City of Towers

Cast

Naseer min Alrramh

Attributes- Agi d8; Smt d4; Spt d8; Str d6; Vig d6

Pace 6; Cha +2; Parry 10; Tough 7(1)

Skills-
Fighting d10, Notice d6, Persuasion d8, Stealth d6, Streetwise d4, Taunt d6

Hindrances-
[M] Arrogant (Spear and stick use)- "Trained by the best"
[m] Enemy- "My father will have my head for this amulet. Let him send his dogs! Ha!"
[m] Big Mouth- "...sometimes...*hic!* I just.. ehh uh drink too much and thEN saaay too much... SHHhhh!"

• Extra (no mechanical benefit; does not provide build points): Carouser- "Another round for the house!"
  

Edges-
• (Free) Light Armor Training: Parry +1 when in light or no armor
• (Free) Magnificent Physique (*Brawny): Toughness +1, 8x Str in carried weight
• Charismatic: Charisma +2
• 14 Winds style (Florentine): Fighting +1 vs single weapon and no shield. Gang up bonus reduced by 1 against you.
'The 14 winds distract attackers and obfuscate the true strike but beware the strong wall that prevents the flowing wind' -Master Hazm al-Hamed
• Footwork of the Shifting Sands (Acrobat): +2 when performing Acrobatic maneuvers and Agility Tricks. +1 Parry.

Equipment-
Silk wrapped spear (dmg: Str+d6; Parry +1, Reach 1, Two Hands), Light leather armor (Armor +1), Heirloom necklace (worn but hidden under shirt), colorful silk clothing, bedroll, water skin, rations.

Special: Heirloom Necklace- Healing power d8, 10pp/day

Money and Wealth-
1000 brass coins
The former Hyrkanian Compound in the City of Towers

Advancement-
Free Human Edge: Florentine
From Hindrances: Spt d6->d8, Charismatic
5xp: Special (Heirloom necklace)
10xp: Professional (Acrobat)
15xp: Fighting d8->d10
17xp: Next advance at 20xp

Bordan the Knife

Attributes

Agility d8

Smarts d6 (+2 for tests of will)

Spirit d6 (+2 for tests of will)

Strength d10

Vigor d6

Charisma 0

Pace 6"

Parry 8

Toughness 7 (1), or 9 (3) against ranged attacks

Skills

Fighting d10 (+1 with his trusty knife)

Intimidation d6+2 (+1 with his iconic gear)

Notice d6

Stealth d6

Streetwise d6

Taunt d6+2 (+1 with his iconic gear)

Edges

Strong-Willed (human bonus)

Berserk

Brawny (free)

Light Armor Training (free)

Trademark Weapon (his trusty war knife)

Hindrances

Carouser (Minor)

Loyal (Minor)

Mercenary (Major)

Personal Gear

Long pike (Str+d8, Reach 2, two hands)

Big fat war knife (Str+d6)

Concealed dagger (Str+d4)

Quilted leather vest and bracers (+1 Armor on torso, arms)

Fancy helmet (+1 Armor on head)

Fancy shield (+1 Parry, +2 Armor against ranged attacks)

Honest dice

Flint and steel

Pocket knife

50 brass

Other Assets

Semi-domesticated street rat of a servant boy

Cozy rooms above the Silver Serpent tavern

Stubborn camel laden with ~700 brass worth of merchandise

Experience

XP: 17

Rank: Novice

Advances:

1. increased Strength to d10
2. gained Berserk edge
3. gained Trademark Weapon edge

Jorey

Bordan's resident streetrat-cum-manservant. Mid-teens, lean of face and shifty of demeanor, reasonably well groomed and dressed yet still somehow perpetually scruffy.

Attributes: Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d4, Vi d4

Charisma 0, Pace 8" (run d10), Parry 5, Toughness 4, +1 boon

Skills: Fighting d6, Notice d6+2, Persuasion d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d6, Streetwise d6, Taunt d4

Hindrances: Curious, Illiterate, Young

Edges: Alertness, Fleet-Footed

Gear: flute, small mirror, sneaky little knife (Str+d4), sling (4/8/16 Str+d4) and a pocketful of bullets

Manu the Ghost

Attributes

Agi d8[2]; Smt d6[0]; Spt d6[1]; Str d8[2]; Vig d6[1] [includes +1 advance from character creation]

Pace 6; Cha 0; Parry 7[2+4+1 light armour]; Tough 6[2+3+1 Brawny]

Skills-

Climbing d6[2], Fighting d8[3], Stealth d10[5], Healing d4[1], Notice d6[2], Throw d6[2]

Hindrances

[M] Clueless "Slaves need to know nothing beyond their uses."

[M] Enemy "If the Witch Men Find me I am dead."

Edges

[Free] Light Armor Training: Parry +1 when in light or no armor "Slaves need no armour!"

[Free] Brawny +1 Toughness, 8xStr for Enc. "Regular beatings make you stronger."

[Free: Human] Two Fisted "Kill or be killed, all or nothing!"

[2] Assassin "You slave are a knife in our hands, nothing more."

[2] Martial Artist "Anything is a weapon."

[XP] Ambidextrous

Equipment

Daggers [3] (dmg: Str+d4; Range 3/6/12, Rof 1) (3lbs), Rough spun shirt and britches, Heavy wool grey robe (1lb), Heavy leather belt (1lb), Large belt pouch (1lb).

1000 brass coins

Current Enc 6 lbs

Other assets

Embalming House in the good quarter, with Stygian embalmer assistant and fine wardrobe and living quarters. A couple of spare rooms for 'visiting' friends. Some spare brass [1000ish].

Advancement

From Hindrances: Assassin, Martial Artist Edges

1 advance on stat die

XP raise smarts to 1d6

XP raise Ambidextrous edge

Morous

Attributes
Agility d6 (1), Smarts d8 (2), Spirit d8 (2), Strength d4 (0), Vigor d4 (0)

Pace 6”, Charisma 0, Toughness 4

Edges
Light armour training - Free Edge (N, Ag d6. Your warrior has trained from youth to fight dexterously wearing light (+1 ) or no armour and without a shield. When so equipped they effectively gain +1 to Parry.)
Arcane Background (Psionics)
Extra Power Points
Extra Power (Fear)
Mentalist - Human Edge
Ritual Magic - 1 advance spent

Hindrances
Corruption: Morally dubious and self-serving, +2 saves versus supernatural horror.
Quirk (paranoid): Morous does not much trust other folk, even those closet to him at times.

Skills (15/15)
Fighting d4(1)
Investigation d8(3)
Notice d6 (2)
Persuasion d4 (1)
Psionics d12 (5) - 1 advance spent
Stealth d4 (1)
Streetwise d4 (1)
Survival d4 (1)
Tracking d4 (1)

Powers (Power Points: 15)
Bolt
Mind Reading
Elemental Manipulation
Boost/Lower Trait - 1 advance spent

►►Brainburn: When a psionic character rolls a 1 on his Psionics die (regardless of his Wild Die), he is automatically Shaken. On a critical failure, the psi lets out a psychic scream that causes him to be Shaken along with all allies in a Large Burst Template who fail a Spirit roll. This can cause a wound.

Equipment
Worn Robes, close fitting hood to cover shaved head
Knife (Str+d4)
Staff (Str+d4, Reach 1, Parry +1, 2 hands)
Worn book and writing supplies
Backpack
Money: 100 brass Pieces

Tower
White Card

Valia

Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, strength d6, Vigor d6

Climbing d6+2, Fighting d8, Lockpicking d8+2, Notice d6+2, Persuade (d4)+2, Shooting d6, Stealth d8+2, Streetwise d6+2

Pace 6
Parry 7
Toughness 6
Charisma 2

Equipment:
Black Leopard Cawl (treat 1 as 4 and 2 as 5 when rolling stealth)

Edges:
Alertness
Sleight of hand
Brawny (free)
Light armor training (free)
Thief
Noble (Princess among thieves)

Hindrances:
Code of Honor (Major) - Honor among thieves, be a thief not a mugger, don't kick someone when they're down, etc. This is more a vestige of her growing up in respectable society than any real concept that other thieves pay any more than lip service to.
Vengeful (Minor)
Loyal (Minor)

(+1 edge, +2 skill point from hindrances, +1 attribute from advance)

Short sword (str + 1d6)
Leather armor (1)
Sling (str + 1d4) w 20 stones
Lockpicks
Normal clothing
Flint & Steel
Crowbar
Torch

Estate: Locksmith Row, Faoron's

Valia has reclaimed the home of her childhood and restored the name of her father to the shop. The hapless master who claimed it after her father was executed and she was kicked out sold the shop very cheaply, as his business had already been ruined by a rash of targeted break-ins making mockery of his locks.

Not that Valia is truly going into legitimate business. Two journeymen keep the business going functionally enough to be unremarkable, getting more freedom to manage their work than they would in most master's shops in exchange for not asking any questions. Valia has taken the upper apartments to herself, while the lower apartment and the backrooms are used for Black Turban business. For indeed, she has rejoined them, finally accepting the guildmaster's offer, and taking to styling herself as a proper princess among thieves. She has given the proper appearance of obsequiance to the Ghouls, but has made sure all the thieves in her employ are personally loyal... Preferably with the help of Morous' spells.

House Stuff

General House Rules

• One or two BOONS start, regular refresh.
• Common Knowledge (to save build points). NO dice should be spent in knowledge skills. The RAW Common Knowledge rule that characters use their smarts, at +2 when background is relevant, will serve universally.
• ‘Natural’ skills (also to save build points). Most skills like climbing, stealth, throw, persuade can be attempted ‘unskilled’ at d4 (NOT the RAW d4-2) , provided the character has at least a d6 in the related attribute.
• Guts is not a skill (roll spirit instead) as in Deluxe rules.
• Tracking can be attempted with Survival or Notice -1 die type.
• Lockpicking can be attempted with Repair-1 die.

Relatable Hero

Any character who fails thrown rolls three times in a row gets a boon. Being awarded the boon in that scene disallows the identifiable hero from doing anything flashily successful using boons in the same scene. All player characters would get it, balancing out with the fact that I generally only refresh at two boons.

Ritual magic

EDGE, RITUAL MAGIC, requires Corruption, Smarts d8. The sorcerer can perform a ritual to summon, foretell, etc using ritual magic. They must spend a boon to know the ritual required (unless used previously) and perform with the following cost:

• trivial (find object, see person, if local): roll psychic TN4, 5 power points
• challenging (e.g. summon minor being, speak with dead, curse other): roll psychic TN4, TN6 to avoid harm, half full power points and a further benny
• dangerous (e.g. summon major being, call plague, raise undead): roll psychic TN6, TN8 to avoid harm, all power points and two further bennies.

Rituals require time, ceremonial robes, a lofty tower or other (in)auspicious location. Ritual-specific wands, rods, ancient tomes may reduce the cost/difficulty. Sacrifices always reduce both.

The White Card

"I will issue you with a White Card to use the secret rooms of the Royal Library. These 
 contain all my collection, as well as that of all of my predecessors." -Grand Vizier

Mechanically this will mean that, as long as you (=Morous) have time and are in the City to access the library, a new ritual can be learned by carrying out a successful Investigation roll (TN4) rather than paying the boon specified by the Ritual Magic rules. The TN for each level of spell difficulty can be reduced by 1 (maximum!) if shifts are gained on the same Investigation roll. The roll can be maxed (like taking 20 in DnD) if days are spent researching.

The City of Towers

"Obtained by the crown after the death of its creator in most unfortunate and wholly unrelated circumstances, this painting by the legendary Talmiro of Alessia is often cited as a masterpiece in allegorical use of light. It combines painstaking authenticity to detail with grotesquely exaggerated proportions, lending it a fantastical air firmly grounded in reality that is widely claimed to portray the City more truthfully than any cartographer could ever hope to do - if the fabled spires are not quite as high as the clouds in fact, the Rock not quite so massive and the Palace upon it not so monstrously sprawling in reality, still, it is said, they are most certainly so in spirit and impression..."
- Countess Valesca of Poitain, A Catalog of the Royal Gallery of Wonders

The Nine Quarters

The city has nine quarters arranged in a 3*3 pattern. The north-east Palace Quarter stands on a hill that overlooks the city, sloping gently to the Garden Quarter to its west, but falling in a steep cliff to the Granary Yards to its south. The city is surrounded by well-defended walls. Tanneries and kilns lie to the south-west, outside the walls.

North-West Tower Quarter	North Garden Quarter	North-East Palace Quarter
West Craft Quarter	Center Grand Bazaar	East Granary Yards
South-West Rabble Quarter	South Caravan Quarter	South-East Canal Docks

Tower Quarter

temples, pagodas, astrologers' towers

Garden Quarter

mansions , fountains, kiosks, maidens bringing cool sherbets

Palace Quarter

royal apartments, harem, barracks, great library

Craft Quarter

tailors, carpenters, weavers, jewellers

Grand Bazaar

execution square, coffee shops, stalls, stalls, stalls

Granary yards

huge silos of grain , rat-infested clusters of slum housing

Rabble Quarter

slums, dens, dives, arena

Caravan Quarter

tents, camels, windy dusty yard within the walls, merchant compounds

Canal Docks

canal docks, rabble houses

Naseer's Estate