lies at 
  the heart of her house, to steal the children. There is 
  more information about White Ladies on p. 231.
   
  The White Lady is on her way to her house with 
  her newly enslaved souls, Sir Olvar and the merce-
  naries. Their stats are the same as before they were 
  ensorcelled.
  Scene 9:  
  The Hollow Oak
  The path splits to pass either side of an ancient oak tree, 
  its height stunted by a lightning strike. it has a hole in 
  the side with a curtain of ferns over it. as you watch, the 
  curtain pulls back revealing a sort of puppet booth. Pup-
  pets made of pine-cones and straw begin to cavort on the 
  stage. You realise that they look remarkably like you!
  Meet Erkiss, a wizened goblin servant of Fhionn. 
  He has a cruel sense of humour. It was he, in the 
  form of the scrawny squirrel, who pelted Solly in 
  the stocks earlier!
   
  Any character who stops to watch will have a 
  spell cast over them. It has a magical attack of 
  17. Deduct the victim’s magical defence. If you 
  roll beneath the total, they are affected and their feet 
  become frozen to the spot. However, they will only 
  notice when they try and move.
   
  Now describe the story Erkiss tells: a comedy 
  version of the party’s journey through the rain, any 
  arguments they had, their attempts to dodge the 
  boulders, and so on. Each time the story recounts an 
  injury or failure they suffered, the character will lose 
  1 Health Point. If a character is boorish or threat-
  ening, his puppet will be shown banging into trees, 
  costing him more Health Points.
   
  If a character amuses Erkiss with a heckle or 
  critique of the ongoing show, they will hear a snig-
  gering from inside the log, and the story will treat 
  them more kindly. If a character show particular wit, 
  Erkiss will stop the show and squawk, “Turn back!” 
  before attempting to escape. If someone attacks the 
  oak, throws heavy objects at the tableau or reaches 
  into the hole, Erkiss will attempt to escape. A 
  scrawny squirrel will streak up the inside of the tree 
  and out along a branch, swearing furiously. He will 
  jump from tree to tree to make his getaway.
   
  If the party can use their ingenuity to capture 
  Erkiss, he will transform into a wrinkly grey human-
  oid about 4 feet tall with bright ginger eyebrows. He 
  will plead and whine for his life. In return, he will 
  promise them assistance in their task:
  “Please don’t hurt Erkiss! He only does his mistress’s bid-
  ding! Do this, Erkiss! Do that, Erkiss! Throw open the 
  doors, Erkiss! See off these humans! a favour i’ll grant 
  you, yes? a goblin boon? When the time is right, Erkiss 
  will help you…”
  Once a goblin has made a promise, it must stick 
  to it, although it will try to twist the wording to 
  its own foul purposes. Erkiss is fond of cruel jokes, 
  though. If the favour gives him the chance to play a 
  trick on someone, he will comply with glee… even 
  if the victim is Fhionn! Once a deal has been struck 
  he will run into the darkness.
  Erkiss in squirrel form
  attack Not Applicable 
   
  AF 1
  defence 9  
   
   
   
   
  Movement 15m (20m)
  magical defence 6 
   
   
  evasion 8
  Health Points 10  
   
   
   
   
  Erkiss in goblin form
  attack 14
  defence 7  
   
   
   
   
  Movement 12m (25m)
  magical defence 5 
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 10  
   
  The path branches here, but both paths lead east 
  up the hill. No matter which path the characters 
  choose, you should go to the next scene.
  Scene 10:  
  Old Mab’s Stone House
  You come to the edge of a deep gorge. an ancient bridge 
  once crossed here, but it has been shattered. Distant 
  water roars far below.
  the Darkness BeFore DaWn
  
  8
  Dragon Warriors
  The gorge is 10 metres wide. The players may think 
  of a clever way to get across. However, if the PCs 
  explore the edge, read the following:
  Following the edge, you begin to wonder if there is 
  any way across. Then a strange sight meets your eyes: 
  lodged in the gorge is a huge rock. it appears to have been 
  hollowed out to make a home. it has lattice windows, 
  through which a fiery glow can be seen, and a thatched 
  roof from which a chimney vents steam into the night 
  air. Steps lead up to small wooden doors on either side. 
  The doors are inscribed with strange, twisted symbols.
  The house is a single room full of corn-dolls, batches 
  of thatch, animal skins and jars. It is the home of a 
  wise-woman, Old Mab, protected from the White 
  Lady by Mab’s spells. She is expecting visitors, hav-
  ing viewed their approach through a crystal ball. She 
  even knows what their mission is! She is ancient and 
  unwashed.
   
  If any characters are badly injured, Mab has the 
  power to cast one greater Healing spell, returning 7 
  points to one PC (see p. 82 for more information).
   
  Old Mab will tell the following tale of Fhionn, 
  although it pains her to do so:
  “Fhionn was born many years ago, long before Maid-
  en’s Vale ever existed, when this region was home to two 
  warrior clans. The daughter of a powerful chieftain, 
  she enjoyed an easy life. With no one else of her age and 
  standing to play with, she would often go alone into the 
  forest, chatting with her imaginary friends as she went. 
  There, one day, she found the remains of an ancient 
  shrine, a crumbled ledge of white stone almost lost 
  beneath tangled tree roots. in her innocence, she cleaned 
  away the undergrowth to uncover the large bowl-like 
  altar which stood at the centre.
   
  “as she grew Fhionn adopted the shrine as her own, 
  and spent all her time there, playing at being a pow-
  erful priestess. a particular sigil, carved into the altar, 
  became her own sign. She wore it on a necklace, and 
  even scratched it into her arms. When she began to hear 
  a voice whispering to her, she thought how lucky she was 
  that she had found a shrine with the power to make her 
  imaginary friend come to life. From then on, the voice 
  guided Fhionn and advised her. it was not long before 
  the clans-people noticed how confident, even headstrong, 
  she was becoming. Everyone said what a fine wife she 
  would make some day, for the time was fast approach-
  ing when she must do her duty, and become wife to a 
  young chieftain’s son from a neighbouring clan, assuring 
  a peaceful truce for all.
   
  “The marriage was a joyous affair, and Fhionn and 
  her husband, whose name was geraint, had a fine house 
  beside her father’s hall. it was not long before geraint 
  became chieftain, and showed himself to be a wise leader. 
  Those were happy times, and when the news came that 
  Fhionn was expecting a child, there was great celebra-
  tion. However, swept up in the richness of her new life, 
  Fhionn neglected the old shrine. She no longer wore its 
  sigil, and the marks on her arms healed and faded.”
   
  “on the very day that a child was born to Fhionn 
  and geraint, a bloodthirsty warlord named Strabo led 
  his warriors into this valley and laid siege to Fhionn’s 
  village. Strabo paced outside the gates, demanding that 
  geraint come forward and do battle with him. geraint 
  was terribly afraid. He knew of Strabo’s savage reputa-
  tion. None the less, just before dawn on the third day 
  of the siege, he held his wife for the last time and kissed 
  his child. Then he took up his sword and went out to 
  meet Strabo. i would like to say the battle was a proud 
  one, and that geraint defeated Strabo. But that was not 
  to be. geraint was a lord of peace, while Strabo was a 
  chieftain whose rule was forged in blood. Strabo slew the 
  young man, and claimed the village as his own.
   
  “‘My patience is at an end. open the gates and let 
  us in, or we will burn this village to the ground!’ he 
  roared. Seeing geraint slain, the villagers lost all hope 
  and opened the gates. Finally, Strabo and his warriors 
  surrounded Fhionn’s hall. ‘Bring out the child. None can 
  live to contest my rule!’ he cried. ‘Bring it to me, or we’ll 
  burn this village and everyone in it!’”
   
  “of course, Fhionn would rather die than give up her 
  child to this monster, but the villagers were sore afraid. 
  They snatched the child from her arms. as the sun rose 
  on the third day, the child was carried down the steps of 
  the hall and given to Strabo.
   
  “Fhionn never saw her child’s fate. in a frenzy of 
  grief, she ran from the hall, out of the village and up into 
  the forest.
   
  “as Strabo celebrated his victory, he looked up the 
  wooded slopes to see a shrine, now clear of overgrowth, 
  shining white amid the trees. Fhionn stood beside the 
  altar stone, her face streaked with tears. in her hands 
  were the branches and roots she had torn away, and on 
  her arms were the sigils of the shrine, written in blood.
   
  “No one knows what dark pact she made with the 
  ancient power that ruled the shrine, but she must have 
  asked for vengeance on Strabo and the cowardly villag-
  ers who had betrayed her. Flaming torches flared up all 
  around her, and a great wind blasted the village. Fire 
  tore through the houses, burning everything in its path. 
  as the last house crumbled to ashes, Fhionn turned away. 
  
  9
  The ground opened up and swallowed Fhionn and the 
  shrine, and the roots of the trees bound tight over her 
  resting place.
   
  “Since then, when the moon is full and a child has 
  been born in the valley, the ground on the hill has bro-
  ken open, revealing the shrine with its ghostly torches 
  all aflame. and on the third day after the child’s birth, 
  it has sickened and passed away, its soul stolen away by 
  the jealous and vengeful White Lady.”
  If asked how she knows so much, Mab will say, 
  “Fhionn has been a subject of study to me for many, 
  many years!” and laugh bitterly. In fact Old Mab 
  is the nurse who handed Fhionn’s baby to Strabo, 
  hundreds of years ago. She will never tell the party, 
  the shame is too great, though if they ask about her 
  in the village someone will tell them. 
   
  At the end of her story, read out the following:
  Mab pulls a sack from under a loose floorboard. With 
  shaking hands she reveals an ancient sword. The blade 
  is snapped and rusted. You can make out a strange sigil 
  engraved on the sides of the blade. She hands it to (the 
  character who seems the best warrior).
   
  “’This is the sword that took geraint and the child. 
  Show her this.’ She then takes off a leather necklace and 
  hands it to (a character, preferably the weakest). 
   
  “’it won’t save you, but it might keep her back for a 
  time,’ she murmurs. Through the window, you can see 
  the sky is lightening from black to azure blue. Daybreak 
  is fast approaching.
  If the party try to question Mab further, she will 
  insist there is no time.
  Strabo’s sword – Any warrior can tell that this rusted 
  relic is completely useless for combat. The sigil is the 
  mark of the demon prince Fengris. The same mark 
  adorns the cradle-like altar stone in Fhionn’s house. 
  When Fhionn neglected his shrine the demon used 
  Strabo as an instrument of his vengeance. Fhionn 
  then made a pact to become a demonic servant of 
  Fengris, the very cause of her misery! Such are the 
  games played by demon princes. If Fhionn is shown 
  the sword and told what it is, she will realize she 
  was manipulated by the demon and retreat from this 
  world into the demon plane to exact her revenge on 
  Fengris.
  Leather necklace – It will allow the wearer to ignore 
  the effect of Fhionn’s Enslavement spell. At day-
  break it becomes useless.
  The characters leave the stone house by the oppo-
  site door and go to the next scene. If they ever try to 
  return to her house, they will be unable to find it.
  Scene 11:  
  Hellhounds Attack
  From the far door of Old Mab’s cottage the lights of 
  Lady Fhionn’s house are visible flickering through 
  the trees. The path from here seems clear.
   
  To dispatch the party, Fhionn has summoned 
  two Great Hellhounds, who are now tearing through 
  the undergrowth to block their advance while she 
  returns to the altar and completes the ritual.
   
  The Hellhounds’ rapid approach is marked by 
  the path they crush through the bracken on either 
  side of the path, and the steam that comes off their 
  hellish fur. They appear as huge black dogs with 
  hairless heads, like vultures. Blue flames flicker in 
  their eyes and throats.
  2 Great Hellhounds
  attack 12, Bite (d6, 5)  
   
  AF 0
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  magical defence 4 
   
   
  stealth 14
  Health Points 9 
   
   
   
  perception 11
  Rank-equivalent: 2nd
  Anyone bitten must roll under their Health on 3d6 
  or contract the Wasting Disease (see Diseases, p. 
  126). The effects will not become apparent until 
  after this adventure. 
   
  No matter which path the characters choose, you 
  should go to the next scene.
  This is the last fight before the final confrontation. 
  Ideally the party should be bloodied but not near 
  death. Two Hellhounds should be enough to give 
  them a good fight, but if the PCs have had an easy 
  time so far then add another—or two.
  Scene 12: 
  queen Fhionn’s House
  Up through the trees you detect a flickering light. as you 
  approach, you realise that this is the building you saw 
  from far below, but it is a house only in the most primi-
  tive sense. There is a low chalk cliff with small black 
  the Darkness BeFore DaWn
  
  30
  Dragon Warriors
  windows in it and a low door. a wide ledge, with rough 
  steps hewn into it, leads up to it. The cliff is entwined by 
  great knots of ancient tree roots. They are adorned with 
  hundreds of tallow-candles, while the ledge is arrayed 
  with a hundred burning brands, undimmed by the rag-
  ing storm, blazing into the gloom.
  If the player-characters stand on the ledge, add:
  From here you can look down on Maiden’s Vale, far 
  below, a pitiful huddle of homes lashed by the icy wind. 
  You can make out a single light still burning in one of 
  the windows. Looking to the far horizon, you see a glow 
  beneath the storm clouds. Day is coming.
  The door will creak open. A wizened, grey-skinned 
  boy-man with ginger eyebrows, dressed in a serv-
  ant’s tabard, holds it open solemnly (if the PCs have 
  seen Erkiss the goblin in humanoid form they will 
  recognise him; if so, he will wink at them). He then 
  scampers away, and is lost in the darkness.
   
  The party is standing on a ledge overlooking the 
  ‘main hall’, the first of two caves to explore. Those 
  entering by the window will arrive here too. 
  Main hall
  a stairway of rough-hewn rock winds down to a large, 
  dimly lit cave. The high, domed ceiling and walls are a 
  tangled mass of vast tree roots, like knotted serpents. The 
  floor is of pale rock, with a wide circle carved into it. in 
  the far east wall, the roots divide to reveal a huge stone 
  hearth. a handful of dim-glowing coals creak and shift 
  in the grate, on the verge of going out. The wavering 
  glow makes the shadows seem to breathe.
   
  Before the fireplace is a block of stone almost two 
  metres tall. its sides are engraved with twisted marks. 
  its top has been carved into the shape of a cradle. a dank 
  chill seeps to the marrow of your bones. a wide crack 
  forms an arch leading north (to the Pool Chamber).
  Erkiss is hiding amongst the ceiling of roots. He 
  will not come down unless he owes a favour to a 
  character, and is called for in that regard.
   
  Hidden in the walls are Fhionn’s slaves: the 
  remaining mercenaries (as with the Hellhounds the 
  number is up to you but one per PC minus one is 
  probably good) and Sir Olvar. If a character exam-
  ines the walls they will find them if they roll under 
   JH
  
  3
  their Intelligence score (although they will not know 
  that the men are Le Cloche’s thugs). They look like 
  they are made from the same chalk as the walls and 
  are catatonic, awaiting Fhionn’s command. All are 
  dressed in an assortment of armour and weapons 
  collected from Fhionn’s victims over hundreds of 
  years. If attacked they will spring to life and fight 
  (their profiles can be found below). Otherwise they 
  will remain stiff, barely breathing.
   
  If a PC examines the block of stone they will rec-
  ognise the markings as matching those on Strabo’s 
  sword.
  Pool Chamber
  The crack forms a thin corridor down into the hillside. 
  it ends in a circular cave, its walls coated in thick moss. 
  Nestled amid the nooks and crannies of the walls are 
  hundreds of sealed pottery jars. in the centre of the cav-
  ern is a pool. The water stirs eerily, as if with a life of 
  its own.
  The pool is where the souls of Fhionn’s slaves are 
  trapped, while the pottery jars contain those of the 
  children she has spirited away over the years. They 
  are magically protected and will only break when 
  Fhionn is defeated.
   
  Anyone touching the water will activate a Ban-
  ish rune (page 83) at the bottom; they must save 
  against a magical attack of 22 or be transported 
  to the grey, featureless eternity of limbo. Casting 
  Dispel Magic on the spot where they disappeared 
  will bring them back.
   
  If anyone casts Dispel Magic on the water, the 
  mercenaries and Sir Olvar will be released from their 
  spell. However, before the PCs can try, Fhionn will 
  coalesce above the pool and attack (see The Final 
  Battle, below).
   
  After the PCs have explored the pool chamber, 
  they will feel a cold wind. Fhionn then coalesces 
  above the pool.
  Scene 13:  
  The Final Battle
  Fhionn is probably too powerful to be beaten in a 
  straight fight. However, all the characters really have 
  to do is force her to look at Strabo’s sword. Your task 
  is to make this hard for them. Here’s how to do it:
  the Darkness BeFore DaWn
  WHITE LADIES
  These are creatures from the demonic planes 
  that take the form of beautiful women dressed 
  in gowns of white samite and adorned with 
  pearls and bejewelled circlets. They are actu-
  ally disgusting worm-like entities, servants 
  of the demon Fengris who stalks the planes 
  beyond, slavering for the souls of men.
   
  White ladies seek to trap potential vic-
  tims of their master’s soul-lust by using a 
  potent version of the Enslave spell. Unlike 
  the spell cast by sorcerers, however, it can be 
  used on more than one victim at a time and 
  is not subject to Spell Expiry Rolls. The spell 
  holds its victim in unreasoning subservience 
  for exactly a year and a day. During this time 
  the souls of the victims are spirited away to 
  a pool in a lichen-covered tower. This tower 
  appears magically in any secluded place within 
  a mile of where the white lady is encountered. 
  Anyone touching the water in the pool will 
  activate a Banish rune; anyone failing to save 
  against the spell (magical attack of 22) will 
  be transported to the nether planes. If anyone 
  casts Dispel Magic on the surface of the water, 
  those enslaved by the lady will immediately 
  be released from their spell. Once the White 
  Lady has collected ten victims she will return 
  to the demonic planes with them, where their 
  souls will be consumed by Fengris.
   
  A White Lady will be protected by 1–6 
  2nd-rank warriors. She may pretend she is 
  being attacked by her guards to lure the party 
  into trying to rescue her. If the lady is slain, 
  she will slowly turn into the image of a hid-
  eous worm before disappearing from this 
  plane altogether; not a trace of her will be left 
  behind. If the lady is slain and the party do 
  not release her warriors’ souls from the pool, 
  they will wander the lands like crazed loons 
  for the remaining length of their servitude.
   
  White Ladies are powerful magic users, 
  with all the abilities of 7th-rank Sorcerers.
  attack 13, Dagger (d4, 3)  
  Magic points 25
  defence 7  
   
   
   
   
  Movement 10m (15m)
  magical attack 22   
   
  evasion 4
  magical defence 12  
   
  stealth 15  
  Health Points 11  
   
   
  perception 7 (normal)
  Rank-equivalent: 7th
  
  3
  Dragon Warriors
  Drown out their voices – Fhionn’s favourite spell 
  comes from a magic ring which allows her to auto-
  matically cast the Darkness version of an Elemental 
  Air spell, Windwall (see p. 99), in front of her. She 
  will then advance, driving the characters back up 
  the corridor (or against the wall of the hall if they 
  are there). Anyone entering the ‘wall’ finds them-
  selves in a typhoon, suffering d8 damage (ignoring 
  armour). To break through they must roll under 
  their Strength on 2d20. Smart characters will retreat. 
  The effect will last until she has cleared a way to the 
  altar-cradle, whereupon her slaves will attack.
  Ignore Strabo’s Sword – Fhionn does not see this 
  mortal’s trinket as relevant, and will cast it aside 
  without a glance unless she is forced to look at it by 
  some dramatic action.
   
  She is intent on floating towards the altar-cradle 
  in the hall. She will place an empty pottery jar there, 
  then turn her back on it to watch the shafts of dawn 
  sunlight appear through the high windows. She will 
  begin to sing a strange, haunting song (the ritual to 
  summon the soul of Lady Angela’s child into the 
  jar). As they fight, the characters will see a strand 
  of blue light enter along the sunbeam and descend 
  towards the jar.
  Set her slaves on them – Intent on reaching the alter-
  cradle, she’ll set her slaves (Sir Olvar and the mer-
  cenaries) to form a wall between her and the party, 
  then order them to advance.
  Enslave them – White Ladies can cast a special ver-
  sion of Enslave: it can affect all the characters at 
  once, and is not subject to the usual Spell Expiry 
  rolls (the effect lasts for a year and a day). Fhionn’s 
  magical attack is 22. If she sees any characters 
  resist the spell then she will order all her slaves to 
  attack the characters. Smart PCs could pretend to 
  be enslaved. If the character carrying Strabo’s sword 
  is enslaved, he will drop it.
  Spells - If the fight is too easy for the PCs, Fhionn 
  will cast Tanglefoot and inflict Wound at them.
  Defeating Fhionn
  The best way to defeat Fhionn is to grab her atten-
  tion and make her comprehend the markings on 
  Strabo’s sword. Here are some possibilities:
  Erkiss – If he has earlier promised the characters a 
  boon, Erkiss can be called upon to seize the sword 
  and hold it in front of Fhionn. This he’ll do in the 
  nick of time, by swinging down on a tree root or 
  smashing the jar on the cradle altar with it. He could 
  also be tricked into using it as part of a cruel prank.
  Wearing Old Mab’s necklace – the character wear-
  ing this is immune to enslavement. He can grab 
  Strabo’s sword and bring it to her attention.
  Draw her eyes to a ‘baby’ – Children are Fhionn’s 
  weak spot. Characters can use the wooden doll 
  intended as a gift for Angela, if they still have it, 
  or even one of Erkiss’s puppets from his show, to 
  attract her attention. Stealing the jar will also get 
  her attention.
  Casting Dispel Magic on the pool – this won’t defeat 
  Fhionn, but it will free her slaves from her control. 
  Queen Fhionn
  attack 13, Dagger (d4, 3)
  defence 7  
   
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  magical attack 12 
   
   
  stealth 15
  magical defence 12  
   
  perception 7
  Health Points 11   
   
   
  Magic Points 25
  7th Rank Sorcerer
  Sir Olvar and Fhionn’s slaves
  attack 11, Sword (d8, 4)  
  AF 3
  defence 4  
   
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  magical defence 3 
   
   
  stealth 12 
   
  Health Points 7 
   
   
   
  perception 4
  Rank: 1st
  Victory
  If the party force Fhionn to comprehend the sigils 
  on Strabo’s sword…
  The ghostly figure turns her pale eyes to the blade. She 
  stares at it, and a frown creases her smooth brow. The 
  storm outside seems to hold its breath. Queen Fhionn 
  stretches out her arms to reveal intricate patterns of scars 
  on her ivory skin. She looks from them to the sigils which 
  adorn the sides of the ancient altar stone. The marks are 
  the same on the stone, on her arms, on the sword.
   
  “That monster was yours?” she whispers to the stone. 
  “You helped him take my child?”
   
  She slumps against the altar. grief turns to rage. 
   
  (read on, below).
  If the party beat her using force alone, read from 
  here:
  Fhionn begins to grow. The flowing samite robe becomes 
  a tattered shroud. The lithe form bloats. The sculptured 
  face becomes a hideous hag’s mask, its chin glistening 
  
  33
  with black filth. Suddenly her form dissembles entirely 
  into a roiling mass of thick black smoke which rolls away 
  across the ceiling like tumbling grave dirt, down the 
  tunnel and out of sight. You hear the sound of earthen-
  ware shattering.
  Fhionn has gone. Every pottery jar in the room 
  shatters, each releasing something that looks like 
  a mote of dust or thistledown. The light of dawn 
  begins to shine through the windows above and 
  they float towards it. 
   
  Down in the town, Lady Angela’s child will 
  awaken and cry, very much alive.
   
  There is treasure here in the form of the various 
  armour and weaponry which has accumulated here. 
  However, the characters will have just enough time 
  to grab random pieces off the floor before the white 
  house begins to crumble. No matter how many 
  they grab, in their haul only two have any value: a 
  +1 shortsword and an ornate helm worth 30 florins. 
  As the pool chamber collapses Fhionn’s slaves will 
  come to their senses: the thugs will flee immedi-
  ately and won’t stop running till they reach Maiden’s 
  Vale. Everyone will have to run to avoid being hit by 
  rubble from the collapsing house (if you want, you 
  can repeat the process for falling boulders used in 
  Scene 6).
   
  Once safe, Sir Olvar will thank the PCs. He 
  remembers nothing of the last few days: he travelled 
  up into the forest, glimpsed a white figure in the 
  trees, and everything else is a blank. If the PCs tell 
  him what has happened in Maiden’s Vale, he is hor-
  rified and insists on starting back at once.
   
  The journey back to Maiden’s Vale should be 
  uneventful. Anyone who goes back to visit Old Mab 
  will find there is no sign of her house. Sir Olvar, 
  who has explored these woods since he was a boy, 
  says he has heard of Old Mab but there has never 
  been a rock-house here, to his knowledge. However 
  he knows another way across the gorge: a hidden 
  track and a fallen tree a little way upstream.
  Scene 14:  
  The Return Home
  as you emerge from the foot of the forest, you see that the 
  Eaves gate in front of you is closed. There is no sign of 
  Porthawr. Suddenly two figures bob up from behind the 
  stone wall and hurl javelins at you!
  Luckily for the PCs Le Cloche has neglected to hire 
  any archers or spellcasters, but on hearing that the 
  party are returning with Sir Olvar he has barricaded 
  the entrance to the village and is staging a last-ditch 
  attempt to protect his new domain. 
   
  The javelin-throwers behind the palisade will aim 
  at Sir Olvar: if he is killed then Le Cloche will claim 
  that he was still ensorcelled by the White Lady and 
  the village had to be protected from him. The two 
  thugs have an attack score of 11, and a javelin-hit 
  will do d8, 4 damage. 
   
  After the first two spears Sir Olvar will refuse to 
  take cover, but will stand in the path and demand 
  that the gate be opened. This show of bravado gives 
  the thugs a +2 bonus to hit him. Characters can try 
  to drag him into cover, shield him, or even parry the 
  spears. Normally missile weapons can’t be parried 
  but the thugs are not experienced with javelins and 
  their shots are obvious, so if a character rolls under 
  their defence on 2d6 they can knock the missile 
  out of the air.
   
  Fortunately the thugs only have six javelins in 
  total, and as soon as they have run out of missiles 
  they will run back to the manor house. The Eaves 
  Gate is not high or strongly fastened and the party 
  should be able to work out a way through it or over 
  the surrounding wall: it is less than three metres 
  high. Porthawr, if anyone goes to look for him, is 
  quivering with fear in the inn.
  Scene 15:  
  Traitor’s Stand
  By the time the party enters the village Le Cloche 
  and his thugs have retreated to the Manor House. 
  as you approach the manor, the last of its window-shut-
  ters are slammed shut. The sturdy doors of the old house 
  are securely closed, and you can hear the sound of fur-
  niture being dragged across stone flags to barricade it. 
  Sir olvar looks thoughtful. “The old place was built to 
  be defended,” he says. “My grandfather used to tell me 
  of the time the whole village sheltered from marauding 
  orcs in there for three days. No easy way in, and they 
  have enough food in there to last a week or more.”
  It is up to the characters—and the players—to 
  devise a scheme for getting Le Cloche and the mer-
  cenaries out of the manor house. There is no one 
  the Darkness BeFore DaWn
  
  34
  Dragon Warriors
  correct way to do this: they may choose a diplomatic 
  solution, negotiating with those inside the house; or 
  a stealthy attempt to break into the house and take 
  the occupants by surprise; or a frontal assault, pos-
  sibly with a battering ram; or even having their most 
  charismatic member give a moving speech in the 
  square outside the manor to persuade those inside 
  that their cause is hopeless. Anything that ends up 
  with Le Cloche evicted, the thugs surrendered, fled 
  or dead, and minimal property damage to the house 
  and its contents should be counted as a success. 
   
  Encourage the players to use their imaginations, 
  answering any questions they may have about the 
  house (see below) and making up any details not 
  provided by the description. Sir Olvar will be able 
  to supply details on the inside of the house and may 
  even volunteer ideas. However, he is firm on one 
  point:
  “Do not kill Le Cloche,” he says. “Keep him alive, and 
  ideally uninjured. He may be a usurper but he is my 
  kin. Cousin does not simply kill cousin, or blood would 
  flow  across the world till the worst tyrant sat upon its 
  throne. No, he must answer to my family, to our liege-
  lord Baron aldred, and to his god and his conscience.”
  Things you should note:
  The manor house has two floors. The walls are built 
  of stone to a height of four feet, and above that are 
  timber-framed, with the space between the beams 
  filled with woven hazel walls (wattle) covered in 
  thick, earthy plaster (daub). The roof is thickly 
  thatched and steep, sodden from the recent storms. 
  It might be possible to break through either, but 
  it would take at least a minute and the noise and 
  vibration would make it obvious to anyone within 
  what was happening.
   
  The house has five shuttered windows in the 
  front (none of the windows have glass; that kind 
  of expensive item is reserved for high nobles and 
  churches), two at each end, and two at the back. The 
   AL
  
  3
  map shows where they appear. There is a large front 
  door and a smaller one at the rear, both made of 
  thick oak, too solid to be broken down without a 
  proper battering-ram. Both doors lead into the large 
  two-storey chamber that dominates the interior.
   
  It has two chimneys, both large enough for a 
  small person to slip down. The larger of the two 
  comes out in the main room (where the fire is lit), 
  the smaller in the kitchen (where it isn’t). If anyone 
  listens at the chimney of the great hall, the voices of 
  the mercenaries can just be heard. They are gathered 
  in the main chamber, discussing how they are going 
  to get out safely. Le Cloche is upstairs in the serv-
  ants’ quarters, where he has been drinking his cous-
  in’s brandy since hearing that Sir Olvar is returning. 
  He will be found cowering under a bed. No stats are 
  provided for him: he will not fight, even to defend 
  himself.
   
  At this point the number of thugs in the manor 
  is 10 minus any that the party have killed or disa-
  bled in the forest, in Fhionn’s house, or at the Eaves 
  Gate. Their stats are given on page 223. If any were 
  wounded by the PCs during the various skirmishes, 
  those wounds will not have healed. They only have 
  hand-to-hand weapons, shortswords and spears, 
  though taunting may infuriate them enough to 
  open a shuttered window to hurl a piece of furniture 
  at their tormentor.
   
  The only reason the thugs are here is because Le 
  Cloche is paying them. They have no other loyalty 
  to him. It may be possible to bribe them to change 
  sides, or to convince them that since Le Cloche can-
  not pay them what he owes, they might as well sur-
  render and go home. None of them will fight to the 
  death unless they have no other option, and if half 
  of them are killed or badly injured the others will 
  flee (if they can get away) or surrender (if they can’t). 
  Le Cloche himself will not fight: if confronted he 
  will drop to his knees and plead for mercy.
   
  The villagers are loyal to Sir Olvar, and some 
  of them are able-bodied and have basic weapon 
  skills—though they don’t have any weapons other 
  than scythes and pitchforks. If the party try to 
  recruit them to help, for example by making a rous-
  ing speech in the square or buying drinks in the inn, 
  roll 2d6 for the number who step forward. Subtract 
  2 for each thing the party has done that might have 
  antagonised or scared the locals, like using volatile 
  magic (see below). 
   
  Sir Olvar is physically and emotionally drained 
  from his experiences, and the sight of his wife and 
  new child are almost too much for him to bear. 
  Unless the party intervene, he will take no part in 
  the liberation of the manor house and the capture 
  of Le Cloche, preferring to collapse beside his fam-
  ily and sleep. If pushed and encouraged (and kept 
  awake), he will do what the characters ask. If he 
  makes a speech to rally the villagers to his aid then 
  1d6 +14 will step up. If he stands outside the manor 
  house and shouts a demand to Le Cloche to sur-
  render then every thug in the building must make 
  a morale check against an attack of 12 (page 122) 
  and if they fail they will fight in any ensuing battle 
  at -3 to their attack rolls. However, he will not do 
  any of these things unless the PCs specifically ask 
  him to.
   
  It has been raining heavily for three days, and 
  the outside of the manor house is so wet that it 
  will not catch fire. However a fire started inside the 
  house and not extinguished will burn the place to 
  the ground. This would not make the party popular 
  with Sir Olvar or the other members of his family.
   
  Lastly, Maiden’s Vale is a rural village and its 
  inhabitants are untravelled and inexperienced in the 
  ways of the world. In particular, they have a peasant 
  terror of anything magical. If any character fires off 
  a spell it will cause consternation and possibly panic 
  among the locals. If the spell is particularly visual 
  or destructive, any thugs who witness it must make 
  a morale check against the PC’s magical attack 
  (page 122) or flee in terror.
  Endings and Beginnings
  Assuming the party succeeds in ousting Le Cloche, 
  Sir Olvar’s joy at being reunited with his wife and 
  meeting his heir will be unbounded. He will offer 
  them hospitality in his restored home, a place to 
  catch up on lost sleep, and there will be a feast that 
  night to celebrate the successful outcome of all that 
  has passed. 
   
  At the end of it, when the PCs are feeling well-
  fed, comfortable and satisfied with a job well done, 
  Sir Olvar will ask them if they will take Le Cloche 
  (who is tied up in a pigsty behind the house and 
  guarded by Porthawr), along with a letter describ-
  ing his treachery, to Baron Aldred at his castle to 
  the east, at the foot of the Hourla Hills. Sir Olvar 
  cannot afford to pay them, but he assures them that 
  an introduction to the Baron would be worth more 
  than gold.
  the Darkness BeFore DaWn
  
  36
  Dragon Warriors
   JH
   
  If the party agree, then farewells are said and all 
  the characters are assured of a warm welcome if they 
  ever return to Maiden’s Vale.
  Leading on...
  Baron Aldred is Sir Olvar’s liege-lord, the noble-
  man to whom he owes alliegance, soldiers and taxes. 
  PCs can make an Intelligence roll to know of his 
  reputation (see page 152): he is said to be a just and 
  reasonable man. He lives in his family’s seat, Aldred 
  Castle, to the east, and it is there that the party must 
  transport Le Cloche.
   
  Baron Aldred, his family and his lands are one 
  of the central themes of the Dragon Warriors adven-
  ture-book Sleeping gods, and this journey to Castle 
  Aldred is a way to bring the PCs to his attention 
  and into his sphere of influence. To reach Castle 
  Aldred from Maiden’s Vale will take several days: 
  you can play this out with a few random encounters, 
  or create a short adventure of your own that happens 
  along the way, or you can use the first adventure of 
  Sleeping gods, ‘The King Under the Forest’, which is 
  set in the same area of Baron Aldred’s land as ‘The 
  Darkness Before Dawn’.
   
  After arriving at Castle Aldred, Maxim Le 
  Cloche will be held in the castle jail for a few days, 
  before the Baron frees him with nothing more than 
  a stern warning. Castle gossip says the Baron has 
  owed Le Cloche’s father a favour for many years, 
  and by not imprisoning his son the debt has been 
  paid. This means that Le Cloche is now a free agent, 
  a wily and scheming opponent with a considerable 
  grudge against the members of the party.
   
  What happens next is up to you and the players. 
  They may decide to take work in Baron Aldred’s 
  retinue, guarding him on his travels and performing 
  errands and missions on his behalf. They may find 
  themselves blackmailed or framed by Le Cloche, 
  and struggling to find the evidence that will clear 
  their names. Or they may receive a hint from a new 
  friend or shadowy figure they have met, and strike 
  out into the wider world on the trail of adventure, 
  riches and glory. Their fates are in your hands now. 
  
  37
  THIS SECTION CONTAINS all the creatures, 
  monsters and supernatural beings that player-char-
  acters are likely to meet in a game of Dragon War-
  riors, given in alphabetical order. The details here 
  are necessarily sparse (though the numerical infor-
  mation is complete). The Dragon Warriors Bestiary 
  (see page 255) contains full information for every 
  entry here, but this list should make a handy quick-
  reference guide.
  ADVENTURERS
  Adventurers are not actually monsters, but they 
  certainly fit our description of ‘bizarre and danger-
  ous’ adversaries. Adventurers do not form a large 
  percentage of the population, of course. Tables for 
  working out the abilities and equipment of NPC 
  adventurers are given in the sections on page 117 
  and page 133.
  APEMEN
  These savage gorilla-like carnivores are a grotesque 
  evolutionary quirk, an offshoot from mankind’s own 
  distant ancestry. They are dull-witted but enor-
  mously strong. 
  attack 12, Club (d6 +1, 5 points) AF 0
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (20m)
  magical defence 2 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 1d6 +9  
   
   
  stealth 10 
  Rank-equivalent: 1st 
   
   
   
  perception 5 
  AUTOMATON
  Automata are artificial warriors of metal, constructed 
  long, long ago by the scholars of the Emphid-
  ian Empire—who were themselves drawing on 
  immeasurably older lore from the secret books of 
  Kaikuhuru. 
  attack 25, Sword (d8 +1, 5) 
   
  AF 5
  defence 19 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence – 
   
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 2d6 +25   
   
   
  stealth 15 
  Rank-equivalent: 13th  
   
   
  perception 19  
  Notes: Cannot be affected by direct-attack spells.
  BARUDATH (Eaves Phantom)
  The Eaves Phantom, or Barudath, is a kind of 
  vampiric ghost that attaches itself to a dwelling or 
  encampment. Night after night, the Eaves Phantom 
  returns to flit about the boundaries of its chosen 
  domicile. 
  attack 24, Touch inflicts 2d4 HP AF 2
  defence 17 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m
  magical defence 13  
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 3d6 +21  
   
   
  stealth 15 
  Rank-equivalent: 15th   
   
   
  perception 10
  Notes:  Immune to non-magical weapons; 1d4 Fright Attack 
  for anyone seeing it for the first time; manifests on 
  gaining entry; gaze will Transfix (magical attack 23 
  vs magical defence).
  Chapter 0
  MONSTERS 
  OF LEGEND
  
  38
  Dragon Warriors
  BARGHEST
  The Barghest is a faerie hound larger than a wolf. 
  Its fur is black or green-black, its eyes stark and 
  startling. 
  attack 20, Fangs (d8, 6 + special venom)  AF 2
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (30m)
  magical defence 15  
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 1d6 +14  
   
   
  stealth 24 
  Rank-equivalent: 7th  
   
   
  perception 17 
  Notes: Always get surprise; Bark causes 1d12 Fright Attack; 
  stare as per Transfix spell with magical attack 22; 
  takes half damage from unenchanted or non-silver 
  weapons; howl banishes the souls of dead characters 
  within 20m.
  BARNACLE MEN 
  These undead creatures swarm up from the depths 
  of the ocean during storms and cling to the hulls 
  of ships. Their bodies are completely covered with 
  barnacles. 
  attack 12, Cutlasses (d8, 4) 
   
  AF: 4
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 1d6  
   
   
   
  stealth 13  
  Rank-equivalent: 1st   
   
   
  perception 7 
  BASILISk
  These magical beasts resemble giant cockerels but 
  have a long sinuous tail, metallic feathers and four 
  legs like those of a lizard. 
  attack 16, Beak/Claw (d8, 3 + poison) 
  AF 2
  defence 5   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (16m)
  magical defence 10   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 1d6 +13   
   
   
  stealth 9  
  Rank-equivalent: 6th  
   
   
  perception 9 
  Notes: Gaze attack turns victim to stone (magical attack 
  20 vs the victim’s magical defence); weak poison on 
  claws and beak.
  BAT
  The bats that may pose a problem to adventurers are 
  about the size of a hawk. 
  attack 11, Bite (d3, 1)  
   
   
  AF 0
  defence 9   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 1m
  magical defence 2 
   
   
   
  evasion 6 flying—20m
  Health Points 1  
   
   
   
   
  stealth 16
  Rank-equivalent: 1st 
   
   
   
  perception 15 
  Notes:  Bat bites have 5% chance of inflicting wasting disease 
  (Reflexes –1d4 permanently unless cured).
  BEAR
  Bears are encountered most often in forested areas.
  attack 17, Claws (d8, 5)  
   
  AF 1 (for thick fur)
  defence 7  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (25m)
  magical defence 3   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 2d6 +20   
   
   
  stealth 10 
  Rank-equivalent: 6th   
   
   
  perception 6 
  Notes: Critical hits count as bear-hugs, doing 10 damage 
  (ignores armour).
  BLACk RIDERS
  Clad in jet-black armour and mounted on fierce 
  black warhorses, the Black Riders are the brutal 
  emissaries of despots ruling over rural areas, espe-
  cially those with large regions of forest. 
  attack 14, Sword (d8, 4), Bow (d6, 4); sometimes Spear
   (2d4, 4) or Two-Handed Sword (d10, 5)  
  AF 4
  defence 5 Shield  
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 4   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 9 
   
   
   
   
  stealth 13
  Rank equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
  perception 6 
  BLUE MEN
  The Blue Men plough through the cold northern 
  seas in their dragon-prowed warships, and plunder 
  riches and souls from the living. Their flesh is shiv-
  ery blue and their beards are tangled with kelp.
  attack 23  Cutlass (d8 +2, 6)  
  AF 1
  defence 10  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 8   
   
   
  evasion 6 
  Health Points 1d6 +16   
   
   
  stealth 14
  Rank-equivalent: 7th  
   
   
  perception 10 
  Notes:  Take half damage from arrows, slingshots, etc.; 
  immune to Sorcerer spells of rank 1-4; duel with 
  potential victims using rhymed couplets; if attacked, 
  will sink own ship; roll under Reflexes on 2d20 or be 
  sucked down with it.
  BOGGART
  These wizened little sprites appear quite similar to 
  Goblins, and it is not in fact clear whether they are 
  actually a separate species or erstwhile Goblins who 
  have grown strong in magical power. 
   
  attack 12, Sling (d6, 3) or Shortsword (d8, 3)  
  AF 1
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m)
  magical attack 19 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  magical defence 9   
   
   
  stealth 23
  Health Points 1d6 +4  
   
   
  perception 15 
  
  39
  Rank-equivalent: 4th
  Notes: Can always hide from ranks 1-3; automatic surprise 
  against ranks 1-3; against higher ranks surprise on 1-4 
  on 1d6; have powers of 4th-rank Sorcerer with spells: 
  Hoarfrost; Thorns; Witchflame; Mist; Phantasmal Claw; 
  may be able to transform into bat and dance along 
  moonbeams.
  BULL
  ‘Bull’ includes any large male deer or bovine. The 
  Stag and Elk are those most often encountered in 
  the wild. 
  attack 16, Horns (d8, 4 points) 
  AF 1
  defence 4  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (25m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 2d6 +16  
   
   
  stealth 9  
  Rank-equivalent: 5th  
   
   
  perception 5 
  Notes: Charge (speed 14 vs target’s evasion), no parry, target 
  takes 1d4 +5 damage, is knocked back 5m and winded 
  for 1-3 Combat Rounds
  CADAVER
  These are the corpses of heroes, elite fighters and 
  warrior-saints. Through sheer force of determina-
  tion and the exalted status they held in life, their 
  bodies resist decay. 
  attack 26, damage per weapon (Str 18) 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  AF varies, +1 for dead skin
  defence 19  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (18m)
  magical defence 14  
   
   
  evasion 6 
  Health Points 4d6 +18  
   
   
  stealth 16 
  Rank-Equivalent 12th   
   
   
  perception 17 
  Notes:  –5 attack for the first round, then –4 and so on; roll 
  twice on NPC Weapons and Equipment (p. 133) to 
  determine equipment.
  CAITSHEE
  The Caitshee, or Faerie Cat, lurks in cemeteries, 
  woods and ruined abbeys. The Caitshee’s usual 
  habit is to attach itself to a party of adventurers and 
  follow them unseen. 
  attack 14 , Claws (d8, 3 and Weaken spell) 
  AF 0 
  defence 21  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m)
  magical defence 16  
   
   
  evasion 10 
  Health Points 1d10 
   
   
   
  stealth 26 
  Rank-equivalent: 4th  
   
   
  perception 18 
  Notes: Jinxes spellcasting; in poor light characters of 
  rank 1-3 are -4 attack -8 defence; higher ranks are -2 
  attack -4 defence; only vulnerable to enchanted and 
  silver weapons; attack avoids normal armour; attacking 
  spells do minimum possible damage; death-curse.
  CENTAUR
  These hybrid nomads have the appearance of a horse 
  with the upper torso of a man or woman growing 
  from the animal’s shoulders. 
  Normal Centaur stats are:
  attack 12, Damage of weapon, or Kick (d8, 5) 
  AF 0
  defence 4   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (30m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 4 
  Health Points 3d6 +3   
   
   
  stealth 11 
  Rank-equivalent: 1st 
   
   
   
  perception 7 
  Warrior Centaur stats are:
  attack 14, Damage of weapon, or Kick (d8, 5) 
  AF 2
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (30m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 4 
  Health Points 1d6 +15   
   
   
  stealth 12
  Rank-equivalent: 3rd  
   
   
  perception 8
  CHIMERA
  The Chimera is an exceptionally bizarre hybrid. It 
  has the forequarters of a lion growing from a power-
  ful serpentine body. Strong, curving horns like those 
  of a ram adorn its head, while on its back are drag-
  onish wings with aquiline pinions.
  attack 25, Claw (d12 +1, 7) and Bite (d8, 7) or Butt (d12, 5)
  defence 7   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m 
   
  AF 4 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Flying: 70m
  magical defence 14  
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 2d6 +24   
   
   
  stealth 8  
  Rank-equivalent: 14th  
   
   
  perception 9 
  Notes:  Shock attack as per Assassin; thrice a day can breathe 
  ray (magical attack 25) that causes target to lose all 
  fighting skill and spell energy.
  CHONCHON
  Chonchons are swollen, disembodied heads that fly 
  by using their huge, blue-veined ears as wings. 
  attack 15, Bite (d8, 2 and possible infection)  
  AF 2
  defence 12  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: flying—20m
  magical attack 21 
   
   
   
  evasion 5
  magical defence 11  
   
   
  stealth 9  
  Health Points 1d6 +7  
   
   
  perception 11 
  Rank-equivalent: rank as Sorcerer
  Notes:  Spellcasting power of rank 4-9 Sorcerer; invisible to 
  1st-4th rank characters until attack; contaminated 
  spittle; can be driven off with cruxifix.
  monsters oF legenD
  
  40
  Dragon Warriors
  CLOUDSPIDER
  The Cloudspider appears as a roiling black cloud of 
  mist, within which the rugose body, sparkling eyes 
  and clacking limbs of a giant arachnid are faintly 
  visible. 
  attack 28, Bite (d10, 6 + strong poison) AF 4
  defence 9   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (20m)
  magical defence 15  
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 6d6 +10  
   
   
  stealth 1
  Rank-equivalent: 16th  
   
   
  perception 10 
  Notes: Cry causes 1d10 Fright Attack; mist causes -3 to 
  hostile attack rolls and causes temporary blindness; 
  poison causes paralysis and decomposition.
  CROCODILE
  These lazy and inscrutable reptiles dwell in rivers 
  and swampland.
  attack 15, Bite (d6, 4 points)  
  AF 2
  defence 2  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 5m (12m)   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  swimming: 20m
  magical defence 2 
   
   
   
  evasion 2 
  Health Points 2d6 +11   
   
   
  stealth 11 
  Rank-equivalent: 3rd  
   
   
  perception 6 
  DEATH’S HEAD
  These vile supernatural creatures have the appear-
  ance of a human head with a long horn sprouting 
  from the forehead and black bat-like wings behind 
  the ears. During the hours of daylight, the monster 
  devours the head of a victim and binds itself magi-
  cally to the severed neck, using its dire sorcery to 
  animate the body as a Zombie. 
  attack 16, Horn (d10, 4 points) AF 3
  defence 18 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: (6m as   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Zombie; flying—30m)
  magical defence 7 
   
   
   
  evasion 7 
  Health Points 1d6 +2  
   
   
  stealth 14
  Rank-equivalent: 6th  
   
   
  perception 13 
  Notes: In daytime, a hit has a 90% chance of damaging the 
  Zombie and 10% of hitting the Death’s Head; unique 
  spell, Spellbind, usable once per night to bind new 
  victims (range 10m, magical attack 13).
  DRACOMAN
  Dracomen are bipedal saurians who dwell in small 
  tribal communities along the marshy, fertile fringes 
  of tropical rivers. 
  attack 17, Axe (d8 +1, 7) or Bite (d6, 6} AF 4
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (16m)
  magical defence 2 
   
   
   
  evasion 2
  Health Points 1d6 +10  
   
   
  stealth 10
  Rank-equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
  perception 6 
  Notes:  20% chance each round of attacking with jaws instead 
  of weapon;  50% chance of Fright Attack driving 
  Dracoman into homicidal rage (+6 attack, -3 
  defence).
  DRAGON
  Some 15m in length, and with a wingspan twice 
  that, a fully grown Dragon in flight with the sun-
  light limning the azure blue or gold of its scales is 
  an eerie and breathtaking sight.
   
  attack 30, Talons (d12, 8)  
   
  AF 5
  defence 25  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (25m)  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—150m
  magical defence 15  
   
   
  evasion 6 
  Health Points 6d6 +50  
   
   
  stealth 8  
  Rank-equivalent: 20th   
   
   
  perception 21 
  Notes:  Can breathe sheet of flame to 30m (2d6 +12 damage); 
  75% have abilities of 10th-rank Sorcerer or Mystic; 
  immune to non-magical weapons.
  DWARF
  Dwarves are short, stocky and bearded—quite simi-
  lar to men in general appearance, but rather broader 
  and with proportionately short limbs. They rarely 
  grow taller than about 1.4m. These stats are for a 
  normal Dwarf with no special combat training:
  attack 11, Damage per weapon  AF depends on type worn
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 1d6 +3   
   
   
  stealth 12 
  Rank-equivalent: 1st 
   
   
   
  perception 9 
  Notes:  Can be player-characters.
  ELEMENTAL
  Elementals are of four types: Earth, Fire, Air and 
  Water. All varieties have a total immunity to non-
  magical weapons.
  attack 19, (d10, 6 points)  
   
  AF 0
  defence 14 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: Earth 10m;  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Fire 20m; Air 20m   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  (200m); Water 15m
  magical defence 8 
   
   
   
  evasion 4 (Earth and 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Water); 8 (Fire and Air)
  Health Points 3d6 +10  
   
   
  stealth 10
  Rank-equivalent: 8th  
   
   
  perception 14 
  
  4
  Notes: Earth elementals tunnel at 2m/hour; Fire elementals 
  can fly; invulnerable to flame; Air elementals deflect 
  missile weapons; Water elementals can capsize small 
  boats; immune to non-magical weapons.
  ELF
  Elves are elegant manlike beings who dwell in 
  woodland. They are no shorter than men, but very 
  much more slender. These stats are for a normal Elf 
  with no special combat training:
  attack 11, Damage per weapon 
  AF depends on type worn
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m)
  magical defence 4 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 1d6 +2  
   
   
  stealth 18 
  Rank-equivalent: 1st   
   
   
  perception 13 
  Notes:  +2 attack when using bow; can be player-characters.
  FANG WARRIOR
  Fang Warriors are created from a Hydra’s teeth. 
  White and wiry, their superficially human appear-
  ance is quickly belied by sharp claws and teeth. 
  attack 24, Claws (d6 +1, 7) 
   
  AF 2
  defence 4  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m)
  magical defence 9 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 2d6 +10  
   
   
  stealth 14
  Rank-equivalent: 7th  
   
   
  perception 10 
  Notes: Reflexes 18; immune to morale-affecting spells; may 
  fade from existence during combat.
  FROST GIANT
  Frost Giants are seldom encountered, as they dwell 
  far from civilized lands, out on the icy tundra or in 
  sub-arctic forests. They live in villages consisting of 
  a few stone or wooden huts. 
  attack 19, Battleaxe (d8 +2, 8) 
   
  AF 4
  defence 11 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (20m)
  magical defence 7 
   
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 3d6 +16  
   
   
   
  stealth 9  
  Rank-equivalent: 5th   
   
   
   
  perception 6 
  FUNGUS MEN
  Fungus Men are mouldering skeletons, clumped 
  and caked with fungi, that lurch around forested 
  ruins and abandoned burial grounds. 
  attack 13, Damage per weapon 
   
  AF 1 (3 vs stabbing)
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (15m)
  magical defence 6 
   
   
   
   
  evasion 3 
  Health Points 1d6 +8   
   
   
   
  stealth 3 
  Rank-equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
   
  perception 9 
  Notes: Immune to all mind-controlling spells and devices; 
  characters must roll under Psychic Talent on 1d20 at 
  start of combat or fight at -2 attack, -1 defence
   
   
  10% chance of spores lodging in flesh: roll under 
  Strength on 1d20 every day or lose 1d6 HP: if -3 
  reached then victim becomes Fungus Man.
  GARGOYLE
  These grotesque beings come in a wide variety of 
  shapes and sizes. Most are winged, and all have the 
  ability to remain motionless for very long periods. 
  attack 16 Talons (d10, 3)  
   
  AF 7 (2 vs magic weapons) 
  defence 8  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (15m)  
  magical defence 6 
   
   
   
  flying—50m
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  evasion 4 
  Health Points 3d6 +4  
   
   
  stealth 16 
  Rank-equivalent: 5th   
   
   
  perception 12 
  Notes:  Surprise on 1-3 on d6; if healed, 30% chance of 
  serving the one who healed it.
  GHOST
  Ghosts are spirits of the dead that have chosen to 
  linger on the earthly plane for some reason. Often 
  the reason is to give guidance to the living or to exact 
  revenge on an enemy (often the Ghost’s murderer).
  Notes:  Automatic Fright Attack of 1d12 intensity; can only 
  be driven off with Exorcism.
  GHOUL
  Ghouls are transformed Humans (or sometimes 
  Dwarves or Elves) who have entered a twilight 
  existence between life and death as a result of their 
  warped appetites—they gorge themselves on the 
  rotting flesh of corpses. 
  attack 17, Damage per weapon 
  AF: type worn   
   
  defence 9  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m)
  magical defence 7 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 1d6 +10  
   
   
  stealth 15 
  Rank-equivalent: 4th   
   
   
  perception 9 
  monsters oF legenD
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  Notes: Any NPC below 3rd rank must roll Intelligence or 
  lower on 1d20 or flee in panic.
  GIANT BEETLE
  These monstrous insects resemble stag beetles the 
  size of a large bull. 
  attack 17, Bite (d10, 4) 
   
   
  AF 5
  defence 3   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical defence 4 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 4d6 +11  
   
   
  stealth 13 
  Rank-equivalent: 6th   
   
   
  perception 8 
  Notes:  Surprise on 1-3 on d6.
  GIANT EAGLE
  Giant Eagles resemble their more normal-sized 
  counterparts, but are large enough to carry off a 
  child or slightly built adult.
  attack 16, Talons (d6, 4)  
   
  AF 0
  defence 12 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: Flying 20m
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 1d6 +6  
   
   
  stealth 9
  Rank-equivalent: 3rd  
   
   
  perception 7 
  GIANT RAT
  These are the size of a dog and are to be found lurk-
  ing in sewers or subterranean burrows. 
  attack 9, Bite (d3, 3 points)  
  AF 0
  defence 2  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m)
  magical defence 2    
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 1d6 +1  
   
   
  stealth 17 
  Rank-equivalent: 1st   
   
   
  perception 8 
  Notes:  After encounter, 2% of contracting Black Death 
  within 1-4 weeks.
  GIANT SCORPION
  These monsters can be up to three or four metres 
  long, and present a frightening menace to travellers 
  in the deserts or steaming jungles of the south.
  attack 22, each Pincer (d6, 4) or 
   
  Sting (d4 +1, 2 + strong poison) 
  AF 2
  defence 3  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical defence 4 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 3d6 +9  
   
   
  stealth 15 
  Rank-equivalent: 5th   
   
   
  perception 7 
  Notes: Surprise on 1-3 on d6; sieze on successful hit, doing 
  1d6 each subsequent round.
  GIANT VIPER
  The giant viper is a venomous snake almost as large 
  as a python in size. 
  attack 13, Bite (d3, 2) as strong poison 
  AF 0
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m
  magical defence 1 
   
   
  evasion 2
  Health Points 1d6 +8  
   
  stealth 18 
  Rank-equivalent: 2nd  
   
  perception 9 
  GNOME
  These supernatural woodland entities are apt to react 
  violently against any they consider to be intruding 
  in their domain. 
   
  Grey Gnomes frequent the sides of buildings 
  and plinths, where, like gargoyles, they lie in wait 
  for passers-by. In other respects they are identical to 
  standard Gnomes.
  attack 15, Claws (d8, 5 points) 
  AF 3
  defence 9  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical defence 8 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 2d6 +8  
   
   
  stealth 23 
  Rank-equivalent: 3rd  
   
   
  perception 15 
  Notes:   Can cast Embog spell once per day.
  GOBLIN
  Goblins are malicious sprites renowned for their evil 
  ways. They relish cruelty, and their magical mischief 
  is blamed for many mishaps experienced by travel-
  lers along desolate country lanes. 
  attack 13, Shortsword (d8, 3 points) or Sling (d6, 3 points)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  AF 1
  defence 7  
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m)
  magical defence 5 
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 1d6 +4  
   
  stealth 21 
  Rank-equivalent: 1st   
   
  perception 13 
  GOLEM
  A Golem is a mighty warrior of clay or stone con-
  structed and animated by a Sorcerer of 12th rank or 
  higher. 
  attack 24, Fists (d6 +3, 7) or any weapon, 
   
   +3 on Armour Bypass and damage   
  AF 7
  defence 10  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 4m
  magical defence 12  
   
   
  evasion 1 (Reflexes 3)
  Health Points 3d6 +35  
   
   
  stealth 5  
  Rank-equivalent: 11th   
   
   
  perception 6 
  Notes: Immune to mind-controlling spells and potions; 
  cannot be detected by ESP.
  
  43
  GORGON
  These creatures have the bodies of beautiful women, 
  but the face is that of a hideous crone and the head 
  is a writhing mass of long serpentine tresses. 
  attack 16, Sword (d8, 4) and Snakebite (d4, 1)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  AF 0
  defence 10 
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical attack 19 
   
   
  evasion 4
  magical defence 9 
   
   
  stealth 15
  Health Points 1d6 +8  
   
  perception 11 
  Rank-equivalent: 5th 
  Notes: Anyone seeing a Gorgon must roll vs magical attack 
  19  or turn to stone; hair can fight: 1-3 tresses each 
  with attack 10 and venomous bite.
  GRAVE GAUNT
  These are scavenging, winged undead whose ori-
  gins are lost in the mists of antiquity. Hunchbacked 
  and emaciated, they have grey-black papery skin 
  stretched taut over a bony frame, and narrow skull-
  faces fixed in fleshless rictus. 
  attack 16, Spear (2d4, 4) or Antlers (d6, 3)   AF 1
  defence 9   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—90m
  magical defence 9 
   
   
   
  evasion 7 (in flight) 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  3 (on ground)
  Health Points 2d6 +6  
   
   
  stealth 13  
  Rank-equivalent: 4th  
   
   
  perception 6 
  Notes: Only operate at night; antler wounds cause Wasting 
  Disease (p. 126) and cannot be healed by magic.
  GRYPHON
  The Gryphon is slightly larger than a warhorse, 
  having the hindquarters of a lion and the foreparts 
  and wings of a majestic eagle. 
  attack 21, Bite (d8, 7) and Claws (d12, 5)  
  AF 2
  defence 9   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (25m)  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—90m
  magical defence 9 
   
   
  evasion 7
  Health Points 4d6 +12   
   
  stealth 11
  Rank-equivalent: 8th  
   
  perception 7 
  HAG
  These are supernatural beings in the form of 
  decrepit crones. Wrapped in ragged, filthy cloaks, 
  they go shrieking through the night sky on broom-
  sticks or in flying cauldrons, searching for mortals 
  to torment. 
  attack 16, Staff (d6, 3) 
   
  AF 3 (takes +1 damage from 
  defence 10  
   
   
   
   
  iron and steel weaponry)
  magical attack 18 
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m) 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—50m
  magical defence 8 
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 2d6 +7  
   
  stealth 13  
  Rank-equivalent: 6th   
   
  perception 13 
  Notes: As 4th-rank Sorcerers: magic points depend on phase 
  of moon; gaze attack 1d8; victim struck dumb for 1-6 
  days; stench: all attackers at -1 attack; any who hit 
  her must roll against magical attack or get plague 
  of warts (Looks 2) until next new moon; if hit, victim 
  is exposed to Black Death; vulnerable to daylight and 
  cruxifixes; can use broomstick or cauldrom to fly; 1 in 
  6 possesses Night Bridle.
  HALFLING
  At first glance Halflings might be mistaken for chil-
  dren, as they seldom grow taller than 1m. They are 
  reclusive and shy.
  attack 9, Sling (d6, 3) or Staff (d6, 3)   AF 0 (or 1 for jerkin)
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (20m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 1d6 +1  
   
   
  stealth 18  
  Rank-Equivalent: 1st  
   
   
  perception 8 
  Notes:  Surprise on 1-2 on 1d6 in woods; cannot be surprised 
  there.
  monsters oF legenD
   EW
  
  44
  Dragon Warriors
  HARPY
  They have the bodies of giant grey vultures but the 
  breasts and leering face of withered crones. 
  attack 13, Claws (d8, 4)  
   
  AF 2 (AF 7 vs 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  non-magical weapons) 
  defence 4  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—50m
  magical defence 4 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 4d6  
   
   
   
  stealth 8  
  Rank-equivalent: 3rd  
   
   
  perception 9
  Notes:  Vile odour (attackers at -1 to attack and defence); 
  only 1 in 20 chance of surprise; on successful hit, 20% 
  chance of snatching and flying off with victim.
  HELL HOUND
  Hell hounds are the size of Doberman Pinschers. 
  They have black lustrous fur, and are distinguishable 
  from other dogs by their particularly eerie baying 
  and their blood-red eyes.
  attack 12, Bite (d4, 5)  
   
   
  AF 0
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (30m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 1d6 +4  
   
   
  stealth 15  
  Rank-equivalent: 1st   
   
   
  perception 10 
  HELL HOUND, GREATER
  Greater hell hounds are larger, more obviously 
  supernatural versions of hell hounds. 
  attack 16, Fangs (d4 +1, 5 points & strong poison) 
  AF 1
  defence 6  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (30m)
  magical defence 8 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 2d6 +4  
   
   
  stealth 15  
  Rank-equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
  perception 10 
  Notes: surprise on 1-4 on 1d6
  HELLION
  Hellions are soulless, cackling monstrosities from 
  the nether realm. Hellions vary in power as wildly 
  as they do in appearance. At their mightiest, they 
  are a fearsome challenge for the greatest heroes. To 
  determine the powers of a given Hellion, please use 
  the series of tables given in the Dragon Warriors Bes-
  tiary.
  Notes:  cannot approach within 2m of a sacred relic; 
  vulnerable to cruxifixes.
  HELLROT
  Hellrots are employed as earthly emissaries by cer-
  tain evil demons. Their body is a bloated, scabrous 
  sac supported in the air by leathery black wings. Its 
  four limbs bear some resemblance to human arms
  attack 15, Bite (d8, 3 and plague) or weapon  
  AF 2
  defence 7   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (15m)   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—60m
  magical defence 8 
   
   
   
  evasion 4 
  Health Points 5d6  
   
   
   
  stealth 13  
  Rank-equivalent: 3rd   
   
   
  perception 6 
  Notes: Bite conveys Black Death; repelled by cruxifix; cannot 
  harm any character who has a relic.
  HIPPOGRIFF
  Though they can be tamed, Hippogriffs are most 
  likely to be met in the wild. They are savage car-
  nivores with two forms: a large black horse by day; 
  after nightfall, they grow wings, talons and leathery 
  scales.
  attack 20, Bite (d8 +2, 5) or Claws (d12, 6) 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  AF 3 (0 vs magic weapons)
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (30m)  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—90m
  magical defence 10  
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 2d6 +18   
   
   
  stealth 10  
  Rank-equivalent: 8th   
   
   
  perception 11 
  Notes: In horse form, stats as per Warhorse; can change 
  between forms at will at night. 
  HOBGOBLIN
  Physically, Hobgoblins differ very little from their 
  subservient Goblin brethren. They are, however, 
  characterized by still greater guile, malice and 
  uncanny power. 
  attack 16, Shortsword (d8, 3) or Sling (d6, 3)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  AF 1
  defence 10 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m) 
  magical attack 17 
   
   
   
  evasion 4 
  magical defence 7 
   
   
   
  stealth 23  
  Health Points 1d6 +9  
   
   
  perception 13
  Rank-equivalent: 4th
  Notes: Cobweb net with 5m range; 1-4 poisonous puffballs; 
  unique spells: Bats; glissade; Chill; Cure; can foul food 
  and water, cause and cure warts; 1 in 20 have the 
  abilities of a 3rd-level Sorcerer.
  
  4
  HORSE
  A good Horse is a necessity for the habitual adven-
  turer. These are the stats for a normal riding Horse:
  attack 11, Bite (d8, 3)  
   
   
  AF 0
  defence 2  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (30m)
  magical defence 2 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 2d6 +9  
   
   
  stealth 10  
  Rank-equivalent: 2nd   
   
   
  perception 6 
  These are the stats for a Warhorse:
  attack 17 Bite (d8, 4) or Kick (d10, 6) 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  AF 0 (3 wearing barding) 
  defence 4   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (30m)
  magical defence 4 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 1d6 +16  
   
   
  stealth 10  
  Rank-equivalent: 5th   
   
   
  perception 6 
  HUMAN
  The common peasants and townspeople who popu-
  late your fantasy world will usually have scant fight-
  ing skill. These are the stats for a normal Human 
  with no special combat training:
  attack 11, Damage per weapon 
  AF: type worn (usually 0)
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 1d6 +3  
   
   
  stealth 12  
  Rank-equivalent: 1st   
   
   
  perception 4 
  HYDRA
  The Hydra resembles a giant snake with scales of a 
  coppery or livid green hue. However, from its body 
  sprout nine long necks, each ending in an ophidian 
  head with a hideous womanlike face. 
  attack 19, Each mouth (d8, 3 + weak poison) AF 3
  defence 12  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical defence 14  
   
   
  evasion 5 
  Health Points 4d6 +30  
   
   
  stealth 3  
  Rank-equivalent: 16th   
   
   
  perception 12 
  Notes: Severed heads are replaced by two heads next Combat 
  Round; body exudes poisonous vapour (as normal 
  poison); fangs produce Fang Warriors.
  HYDRA, SMALL
  A small Hydra is a younger version of the adult 
  Hydra (above). 
  attack 13, Each mouth (d6, 2 + weak poison) AF 1
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical defence 8 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  stealth 3   
   
   
   
   
   
  perception 9 
  Rank-equivalent: 8th  
   
   
  Health Points 2d6 +10
  IGNIS FATUUS
  These are false lights that burn over treacherous 
  boggy ground, luring travellers to their doom.
  IMP
  This is one name for the tiny sprites who are some-
  times to be found in rural areas and rustic woodland. 
  They are about the size of a man’s thumb, with long 
  pointed ears and spindly legs.
  stealth 28  
   
   
   
   
   
  perception 30 
  IRE GOBLIN (Bugbear)
  Ire Goblins are gangling creatures about 120cm in 
  height, with bulbous heads, large slit eyes, and grin-
  ning mouths full of sharp triangular teeth. 
   
  The basic stats for an Ire Goblin are as follows, 
  with scores when ‘swollen’ given in brackets:
  attack 15 (21), Claws (d6, 3) up to (d6 +3, 6) 
  AF 0 (2 vs non-magical weapons)
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (30m)
  magical defence 4 
   
   
   
  evasion 4 
  Health Points 1d6 +3 (+9)   
   
  stealth 12  
  Rank-equivalent: 3rd   
   
   
  perception 7 
  Notes: Swell up when wounded (adds +3 Hit Points, +2 attack, 
  +1 Armour Bypass each round for 3 rounds)
  JUMBEE
  Jumbees always manifest in groups of three—a 
  young man, a maiden, and an aged figure so withered 
  that its sex is unclear. They float above the ground, 
  lank grey beings with sunken eyes and unnaturally 
  long limbs. 
  attack 17, Touch (see below)  
  AF 0
  defence 7  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (30m)
  magical defence 10  
   
   
  evasion 7
  Health Points 4d6   
   
   
   
  stealth –
  Rank-equivalent: 6th  
   
   
  perception 15
  monsters oF legenD
  
  46
  Dragon Warriors
  Notes: Each touch drains 1 Strength (man), 1 Reflexes 
  (maiden) or 1 experience point (elder), no Armour 
  Bypass Roll needed; Fright Attack at first touch: 
  1d10. Failed characters plunge deep into insanity; any 
  physical attack is 40% likely to shatter the weapon. 
  Spells are 40% likely to miscast. Magic items have 
  10% chance of losing enchantment forever; immune to 
  nonmagical weapons.
  kAPPA
  The Kappa are eerie beings, vaguely manlike but 
  with long, many-jointed limbs. Their bodies are 
  mauve-pink and hard—more easily chipped than 
  cut. 
  attack 12, Spear (2d4, 4) or Shortsword (d8, 3) AF 3
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical defence 4 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 1d6 +5  
   
   
  stealth 11  
  Rank-Equivalent 1st 
   
   
   
  perception 4 
  Notes: Organized into squads of 7 warriors led by Septurion 
  (as Mystic rank 1-4); 3 squads form a platoon led 
  by an officer with magic of a Sorcerer rank 5-8 who 
  fights as a 5th-rank Knight; high-rank generals have 
  hypnosis ability as per Vampires.
  kILLER BEES 
  Killer Bees are approximately twice the size of nor-
  mal bees. Treat each swarm as a single entity of the 
  relevant rank. Each swarm will be led by a Queen 
  Bee, about twice the size of the other bees.
  20-bee swarm
  attack  10, Sting (d4, 1) + medium poison 
  AF 0
  defence 5   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: flying 10m
  magical defence 1 
   
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points for all 20 Bees: 20 
  stealth 1  
  Rank-equivalent: 5th  
   
   
  perception 5 
  40-bee swarm
  attack  14, Sting (d4, 2) + medium poison 
  AF 0
  defence 5   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: flying 10m
  magical defence 1 
   
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points for all 40 Bees: 40 
  stealth 1  
  Rank-equivalent: 8th  
   
   
  perception 6 
  60-bee swarm
  attack  18, Sting (d4, 3) + medium poison 
  AF 0
  defence 5   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: flying 10m
  magical defence 1 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points for all 60 Bees: 60 
  stealth 1  
  Rank-equivalent: 11th  
   
   
  perception 7 
  80-bee swarm
  attack  22, Sting (d4, 4), medium-strength poison 
  AF 0
  defence 5   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: flying 10m
  magical defence 1 
   
   
   
  evasion 3 
  Health Points for all 80 Bees: 80 
  stealth 1 
  Rank-equivalent: 14th  
   
   
  perception 8 
  queen bee
  attack 13, Sting (d4, 3), medium-strength poison  
  AF 0
  defence 7  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: flying 10m
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 7
  Health Points 2 
   
   
   
   
  stealth 2  
  Rank equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
  perception 5 
  kRAkEN
  The Kraken is a huge sea snake with a ravening maw 
  that can consume small ships at one gulp.
  attack 19, Jaws (d10, 10)  
   
  AF 4
  defence 9   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: swim 20m
  magical defence 10  
   
   
  evasion 2
  Health Points 4d6 +20   
   
   
  stealth 12  
  Rank-equivalent: 10th   
   
   
  perception 14 
  Notes:  Tongue has range of 5m; on successful hit victim is 
  sucked into Kraken’s maw.
  kRASk
  The Krask is a flying creature that resembles a manta 
  ray. Its flat, blood-red body moves through the air 
  with a strange, rippling ‘swimming’ action. 
  attack 20, Sting (d8, 8 + shock)  
  AF 3
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m
  magical defence 8 
   
   
   
   
  evasion 6 
  Health Points 3d6 +10   
   
   
   
  stealth 14  
  Rank-equivalent: 8th   
   
   
   
  perception 20 
  Notes:  Electric shock from tail (roll under Strength on 1d20 
  or black out); can alter colour to surprise (1-3 on d6) 
  and disorient; edged weapons do half damage.
  LYCANTHROPE
  Lycanthropes are humans who are able to transform 
  themselves into beasts. The most common form 
  of lycanthropy is Werewolfism, but other types are 
  known, including Weretigers, Werebears, Were-
  snakes, Wereboar and Wereapes. 
  Notes: Vulnerable to sunlight; half damage from non-magic 
  and non-silver weapons.
  
  47
  MALGASH
  The Malgash is a demon of fire and darkness, pos-
  sessed of great power. It is only to be encountered 
  in the most inaccessible and dangerous underworld 
  shrines. 
  attack 32  Sword (d8 +4, 9) or Whip (d12, 12) 
  AF 6
  defence 25  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m)
  magical defence 24  
   
   
  evasion 7 
  Health Points 60   
   
   
   
  stealth 1 
  Rank-equivalent: 25th  
   
   
  perception 20 
  Notes:  Appearance causes 1d10 Fright Attack; victims flee 
  for 1d6 Combat Rounds or be frozen with fear for 
  1d4 Combat Rounds; whip attacks with speed 16 vs 
  evasion; magic armour gives no protection, magic 
  gives Armour Bypass Roll on 1d12; heat: characters 
  within 2m must roll 1d20; if more than their Strength 
  then they lose 1 point from heat exhaustion; can see 
  invisible objects and creatures; can shatter spells within 
  5m (one per CR); immune to non-magical weapons.
  MANTICORE
  Manticores are bloodthirsty hybrids, having the tail 
  of a scorpion, the body of a lion and the head of a 
  man—though with serried ranks of pointed teeth 
  and glowing red eyes. 
  attack 20, Claws (d10, 6) or Sting (d6, 3+ venom) 
  AF 4
  defence 12 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m(30m)
  magical defence 11  
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 3d6 +18  
   
   
  stealth 11  
  Rank-equivalent: 8th  
   
   
  perception 8 
  Notes:  Sting is fatal if victim fails a Strength roll.
  MERE-GAUNT
  These insane creatures inhabit weed-choked ponds, 
  lakes and canals, preferring stagnant water where 
  possible. They swim up by dusk or night to attack 
  swimmers and the occupants of small boats.
  attack 20, Bite (d10 +1, 7) 
   
  AF 4
  defence 12  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 12  
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 3d6 +12  
   
   
  stealth 12  
  Rank-equivalent: 8th  
   
   
  perception 7 
  Notes:  Mere-gaunt grapples its victim, then bites (Fright 
  Attack); characters bitten but not killed have 75% 
  chance of Swamp Fever.
  MINOTAUR
  A creature with the body of a man but the head of a 
  bull, often sealed away in dungeon or catacomb. 
  attack 28, Axe (d8 +2, 8), Horns (d12, 6) 
  AF: type worn, +1 for tough skin
  defence 11  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (24m)
  magical defence 12  
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 1d6 +22  
   
   
  stealth 10  
  Rank-equivalent: 12th   
   
   
  perception 10 
  Notes:  Charge attack (speed 14 vs evasion, does 2d6 +1 and 
  stun; enters Bloodrage after 4 rounds of combat.
  MORDU (Headless Warrior)
  The headless spectres that are sometimes seen roam-
  ing the galleries and passageways of ancient castles. 
  attack 20, Two-handed Sword (d10 +1, 6) 
  AF 5
  defence 14 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m
  magical defence – (see above) 
  evasion 5
  Health Points 3d6 +11   
   
   
  stealth 11  
  Rank-equivalent: 8th  
   
   
  perception 17
  Notes: Causes 1d10 Fright Attack, causes victim to stand 
  terror-struck for 2-8 rounds, with 10% chance of heart 
  attack; immune to stealth, invisibility, direct-attack 
  enchantments, non-magical weapons; unhindered by 
  daylight.
  MUMMY
  The embalmed bodies of those long dead are some-
  times encountered stalking the passages of their 
  ancient tombs. 
  attack 18, Damage per weapon  AF: type worn, +1 for 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  leathery skin
  defence 12 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical  defence  9  
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 4d6 +5  
   
   
  stealth 15 
  Rank-equivalent: 6th  
   
   
  perception 12 
  Notes: 20% chance that fire attacks will set it on fire, losing 
  1d4 HP per round; when slain, uses Doom curse 
  (magical attack 18) against slayer, who will die 
  within 1 month unless curse is lifted.
  NARGUT
  Narguts are grey, seething, glutinous masses with 
  eight toad-like eyes, four legs and four arms with 
  claws on them and four gaping mouths filled with 
  acidic spittle at each cardinal point of their squat, 
  bullish heads. 
  attack 16, Acid bite (d10, 3), Claw (d8, 5) 
   
  AF 0
  defence 4   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 6 
   
   
   
  evasion 2
  Health Points 4d6 +12  
   
   
  stealth 14  
  Rank-equivalent: 6th   
   
   
  perception 7 
  Notes:  Ventriloquism; vulnerable to sunlight.
  monsters oF legenD
  
  48
  Dragon Warriors
  NECROCHOR
  These wizened undead were ritual priests, and retain 
  much of their magical power in the undead state. 
  attack 13, Sword (d8, 4)  
   
  AF 1
  defence 7   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical attack 21 
   
   
   
  15 Magic Points
  magical defence 11  
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 3d6 +4  
   
   
  stealth 16  
  Rank-equivalent: 6th   
   
   
  perception 10 
  Notes: Have spell-knowledge of 5th-rank Sorcerers, but spells 
  take effect at end of round; edged weapon hits may 
  dislodge 1-4 scorpions (1d8 Armour Bypass roll to 
  sting victim for strong poison attack); 20% chance that 
  fire attacks will set it on fire, losing 1d4 HP per round 
  and killing any scorpions.
  NIGHTMARE
  When the characters go to sleep for the night, the 
  Nightmare invades their dreams. The Nightmare 
  cannot be detected because it has no physical pres-
  ence in the real world. 
  Notes:  Effective infinite stealth and perception 20; 
  character in dream must roll above Psychic Talent on 
  1d20 +rank to wake; can cause sleepwalking (magical 
  attack 2d6 +14 vs magical defence).
  OBSIDIAk
  The Obsidiak resembles a floating and partly human 
  head that seems to have been cut out of harsh gran-
  ite, from which trail three serpentine tentacles. It 
  moves through the air with a horrible undulating 
  motion.
  attack 14, Bite (d8, 3 points)  
  AF 3
  defence 6  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: flying—8m
  magical defence 6 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 1d6 +8  
   
   
  stealth 15 
  Rank-equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
  perception 6 
  Notes:  Swoop attack (speed 12 vs evasion), doing increasing 
  damage with each Combat Round.
  OGRE
  Brutish and surly, Ogres are tall, thickset and 
  extremely strong creatures of basically humanoid 
  appearance. They fight with axes or terrible iron 
  war-hammers. 
  attack 20, Warhammer 
   
   
  AF type worn, 
   
  (d8 +2, 8 points)   
   
   
   
  +1 for tough skin
  defence 12 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)
  magical defence 8 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 2d6 +18  
   
   
  stealth 10  
  Rank-equivalent: 7th  
   
   
  perception 9 
  OkEMAN
  Woodland spirits that have taken up permanent 
  residence in trees, Okemen are indistinguishable 
  from normal trees in their dormant state. 
  attack 27, Claws (d8 +2, 7) 
   
  AF 7 (vs spears & swords)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  4 (vs axes, flails, maces)
  defence 18  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m)
  magical defence 18  
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 8d6 +30  
   
   
  stealth 25 
  Rank-equivalent: 14th  
   
   
  perception 25 
  Notes: Will send 4-40 wolves, stags, snakes and bears to deal 
  with intruders; vulnerable to fire. 
  ONI
  Oni are the Ogres of the Far East. Fully as blood-
  thirsty as normal Ogres, they also have magical 
  powers and a wily intelligence.
  attack 22, Sword (d8 +1, 5) or Claws   
  AF 4
   
   
  (d8, 4 + energy-drain)  
  Movement: 15m (25m) 
  defence 16  
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—50m
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  evasion 6
  magical attack 20 
   
   
   
  stealth 15
  magical defence 13  
   
   
  perception 8  (+3 in day)
  Health Points 1d6 +15   
   
   
  Rank-equivalent: 12th
  Notes: Spellcast as 6th-rank Mystic; invisible by daylight; true 
  appearance causes Shock Attack to all under 8th rank; 
  breathe poison fumes every 5th Combat Round.
  ORC
  Orcs are the archetypal henchthings of Evil, and 
  have been found in service to many masters. The 
  stats for a typical Orc-at-arms are as follows:
  attack 12, Damage as weapon  
  AF depends on type worn
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion  3
  Health Points 1d6 +3  
   
   
  stealth 12 
  Rank-equivalent: 1st 
   
   
   
  perception 4 
  Notes:  In sunlight -1 attack and -1 defence.
  PAZUZU
  A Pazuzu is fundamentally of humanoid form, 
  though tall and wiry to a most unhuman extent. The 
  creature’s hands and feet are much like the padded 
  claws of a lion, and it has black plumed wings. 
  
  49
  attack 16, Claws (d8, 5 points) 
  AF 1
  defence 10 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (15m)  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying 30m
  magical defence 9 
   
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 1d6 +11  
   
   
  stealth 14  
  Rank-equivalent: 5th  
   
   
  perception 10 
  Notes:  Surprise on 1-4 on 1d6; breathe flame (1d6 +3 
  damage) every other Combat Round; can cast image 
  spell once per day.
  PHOENIX
  This majestic bird of prey looks something like an 
  eagle, but with a wingspan of nearly 8m. 
  attack 23, Beak (d10, 4) or Talons (d6 +1, 6)  AF 3
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (15m) 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—20m
  magical defence 18  
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 2d6 +14   
   
   
  stealth 4  
  Rank-equivalent: 7th   
   
   
  perception 22 
  Notes:  Cry causes -1 attack for ranks 1-3; can see invisible 
  objects and creatures; revives itself from death in 1-5 
  Combat Rounds.
  PYTHON
  Pythons wait on the boughs of jungle trees for likely 
  prey to pass beneath.
  attack 14, Bite (d3, 2 points)  
  AF 0
  defence 2  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m 
  magical defence 0 
   
   
   
  evasion 2
  Health Points 1d6 +8  
   
   
  stealth 18
  Rank-equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
  perception 9 
  Notes:  Surprise on 1-3; first victim hit is trapped and will 
  asphyxiate in 2d6 Combat Rounds unless freed.
  RAkSHAH
  The natural form of a Rakshah is of a central head 
  with thick, leonine mane from which its five power-
  ful legs grow radially, like the spokes of a wheel. 
  attack 24, Hoofs (d8 +1, 5) ×1–3 AF 6 (3 vs magic weapons)
  defence 11  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (30m)
  magical attack 20 
   
   
   
  9 Magic Points 
  magical defence 10  
   
   
  evasion 8
  Health Points 2d6 +23  
   
   
  stealth 8  
  Rank-equivalent: 8 (day), 12 (night)  
  perception 12 
  Notes: Hoofs hit with magical attack 20, reducing HP to 0 
  if successful; can use Sorcery spells of levels 1-6; 20% 
  chance to catch fire-based spells in its mouth and spit 
  it back at the caster; immune to spells cast twice by the 
  same sorcerer.
  SENTINEL CRAB
  These are large crabs about the size of a dog. They 
  are kept as domestic animals by the Kappa (see p. 
  246), who train them to act as guards and fighters. 
  attack 14, each pincer (d4 +2, 3) AF 5
  defence 5   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (20m)
  magical defence 2 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 1d6 +6  
   
   
  stealth 12
  Rank-equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
  perception 5 
  SHADOW WALkER
  Shadow Walkers are creatures of the half-world 
  where Reality shades into Illusion. Probably no one 
  has ever seen the true form of a Shadow Walker. 
  Notes: Able to acquires the outward appearance of a character, 
  and also his Combat Factors, Health Points, arms 
  and armour, equipment, etc. Joins the party’s ranks by 
  stepping out of the very shadow of the character it has 
  copied; only able to return to its shadowy dimension 
  when all those who witnessed its manifestation are 
  dead. 
  monsters oF legenD
   JH
  
  0
  Dragon Warriors
  SHEN LUN (Black Dragon)
  Black Dragons are slender, sinuous creatures with 
  the elongated snout typical of dragons everywhere, 
  but no wings. 
  attack 24, Talons (d10, 7)  
   
  AF 4 (7 vs nonmagical)
  defence 19  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (25m) 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—90m
  magical defence 15  
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 3d6 +25  
   
   
  stealth 9  
  Rank-equivalent: 15th   
   
   
  perception 19 
  Notes:  Discharges bolt of lightning every fifth Combat 
  Round (speed 14, hits 2-8 targets, 2D12 damage); 
  some have the abilities of a Mystic.
  SkELETON
  Animated Skeletons are sometimes used as serv-
  ants by reclusive and powerful wizards who distrust 
  human vassals. 
  attack 11, Damage per weapon 
  AF 0 (2 against stabbing)
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 1d6 +1  
   
   
  stealth 13  
  Rank-equivalent: 1st   
   
   
  perception 7 
  Notes:  Take half damage from fire-based attacks.
  SkULLGHAST
  Skullghasts are ancient skulls often set in high niches 
  above an altar or an archway. These acquire a halo of 
  pale-gold flame and float into the air, gliding swiftly 
  to snap at the transgressor with their fiery jaws.
  attack 16, Flame (d10, 3)  
   
  AF 0
  defence 15  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: flying—30m
  magical defence 8 
   
   
   
  evasion 7
  Health Points 3 
   
   
   
   
  stealth 15  
  Rank-equivalent: 4th  
   
   
  perception 12 
  Notes: Stare (1d12 Fright Attack, -3 Strength -3 Reflexes for 
  duration of combat); flame-wounds cannot be healed 
  with magic; unaffected by Hold off The Dead.
  SNOW APE
  Shaggy, white-furred primates from arctic climes.
  attack 12, Club (d6 +1, 5 points) AF 0
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (20m)
  magical defence 2 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 1d6 +9  
   
   
  stealth 10 
  Rank-equivalent: 1st 
   
   
   
  perception 5 
  Notes: Camouflage gives +5 stealth and surprise on 1-3 on 
  1d6 in snowy conditions
  SPECTRE
  Spectres are the non-corporeal undead remnants 
  of strong-willed persons whose lives were twisted 
  by dark hateful passions. Their gliding, translucent 
  forms are often mistaken for Ghosts.
  attack 19, Touch (d12, 5 points) AF 0 
  defence 12  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m
  magical defence 11  
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 4d6 +4  
   
   
  stealth 18  
  Rank-equivalent: 8th   
   
   
  perception 13 
  Notes: Surprise on 1-4 on 1d6; if surprise then Fright Attack 
  of 1d6; non-magical weapons and physical spells have 
  no effect.
  SPHINX
  The Sphinx, with its lion’s body and human head, is 
  a very famous creature from the old myths. They are 
  some five tunes bigger than a full-grown lion. 
  attack 24, Claws (d12 +1, 8)  
  AF 4
  defence 12  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (30m)
  magical defence  Varies by rank  evasion 5
   
   
   
   
   
  as wizard  
  stealth 3
  Health Points 3d6 +35  
   
   
  perception 15
  Rank-equivalent: Wizard rank +7  
  Notes:  Has the abilities of a 6-11th-rank Mystic or 5th-
  10th rank Sorcerer; immune to telepathy, nonmagic 
  weapons; can draw all oxygen from 8m sphere once per 
  day.
  SPIDER, GIANT
  Giant Spiders tend to make their lairs in lonely 
  places—in caverns, forests and haunted under-
  worlds. They drop onto the backs of those unfortu-
  nate enough to stumble into their web. 
  attack 15, Bite (d6, 3 points)  
  AF 1
  defence 2  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (20m) 
  magical defence 4 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 1d6 +5  
   
   
  stealth 19
  Rank-equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
  perception 11 
  Notes:  Victims trapped in web lose 2 attack and 1 defence 
  per round until immobilised; chance to escape 
  decreases by 10% each round; venomous bite causes 
  paralysis within 2-12 Combat Rounds and death in 10 
  minutes.
  SPIDER, TARANTULA
  Tarantulas are large, hairy, poisonous spiders. The 
  same game stats can be used for other large but non-
  Giant poisonous spiders, such as Black Widows.
  
  
  attack 12, Bite (d4, 2) (strong poison)  
  AF 0
  defence 1  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 5m
  magical defence 1 
   
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 2 
   
   
   
   
  stealth 19
  Rank-equivalent: 1st 
   
   
   
  perception 5 
  SPRIGGAN
  Spriggans are grotesquely ugly and dangerously 
  spiteful faerie creatures that prance across the coun-
  tryside around old ruins, barrows, deserted castles 
  and haunted woods. 
  attack 9, Barbs (d10, 2)  
   
  AF 1
  defence 9  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m (25m)
  magical attack 14 
   
   
   
   evasion 8
  magical defence 6 
   
   
   
  stealth 24  
  Health Points 1d4 +1  
   
   
  perception 14 
  Rank-equivalent: 1st
  Notes:  Inflicted wounds take three times longer to heal; can 
  always hide from ranks 1-4 (except Elves); pilfer, pick 
  lock and climb like 7th-rank Assassin; can cast Curse 
  (4x day), Moonglow (3x day) and Weaken and illusion 
  (1x day).
  THE SUFIRIAD
  Minor demons motivated by the spirits of long-
  dead priests, the Sufiriad constantly sweep and glide 
  through the broken, snow-choked ruins of their 
  ancient temples. 
  attack Whirlwind (see below) 
   
  AF 5
  defence 0  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m
  magical defence – (see below) 
   
  evasion 4 
  Health Points 5d10 +5  
   
   
   
  stealth 7  
  Rank-equivalent: 10th   
   
   
   
  perception 16 
  Notes: Attack does 1d10 –AF. Character must also roll 
  Strength or less on 1d20 or die; scream has 10% 
  chance of shattering victim’s eardrums; fire does +2 
  damage to Sufiriad; immune to direct-attack magic.
  SWAMP FOLk
  Swamp folk have wrinkled green heads like toads 
  and yellow blinking eyes. They are flesh-eaters, will-
  ing to eat anything that is foolish enough to stray 
  into their swamps.
  attack 12, Grapple (see below) 
  AF 0
  defence 6  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  swimming 15m 
  magical defence 3 
   
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points: 1d6 +4  
   
   
  stealth 17  
  Rank equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
  perception 6 
  TAPESTRY DEMON
  Tapestry Demons appear to be tapestries of classi-
  cal demons, complete with horns, wings, and claws. 
  When the room they guard is entered they spring 
  into life, becoming three-dimensional beings. 
  attack 13, Claws (d6, 3)  
   
  AF 0
  defence 9  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m
  magical defence 4 
   
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points: 1d6 +6  
   
   
  stealth 20  
  Rank equivalent: 2nd  
   
   
  perception 7 
  THORN DEMONS
  Thorn demons are spindly, black, insectoid crea-
  tures, whose arms and legs closely resemble the 
  spindly branches of thorn-bushes and briars. 
  attack 11, Raking Claws (d6, 4) AF 0
  defence 6  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 5   
   
   
  evasion 3 
  Health Points 1d6 +4  
   
   
  stealth 18
  Rank-equivalent: 1st 
   
   
   
  perception 7 
  Notes:  Surprise on 1-5 on 1d6 if attacking from thicket.
  TIGER (Sabre Tooth)
  These great cats range across the plains of warm 
  southern lands and stalk prey through humid jun-
  gles. A snow-dwelling variety has been sighted by 
  arctic adventurers. 
  attack 19, Bite (d8, 7), Claws (d12, 6)  
  AF 1
  defence 5  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (30m)
  magical defence 2 
   
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 2d6 +18   
   
   
  stealth 18  
  Rank-equivalent: 6th   
   
   
  perception 14 
  Notes: Surprise on 1-4 on 1d6; bloodcurdling roar: roll rank 
  or less on d10 or have no attack and defence 0 for 
  first Combat Round.
  TITAN
  Titans are powerfully muscled humanoids some 4m 
  tall. Their skin has a bluish tinge and their eyes glit-
  ter with violet sparks. 
  attack 27, Sword (d8 +2, 8) or Bow (d6 +1, 6) 
  AF 5
  defence 21    
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 20  
   
   
  evasion 6
  Health Points 6d6 +30  
   
   
  stealth 8  
  Rank-equivalent: 15th   
   
   
  perception 9 
  Notes: Create gale; electrical discharge: roll Strength or less 
  on 3d6 or be dazed for 1-4 Combat Rounds (-4 attack, 
  -4 defence, –1 armour bypass roll; –1 damage).
  monsters oF legenD
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
  TROLL
  Trolls are tall, gaunt creatures of morbid character. 
  Though unable to use sorcery, they share a distant 
  supernatural ancestry with Goblins and are quite 
  resistant to magic. 
  attack 18, Talons (d6 +1, 5)  
  AF 2
  defence 10 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 11  
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 1d6 +15   
   
   
  stealth 14  
  Rank-equivalent: 5th   
   
   
  perception 6 
  Notes:  Cannot be harmed by non-metallic weapons; turn to 
  stone in sunlight.
  VAMPIRE
  Vampires are the class of undead most difficult to 
  distinguish from living beings. They stalk the night 
  in search of blood. A 1st-rank Vampire Knight has 
  the following stats:
  attack 16, Sword (d8 +2, 6)  
  AF: as per armour
  defence 10 
   
   
   
   
   
  evasion 6
  magical defence 4 
   
   
   
  stealth 15  
  Health Points 1d6 +7 +4d4  
   
  perception 7 
  Notes:  90% of vampires belong to adventuring professions
   
   
  +2 to Armour Bypass rolls and damage; mesmerism on 
  a person within 8m: roll under (3d6 + rank – victim’s 
  rank) on 2d10 to succeed; normal weapons do half 
  damage; vulneratible to garlic, cruxifixes, sunlight and 
  running water; heal with fresh blood; change shape at 
  cost of 1 HP: at 4th rank bat; at 6th rank wolf; at 8th 
  rank mist; can only be killed permanently with proper 
  ritual.
  VOLUCRETH
  Volucreths are a fearsome race of birdlike human-
  oids believed to inhabit a jungle-cloaked land deep 
  in the tropics. 
  attack 16, Two-handed Sword (d10 +1, 6) 
  AF 3
  defence 7  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (20m)
  magical defence 2 
   
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 1d6 +10  
   
   
  stealth 11  
  Rank-Equivalent: 1st   
   
   
  perception 4  
  Notes: 10% may display Mystic abilities.
  WATER LEAPER
  A Water Leaper looks something like a huge, lep-
  rous-white, limbless toad with a distended belly, 
  leathery wings and a long, tapering tail. 
  attack 19, Bite (d6 +1, 6 + normal poison) 
  AF 1
  defence 4  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (12m)   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying—30m
  magical defence 11  
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 5d6 +20   
   
   
  stealth 7  
  Rank-equivalent: 10th   
   
   
  perception 9 
  Notes:  Cry has magical attack of 20; turns victims’ bones 
  to jelly; venom spit (range 5m, speed 12); swallow 
  whole: speed 12 leap vs evasion; disease: 5% chance 
  of leprosy if wounded (30% if swallowed).  
  WILD BOAR
  Though these powerful animals are not normally 
  aggressive, they can be more ferocious than Wolves 
  when aroused. 
  attack 17, Gore (d6 +1, 6) 
   
  AF 1
  defence 3   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (20m)
  magical defence 0 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 2d6 +11  
   
   
  stealth 11  
  Rank-equivalent: 3rd   
   
   
  perception 8 
   EW
  
  3
  WHITE LADY
  These are creatures from the demonic planes that 
  take the form of beautiful women dressed in gowns 
  of white samite.
   
  See page 231 for full information on White 
  Ladies.
  WIGHT
  Wights are ancient undead, greatly feared because 
  of their passionless evil and strange magical powers. 
  They are the shamans and wizard-kings of a bygone 
  age, and dwell in the bowels of their lonely burial-
  mounds. 
  attack 17, Damage per weapon 
  AF: type worn 
  defence 10 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m
  magical attack 20 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  magical defence 10  
   
   
  stealth 13  
  Health Points 1d6 +15  
   
   
  perception 11 
  Rank-equivalent: 7th
  Notes: Have spellcasting ability of 5th-rank Mystic; normal 
  weapons score half-damage for one hit, then shatter; 
  special powers: Portal (as spell); Mephitic Breath; 
  Apparitions; raise Fog (as spell); physical touch drains 
  2d6 +1 Strength (magical attack vs magical 
  defence). If Strength reaches 2, victim is too weak to 
  move. If not killed, Strength is restored by sunlight.
  WOLF
  Wolves will be encountered in forested areas, usu-
  ally in packs robbing forays. 
  attack 15, Fangs (d4, 5 points) 
  AF 0
  defence 3  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 12m (25m)
  magical defence 1 
   
   
   
  evasion 3 
  Health Points 1d6 +4  
   
   
  stealth 16 
  Rank-equivalent: 1st 
   
   
   
  perception 11 
  WRAITH
  The thing that results when a Ghost haunts a place 
  that is steeped in powerful sorcery, Wraiths appear 
  as wild ragged figures, shadowy and dim within a 
  wreath of colourless cold fire. 
  attack — (see below)  
   
   
  AF 0  
  defence 4  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 15m
  magical attack 1d10/Combat Round attack is delayed
  magical defence 11  
   
   
  evasion 4
  Health Points 1d20 
   
   
   
  stealth 10  
  Rank-equivalent: 5th   
   
   
  perception 13 
  Notes:  1d8 Fright Attack: chooses a victim, 3 rounds later 
  activates Death spell (3-30 magical attack); on 
  success, Wraith devours soul of deceased; only affected 
  by magical weapons, Hold off the Dead, or Banish.
  WYVERN
  These scaly beasts may be related to Dragons, 
  though they are rather smaller and certainly less 
  intelligent. The Wyvern’s body is long and coiling, 
  armoured with black scales as hard as iron. 
  attack 21, Bite (d8 +1, 5), Sting (d8, 3 + strong poison) 
  defence 6   
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 10m (25m) 
  AF 5 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  flying–80m
  magical defence 12  
   
   
  evasion 5
  Health Points 10d6 
   
   
   
  stealth 12  
  Rank-equivalent: 10th  
   
   
  perception 15 
  Notes: Stung victims must make 4d6 roll against Strength; 
  failure means permanent loss of 1d3 HP.
  YETI
  Yetis are shambling two-legged, white-haired crea-
  tures with hoar frost crusted in their fur. 
  attack 18, Claws (d8, 6 points) 
  AF 3
  defence 10 
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 8m (12m)
  magical defence 8 
   
   
   
  evasion 3
  Health Points 3d6 +10  
   
   
  stealth 16  
  Rank-equivalent: 5th   
   
   
  perception 7 
  Notes:  surrounded by 10m snowstorm.
  ZOMBIE
  These are the true ‘walking corpses’ of legend and 
  nightmare. 
  attack 10, Damage as weapon (Strength 16)  AF 0
  defence 4  
   
   
   
   
   
  Movement: 6m
  magical defence 1 
   
   
   
  evasion 1
  Health Points 2d6 +13* 
   
   
   
  stealth 5  
  Rank-equivalent: 1st   
   
   
  perception 4
  Notes: Health points for fresh Zombie; 3d6 +7 for random.
  monsters oF legenD
  
  4
  Dragon Warriors
  Abundance  
   
   
  96
  Aegis  
   
   
   
  109
  Allseeing Eye  
   
  91
  Animate Bones  
   
  87
  Annihilate  
   
   
  111
  Antidote 
   
   
   
  82
  Armour 
   
   
   
  84
  Assessment  
   
   
  93
  Astral Gate  
   
   
  86
  Banish  
   
   
   
  83
  Banquet 
   
   
   
  81
  Banshee 
   
   
   
  100
  Bastion  
   
   
   
  86
  Battlemaster 
   
   
  88
  Beacon  
   
   
   
  81
  Benight 
   
   
   
  105
  Blizzard 
   
   
   
  101
  Breathe Under Water 101
  Burden  
   
   
   
  87
  Camouflage 
   
   
  107
  Candle  
   
   
   
  102
  Catspaw 
   
   
   
  104
  Clairvoyance 
   
   
  91
  Command  
   
   
  82
  Conflagration  
   
  104
  Create Bog  
   
   
  96
  Create Light Breeze 
  99
  Cure Disease  
   
  84
  Curse  
   
   
   
  82
  Curtain of Night  
  105
  Darkeyes  
   
   
  105
  Darksight  
   
   
  90
  Dazzle  
   
   
   
  91
  Deathlight  
   
   
  85
  Deceit  
   
   
   
  108
  Demon Path 
   
   
  113
  Destrier 
   
   
   
  87
  Detect Aura 
   
   
  80
  Disease  
   
   
   
  82
  Dishearten  
   
   
  84
  Dispel Magic  
   
  84
  Divination  
   
   
  83
  Doppelganger  
   
  88
  Dragonbreath  
   
  80
  Duel 
   
   
   
   
  93
  Eclipse of the Moon 
  105
  Enchantment  
   
  111
  Energy Bolt 
   
   
  113
  Enhancement  
   
  108
  Enslave  
   
   
   
  85
  Enthrall 
   
   
   
  91
  Evil Eye 
   
   
   
  87
  Extinguish  
   
   
  104
  Eyes of Night  
   
  107
  False Rumours  
   
  99
  Fearlessness 
   
   
  107
  Fire Arrow  
   
   
  103
  Fire Weapon 
   
   
  104
  Firestorn  
   
   
  88
  Fissure  
   
   
   
  97
  Flash  
   
   
   
  104
  Flight  
   
   
   
  100
  Flying Steed 
   
   
  114
  Force Field  
   
   
  92
  Force of Will  
   
  110
  Forest Murmurs 
   
  96
  Fortune 
   
   
   
  108
  Fossilize 
   
   
   
  83
  Freeze  
   
   
   
  102
  Garrotte 
   
   
   
  100
  Gauntlet 
   
   
   
  113
  Give up the Dead  
  97
  Greater Healing 
   
  82
  Havok  
   
   
   
  108
  Heal Injury  
   
   
  107
  Hecatomb  
   
   
  89
  Hellfire  
   
   
   
  110
  Hidden Target  
   
  91
  Hold Off the Dead  
  80
  Ice Spear  
   
   
  101
  Icewall  
   
   
   
  101
  Illusion (Sorcerer)  
  82
  Illusion (Warlock)  
  108
  Image  
   
   
   
  80
  Imperil  
   
   
   
  107
  Impregnable Sphere 
  94
  Inflict Wound  
   
  80
  Inquiry  
   
   
   
  108
  Intangibility 
   
   
  100
  Intangibility 
   
   
  94
  Invigorate  
   
   
  90
  Invisibility  
   
   
  88
  Invulnerability  
   
  114
  Javelin of Darkness  
  105
  Killing Frenzy  
   
  113
  Lesser Healing  
   
  80
  Levitation  
   
   
  93
  Lightning  
   
   
  102
  Lunacy  
   
   
   
  111
  Mantlet 
   
   
   
  84
  Might  
   
   
   
  91
  Mind Cloak 
   
   
  91
  Mindpool  
   
   
  94
  Miracle Cure  
   
  88 
  Mirage  
   
   
   
  90
  Moonglow  
   
   
  80
  Mystic Blast 
   
   
  92
  Nemesis 
   
   
   
  112
  Neutralize Toxin 
   
  109
  Nourish 
   
   
   
  91
  Nova  
   
   
   
  85
  Oracle (Sorcerer)  
  82
  Oracle (Warlock 
   
  109
  Pacify  
   
   
   
  112
  Panoply 
   
   
   
  111
  Paralysis 
   
   
   
  93
  Pass Unseen 
   
   
  92
  Peer 
   
   
   
   
  80
  Pentacle of Entrapment 89
  Perception of Sorcery 107
  Phantasm  
   
   
  84
  Phoenix 
   
   
   
  94
  Portal  
   
   
   
  80
  Protection  
   
   
  93
  Protection from Fire 
  104
  Purification 
   
   
  93
  Pursuit  
   
   
   
  91
  Pyrotechnics 
   
   
  103
  Rain 
   
   
   
   
  101
  Raise Fog  
   
   
  88
  Reanimate the Dead 
  84
  Reincarnate 
   
   
  113
  Resurrect  
   
   
  89
  Rock Wall  
   
   
  97
  Roots  
   
   
   
  96
  Rune  
   
   
   
  87
  Runic Weapon  
   
  112
  Scry 
   
   
   
   
  89
  See Enchantment  
  90
  Shadow Self 
   
   
  106
  Shadowbolt 
   
   
  83
  Shadowfall  
   
   
  105
  Sheet of Flame  
   
  103
  Sigil of Destiny 
   
  111
  Silent Warrior  
   
  107
  Simulacrum 
   
   
  114
  Slow 
   
   
   
   
  110
  Song of Battle  
   
  114
  Soulbane  
   
   
  110
  Spell Screen (Sorcerer) 85 
  Spell Screen (Warlock) 112
  Spider Magic  
   
  96
  Spin 
   
   
   
   
  100
  Stargaze 
   
   
   
  99
  Stasis  
   
   
   
  85
  Steel Claw  
   
   
  93
  Summon Balor, Prince 
   
  of Darkness 
   
  106
  Summon the Creatures 
   
  of the Night 
   
  105
  Summon the Holocaust 104
  Summon the Host 
   
  of the Air  
   
  99
  Summon the Man 
   
  of Stone 
   
   
  98
  Summon Tsunami  
  102
  Survival 
   
   
   
  93
  Suspended Animation 90
  Swiftness  
   
   
  94
  Sword of Damocles 
  84
  Tangleroots 
   
   
  81
  Telekinesis (Mystic) 
  91
  Telekinesis (Warlock) 109
  Telepathy  
   
   
  92
  Teleport (Mystic)  
  94
  Teleport (Warlock)  
  114
  Terminate  
   
   
  111
  The Trickster’s Hand 112
  Thunderclap 
   
   
  94
  Trance  
   
   
   
  94
  Transfix 
   
   
   
  84 
  Transformation  
   
  89
  Tremor  
   
   
   
  98
  Truthsense  
   
   
  93
  Turncoat 
   
   
   
  110
  Vaporize 
   
   
   
  112
  Vitality  
   
   
   
  110
  Vorpal Blade 
   
   
  85
  Walk on Water  
   
  101
  Wall of Magic  
   
  83
  Warding 
   
   
   
  81
  Warning 
   
   
   
  108
  Wave Mastery  
   
  101
  Weaken 
   
   
   
  80
  Windwall  
   
   
  99
  Wolfcall 
   
   
   
  82
  Spells Index
  Appendix 
  
  
  Other Dragon 
  Warriors Books
  Appendix 
  appenDiCes
  DragoN WarriorS as a game and a world is 
  now more than twenty years old. It was originally 
  published by Corgi Books as a series of six titles 
  between 1985 and 1986: Dragon Warriors; The Way 
  of Wizardry; The Elven Crystals; out of the Shadows; 
  The Power of Darkness; and The Lands of Legend. 
  This new rulebook does not contain all the material 
  from that sextet: the rules, background and character 
  classes are all here, but the rest of the original text 
  will be made available in separate books.
   
  The Dragon Warriors Bestiary is a full overview 
  of all the inhabitants of the Lands of Legend, from 
  the humanoid races to monsters, demons, the cre-
  ations of sorcery and the horrors of the undead. It 
  will also contain random-encounter tables and rules 
  on creating random NPCs.
   
  Sleeping Gods is an anthology of the short adven-
  tures that appeared in the original books 1, 2, 4 and 
  6, with new material to turn it into a campaign that 
  you can play straight through or with breaks for your 
  own scenarios. Starting where ‘The Darkness Before 
  Dawn’ ends, it will lead your players through under-
  worlds and castles, to the depths of the Mungoda 
  jungles and a conclusion that may give the PCs their 
  own stronghold in Legend—if they’re lucky.
   
  The Elven Crystals is a self-contained adventure 
  in four parts: a race against time to battle four very 
  different foes and reunite the pieces of an ancient 
  artifact before it can tear a hole in the world and let 
  an unspeakable horror back into reality.
   
  The Prince of Darkness is an adventure that will 
  take the players to the city of Glissom, through the 
  mountains of Brack, and to the fabled Lost City of 
  Nem, the abode of the Darkness Elementalists and 
  home of the demon Balor, Prince of Darkness.
   
  All these titles will be revised and re-edited, with 
  new material, and new art and maps throughout.
   
  But we are not content with re-releasing past 
  glories. New Dragon Warriors books are in develop-
  ment. Some will detail other areas of the Lands of 
  Legend and the realms beyond. Some will explore 
  other roles for the characters to play: new profes-
  sions; more information on how the upper echelons 
  of society work and how PCs can deal with kings, 
  barons, generals and arch-magi—or become them. 
  Others will describe the eldritch societies of the 
  non-human races of Legend, and much more.
   
  And of course there will be more adventures, from 
  short scenarios that can be played in an evening to 
  epic campaigns that may take months to complete, 
  changing the lives of the characters and possibly the 
  destiny of the world.
   
  We don’t have titles for these new books yet, or 
  release dates. As soon as we do we’ll be putting the 
  information up on the Magnum Opus Press web-
  site: www.magnumopuspress.com. And when we have 
  PDF previews of the new titles for you to download, 
  they’ll be put there as well. 
   
  We’re even trying to persuade Dave and Oliver to 
  write something new for Dragon Warriors. Wait and 
  see if we succeed.
  And by way of congratulation for having read this 
  far, test yourself with a little competition. One (and 
  possibly more) of the illustrations in this book is 
  wrong—that is, it shows the opposite of something 
  stated clearly in the text. We could have fixed it quite 
  simply, but instead we thought it would be more fun 
  to see if you’ve been paying attention.
   
  If you think you’ve spotted it then send an email 
  to the Magnum Opus Press address on page 2, say-
  ing what page the picture is on and why it’s wrong. 
  If you’re right, we’ll send you a PDF of an exclusive 
  Dragon Warriors adventure. Have fun hunting!
  
  6
  Dragon Warriors
  
  
  Dragon Warriors
  Enter a world of magic, folklore and danger. 
  Here, superstition covers people’s lives like autumn 
  mists cover the moors, and terrifying monsters with 
  bizarre powers lurk in the shadows. The king is a 
  weakling, barons scheme against each other, and 
  lordless knights, back from the Crusades without 
  the honour or riches they were promised, roam the 
  countryside in search of adventure, or prey. 
  Ruined castles and barrows are the lairs of the 
  supernatural, or newer, more sinister masters. 
  Labyrinthine underworlds lie forgotten below 
  ancient temples and city cellars. The dark places of 
  the world hold riches for those who would search 
  for them, and the keys to great power, and death.
  These are the Lands of Legend, and they need 
  heroes. Brave knights, courageous barbarians, 
  cunning sorcerers, mystics trained in the powers 
  of mind and body, sword-wielding warlocks, 
  elementalists who command the fabric of reality 
  itself, and assassins trained to bring death to the 
  deserving. All these will be your comrades on the 
  path to glory—and perhaps your enemies too.
  Will you accept the challenge of Dragon Warriors?
  Dragon Warriors is a classic fantasy roleplaying 
  game with a fan-base around the world. It is based on 
  a game-system that’s fast to learn, intuitive to play, 
  and satisfying and atmospheric in its results, whether 
  you’re a long-time gamer or a first-time player.
  The jewel of Dragon Warriors and the reason for 
  its longevity is Legend, a game-background based on 
  the cultures of the medieval world. It is rich in myth, 
  folklore, magic and superstition, built on a thousand-
  year history and populated with memorable characters, 
  fearsome foes, treasure and glory. The game has a 
  flavour unlike any other, combining a sense of history 
  with the intensity of the greatest fantasy sagas.
  This rulebook contains full details for creating 
  characters and all that players need to adventure in 
  the Lands of Legend. It also holds information on over 
  110 different monstrous species, 192 spells from four 
  different schools of magic, and more than 80 unique 
  magic items, artifacts and relics, as well as sections on 
  jousts, crime and punishment, disease and madness. 
  There’s advice for novice GamesMasters and players, 
  suggestions on building your own game-world tailored 
  to your tastes, an introductory scenario to begin your 
  adventures in Dragon Warriors, and much more.
  Dragon Warriors was first published by Corgi Books in 1985-6 as a series of six 
  paperbacks. This new edition compiles the material from those books into a 
  series of new releases, revised and updated, with new text, art and maps.
   
  Oliver Johnson is the author of the Lightbringers trilogy of fantasy
  novels (Roc/Orbit). Dave Morris is an Uomo Universale and was
  the best-selling author in the United Kingdom in 1991.
  this digital edition designed and published in the united 
  kingdom by magnum opus press. copyright 986, 008. all rights 
  reserved. 
   
   
   
   isbn 978--90640-03-7
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dragon Warriors (osr)/Dragon Warriors Revised/Dragon Warriors Revised - The Classic British Fantasy RPG.pdf