Title Page

Wolves of God v0.9

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Cover Verso

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Table of Contents

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 t was to the universal excitement of all ludologists of antiquity
when the document now known as the Rathmore Codex was discovered
in 1998, unearthed during construction at
Being an
Homerton College in Cambridge. I hardly need
to rehearse the remarkable qualities of this doc- introduction
ument or the interest it garnered among scholars, but to the work
I fear a certain amount of explanation is necessary if the present publication
is to be put in its correct scholarly context.
Ludologists of post-Roman Britain have been painfully limited in their
source evidence. Aside from a few fragments of Pictish treasure tables and the
discovery of a debatable Briton weapon-versus-armor matrix scratched into
a sword blade, the early evidence is almost nonexistent. Only the discovery
of the Bolingbroke Road manuscript in 1975 cast the slightest light on the
development of RPGs in pre-Conquest England and that manuscript was
clearly written in reaction to a significantly older tradition.
The Rathmore Codex appears to be the keystone to the mystery. Authored
by a monk of Jarrow in 710, it is a compendium of contemporary gaming
practice and traditions. The “Brother Cornix” who appears to be the primary
contributor included everything he knew about the customs, practice, and
implementation of RPGs in Anglo-Saxon England at the time. The physi-
cal artifact itself was in astonishingly good condition thanks to the peculiar
circumstances of its preservation, which need not be repeated here, and it
seemed as if this Rosetta Stone of early gaming practice was soon to be in
wide circulation.
Unfortunately, the publication of a critical edition of this vital work has
been lamentably delayed for more than two decades now. Despite numer-
ous excerpts and fragments published over the years in ludological journals,
efforts to produce a single, properly-edited critical edition of the text have
foundered on a series of setbacks and personal complications. It is not nec-
essary to remind readers of the unfortunate affair of Mr. Featherstonehaugh
and the all-too-early death of Professor Grinton-Smythe, but it is a regretta-
ble fact that there is no expectation of any imminent publication of the work.
In the hope of providing some practical material for scholars outside
that charmed circle which has access to the physical text, I have produced
this modest translation of the Rathmore Codex. I understand the somewhat
scandalized reaction of certain fellow scholars at producing such a popularized
translation, and the effort would doubtlessly have been improved enormously

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by the contributions of more able scholars than myself, but at this late date it
seems to me that something must be put before the public if the Rathmore
Codex is not to languish in wholly unjustified obscurity.
I have made certain alterations and adjustments to the text to aid the
understanding of modern readers, and note significant edits to the RC man-
uscript in the footnotes. These notes are also used to provide clarifications on
vague points of play or obscure gaming practices. I have at no point attempted
to harmonize Brother Cornix’s worldview with more contemporary values;
such a choice should not be interpreted as a moral judgment on the editor’s
part, aside from the judgment that it is best to let the past speak in its own
voice. If using this material at the table, it will be for individual groups to
adjust the details of the setting to best suit their own tastes.

Kevin Crawford
2019

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Chapter 1 spread for Basic
Setup

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7
 isten! We are the English, the sons of conquerors and the fa-
thers of kings, who came over the whale-roads to whelm the Wealh
and take from them the land they had lost by their weakness. We
are a great people, in sin and strength alike, and God has used
us for His ends. Once we were His wolves upon the wicked, to
wound the faithless and condemn their crimes, and now we are His children
in the true faith. But our sins hang heavy on our hearts yet, and a shadow
falls upon us from the deeds we have done.
I write this book so that the gamesmen of other lands may know of us
and our ways, and may play at our mighty deeds as they do their own. The
dicers of the Franks may add English heroes to their tale-makings, the Greeks
may smile at our customs from the carved halls of Constantinople, and even
the distant men of Tang may make curious stories of our far-off isle in that
land of silks and strangeness. We are a poor people before the riches of Rome
and the splendors of the Persians, but we are conquerors still, and our tales
are worthy of telling.
Few are the gamesmen who can bear to be told ten thousand things before
the dice rattle on the board, so I spare for now the many things I might say,
and tell you only what you must know to fashion a hero of your own, and
what grave perils await the work of your thoughts.

For four hundred years Rome ruled Britain and its people, appoint-
Effective ing its lords and instructing the Wealh in their ways, making the land richer
Roman rule than any in all the North. But so thoroughly had the
lasted from Romans broken the Celtic kings that few among
around 43
them were found fit to bear the sword, and so the The
Past
to 410 AD.
legions sought for strong men from other lands to
serve as their auxiliaries. Our fathers were first of the
among these warriors who came over. Our own lands Land
were poor, and the waters were rising year by year
and drowning their halls upon the shore.
Britain For a long golden season the Britons grew
became an wealthy and grand. They raised cities of stone under
important Roman tutelage, and the Artifexes of Rome taught
Roman
province,
them secret ways by which wondrous Arxes and sor-
with much cerous marvels were wrought by their sages. They scattered rich villas upon
wealth. the hillsides, where slaves labored to bring sweet wine to the lips of languid

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masters. Roman saints made Christians of them in Constantine’s time, though
some lingered in the worship of false gods and made sacrifices to Mithras or
Isis in their temples in Londinium. They wore the Roman toga and spoke
the Roman tongue and forgot the war-chariots of their fathers and the feel
of the sword in their fist.
But ten generations ago, Rome released its grasp upon the island, for
the empire was scourged by heathens and tormented by barbarian spears. It Starting in
called home its legions and left the Britons to their own devices, telling our 410, Rome
fathers to find their own food in labor upon the land. No sooner had Rome’s was forced
by internal
legions left than Rome’s peace departed with them, and the Britons turned turmoil to
upon each other like furious beasts, frenzied and tearing at each other for the cut Britain
avenging of grudges and the seeking of gain. loose.
But they were only Wealh, and while their hate was strong, their hands
were weak. They loved cleverness too much, and cunning words, and woman- Britain
ish artifices of deceit and subtlety. They went to our fathers and begged their fell into
aid, offering the riches of their prosperous lands in exchange for our spears. anarchy,
Our ancestors called over the whale-roads to their kinsmen on the continent, outside
raiding, and
and bade them come and fight for the Britons. Year by year, more came to civil strife.
aid these British lords for British bread and silver.
For a time we fought for the land’s lords, but their sin was great, and
where Wrath was found, so too was Avarice. They stinted their silver and The English
begrudged their bread, until our fathers grew furious, and took with their own came as
mercenaries,
hands what was not given freely. More and more of our people came from over
raiders, and
the sea, to swell our steadings and conquer the unworthy holders of this land. colonists,
The Wealh had worn themselves out with their strifes and killings, and the adding to
brave among them were already dead. They had no hope against our spears. settlements
In some places we slew, slaughtering every Briton that could not flee that dated
back to
us and burning their cities of stone. In other places we were content to con-
Roman
quer, making ourselves lords of British peoples and commanding that they times.
labor for our food. In a few, we made ourselves allies to Wealh lords who still
had strength to oppose us. But all through the good land of England there
were none who could drive us out. The Wealh ran, hiding themselves in the
shadows of the mountains and the hollows of the hills, seeking refuge with
the Picts in the north and fleeing to ancient fastnesses in the western depths.
They dwell there still, cursing us year upon year for what we have taken
from them. We fight them every war-season, raiding and being raided, slay-
ing and being slain. Their bishops will not even break bread with our own but

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Britons
don’t left it to Roman missionaries to make Christians of us. There are times when
all hate a peace is made between a Briton king and an English one, though only ever
English, but to make mischief. They are friends to our exiles and vagabonds, and good
unconquered companions to usurpers and traitors, for they know that such men will bring
ones are still
bloodshed upon their kin.
hostile.
Now we of the English peoples rule all the good parts of the island, leav-
ing only the desolate north and unprofitable west to the Wealh. Our land is
There are divided into several kingdoms, each belonging to one of the kindreds that
several
major
came over the sea. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes together make up the English
English people, and their several kings are as often at war with each other as they are
kingdoms at peace. Each is eager to make himself Bretwalda over all England, overlord
and and greatest of all the kings of the isle, and they use sword and scheme alike
numerous to get their way.
petty ones.

Yet for all our glorious past, England suffers now under harsh trou-
bles, ones earned by our own godless wickedness and
the enmity of old foes. Each of these troubles requires Our Present
heroes to rise up and dispel them, to smite the forces Troubles
of Hell and upbraid the intriguers among men. Common ceorls have no hope
to overcome such troubles, but only brave gesithcund who fear neither devil
nor man.
Primus, we war among ourselves. Kings fight kings, ealdormen fight eal-
Some degree dormen, and gesith fight gesith. Even common ceorls will take up the spear to
of warfare avenge some slight or seek some passing gain. Royal law is bent and broken,
between
and wergild goes unpaid. Some lands are stronger and better-ruled than other,
English
kingdoms but no king sleeps easy in his hall, and every man knows well that a bloody
is a normal raid may meet him and his herds on the morrow. We need peaceweavers to
state of bind up our self-made wounds and teach us to honor the law.
affairs. Secundus, we war with the Wealh. While they are a beaten race in many
places, docile beneath our hands, the free lords in the north and the last of the
Roman kings in the west remember old grudges. They send raiders to plun-
der our halls and steal our cattle, and encourage outlaws and usurpers with
shelter and aid. Some Wealh kings can be bargained with, and sometimes a
lasting peace can be made, but it takes a wise man to best the cunning Brit-
ons at all the works of speech. If they cannot be tamed with words, they must
be broken with steel if our people are to have peaceful enjoyment of the land.

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 Tertius, we are tormented by heretics and pagans. So much did some
Wealh hate us that they pledged loyalty to Hell, winning Satan’s aid in Servants
exchange for their friendship. These heretics hide in the dark places of the of Hell call
world, creeping forth from Roman ruins and empty towns where they nurse on dark
and terrible
their fury and offer foul sacrifices. Almost so bad are the pagans who have
magics.
never accepted the true God’s faith, who dwell in the southern forest and
northern wilds, who make bargains with dark things to get the strength they
need and who take what they will from their godly kinsmen. The holy saints
in their minsters struggle against such godlessness, but they are men and
women of peace.
Quartus, we are afflicted by the Arxes and the remnants of the cities.
When the Roman Artifexes built these cities, they crafted the hidden dwell- See page
ings that are called Arxes as places of security and secret wisdom. Many were 400 for
the Britons who fled into them to escape us, shutting fast the hidden doors more on
Arxes.
and hiding for long generations in the secret places below. They are turned
strange and terrible now, monsters rather than men, and the doors of the
Arxes are opening to unleash them upon us. The Roman cities are places of
peril, full of hideous things, yet men also find in them all the riches of a Rome
that fell long ago.
And quintus, we are yet a poor and ill-adorned race. Our kings must ride
from hall to hall if they are to get enough to eat. There is but one settlement
in all England that could be called a town, and that is merely a meeting-place
for traders. Even the richest of us, the Jutes of the kingdom of Kent in the
south, are meager compared to the Franks over the sea, and they are but beg-
gars before the glory of Rome. We must have sages and exemplars to lift us out
of our poverty and ignorance, so that we may be rich as the Britons once were.
These are the woes our people face. May your heroes find ways to over-
come them, and give us a better future than presently prepared for us.

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 he English are a fierce and mighty host, fell-handed
and grim, and our women bring forth heroes. Our folk are
not without sin or shame, but our spears are swift to battle
and our scops sing long of our great deeds. If you would play
at being a hero of England, you must make one worthy of
such a great name. Mudfooted thralls and gibbering foreigners will not serve
to earn the glory of our English story and song.
Remember also that a hero does not stand alone in their story. The scops
have many tales to tell, and a mere name or glimpse in one may glint of a
different legend, one equally proud. You will have companions around the
hall-fire, friends at mead and meat, and you must not seek so much glory
that there is none left for them. Together you must make your heroes, and
together you must gain your fame. To desire to go alone is to shame your
spear-brothers1 and be over-proud of ambition. What is a war-leader without
his warband, or a king without his beloved thanes? Do not be a mere gray-
clad wanderer, treading the whale-roads and walking the hart’s highway, alone
and without friend or faith.
Listen, and I will tell you how to make an English hero. From the first
strong sinews of the mortal body to the crown of reason and high ambition,
you will learn what makes a mighty champion of our people.

1 While Brother Cornix assumes a male audience, Anglo-Saxons were not as

patriarchal as some other societies of the time. Women had rights by law and custom,
and they were considered people in their own right, and not merely the dependent
of a father or husband. They owned property and disposed of it as they saw fit, and
their oaths were credited in legal matters. Wives traditionally managed a family’s re-
sources, and abbesses invariably ruled the “double monasteries” that held both monks
and nuns.
Women, however, were traditionally part of the domestic sphere of Anglo-Saxon so-
ciety. They were not normally warriors or adventurers, and while the occasional spear-
maiden might know something of war or a waelcyrige might be thought blessed with
battle-sight, they were not expected to fight or be fought. As many players will wish
to play female characters in more than political or domestic roles, GMs are advised
to make room for “remarkable women”, war-heroines, waelcyriges, battle-queens and
galdorwives who fill roles that might have been reserved for men. If a player wishes
to play such a remarkable woman, let the world treat her as befits her chosen role.

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CGINTRO slot

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 God grants men their lot in unequal shares, some with many gifts
of grace and others going forth with empty hands. It
is not mete for men to be all alike in ability. It is by
struggling with what we have not that we often come Attributes
closest to pleasing God, while those who are greatly of a
gifted most easily plunge into pride and a foolish fall. Hero
So do not be saddened if you learn that your hero is
not so graced as you might wish.
There are six numbers by which we measure
the might of a man’s mind and limbs. These are the
attributes. The are measured on a scale from three
to eighteen. Three is the least and worst, signifying
a weakness so great that the hero must rely on the
Holy Trinity alone to support him in it, for only God’s grace can help him if
he be thrown upon its need. Eighteen is the greatest and strongest, for it is
twice nine, signifying double completion of all natural fullness,
Strength Strength is a measure of the hero’s might of arm. Three means that they
is bodily are a weakling, scarce able to lift a man’s spear and given to groan under the
might.
weight of a burden. Eighteen is for a bull of a man, one who can lift a strong
warrior from his feet with but one arm and break an oaken hall-table with
one great blow.
Dexterity Dexterity marks the swiftness of their limbs and keenness of their aim.
is quickness Three is a palsied man, clumsy and numb-handed, untrustworthy with a bow
and agility.
or hurled spear. Eighteen is for one light-footed as the breeze and swift as a
spring flood, who knocks starlings from the air with pebbles and passes laugh-
ing through the bared blades of foemen.
Constitution Constitution is the heart and hardiness of a man. Three is one sickly
is hardiness and nigh to death, who groans at small pains and falls in the furrow before
and physical
endurance.
half the field is ploughed. Eighteen is for a man who scorns sleep, who will
swim the whale-roads for hours without pause and who will fight for half a
day without asking halt for rest.
Intelligence is the reason and memory of a man, his power to learn
Intelligence and retain what he has learned. Three is a simpleton, who understands noth-
is memory ing that does not stand before him or rest within his own hands, who can
and wit. be taught nothing of letters or cunning thought. Eighteen is a man of great
learning, more read than a Wealh bishop and swift to remember all the words
he has stored up in his heart.

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 Wisdom is for judgment and keen perception, the understanding that Wisdom is
shows the truth of a matter and the right road to go. Three is a fool, incon- judgment
tinent in passions and blind in perceiving what is about him. Eighteen is a and insight.
sign like a saint’s own clear understanding, seeing the truths in men’s hearts
and counting every leaf on a tree with but a passing glance.
Charisma is the attribute of kingliness and faithful friendship, the grace Charisma is
that makes men yearn to follow and obey. Three is for a scorned and contempt- charm and
ible man, such that even sound speech he utters is disdained because it comes presence.
from his mouth. Eighteen is for one mantled in lordly bearing, bright and
heart-helping, such that men would liefer follow his folly than go a wiser way.
To mark the gifts of your hero, roll 3d6 six times and place the numbers Roll 3d6
where you will, choosing for yourself how your hero is to be measured. If none and assign
numbers
of the numbers are 14 or greater, there has been a mistake, for no English hero
where
is wholly without gifts. Change one of your numbers to 14, and tell your com- desired.
panions a few words about how your real gift became clear to your kinsmen.
If you would prefer not to trust your hero’s doom to God’s pleasure, you Or else
may instead put these numbers into your attributes in whatever order you assign 14,
13, 12, 10,
desire: 14, 13, 12, 10, 8, 7. 8 and 7.

Now that you have marked the attributes of your hero, you must mark
their attribute modifiers. This is the number which is added to or subtracted
from your die rolls when your attribute modifies a roll. I will guide and in-
struct you on when you are to apply the modifier.
Note on your character sheet the modifier for each attribute. Thus, if Write the
your Intelligence score is 15, write “+1” for it, while a dim-eyed hero with a modifier
for each
Wisdom of 5 would record a “-1” for that attribute’s mod-
Attribute attribute
ifier. If the cruel scars of battle or the chance blessings of
fate lessen or increase your attribute scores, your modifi-
Modifiers beside it.

ers may change as well.

Score Modifier
3 is -2
4-7 is -1
8-13 is +0
14–17 is +1
18 is +2

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 We of the English do not command the great skills of old. We have not
the stone-cunning of the Romans, nor the sorcerous
arts of their Artifices, nor the secrets of silk-making as
do the far-distant Tang. Our halls are simple, of car- Skills
ven wood and painted forms, and our wares are fash- of the
ioned by humble hands. But we have our skills, and English
they were art enough for our fathers to take this land. Folk
Skills are Each skill is named and measured in degree.
rated from
The smallest degree of competence is level-0, the
level-0 to
level-4. proficiency of an ordinary practitioner without
exceptional skill. Level-1 belongs to the veteran of
the skill, one that others respect for his craft. Level-2
is a splendid artist in the work, the finest in his Hun-
dred. Level-3 marks one so skilled that there is likely not his match in all his
kingdom, and level-4 signifies the soul who is among the greatest of that art.
New PCs As your hero is but young in their story, their own skills will be at level-0
never have or level-1, to grow better with time and great deeds. As you choose your past
a skill
and decide your present, you will be told which of these skills your hero bears.
rating above
level-1. Some skills have double purpose, such that they might both be fitting
for a particular end. A great poet of Rome might be a man known both to a
scholar’s Ken and a scop’s Perform, while drawing a bow to slay a leaping hart
might be both Shoot and Hunt. In such matters, your hero may use which-
ever of the skills seem best, as the GM thinks proper. If the skill seems close
but not quite right, then use it at one level less, to a minimum of level-0.
Roll 2d6 To use a skill successfully, you must roll 2d6, add your skill level, and
plus your add the ability modifier that is most relevant. If you have not even level-0 in a
skill level
plus an
skill, take a -1 penalty, if the GM allows you to try at all. If the total is greater
attribute than or equal to the difficulty of the check, you succeed. If less, either you
modifier fail outright, or you succeed in a way that does not help you, or are cheated
to equal of success by cruel wyrd.
or beat a
skill check’s
difficulty
Connect, to find friends in far places, to know who is master in a place, and
score. to know who to seek when a certain thing is desired.
Craft, to build and repair all the things known to the English.
Exert, to swim, climb, run, lift, and exert your form mightily.
Gift, which is how we English commonly trade, gifting one thing for another,
even if both know full well that it is a mercantile matter.

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Heal, to cure the sick and mend the battle-bloodied ally. Great marvels of
healing can be accomplished through a saint’s prayers, but oftimes no more
than mortal help can be found for a friend.
Hunt, to take game with snare and arrow and boar-spear, to know where it Hunt can
substitute
may be found, and to know the habits and manners of beasts.
for Shoot
Ken, to know what scholars know, such as the tongue of Rome and the his- against men
tory of men and all those things which are found in books. at one level
Lead, to make men brave for war and obedient to kingly commands. One less, to a
who can lead will get others to follow even when they fear it. minimum of
level-0.
Magic, known by galdorcrafters and other men who meddle with things
unloved by God. Only they may learn this skill, to their soul’s woe.
Notice, to see what is subtle and sense what is hidden, either in men’s speech
or in the deep weald’s boughs.
Perform, to sing as the scop does and know the old stories, that you might
give men courage and wisdom by your words.
Pray, like the saints do in their holiness, knowing of God and of the Church You can
and how both are to be served. speak and
Reeve, managing land and ceorls and thralls alike, seeing that work is done read Latin
if you have
and feorm is gathered, and knowing much of the tricks of the low and the Pray-0 or
greed of the great. Ken-0.
Ride, to sit well on a horse, and keep hale one’s mount, and cure of it sick-
nesses and wounds.
Shoot, whether hurled spear or strung bow, all things that fly through the A thrown
air may use this skill to discern their success. spear can
use either
Smite, to strike a foe with fist or foot alone, and to wrestle and fight with-
Shoot or
out weapons. This skill is useful in sport, but a swift death in true battle. Spear skill.
Sneak, to prowl unnoticed, hide things so they cannot be found, to travel
without leaving traces, and to neatly open the great iron locks that the
wealthy have upon their cupboards and chests.
Spear, to strike with a spear or sword or other instrument of war, and also
such weapons that are thrown in battle.
Talk, to speak sweetly and wisely to another so as to persuade them that what
you say is true. It is no galdorcraft, to control a man’s mind, but it may per-
suade him to agree with your measure of a matter.
Toil, to plow fields, tend herds, weave cloth, hew trees, and do all those other
things that men must do as common daily labors. If an art is not a matter
of Craft, it is but Toil.

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 A hero is made by his own hands. The English have little interest in a
man’s fathers if they were not kings, and even an eal-
dorman’s son has but a modest name until he earns
glory and a king’s friendship. Land, wealth, fame… Choosing
these things must be earned anew every generation, a Hero’s
and the feckless fall swiftly from old glory. Past
Pick or Many different pasts are offered to you on these
roll a pages. You may dice one out if the whim takes, or
background. choose one that best matches your hero’s prior life.
If none suit exactly, beseech the GM to permit you
to change one a little, and it will suffice.
Choose one When you have chosen a background, you will
of the three gain one skill pick that all men with such a past must
methods have. This skill becomes level-0. Then you must choose one and only one of
here to get three different paths.
the rest
Primus, add the two skills noted as “Quick Skills” to your sheet beneath
of your
background the free skill you have just gained, all at level-0. Such talents as these are those
skills. commonly possessed by men with such a past. Choose this option if you care
little for particulars, and wish only a hero competent at his prior trade.
Secundus, choose two skills from those on the Learning table for your
background. If an entry says “Any Combat”, you may choose either Shoot,
Spear, or Smite as you desire. If an entry says “Any Skill”, you may not pick
that. Choose this option if you have particular skills in mind for your hero.
Tertius, take your dice in hand and roll three times, choosing either the
Growth or the Learning table each time. If an entry adds a bonus to physi-
cal attributes, you may add it to Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution, while
mental attribute gains may be added to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.
If an entry says “Any Skill”, you may pick any skill you wish, save Magic,
which is no earthly art.
Pick any Lastly, pick any skill you wish except Magic. This represents your hero’s
one skill for
own curiosities and desires, and such skill as they earned by chance or their
free, except
Magic. own interests.
If you gain the same skill twice by any means, it becomes level-1 instead
of level-0. If you somehow get it a third time, either by dice, or by choice,
or by Focus, you may instead pick a different skill, any save Magic. This is
the rule and it applies in all ways, for no novice hero may have a skill greater
than level-1.

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 CGBACKGROUND illo

You may roll on the adjacent table to dis-

d10 Background
cern your background or choose one that suits You can
1 Ceorl
you. Your background will not dictate your future roll, pick, or
2 Crafter make your
heroics; an ealdorman’s son raised to the spear
3 Eorlishkind background
may yet become a pious Saint, while any common
with your
4 Herdsman ceorlish farmer may have an arm fit to be a fight- GM’s
5 Hunter ing Warrior. Your background merely says what permission.
6 Minsterkind things your hero has known in the past and the
7 Reeve life they are commonly fitted to lead.
8 Scop If none of these choices suit you, you may
simply describe the background of your hero and
9 Thrall
pick any three skills that fit it. If you wish, you
10 Wanderer
might even pick choices for Growth and Learn-
ing tables for your self-made background with your
GM’s leave, or adapt existing tables to better fit your ideas. Remember, though,
that England is a simple land, and few are subtle laborers.

19
 Ceorl: You are a free man of the English, a ceorl or “churl”. Your parents did
not have much land, but they had a hide of it, or two, or perhaps three if
they were wealthy. They had honor in the settlement and the right to bear
a spear as befits a free man, and if they owed labor and tribute to a lord, it
was not a shameful service. You know well the work of farm and field and
keeping faith with neighbors.
Most people
in England Free Skill d6 Growth d8 Learning
are farmers Toil-0 1 +1 Any Stat 1 Any Skill
and ceorls.
Even a 2 +2 Physical 2 Connect
king is no Quick Skills 3 +2 Physical 3 Craft
more than
Spear-0 4 +2 Mental 4 Exert
two steps
away from a Connect-0 5 Exert 5 Hunt
farmer. 6 Any Skill 6 Reeve
7 Spear
8 Toil

Crafter: You are one raised to know the chisel and the axe. Your family
farmed, as virtually all men do, but they also had skill in some useful craft,
whether as blacksmiths, carvers, tanners, shieldwrights, bowyers, or other
arts. Many came from other places to barter for their work, and their skills
were prized by their lord. Naturally, they worked not for coins, but for dig-
nified gifts from those they aided.
The rarest
arts and Free Skill d6 Growth d8 Learning
crafts are
Craft-0 1 +1 Any Stat 1 Any Skill
found in the
employ of 2 +2 Physical 2 Connect
the minsters Quick Skills 3 +2 Mental 3 Craft
and the
Church. Gift-0 4 +2 Mental 4 Gift
Connect-0 5 Exert 5 Ken
6 Any Skill 6 Reeve
7 Talk
8 Toil

20
Eorlishkind: Your father was an ealdorman or other noble and you were
raised to be a warrior like him. You know well the spear and the shield, the
camaraderie of the mead-hall and the stench of opened bellies in battle.
Yet calamity befell your kin, or you were disowned for some evil, and now
you have nothing but your spear and the steel of your will. If you would
be noble again, you must earn it anew.
Noble sons
Free Skill d6 Growth d8 Learning are no more
Spear-0 1 +1 Any Stat 1 Any Combat than men if
they have no
2 +2 Physical 2 Any Skill land and no
Quick Skills 3 +2 Physical 3 Connect lord of their
own. They
Lead-0 4 +2 Mental 4 Gift
will get the
Connect-0 5 Connect 5 Lead honor they
6 Any Skill 6 Ride earn, and
no more.
7 Spear
8 Talk

Herdsman: Cattle are the best wealth of a man, giving meat and milk and
hide for the preserving of life. Poor men who have but a few can keep them
close to their halls, but richer men must send their herds out to pasture,
and capable herdsmen are needed to guard them from thieves, wolves, and
mischance. Such herdsmen may sleep three seasons of the year out on the
wild hillsides.

Herders
Free Skill d6 Growth d8 Learning
live the lives
Toil-0 1 +1 Any Stat 1 Any Combat of Saxon
2 +2 Physical 2 Any Skill cowboys;
harsh,
Quick Skills 3 +2 Physical 3 Exert
isolated, and
Any Combat-0 4 +1 Any Stat 4 Heal dangerous
Exert-0 5 Exert 5 Hunt even by
English
6 Any Skill 6 Notice standards.
7 Ride
8 Toil

21
 Hunter: You hunt for your meat, either by right on land you are permitted to
harvest, by service to a lord who owns that right, or by your own cunning
poaching. Your life has been a lonely one, and you have known danger in
the trackless weald and desolate moors, yet you are equal to it. Hunters who
are not in service to a lord must commonly farm for their bread as well, or
labor for a man who does.

Bows are
tools for Free Skill d6 Growth d8 Learning
hunting, Hunt-0 1 +1 Any Stat 1 Any Combat
and rarely 2 +2 Physical 2 Any Skill
for war, yet
you may be Quick Skills 3 +2 Physical 3 Exert
among the Notice-0 4 +2 Mental 4 Heal
few skilled
Sneak-0 5 Exert 5 Hunt
enough to
use a bow 6 Any Skill 6 Notice
well in 7 Shoot
battle.
8 Sneak

Minsterkind: You are a monk or nun for Christ, perhaps a man ordained to
the priesthood as well. Pledged young to a minster, your youth passed in
a holy and pious circumstance. Some calamity in the monastery or special
leave from the abbot or abbess has sent you out into the world, surrounded
by sin and sorrow. It may even be that you have left this holy life behind
to take up the spear of war.
All clergy
normally Free Skill d6 Growth d8 Learning
live together Pray-0 1 +1 Any Stat 1 Any Skill
in minsters,
with priests 2 +2 Physical 2 Connect
venturing Quick Skills 3 +2 Mental 3 Craft
out to
Talk-0 4 +2 Mental 4 Ken
give the
sacraments Ken-0 5 Connect 5 Perform
and preach 6 Any Skill 6 Pray
to laity.
7 Talk
8 Toil

22
Reeve: Your father was one who represented a lord and tended to his interests
in a Hundred. While he was of no eorlish kind himself, he was honored
by his neighbors and trusted by his master. You learned much of gathering
the food-rent owed to the lord, and of the tricks of men, and of mediat-
ing between quarreling souls in between the hours spend tending your
own land.

The reeves
Free Skill d6 Growth d8 Learning of great
Reeve-0 1 +1 Any Stat 1 Any Combat lords are
2 +2 Physical 2 Any Skill often lords
in their
Quick Skills 3 +2 Mental 3 Connect own right,
Notice-0 4 +2 Mental 4 Notice but your
kin were
Toil-0 5 Connect 5 Reeve
of humbler
6 Any Skill 6 Ride stock.
7 Talk
8 Toil

Scop: Every warrior at the mead-hall table is expected to be able to at least

sing a song or recite a few lines of verse, but a scop is something special, a
man skilled in countless poems and myriad mighy songs. He plays upon
the harp and tells of former days and is a welcome guest in any man’s hall,
though he likes best the hearths of those with wealth and gifts to spare. He
will travel far to find them.
The English
Free Skill d6 Growth d8 Learning are largely a
Perform-0 1 +1 Any Stat 1 Any Combat pre-literate
people, and
2 +2 Physical 2 Any Skill the ability
Quick Skills 3 +2 Mental 3 Connect to sing and
recite are
Talk-0 4 +2 Mental 4 Gift
precious at
Connect-0 5 Connect 5 Ken all social
6 Any Skill 6 Notice levels.
7 Perform
8 Talk

23
 Thrall: You were a slave owned by another man, whether born to it or cap-
tured. Thralls are common among the English, the product of the many
raids and wars between kingdoms. A warrior can expect death if captured,
but a common ceorl or a woman is worth more for their toil. By manumis-
sion or stealth you have escaped the reach of your former master and can
make whatever future you dare.
Thralls have
little dignity, Free Skill d6 Growth d8 Learning
but former Toil-0 1 +1 Any Stat 1 Any Combat
thralls can
2 +2 Physical 2 Any Skill
hope to
rise high by Quick Skills 3 +2 Physical 3 Connect
courage and Sneak-0 4 +1 Any Stat 4 Craft
skill.
Exert-0 5 Exert 5 Exert
6 Any Skill 6 Notice
7 Sneak
8 Toil

Wanderer: You are an outlaw or uprotected foreigner. You have no home,

either for crimes you have committed, because you are a friendless foreigner,
or because your hall has fallen in flame and battle-smoke. You are friend-
less save for your spear-companions and can expect no more justice than
your right hand can take. You are accustomed to suffering and hardship,
and fear neither death nor dearth.
To be a
kinless Free Skill d6 Growth d8 Learning
wanderer Exert-0 1 +1 Any Stat 1 Any Combat
is a fate
feared more 2 +2 Physical 2 Any Skill
than death Quick Skills 3 +2 Physical 3 Connect
by many
Hunt-0 4 +2 Mental 4 Exert
English.
Any Combat-0 5 Exert 5 Hunt
6 Any Skill 6 Notice
7 Sneak
8 Talk

24
Suppose our brother Bede is at the gaming-table of a night and
wishes to roll up a hero. Being a godly man, Bede considers choosing a Min-
sterkind background as it is one he well knows, but decides to
An Example
trust to God’s pleasure and roll for it. He rolls a d10 on the ta-
of Choosing
ble and sees that his hero has led his life as a Hunter.
Bede then thinks; should he do things simply, and just
a Background
take the Hunt-0 skill all Hunters get and the two quick skills of Notice-0 and
Sneak-0? Should he be more particular, and take the Hunt-0 skill and pick
two more from the Learning table? Or should he trust to his wyrd and let the
dice speak? He decides the lattermost.
Because he is willing to trust to fate, he may make three rolls, instead
of the mere two picks a more guarded man would have. In addition, he may
choose to roll on the Growth table as well as the Learning one, chancing the
hope of improving his attributes. In the end, Bede decides to roll once on the
Growth table and twice on Learning.
His first roll on the Growth table render a “+2 Physical” result. He may
add two points to one of his physical attributes, that is, his Strength, Consti-
tution, or Dexterity. He might instead add +1 to two if he wished. He may
not increase an attribute above 18, for that is as great as any mortal man may
be. He decides to put both points into Dexterity, that he might be swift and
keen with his hunter’s bow. This increases his score from 12 to 14. Because
this changes the attribute modifier as well, he scrapes the “+0” from beside
Dexterity on his sheet and inks it anew with “+1”.
His next roll is on the Learning table, and he rolls “Hunt”. He already has
the Hunt skill at level-0 because he is a hunter, so it becomes level-1 instead.
He takes his third roll from the Learning table as well, and yet again he rolls
“Hunt”. No novice hero may be better than level-1 in a skill, so he may pick
any other skill he wishes in its place, except for Magic. Of course, Bede being
the man he is, he picks Pray for his skill, that his hunter may be a godly man
who knows how he ought to believe and pray. He gains the skill at level-0.
Lastly, he may pick any skill he wishes to represent the natural wit and
learning of his hero. Bede wonders how his hero is to protect himself from
foes, but his GM explains that his Hunt skill may be used at one point less in
place of Shoot, when he fights men with his bow. Assured, he chooses Sneak,
gaining Sneak-0 to represent his hunter’s cunning and subtle step.
With that, his background is finished, and he may move to choose what
class of heroic prowess his young hunter follows.

25
 A hero is made by deeds, not birth. It is true that only those with
royal blood may be kings, but beneath the glory of
the king-helm there is little meaning in blood. Only
by courage, faith, and wisdom may a man get glory Choosing
and honor among the English. An ealdorman’s son a Hero’s
may have silver by birth, but he must get respect by Class
the spear.
Your hero is gifted with certain strengths suitable
for adventure. Perhaps they are a mighty Warrior,
swift to battle. It may be they are a holy Saint, bring-
ing God’s light into the darkest of giant-wrought
ruins. It may even be that they are a Galdorman,
one who wields drucraft and sinister sorcery for ends
rarely pleasing to God. And of course, you may yet be a simple Adventurer
from over the sea, with some strange mix of special virtues and talents. The
pages that follow describe each of these classes, and you may pick one to
best suit your hero.
Your class need not mesh perfectly with your background, for you need
only explain how you acquired your special skills. A common ceorl might
have befriended an old Artifex, heir to Rome’s secrets, and been taught the
ways of a Galdorman. A brave eorlish lad, raised to sword and shield, may
have turned from the vanities of the world to become a Saint in some holy
minster. It may even be that some minster-bound monk throws over his holy
vows, forsaking God to snatch up a Warrior’s spear.
Choose the class that has such tools as you wish to use in adventure. If
you wish to rely on your own skills and personal might, be a Warrior. If you
would bring wisdom, guidance, and holy help to your friends, be a Saint. If
you favor dark spells and ungodly tricks of spellcraft, then be a Galdorman.
And if you cannot decide among these things, look to the Adventurer and
see if that can suit.
Be mindful that only heroes commonly have classes. In the rest of the
world, a sword-wielding gesith is just a gesith, not a Warrior. A heretical dru
is just a sorcerer, not a Galdorman. These non-players use their own rules
and have their own powers, for just as God did not make all men the same, it
makes no sense that all men should live in the same fashion or be described
in the same words.

26
 CGCLASS illo

A hero must seek glory and shun all base and shameful actions. By
great deeds they gain power and renown, while miserable wickednesses and
weaknesses bring only disgrace. Great deeds are called Glories
Glories, Shames
and grave failings are Shames.
and Levels
Every time your hero performs a Glory, add one to their
tally. Most Glories can be performed only once per adventuring session at
most, though the GM might give you still more credit for particularly mag-
nificent feats of honor and might.
Every time your hero commits a Shame, take away a point of Glory. If
you are not a Saint, you can avoid this penalty if no living man knows the
truth of your wrongdoing, for no one will know to blame you. Saints do not
have this refuge, for God knows all things.
Once a hero accumulates enough Glories they become stronger, gaining
new abilities and skills. A hero’s power is measured in Levels, with novices
beginning at first level and the mightiest heroes of England reaching tenth
level. You begin with no Glories and no Shames, because your epic has yet
to be written.

27
 Mistrusted and feared, the Galdorman is a wielder of magical
arts and sinister drucraft. While it is true that their
mouth is often full of prayers and the names of saints
and angels, they use their knowledge to conjure won- The
ders and enact marvels unfitting to men. They alone Galdorman
of all heroes can cast magical spells.
A hero who chooses to become a Galdorman
gains certain graces by it, as given below.

They get Magic-0 skill for free as part of their

training. They are the only class that can gain or
improve this ungodly skill.
They gain a Sorcery score equal to one plus
their Magic skill plus the highest of their Intelligence or Charisma modifiers.
Thus, a novice Galdorman with Magic-0, an Intelligence of 14, and a Cha-
risma of 5 would have a Sorcery score of 2. They use this Sorcery to cast the
spells they know.
They may pick a number of Minor spells to know equal to two plus their
Magic skill plus the highest of their Intelligence or Charisma modifiers. Thus,
the same Galdorman above would choose three Minor spells to know. He
may learn more from other teachers or secret lore he finds while adventuring.
These spells are listed on page XX, and the rules for casting them on page XX.

A Galdorman is not forbidden to wield spears and bear war-harness or

do any of the other things a man might wish to do, but he will never be so
skillful in any of these things as a Warrior might be. He must spend too much
time poring over his studies and practicing his unclean arts to gain prowess
in more manly pursuits.

28
A Galdorman is considered a suspicious and untrustworthy man
in the best of seasons. They may protest that their magic is a gift from God
and a seemly thing, but every godly man knows that drucraft
Galdorman
and sorcery are no clean matters. Still, if you carry out the Glo-
Glories and
ries listed below you may grow in power and renown, if not
trust and love.
Shames

Get Glory if you aid a decent Christian hero in an adventure of

worthy and honorable purpose, thus demonstrating that your powers may
be used for good ends.
Get Glory if you defeat a heathen sorcerer or dru, showing that your
arts are a useful defense against the witchery of damnable men. This Glory is
also granted if you merely aid your companions in doing so.
Get Glory if you defend a Christian against evil magic or supernatu-
ral powers, whether that evil be an overt attack or a sinister scheme. You must
break the spell or drive away the danger, and not merely forestall it for a time.

You do not count as a decent Christian yourself for purposes of these

Glories, for you are a Galdorman, and you will never be trusted wholly. You
must aid others of godlier bent to become honored. In the same vein, you
must shun the Shames below if you are not to be scorned and despised by
others. As with all Shames, they only bite if they are discovered, of course;
hidden ill-doings bring only God’s reproach.

Suffer Shame if you use your magic against a cleric, whether monk or
nun or priest or any other minsterman, however wicked they may be.
Suffer Shame if you give friendship to a heathen sorcerer, or accept
teaching from any heathen or heretical sage. Learning from their abandoned
books or relics is no honorable thing, but it is not a Shame.
Suffer Shame if you use your magic to cheat another man, or curse
him, or gain unfair advantage on him in honest trade or talk or competition.
This Shame does not apply if the man is an open foe of yours whom you might
be expected to fight with all your strength.

A Galdorman can never expect to be honored and loved by his neighbors,

but he may yet be respected, and allowed to live peacefully among them if he
shows himself useful to his people.

29
 Holy men and women of Godly will, the Saint is a rarity even among
the pious monks and nuns of the minsters. While
every honest monk tries to live a Godly life, a Saint
is specially graced with a faith and holiness that lets The
them bring forth miracles to aid the faithful. A Saint Saint
most often comes from the clergy of a minster, but
even common ceorls or warriors who have put down
their spear may find the grace of God in their hearts.
A hero who chooses to become a Saint gains the
blessings noted below.

They get Pray-0 skill for free as part of their

training. If they already have Pray-0 skill from their
background, it becomes Pray-1. If they already have Pray-1 for some reason,
they may pick any other skill they like with this bonus, except Magic.
They gain a Holiness score equal to one plus their Pray skill plus the
highest of their Wisdom or Charisma modifiers. Thus, a novice Saint with
Pray-0, a Wisdom of 18, and a Charisma of 12 would have a Holiness score
of 3. This Holiness fuels their miracles.
They may pick two favored Minor miracles from the list on page XX.
These are miracles that come easily to them. They may use any Minor miracle
in extremis, but using unfavored miracles costs them more Holiness to do so,
as explained on page XX, and their plea may not be answered.
They are protected by God. While it is forbidden for priests to wear
armor or wield weapons, a Saint’s base unarmored Armor Class is equal to
fourteen plus half their level, rounded up. This Armor Class may be modified
by Dexterity, but they are not allowed to bear a shield.

A Saint is bound to godly and honorable behavior in their own life, but
it is not always in their power to compel their companions. While a Saint
may never kill a man, nor use sorcery, nor bear arms, their companions may
do these things without injuring the Saint’s holiness. They may aid allies who
are not behaving in a godly manner and support them even in ill ends, that
they might have a chance to persuade them to better deeds and temper the
worst of their trespasses. Even so, they may not personally do evil.
Of course, if the Saint urges them to do these things, or otherwise uses
them as but thin excuses for their own plans, then God will not be deceived.

30
Beloved of God and much cherished by men, the Saint brings God’s
mercy and His justice to those in need of both. A Saint may have various du-
ties and obligations, depending on whether they are a priest
Saintly
among the people or a bishop in his cathedral or a hermit in
Glories and
the forest, but certain deeds bring Glory.
Shames
Get Glory if you carry out a mighty deed for God or a worthy adven-
ture for His glory, or if you aid another Christian in such a work.
Get Glory if you convert a powerful heathen to the true faith, or
make a sinning lord or magnate repent openly of his crimes and make amends.
Get Glory if you risk danger to help the weak, or spend at least a
third of your wealth in successfully upholding the desperate or aiding those
who have no power to repay you or profit you in fit measure to your labors.

A Saint is under stricter law than other heroes, however, for they answer
to God as well as to men. These are the Shames of a Saint.

Suffer Shame if you strike a human being with intent to harm them.
Suffer Shame if you lie, steal, fornicate, disobey your clerical superior,
honor false gods, dishonor the Sabbath, bear weapons, wear war-harness, or
otherwise knowingly break the laws of the Church.
Suffer Shame if you willingly wield a heathen magical object or
receive a Galdorman’s spells, for you must shun the use of all magic.

Saints suffer especially from Shameful acts, for they always are inflicted
whether the world knows about the deed or not. In addition, a Shame robs a
Saint of his use of miracles until he has had time to pray and repent of his error.
If the Shame was done unwillingly or as the lesser of two evils, he may
spend a week in ascetic penitence and fasting and be allowed use of his mir-
acles once more.
If the Shame was done willingly but in a moment of passion or in the
heat of sudden circumstance, he must go on a godly adventure to do some
penitent deed, after which he regains his miracles.
Shames done forethoughtfully and for gain are not forgiven in this life.
Utterly fallen Saints, however, may gain powers from the Devil’s favor. PC
heroes are never fit for such miserable ends, but fallen Saints they may encoun-
ter in the world may draw great powers from their damnable lord.

31
 Every brave soul in England honors the way of the Warrior, the glory
of the strong arm and true heart. If your hero does
not wield sorcery as a Galdorman, nor serve god as
a Saint, then he is a Warrior. The
Not all Warriors live only for battle. A hon- Warrior
ey-voiced scop may be a Warrior, as might a restless
far-traveled wanderer, or a simple hermit who seeks
only solitude, or some other hero that does not fit
well in the role of Galdorman or Saint. Whatever
their nature or past, a Warrior gets graces by their art.

They get a bonus to hit rolls that begins at

+1 at first level and increases by +1 at each additional
level. They may add this bonus to all hit rolls they make with any weapon.
They roll 1d6+2 for their hit points at each level, instead of the 1d6
that the other classes roll.
Once per fight, they may call on their skill as an Instant action either
to turn a missed hit roll they made into a hit, or turn a successful hit roll
that a foe made against them into a miss. They must choose one or the other,
but may choose to avert a hit even after the foe has rolled their damage. This
warrior’s luck cannot protect them against environmental hazards or injuries
that are not war-blows.
They may pick an extra Focus. All heroes can pick one Focus, but War-
riors may pick two, either taking two different Foci at first level or taking two
levels of a single favored art.

If a gamesman cannot decide what manner of hero he should be, then

let him be a Warrior, and be strong for mighty deeds.

32
Brave and blessed with glorious might, the Warrior’s path is perhaps
the clearest one to Glory. All that is asked of a Warrior is that he be strong
and capable, swift to aid his lord and his kinsmen and mighty
A Warrior’s
against his foes. Deeds that show his strength and skill will get
Glories and
him Glory, whether that skill is swiftness with his spear or a
surpassing persuasiveness in the wisdom of his counsel.
Shames

Get Glory if you do a mighty deed or carry out a worthy adventure in

service to a lord or to kinsmen or to neighbors.
Get Glory if you defeat a foe who has twice as many hit dice or levels
as you possess, provided you do so with no more than a half-dozen companions
with you at the time. This deed counts only once during any given adventure,
no matter how many foes are slain.
Get Glory if you overcome a grave peril, great challenge, or stern con-
test with your own skills and abilities. The peril must be such as risks your
life or that of your comrades, and a contest must be against one widely held
to be your better.

Yet if a Warrior’s path to Glory is plain, so too is his road to ignominous

Shame. Shun the things below if you would be honored by men, though if
your crime is hidden you may escape rebuke.

Suffer Shame if you betray your lord or your friends, or forsake them
when they need you and you have the power to aid them.
Suffer Shame if you flee from a fight you started, or abandon your
allies on the battlefield, or worst of all, if you run from your lord’s side in war.
Suffer Shame if you break your oath, or swear falsely, or clearly fail to
do a thing you said you would do. Such empty boasting makes your word
worthless in the eyes of men. Remember that men hold you to account for
words spoken in the grip of strong drink.

Not all Warriors are swiftest to the spear; some do better with wise coun-
sel, or great skill, or steadfast service to their beloved lord. Yet in all things they
are expected to be true and loyal to their own, whether that is their lord, or
their comrades, or their kinsmen. A Warrior who is not faithful to his friends
is of no use to any man, and many grave sins and failings may be forgiven to
a devoted heart.

33
 There are times when the hero you have in mind fits neither the
Warrior, the Galdorman, or the Saint perfectly to
mind. Such heroes may simply take the Adventurer
class and explain to the GM’s satisfaction how they
The
got their powers. Adventurer
Adventurers have no arts of their own. Instead,
they pick two partial classes from the list below and
add their benefits together.

Partial Galdorman: You gain Magic-0 as a bonus

skill. Your Sorcery score is the same as a full Gal-
dorman, less one, to a minimum of one point. You
pick half the starting spells as a full Galdorman,
rounded up. You cast spells at your full character level, but you will never
learn the most powerful spells as a full Galdorman will.
Partial Saint: You gain Pray-0 as a bonus skill. Your Holiness score is the
same as a full Saint, less one, to a minimum of one point. You pick one
starting Minor miracle instead of two. Your saintly miracles are invoked at
your full character level, though you will not attain the heights of God’s
grace the way a full Saint will. You also gain a Saint’s natural Armor Class
bonus.
Partial Warrior: In place of the full Warrior benefit, you gain a bonus to
your hit roll equal to half your character level, rounded down. You add +1
to this bonus at first and fifth level, thus giving you +1 to hit at first level,
+3 to hit at fifth, and +7 at tenth. You roll 1d6+1 at each level for your hit
points and you gain a bonus Focus pick when creating your character. You
do not have a full Warrior’s power to avert a blow or ensure a successful hit.

Note that some blends of classes make no sense to the English. How
could a Saint ever have a Galdorman’s sorcery, and how could a bloody-
handed Warrior ever wield the holy favor of a Saint? Yet such a man may
come from over the sea, or he may be a heretic or heathen with marvels from
the Devil and not from God, or the GM himself may smile at our English
ways and think it no conflict. I write these things here so you may do with
them as you see fit.

34
Adventurers choose their own Glories and Shames from the
classes they have picked. They must choose two Glories from An
one class and one from the other, and two Shames from their
Adventurer’s
first partial class and one from the second. If they have a par-
Glories and
ticular thought for a different set of bindings, they may have
words with the GM and see if their thinking is acceptable. So
Shames
long as they have three Glories and three Shames to their name, it is enough.
Be mindful that your hero ought to have a care in choosing Glories
and Shames so they do not stifle their own abilities. A Warrior-Saint who is
forbidden from shedding blood may lead an unhappy life, much as a Gal-
dorman-Saint who is barred from wielding sorcery. Pick different Shames, or
devise a Shame that pleases your GM in its stead.

CGADVENTURER illo

35
 No hero is without his wyrd, the destiny that awaits him before he
sleeps in grave-grasp. Every man has his wyrd, but
those of common ceorls and ignoble thralls are of
little consequence and small glory. Their virtues are Wyrds
small and their vices of little account, petty in good
and trifling in evil. But a hero is different, for his wyrd
promises greatness in valor or in terrible crime, and
not uncommonly in both.
A man’s wyrd is not the whole of his story. He
may be a good man or a wicked one, he may do many
great deeds or many foul crimes, but his wyrd is what
is inescapable. He will not die until he has drunk its
cup to the lees, and his measure is in how bravely he
bears what he cannot change.
Now you must choose or roll two noble wyrds and one ignoble one to
shape your hero’s destiny. These wyrds describe your hero’s character and mood,
the passions that press them on to glory and the flaws that goad them to infa-
mous deeds. If you would wish to give the devil more than his due, you may
exchange one of your noble wyrds for two additional ignoble ones, but this
concession may be made only once. A man without any noble nature can be
no hero, nor worthy of words of memory.
The wyrds tell you of your hero, but what place do they have in the game?
When your hero faces a terrible foe, or strives to do a mighty deed, or is fore-
stalled by some impossible challenge, he may invoke his wyrd, naming the
destiny he calls upon to defeat the foe, do the deed, or best the challenge. He
must describe the way in which his wyrd will help him, though the skein of
the tale can bend greatly to make it so. Once the foe has been bested or the
deed achieved, the wyrd is marked as fulfilled. The hero may still show its traits
or bear its mark, but he can never again invoke it to aid him.
A hero chooses the time for invoking his wyrd. The GM cannot compel
him to call on his destiny, with the exception of his ignoble wyrds. The GM
can force him to succumb to his flaws if the alternative is death, obliging him
to pay wergild for his past choices by compelling his cowardice, treachery, or
shame. It is a common thing for true heroes to sin greatly in their youth, to
do an evil they labor long to live down.
A hero cannot die until every wyrd he bears has been invoked. He may
suffer scars, bear grave wounds, and lose kin and hall and spear-companions,

36
 d00 Noble Wyrd Ignoble Wyrd
1–4 An angel guards me from above. Anger blinds me to good sense.
5–8 False words do not deceive me. I abandon my own.
9–12 God loves my piety. I aid strangers before my own people.
13–16 Hearts are lifted by my words. I am a coward at moments of peril.
17–20 I am a bane of monsters. I am a friend to outlaws and monsters.
21–24 I am a fearsome warrior. I am treacherous to my spear-brothers.
25–28 I am a scourge to Hell’s sons. I begrudge the giving of gifts.
29–32 I am stoic in my pain. I betray my own people.
33–36 I am true to my spear-brothers. I claim glory that belongs to another.
37–40 I avenge wrongs done to me. I do evil in secret ways.
41–44 I defend my own. I fear pain and suffering.
45–48 I keep my oaths. I love the telling of lies.
49–52 I know the right time to act. I pray to the old pagan gods.
53–56 Men follow my lead. I seduce the women of other men.
57–60 Men tremble at my wrath. I speak reckless insults without cause.
61–64 My deeds know no weariness. I suffer wrongs and do not avenge them.
65–68 My gifts win true loyalty. I take more than I am due.
69–72 My judgment is just. I wound friends to gain my desire.
73–76 My memory is long. I wrong God and Church to get my will.
77–80 My people love me well. Men hold me in contempt.
81–84 My skill is great. My boasts outstrip my skill.
85–88 My word is trusted. My deeds are full of folly.
89–92 My wrath is for the deserving. My lust for riches is past reason.
93–96 No lie can hinder me. My oaths mean nothing.
97–00 Wisdom is in my words. My people love me not at all.

but he will not know God’s judgment until his wyrd has been lived out to the
last. Let him meet it bravely. Those who cringe away from their destiny rarely
find a rich reward for their timid heart.
When you invoke a wyrd, you may describe the way in which it helps
you, and if the GM does not find it too implausible or unseemly, it will come
to pass as you have said.

37
 Your class gives you certain powers and helps, but not every hero of
a given class is the same. Some Warriors will be pos-
sessed of honeyed words and wise counsel, while oth-
ers will have remarkable gifts for the hunt or a fearless Foci
heart that cannot be shaken. Such a special gift is a
Focus and each hero begins by picking one from
the list that follows here. A Warrior may pick two.
Each Focus has two levels. When you pick it,
you gain the first level. If you pick it again, you gain
the benefits of the second level as well. You may not
pick the same Focus three times, though some may
be taken multiple times to apply to different skills
or pursuits.
Many Foci give bonus skills. You may add this skill to your sheet as if it
were one you picked for your background. If you already have it, it is increased
just as you would for a twice-rolled background skill.

CGFOCUS illo

38
As Our Power Lessens: Marred and marked by spear and sword, you yet defy
your wounds and scorn the scar’s bite. Level 1: Ignore a number of Scars you
have earned in battle equal to two plus your Constitution modifier. These
Scars still exist for you, but your determination is such that you overcome
them and find ways to surpass their limits even without supernatural pros-
thetics. If you suffer one of these Scars again in the course of battle, however,
it applies anew as it did before. Level 2: Every Scar you have grants you a
+1 bonus to hit rolls and +2 additional maximum hit points. This bonus
increases every time you gain a new Scar.
Beastbane: The beasts of fell and forest fear your dreadful hand, for you are a
hunter beyond compare. You have power over all creatures that walk upon
four legs, or swim with fins and scales, or fly with feathered wings, whether
they be fashioned by God or twisted by the arts of Hell. You have no power
over those creatures that walk like men, however. Level 1: Gain Hunt as a
bonus skill. Roll all hit and damage rolls twice against beasts, taking the
better result for each. Level 2: Your hit rolls against beasts never miss, pro-
vided it is physically possible for you to hit the target.
Berserker: You are prone to terrible battle-frenzy and a killing fury that con-
sumes all reason. Men are wary of you, for when the blood-lust is on you,
you know no kin or law. Level 1: As an On Turn action, you may choose to
go berserk. While berserk, gain an extra 10 hit points, a base Armor Class
of 16 if not already better, and an additional hit bonus equal to your Spear
skill. You are immune to Shock damage while berserk and to any effect
that compels fear or pacification. While berserk you can take no action not
immediately related to killing something or reaching a target to kill them,
and must wield your most effective melee weapon, even if that’s nothing
more than your bare hands. You may end the berserk as an Instant action
immediately after reducing a target to zero hit points; otherwise, it takes an
On Turn action and forces a Mental saving throw. On a failure, you remain
berserk that round and must seek to kill the nearest living target, whether
friend or foe. When the berserk effect ends, you immediately lose the extra
10 hit points, and may be mortally wounded by the loss. Level 2: All damage
dice you inflict are rolled twice while you are berserk. Once per day, when
reduced to zero hit points while berserk, you may continue to fight for a
number of rounds equal to your Spear skill before falling, mortally wounded.
Additional damage during this time cannot stop or kill you. If healed during
this span, you continue to stand, but the ability does not reset.

39
 Bringer of Endings: Your spear sparks red with the sunsets of men. Your
terrible war-tree is a hard thing to flee. Level 1: Gain Spear as a bonus skill.
If your weapon has a Shock value, increase it by one plus one third of your
character level, rounded up. Level 2: If your weapon has a Shock value, it
applies to any Armor Class equal or lower than 20, unless it already affects
a higher Armor Class than that.
Far Faring: You have journeyed far over the earth, perhaps even over the sea
to the lands of the Danes or the Franks. You know the ways of many peo-
ples, and have friends in far places. Level 1: Gain Gift or Talk as a bonus
skill. You can speak all the common languages of Britain and the adjacent
continent. Gain a +1 on all social skill checks and reaction rolls related to
foreigners and non-Englishmen. Level 2: You know the approximate way
to any human settlement or city and will never get lost when journeying
from one such place to another. When in a new community, once per game
session, you may declare that there is someone there who is friendly and
well-disposed toward you, if such is at all physically possible. The details of
this friend are decided by the GM.
Harder Be Purpose: Your will is of iron, unbreakable by the words of men
or the drucraft of Hell-bound sorcerers. This gift cannot help you against
afflictions you willingly accept, however, such as the fury of a berserk or the
love of an evil woman. Level 1: Roll all Mental saves twice, taking the better
result. Neither this nor the level 2 ability can be used to resist effects that
you have voluntarily initiated. Level 2: Once per day, automatically succeed
on a Mental saving throw as an Instant action. You are immune to any effect
or ability that would subvert your will or control your actions, regardless
of whether or not a saving throw is allowed. Arts that would merely make
your actions more difficult to carry out are not affected.
Healer’s Hand: You are a leech of skill and cunning, wise in ways to snatch
the lives of men from the grave-grasp. Level 1: Gain Heal as a bonus skill.
Roll 3d6 for all Heal skill checks, dropping the lowest die. Once per day,
tend a person’s wounds for five minutes, restoring 1d6 hit points for every
two character levels you possess, rounded up. Level 2: You can raise a man
up from the brink of death to fight on still, and your prior healing abil-
ity is improved. Instead of before, once per day for every two character
levels, rounded up, take a Main Action to tend a wounded ally and restore
1d6+Heal hit points for every character level you have. You can aid a given
subject this way only once per day.

40
Heart Shall Be Bolder: You fear no evil, not of men and not of Hell.
Your courage strengthens the hearts of your comrades and puts fear in the
marrow of your foes. Level 1: Gain Lead as a bonus skill. You are immune
to any effect that would induce fear in you. Foes who are forced to make
a Morale check by you or your allies do so at a -1 penalty, which does not
stack if multiple heroes have this Focus. Level 2: You receive a bonus Splen-
dor reroll once per game session. Allied NPCs who can see or hear you gain
a +2 bonus to their Morale scores.
Joyous Reveler: Yours is the sweet song in the mead hall and the loud laugh-
ter at the fire. The presence of brave companions and bright mead lifts your
heart and restores your strength. Level 1: Gain Perform as a bonus skill. You
suffer no penalties for drunkenness and never lose your sense or your skills
through mead or wine. The first time you drink a hornfull of alcoholic bev-
erage in a day, regain 1d8 lost hit points per two character levels you have,
rounded up. Level 2: Gain a +2 bonus on all social skill checks made while
feasting or socializing over alcoholic drinks. Once per feast, ask any single
participant in the revel for a favor that would not greatly inconvenience
them; they will agree unless they hate you or the favor would occupy their
attention for more than the following day.
Manslayer: God mourns your pitiless spear, that lesser men and meager beasts
should have no hope but to die when you raise it against them. Only a War-
rior may choose this Focus. Level 1: Gain Spear or Smite as a bonus skill.
Roll melee hit rolls twice against targets with 1 hit die, taking the better hit
roll. Level 2: You invariably hit in melee and do maximum damage against
any target with 1 hit die, assuming your weapon can harm them.
Mighty Art: You wax great in a given art, either by nature or by nameless
grace. Pick one skill that isn’t Pray or Magic. Gain it as a bonus skill. Level
1: Roll 3d6 on skill checks for that skill, dropping the low die. Level 2:
Once per scene, reroll a failed skill check for that skill as an Instant action.
More Proud the Spirit: You refuse to be bested in battle, fighting on despite
terrible wounds and grievous weariness. Level 1: You gain an additional 2
maximum hit points each level. If you take this focus after first level, this
benefit is retroactive. Level 2: Even when otherwise mortally wounded, you
will eventually stabilize with one hit point an hour later unless someone
intentionally finishes you off or you have suffered hurts that no man could
taste and live. You roll all Scar checks twice and take the one you prefer.

41
 Oaken Hide: Whether by a charm, by swiftness, or by implacable will, you
have the art of turning aside blows and shedding spears even when unhar-
nessed. Level 1: Your base Armor Class is equal to fifteen plus half your
level, rounded down, as if you were wearing armor. You can benefit from
using a shield, but armor inferior to this Armor Class will do you no good.
Level 2: Such is the steel of your limbs that you are impervious to Shock
damage, regardless of your Armor Class.
Peaceweaver: Blessed you are with soothing words and a temperate heart, like
a royal daughter pledged to bring peace. Level 1: Gain Talk as a bonus skill.
All reaction rolls as per page XX that you are involved in are improved by
+1. Once per scene, reroll a failed Talk skill check when your goal was to
broker peace or a mutually-beneficial agreement. Level 2: The reaction roll
bonus is improved to +2. Your peaceful nature is so evident and so plainly
godly to others that you and your comrades never suffer Shame from any
action your party takes that is clearly and unselfishly intended to prevent
violence, though you may still incur legal penalties or personal grudges.
Scop-wise: You have learned much of song and poetry, and been taught greatly
of the deeds of former days. Men recognize you as a true scop, and no mere
droner of dead words. Level 1: Gain Perform as a bonus skill. You may
claim hospitality from any lord for a space of a week, unless you give him
reason to despise you. Once per game day, ask the GM a question related
to English history, historical personages, or important current events and
get a full answer. Level 2: Roll 3d6 for Perform skill checks and drop the
lowest die. When you encounter an Englishman, you may add +2 to the ini-
tial reaction roll if allowed the chance to utter some seemly lines of poetry.
Shameless: You are reckless as a king in your deeds, unblushing and unabashed
by acts that would halt the hands of more scrupulous men. So persuasive
are your words and so plausible your excuses that men forget the scandal of
what you have done. A Saint may not take this Focus, for God is not coz-
ened. Level 1: Gain Talk as a bonus skill. Once per game session, take no
Shame from an act that would otherwise incur it. You may still suffer legal
penalties or personal enmities, but no Shame adheres to you. Level 2: Pick
one category of Shameful acts from the list given for your class. You are so
good at justifying such deeds or are so expected to perform them that you
suffer no Shame from this category of ill deeds.

42
Shieldbearer: Your shield is an oaken wall against weapons, a fierce defender
of flesh. Every free Englishman knows how to carry a war-wall, but yours is
a deeper knowledge. Level 1: When you carry a shield, improve your Armor
Class by one point from whatever it otherwise would be. Your shield heart-
ens you against evil; while you carry one, gain a +1 bonus to all your saving
throw rolls. Level 2: Your shield is an impenetrable wall against a multitude
of foes; while you carry it, you are immune to Shock damage. The Armor
Class bonus this focus grants improves from one point to two.
Strongbow: Your eye is keen and your arrow flies fast to the target. You have
a name for your prowess with the bow, and no man you take for a target
escapes wholly unscathed. Level 1: Gain Shoot as a bonus skill. When
engaging in target shooting, roll 3d6 for Shoot skill checks, dropping the
lowest die. Bows you use gain the Shock property at 1 point against AC 15
or worse. Level 2: Your bow’s Shock property becomes 2 points against AC
17 or worse. Once per scene, reroll a Shoot attack roll as an Instant action.
Swift of Hand: When the spears rise to battle, yours is first to find the foe.
Level 1: Roll Initiative rolls twice, taking the better one. You cannot be
surprised or ambushed without the aid of magic. Level 2: You always win
Initiative rolls against non-supernatural foes, unless your foe has this gift too.
Waelcyrige: You are a waelcyrige, that the Norse call valkyrie. Only a woman
may be such a thing, and only a Warrior. Level 1: You cannot be surprised or
ambushed by any man who bears weapons. Once per game session, you may
ask the GM to learn the most likely outcome they foresee should you and
your allies choose to fight a particular battle. Level 2: You choose the slain.
Once per round, as an Instant action, choose a mortally-wounded target
you can see; they will either instantly die or instantly stabilize as you wish.
Wrestler: Your empty hands are terrible weapons. Level 1: Your unarmed
Smite attack does a base of 1d6 damage and Shock 1/AC 15. You gain +1
on all grappling skill checks. Level 2: Your fist counts as a magical weapon
against uncanny foes, and even a supernaturally strong foe’s might grants
no more than +2 on grapple checks to wrestle you or escape your grip.
Wyrdmarked: You carry the burden of destiny upon your brow. Yours is a
deeper fate than others have had woven for them. Level 1: Pick an addi-
tional noble Wyrd of your choice. Level 2: Gain an additional Wyrd; “I bear
a mysterious fate.” You may invoke this Wyrd to apply to any situation as if
it were a Wyrd specifically applicable to your need. This Wyrd is expended
after invocation, but you may choose a new focus level in its place.

43
 Your hero is now almost ready to fare forth, to find adventure with
brave companions and meet their wyrd with courage.
Primus, roll your hero’s maximum Hit Points.
Final
Roll starting Your hit points are a measure of how close your hero
hit points is to mortal injury. When wounded, greatly disheart- Measures
on 1d6 ened, sorely wearied, or over-trusting in their luck,
plus your
they may lose hit points. If dropped to zero, they are
Constitution
modifier, or mortally wounded or unable to go on, and may die.
1d6+2 for They recover lost hit points with rest or holy prayer.
Warriors. Roll 1d6 for your hit points, or 1d6+2 if you
are a Warrior. To this add your Constitution modi-
fier, yet even a penalty cannot reduce your hit points
below 1.
Pick a Secundus, choose his name and home. A number of common English
proper names are given here, and if you want more you may consult the table on
English page XX. The English have but one name as a rule, with epithets to distin-
name and
guish among them when such is needed1.
homeland.
You are Decide also whether he is to be an Angle, from the kingdoms of Mercia,
literate if Northumbria, or East Anglia, or if he is to be Saxon, from the lands of Wessex,
you have Essex, or Sussex, or if he is perhaps a Jute from Kent. Perhaps he is even of
Ken-0 or Wealh blood, merely one born in English lands. All heroes speak English, of
Pray-0 and
course. If your PC is Wealh, then he also speaks the Wealh tongue, or Pic-
can read
and write tish if a Pict, or any other language that is sensible to his past. The learned
Latin. with Ken-0 or Pray-0 may read and write Latin, or English too if they must.
Other Tertius, choose an ambition for your hero. Does he crave riches to give in
languages good friendship? A mighty name, with lands and loyal followers? Your hero
are known
must have a reason to seek danger and bold adventure, or he would have
if your
background remained at home, sitting by the hall-hearth. Give him a goal to seek.
suits them.
Male English Names
Osric, Edmund, Thrydwulf, Wuffa, Eadbert, Aldwulf, Cenred, Egfrid, Bertwald,
Hrothgar, Oswald, Wilfrid, Sigbert, Wulfhere
Female English Names
Elfleda, Hildeburga, Aelfgifu, Beornwyn, Ceolwen, Cyneburh, Eadgifu, Eadwyn,
Leofwen, Tola, Wigburh, Winflaed, Wulfwyn, Mildryth, Lufu, Eadburh, Bertana

1 For an explanation of Anglo-Saxon name construction, see Peter Kitson,

“How Anglo-Saxon Personal Names Work”, Nomina 25 (2002): 91-121

44
 Equipment Packages
Novice
All heroes begin play with a set of woolen clothes, simple shoes, a knife, and
heroes
either a broad spear or a barbed spear as described on page XX. Saints, priests and
begin with
those forbidden arms may trade their unwanted spear for a different item from
no money.
page XX or the packages below.
Shillings are
Farmer: Broad Shield, Three days of dried meat, Leather sack, Hatchet, Warm usually mere
woolen blanket units of
Hunter: Bow, Hatchet, Quiver and 20 arrows, Tinderbox and ember-carrier, Salt account, and
in a four-pound satchel actual coins
are more
Priest: Carved wooden crucifix, small book of pious writings, three days of hard trophies
bread, medicine bag of herbs and bandages, a jar of wine for Holy Communion and art
Wanderer: Broad Shield, Three days of hard bread, Leather sack, Sturdy boots, objects than
Waterskin to hold a full gallon currency.
Warrior:Seax, Broad Shield, Leather sack, Three days of hard bread, Waterskin
to hold a full gallon
Free Choice: Pick any five items or weapons from the section on page XX, albeit
you may not choose anything that grants Splendor or that the GM finds unfit.
Alternately, simply choose a package above and change a choice or two.

Quartus, record your hero’s Saving Throws, as explained on page XX. Record your
Your Physical save is equal to fifteen minus the better of your Strength or Con- three saving
stitution modifiers, Mental saves are fifteen minus the better of your Charisma throws.
or Wisdom scores, and Evasion saves are fifteen minus the better of your Intel-
ligence or Dexterity. When the GM calls upon you to make a saving throw,
you must roll a d20 and get equal or better than this score to successfully save. Name the
Quintus, choose why it is he has befriended each of the other heroes in reason you
the band. What bond of kinship or shared peril has woven them together? trust your
fellow PCs.
What deeds did they share in their youth? No English hero would adventure
with men who are not well-trusted. The word for loner is warg, the lone wolf,
the unfriended outlaw who dies hated and alone. Do not be such a beast.
Finally, equip your hero with his initial possessions as given in the table Choose your
above, choosing the package you like best for your hero. Where a package starting
mentions a weapon, you may pick a different one from the list on page XX. equipment
Saints and those forbidden weapons or shields may choose a different item
in place of war-harness, as if by free choice.
Now your hero is ready. Your GM shall set you to your first adventure,
but all your doings beyond that day will be by your own wit and wise choice.

45
 hose who would play this game must know well the
rules. They are not so complicated as those the Wealh like, for
the Wealh like all things complex and subtle, and the ways of
the western coast are not as the ways of the middle land. In
these pages I explain how it is your heroes are to journey, and battle evil, and
escape the curses of maers and the evils of fifel-kind.
When you sit together at the hall-table to play, keep this book close to
hand. Yet if you forget a rule, or if a thing is debatable to you, merely make a
decision that seems just and continue on. Do not pain yourself with searching
every page as if it were Scripture to find that verse that will be your salvation.
It is merely a game. A ruling that is sufficient and immediate is a better thing
than a ruling that is perfect but takes half a Mass-candle’s burning to find.
After the game is done you may consult the book and decide whether your
ruling was good or ill, and change your future rulings accordingly, but all such
searching and seeking should be saved for after the game.
If you are a player at the table, do not quarrel with your fellow games-
men or with the GM. It would be a shameful thing if shouts were uttered and
blood was shed over the mere rolling of dice. If a ruling seems evil and fool-
ish to you, say it so, but if the GM is not moved by your protest then let it be
and play on. After the game is over you may dispute it, or show him where
the book says otherwise, but do not think to hide behind this little shield of
parchment and hide. The GM chooses what he thinks is best for his table,
whether it conforms to this book or no. If it is not so much to your liking,
then take up his burden and let him be the player.
Remember always that the souls about the hall-table are of more signifi-
cance than any writing of men. A rule that is good and just for the multitude
may be very bad for you few about the fire. It is not your concern to make
rulings that are perfect for the faceless many, or balanced for bands you will
never know, but only right and just for the people who play with you. You
know the wishes and habits of Hrothgar and Bede and Aelfwyn1, and you
know what they like and how they are apt to act. Let your rulings account for
them, not for some nameless soul who will never sit at your table.

1 This passage strongly implies the participation of women in pre-modern

gaming. It does stand to reason, as Anglo-Saxon wives had conventional control over
the family hall and its daily operation, and it would be quite impossible to have a ca-
sual social game there unless the hall’s mistress consented to it.

46
SYSINTRO slot

47
 A brave hero is sometimes faced by a chance of dire misfortune. He may
be teetering at the edge of a crumbling Roman roof,
or the pained target of a malicious sorceror’s spell, or
writhe under the whip of some serpent’s evil venom. Saving
If there is any question over whether he may keep Throws
his balance, or resist the spell, or endure the poison
without perishing, he may make a Saving Throw.
You can’t A saving throw is only allowed at the GM’s dis-
save against cretion. Many pains do not allow it; a sword-blow
weapon or a plunge into a pit, or any other thing that has
blows.
already been decided cannot be saved against. Yet
many evil powers and misfortunes specifically allow
a saving throw and the GM may permit others too.
PCs have There are three kinds of saving throws, Physical saves are made against
three kinds perils that tax the hero’s strength, endurance, or other bodily prowess. Poi-
of saving sons, exhaustion, sicknesses, and other such plagues are resisted with a Physical
throws. saving throw. Mental saving throws are made against spells that dazzle a man’s
mind, or woes that test his willpower and spirit. Evasion saving throws call
upon nimbleness and swift response to leap away from dangers or avoid a
doom that swift response could evade.
To make To make a saving throw, roll a d20. If the number is equal or higher
a save, roll than the subject’s saving throw score, then the save is a success, and the woe
equal or
is avoided or mitigated. If it is less, then the save is a failure, and the full force
higher to its
score on a of the trouble befalls the victim. A roll of 1 is always a failure, and a roll of
d20. 20 is always a success, no matter what modifiers may be applied to the throw.
A hero’s saving throws are equal to 16, minus their character level, minus
the best modifier of two attributes. For Physical saves, these are Strength and
Constitution. Mental saves use Wisdom and Charisma, and Evasion saves
use Intelligence and Dexterity. Thus, a 3rd level Warrior with a Wisdom of 6
and a Charisma of 14 has a Mental saving throw of 12; 16 minus his level of
3, minus his Charisma modifier of +1. If by some chance a hero has attribute
penalties in both scores, the penalty worsens their throws.
Monsters A monster’s saving throws or those of some NPC are equal to 15 minus
only bother half their hit dice, rounded down. Thus, a veteran gesith with 3 hit dice has
with one saving throws of 14. Most such creatures have only one saving throw recorded,
saving
the same for all three tests. Some might have advantage on certain saves, but
throw score
for all uses. usually it is not a concern.

48
Sometimes a man must do a task that would challenge even an En-
glish hero’s skill. A skill check is not for things that
all folk ought to be able to do, such as start a fire, or
gather pot-herbs, or lead cattle, but only such things Skill
as are real challenges, where failure or success makes Checks
a meaningful difference in the game.
To make a skill check, the hero rolls 2d6 and
adds their most relevant attribute modifier and most
relevant skill level. If they have no skill at all in the
work, they suffer a -1 penalty, if the GM decides that
the task is one a completely ignorant man may try. If
the roll is equal or greater than the skill check’s dif-
ficulty chosen by the GM, the check is a success. If
less, it is a failure, and the hero has either botched the effort, succeeded in a Don’t call
way that does not help him, or has been foiled by evil chance and cruel wyrd. for a skill
Do not make a hero roll a skill check for such things as are normal to their check unless
background. A scop will not stutter over an ordinary song, a hunter will not success
or failure
fail to skin a hare, and a monk will not fail to recognize his bishop. If failing actually
a skill check would make a man seem incompetent at his trade, do not roll it. matters in
If two souls compete at a skill, let both make a skill check, and the high play.
roll will prevail. If a tie, let them roll again if a tie in it would not make sense.
If a hero’s friend wishes to help him in his task, he should declare what
manner of action he is taking to aid. A scop might begin to pluck a sweet song
on his harp as his friend tries to reason with the king, while a huntsman might
hasten to fetch herbs to help his healer friend at his work. If the GM agrees
that the help makes sense, let the helper roll a fitting skill check against the
same difficulty as the PC faces; on a success, the PC gains a +1 bonus on the
roll, while a failure means no help is given. Any number of friends can try to
help if their efforts are sensible, but no more than +1 can be granted to the roll.

Very good
Difficulty
or bad
6 One who does this for a living might fail this task, if rarely. situations
8 A skilled practitioner would be challenged by this. can modify
difficulties
10 Even an expert at this skill might fail this task half the time.
by up to
12 Only an expert at this skill has even a chance of success. –/+2.
14+ A true master is needed to even try to achieve this deed.

49
 One may not have a meaningful campaign if stern record of time’s
passing is not kept. This can be a difficult thing to
carve out, so this game measures time in certain ways.
Most often, time is tracked only in days and Scenes
nights. If it is not otherwise important, then the and
heroes may simply say that they spend a day doing Durations
something, or a morning at a work, or otherwise
count off their labors. Record these for your cam-
paign, so you know that what was the 10th of May1 is
now the 14th after they finish helping a hall-raising.
A round takes six heartbeats to pass. Time
is only measured in rounds when the spears flash
bright in battle or some time of great peril is upon
the heroes where every moment is of matter.
A scene is one situation or string of events. A feast is a scene, as is an
encounter with brigands in the weald, or the examination of a strange chamber
within an Arx. Exploring a Roman ruin may be several scenes, ones inter-
spersed with moments of rest or pauses to go elsewhere in the caester. Most
scenes last no longer than a quarter-hour, though it may be longer for par-
ticularly cohesive events such as a feast or clash of armies. Many powers and
abilities are noted as lasting for a single scene, or being usable only once per
scene. Assume this means fifteen minutes if used on some other occasion.
1 The Anglo-Saxon month names differed from ours, but for convenience’s
sake they have been translated in this text.

SYSTIME slot

50
A hero can bear only so heavy a burden before his steps slow and his
vigor flags. Here you may learn the limits of your
own strength and the means by which a hero can
Encumbrance
carry their needful things.
and
The encumbrance of a hero is measured in items.
Burdens
An item commonly is anything the hero may carry
with one hand. If it requires both hands to haul it,
it counts as two, or even more items. If it is so small
and trifling that the hero could have a half-dozen
such things in his purse without noticing the weight,
then it does not count as an item at all, and the hero
may have as many such things as the GM thinks is
reasonable. The ordinary clothing of a hero does not
count as an item, though especially heavy and Splendid mantles may do so.
A hero may carry a number of Ready items equal to half their Strength
score, rounded down. A Ready item may be used as part of any action that
requires it. It is held in the hand, or sheathed readily at a man’s girdle, or in a
pouch dangling from his belt that is easily accessed. The armor he wears and
the shield he carries must be Readied items.
In addition to this, a hero may carry a number of Stowed items equal to
their full Strength score. A Stowed item is tucked away carefully in a sack, or
bound up securely in a pouch, or strapped to a limb, or otherwise packed so
as to be secure, if more difficult to draw out. A hero must use a Main Action
to dig out a Stowed item before it can be wielded or used. A hero must also
say where he is keeping a Stowed item, for he may find it needful to drop a
sack to fight or cast away a purse of meat to distract a beast’s hunger, and then
he will lose all within that container.
A hero may bundle like objects together to make them easier to carry, if
more difficult to access. Rations, sheaves of arrows, large skins of water, and
other bulk goods may so be tied together. Three such packed items count only
as one, but require an extra Main Action to break open.
A hero whose greed overwhelms his prudence may carry an extra burden.
A hero may add either two Readied items or four Stowed ones to his harness
at the cost of becoming lightly encumbered, moving at a pace of 20 feet per
Move action instead of 30. The treasure-laden hero who is willing to become
heavily encumbered may again add two more Ready or four more Stowed
items, though his speed then drops to a mere 15 feet per Move action.

51
 All gamesmen agree that a game cannot be good save that it has
guidance for the tasks common to heroes, such as
spear-clashing, and cunning deeds of skill, and grow-
ing in might, and cattle raiding, and feasting, and Cattle
all common challenges they may face. So it is here Raiding
that I advise you as to how a GM might rule over a
cattle raid.
As you well know, a settlement’s cattle and other
livestock are sent into the hills and forest when the
winter passes so that they may pasture there. The
herdsmen take some beasts upon one path and others
upon another so that all may eat their fill. Some
return to the settlement daily, while others return
only when winter comes. When the cattle go out they are entrusted to the
herdsmen, and sometimes also to women if the distance is not far to the vil-
lage or the danger seems small.
So it is that wicked or desperate men from another place will gather
Cattle together and journey for a few days, so that they might not be recognized,
thieves are
usually and then leap upon herdsmen and despoil them of their cattle. They do not
just ceorls like to kill herdsmen, for a kinship that is owed the man-price will be furi-
turned ous to find the killer, while one that has only lost some of its cattle may think
bandit. better than to risk more to regain them. Even so, it is no surprising thing that
a man be killed in cattle-raiding. If many herdsmen are killed in a raid the
revenge for it may be terrible.
Once the raiders have the cattle, they hurry them into the forest, and
A sneaking along the beds of streams, and across rocky places where they are difficult to
stranger
in the track. They must rely upon their head-start to get away, before the men of
forest can be the village can be alerted and come rushing to reclaim their stolen cows with
killed with sharp spears. If a raider is killed in the forest it is no grounds for revenge, for
impunity. as the laws of King Ine say, a man who is found off the roads in the forest
who does not shout or blow a horn to announce himself may be treated as an
outlaw and slain or redeemed as his finder wishes.
If the raiders are cunning and swift, they may get clear of the pursuers
and conceal their tracks. If they are merely dogged in their flight, they may
run too far away, and the village men may not dare to follow them. Yet if the
villagers have friends in neighboring steads, other villages may send men to

52
chase the raiders out of friendship, and the bandits may be pursued for many
miles. So it is that they like best to steal from quarrelsome men.
If a raider is captured, the villagers will be angry, but if no killing has been
done then he will most likely live if his kinsmen can pay the wergild for his
theft. If they cannot or will not, he will die. If he has killed a man, however,
there is a risk the enraged villagers may slay him on the spot as is their right,
and he must speak very sweetly indeed if he is to live long enough to beg his
kindred to pay the man-price for the dead.
When the raiders are safely away they divide up the cattle that have been
taken and bring them to their own herds. They spoil the cattle brands and cut
off clipped ears and otherwise hide the true owners. If the village is righteous,
their neighbors will condemn them to the lord for this theft, but alas, many
are the eyes that grow blind when a kinsman’s herd swells strangely, and a gift
of meat stops many a mouth. And if the raiders have stolen from enemies of
the lord, they need fear no law at all.

The raiders must find and overcome the herdsmen before steal-
ing their cows. It is common to find a herdsman for every dozen
Rules for
cattle, each with spear and shield close to hand. They will fight
bravely, knowing that a raider has no wergild, but may be beaten Cattle Raiding
or driven off without killing them as described in the less-lethal combat rules
and the rules for Morale checks. It is not uncommon for a herdsman to flee
immediately to warn of bandits. If none escape, assume that the are missed
at noon or dusk, whichever comes first and give a bonus to the bandit’s rolls.
A single rustler may manage one stolen cow. If he has Toil-0 skill, he can Every child
manage two, doubling for each further level of Toil. If he is mounted or has in England
a good herding-dog, double this number, or triple it if he has both. If he is knows how
to lead
greedy, he may drive up to twice as many cows as this, but each rustler who
cattle.
does this causes a -1 penalty to all raiding skill checks described below. It is
far more difficult to hurry cattle along hard places than to leisurely drive them
to pasture, so it takes skill to herd many at once.
When the bandits flee with their cows, one shall be the Pacer, he with the
best Exert skill, or Ride if all bandits are mounted. One shall be the Herder, he
with the best Toil skill. And one shall be the Masker, he with the best Sneak
or Hunt skill, using whichever is best. If a man must be two roles let him take
a -1 penalty on all the raiding skill checks below, and if he must be all three,
let him take a -3 penalty on his checks.

53
 The Pacer must read the bandits well, measuring their pace and their
The Pacer haste so that all move as quickly as possible without exhausting themselves
rolls to see too soon. He ranges ahead to ensure that the path is clear, and hurries back
how fast the to give guidance on the best way. He rolls his skill, whether Con/Exert if on
thieves flee.
foot or Con/Ride if all bandits are mounted, and his roll becomes a difficulty
that the pursuers must equal or best.
The GM then rolls for the pursuers, giving them a +2 bonus for not being
encumbered by a herd of cattle. For most villagers, their talents count as a +1
skill modifier, so most pursuers would roll a skill check of 2d6+3 to equal or
beat the Pacer. If one side is all mounted and the other is not, give them a +2
to their roll. If the Pacer beats the pursuers, then the bandits are moving too
quickly to be easily caught. If the pursuers equal or beat the Pacer, then they
risk catching up with their hurried pace.
Now the Herder must roll his Toil skill as he tries to keep the herd
The Herder together and moving quickly. Cattle do not like to do this, and it takes a per-
rolls to see ceptive and skillful judgment to urge them along hard ways in quick fashion.
whether He must make a Wis/Toil skill check against a difficulty of 10. If he fails, half
their cattle
the cattle, rounded up, are lost along the way as they stumble into the wilds or
can be kept
together. are left behind. The difficulty then drops by 2 and he must repeat the process,
losing half the cattle if he fails. He must make these rolls until one succeeds
or he has lost all the cattle.
Lastly, the Masker must try to hide the herd’s path, choosing streams to
The Masker run through and hard ground to cross and all his tricks to escape notice. This
rolls to see is a difficult thing, but he may make an Int/Sneak or Int/Hunt skill check
if their path to do so. Against this, the pursuers must make a Wis/Notice or Wis/Hunt
is easily
check to follow the signs, usually rolling 2d6+1 to do so if they are common
tracked by
pursuers. villagers. If they equal or beat his roll, then they pierce his deceptions, while
a failure means that his tricks have won the thieves time.
Once all have rolled, the GM counts how many total points the bandits
If the thieves have won or lost by in the rolls of Pacer and Masker. If the Pacer beat the
have a pursuer’s roll by 2 points but the Masker lost by 1, then the bandits won the
larger total chase by 1 point. If the Masker won his roll by 3 points by the Pacer lost his
margin of
success, they by 4, then the bandits lost the chase by 1 point.
escape. If Whatever roll was lost by most is how the losers failed. If the bandits lost
not, they are and the Masker’s roll was worst, then the pursuers came upon them because
caught. the deceptions were not good enough. If the bandits won and the Pacer’s roll
was best, then clearly they got away because they ran so quickly that none

54
could catch up with them. The GM uses these rolls to decide how the chase
played out.
If the bandits lose, they likely face the wrath of the village’s men, easily
two or three dozen men eager to avenge their wrongs, if not even more. Their
only hope is to abandon the cattle and flee, but with their pursuers so hot on
them each bandit must make a Con/Exert or Con/Ride skill check against a
skill check made by the pursuers, and if they lose or tie, they are caught and
must fight, bargain, or surrender. If one of them is mounted and their pursu-
ers are not, give a +2 to the rider’s roll. The same roll is used for the pursuers
against each of the fleeing bandits, so it may be that some bandits are caught
while others are not. In such a case their companions might turn back to stand
with them or they may shamefully continue their headlong flight.
It may be that participants other than the Herder, Pacer, or Masker might Allies can
wish to help, or that heroes among the pursuing band might wish to aid the aid skill
chase. Let each such helper explain what they are doing to help, and if the checks as
GM agrees that it makes sense, they may make an appropriate skill check per the rules
on page
against difficulty 9. On a success, they add +1 to their chosen subject’s roll, XX.
while on a failure no help is given. Any number of PCs may try to aid an ally,
but their help never adds more than +1 to the roll, and a hero can try to aid
only one roll in each chase.
It may also be that one side has some clear and pointed advantage over
the other, such as allies poised to ambush pursuers, or pursuers who have
friends who vigilantly watch the only path into their valley. In such cases the
GM should apply modifiers to the skill rolls of up to plus or minus three in
extreme cases. In some circumstances, the advantage might be so great that
no success is possible on the roll.

55
 These are the rules of battle for your heroes. The Wealh dice things
a different way on the western coast, favoring tables
and complications and laws of arms they say are more
realistic, but they are only Wealh, lovers of too much Combat
thinking and too few deeds, and they need not be
heeded. What I tell you now is the English way to
dice out a battle.
Before I instruct you, however, understand well
that battle is a killing thing, even for heroes. A war-
rior should never raise his spear unless he, too, is
willing to die in the deed, for that may well happen
if his wyrd does not guard him. A man who fights
recklessly, who thinks every foe must be met by steel
and every clash must be craved, will die quickly in England. Battle must be a
carefully-measured risk to be taken, not a simple recourse to be sought every
time a peril rises.
When a clash first begins or time becomes a matter of grave importance,
the GM calls for an Initiative roll. The GM may choose to roll initiative
by sides, or by individuals, but I would counsel the former as being easier to
manage, if perhaps more dangerous to the heroes should they lose the roll. If
Initiative is to be rolled by side, let the quickest warrior of each side roll 1d8
and add their Dexterity modifier. For NPCs, this is usually +0 unless the GM
decides they are remarkably quick.
Whichever side rolls highest may take their actions first in whatever
sequence they agree among themselves to follow, with ties going to the heroes.
If a hero has some special Focus that lets him move more quickly, he may do
so even if his side loses initiative. If you choose to roll Initiative individually,
let each participant roll 1d8 plus their Dexterity modifier, and all shall go in
order, highest to lowest, with heroes winning ties or agreeing on the order
should they roll the same. Once Initiative is determined, it cycles over each
round, starting anew from the top. It is not re-rolled each round.
Sometimes a side may be ambushed, with foes springing upon them
unawares. Such a surprise may require competing Sneak or Notice skill checks,
or the GM might decide that the situation is so utterly astonishing that no
forewarning is possible without special Foci that guard against surprise. The
more wary the subjects, the harder it is to surprise them; foes bursting through
the hall doors in the midst of a feast may perhaps surprise the revelers, but

56
watchful heroes prowling the halls of a Roman Arx will not be taken unawares
by anything short of a carefully-set ambush. If a side is surprised, they lose their
first round of actions, while their foes may act normally. On the second round,
Initiative is rolled as normal, and the survivors may battle on as they see fit.

Each round, every participant gets a turn to act, each acting on

their turn in the initiative order. There are four kinds of actions a participant
may take in battle.
A Main Action is anything that can be accomplished in
Types of
twelve heartbeats or less. To assail a foe with an attack, to brace Actions
shut a door, to bind up a mortally-wounded ally’s worst wounds, or to dig a
Stowed item from a sack all require a Main Action. A fighter can take only
one Main Action on their turn.
A Move action lets a fighter hurry up to thirty feet amid the perils of
battle, or half that if they must climb, swim, or navigate treacherous foot-
ing, or rise up from a prone position if they have fallen. They must spend
all this movement at once, and cannot spend half of it before taking a Main
Action and the other half after. If they are locked in battle with a foe who
wields a melee weapon, they must spend a Main Action on a Fighting With-
drawal before they come away, or else their foe gets a free attack on them as
they turn to flee. A fighter may choose to spend their Main Action to take a
second Move if they wish.
An On Turn action is a quick thing that can be done with little thought
or effort, and may be performed at any time on the fighter’s turn. Speaking
a few words, falling prone to the floor, drawing a Readied item to hand, or
anything else that can be done quickly and easily is an On Turn action. A
fighter may make as many On Turn actions on their turn as the GM thinks
reasonable.
An Instant action is special, for it is so swift that it can be done even
when it is not the fighter’s turn. It can even be done after a roll has been made.
A Warrior’s class ability to turn a foe’s hit into a miss or their own miss into
a hit is an Instant action, so they may see whether or not the dice favor them
before invoking it. Very few actions are Instant. If more than one fighter uses
an Instant action at the same time, they happen simultaneously.

57
 To harm a foe who is capable of resisting, a fighter must first make an
attack roll. This attack roll does not reflect a mere
Striking a
single thrust of a spear, but the strikes and weaving and
aiming that they do over a full dozen heartbeats of bat-
Foe
tle. If the roll is a success, then their foe is wounded, exhausted, frightened,
or otherwise harmed by their attack. If it is a failure, their foe is undaunted.
To make an attack roll, roll 1d20, and add to it your relevant weapon
skill, any attack bonus a Warrior has from his class, and the attribute mod-
ifier your weapon uses. If you lack even level-0 in a weapon skill, you suffer
a -2 penalty on the attack roll. If the total is equal or greater than your tar-
get’s Armor Class, your attack is a success. If your roll is a natural 20 on the
die, the attack always succeeds, and if it is a natural 1, it always fails. If your
attack fails, you may still inflict Shock damage on a foe, reflecting the inevi-
table risk, bloodshed, and exhaustion of clashing in battle with an armed foe
as I describe below.
If your attack succeeds you may then roll damage. For this, roll your
weapon’s damage die and add to it the weapon’s relevant attribute modi-
fier. If you are striking a foe bare-handed with Smite, you may also add your
Smite skill to the damage roll, but this is not so with Shoot or Spear. What-
ever the roll, the damage done by a weapon on a hit is never less than the
Shock that would be done by it on a miss, as described below. This damage is
subtracted from the target’s hit points. If they are reduced to zero hit points
they are slain, mortally wounded, unmanned by terror, or otherwise felled
as explained on page XX.
A weapon’s attribute modifier is whichever is noted for it. Thus, an axe’s
modifier is Strength, while a barbed spear can use either Strength or Dexterity,
whichever the wielder wishes. This modifier is added to attack rolls, damage
rolls, and any Shock inflicted by a weapon.
Shock damage is injury or exhaustion inflicted by the inevitable peril of
clashing with a foe in melee combat. If a man seeks your life with a knife and
you have no shield to hold him back, he is very likely to wound you whatever
you may do. So it is that Shock damage can hurt a foe even if the attack roll
is a failure, if they are not sufficiently armored and shielded.
Shock damage is inflicted if the attack roll is a failure and the target has
an armor class equal or less than the Shock property of the weapon. Thus, a
spear that has a Shock of 2 points/AC 13 would hurt any foe with an Armor
Class of 13 or less, inflicting two points of damage plus the spear’s attribute

58
modifier. A knife with a Shock of 1 point/AC 15 would harm a foe with an
AC of 15 or less, doing one point of damage plus the attribute modifier for
the knife. If the weapon is magical, or it has some bonus to damage that
always applies from Foci or other sources, then any such additional damage
is added to its Shock as well. Special effects that only trigger on a hit are not
triggered by Shock damage.
A man with a shield can ignore the first instance of Shock he would oth-
erwise suffer in a round. One who hurls himself into the Total Defense action
described below can also evade all Shock in a round. Only melee weapons
inflict Shock; bows, hurled spears, and other projectiles are not so certain in
their bloodshed as a tight-gripped seax.
A GM may choose to give bonuses or penalties to an attack roll based on
circumstances. Shooting a bow at a foe who is half-hidden by a wall might
apply a -2 penalty to the attack, while a target that is almost entirely occluded
might force a -4. Thrusting a spear at a prone foe might allow a +2 to hit,
while trying to sink a seax into a foeman while lying flat on your back might
cause the attacker to suffer a -4 to hit. Let the GM judge these things; signif-
icant advantages or hindrances might inflict a +/-2 on the rolls, while very
great influences might offer +/-4 on the roll.

Every true warrior is expected to die at the side of his lord and in
the company of his friends. The courage of a man or beast is Morale
measured by his Morale, a score only NPCs have. Heroes such
and Fleeing
as the PCs never check Morale and never flee unless they choose
so or an ignoble wyrd compels it of then.
The first time an NPC sees an ally slain, he must make a Morale check
to remain in the fight. He must make another check as soon as half his com-
rades are downed. If he passes both, he will continue fighting as long as honor
and common sense demand. If he fails either, he will retreat in the best order
he can, whether headlong flight as a mere ceorl or disciplined drawing away
as a hardened gesith, or the surrender of a man who thinks it all he can do.
To make a Morale check, the NPC rolls 2d6 and compares it to his
Morale score. If higher, the battle is too much for him, and he must retreat.
If equal or less, he may continue fighting if honor and sense require it.
Do not forget to test Morale in battle. Only the most courageous of men
can stand to fight and die without fear; most warbands and common rabble
will break and flee as soon as death seems a likely reward for their remaining.

59
 These actions below are some of the most common a fighter may
take in battle. Do not assume they are exhaustive, but
Common
merely use them as guidelines when heroes inevitably
seek to do a thing you did not anticipate.
Combat Actions

Make a Melee Attack: As a Main Action, attack an adjacent foe with a Read-
ied melee weapon or your raised fists. Make your attack roll normally, and
inflict damage on a hit or Shock on a miss as is usual.
Make a Ranged Attack: As a Main Action, hurl a Readied spear, shoot a
bow, fling a stone, or otherwise make a ranged attack. If there is an enemy
within melee range, you may not fire a bow or use another two-handed
ranged weapon, as it is too easy for your enemy to interfere. You may still
hurl a weapon, albeit at a -4 penalty to hit.
Make a Snap Attack: As an Instant action, you hurry your blow to either
Make a Melee Attack or Make a Ranged Attack. This attack is made at a -4
penalty to hit, but it is done instantly, even if it is not your turn.This action
costs you your Main Action for the round, and you cannot take it if you
have already spent your Main Action. Common NPC warriors are not usu-
ally skilled or disciplined enough to use this maneuver.
Make a Charge: Using both your Main Action and your Move Action, you
rush forward up to 60 feet and hurl your spear or dash your weapon upon
a foe. You must run in a straight line and must be able to run at least 30
feet to build up sufficient momentum to matter. You gain a +2 bonus on
your attack roll from the furor of your charge, whether melee or thrown,
but suffer a -2 penalty to your Armor Class until the end of the round.
Lock Shields: As a Move Action you position yourself next to an ally within
30 feet and lock your shield with theirs. They must also perform this action
on their turn before the shield wall can be formed. While the several of you
end your turns adjacent to each other, you gain a +2 bonus to your Armor
Class and are immune to all Shock damage. This benefit ends if you lose
your shield, or move away from your companions, or if there are not at least
three men remaining in the shieldwall. A shieldwall must face a particular
direction, and attackers from the flanks or rear ignore the wall’s benefits. A
shieldwall cannot change its direction without each man performing this
action again to alter it. A shieldwall can move together, but the men must
all choose to do so in concert, spending their Move action on their turn but
not actually moving until the slowest participant has his turn.

60
Total Defense: As an Instant action you throw up your shield and dodge
your foes, concerning yourself with nothing but evading their spears and
flashing blades. You become immune to Shock damage for the rest of the
round and gain a +2 bonus to your Armor Class. This action consumes your
Main Action for the round and may not be taken if you have already spent
it. As an Instant action, you may decide to perform a Total Defense even
after the foe has rolled their attack, thus perhaps turning a hit into a miss.
Fighting Withdrawal: As a Main Action you deftly extricate yourself from
a melee clash. You do not actually move away, but you may now take your
Move action to leave the fray without drawing a free attack from your melee
assailants. If you merely stand there afterwards, however, you may be re-en-
gaged on your foe’s turn.
Use a Skill: As a Main Action, use a skill you possess. You might use Int/
Heal or Dex/Heal to bind a downed ally’s wounds, or Str/Exert to overturn
a mead-hall’s table and block your foes, or Cha/Lead to rally your disheart-
ened allies, or any other exertion of skill that could be done in a round.
Ready or Stow an Item: As a Main Action, you may Ready a Stowed item
in your pack or purse, or you may Stow a Readied item you have to hand.
Drop an Item: As an Instant action you may let fall something you hold.
Pick up an Item: As a Move action you may scoop up a thing that is lying
on the floor adjacent to you, provided you have a free hand to do so. It
becomes Readied in your grasp.
Stand Up: As a Move action you may rise to your feet, gathering any pos-
sessions you may have dropped next to yourself. A hero might take this
action to regain his footing in battle after being raised from mortal injury
by a Saint’s holy prayers.
Go Prone: As an On Turn action you fall flat, forcing ranged attacks to take
a -2 penalty to hit you, or more if you fall flat behind cover, or perhaps
making it impossible to hit you from afar. Melee foes may strike you more
easily, however, granting them a +2 to hit you.
Hold an Action: By sacrificing a Move action, you may hold your Main
Action for later in the round, waiting for an enemy to do a particular thing
or an ally to perform a certain action. When what you are waiting for hap-
pens, you may spend your Main Action then instantly. If you act in response
to a foe’s action, your response is resolved before the foe can complete their
act. If what you are waiting for never happens, you lose your held action. A
GM decides what you might reasonably be able to wait for.

61
SYSFIGHT slot

Sometimes heroes will attempt to do certain things that are not

common to battle, but are not overly unexpected, either. These guides tell you
how certain matters might be managed at your gaming-table.

It is often the wish of warriors not to slaughter outright their foes

among men. There are many times when the law is not
Less Lethal
with them, or their foe’s kinsmen are many, and it
would be a difficult thing were they to owe man-price
Combat
or the hate that comes with a heart’s blood. Such a warrior may fight less
lethally.
Primus, the warrior must be wielding a melee weapon. A hurled or bow-
shot weapon cannot be controlled well enough. Secundus, he must declare
that he is striking less lethally before he makes his attack roll. And tertius, he
must accept any extra penalties he elects to soften the blow before he makes
the attack roll. The attack roll is then made, any hit point damage is sub-
tracted from the foe, and all goes on normally unless the blow reduces the
foe to zero hit points.

62
 If such a less-lethal blow has felled a man, the attacker may roll a Cha/
Spear skill check against the foe’s Morale score. If his roll is equal or higher
than the foe’s Morale, he has beaten him down without inflicting too terrible
a wound. A limb is pierced with a spear blade, a head is struck senseless by a
haft, a shield boss has battered the breath from a man, or the foe’s heart has
failed him before such a terrible enemy and he has surrendered. Whatever the
circumstances, his foe is downed and helpless but not at risk of death or Scars.
Such beaten-down allies may provoke Morale checks among his compatri-
ots just as if he were slain, for few can tell the difference in the roil of battle.
If the roll is less than the foe’s Morale, his enemy was too brave and too
defiant, and that blow has killed or mortally wounded the man just as any
other slaying strike would have. A hasty healer might be able to preserve such
a foe’s life, but if he has no name the GM cares to recall he is likely not great
enough to have survived the wound.
A peaceful hero may temper his blows to improve his chances of spar-
ing a foe’s life. If he accepts a -2 on his attack roll, he may add +1 to his skill
check. So also if he rolls his damage twice and takes the less, he may add +1
to the check. And if he uses a blunt weapon such as a club or a flat axe-poll,
he may add +2 to the check. These bonuses shall stack together, but each can
be applied only once.
Some battles are non-lethal by nature, such as wrestling or common fist-
icuffs. A man might be maimed or killed in such thing, but it would be an
accident and a rare matter. Commonly men brought to zero hit points in such
brawls recover in ten minutes with one hit point and many aching bruises.
Blows inflicted with the Smite skill never kill save that the brawler wishes to
murder his foe.
Know also that for a Saint to beat a man almost to death is a Shame hardly
less than if he struck to kill him. Do not imagine that a holy man may escape
God’s anger merely by taking up a club to crush the heads of men instead
of a spear to pierce their bellies. Only a pagan Northman would think God
could be tricked by such a thing.

63
 Betimes a hero will wish to restrain a foe and prevent him from
fleeing or keep him from pursuing an ally. To wrestle
Grappling and
an enemy is a matter of Strength and the Smite skill.
Hurling
A foe may add their skill bonus to their opposed rolls
if they are the sort of enemy to be good at such struggles. A hero must have
both hands free to wrestle well and spend his Main Action to grapple his foe.
To get so close is dangerous; if the foe has a melee weapon, claws, fangs, or
other natural armaments they may make a free attack on the wrestler before
he can attempt to grip them.
To make the grapple, both assailant and defender make opposed Str/Smite
skill checks. Grant creatures of exceptional size or strength a bonus on their
roll; one significantly stronger or bigger than most men might have +2 on it,
while wrestling something as strong or big as an ox might be done with a +4
on the ox’s skill check. Some creatures cannot be wrestled at all save that the
GM is feeling in a most generous mood.
A man can be an assailant in only one grapple at a time, though he may
be the defender in several. It may be that a half-dozen men are hanging off
his limbs, and he must shake off each to get free.
If the defender wins or ties the opposed check, the assailant’s efforts are for
naught. If the assailant wins, the defender is grappled, and remains grappled
until he releases him or until the defender spends a Main Action repeating
the opposed check and winning it. This opposed test is made against all men
currently grappling him, so if three men hang from his limbs, a single Main
Action allows him to struggle against all three.
Neither defender nor assailant can move from their current location while
grappling unless one of them succeeds in forcing movement as below. Neither
defender nor assailant can fight with any weapon bigger than a seax, albeit
they can use their bare hands. As an Instant action, every assailant automat-
ically does damage to the defender at the end of each round in which they
are grappled, inflicting damage as if from a normal Smite unarmed attack.
This damage is only ever lethal if the assailant so wishes; otherwise, the foe is
simply subdued and helpless if brought to zero hit points.
If a assailant in a grapple wishes to move the defender, they must spend
a Main Action to make another Str/Smite opposed skill check as before. On a
success, the pair move five feet in any direction the participant wishes, or the
defender is hurled ten feet in any direction, knocked prone, and freed from
the grapple. On a failure, the grapple is broken and the defender is now free.

64
When a hero merely wishes to force another foe back or knock him
down, he must hit them normally with a Smite attack, doing
Shoving
no damage, and then win an opposed Smite or Exert skill check
against them. If he wins, the foe is forced back up to ten feet and Forcing
in any direction, or is knocked prone where he stands. If he Movement
loses, there is no benefit. It may be that a foe could be herded with a spear or
other melee weapon if the GM thinks it reasonable, allowing the Spear skill
in place of Smite for the attack and skill check.
If the herding drives a foe into an open hearth or a spiked wall or some
other environmental peril, it usually inflicts about 1d8 damage, with more
if the foe does not hurriedly move out of it. Cliffs, pits, consuming balefires,
and other greater hazards may cause greater harm.

No. What in Heaven’s name are you thinking? How are you to stand
in the shieldwall with a seax in each hand, waggling them about Wielding Two
like a dimacherus who has fled the arena? Perhaps you have read
Weapons at
too much of these Eastern warriors of centuries past and think
Once
to ape their practice, but such ridiculous prancing is not for the
brave warriors of the English. I will have none of it in my game.

65
 Men die when men fight, but more often they are merely left broken,
bleeding, and scarred. In this section you will learn
the consequences of being brought to zero hit points,
the terrible Scars that can come of it, and the ways Injury,
by which your life may be preserved. Scars,
When a man or beast is reduced to zero hit Healing,
points, they are rendered helpless, unable to do more and Death
than beg God for mercy upon their soul. A man
reduced to zero hit points by spear or arrow or other
lethal tool is left dead or dying. If he is an NPC so
trifling that the GM does not know his name, he
dies in moments at most. If he is a player character
or an NPC of steel and consequence, he may linger
up to six rounds in pain and torment before he dies, unable to take any useful
action. Such men are Mortally Wounded, and must perish quickly unaided.
If a victim is reduced to zero hit points by other means, such as fisticuffs,
or the draining enchantments of a beguiling hag, or a magical despair in his
breast placed there by a sorcerer’s curse, then he is rendered equally helpless
but will not die or become Mortally Wounded. He will be smitten, recover-
ing an hour later with one hit point. It is the GM’s judgment over whether a
source of harm is sufficient to kill a man or merely defeat him utterly.
A Mortally Wounded hero will die at the end of the sixth round after
his felling blow. A friend may spend a Main Action to bind the worst of his
wounds and attempt to staunch the most terrible bleeding. If a friend does
this, they may make an Int/Heal or Dex/Heal skill check to stabilize the
downed victim. The difficulty of this check starts at 10 if the friend has no
medicine bag or other healing tools, or at 8 if they have such helps. The diffi-
culty increases by 1 after every full round since the victim has been felled. A
friend can keep trying to aid an ally round upon round until he succeeds, or
the effort becomes hopeless, or the victim dies.
A stabilized man remains at zero hit points and will die instantly if any
further hurt is suffered. After ten minutes they awaken with one hit point
and can move and act if desperately determined to do so, but they remain
gravely injured and any further damage at all will kill them outright. They
must receive extensive bed rest or holy healing to shake off this fragility and
begin regaining their health. They will also suffer a Scar as a token of their
loss if the hurt that felled them was a physical wound.

66
 A frail man must spend a month in bed before they can begin regaining
hit points naturally. At the end of the month, they must make a Physical saving
throw, at a bonus equal to the Heal skill of the leech who has been tending
them. On a success, they will be able to throw off their frailty in 1d4 weeks.
On a failure, they must die within 1d4 weeks unless a Saint gives them mirac-
ulous healing, for the wound they suffered was too much for them to bear.
A man who heals normally, either because he has not been Mortally
Wounded or because he has recovered from his frailty, will recover his char-
acter level in lost hit points after every full night of good rest. He must be
adequately fed, warmed, and sheltered if he is to regain this strength.

Some healing comes from a miraculous source, such as the prayers

of a Saint. Other mending is more sinister, being the work of
Miraculous
pagan marvels or heathen objects of power. Such healing rap-
idly repairs the ruin of spear and sword.
Healing
If a Mortally Wounded subject is magically healed in the very same scene
in which they were felled, they are restored with as many hit point as the magic
or miracle grants. They are not frail, they will not suffer a Scar, and they may
act and fight normally thereafter.
If a Mortally Wounded subject is stabilized and healed by magic after
the scene in which they were slain, such as only after a pilgrimage to a nearby
minster, then the subject throws off their frailty and regains as many hit points
as the power grants them. They can recover hit points normally thereafter,
though any Scar inflicted by the wound remains.
If a subject who is merely hurt but who has not been felled is magically
healed, the curative power simply restores lost hit points.

A hero who has been Mortally Wounded by some physical, tangible

harm and was not magically healed before the end of the same Scars of
scene must suffer a Scar. These lasting wounds will not heal
Battle
normally. Only the Saint’s miraculous power of XX can heal a
Scar, or the heathen devices of Roman Artifexes, or the foul help of the devil
and his cursed thralls.
When a hero sees that he must suffer a Scar, he must roll on the table
below to find out what it is. He may change the details of its appearance and
nature to better fit the blow or injury that laid him low, but the mechanical
effects of it remain the same. Thus, if he almost perished to a wyrm’s terri-

67
 ble fiery breath, a “Missing Leg” result may mean that his left leg was burnt
away entirely by the blast. The hero may always choose whether it is the left
or right limb that is affected by such Scars.
Sometimes a Scar will subsume an older Scar. Thus, if a hero loses his left
hand and then finds that he has lost an arm, he may choose to lose his left arm.
The penalty inflicted by the former Scar is lost, as is the Scar itself, and the
new penalty is used. If the arm is regrown by magic, the hand returns with it.
Scars cannot lower an attribute below 3, no matter their penalty. If an
attribute’s score is changed by a Scar, its attribute modifier may change as
well. If a hero’s Constitution modifier decreases, adjust their maximum hit
points accordingly.
If the same Scar is rolled twice, and it cannot be applied to a different
limb, then the hero is in luck; it is merely a flesh wound after all and does
no lasting harm. The same Scar cannot be applied twice, unless it is to differ-
ent limbs or organs and could be applied without killing the hero outright.
It is assumed that any hero determined enough to be an adventurer will
find some way of managing with his Scars. A one-legged hero may carve him-
self a wooden foot, while a one-handed warrior may have his shield strapped
to his stump. None of the Scars listed here will inevitably ruin a hero for the
adventuring life, but they may make his task far more difficult. A gamesman
may decide that a badly-torn hero is so crippled and maimed by his life that
he is not apt for adventure any more. He may choose to put aside such a
hero, and take up a new one with the benefits that are described on page XX.

A hero who has not fulfilled their wyrd will not die. They may be re-
duced to being Mortally Wounded, they may suffer
Death and
Scars from it, they may lose treasures and friends and
Wyrd
kinsmen, but they will not die until every wyrd they
possess has been expressed. If any result or effect would outright kill a hero
who has not invoked all their wyrds, the hero is merely Mortally Wounded by
it. A hero who ought to have died from an untreated Mortal Wound becomes
stabilized instead, and will eventually awaken with frail weakness and two
Scars instead of one.
A GM may force a hero to use their wyrd to escape death and Scars, if
the GM thinks the hero is trying to hide behind their destiny and the wyrd
is something applicable to the situation. For ignoble wyrds, the GM is always
permitted to use them to save the hero’s life, if they fit at all, whether or not

68
 d00 The Scar that is Suffered
1-4 Blinded eye, that what you hurl or shoot suffers -4 to hit
5-9 Brain-bruised, lessening Wisdom by 2
10-15 Broken knee, for -2 Dexterity and halved movement
16-19 Collapsed lung, losing you 4 Constitution
20-23 Destroyed nose, -2 Charisma and you can no longer smell
24-37 Flesh wound, without lingering woe
38-39 Gut wound, miraculously you live, but lose 4 Constitution
40-43 Incontinent, oft stinking of piss, with -2 Charisma
44-46 Man-wounded, unable to sire heirs
47-50 Mangled fingers, but a few, but costing your bow fingers
51-53 Missing arm, depriving you of its use for -4 Dexterity
54-57 Missing hand, lessening Dexterity by 2
58-59 Missing leg, hobbling at 10 feet a round and -4 Dexterity
60-64 Ripped muscle, worsening Strength by 2
65-68 Ruined ear, so that you suffer -1 on all Sense checks to hear
69-72 Shattered elbow, costing use of an arm and -2 Dexterity
73-77 Skull-cracked, worsening Intelligence by 2
78-81 Smashed ribs, worsening Constitution by 2
82-87 Stiffened scars, costing 1 Charisma and 1 Dexterity
88-91 Throat wound, unable to speak above a whisper
92-95 Torn face, unsightly to behold for -2 Charisma
96-00 Unhealing abscess, for -1 Charisma and Constitution

the hero wishes to invoke them. It is not uncommon for an English hero to
do something shameful or wicked early in their lives, and spend much labor
later to prove themselves better than such baseness.
When a wyrd is invoked, the player must explain how it causes his hero
to survive his wounds, or overcome the foe, or escape the danger, or otherwise
succeed where he ought to have died. The player may declare certain things
true and certain actions taken by the NPCs, and the GM will allow them to
be so if it does not seem outrageous. A wyrd is sufficient to overcome in battle
any band the party might reasonably have hoped to beat fairly. Against stron-
ger opposition, a wyrd can only save the user or grant him a partial victory.

69
 When strangers meet it may be a peaceful thing, or it may be a
season for spears. Oftimes the GM has no doubt
about how matters will go; a demon fresh from Hell
will not be cozened by pleasant speech, and a war- Reactions
band ordered to slay the heroes will not reconsider and
their duty for mere words. Yet often matters are not Parleying
so clear as this, as the GM must decide how friendly
or foesome the meeting may be.
When the heroes meet someone, roll 2d6 upon
the table below to see how they first take the band.
A very low roll means that they are hostile, angry,
or ill-disposed toward the heroes, as much as is rea-
sonable in the situation. A very high roll means that
they are feeling generous and well-pleased with the heroes, more so than the
situation would usually call for. You may decide for yourself why it is that the
NPC feels this way. Perhaps the PCs have merely met him on a very ill day,
or he thinks they are his enemies, or by chance he is a kinsman.
The results below apply to the reasonable range of reactions for a meet-
ing. If it seems to you reasonable that the NPCs would like the PCs, but a
low roll is made, then their liking is very much less than it would have been.
If a band of outlaws rolls a very high reaction, then perhaps they do not try
to rob the PCs and instead feel inclined to benignly pass them by. A low roll
does not mean instant bloodshed, nor a high one instant love, but only the
worst or best disposition likely for that circumstance.
It is from this base that the heroes must bargain, negotiate, or persuade.
If the reaction roll is very bad, the PCs may need to make good arguments
and fine gifts just to make the other tractable. If violence and spear-play is a
plausible result for the meeting, a low score may make the NPCs willing to
fight the PCs unless given a good reason to refrain.

2d6 The Reaction Toward the Heroes

2 Bitter enmity, as much hostility as the situation allows
3-5 Dislike, a willingness to hinder, do harm, or be little help
6-8 Wary, no more hostile or friendly than the situation expects
9-11 Modestly friendly, inclined not to hurt and to give small help
12 Very friendly, as kind and helpful as is at all reasonable

70
All men understand well the meaning of gold and jewels on a
warrior’s limbs. A brightly-mantled hero is one who
has been given many gifts by his liege and earned
many treasures with his courage. To wear great fin- Splendor
ery is proof of a man’s courage and prowess, for how
could he have possibly gotten such treasures without
having done deeds to earn them?
This is Splendor, the measure of the glory of a
warrior’s panoply. The more magnificent their har-
ness, the more heartened they are in war and the
braver they are to strike courageously in battle.
Splendor is measured in points. Each piece of
exceptional equipment or splendid jewelry or fine
garb is worth one or more points of Splendor. The hero decides what fine har-
ness he is wearing, totals up the Splendor, and compares it to the table below.
Each level allows him so many combat rerolls during each gaming session.
A reroll may be used to roll again a missed attack roll, or roll again a bad
damage roll. In both cases, the better of the two rolls is used. A Splendor reroll
may be used only once on any given attack roll or damage roll.
The rerolls listed are the total allowed for a single gaming session. If a hero
exceeds this limit due to losing or giving away a piece of his wealth during
play, he can make no more rerolls for the session.
A hero may count no more items toward their Splendor score than their
total character level. Thus, a novice hero of first level who has both a beau-
tiful embroidered cloak and a fine sword he won in battle may get Splendor
from only one of these things, while a grizzled legend of tenth level may get
good from ten different items. The hero must be wearing and displaying the
items to gain Splendor, and it must make sense that he should be bearing all
these things at once. A hero who wears
two sets of fine clothing at once will be
Total
Splendor Rerolls thought a clown rather than a champion.
0 None
1-5 One
6-10 Two
11-15 Three
16 or more Four

71
 The mead-hall is the heart of the hero’s days and nights. It is in the
mead-hall that he sits with his brothers in arms, that
he boasts of deeds he has done and wins the praise
and camaraderie of his fellows. It is there that he Feasting
shares food with his lord and receives the rich gifts in the
that bind a man to his liege. He sleeps by its hearth Hall
if he has no hall of his own and in the morning rises
when the day’s duties begin. Every settlement has a
mead-hall for its lord’s use, and to burn a settlement’s
hall is a symbol for destroying it entirely.
Within a mead-hall there are two kinds of meals.
The lesser is simply a geborscipe, a “drinking party”
where gifts are not given and vows are not made, but
merely the lord and his friends and guests sit and eat and drink, playing the
harp and singing old lays and enjoying both friendship and faith. Such meals
are taken by a lord every evening, so that his followers may eat and be glad.
The greater and graver meal is the symbel, the feast proper. A feast is a
serious thing, a ritual to be honored by all who participate, and no one may
treat it lightly. It is at feasts that a warrior’s Glories are praised and his Shames
remembered, and it is there that gifts are given and great vows made.
A symbel is held whenever the lord receives an important guest, or has
won a victory, or received some good fortune, or wishes to hearten his fol-
lowers with gifts and praise, or when a serious matter must be discussed by
all. While the song and companionship may last all day, the heart of the feast
is the evening’s drinking and eating.
The mead-hall is divided in two parts for a feast. At the upper end sits
the lord upon his high gift-seat, and beside him the hall-mistress who pre-
sides over the drinking, and at his feet the trusted thyle who is to question the
guests. By the lord also is the guest of honor. At tables nigh to the lord are
the senior warriors among his followers, the trusted men who are sought for
counsel and wisdom. At the lower end of the hall are the tables for the young
and unproven warriors, and any who care to join in the feasting, though they
do not receive gifts or special notice.
A feast is begun with a horn, to call all to the mead-hall. The guests enter,
put aside weapons, and clean their hands with water and a fine towel. They
stand waiting until the lord enters and appoints each to his proper seat, the
favored to the upper hall and the lesser to the lower tables.

72
 SYSHALL slot

All then sit save for the cup-bearers and hall-guards who are entrusted
with ensuring the good order and safety of all as they feast. When all are seated,
the hall-mistress enters bearing in her hands a splendid cup or drinking-horn,
as fine as the lord possesses. The hall-mistress may be his wife, or his daugh-
ter, or other noble woman who is trusted with the grave duty of ensuring a
sweet and harmonious gathering.
The hall-mistress then greets all the gathered, praising their honor and The
lifting their hearts. She gives the first drink from the cup to her lord, pro- hall-mistress
nouncing a blessing upon it, whereupon the lord drinks and wishes health to is in charge
his faithful friends at the feast. The hall-mistress then greets the guest of honor, of the
running
praising his deeds. If the guest is corporate, such as an adventuring band, she
of the
praises them together and remembers their glorious labors. symbel and
Then comes danger. For the guest so praised must then answer with a keeping the
vow, swearing to do something noble on behalf of the lord, a thing that brings guests from
honor to the one who does it and thus reflects honor upon the lord who hosts quarreling.
him. If the guest is speaking for an adventuring band, the band as a whole is
bound to perform this single vow, to win honor or disgrace by it.

73
 A hero who wishes to be cautious may merely vow to give some gift to a
See page minster, or to give gifts of friendship to the lord’s followers to enrich them on
XX for his behalf, or to do some other thing that they know they are capable of doing.
examples A single Fitting Gift appropriate to the guest’s wealth or the highest-leveled
of Fitting
hero in an adventuring band is sufficient for this, as poor men are expected to
Gifts.
give less than the rich. Such vows are not splendid, but they are respectable.
A hero who wishes to be bold may vow to perform some adventurous
labor for the lord, smiting his foe, or rooting out a sorrow on his lands, or
daring a Roman ruin to bring him back a rich token from its darkened halls.
Such a vow must be serious enough to require a proper adventure to complete,
not merely the giving of treasure or calling on favors. This daring pledge has
the chance of winning a man Glory if he succeeds in it.
Thyles say Once the vow is made, the lord’s thyle speaks, testing the resolve of the
things too guest. The thyle is a trusted and wise retainer, who is expected to prove out
rude or the words of guests, recalling to them past failures and Shames, and obliging
controversial
them to prove the seriousness of their spirit and determination to do the deed.
for the
lord to say He may be rude, mocking, or impertinent in doing so.
himself, but If the guest grows angry and answers his words with heat or sharpness, he
that need will suffer in the eyes of his peers and be thought too hot-blooded and untem-
to be said pered in will. If he replies with calm reason, a due defence for past Shames,
anyway.
and a plausible explanation for why his words are not mere empty braggartry,
then he passes the test of the thyle and brings honor to his name.
Yet in the end, the guest must fulfill his vow within a reasonable time. To
break a vow or prove unequal to it is a grave disgrace, and all involved suffer
a Shame. Saints who suffer a Shame this way do not need to atone it and do
not lose access to their miracles, for their disgrace is purely secular.
If he succeeds in a modest vow, or one carefully fenced with words so that
there is little chance of strictly failing it, then he gains only the due respect of
a man who fulfills the ritual of the symbel. If he succeeds in an adventurous
vow, one which demanded he risk peril or great loss, then he may possibly
win a Glory for it.
Let the GM roll 2d6 against a difficulty of 9. On a success, the deed was
sufficient to win an additional Glory for those who participated, aside from
any Glory the adventure itself earned. To this roll, add a bonus if the adven-
ture was very perilous or taxing, from +1 to +3. A further +1 to +3 may be
added if the guest’s vow was very pertinent to the lord’s need, and cured some
woe he was suffering in the way a good friend would.

74
 Once the vow is spoken and the thyle has tested the guest’s words, the
hall-mistress takes the horn from guest to guest, circling the hall sun-wise to
give every guest at the upper tables their drink. Warm words are spoken to each
man or noble woman, cheering and heartening those who receive them. Men
talk of the affairs of the domain and the lord’s deeds, praising right actions,
shaming evil deeds, and giving counsel in times of need. Again and again the
horn circles, filled by the cup-men and bourne by the hall-mistress long into
the night. One who fears the shame of becoming drunken and loose-spoken
may decline the cup when it comes.
A symbel
All the while, a scop will sing sweetly of heroes and great deeds, while without
warriors shall take turns chanting old lays or singing their own songs. All are song is not
expected to participate in this, and to have a fine singing-voice is a proper worthy of
ornament of a great warrior. the name.
From time to time during the feast, the lord may call a man to him and
give him a gift. A good weapon, a fine cloak, a ring from his hand, a horse to Gifts to
ride, or any other gift proper to the recipient’s station may be given. It is at followers
this time that gifts are given to those who have done good service to the lord imply a duty
of service.
as well, such as the rewards due an adventuring band for their completion of
Gifts to
some fine and helpful vow. A GM may find what gifts are proper in the gift- guests imply
ing section, on page XX. a duty of
At long last, the lord declares a final weapon-cup. After each man drinks friendship.
this time, they are handed their weapons and go from the hall, or if they have
no hall of their own in the settlement they make their beds around the mead-
hall’s hearth, there to sleep long and well.
When all is done, the GM may roll on the table below for each guest, to
see what matter transpired during the feast and what came of it the next day.
If the guest spoke ill to the thyle or otherwise took the questioning badly, sub-
tract 10 from the roll. If they defended themselves well and plausibly, add 10
to the roll. If they made trouble at the feast or otherwise were disagreeable,
subtract 10, while if they gave uncommonly good entertainment with a fine
voice or sweet words or a splendid lay, add 10. Apply like modifiers as you see
fit, if the hero has done particularly well or ill at the feast.
Sometimes a man may say something reckless at a feast, vowing some-
thing when drunken or agreeing to some bargain when he is not his own
master. While it is shameful to take advantage of a drunken man this way, such
a luckless one must keep his words and fulfill his promises, whether they were
spoken drunk or sober. Let him learn, and be more temperate in future times.

75
 d00 What Befalls the Guest at the Feast
Your head thunders; save versus Physical woe or be at -1 to all skill
1-5
checks and -2 to hit for the rest of the day.
You said a thing that could be interpreted amiss; the hall-mistress
6-10
thinks you admire her beauty perhaps too much.
Another guest there was angered by a thing you said, taking it as
11-15
mockery or an insult for some action he once did.
You accidentally promised a Splendid object you have to another as a
16-20
gift, if you have anything Splendid at all.
A man there is convinced that you have made glances far too bold at
21-25
his wife or daughter there.
If you had one, a Splendid object you were wearing was given away to
26-30
someone else, who greatly appreciates the gift.
You carelessly consented to something that now appears as if it will cost
31-35
you as much as a Fitting Gift appropriate to your rank.
In praising another guest’s prosperity, your words were taken as
36-40
slighting to the lord’s own riches, and he is ill-pleased.
41-60 You kept your head, doing neither very good nor very ill things.
The thyle took a liking to your manner. The next time he questions you,
61-65 he will speak lightly, and you will automatically be counted as having
spoken well in answer.
The memory of the joy of the feast-hall lingers with you, granting you
66-70
+10 temporary hit points for a day.
A noble woman at the feast admired your might or holiness, and you
71-75 may get a favor from her. Some women may want to give favors they
should not.
An enmity was muted at the feast. If there was someone there who
76-80 disliked you but who was not a sworn foe, they have abandoned their
anger toward you.
You were exhilarated by the pleasure of the feast. Your next skill roll
81-85
may be made twice, and the best result taken.
Your manner and words were so fine that someone at the feast has
86-90
taken a liking to you, and views you in a friendly way.
When the weapon-cup was passed, a friendly guest generously gave you
91-95
their normal but well-made weapon to keep.
Someone was so well-pleased with you that you get a gift worth one
96-00
Splendor from someone at the feast.

76
A GM who knows his heroes will soon be feasting needs to make cer-
tain preparations for things to run smoothly. When you know
a feast is in the future, make sure you know the names and par-
Preparing a
ticulars of the following NPCs, and are ready to introduce them. Feast
You may make a few at a campaign’s start just to have them ready.

The lord, the gift-giver and master of the symbel. Know who he is and know
what he wants from the PCs, if anything. He will not speak bluntly or
say anything recklessly unless he is brash or foolish, but his thyle and his
hall-mistress will put any necessary points to the PCs, so any rudeness or
flattery can be disavowed later if needful. If he will be giving gifts to the
PCs out of friendship or appreciation for past services, use the gifting rules
on page XX to decide what he will give.
The hall-mistress, who runs the symbel, brings at least the first round of
the cup to the guests, and steps in with sweet words, flattery, and chiding
if quarels threaten to arise. She will be the lord’s wife, daughter, neice, or
some other nobly-born woman with reason to be loyal to him. She will
know what the lord wants from his guests and encourage them to give it,
using her honeyed praise to encourage cooperation.
The thyle, who sits at his lord’s feet and tests the words of men. The thyle is
a trusted companion to the lord. He will be rude, sarcastic, and probing,
challenging the vows and words of others, reminding them of past failures,
and being skeptical of their ability to do the work. His purpose is not to
enrage, but to point out the ways in which words may not match deeds.
For a man to take offense at a thyle’s words is humiliating and suggests that
he is too emotional and unsteady.
Two male guests, whether senior warriors of the lord, or youthful followers,
or monks from a nearby minster, or anyone else affiliated with the lord.
You need only give a few sentences of description about them and decide
one thing that each wants, perhaps derived from the tables on page XX.
You will use these NPCs for color at the scene, and if the PCs need a sub-
ject for some feast roll result, you can use one of them.
Two female guests, who may be wives of the warriors, or kinswomen, or
shieldmaidens in their own right. There are no unaffiliated women at a
symbel, or anywhere else in a settlement. Like a man, a woman is always
someone’s spouse, kindred, follower, or liege. Adventurers from other lands,
where loose women wander drinking-places, may be confused by this.

77
 Gifts are the blood that flows in the veins of our kingdoms, the
bright blessings that bind us and hearten our hands
to work together. A hero who would prosper in our
lands must understand the rules of gifting and the Gifting
purposes they serve among our people and
Gifts are ties. Gifts are given to those greater Trade
than you to earn their favor and aid. Gifts are given
to those equal to you in order to receive friendship
and help. Gifts are given to those beneath you that
they might serve you loyally and labor for your aims.
Every gift must be repaid in equal balance, just
as every crime must be avenged with equal cost and
every insult answered with matching rebuke. Where
there is no balance, there is chaos. Men no longer trust their lords, lords no
longer protect their men, friends cannot be sure of mutual aid and evils fly
about without constraint. Everything must have its mete match, and gifts are
the tools of this end.
Many gifts are very informal in nature. Families in a settlement will do
many small things for each other, and help in many shared toils, and work
often to aid each other on tasks where many hands are needed. They will not
ordinarily allow each other to starve or freeze or die miserably if anything can
be done. No one keeps a roll of these gifts, tallying off a spear-head given here
against a month’s herd-help there, but you can be most certain that every man
and woman in that settlement will know by sundown if some man among
them shirks his debts.
Other gifts are more particular. The rich treasures given by a lord at a
symbel-feast, the particular exchanges made with foreign merchants or English
artisans, or the trades that bring land into a man’s possession all involve more
overt and public exchange. Such matters will be watched and measured.
Every English soul knows perfectly well the comparative value of things
and will know what a proper trade would be. Because foreigners do not
understand these things, the items listed on page XX all have a value in coins
attached to them, measured out in silver pounds, shillings, and pence. The
gamesman can use these values to see what sort of gifts he should be offer-
ing if he desires a particular thing. If the sum total of what he offers is equal
or greater to the price of what he wants, the giver will usually grant it, unless
there is some reason why he desires more or is loathe to part with the thing.

78
 There may be some reason why the giver is reluctant to make the gift.
What is offered may not be quite enough, or it may be something useless to
him, or he may dislike the asker, or he may have some other reason to refuse.
In such case, a Cha/Gift skill check is required to persuade him. Let the dif-
ficulty by 7 plus the number of reasons he has to refuse. On a success, the
giver will make the exchange, while on a failure the asker must sweeten the
offer or resolve the reasons before the trade can be made.
There are many times when a man must give another a gift, either because
he is a loyal follower, or has done a great favor, or has performed a great deed
on the giver’s behalf. For convenience, such a thing is called a Fitting Gift.
Whenever a man is expected to give something to another, something that
is proper to their station and displays due respect for them, they must give a
Fitting Gift. Minor services might earn only half a Fitting Gift, while great
deeds might earn two or even three times this sum.
For PCs, the value in pence of a Fitting Gift is based on the recipient’s
level, as listed on the table below. A giver may give any single object worth at
least half that sum or any collection of objects worth at least the whole sum.
Favors, services, and aid also count as a Fitting Gift if the GM decides so.
For NPCs, the value of a Fitting Gift can be based on their social posi-
tion. Common ceorls count as level 1, monks or young unproven warriors as
level 2, veteran companions as level 3 or 4, abbots and lesser lords as level 5,
bishops and great ealdormen as 8, and kings as 10. The GM may estimate as
he thinks fit and advise the giver accordingly.

Recipient
Level The value of the gift in Silver Pence
1 X, or a favor of no real expense and a day or less of labor
2 X, or a favor as above but against family wishes or interest
3 X, or a favor of minor cost and a week’s work or less
4 X, or a favor as above but against family wishes or interest
5 X, or a favor that exposes the giver to considerable danger
6 X, or a favor that requires exercise of a lordly right
7 X
8 X, or a surrender of some precious asset or right
9 X
10 X

79
 Men travel the paths and the whale-roads three seasons of the year.
Winter is a time of cold and misery, where a man
risks death to go far from his hearth, but the other
months of the year are fair enough to journey in. Travel
When heroes wish to venture on some far pilgrimage and
or seek out some distant Roman ruin, they may use Journeying
these rules to find how long their journey must be.
This game includes for the convenience of the
GM a map of the English lands divided into hexa-
gons of six miles in diameter. The hexagons have been
made by inking a honeycomb and impressing it on
the map, so that the even spacing should be repro-
duced properly and distances measured easily.
Each hex has a predominant type of terrain. Decide what it is and look to
the table below to see how many hours it takes for a man to cross it. A rider
on horseback will not commonly travel long distances any faster than a walk-
ing man, but he will be able to briefly chase or flee others as he requires. If he
takes pack-horses with him, he can carry a heavier burden too1.
A band can travel up to twelve hours a day if they are pushing vigorously
and need not pause to hunt their food. Thus, a single party can cross 24 miles
of clear land in a day, or 12 miles of trackless Sussex weald, or 12 miles of roll-
ing. lightly forested hills. If they follow a Roman road they may halve their
travel time, while crossing a river doubles the time it takes to cross a hex if no
bridge stands there any more.
Terrain Travel Heroes who must find food along
Clear Three hours the way can each make a Wis/Hunt skill
Light Forest Five hours check every six hours. The difficulty is 8
Deep Weald Six hours
most places. For every point the hunter
succeeds by, meat enough to feed one
Marshy Fen Six hours
man for a day is caught. Each day of
Hills Add an hour
hunting the same hex increases the dif-
Mountains Twelve hours ficulty by 2. On a natural roll of 2 or 3,
some danger or trouble has befallen the
A Road Exists Half the time group, not least likely the discovery of
River Crossing Double time the band by the angered owner of the
land, who may think very ill of poachers.
1 Anglo-Saxon horses were very small, and unlikely to be able to bear much
more than a single armored rider with little or no baggage.

80
Water travel is sung of often by the scops, but done little by the
English. We have no treasures to carry over the sea to the land
Sea Travel
of the Franks, and no ships so great as the old Roman galleys.
The craft that ply our waters now are small, sailed boats suffi-
and ships
cient for a dozen men at most, undecked and dragged up on the shingle each
night before camp is made.
There are few fishermen and scarce any English sea-traders. If a ship is
to be found on the coast, it is like to be either an Irish raider or a continental
merchant, come to trade rich wares for humble grain, hides, and slaves. So
it is that heroes will likely only be traveling by sea if they befriend a foreign
merchant or persuade him to carry them to a place.
If the boat goes by the coast, it travels a hex every two hours, and twelve
hours are generally safe and lit for sailing before the ship must be pulled up
on the sand or risk anchoring. If a boat journeys by river, it follows the river’s
path by a hex every two hours downstream, or a hex every six hours upstream.
A ship that dares the open sea must have a skilled captain. We had many
in the formera days, when the Romans built fortresses along the coast to keep
our fathers back, but now few Englishmen know the ways of far waves.

81
 When a Hero performs sufficient Glories to earn greater power, he
advances his character level. All heroes begin at first
level, and through brave labors and great deeds may
advance to the utmost glory of tenth level. A char- Advancing
acter advances in level after the adventure in which in
he earns the final Glory necessary for his promotion. Experience
A hero must earn a total number of Glories
equal to the number given in the table below before
they may advance a level. These numbers are cumu-
lative; a hero who would reach second level must
earn two Glories, and then earn two more to reach
the four required for third level.
Shames subtract from the hero’s Glories. Thus,
a hero who has earned two Glories but also one Shame must earn one Glory
more before gaining second level. Shames cannot be effaced, even if a Saint
atones for a sin, or a Warrior earns forgiveness from a wronged lord.
A Shame unknown to anyone but the hero’s friends does not so penalize
the PC, however, provided he is not a Saint under the all-seeing eye of God.
Only if all witnesses are silenced or complicit can the Shame be stifled. If it is
discovered later, it applies anew against the hero’s Glory total.
Shames committed against the hero’s band-mates may be concealed if the
other PCs choose to hide the failing and the culprit is not a Saint. Such is the
loyalty of spear-brothers, and while godly men may disapprove of such cov-
ering, all understand why it would be so.
Character Total Heroes who suddenly incur so
Level Glories many Shames that their balance is no
1 0 longer sufficient for their level do not
2 2 decrease in power. A third-level hero
3 4 with four Glories who suddenly earns
4 8 two Shames in a dire night of deeds does
5 12
not therefore become second level.
Heroes who lose a character level
6 18
somehow, such as a Saint invoking a
7 26
Divine Intervention miracle, only regain
8 36 lost benefits when they regain their level.
9 48 Once a hero advances to the next
10 62 level, he gains certain benefits.

82
He gains more hit points. For this, he rolls 1d6 for each of his char-
acter levels, or 1d6+2 if a Warrior or 1d6+1 if an Adventurer
who is a Partial Warrior. He adds his Constitution modifier to Gain Hit Points
each die, though a penalty cannot reduce a die below one point. If the total
rolled is greater than his current maximum hit point total, it becomes his new
maximum. If equal or less, his maximum hit point total increases by one.
Thus, a third level Saint with 13 hit points and a Constitution score of
14 who ascends to fourth level rolls 4d6+4 for his new hit point total. If the
total is more than 13, it becomes his new hit point total. If equal or less, he
now has 14 hit points as his maximum.

He gains more skill points. Each level, a hero gains three more Skill
Points to spend improving their skills. They may save these
Gain
points for later or spend them immediately to gain new skills
or increase the level of those they already possess.
Skill Points
The table below lists the cost for buying a particular level in a skill and
the minimum character level required to do so. Thus, a third level hero can
have no skill higher than level-2, even if they are willing to pay the expense
of raising a skill to level-3. One without this veterancy lacks the experience
and focus to master the skill more perfectly.
A hero who wishes to buy a higher skill level must have all earlier levels
first; thus, if you would buy Perform-2 skill, you must buy or have Perform-0
and Perform-1 skills first. A hero with no talent at all for song and tale would
first have to spend 1 skill point to buy level-0, then two to buy level-1, and
then three to buy level-2.
Some Foci grant a bonus skill. When taken during character creation,
this simply counts as a skill pick. If earned later in a hero’s career, treat it as a
bonus of three skill points applied to the skill. This might raise it to a level oth-
erwise disallowed to a hero, being the only way to gain such untimely might.
A hero may choose to save skill
New Skill Point Min.
Level Cost Level
points for later use, or if they wish to
raise a skill later that requires more skill
Level-0 1 1
points than they presently possess.
Level-1 2 1
No skill can be raised above level-4
Level-2 3 3 by any means. Such is the limit of
Level-3 4 6 human art and prowess.
Level-4 5 9

83
 A Saint has another use for skill points, however. Instead of spend-
ing them on skills, he may spend them to master cer-
Gain
tain miracles as are described on page XX. A mastered
miracle is more easily invoked with Holiness and less
Miracles
taxing upon God’s patience. If the Saint spends due hours in prayer, holy la-
bor, and discipline, he may sacrifice the skills they would otherwise learn for
the better love of God.
To master a miracle, a Saint must spend one skill point for a Minor mir-
acle, two to master a Major one, and four to master a Great miracle. A Saint
must be able to invoke the miracles they master, so they must be at least
fourth level to master a Major miracle and seventh to master a Great one. A
Saint may save up their skill points to purchase mastery later, if their desired
wonder is too costly for a single level’s points.

All heroes may choose to focus their time and effort on improving
their own attributes instead of their skills. They may
Boost
spend skill points to boost an attribute score by one
point, perhaps Attributes
Attribute Point Min. improving its modifier. An attribute may
Boost Cost Level not be raised above a score of 18. Any
First 1 1 penalties applied by Scars are applied to
Second 2 1 this modified score. A hero must be a
Third 3 3 certain minimum level to improve their
Fourth 4 6 scores a third, fourth, or fifth time.
Fifth 5 9 An attribute boost can be per-
formed no more than five times, with
the cost increasing each time. Thus, to boost one’s Strength score by +2, three
skill points must be spent. Increasing Dexterity by +1 afterwards will then
cost another three points, and the hero must be at least third level to do so.

At certain levels the hero may pick an addi-

Gain
tional Focus from those listed in the character creation
a New Focus
chapter. At levels 2, 5, 7, and 10 a hero may learn the
first level of a new Focus, or increase an existing Focus by one level. Some Foci
may only have one level; these cannot be raised. If the Focus grants a bonus
skill, credit that skill with three points worth of advancement, even if it raises
it to a level otherwise impermissible to the hero.

84
Lastly, a hero becomes better-able to endure misfortunes, suffering,
and perils. Their saving throw scores are adjusted, each one de-
Increase
creasing by one point and making it easier to roll equal or over
Saving Throws
it when tested. Each saving throw is equal to sixteen minus the
hero’s new character level, modified by the appropriate attribute and
score. Physical is modified by the better of Strength or Con- Attack Bonuses
stitution, Evasion is modified by the better of Intelligence or Dexterity, and
Mental is modified by the best of Wisdom and Charisma.
If the hero is a Warrior, remember also to note down their increased
attack bonus. A Warrior may add their level to any attack roll they make,
unlike other classes. If your hero is an Adventurer who is a Partial Warrior,
they may add half their new level, rounded down, to which they add +1 at
first level and another +1 at fifth. Thus, a seventh-level Partial Warrior may
add +5 to their attack rolls.

It may be that a hero suffers such terrible wounds that he is no longer

fit for brave adventuring. While a Saint’s blessings can cure
Retiring
many Scars, it may be that the hero has no friends among the
holy, or too many Scars to be so mended. It may even be that Characters
a hero has done such wicked or foolish things that all England rises against
him, or he has done something to make his play joyless. In such a case the
player may retire his unserviceable hero and make a new one.
This new hero is introduced with a Glory score equal to the least nec-
essary to be one level lower than the lowest-level other PC in the group. He
may begin play with whatever gear he wishes, provided it is no better than
what his former hero had, and no part of it is magical, and the GM does not
think his choices unreasonable.
Let players be encouraged to do much with their heroes before they take
up a new role. For every wyrd the old hero fulfilled, the new hero may replace
one of their attribute scores with one possessed by the former hero, unmodified
by Scars. Thus, if a fallen hero had a Strength of 16 before Scars lessened it,
the new hero may choose to replace their own rolled Strength with 16. If the
former hero has actually perished, and done so in a way befitting an English
hero, the new PC also gets a free Focus level as encouragement.
In some cases, a player may wish to recover a retired PC, such as after a
year has passed and the Saints are more able to cure their Scars. This is permis-
sible, albeit the recovered PC might not return with all their former wealth.

85
 Our world is one of earth and sky, of Heaven above and Hell below
and the steel of men between. There are secrets in this world that foolish
men are greedy to learn, and wondrous miracles granted by God’s grace to
those worthy to wield them. These are matters beyond earthly knowing, yet
some among your heroes may have use of them. It is a certainty that many
of their enemies will.
The magic practiced by the English is called galdor, the song that has
power. Galdormen work their wonders chiefly by chant and wondrous words,
accompanied by the use of herbs and tokens and prayers scratched on little
trifles. Few men have the desire to master such things, and fewer still are so
careless of God’s favor as to seek this knowledge. Galdormen are not loved
by their neighbors nor welcomed by the Church, though many fear to be
entirely without their help in times of need.
The wonders granted by God are called miracles, intercessions by which
Christ and the saints in heaven aid the saints on earth. Only a man or woman
of true holy fervor and the special grace of God can call on such help with any
hope of success, though the powers they wield are mighty against evil. Alas,
the devil has black saints of his own, slaves to damnation who may call upon
terrible curses and blights. Even a formerly holy saint may fall into Satan’s
clutches if he gives way to the temptations of the world.
These marvels are not the only wonders of the world. The sinister dru-
craft of the old Celtic priests that men called druids may be found in the wild
western hills, as can the mysteries of the Roman Artifexes who worked tre-
mendous labors with their sorcery of bronze and stone. The magic of eotens
and monstrous fifel-kind defies human understanding, and the strange arts of
foreigners cannot be guessed. Ours is but a little light in a vast and dark weald.
For galdor is not a thing of systems, and reason, and Roman rational-
ity. It does not have laws or schematics or patterns. One learns a mystery,
and then another mystery, and then another still, and there is no reason to
connect any of them. Every wonder must be drawn from the dark by itself,
and any Galdorman who claims that there is a rational connection between
them all is a liar as well as a backslider. Do not look for clean patterns in the
weavings of wizards.
In this chapter you will learn of magic and miracles both, and how they
are enacted, and the powers of a Galdorman or a Saint among your heroes.
Read carefully and understand what you can of it.

86
MAGINTRO slot

87
 Galdormen learn their arts from others of their kind, masters
who take pupils to toil for them and ease their old age.
Becoming a
It is sad to say that many English know a charm or two,
or mutter prayers as they paw little tokens of bone, or
Galdorman
teach their children to chant the names of saints to keep bees from swarming
untimely, but such trifling magic is nothing compared to true galdor.
Galdormen are not loved by their neighbors, and some are quick to blame
them for evils they suffer. Yet when sorcery plagues a village or some evil thing
is in the woods, the villagers swallow their fear and ask for help. They dare
not drive the Galdorman out or cut him off from their dealings, but they are
reluctant to grant him too much help. So it is that he will take an orphan or
a troublemaker or a boy unloved by his parents and teach him his secrets so
that the boy may tend his herds and plow his fields and help him with the
things he has no help for. Sometimes a Galdorman can find a woman so care-
less of her soul that she will be his wife, and he will have sons and daughters
of his own, but no woman longs to be a wizard’s wife and endure the cold
manner of her neighbors.
It takes years to learn a Galdorman’s arts, and often he has not taught
everything he knows by the time he dies. His apprentice must decide to either
remain as a villager or seek some place better elsewhere, where he will be more
loved. Often such apprentices are weary of the suspicion and dislike of their
neighbors, and go seeking kinder folk elsewhere. They seldom find them.
In the end, the greatest and most grimsome of Galdormen go into the
weald, dwelling apart from others in the forest. Some mistake them for saints,
and go to them to beg aid. Others know their true nature, and come seeking
less holy help. They give it or deny it, grant it or withhold it, as the pleading
man’s purse and persuasion may decide. There they have peace from the sus-
picion of their neighbors, though often they are troubled by Hell.
Clerics object to Galdormen not out of ceorlish suspicion and fear, but
because it is impossible to tell how much of a Galdorman’s arts are mere natural
philosophy and how much are the works of demons. The nonsense-chant of
a charm might be mere empty syllables or it could be the name of the demon
who grants the power. The saints they number and utter are not always those
known to scholars. The signs and symbols and tokens they use are not all
affirmed by the Church. It is dangerous to meddle with such powers, for all
wise men know that demons do help certain sorcerers, and who would risk
his soul for mere earthly advantage?

88
To get miracles from God is a simpler path, but it is harder and nar-
rower by far. Any man or woman may be a Saint, whether they
Becoming a
are in a minster or out of it, provided they keep a holy man’s
strict rules. Not every man who keeps to celibacy, obedience,
Saint
prayer, and labor is a Saint, however, and many monks and nuns of spotless
faith are not given the grace of miracles.
This does not make these others less holy, nor less loved by God, and
good clergy are yet called “saints” by common men. As Scripture instructs us,
God grants to some miracles, to others wisdom, to yet others holy speech, and
among them a multitude of graces as His purposes see fit. A Saint who wields
miracles is merely God’s tool for that end, to work out His plans with faith
and obedience to right. Many are the abbots and bishops with no grace of
miracles at all, but whose faith and wisdom are a light to all who behold them.
So it is that Saints are chosen by God and not made by special faith.
Most come to suspect their election when they beg God’s aid in some hour
of need and are answered. Of course, a miracle can be given to anyone, holy
or base, who cries out in true penitence and need to God. Yet when the Saint
asks again for a miracle, he will receive it again, and so by this confidence and
expectation of answer is a Saint of miraculous power known.
Saints will naturally favor the miracles most in harmony with their nature
and their past doings. A Saint who has prayed often for the healing of the sick
will come to do so easily, comforted by his assurance. Yet in dire need a Saint
may ask for other things from God, even miracles he has not requested before,
and have good hope of being answered. Provided a Saint does not grow too
proud and rely too entirely upon God’s gifts, he may be confident that help
will be given when he asks.
It must also be admitted that there are those men and women who are
not satisfied with the portion that God has given them. They wish to have
the grace of miracles as well, yet it is not God’s will that it be so. They often
seek to perform the rites and prayers described in the Scripture known as the
book of Pontius Pilate, the great Roman wizard, in hope of being given the
gift of miracles. The Church teaches quite plainly that the powers granted by
Scripture this way are not licit for use by those not taught and licensed by the
Holy Father in Rome, and so copies of this Scripture are kept away from all
but the most learned and pious of scholars, lest it be misused by the proud
and discontented. I will speak no more of it here.

89
 Magical powers are divided between spells and miracles. Galdor-
men and other sorcerers use spells, while Saints use
miracles. Spells are complex songs and rituals learned
by careful practice and the imparting of secret lore. Spells
Miracles are simple prayers for divine aid, without and
special phrases or magical incantations. A Galdor- Miracles
man must be taught his spells and practice them
carefully, while every Saint need only pray humbly.
All magic is divided by magnitudes. Minor
spells and miracles are the simplest and small-
est effects. Major spells and miracles require an
experienced Galdorman to learn or cast them or a
well-seasoned Saint to invoke them. Great spells
and miracles can be invoked only by the mightiest Galdormen or Saints.
Any Galdorman or Saint can learn Minor spells or miracles. To learn
Major spells or miracles requires a fourth level hero, and to learn Great spells
or use Great miracles requires a seventh level hero.
An Adventurer who has the powers of a Partial Galdorman or Partial Saint
does not gain such abilities so quickly, and never masters Great spells or mira-
cles at all. They may use Minor arts from first level, but are not able to learn or
use Major arts until sixth level, which is as great as their powers ever become.
Every Galdorman begins the game knowing a number of Minor spells
equal to two plus their Magic skill level plus the better of their Intelligence
or Charisma modifiers. To learn more they may get instruction from another
Galdorman or read a book of spells, rare as the latter thing is.
To learn a spell from a book, the Galdorman must make an Int/Magic
skill check against a difficulty of 8 for a Minor spell, 10 for a Major spell, or
12 for a Great spell. If he learns it from another Galdorman, his teacher may
add his own Charisma attribute modifier and Magic skill to the pupil’s roll,
for his understanding helps his student. If the roll is failed, the Galdorman
cannot learn the spell from that book or that teacher and must go elsewhere.
A Galdorman cannot learn a spell too great for him to cast.
A Saint needs no teacher to master a miracle, but may do so by expend-
ing skill points as described on page XX. One point masters a Minor miracle,
two grants mastery of a Major one, and four allows a Great miracle to be per-
fected. As with Galdormen, a Saint cannot master a miracle to great for them
to invoke, but there is no chance of failing to master it if the toll is paid.

90
The spells and miracles described in these pages are explained in
but brief fashion, with certain limits and rules mentioned but
Limits of
not elaborated every time they appear. Know now the limits of
the wonders your heroes may work.
Magic
Some arts affect only a target visible to the hero. The hero must be able
to see the target with his unaided natural vision, or else know his position
perfectly enough that he could strike him with a hurled spear if he had a sure
hand to heave it. A known foe crouched behind an overturned table is not
hidden from such spells, but one lurking in a darkened chamber may be.
Some arts affect only a target known to the hero. The hero must have
seen the one they would affect, drawn close enough to know the color of his
eyes, no more than five paces distant. Subjects beheld from afar are not known
well enough to direct the energies of the power as they should be aimed. Yet
if the hero should get a possession of importance to the target, or a smear
of his blood, or a lock of his hair, then they will be able to wield the power
against him.
Some arts affect the target’s mind, beguiling them or forcing them to
think as the hero would have them think. For miracles, all men know that it
was God who moved their heart so, and will dare not complain of it. For spells,
a target affected by such a spell will not realize that it is magic that moves him,
not even if the Galdorman was just intoning a spell to his very face. He will
conjure reasons in his head to explain why he does a thing, and persuade him-
self that it is his own wish that it should be so. Only if he resists the power or
if the spell is broken by another art will he realize that he has been ensorceled.
Mind that other onlookers will not be so baffled, and a Galdorman who mag-
ically seduces a maiden before her kinsmen will get her brother’s spear in his
belly, however the girl may protest the sorcerer’s innocence.
Some arts add the hero’s skill level to an effect, such as increasing the
amount of damage that is healed by the Galdorman’s Heal skill, or augment-
ing the number of subjects affected by a Saint’s Pray skill. These powers simply
add the skill; if the skill is level-0, then nothing is added, level-1 adds one,
level-2 adds two, and so forth.

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 To wield a spell a Galdorman must expend Sorcery points, and to in-
voke a miracle a Saint must expend Holiness points.
These are measures of a Galdorman’s magical power
or a Saint’s holy favor, and will grow as the hero ad- Casting
vances in skill and mighty deeds. Magic
A Galdorman begins with a Sorcery score equal
to one plus their Magic skill plus the highest of their
Intelligence or Charisma modifiers. Thus, a Galdor-
man with the Magic-0 skill, an Intelligence of 14,
and a Charisma of 5 would begin with two Sor-
cery points. As they improved their Magic skill or
trained their Intelligence, their Sorcery score would
rise with it.
A Saint begins with a Holiness score equal to one plus their Pray skill
plus the highest of their Wisdom or Charisma modifiers. This is tallied just
as a Galdorman’s Sorcery score would be, albeit holy miracles have nothing
to do with a Galdorman’s dubious charms.
When a hero expends points from these pools, they go away until the
hero has had time for an evening’s rituals or prayer. In the morning, assuming
the Galdorman has been able to conduct their small rites and ceremonies, or
that the Saint has been able to spend at least an hour in prayer, any expended
points are regained. The power cannot be refreshed earlier, even if the hero
pauses to rest mid-day. Only in the morning are they renewed.
To cast a spell, the Galdorman must take as long as the specific spell
requires. Some may be cast as a Main Action, or even as an Instant action.
Others require six full hours of muttering over charms and tokens and bub-
bling pots. The Galdorman is assumed to have all the trifles and herbs he
requires for his work, unless he has been stripped of his belongings, and can
renew them if lost with a day or two of gathering. If the Galdorman’s ritual
is not interrupted by physical damage, or the scattering of his paraphernalia,
it activates as soon as the action or ritual is complete.
Casting a spell as a Galdorman is obvious to any fool. The mighty songs
of magic prickle the ears of any who hear them, and the incantations over fires
and tokens and herbs are plainly works of magical might. Any onlooker can
tell that the Galdorman is casting a spell, and most spells are obvious in what
they are to do, for the song says it plainly. Yet if someone is too far away from
the Galdorman to hear him singing they may not realize a spell is being cast.

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 When the spell activates, the Galdorman must expend the amount of
Sorcery required by the spell. Many lengthy spells require no Sorcery points
at all, and may be performed as often as the Galdorman has time to conduct
the long ritual. Others require one, or two, or even three points of Sorcery
to bring into being. If the Galdorman lacks the Sorcery required, the spell
fizzles uselessly.
Once the spell is cast and paid for it takes effect. Some spells permit the
victim to make a saving throw to resist the effect. Otherwise they simply come
to pass, unless some stronger magic is used to quash them.
A Galdorman can cast only the spells he knows. Surpassingly great Gal-
dormen might be able to devise entirely new spells, but this is far less likely
than to find some heretofore-unknown incantation upon the lips of some
old heretic in the weald or to find a book of magic from the time of Rome.
For a Saint to invoke a mastered miracle is much simpler. All mira-
cles take no more than a Main Action to pray for, if not On Turn or Instant
actions, and they cannot be disrupted by injury or distraction. Most prayers
are uttered aloud, but a Saint may pray silently within his heart. Once the
action is taken, the Saint spends the required Holiness for the mastered mir-
acle and it takes place. A Saint can only invoke a miracle if he has enough
Holiness to pay its price.
If he has not mastered a miracle, it costs an extra point of Holiness, and
may perhaps not be answered. The Saint must make a Wis/Pray or Cha/Pray
skill roll against a difficulty of 8 for a Minor miracle, 10 for a Major one, or
12 for a Great miracle. If the roll fails, the prayer is not answered and the
Holiness is not expended. The Saint may not again attempt to ask for that
same miracle for the same specific circumstance, even if later they master it.
Any action spent to attempt the failed miracle is wasted. Thus, if the Saint
prays in vain for a miracle to heal his companion’s Scar, his powers may never
afterwards mend that same Scar. If a different Scar is inflicted, or a different
hero needs healing, then his powers may prove to be enough.
A Saint can attempt to invoke any miracle within the compass of their
ability, whether or not they have mastered it. Thus, a first level Saint may
attempt to invoke any Minor miracle, a fourth level one may attempt to
invoke any Major miracle, and a seventh level Saint may attempt to invoke
any Great miracle.

93
 These are the most frequent of the miracles of the English, those
known best by the students of holy lives. Other mir-
acles may be added by the GM, or may be requested
by a Saint if the GM decides it fits very well both the Miracles
hero and the holy purpose of God. These additions
should be discussed and added only between ses-
sions; do not let the Saint merely plead for anything
in particular at a moment of need, or else he has the
benefits of the Great and holy miracle of Divine​
Intervention without needing to pay the stern price.
Some miracles may result in the death of a man,
such as Rebuke the Wicked when used during a battle.
Such loss of life is not considered a Shame or a blot
on the Saint, for it is God who judges such things. Deaths caused by miracles
are considered the righteous doom of the Lord.
Some miracles cannot help the great among men. They can give no aid
to kings, or queens, or bishops, or abbots, or abbesses, or ealdormen, or other
great lords and high noble ladies. These are “miracles denied to the great”,
wonders that God does not see fit to give to the rulers of men. Some say it is
because any man who attains such high state must be so burdened with sin
that God will not favor him. Others say that it is because the great have their
lands and lords and larders to sustain them, so God lets them live without
His help. Whatever the reason, no king can be cured of his sicknesses by mir-
acles, nor will dead ealdormen be called back from the grave-grasp. When a
matter is uncertain, let the GM decide whether a man is a great lord or no.
Know that a hero who becomes an ealdorman, or abbot, or king, or other
high lord will also be denied these miracles so long as he remains so.
God’s ways are not the ways of men, and sometimes it will seem as if a
miracle has done something amiss or brought about some tragic end. Most
of the time, this is because mere mortals cannot understand the ways of the
Lord, and cannot see the deeper purpose behind such things. Other times,
however, the Saint who does such things is no friend to God, but is a fallen
man, a Black Saint of Hell, one who has abandoned Christ and given his loy-
alty to the devil. Satan sends terrible marvels to mimic the holy help of God,
but in the end the father of lies seeks only to confound, betray, and damn
others as he was first damned.
Know then the true miracles of the English.

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Blessed Swiftness On Turn 1 Holiness Minor
This prayer may be uttered swiftly, though it can be used only once per round.
The Saint asks God to hasten the hand of an ally within sight. That ally imme-
diately gains another Main Action which they may instantly choose to use as
they wish. The Saint may not bless himself with this miracle.

Bring Forth Nourishment Main Action 1 Holiness Minor

A prayer for sustenance is answered with food and drink. Within ten minutes
after making this prayer, the Saint will find sufficient food and drink to sustain
one person per character level plus the Saint’s Pray skill level. This may be the
discovery of a honey-filled comb of beewax, a little spring in a rock, a fruiting
tree, or more overtly miraculous provenance such as beasts bringing loaves
of bread. This sustenance cannot be stored overnight. It is for the day only.

Divine Sanctuary Main Action 1 Holiness Minor

The Saint begs God’s help in preserving their life or the life of an ally within six-
ty feet from the blades of furious foes. Enemies will instinctively avoid attacking
the target or using hostile powers upon them. Foes with more hit dice than the
Saint has character levels may make a Mental save to ignore the compulsion,
and it will shatter instantly if the protected target performs some hostile action
against another. It lasts for 1d6 rounds, plus the Saint’s Pray skill level.

Light of the Blessed Main Action 1 Holiness Minor

A prayer brings light in dark places and unquenchable radiance in shadowed
halls. The Saint fills the air around him out to a distance of sixty feet with a
clear, clean light. This radiance follows the Saint and persists for one hour per
character level. It may be temporarily quenched or drawn in during that time
as an On Turn action, should stealth and prudence recommend it.

Pray for Clean Healing Main Action 1 Holiness Minor

The Saint tends a wounded companion, praying to God for help in clean and
certain healing. If the companion can receive a good night’s rest, he rises in the
morning with 1d8 hit points healed, plus 1d8 more for each level of the Saint’s
Pray skill, in addition to any normal healing he would get from the rest. Thus,
a miracle with the Pray-2 skill would grant a bonus of 3d8 hit points to the ally
when he woke in the morning. This healing banishes any frailty from a recently
Mortally Wounded target, though it cannot prevent the risk of Scars.

95
 Pray for Insight Main Action 1 Holiness Minor
The Saint prays to God for help in perceiving the right path to take. The Saint
describes a course of action he or his comrade contemplates taking within the
next fifteen minutes. He will then receive a divine sense of whether the most
likely immediate outcome from that course of action will be perilous woe,
pleasing weal, neither, or both. The outcome must be a clear consequence that
will come within a half-hour of taking the action; opening a door will give a
clear answer, while choosing to negotiate a peace treaty will not. The GM de-
cides with their own judgment whether the outcome is likely to be weal or woe.

Prayer for Brother Wolf Main Action 1 Holiness Minor

The Saint swiftly prays for peace against the dangers of wild beasts, rolling 2d6
and adding his Pray skill level. That many hit dice of normal wild beasts imme-
diately cease attacking or stalking the Saint and his companions, and will depart
in peace unless attacked. Supernatural beasts that have been tainted by magic
or Hell may make a Mental saving throw to resist this enforced peacefulness.

Rebuke the Wicked On Turn 1 Holiness Minor

The Saint invokes God’s anger against a sinful foe, empowering his rebuke with
a terrible force. For the rest of the scene, the Saint gains the option to Rebuke as
a Main Action. A Rebuked target must be a visible creature within sixty feet. To
Rebuke, the Saint rolls a Wis/Pray or Cha/Pray skill check against a difficulty of
9. On a success, the terrible force of his anger inflicts 1d6+Pray skill hit points
of damage on the target. Foes reduced to zero hit points will collapse in terror,
flee the Saint, or otherwise become helpless, recovering in an hour with one hit
point. In battle or a situation of peril, foes reduced to zero hit points might be
killed by an ally’s sudden blow, struck down by some ill-fortune, or otherwise
slain. Demons and supernatural foes take double damage from a Rebuke.

Spare the Fallen Friend Main Action 1 Holiness Minor

The Saint prays fiercely for God to spare the life of an ally who has fallen. When
invoked over a Mortally Wounded ally who is within 30 feet, the target imme-
diately stabilizes and will rise at the end of the scene with 1d10 hit points healed
plus the Saint’s Pray skill level. If this miracle is invoked in the same scene in
which the friend was struck down, there is no risk of a Scar from his wounds.
This miracle is no help if his friend has been slain in some wholly final fashion,
such as being beheaded, or burnt to a cinder, or torn into pieces.

96
 MAGMIRACLE slot

Turn Sinner Main Action 1 Holiness Minor

A stern word of chiding and instruction abashes the sinful and wicked who hear
it. When this miracle is invoked, roll 2d6 and add your Pray skill level. That
many hit dice of human beings chosen by you who can hear you will be made
abashed and fearful of the Saint’s anger. They will not attack him or his com-
panions unless attacked first, and will depart from the Saint unless compelled
to stay by bonds of loyalty or duty. A target can only be affected by this miracle
if they have equal or fewer hit dice than the Saint has levels. This miracle does
not work once battle has begun and it may be performed only once per scene.

Beg for Divine Protection Main Action 2 Holiness Major

Encircled by peril and certain doom, the Saint begs God for His help and divine
protection. By some miraculous chain of events, the Saint and his immediate
companions are spirited out of whatever dangerous situation they find them-
selves in, and placed in a position of at least temporary safety. The Saint or one
of his companions must be in imminent danger of their lives to use this miracle,
and it never provides victory or success, only escape. Nor does it revive or restore
allies slain or wounded. The Saint must spend a week in fasting and thanksgiv-
ing prayer before he can use this miracle again, or two if it is used unmastered.

97
 Defy Sorcery Instant 1 Holiness Major

A swift prayer drives back a spell cast by a sorcerer or a power of Infernal magic.
This miracle will not protect against all magical powers, but only the incanta-
tions of Galdormen or other human wizards, or the dark powers of a Hell-born
foe. If the foe or evil spellcaster has equal or fewer hit dice than the Saint, the
magic has no effect at all upon him. If the foe is greater, the Saint must make
a Wis/Pray or Cha/Pray skill test against difficulty 10, resisting the magic on
a success. This miracle may only be used once on any given instance of magic,
and it may not be used to protect anyone but the Saint. Nor may it dispel such
magics as do not directly affect the Saint, nor banish enchantments that are
permanent and woven into a thing or place.

Miraculous Healing Main Action 1 Holiness Major

The Saint prays earnestly for the wondrous healing of a crippled or wounded
friend, laying hands upon him and uttering this prayer. One Scar of the Saint’s
choice is healed, even if it requires the wondrous restoration of a lost limb or
organ. The subject is also healed for 1d8 hit points per two levels of the Saint,
rounded up, and 1d8 more per level of Pray skill they posses. A given target
can have a Scar healed by a given saint only once per year. If he has more limbs
to be mended, he must find a different Saint to heal them. As with Pray for a
Cure, this miracle cannot help kings, queens, lords, high clerics, and other men
of great standing in the world, for it is denied to the great.

Pray for a Cure Main Action 2 Holiness Major

Holy prayer scourges sickness from a man, banishing diseases that the sub-
ject may be suffering from and ensuring that a man frail from being Mortally
Wounded will survive his recovery period, if perhaps not without Scars. This
miracle can also drive out demonic possession if the Saint makes a Wis/Pray
skill check at a difficulty of the demon’s Morale score plus two. A failure means
the Saint cannot drive out the demon. This miracle does not cure deformities,
Scars, or other lingering woes, but it does cure fevers, poxes, augues, and all
their unhappy consequences. This miracle cannot help kings, bishops, abbots,
ealdormen, or others of high station and lordly rule in the world, for it is denied
to the great. The great have their lands and their lordships and their storehouses
to sustain them, but the poor and humble have none to rely on but God.

98
Pray for Wisdom Main Action 2 Holiness Major
The Saint asks a question of God in earnest prayer, and receives in turn a
vision of where or who he should seek in order to find the answer. Note that
this miracle does not give the answer; it only shows the Saint where he should
look for it. A man may require further persuasion to give the truth of a thing,
and a location may require careful search and consideration of what is found
in order to discover the answer.

Scorn the Furnace Instant 1 Holiness Major

Just as the furnace of an evil king could not consume the loyal servants of God,
the Saint wards himself or a chosen ally from the bite of flame and the stifling of
smoke. For the rest of the scene, the chosen target has all fire or smoke damage
they suffer reduced by twice the Saint’s character level, down to zero perhaps.

Scourge Hell Main Action 1 Holiness Major

An Infernal thing born of Hell, be it demon or some other supernatural beast
of Infernal nature, is scathed by the terrible holiness of the Saint. The hero must
be able to see or perceive the devil, but it must make a Physical save or suffer
1d8 damage for every two levels of the Saint, rounded up. On a successful save,
it suffers only half damage, rounded up.

The Gift of Tongues On Turn 2 Holiness Major

Like the apostles on Pentecost, the Saint briefly begs the gift of tongues from
God. For the rest of the scene, the Saint or a chosen companion may read, write,
speak, and understand all human speech. So sweet are the chosen subject’s
words that he gains a +1 bonus on all skill checks involving speech, regardless
of the language.

Blessed Counsel Main Action 3 Holiness Great

In need of God’s guidance, the Saint implores Him to send a sign by which
the right path may be known. The Saint must specify a particular goal that is
desired, and God will send a vision of the next thing that should be done, or
the next place that should be visited, or the next person who must be sought
in order to accomplish that end. The vision is always helpful, but it does not
necessarily show all that is necessary to attain the goal. This miracle may be
applied only once to any given goal.

99
 Divine Breastplate Main Action 3 Holiness Great
The Saint prays a mighty prayer to protect himself and his companions against
all evil and every foe. So long as they remain together and do nothing to attack,
or disturb, or draw special notice from those around them, they may move un-
seen and unnoticed by all others, who will see mere ordinary animals, or deer,
or nothing at all. This miracle will not work if the Saint and his companions
have already drawn someone’s notice or made them hunt intruders. This miracle
ends at the end of the scene, or the first time the Saint or someone with him
visibly manipulates an object, opens a door, or otherwise engages with coarse
matter in a place where other men could perhaps notice the act.

Divine Intervention Instant All Holiness Great

In an hour of desperate need the Saint may beg a miracle of God, asking for
whatever favor they choose. This uses up all the remaining Holiness they pos-
sess, though no minimum is required. God will answer the plea, but will do
so as He sees fit, not to the glory of the Saint and his companions, but to the
satisfaction of His divine justice and righteous plan. This may not be to grant
victory, but it will always grant something. This miracle is inexorable, and no
mere saving throw or Infernal charm can avert God’s will in this matter. It
comes at a price, however; the Saint immediately loses a character level, and is
left with only the minimum Glories required for the start of their prior level.
If this miracle has not been mastered, two levels are lost.

Prayer of Protection Instant 1 Holiness Great

When the Saint or an ally within sight is about to suffer hit point loss from
some source, the Saint may cry out to God for protection as an Instant action.
The blow or injury is completely negated, doing no harm at all to the subject.
This prayer may be uttered only once a round.

Prayer to Forfend Evil Main Action 2 Holiness Great

The Saint names a particular single event, like the arrival of reinforcements, or
the collapse of a crumbling bridge, or the use of a particular dark power by a
foe. If there is any remotely plausible way that the event does not come to pass,
it will not happen, at least not until after the end of the scene. If the miracle
requires that a thinking creature choose not to do a thing, the creature may
make a Mental saving throw to resist this prompting and act as they meant to
act. Only one event may be forfended in any given scene.

100
Revive the Dead Main Action 3 Holiness Great
This great prayer beckons back a life that has fled its bone-cage. The corpse
must be at least half present, less than a month dead, and must not have yet
received proper funeral rites to usher the soul onward. The Saint must utter
a fervent prayer, after which he rolls a Wis/Pray or Cha/Pray check against a
difficulty of 6 plus the deceased’s hit dice or level. If it the check is failed, the
Saint immediately loses a level and is reduced to the minimum Glories needed
for their prior level, losing all benefits from the lost experience. Two levels are
lost if this miracle has not been mastered. Whether the check succeeds or fails,
the subject will rise again at dawn, alive and whole with the Scars they bore in
life. This prayer is denied to the great, and also to those who died with gray hairs
upon their head. Such people have had their share of life and may have no more.

101
 A Galdorman’s spells will have been taught to him by his master
as payment for the boy’s labor and loyalty. While the
essential parts of each are brief enough, there are in-
numerable tricks of herb-gathering, amulet-etching, Spells
the boiling of liquids and the intonation of subtle
songs that make it impossible to easily learn the Gal-
dorman’s arts. A sorcerer can tell you the words and
ingredients of a spell before a mead-horn is emptied.
To understand the methods that give that wisdom
power is the work of ten years.
Some spells are cast quickly, needing only a
Main Action, or sometimes even an Instant action
to sing out its power. These spells all cost one or
more points of Sorcery to invoke. None will ever mistake them for anything
but magical incantations, but if a man’s normal speech would not be promi-
nent enough to draw notice, then the spell’s singing may be overlooked as well.
Other spells are cast very slowly, taking minutes or hours to complete.
The Galdorman is presumed to have with him all the herbs and tokens and
amulets he requires for such complex spells, assuming no man has robbed
him, but he must be left undisturbed and untroubled while he chants and
works his arts. If he is struck or suffers meddling while so casting, the spell is
spoiled and must be begun anew. Yet these spells, so lengthy in their casting,
often require no Sorcery points at all to invoke and may be used whenever
the Galdorman has the time to perform them.
Unlike the Saint, the Galdorman need not spend skill points to learn
new spells, nor may he cast spells he has not yet learned by mere effort of
prayer. He must learn new spells from other Galdormen, who may teach him
any spell they know that he is wise enough to be able to cast, as explained on
page XX. Lacking a teacher, he may instead learn spells from old grimoires
of deep arts, though such books are few. Churchmen mislike them, finding
them full of dubious wisdom and perhaps Infernal influences. Yet so long as
a Galdorman finds one to teach him he may learn as many spells as he is able.
I am told that some wizards of distant lands must prepare their sorceries
like their evening’s meal, packing them away in their head as a plowman stores
a cheese for his noontime repast. If he does not prepare a spell, he cannot cast
it later. Perhaps that is how such wizards use their arts, but an English Galdor-
man can cast any spell he knows, should he have the Sorcery for it.

102
Against Poison Main Action 1 Sorcery Minor
A swift application of this charm can save a poisoned man. The victim gains a
new Physical save at a bonus equal to half the caster’s level, rounded up, and if
successful, any poison they suffer is driven out. On a failure, this spell cannot
help them.

Against Weariness Five minutes 1 Sorcery Minor

The caster gives herbs in water to an ally and says certain words over them. That
ally will not be wearied walking nor his horse wearied by riding nor by any oth-
erwise laboring until the sun next rises or sets, granting him twice the travel
speed or labor achieved in that time as another man would do. If he sits guard
at night he will need no sleep, and if he chooses to travel a full twelve-hour day
he may also hunt that day, as described on page XX.

For a Swarm of Bees Main Action 1 Sorcery Minor

The caster gains command over a swarm of bees, if one is within sight, and
may make it meek and docile to him, or bid it pain a foe, who will suffer a -4
penalty to all attack rolls while they remain, and who must flee unless succeeds
in a Morale check. The command lasts for the rest of the scene. A Galdorman
looking for a wild hive to beguile will find one on a Wis/Hunt check against
difficulty 9 in most wild places with an hour of searching.

For Speaking with Beasts Main Action 1 Sorcery Minor

The Galdorman can ask a question of any nearby animal, which will answer
him in human speech. The animal can only answer questions about the things
it plainly sensed, and can make no conclusions nor describe any speech it over-
heard. The Galdorman may ask one question for every three caster levels they
possess, rounded up. The animal will always answer truthfully, but it only an-
swers questions and cannot do favors or converse freely with the caster.

To Be as a Physician One hour 1 Sorcery Minor

The caster sings a soothing song above a wounded ally. At the end of the spell,
the subject regains 1d6+Heal skill lost hit points for every two hit dice or levels
the subject possesses, rounded up. If used upon a Mortally Wounded subject
they must still make a roll for a Scar before rising from their bed of suffering, but
they may read the dice either way; a roll of 8 and 2 may be read as 82 or as 28.

103
 To Blight the Harvest Six hours 0 Sorcery Minor
A wicked Galdorman may curse a man’s fields. This spell must be sung at
nightfall, and before dawn breaks the Galdorman must go to the land he would
curse and bury four small, evil tokens in four corners of the field. Once they are
buried, the land is cursed even if the tokens are taken away. While the curse
lingers, the land will yield only 1d10 x 10% of its usual crop, less 10% per level
of the caster. A Galdorman can curse as many hides of land as they have levels
or hit dice with one use of this spell, and it lasts for one year per caster level.

To Blunt the Sword Edge Main Action 1 Sorcery Minor

The caster dulls the blade-edges of as many visible weapons as the caster has
character levels or hit dice. Dulled weapons roll their damage twice and take
the worst result. A Galdorman cannot dull the teeth of beasts or enfeeble the
fists of men, and this spell has no power over magical weapons or those that
are not sharp to begin with. The dulling lasts until the blades have had a half-
hour of resharpening.

To Close the Mouth Five minutes 1 Sorcery Minor

The Galdorman must know the target, and they must be within a mile per level
of the caster. When this song is sung, the Galdorman must choose a single event
or topic; the target must then make a Mental save or they will be unable to speak
or write about that matter, even if they yearn to do so. They may act as they
wish, but they cannot hint of the matter, or gesture about it, or talk in round-
about ways to point to it. This curse lingers for a day for every level of the caster.

To Cure Sick Cattle Five minutes 1 Sorcery Minor

A sick or injured animal may be cured by this spell. Once it is complete, any
mundane sickness is lifted from the beast and any wounds will heal safely and
cleanly in no longer than a week. If a sickness is magical in nature, however,
this spell can give no help.

104
To Dazzle Flying Ones Main Action 1 Sorcery Minor
Useful to quell the power of flying sorcerers as well as other evil winged things,
this incantation must be aimed at a visible flying foe. The target must make
a Physical saving throw, or else they are blinded and stunned, unable to do
anything but land. For the rest of the scene, they can see and act normally only
while they are standing on earth or are immersed in water.

To Enchant a Maid Six hours 0 Sorcery Minor

By means of this spell the caster wins the earnest devotion of a virginal maid
or unbedded boy they have met before. The subject gets a Mental saving throw
to shed the spell and ever afterwards be immune to it, but if they fail, they will
admire and delight in the caster, and be their friend and more. Yet if the subject
ever ceases to be a virgin, that enforced devotion will instantly fade, and they
will treat the Galdorman as his own actions toward them have earned.

To Find a Lost Object Main Action 1 Sorcery Minor

The Galdorman must have seen the object he seeks, or have it described by
someone who has seen it, and it must be a particular thing and not a mere kind
of object. When the spell is cast, the Galdorman gets an idea of its location,
accurate to within a tenth of the distance between the Galdorman and the ob-
ject. The spell can find objects no further away than half a mile for every level
of the caster. If the object was intentionally stolen or purposely hidden away,
the caster must succeed in an opposed Wis/Magic check against the thief ’s Int/
Sneak, or this spell cannot find the thing.

To Improve the Fields Six hours 0 Sorcery Minor

A Galdorman may break curses that have been laid on a field or make ill-grow-
ing land produce better. This ritual can cure as many hides of land as the Gal-
dorman has levels or hit dice. If it is cursed, the Galdorman makes a Mental
saving throw with a bonus equal to his level or hit dice and a penalty equal to
the curse-caster’s hit dice or level; if successful, the curse is broken. If a failure,
he cannot lift this curse with this spell. If the curse is lifted or if the land was
never cursed to begin with, the soil there will grow crops as well as any good
farmland for a year and a day thereafter, even if it is sere and unprofitable earth.
This spell is wearisome, and can be cast only once a week. Good Christians may
shy from calling upon it, but a man in need may not have such qualms.

105
 To Know an Uncanny Wise On Turn 1 Sorcery Minor
The caster calls up wisdom when seeing a mysterious magical effect or a plainly
supernatural foe. He may make a Wis/Magic skill against a difficulty of 8 to
learn a sentence or two of description about what the mysterious effect does or
the nature of the supernatural foe. This lore will warn of a creature’s most ter-
rible magical power and hint at any special measures needed to slay or harm it.

To Obtain Favors Five minutes 1 Sorcery Minor

The caster makes special letters which must be given to someone else to wear
beneath their clothing. The next time the bearer seeks to persuade someone to
grant them a favor or a benefit, they may make any applicable social skill check
twice and take the better roll. A subject can carry only one such set of letters at
once, and they lose their virtue after their first use.

To Quench the Blaze Main Action 1 Sorcery Minor

The caster may crush out a burning fire, causing it to quench instantly as if
drowned in water. A first level caster may quench a bonfire, a fourth level caster
may stifle a burning hall, and a seventh level caster may snuff out every flame
within a hundred paces. A fire can be re-lit, but fresh flame must be brought.

MAGSPELL slot

106
To Safeguard the Geoguth Main Action 1 Sorcery Minor
This magical blessing may be placed only on a visible man or woman younger
than the caster, such as young geoguth warriors often are. The caster must name
a specific kind of weapon, such as a spear, or a fang, or a claw, or a sword, or an
axe. For the rest of the scene, any such weapons must roll their hit and damage
rolls twice against the blessed subject and take the worst result. The caster may
have only one instance of this spell active at a time.

To See the Spell Main Action 1 Sorcery Minor

For the remainder of the scene, the Galdorman can see things of magic as if they
glowed with light. Cursed or enchanted people, magical objects, Arx entrances,
and other spells are plainly visible, yet their specific meaning is not shown.

To Staunch Bleeding Five minutes 1 Sorcery Minor

The caster uses great knowledge to quell the bleeding of wounds, provided
the subject is still strong enough to stand. This spell is of no use on a Mortally
Wounded ally, but one who has not been felled yet is cured of three hit points
of damage per caster level. The force of the magic stuns the recipient and leaves
them unable to do more than walk for five minutes after the spell is complete,
however. The strain this healing inflicts is such that this spell may be used only
once a day on any given target.

To Sing the Consuming Flame Main Action 1 Sorcery Minor

The Galdorman utters a song of fire, charming a single open flame within spear-
cast, whether it is small as a candleflame or large as a burning hall. So long as
the Galdorman keeps singing as an On Turn each round, the flame cannot be
put out by anything short of complete immersion, total smothering, or the com-
plete consumption of its fuel. A man somehow set alight will be sung to death
by this spell unless he can first kill the Galdorman or make him cease his song.

Against a Dwarf-Curse Six Hours 0 Sorcery Major

If a victim be cursed by a Fae creature or an angry Galdorman, but not an
Infernal thing or some divine anger, then this spell may lift the curse from him.
He must be cooperative or immobilized for the ritual, and at the end he may
make an appropriate saving throw with a bonus equal to half the caster’s level,
rounded up. On a success, the curse is broken, but on a failure, this Galdorman
cannot lift it with this spell.

107
 Against Miscarriage Six Hours 0 Sorcery Major
A charm against the loss of a child in the womb, this spell will ensure that a
pregnant woman will bring forth her child in health if she lives to bear it. Many
are the good Christian women who would be glad of this charm, and many the
husbands who would look aside from it to be sure of having sons and daughters.

Against the bite of an Adder Instant 1 Sorcery Major

A swift charm against a venomous or malignant bite of any kind, this spell
prevents the beast from being able to inject its poison or inflict its unholy curse.
The caster must be able to see or know the beast has bitten or clawed someone.
Any hit point damage is inflicted normally, but no poison is applied, and if some
other baleful magic would be inflicted on a bite or claw attack it is negated.
This spell cannot aid against evenomed weapons, only venomous bites or claws.

Against Thieves of Goods Five minutes 2 Sorcery Major

The Galdorman takes earth from the footprints of stolen animals, or sings
charms outside the walls of the house from which a thing was stolen. He knows
what direction the stolen thing lies in, and that knowledge remains accurate for
one hour per level of the caster. If the animals or thing were merely lost or killed
rather than stolen by someone, the spell leads in a random direction.

For a Charm against Devils Main Action 1 Sorcery Major

The caster wards a subject against the powers of devils, sorcerers, and Fae. Until
the next sunrise or sunset, they may make any saving throws to resist magical
mental influence or possession from any source twice, taking the better result.

Of a Love Charm for Women Main Action 2 Sorcery Major

This spell binds the heart of a woman to the caster, or the heart of a man if the
caster is a Galdorwife. The target must be one visible to him, and she may make
a Mental saving throw to prove herself immune to this spell and impervious to
it forever afterwards. If she fails, she will desire the caster and treat him as she
would a lover until he treats her badly or otherwise proves unworthy of her care.
This spell has no power over a monk, nun, or other person pledged to God.

108
Of a Mighty Dwarf-Song Main Action 1 Sorcery Major
The caster sings a Fae song of praise for someone other than himself. For the
rest of the scene, that ally is greatly emboldened, and may roll his hit rolls twice
and gain a +1 bonus on all skill checks.

To Brew Elf-Salve Six Hours 0 Sorcery Major

A small pot of enchanted unguent is fashioned that has the power to ward a
recipient against the anger of the Fae. If a subject is anointed with this salve as
a Main Action, all Fae suffer a -4 penalty to hit them, and the recipient gains a
+4 saving throw bonus against their powers. The recipient may also see through
Fae illusions and concealments while so anointed. Because of his magical nature,
the caster cannot use this salve personally. Only one pot of salve may be kept
fresh at a time, and it is good for only one use, lasting a single scene.

To Charm a Shield Main Action 1 Sorcery Major

The caster blesses a number of shields no greater than their character level. The
next time that scene the bearer is harmed by anything the shield could perhaps
block, whether weapon or physical peril, the shield will magically preserve him
unhurt. This charm lasts for the rest of the scene, and a subject can benefit from
it only once in a scene.

To Dispel a Warrior’s Hate Six hours 0 Sorcery Major

The caster names two men, both of whom they know and both of whom must
count themselves warriors or fighters. Each makes a Mental saving throw. Those
who fail lose all hatred or anger toward the other, and if they have grudges or
crimes to avenge, they take no joy in doing so. They do not love each other, but
they get no pleasure in wrath until fresh cause is given for it.

To Go Without Trace Main Action 1 Sorcery Major

The caster charms the footsteps of himself, up to a dozen companions, and up
to twenty cattle or horses per caster level. These footfalls will leave no trace on
earth, however soft it is. Any who try to track their passage must go by disturbed
vegetation and other signs, applying at least a -3 to all pertinent skill checks if it
is possible at all. The charm lasts for half an hour per caster level.

109
 To Make the Holy Drink Six hours 2 Sorcery Major
A draught of charmed water is made by this rite which must be immediately
drunk by a recipient. It grants them an immediate Physical save to throw off
any diseases that might plague them. If it fails, the caster’s holy drink cannot
help their affliction.

To Open Bonds and Fetters Main Action 1 Sorcery Major

By this loud-sung charm, audible a spear-cast away, the caster undoes a binding
or lock, causing ropes to fall away, locked chests to leap open, or chains to drop
from fettered limbs. The binding must be visible, and the spell affects only things
that are locked and tied, not barriers that are merely impassible. Thus, a barred
door would be cast open, but a doorway blocked by heavy stones would not.
Unbinding a magical seal like that of an Arx requires a successful Int/Magic
skill check against difficulty 8 or more, or the spell is useless for that purpose.

To Put Away an Accusation Six hours 0 Sorcery Major

If the caster should be accused of any crime or evil action, the caster may with-
draw and perform this spell, provided he has seen his accuser. Once complete,
his accuser must make a Mental saving throw or he shall find his own certainty
shaken and unsettled. If he fails the save, he will come to believe himself mis-
taken in the caster’s guilt, however clear it was, and will refuse to be persuaded
otherwise. If he succeeds in the save, this spell cannot affect his certainty. This
spell cannot efface a known Shame from lessening a man’s Glories, but it can
spoil legal procedings or other official punishments for the act.

To Slow the Arrow’s Flight Instant 1 Sorcery Major

As quickly as the Galdorman can look upon it, an arrow can be slowed to a
crawl in mid-air. If its target has any power to move at all, they may easily
ensure it misses its mark. This spell has power only over arrows, not spears or
other flung weapons.

To Turn the Blade Back Instant 1 Sorcery Major

If struck at by a sword or spear or other weapon in a man’s hand, the Galdorman
may make it twist and turn like a serpent in the wielder’s grasp. The assailant
must make an Evasion saving throw; if failed, the caster is left unharmed and
the wielder is injured as if struck by their own weapon. If the saving throw suc-
ceeds, the original hit roll stands, to harm or miss the caster as it originally did.

110
Against the Devil and Madness Six hours 2 Sorcery Great
Draughts, charms, and songs are used to drive out madness from an afflicted
soul and scourge out the devils that plague them. At the ritual’s end, the subject
may make a Mental saving throw at a bonus equal to the caster’s level and a pen-
alty equal to the hit dice of any possessing devil. If successful, they are cured of
any insanity caused by devils and freed of any demonic possession. The subject
must usually be captured and bound for the spell, as no devil will willingly allow
it to be done. If the save fails, the caster cannot cure the affliction with this spell.

For a Safe Journey Five minutes 2 Sorcery Great

A charm is sung against peril on a journey. Until the end of the day, whenever a
dangerous random encounter or environmental peril such as storms, mudslides,
or the like would befall the caster or his companions, there is a 50% chance that
they do not happen after all. This charm does not work if the caster is inten-
tionally journeying to a dangerous place, such as an outlaw camp or a haunted
ruin. If fleeing a pursuing foe, such as during a cattle raid, the caster’s warband
gains a +3 on all skill checks to escape.

For Making the Hanged Walk One hour 0 Sorcery Great

The caster may take the corpse of a man or woman who was hanged and draw
upon it runes of many colors, conjuring it to rise and walk. The corpse cannot
fight, but it can speak and remember its life, and answer questions put to it by
the caster, and obey all commands with human intelligence. The corpse will
walk for a number of nights equal to the caster’s level before it falls to filth and
bones. A corpse that has been buried with Christian rites cannot be raised by
this spell.

To Ascend Above Main Action 1 Sorcery Great

The caster is gifted with a temporary grace of flight. For one round per caster
level, they may travel freely through the air at their usual movement rate, re-
maining suspended when they are not moving. If the spell ends while they are
still aloft they will fall like Simon Magus did, who is called Simon the Druid
by the Irish.

111
 To Calm Weather and Seas Main Action 3 Sorcery Great
By great charms and adjurations, the caster quells storms, silences great winds,
and soothes the wrath of the seas. For an hour afterwards per level or hit die of
the caster, the weather within a mile of him is calm, clear, and bright as befits
the season, with no more than a mild breeze where once there was a gale.

To Curse with Ruin Six hours 0 Sorcery Great

A dreadful curse is laid down on a man or woman whom the caster has seen
before with their own eyes. The victim is blighted, such that they must make
every attack roll twice, every saving throw twice, and every skill check twice, tak-
ing the worst roll each time. This curse lasts as long as the Galdorman wishes,
but such awful misfortune torments him as well, and the same curse affects the
caster as long as the spell persists, for as long as one day per caster level. Only
one victim may be cursed this way at a time, and if the curse is broken or ends
it cannot be laid on the target again. This spell cannot affect a Saint.

To Prevent Theft One hour 0 Sorcery Great

A chest, cabinet, bag, or other container must be charmed by this spell. Once
it is complete, anyone who opens it with the intent to take from it without
the caster’s leave will think it empty, and be unable to see or touch the objects
within. Only the caster or one permitted to do so may take anything out of it,
for to everyone else it is empty. A caster may charm no more containers against
theft than they have character levels, and the charm will last for one day per
character level.

To Sing a Doom Main Action 3 Sorcery Great

The Galdorman sings a doom upon a man or woman he can see with his own
eyes. The Galdorman may name any act or purpose the subject must do or fol-
low and a particular situation, time, or event that will trigger the doom. When
the trigger comes to pass, the victim must immediately make a Mental save or
carry out the doom for the remainder of the scene. If the doom would compel
them to do something horrible, they may make a Mental save after each round
of action to end the spell’s power over them. A subject may bear only one such
doom at a time, and no sorcerer’s doom can force them to slay themselves or
act in a way certain to bring about their immediate death.

112
113
 The ways of the English are apt to be strange to you, reader. Whether
you are a Frank, or a Roman, or a Persian, or a gamesman of far Tang, your
laws and lives are not like our own, and your land and your loves are dif-
ferent. Yet if you read closely and listen well, you will understand what you
must to play an English hero. In this chapter you will learn of the manner of
our coming to Britain, the kingdoms in which we dwell, the manner of set-
tlements where we abide, and the troubles that burden our days.
The first section of the chapter is a brief overview, saying only what is
strictly necessary for a gamesman to know in order to play in England. If
you have no patience for anything, or if you are the GM and need something
brief to show your careless players, then use these two pages and no more.
After that a list of equipment and treasures are given, describing the
cost and qualities of those things that adventurers are greediest to get. This
is placed toward the front of this chapter because it will be often referenced.
Only after that are deeper and longer explanations made of the ways in
which we English live, of our laws, customs, and faith. The GM is advised to
read all of these parts, but a player may read only such portions as they find
interesting, to gain a better understanding of his hero’s people and their ways.
GM, be careful in how you present the information in this chapter to
the players. They will have many assumptions and expectations, ones they
do not even know they have, and many times they will go ahead and act on
those assumptions. When they do so, do not be too quick to correct them.
If you tell them that they are wrong every time they get a small matter amiss,
they will grow hesitant and frustrated, not knowing where to put hand or foot
without rebuke. Let them be right about small matters, even if it is contrary
to the truth of things. Only correct them when it is important.
And what is important in our ways? They are the things that mean most
to us; friendship between a lord and his followers, faith in Christ and the
Church, loyalty to our kinsmen, and the getting of the things a poor people
need to live. Correct the players when a mistaken understanding would lead
them to act in a way deeply contrary to our dearest truths, not merely when
they mistake what we eat for our meals or what clothes we like to wear.
The best way to show the players what the English are like is to let the
NPCs and others demonstrate it by their actions, speech, and harness. Show
them what the other people do and say, and all but the dullest and most
indifferent gamesman will soon see how things should be done in England.

114
LIFEINTRO slot

115
 You and your companions are an adventuring band. You have only
the status of common ceorls, mere ordinary freemen and free women until
you do great deeds. Even so, lords, abbots, and oth-
ers of importance will deign to speak to you about
tasks they need done. Do them well and you may What
win honor and friendship from them, receiving lands All
and wealth in return for your labors. In time you Men
may even become a lord yourself. Should
Friendship is magic to make men great. No Know
man in England is loyal to a mere name. They are
loyal to their beloved lord or their faithful follow-
ers. Men fight and die for their lords, and not for
the golden rings they have received from him. They
received those rings because they are their lord’s
friend, loved and trusted by him, and it is for love that they endure even
death. Friendships are consecrated in shared battle or great deeds done for each
other. Claims of friendship cannot mean anything unless something precious
was done or given in proof. A king or lord is only ever so strong as his friends.
The English are poor. Even kings and ealdormen must ride from one
royal villa to the next so they may eat the feorm, the food-rent that has been
gathered there by their subjects. Kings and ceorls alike live in thatched halls,
and oftime the only great difference is that a king may drink and eat his fill
more often, but even then not always. Every man must labor hard to even
find food and weave cloth and fashion implements for his own survival. The
rich treasures of gold and silver and gems that lords give to followers are got
by trade with foreigners, or won in battle, or were given to them as gifts in
turn, or are fashioned by the few fine artisans among the English.
England is divided into several large kingdoms and more petty ones.
The people of each live mostly alike, in the same ways and with the same Chris-
tian faith. A man of one kingdom may journey peacefully in the others, unless
he is a special enemy of the people there. The three great tribes of English, the
Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, each have several kingdoms. The kings quarrel con-
stantly, each always seeking to become foremost among the rest, the bretwalda
of all England. They often seek adventurers to do deeds they can later deny.
England has no cities, nor any great towns. The common English village
has perhaps two hundred souls living there, each family in their own thatched
hall, going out to their fields in the morning and returning with the dusk.

116
There are no shopkeepers, inns, taverns, nor nearly any man who makes his
living without doing some farming in turn. Four great trading-wics on the
coasts host foreign merchants who bring their rich wares for English grain,
metal, and slaves, and these may have two or three or even four thousand
souls in them, but they are all merely passing by there and there is no sense of
a city to these great camps. Much wickedness goes on there, and adventurers
are sought for grim deeds and the reckoning of cheats and wrongs.
England is Christian. The great walled minsters where priests and monks
and nuns live under the rule of an abbot or abbess are the most cultured and
richest places in all England. They alone have stone buildings, and skilled arti-
sans, and learned scholars there. The priests journey out to hold Mass and give
services to the villages around them. There are some pagans remaining in the
deep forest, and damnable heretics hiding in the wilderness. The devil sends
them aid in the form of sorcery and demons to plague and pain the pious.
Adventurers are often needed to rebuke these wicked souls.
Roman ruins litter England, the caesters that are places of crumbling
stone buildings and broken walls. The English avoid such places. They are
nests of bandits, heretics, pagans… and worse besides. The Roman sorcer-
ers called Artifexes crafted hidden doors there that lead to cysts beneath the
skin of the world. Monsters and long-trapped Britons escape from them at
times to do evil in the world. Yet adventurers oftimes seek out these “Arxes”
and the ruins to plunder them for Roman treasures to give as gifts to lords
and friends. Minsters are often built near Roman ruins so that God may help
guard men from their evils, and many abbots will have work for adventurers.
Hostile Wealh kingdoms are in the west and north, their kings hating
the English and their bishops cursing us for our father’s conquest of their
lands. They are a too-learned race, more clever than brave. They dwell in the
ruins of their lost lordship, mere faded remnants of Rome and what was lost.
Some Wealh can be bargained with, but none can be trusted. Adventurers
are often needed to negotiate with them, or to punish them for their raiding.
As an adventurer, you have little in life. You are not content to live as a
simple ceorl, or to seek the customary warrior’s path of slow service and grad-
ual increase in friendship and wealth. You and your friends seek to do great
and daring deeds, to plunder Arxes, to aid troubled lords, to succor abbots
in need of strong arms and to defend England against its many perils. This is
the adventurer’s path that all men recognize. Most adventurers will find only
death. Mayhap your fate will be a finer one.

117
 Here are listed common values for goods, services, weapons, and
harness of war. These prices are set by custom, and most men know a fair
measure of what they may expect.
Cost is measured in silver pounds, shillings, and
The abbrevi- pence, marked “l”, “s”, and “d”. These are mere mea- Goods
ations stand sures of reckoning, for many a ceorl goes his whole and
for “librae”, life long without seeing a single coin. Men use them harness
“solidi”, and
only to calculate fair exchanges or the sum of goods
“denarii”
after the due in wergild. A few kings are presently making
Roman silver sceatta coins equal to a shilling in value, in
measures. mimicry of the Arab coins the Frankish traders some-
times bring, but these are things of art and kingly
pride rather than coins for common trade. When
coins find their
Rates of Exchange way into England their worth is mea-
1 pound is 60 shillings sured by their metal and weight, with
1 shilling is 4 pence a little extra perhaps for the beauty of
their striking.
Some of the tables that follow generate treasures, often with a very great
value in pounds or shillings. Treasures are splendid things for gifts and the
showing of favor, and a man will be joyous if he is given such a thing, but
do not think that a fine golden ring can easily be exchanged for a cartload of
grain from any farmer who has it. Any object that is a treasure may or may
not be accepted in trade, depending on how well the other man can afford to
trade useful goods for splendid adornments. It may be that he has more use
for his grain than for a golden ring, and a trader must speak honeyed words
and have a good Gift skill to make a bargain at any price.
So it is that an ealdorman may walk with a hundred pounds worth of
treasures mantling his neck and arms and fingers, but he cannot presume to
trade them for even ten pounds worth of wheat. He may use them to pay wer-
gild for his crimes, however, or give them as rich gifts to his loyal friends, and
if he finds some prosperous settlement where the harvest has been uncom-
monly good his wife may be able to persuade the richest ceorl to exchange
some spare portion of his reaping for a fine silver torc.
More useful goods are more easily traded. Any man will trade for cattle
or grain or cloth, for such things must be had if they are to live. Even then,
however, no man will trade away what he needs to survive another season.

118
 Most of these common
Goods Cost
goods are simple enough, but a
Arrows, 5 1d
few bear more careful words. All
Bed, fine 60d
the items listed here can be as-
Blanket, Woolen 10d sumed to count as one item of
Boots, good 10d Encumbrance, unless they are so
Cart for two oxen 120d obviously heavy that they might
Cloak, common 5d count as two, or more still.
Cloak, embroidered 20d Carts cannot leave the old
Cloth, silk, 1 yard 240d Roman roads or clear paths, and
each need two oxen for pulling.
Cloth, wool, 1 yard 4d
Cloaks are worn by nearly
Clothes, fine, 1 set 60d
all in cold weather, and the
Clothes, silk, 1 set 2,400d brooches used to fasten them
Clothes, slave's, 1 set 10d are ways to show wealth. A fine
Clothes, splendid, 1 set 240d embroidered cloak grants one
Clothes, woolen, 1 set 30d point of Splendor.
Common artisan’s tools 30d Clothes are costly. Fine Women
clothes grant a Splendor of 1, mend
Cowhide 8d
clothes
splendid ones grant 2, and those
Healer's pouch 4d without a
fashioned of the marvelous silk skill check.
Iron ingot, 1 pound 5d
of Tang grant 4 Splendor. A Men will
Iron kettle, small 20d
hero felled in battle will spoil his need Craft
Plow, heavy iron 120d clothes and need them mended. to do so.
Prybar 10d Common artisan’s tools
Quiver 5d are hammers, saws, tongs, vats
Rope, 25 feet 5d or other such things sufficient to
Sack, Leather 5d carry out the ordinary work of a
Satchel, Leather 3d smith, or leatherworker, or other
who has a task more complex
Sheepskin 2d
than simple weaving or hewing.
Shoes, common 5d
Sacks and satchels are how
Tinderbox 3d men carry weights. Without
Toil, a day’s hired labor 1d some way to bear a burden a
Waterskin, 1 gallon 3d hero may find it cumbersome to
Wool, 175 lb. wey 120d haul all his possessions, regard-
less of their Encumbrance.

119
 Livestock Cost Foodstuffs Cost
Cow 20d Ale, 2 gallons 1d
Goat 2d Barley, 12 pounds 1d
Horse 120d Beef, fresh, 1 pound 1d
Ox, Trained 30d Cheese, 2 pounds 1d
Pig 10d Common food, 3 meals 1d
Sheep 5d Dried rations, 1 day 1d
Slave, female 120d Feasting food, 1 meal 4d
Slave, male 240d Good bread, 2 pounds 1d
Hard bread, 4 pounds 1d
Mead, 1 gallon 4d
Harness AC Cost Mutton, fresh, 3 pounds 1d
Broad Shield 15 25d Salt, 1 pound 2d
Heavy Shield 14 25d Vegetables, 8 pounds 1d
Helm - 240d Wheat, 8 pounds 1d
Mail Shirt 16 480d Wine, 1 quart 5d
Roman Armor 18 4,800d

The war-harness described here is of greatest interest to most

adventurers, so it is worth noting certain qualities of this gear.
PCs who Broad shields are large, fashioned to give the best protection. The bearer
are artisans has an Armor Class of 15 plus their Dexterity modifier, or a +1 bonus to their
can forge Armor Class if they already have a better rating through some other means.
ordinary
harness and
Heavy shields are the same as broad ones in their bonus, except they have
weapons for an uncommonly thick boss to batter a foe in melee. The bearer’s base Armor
a quarter of Class is only 14 instead of 15, as the shield is more clumsy, but they add +2
their price to all melee damage rolls while they bear a heavy shield.
in materials, Helms are rare and costly things to crown the brows of mighty warriors.
if they can
get them. They grant no Armor Class bonus, but are worth 2 points of Splendor.
It takes Mail shirts are the best armor that English smiths can fashion. The won-
a day for drous steel of the Roman Artifices persists, however, and the suits of plated
weapons or Roman armor they made with it can sometimes be found, immune to the
shields and tooth of time. Such armor grants a base Armor Class of 16 or 18 respectively,
a month for
mail shirts. modified by the wearer’s Dexterity and gaining a +1 bonus if they carry a
shield. Roman armor is worth 2 points of Splendor to the bearer.

120
 Weapons Dng Attribute Shock Damage Cost
Axe 1d6 Str 2 points/AC 13 15d
Barbed Spear 1d6 Str/Dex 2 points/AC 13 15d
Bow 1d6 Dex None 25d
Broad Spear 1d8 Str 2 points/AC 13 15d
Club 1d4 Str 1 point/AC 13 Free
Hatchet 1d4 Str 1 point/AC 13 10d
Knife 1d4 Str/Dex 1 point/AC 15 5d
Seax 1d6 Str/Dex 1 point/AC 15 20d
Staff 1d6 Str 2 points/AC 13 Free
Sword 1d8 Str 2 points/AC 13 240d

The weapons listed above are those most common to the English,
and those tools such as hatchets and knives most likely to be snatched up
in desperate battle. While most are plain enough, some have special graces.
Barbed spears may be hurled up to sixty feet. They do no Shock damage
when thrown, but if an NPC or beast with one hit die is struck by a hurled
barbed spear they will be mortally wounded regardless of the damage rolled
unless they have a name that the GM cares to remember.
Seaxes are great war-knives as long as a man’s forearm, often carried by
huntsmen who must joint out prey in the forest. Many a wealthy warrior will
have one at his belt in case his spear is lost in battle.
Staves and clubs are naturally less lethal weapons, as explained on page
XX. One who would wield a staff must do so with two hands.
Swords are tokens of natural dignity and prowess, and even the worst of
them grants 1 point of Splendor to its bearer. They require a month to forge.
Aside from these notes, a hero may lay hands upon a fine weapon. A fine
weapon gains a +1 bonus to all hit and damage rolls, and adds an additional
point of Splendor to the bearer. The usual worth of a fine weapon is equal
to the ordinary price of it, plus an additional 240 pence. Uncommonly fine
weapons may be worth even more, and grant still greater Splendor. Getting
one is difficult, however, for only a master smith or a PC with at least Craft-3
skill can make one, and it takes a full month of labor to do so.
A hero may carry many weapons if he thinks it wise, but he must remem-
ber that no man can get Splendor from more belongings at once than he has
character levels.

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 These tables show the rela-
d10 Treasure Value
tive worth of treasures that might be
1 Torc 30d
given as gifts or earned through bold
2 Ring 10d
plunder. When a GM needs a piece
3 Bracelet 20d of plunder for a hero, he may roll
4 Girdle 20d or pick first from the treasure table
5-7 Brooch 10d adjacent. Each type of treasure has a
8 Crucifix 20d base value in pence given beside it.
9 Armlet 20d
0 Chain 10d

d10 Metal Mult. Next, he shall roll on this table to see

1 Iron x0.25 what its predominant metal may be.
2-4 Copper x.5 Multiply the base value by this metal.
5-6 Bronze x1 Thus, an iron bracelet is worth 5d,
7-8 Silver x4 and a golden chain is worth 160d. If
the metal is strange or marvelous,
9 Gold x16
think of what it might look like and
10 Strange or wondrous work;
roll twice, taking the best result for
roll twice and take highest
its worth.

Then he will roll upon this table to

d10 Qualities Mult. see what special qualities the item
1 Engraved x1,5 may have, whether one, or perhaps
2 Gemmed x4 two, or even three. Thus, that gold-
3 Enameled x2 en chain may also be gemmed, thus
4 Simple x0.75 becoming worth 640d, or that iron
bracelet may be almost ruined, mak-
5 Intricate x1.5
ing it less than a penny. If results 9 or
6 Damaged x0.5
0 are rolled twice, reroll them.
7 Near-ruined x0.1
8 Large x1.5 As ever, the GM should merely take
9 Roll twice, apply both these tables as guidance. If a partic-
0 Roll thrice, apply all ular treasure is wanted at a particu-
lar worth, you need but make it so.

122
 LIFELOOT illo

Precious goods bring Splendor to the one who wears them. A hero
can wear any number of fine Treasures, if it makes sense to
Splendor and
do so, but as explained on page XX he can get benefit from
no more Splendid items at once than he has character levels.
Treasures
The Splendor value of a treasure depends upon its worth. Compare the
worth of the item with the table below and you shall see how much Splendor
it grants the bearer who displays it proudly.

Value Splendor
0-15 pence None
16-60 pence 1 Splendor
61-240 pence 2 Splendor
241-960 pence 3 Splendor
961 or more 4 Splendor

123
 Eight or nine or ten generations past, long before the Romans fell, our
fathers were beckoned to British shores by the Emperor's men. The citizens of
Rome had grown soft and idle and scorned to take
up a warrior's life. Their great men were keen to keep
the laborers that worked their vast fields, and per- On the
suaded the Emperor to refrain from compelling the Arrival
recruitment of their clients. So it was that Rome had of the
her legions, but she had few Romans to fill them. English in
To bolster their numbers, many were the bar- Britain
barian peoples recruited for service as auxiliaries.
While they were not Roman citizens, nor counted
true legionaries, nor were they richly rewarded for
the blood they shed, they were permitted to dwell
in Roman lands and prosper under Roman law. Our
fathers were among these warriors and came over from the German lands to
live on Britain's shores and fight the foes of Rome.
We killed Wealh and Picts and Irish and pirates of our own kin. We
dwelled in our own settlements outside the Roman caesters and lived by our
own ways, always loyal to Rome. We were good soldiers then, as we are good
soldiers now. Yet Rome faded, and the Britons who aped Roman ways faded
with them. Usurpers and pretenders and claimants to the Emperor's seat rose
up in Britain and Rome and the East, while barbarians poured in from the
north and west and east and south.
For four hundred years Britain had known Roman rule and the sweet,
soft pleasures of Roman law. Luxury and abundance had jeweled its shores,
with marbled baths and tall basilicas and the splendor of white-walled caesters.
So many were the Britons in these cities that they were like blades of grass,
unimaginable in their multitudes, thousands upon thousands. And yet when
Rome called home its legions at last, bringing them back to fight in futile
causes, these Wealh did not well know what to do.
The Picts in the north and the Irish from the west harried them sorely,
and so did pirates from the German lands, and reavers from among the Franks.
The land was full of lamentation and the spaces between the caesters grew
dark and perilous. Rich villas were abandoned to brigands and marauders,
and Roman towns were left empty that their inhabitants might seek shelter
behind a caester's walls.

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 The Wealh were weak men. They did not stand together to drive back
these harriers, but fought among themselves, each magnate declaring himself
rightful master of all he could grasp. Tyrants arose, each ruling from his city
and seeking to overcome all his rivals. They wore the tatters of Roman glory
and the faded colors of Roman office, but they were but shadows of the splen-
dor that had gone before. Their care was greater to defeat each other than to
defeat the raiders that so oppressed them.
Yet because the Wealh were weak, and because they had forgotten the
spears their fathers had bourne against the Romans, they had need of soldiers.
The tyrants sought English men to fight for them, and we who had once been
the auxiliaries of Rome became mercenaries for the Wealh. In their desper-
ation and ambition, they promised us much, and swore that we would lack
for nothing if only we conquered their foes.
At this we called over the sea, back to our home in the German lands.
The land was little there, and the mouths many and multiplying, and the sea
was rising year upon year to drown the villages on our shores. Many Angles
and Saxons and Jutes were glad of the chance to come over the sea and fight
for British tyrants, and our numbers swelled greatly. The Britons rejoiced at
our labor, for they had become ungodly as well as weak, and delighted in the
killing of their rivals and the destruction of their brothers.
Yet when we had fought for our lords, our lords closed their hands against
us. They forswore their promises and kept their treasures and denied us our
rightful due. Were we not mere barbarians? Were we not simple savages, fit
only to live in our huts by the sea and eat the bread of slaves? They were Rome,
these tyrants. They were Rome and glory and dignity, the mantled bearers of
a thousand years of splendor and rule. They were the kings of Britain.
They were judged by God, and for their sins we were the wolves of His
judgment. Betrayed, we bore no mercy in our hearts or in our hands. Our
chiefs called us to war and revenge, and our spears made a forest to march
against the caesters. The Wealh lords tried in vain to halt us, hurling their
remnants and rag-ends at the wall of our shields and dying swiftly upon our
steel. We burnt their cities and killed their kinsmen and took their land and
women for our own. We were cruel as godless men are cruel, and many among
us earned the Hell of our heathen ways by what we did in those days.
All the while, we called more of our people from over the seas. The Wealh
were many, but they were weak, and we took what we wished of them. Many
among them became our slaves or gave up their land to our lords, and many

125
 were the Wealh women who bore English sons. So it was that in some places
the Britons melted away like snow in spring, their blood mingling with our
own, their ways abandoned for our ways, until nothing was left of them but
a few names for men and for places.
In other places we killed. Where the Wealh would not bend to us, we slew
them, man and woman and child. We killed until none remained to work the
land, and places where a thousand men had once farmed now were empty of
all but the crows. Never will the Wealh return to such lands, and the homes
they held since Babel’s time will now be ours forever, or until we grow god-
less in turn and are judged in the Lord's just time.
Such was the terror of the Britons that they fled west, into the unwelcom-
ing hills, and north, into the lands of the Picts. Yet not all dared to leave their
walled caesters. These most wretched ones hid themselves away within the
magical Arxes the Roman Artificers had built, the other-worlds they had forged
within the walls of temples and basilicas and great estates. These wondrous
places were greater within than they were without, and had many marvels
inside them, and great works of magic. They thought to hide in these places,
sealing them fast against us, and wait until Rome or their kinsmen could
rescue them from our spears.
We could not force the entrances, for we had no Artificers among our
number. Those trapped within could not get out unless they too had an Arti-
ficer to unlock the Arx they had sealed. It was useless to merely tear down the
building where the Arx was hidden, for the magical doorway could not be
broken by artless hands. So it was that the Arxes remained sealed for gener-
ations, those trapped within forced to subsist upon strange meats and suffer
the touch of the Arx's otherworldly energies.
We feared the Arxes and had no use for Roman caesters. We did not live
in houses of stone, but in good wooden halls, close beside our fields. We with-
drew from the cities we had conquered, leaving them and their Arxes to the
dead, and made our settlements by rivers and in other good lands for farm-
ing. Every so often an Arx would crack open and those within would emerge,
seldom much in the seeming of men. When we turned Christian, we raised
minsters on the outskirts of the caesters, so the holy men within them could
be a bulwark against the devilish sorcery of the Arxes. Even now, we shun the
caesters as places of danger and demonic power, even if the treasures of old
Rome are rich within their walls.

126
Until six generations ago we English were a heathen race. Our cru-
elty was great against the Wealh, so great that even their bishops and priests
cursed us and refused to share the Gospel with us.
Even now their clerics shun us and follow their own
prelate, loyal to Rome but despising the archbishop Of the
at Canterbury. They left us to the pagan gods of our Coming
fathers, glad of the Hell that awaited us. of
It was Roman pity that saved us from the fire. Christ
In the year 597 of Our Lord the holy Saint Augus-
tine was sent to us by the Holy Father in Rome, that
we may be snatched from the flames by the word of
God. He taught our kings, and made many followers
of Christ, and raised up a minster at Canterbury. By
the pope’s leave he put bishops in London and Roch-
ester, and made schools for priests and monks. It was not more than three or
four generations until all England was a Christian land.
The devil was not so easily cheated of his prey, however, and many kings
were slow to embrace Christ. In Sussex, the Saxons there accepted the Lord
only in my grandfather’s day, and there are old men yet living who remember
when the heathen gods were honored in the deep Sussex weald. But now all
of England is mantled in minsters where monks and priests dwell, and every
stretch of English land knows what bishop rules the Church in their domain.
Yet remnants remain. Deep in the forests and hills, far from the minsters
where Christ’s servants labor, there yet remain pockets of bitter pagans and
cursed heretics. The devil sends them promises and demons to help them,
creatures that don the faces of our ancestral gods and assure the foolish that
triumph and glory await them if only they remain true to Hell.
The worship of false gods is forbidden among the English. Those who
take up evil ways must pay a forfeit to the minster in charge of their souls and
make penitent recompense for their crimes. Exile is visited only on those evil-
doers who repeatedly refuse correction, but I rue to say that great men with
many friends may laugh at the reproofs of bishops.
We English are not a subtle race in our faith. We do not hunt down her-
etics or send monks to sniff for secret pagans, like Wealh bishops might with
their heads full of too-cunning doctrine. We fight only against sworn hea-
thens and bloody-handed heretics. Let a man swear to his love of God, his
hate of Hell, and his obedience to the Church, and he will be pious enough.

127
 In this, the year 710 of Our Lord as brother Bede would reckon it,
there are four great kingdoms in England and more that are of lesser might.
Kingdoms are chiefly measured by kindred, so that
all men of a particular kinship or tribe should share
the same kingdom, but wars and conquest have Of the
mixed the borders by a measure. The trading-wic of Kingdoms
Londinium is under Mercian masters, for instance, of
even though men count it part of Essex. So too England
within most great kingdoms there are under-kings
of lesser peoples and smaller tribes, who yet have
strength enough that the high king cannot ignore
them. But so it is through all of England that no lord
can command any other lord lightly save that he has
strong spears to encourage the reluctant.
Wessex is the sole Saxon land among the four great kingdoms, but it
is great enough for any people. Wise King Ine has ruled in Wessex for more
than twenty years, having given to the land a book of laws in which the good
old customs of his nation were recorded. To the west, King Ine has just this
year slain King Geraint of Dumnonia, breaking that old Briton kingdom
and scattering its lords. Even so, he has not the spears to master the furious
Wealh of that land, and it remains in chaos. In the east, the king holds King
Nothhelm of Sussex as his friend and follower, and the two kings of the East
Saxons must also listen to his words. Wessex is strong, but her warriors have
spears turned in many directions, and to keep the other Saxon tribes loyal
and the Dumnonians in retreat is a thing to tax any king.
East Anglia is ruled by cunning old King Ealdwulf, who for fifty years
has been lord of the land. Many are the minsters and holy places in East Anglia,
such as the hermitage of holy Saint Guthlac in the Crowland fens and the
double minster at Ely founded by saintly Queen Ethelburga when the king
was a youth. Once East Anglia was greater, and mighty King Raedwald was
bretwalda over all England a century ago, but now it has dwindled. Ealdwulf
has kept his throne by his many dealings and bargains with his hungry neigh-
bors and by the aid of God at his many minsters. He is a hard-eyed king who
will do whatever he must to ensure his people remain free.
Mercia is a great but blighted kingdom, an Angle land ruled by young
King Ceolred. He is scarce more than a boy, but already he has a man’s eager-
ness for evil. He outrages nuns and steals the belongings of the Church and

128
Map of England

129
 feasts shamefully on God’s portion. His father and elder brother both went to
Rome to be monks and die in holiness, but young Ceolred seems swift to do
enough evil for all three. The lords of Mercia quarrel and fret, some faithful
to the boy king, others wishing a better lord, each striving against each other.
If they all moved as one Mercia may be the mightiest of all the English king-
doms, but they cannot combine. To the west, the Wealh kingdoms seethe in
bitterness, and Mercia’s western border is scorched by British fires.
Northumbria, too, is an Angle kingdom with a boy for a king. King
Osred is a child of twelve winters, until last year ably guarded and guided
by Saint Wilfrid, who himself was lord of a veritable kingdom of minsters.
Northumbria lies, as the name says, north of the River Humber, and once it
was the greatest of the English kingdoms. It was forged in the joining of the
old kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia, and was rich in wisdom, strength, and
many minsters, and I myself dwell at the Northumbrian minster at Jarrow.
Yet Northumbria is tired now, harried hard by the Picts to the north and the
Wealh kinglets to the west, and there is turmoil and doubt among its people.
It has little to do with the nations south of the Humber, and its lords wish
mostly to manage their own troubles than wrest lands from their southern
kin in Mercia or East Anglia.
Of the remaining English kingdoms there are but three of any con-
sequence. Sussex is a Saxon land of the deep, trackless weald that shields
England’s southern coast. Until my father’s time they were pagans, and only
the fierce holiness of Saint Wilfrid and other pious men brought them to their
present faithfulness. Even so, their King Nothhelm must sometimes strug-
gle against heathen reavers hiding within the great forest. Essex and the East
Saxons are a weakened people, for their paired kings Saelred and Swaefbert
must spend their hours mediating between the demands of the Mercians and
the will of King Ine of Wessex. Their great trading-wic of Londinium and the
fruits of its trade are now almost wholly in Mercian hands.
And at the southeast of the island, Jutish Kent is under the rule of King
Wihtred, who paid wergild to King Ine for the death of his kinsman Mul,
who ruled Kent until the people burnt him and his men alive for their evil.
Once Kent was the richest and most splendid of English lands, getting much
trade from the Franks, but it has faded now with the rise of the trading-wics.
The Kentishmen love churches and minsters, for it was in Kent that Christ’s
word first came to us, and even now a bishop’s oath in Kent is as strong as
that of the king.

130
 Aside from these English kingdoms, there are also the nations of the Picts,
and the Irish, and the Britons. The Picts dwell in the far north, beyond the
borders of Northumbria, and fight the English there when the hour is ripe.
They are not subtle, and have little learning, though they were made Chris-
tians by the Irish and have been so for generations. Their King Nechtan of
Pictland is counted a wise man, and my holy Abbot Ceolfrid has but recently
sent him a letter urging him to leave off the error of the Irish Easter and accept
instead the calculations that Rome uses for the holy day. The Picts will fight
Northumbrians when there seems good profit in it, but so too they will wed
their daughters to Northumbrian lords if that seems a better thing.
The Irish keep mostly to their own island, save when their raiders come
to scathe the shore-lands, or their holy saints come to bring better tidings.
They are a famously learned and holy people in their own land, and the Wealh
owe their own faith to Irish saints and teachers. There the abbots are so great
that even the Irish bishops bow before the masters of the great minsters. Yet
while they keep chiefly to Ireland, they have on our island a kingdom in Dal
Riata, north and west of Northumbria. This kingdom is in great turmoil, being
much oppressed by the Picts even as it swears its obedience to Northumbria’s
king. King Dunchad is the best lord that Dal Riata has right now, ruling in
Kintyre on the coast and fighting back the Picts as best he can.
The Wealh kingdoms are falling, one by one. Dumnonia in the south was
broken by King Ine. Kingless, its people now struggle to drive out the reavers
of Wessex. Yet in the land men call Wales, four other kingdoms yet survive.
Gwynned stands under King Idwal, last of the true Roman lands. They
love Latin there, and the memory of Rome, and they sing songs of the glories
they knew before we came upon them. Yet they live much as their brethren do,
in thatched huts, gripping spears, without even wheels to throw their crude
pots. They hate us for what we made them give up, for the good things they
had to forget, and they cherish the faded remnants of their fathers.
In Powys their King Gwylog rules stubbornly from within the old Roman
caester of Virconium, though men say that the evils within its walls will soon
force him to flee elsewhere. Dyfed is under the hand of King Cadwgan, who
is sore pressed by other Wealh kinglets who have hammered Dyfed for sixty
years or more. King Morgan of Gwent is the last of the great kings of the
Wealh, and in his land they yet have Roman walls to their settlements, and
hot hate for the Mercians to the east. In all these lands there is much pov-
erty, yet remnants of Roman arts can sometimes be found in unlikely places.

131
 England is divided up into many tribes of our people. The Angles, Jutes,
and Saxons are the three great divisions, but each of these races has their own
subsidiary peoples and tribes, ones distinguished by
the land they inhabit or the bloodline they claim.
There are so many of these small divisions that only How Our
a scholar may name them all, and there are proud Lands
folk who hold themselves as a nation when they have are
not five hundred men to bear spears. Ruled
Each of these peoples are ruled by a king, or two
kings, or sometimes three. Four I have not counted,
and five is out of right measure. Most often a people
has but one chief king, with the strongest following
to serve him. If there are other men too great and
important in the same land to be denied, they may
claim titles as sub-kings. It is not uncommon for the sub-king and the chief
king to disagree as to who is which, and many are the bloody quarrels fought
over who is to command and who is to obey.
Even when the distinction is clear, however, it is never a simple matter for
a great king to command a lesser king. Every command that is not welcomed
must be enforced with steel, and a king has only so many men to order to
war, and so much strength to wield. A king must judge carefully whether he
will gain enough in glory and awe by forcing his rule to earn recompense for
the loss of men he will incur.
Only men of royal families may become kings. Every English king can
trace his lineage back to one of the heathen gods of our ancestors, and this
ancient blood is counted a necessity if any man is to claim the king-helm of
a people. Yet to be of royal blood, while necessary, is insufficient for rank and
glory. A fool whose father was a king is but a fool, and men will mock him as
one. It may be that he will go and seek friends among the Wealh lords, who
will help him press his claim to rule so that the English may fight amongst
each other and they may laugh at our dying.
Those who are not kings but who are great in the country are the ealdor-
men, the magnates who are good friends to their king and great lords to lesser
ones. The ealdormen are all heroes and mighty warriors, leaders of strong war-
bands and doers of great deeds. No man may become an ealdorman by mere
birth; his sons must do great things if they are to earn the respect of their
father’s friends, though their sire may aid them in finding ways to show their

132
mettle. Yet it is not enough that an ealdorman be strong in war. He must be
wise in counsel as well, versed in the friendship of men and the giving of good
words. A hero who is hated by his king and few in his friends will never be
an ealdorman, no matter how mighty his deeds.
Ealdormen have rights over much land, granted to them by the king who
rules over all the lands of his people. They may eat of the feorm, the food-rent
offered up by the inhabitants of the land, and enjoy the fruits of the earth, and
take the tribute that custom and law allows them to take from all who dwell
on the land. They ensure that the tribe’s law is honored in their domains, and
that good judgment is given to those who do evil. Not least, they protect the
Church and guard the minsters on their lands.
This land is given only for the life of the ealdorman. If he dies, he is no
help to his king and he has no power to maintain his royal friend’s rule. If
he has a worthy son who has proven his mettle, it may be that the king will
allow him to take up his father’s lands, but more likely it is that they will be
parceled off among other ealdormen or used to reward a good friend of the
king who can be expected to maintain the law.
Some little portion of the land may be made “bookland” by the king’s
permission, and this bookland may be kept by the owner and sold or given to
whomever he chooses, without asking the king’s leave or gaining his permis-
sion. This bookland is most often given to a minster or used as a foundation for
a new minster, but some men trade it amongst each other for wealth or favors.
The king is not eager to make bookland, but knows that such a rich reward
is a good way to buy the friendship of wavering ealdormen and great heroes.
A careful reader who has attended to my words may now wonder what
becomes of the lesser lords and loyal friends who have been given land by an
ealdormen when that ealdorman dies. Do their lands also go back into the
king’s hands, to be given to other men? They do not. You see, every gift of land
that is not bookland must have the king’s leave and permission. So it is that it
is like the king himself giving the land to that man. The ealdorman, once he
grants it, cannot take it back; so too when he dies, it is not reclaimed. When
the tenant himself perishes the land commonly returns to the ealdorman, to
be given to another good friend, or it goes back to the king if the ealdorman
is dead. If the ealdorman dies first, the tenant renders up his lawful tribute to
some other lord as chosen by the king, or to the king himself.
These lesser nobles are the spine of English rule. Not so great as ealdor-
men, not so humble as the ceorls, they ensure that the settlements in their

133
 scope are lawfully ruled and that all things are done as custom and law require.
Just as any brave man may become an ealdorman, so may any man become
a noble. He needs only do great deeds and win the great friendship of an eal-
dorman or the king. If he is strong, and wise, and prudent of counsel, he will
be given charge of land and bade tend it well. He will fight at his lord’s side
and feast at his table and enjoy the gifts of an open-handed liege. He will be
a friend to his lord, for it is impossible that any man should be sworn to a
man who is not his friend.
He will keep this land so long as he does his duty and keeps his faith with
his lord. It can be taken away only for evil deeds or a failure of faith. When he
dies, his sons will be considered for his replacement, but they must be good
sons, useful and loved by their lord, or else he will give the land to some man
who can do him better help.
Below the lords are the common ceorls, the free men of England. The
spears they bear are token of their freedom and rights, for no thrall is permit-
ted weapons, and even a king must fear the anger of his people. They must
give up the feorm, the food-rent, in exchange for the use of their lord’s land.
When rule of the land changes, they yet remain; only the recipient of the feorm
changes. Their lord cannot dispose of their land or drive them out, for they
are the means by which he is fed, and they will kill him and burn his house if
he tries to rob them so. And what use is untilled earth, that the tillers should
be driven away? One family of farmers is much the same as any other, so there
is no reason to chivvy them about like sheep in the fields.
A man receives the use of a piece of land by permission of his lord who
has rule of it, and then decides who among his sons or kinsmen is to have use
of it when he dies. He may have much land or little, great wealth or small,
but he may divide it and apportion it as he wishes, so long as his kinsmen do
not object. It is a great fool who acts to earn his kinsmen’s anger, for who shall
protect him in his need if they reject him? So it is that a ceorl is sometimes
surer of his son’s future than is a lord, who knows that when he dies his sons
must be found worthy to get any land at all.
Beneath the ceorls are the miserable thralls, men and women taken in
war and put to labor. Most are of ceorlish stock, unhappy and unfortunate
in being taken in war-raids or as losers in battle. Few were true warriors, for
fighters who surrender in war can expect to be killed out of hand, and there
are more than a few stories of warriors who feign ceorlishness so as to be made
thralls instead of corpses.

134
 A thrall is a slave until he dies or his master frees him, which he may do
at any time. Many are the lordly houses that have slaves, for they are the ones
who fight wars and get the spoils thereof. Some are sold to wealthy ceorls,
some are ransomed back to their people, and some are merely freed and told
to go, for there is not bread enough to feed them nor untilled land enough
to work. Loyal thralls are often given their freedom in time, that they should
be honest ceorls in service to their old lords.
A thrall has rights as a Christian and may not be slain out of hand, and
to be cruel to them is an affront to God. Adultery and fornication are for-
bidden by the Church, but alas, many are the thrall women who are made to
give unrighteous service to their masters. Only the shameless and brutish dare
flaunt such things with open concubines, and only a lord or great man may
be plain in such things without suffering the anger of his wife and her kins-
men, for they are willing to swallow his sins that they might enjoy his gifts.
The child of a thrall is a thrall as well, yet many are given their freedom
that they may be better servants to their lords. Thralls do bad work as a rule,
and must be minded carefully, and are troublesome to keep for most. They
must be fed and clothed and shod as a ceorl need not be, and they spend all
their hours close enough to steal their lord’s grain and other property. Lords
keep thralls enough to see to their house-service and the tending of their
infields, but they are a luxury and a mark of standing rather than a thing that
makes men wealthy.
Whether thrall, or ceorl, or lord, or ealdorman, or even king, a man in
England is worth what his deeds have earned. Even a thrall may be an ealdor-
man some day, if he is mighty in war and wise in words. Blood means little.
If your father is an ealdorman you may have a fine sword and good harness
and much wealth on your back, but you will get nothing from the king until
you show that sword’s worth. Lords need strong friends to help them, and
they care little for such a man’s past.

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 The Wealh ruled all England once, long ago in the Roman times.
Kinsmen to the Gauls and the Franks, they had dwelled in this place since Ba-
bel’s time, bowing to foreign masters after the mighty
emperors of Rome broke their kings, but they never
departed from their lands. Roman governors and The
generals came and went with their legions and their Wealh
traders from afar, but the people of this land were and
ever the same. Other
The northern Wealh are a fair race, given to Foreigners
blond or ruddy hair and big frames, while the Wealh
of the southwest are swarthy, with curly black hair
like the men of Hispania. The Picts of the far north
are of mixed kinds, some like to their Briton neigh-
bors, others darker-haired and leaner, but they have
wed often with Irish and Briton alike.
In the days of the Romans the Wealh were like them. While some dwelled
as their fathers did in villages of huts, many resided within the walls of Roman
caesters or within market-towns such as we English lack. They ruled their cities
in the Roman fashion, with councilors to decide their governance who dressed
in the Roman toga and spoke the Latin tongue. Men whose great-grandfathers
had stained their naked bodies with woad and fought from wooden chariots
now prided themselves upon the excellence of their Latin and the perfection
of their taste. They were weak men, but their weakness was hidden beneath
Rome’s cloak.
When the wars of the Wealh tyrants ended and the walls of Britain fell
and our fathers rushed in as the tide, all these things were lost. First the Roman
villas were abandoned as rich men could no longer dare to live outside the
walls. Then the market-towns were emptied, for none had anything more to
sell, and Rome sent no more coins to pay the legions she had taken back. The
cities fell last, for there was space within the walls to grow crops, and the Brit-
ons had killed each other so boldly that there were fewer yet to feed.
Yet the caesters fell. Those within were slaughtered, or made slaves, or
locked themselves in their Arxes and prayed for Christ’s mercy. They could
not stand forever against us, and deprived of hope and help they were but
food for our spears. Nowhere in all Britain remains a Wealh city living as they
once did. Only the villages and hiding-places in the mountains and the wastes
were shelter to the Wealh who remained.

136
 And in these places they live as we do. Ragged kings and hungry war-
riors, crouched by fires as their eightfold-fathers once did, remembering what
they once had and what we took from them. They speak their Wealh tongue
amongst themselves, though their learned men cherish Latin, and they fight
each other in the Wealh lands for the scraps of their past that remain. Their
priests and bishops remember all the teachings of Rome, but they hate us root
and branch, and refuse to obey the archbishop at Canterbury, having their
own primate at St. David’s minster who is obedient yet to Rome.
A few Wealh still cling to remnants of their old glory, struggling in vain
to keep the pride of Romans. Gwynned’s king still counts himself the last of
the Roman lords, and in Powys their king rules from the ancient caester of
Virconium yet, despite the peril of the Arxes there. There are yet Artifexes
among the Wealh, ones cunning in Roman sorcery, and their bishops and
monks are learned in the doctrines of Christ. Too learned, perhaps, for more
than one heresy has leapt from over-clever British tongues.
There are Wealh in many parts of England as well, heirs to men enslaved
by our ancestors or to those lords lucky enough to be allowed to be friends
to our kings. They melt with the years, their ways now lost beneath our own
and little left of their Wealh-ness beyond their names. There are even English
lords with Wealh princesses or war-prizes as grandmothers or former kin.
In their own kingdoms the Wealh seethe. The ride from the western
mountains and northern wastes to raid the borders of our kingdoms and take
what they can. Our kings thrust into their lands, even as King Ine of Wessex
has recently killed Dumnonia’s king, and we tear away what we might. Yet
the Wealh are cunning in their hate. They will give aid to our usurpers and
pretenders, helping them in their cause in hope that they might become kings
indebted to them, or at least that they might get more English killed. A careful
English lord can strike bargains with Wealh kings, but never safely.
Of other foreigners in England there are but few. Traders from Frankish
lands draw ships up on our shores, but seldom do they linger. Truly, it is said,
only the most desperate or foolish would seek the end of the world that is Brit-
ain. Picts come down from the north at times, and the Irish have sent many
monks in former days, but only a scant handful of others can be found here.
They may travel peacefully in English lands so long as they heed our laws, or
at least as peacefully as any man may hope to travel our roads.

137
 The laws of England are not written in books. It is true that our kings
may write some of them down, as King Ine of Wessex has done of late, but
such writings never rightly compass all our laws. The
dooms by which an Englishman lives are those ac-
cepted by his kinsmen and his people, and a king can English
do little to alter such things unless he may persuade Justice
all the lords in his kingdom to consent to the change.
There are many small laws among us, about how
a man may plow his land, and how tithes and soul-
scot are to be gathered in a hundred, and how feorm
is to be delivered and at what time and place, but
such small laws are of little interest to foreigners and
I pass over them in silence. If in your play you have
need to know such a thing, merely make a law that
sounds good to you, and pretend it is ours. So too are our full ways of judging
complex and subtle, and so I give you something simpler here.
Crimes are repaid with wergild. This is a sum in money or in goods that
must be paid to the victim of a crime, and also perhaps shared with his lord
if the crime touched upon his lord’s rights. If the victim is dead, then wer-
gild must be repaid to his nearest kin. If a man refuses to pay wergild, he is
named an outlaw, and any may take his goods and kill him if they find him,
and his kinsmen may not protect him or avenge his death. When wergild is
levied on a man, the price is commonly so great that his kinsmen must come
together to pay it for him, if they think him worth the price. If they refuse to
help him in this, then clearly he is a fool and a burden, and they will not be
too angry if he is killed.
Trials are before the lord of the land, be he ealdorman or lord or abbot.
If the evidence is not beyond dispute, the accused may come before the judge
with oath-helpers to help him swear that he is innocent. Minor crimes may
be denied with five helpers of the same rank as the accused, serious crimes
may be denied with ten, and crimes as bad as murder may be denied with
twenty. The true measure is more subtle, but let these simple numbers serve.
Do not think us such fools as to imagine that mere words can turn a vil-
lain into an innocent dove. Oath-swearing is a proof that the accused has men
ready to fight his accusers. If enough men gather to pledge their oaths as to
his innocence, then it becomes a greater misery to punish him than to let him
go free. What lord will risk the anger of ten good ceorls just to punish a man

138
for stealing a sheep? Let God give the evildoer his punishment and scourge
those who give false oaths, for He is a sure and terrible judge.
If the accused does not have friends enough to make up the needed
oath-helpers, the lord must judge for himself whether he is guilty or innocent
of the crime. So too, if a man is caught red-handed in his crime, he is not per-
mitted to seek oath-helpers but must suffer the lord’s judgment. So also if he is
accused several times of the same crimes, such that the lord grows wrathful and
the people accept among them that he is a bad man who must be punished.
If the man is found innocent by the lord or by his oath, he goes away
unharmed. If any man should kill him or beat him or otherwise avenge his
wrongs on him then the culprit is punished as a criminal, and there is no for-
giveness or oath-helping. If such things are not punished quickly they may
become a feud and the whole settlement may be convulsed with man-kill-
ing and ruin.
If the man is guilty, he must pay a wergild, commonly before six months
have passed, though longer if he can show how it is to be paid in that time.
This wergild is paid to the victim, or his next of kin. If the crime is also against
the protection of a lord, the wergild is shared with the lord as well. So it is that
to kill a ceorl in the forest is a crime against the ceorl, but to strike a man in
the lord’s own hall is both a crime against the man who was struck and the
lord whose house-protection was broken.
If a man does not pay this wergild, or cannot pay, and his kinsmen refuse
to help him pay it, then his lord declares him an outlaw and any man may kill
him or take his goods. Because his kinsmen misliked him enough to refuse
to help him make up the wergild, they will have no heart to avenge his death.
Such outlaws must flee into the weald, there to lurk with brigands and here-
tics and die alone in cold places, or else they must seek a life in another land.
Foreigners may ask whether there is justice for the great as well as the
small in England, and whether lords and ealdormen must answer as common
ceorls do. For this, know that it is the strength of the king that determines
whether the great may do evil or not. If the king is weak, or the lord is too
strong, or the crime is too small, then there is no one to punish him for his
wrongdoings or compel him to accept a trial, for who will bring his army
against a lawless lord’s warriors? If the king is strong and just, then even eal-
dormen must answer for doing evil. If he is wicked or weak, then the great
may do as they like and think nothing of any wergild. I sorrow to say that
many of the kings in England are not so strong nor so good as they should be.

139
 The great laws are few and simple. The punishments and price vary
from place to place, and fine shades of meaning are different between king-
doms, but here I harmonize them, and give you sim-
ple rules that even a foreigner can understand. Note
well that every man has his wergild, and a woman’s English
wergild is the same as that of her father or her hus- Laws
band, whichever is greater. and
Crimes are listed with the number of oath-help- Wergild
ers of the accused’s own social rank that are required
to clear the accused of the crime. These oath-helpers
are not allowed if the culprit was caught red-handed
in their evil or if they have been accused many times.

Adultery: One caught defiling their marriage bed

must pay their sinful partner’s wergild to their partner’s spouse, or to the
king for an unwed sinner. If a man lies with a wedded woman, he must also
pay to get the offended husband a new wife. One who beds their thrall must
free them as well and pay them their wergild. Twenty oath-helpers to clear.
Assault: If men fight in a minster or holy place, they must pay 120 shillings
to the minster’s abbot. If they fight in an ealdorman or lord’s house, they
must pay 60 shillings to the lord and 60 more to the king. And if it is in
a ceorl’s house, they must pay 120 shillings to the ceorl’s lord and 6 to the
householder himself. But if men are drunk and quarreling, then only 30
shillings are exacted in all cases, and none to those who do not join the
fight. Five oath-helpers, or ten for a lord’s peace, or twenty for a king or bishop’s.
Disobedience: For refusing a lawful demand from your lord he may take back
what he has given you. You can only be disobedient to your own direct lord.
The king or your lord’s lord may make requests of you, but it is only pru-
dence or courtesy to obey, not law. No oath-helpers may clear this.
False Witness: A man who bears false witness before a bishop or repudiates
a vow he has made to another must pay 120 shillings to the one wronged.
Ten oath-helpers to clear this, if it is not unanswerably obvious.
Murder: Of a king, no wergild will be accepted. Of an ealdorman or bishop,
1,200 shillings and 120 more to the king. Of a lord or abbot, 600 shillings
and 80 more to his lord or bishop. Of a ceorl, monk, or nun, 200 shillings
and 30 more to his lord. Of a thrall, 60 shillings to his owner. These are the
wergilds for each rank of men. Twenty oath-helpers to clear.

140
Paganism: One who goes to perform pagan rites in the weald must pay 60
shillings to the king and forswear the devil’s service. One who denies the
Church and refuses obedience to holy teaching must redeem himself with
his wergild or be made outlaw. Ten oath-helpers to clear this.
Raiding: For raiding and marauding with a band of eight to thirty-three men,
a fine of 120 shillings to the king. For marauding with more than thir-
ty-three men, a fine equal to the man’s wergild, for to go with an army is a
greater crime than to go with a band of marauders. If less than eight men,
they are only thieves, and subject only to the fines for thievery. There is no
wergild for killing a thief or raider in the field, and if you find a man off the
roads who neither calls out nor blows a horn to make his presence known,
you may kill him as a raider if you choose. There is no fine for raiding only
the enemies of your lord, for he will like to see them hurt. Ten oath-helpers
to clear marauding, or twenty to clear joining a raiding army.
Rape: For insulting a woman or taking her clothing from her, a fine paid to her
equal to her murder. If she cries out and is heard, her friends and kinsmen
may kill her assailant and pay no wergild for it. Twenty oath-helpers to clear.
Theft: If caught in the act, no wergild is allowed and he may be killed with-
out wergild in turn. If he is not killed he must pay his own wergild to the
victim’s lord or die for his theft. If one not taken in the act is convicted of
theft, he must return the price of the goods to the victim and 60 shillings
more to the victim’s lord. If a man steals alone he may pay the fine, but if
his wife and family help him then all must be put into penal slavery, for
they are a nest of robbers. A child of ten may be held culpable for thieving
and enslaved with the others, but not those younger than that. Five or ten
oath-helpers to clear, as fits the magnitude of the theft.
Thrall Rebellion: If a thrall kills a man or does another evil thing, his owner
must give him up to the victim to be punished as the law requires or buy
his life with 60 shillings. If he does neither, the master must set the thrall
free, and the thrall’s kinsmen must pay the wergild or fine for his crimes. If
he has no kinsmen or they refuse to pay, the thrall is outlawed. If a thrall
flees his master he shall be beaten and returned, but a man made thrall for
his crimes who runs away must die for it. No oath-helpers may clear this.
Treason: For doing selfish hurt to your lord, forfeit all he has given you in
land and gifts unless he chooses to forgive your wrong. For aiding his ene-
mies against him or putting him in their power, death alone is deserved.
No oath-helpers are allowed to clear this terrible crime.

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 There are no cities in England as a Roman would count them, and
there are no towns by Roman measure either. There are only four trading-wics
in England that can number even two or three thou-
sand souls at any given time, and those who dwell
there chiefly do so as sojourners, pausing only long English
enough to barter their goods with foreign traders Villages
before departing. Instead, the English people dwell
in small settlements, each numbering no more than
eight to ten households and each household having
perhaps five to ten members counted among them.
Every English family dwells within a thatched
wooden hall, with father, mother, and children all
together. If grandparents yet live they may share a
hall with their children and grandchildren, but few
are the souls in England who live to grow gray. A hall rarely has more than
two generations living beneath its roof. When a son is prosperous enough to
wed, his kinsmen will help him raise a hall of his own for his family to inhabit.
A common hall is perhaps XX paces wide and XX paces long, with doors
in the middle of each longer side. These doors are thrown wide to let in light
and air, for there are no windows in a hall as there are in a church. The hearth
is in the center of the hall, and the open doors help the breeze come through
and banish the heavy smoke. At one end of the hall may be a room set aside
for the master and mistress to sleep and to keep their precious goods therein,
but otherwise the interior is undivided. Tables and benches are lifted up and
taken down as need requires, and pallets are unrolled around the hearth.
Aside from the halls where men live, a prosperous settlement will have its
mead-hall, the heart of the settlement where the people may gather to feast
and rejoice together on great days. All share in its building and its proper
keeping, and use it at the leave of the lord when he has no need of it himself.
When strangers come and have no kinsmen to take them in, they may sleep
by the mead-hall’s hearth if they are seemly and gracious in their manners.
Beside these thatched halls are the “sunken huts”, little shelters no more
than four or five paces square dug a man’s height into the earth and roofed
over with a thatched ridge. These huts hold timber or other such things, or
are used for weaving or smithing or other labors that require more space and
concentration than can be found within a hall. There are commonly two or
three or four huts near each hall, used by those who dwell there.

142
 The last thing to be found in most villages is its cross, finely-carved and
painted and standing taller than a man in a good open space. Churches are
not in villages, but only in minsters, so when the priest comes from the min-
ster each week he will preach and instruct and give Mass by the village cross.
A rich settlement will pay a minster artisan to make for them a cross of carved
stone, but most are content to raise wooden ones.
Kings live in halls just as other men do, though theirs may be larger and
more splendidly painted, and may even have a room at both ends instead of
just one. Yet such is the poverty of our land that a king cannot live in only
one place, nor can an ealdorman with his wide lands. Such men must roam
forever from royal hall to royal hall, there to gather in the food-rent from
their surrounding lands and feed their loyal companions. Were they to stay
in the same place for a week, they would eat hunger for their bread. So it is
that royal halls are scattered widely throughout every land, each a place where
men may bring the food-rent when it is their time to render it up. Seldom
does a king stay more than a brief while in any particular hall. Around these
royal palaces are other halls and hearths, so that the king’s companions may
have room when there are too many to sleep around the palace hearth, and
trusted keepers may dwell to preserve the royal villa between visits. There are
never many such supplemental halls, for no king can afford to ride daily with
an army at his back. A king may go forth with one or two-score companions
and kinsmen unless he is gathering men for a purpose.
There are no merchants in English villages, nor artisans who earn all their
bread from their skill. There are no resident traders, no usurers, no men of
rare and cunning arts. If you desire a thing in an English village, you must
find a man there who has the art to make it, and gift him something suitable
to persuade him to fashion it for you. If you have goods to trade in a village,
you must bargain with all there, trying to get the best price you can for what
you offer. Only in the great trading-wics are there rich foreign traders from
over the sea, who can afford to give great gifts in exchange for great sums of
grain, or leather, or metal, or thralls.
Men in need of rare and delicate work must often go to a minster to find
an artisan-monk who can make such a thing. Those who desire fine armor
and beautiful weapons and other things that are sinful for monks to make
must find masters where they dwell in England, and hope their gifts are fine
enough to win their work. More likely, such seekers will get them from a gen-
erous lord, gifts earned by faithful service to his cause.

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 All England lives by beef and bread, when we can get it, or by grain
alone when we cannot. Every English man and woman knows well the work
of the fields, and even those few who do not make
their living from the land know the commonplaces
of pasture and planting like a Roman knows his Farming
churches. A nobly-born boy or girl or a choir-monk and
sworn to God from youth on might not know the Livestock
work well enough to do it rightly, but they will see it
being done every day and hear talk of it every night
around the hearth.
Every man and his family works the land which
is their own. This land lies beside the village halls,
and when there are too many people in a village for
lands within an easy walk to sustain, then a new vil-
lage is founded in some waste place by a lord eager for laborers. In truth, with
every able man in the village out in the fields from dawn until dark, one may
say that the fields are the village, and the halls merely resting-places.
Lords and abbots and great men own much farmland, but rarely is it
all in one piece. An abbot may own his minster-land, and a grange an hour
away, and have rights to the feorm of a few villages nearby, and have a great
patchwork of land to be farmed. So it is that they must always have reeves
and men of those places charged with seeing that all is done well and the due
rents are gathered for their masters.
Men grow wheat and barley to sustain their lives and brew their ale.
Wheat is the better grain, finer in flavor and better-loved by lords, but it does
not grow well in England and takes much care to get good crops. Barley is the
staff for the common folk, for it is easier to grow, though less pleasing to eat
and more troublesome to bake. Field beans are grown for more nourishment,
and peas for the sick and dainty. Green herbs are grown in gardens tended by
women near to the hall, and every farmer’s boy and girl knows how to gather
wild pot-herbs from the weald and water-margins.
To this bread is added cheese, made from the milk of cows or sheep. It is
how most milk is used in a family, for the cheese keeps well and gives a fatness
to a meal that lean meat or dry bread oftimes lacks. Sometimes some butter
will be made if there is an abundance, but more often a family will use pig
lard instead to smear their bread and fry their foods. Meat or fat of any kind
is a great delight among the common folk, for they do not taste such things

144
over-often. Even so, even a thrall may expect to fill his belly with meat a few
times a year, and have a milk-cow for his support, while a lord or an abbot will
not be without a joint of beef to eat save that their feorm fails them.
Men plow with oxen and haul their carts with them. A common family
is counted tolerably well-supplied when it has a cow for milk, two oxen for
labor and later beef, and a half-dozen sheep for meat and wool. Even a poor
man may be fortunate enough to have a horse, but men do not use horses
for labor, for they cannot pull carts or plows well. Instead, they are for riding
or pack-carriage where carts cannot well go. Pigs are often kept as well, for
they can be sent into the forest to fatten on mast in the autumn, guarded by
swineherds who will bring them in before winter. Many families keep chick-
ens and other fowl, for they need little minding, and though they give little
meat their eggs and feathers are of use. Goats are not kept unless the land be
so poor that not even sheep can find food upon it.
A family’s livestock is not penned up save to manure the fields. Because
fodder is difficult to acquire, and land growing grass cannot grow grain, the
animals are led out to pasture and brought back in afterwards. Most villages
will pasture their animals all together under the watchful eye of herdsmen
and their dogs, that thieves and beasts may be driven off. Some pasture-cir-
cuits are short, and the animals come home every day. Others may be out in
the fields for days on end, roaming the wild places to find fodder. Some vil-
lages send women out to pasture the cattle in summer, when the weather is
good and the war-season is far away. There they may make a milking-camp
and make cheese for the year to come.
Every animal is branded with its owner’s mark and their ear clipped fitly,
so that all may know who it belongs to. No man may butcher a cow except
in the presence of two trustworthy witnesses, and even then he must keep
the head and the brand for three days to prove it was his cow he slaughtered.
When cows are stolen they must often be taken far from their original place
so that none will recognize the brand, or else traded to one who dwells beyond
the justice of the victims’ lord.
Cattle are the joy of a man’s wealth, and the best of goods. Leather, milk,
beef, and plow-labor are given by them, and a man with many cattle need
never fear hunger or privation. A trader will never have difficulty trading a fat
milk-cow for goods or labor, and a well-trained ox can always be exchanged
wherever there is something to buy. Let rich men guard their herds carefully
and well, and ensure their herdsmen are strong and loyal kin.

145
 In a settlement all men live mostly the same, except perhaps for the
lord if he lives there. All farm for their bread, either with their own hands on
their own land or by helping another tend his. Before
the sun they rise from their beds and go out to the
fields and the sunken huts, there to plow, or plant, Life in
or reap, or weave, or hew, or do the other things the
that all ceorls must do to live. Women most often Village
remain in the settlement to weave, cook, mend, tend
the beasts folded nearby, and do all the labors that
do not require great strength, while men go out to
distant fields and roam far pastures with the herds,
where danger may easily find them.
Kinsmen and neighbors work together in a
settlement. Men aid each other with their reaping
and plowing and pasture their beasts together under shared eyes. Where one
family falters, their kinsmen will help them, and will expect the same aid in
turn. Agreements are made as to what land shall be worked in what time,
and what help will be given in what season. A man hated by his neighbors,
one who incurs their anger and distrust, is sure to starve or perish without
help sooner or later, even assuming his neighbors do not conspire to drive
him away or kill him.
Every ceorl must know the common business of living. He must know
how to farm, and how to keep beasts, and how to build his hall and fashion
such instruments as he needs for his living. Every woman must know how to
weave and embroider, how to birth infants and how to bake bread. A common
ceorl may be no fine artisan, but man or woman alike must know how to live
without help from skilled hands.
True artisans are few in the settlements, though there may be men espe-
cially cunning at leatherworking, or women uncommonly artful in their
embroidering, or smiths who can make more than a knife or a spearhead
or such tools as every man must have. Even these men are farmers, however,
because there is rarely enough demand for their services to feed their families
otherwise. An adventurer who needs some rare skill or some fine gift made
may have to journey for days to find one able to do such work.
There are no shops in English settlements. Not even at the trading-wics
are there buildings where particular goods are always to be sold. A buyer must
go to where a thing is made or brought by foreign traders if they are to get it.

146
Peddlers and traders sometimes roam from settlement to settlement, trading
small goods, but more often they arrange trades between farmers who cannot
afford to go roaming half a day just to find someone who wishes to trade grain
for calves. Such traders make circuits of habit between familiar settlements,
finding out what is needed in one place and arranging for it to be provided
for a fair price elsewhere.
Many ceorls will go their whole lives without seeing a coin. While some
kings mint silver sceattas and foreign coins from Frankish lands can be found at
places, most measures of money are only for reckoning purposes. The price of
a cow is counted as being worth so many shillings, and so a wergild of so many
pounds may be paid with so many cattle, even if no coins ever trade hands.
I am told that foreigners in other lands “make change” with coins, ensuring
that nothing extra is ever given over the cost of a thing. That is unknown in
England, though a man who gets much for what he gives may throw in a little
more out of a virtuous generosity.

147
 Men and women have different roles in life as our people reckon them,
each with the duties they must do if any are to live to see another year. It is
for men to rule, to fight and to toil far from home.
It is for women to nourish, to birth, and to toil close
to the hearth. Neither are better-loved by God, nor Men,
dearer in His sight, and the wergild for the husband Women,
is no greater than that for his wife. and
Every man desires a wife, and he cannot think Kindred
of himself as fully grown until he has one, however
gray his beard may be. Yet even if he has enough
wealth to pay the bride-price for one, his choice may
reject him as unfitting if he is not such a man as
seems good to her. He must be strong, and provi-
dent, and careful, and of good standing among his
kindred if he is to win her approval.
Every woman desires a husband, and she will never have a house of her
own until she gets one. When she has found a man who finds her beautiful
and gentle and capable in the keeping of a house, she may receive her bride-
price from him and join with him in marriage. Custom says that she is mistress
of all matters beneath the hall-roof, the keeper of the keys to all chests and
coffers, and her husband may no more dismiss her will beneath the roof than
she may command him in the field. She oversees all female thralls personally.
They shall remain wed until one or the other shall die, or unless the man
is proven impotent, or until a partner is carried away into slavery, or until one
or the other defiles the marriage bed with the sin of adultery. It is a great insult
to a spouse to be an adulterer, whether it is the man or woman who sins. The
sinning spouse must pay their wicked partner’s lawful mate a fine equal to
their partner’s wergild, and if he is a man, they must pay him the bride-price
of a new wife. If they sin with an unmarried man or woman, they must pay
their partner’s wergild to the king instead.
I grieve to say that some great lords and kings do not honor the mat-
rimonial bed, and some warriors going afar do evil things contrary to their
marriage vows. Where these things are kept hidden they may escape earthly
rebuke, yet where the lord is so great that he may have many open mistresses,
his wife will often swallow her anger so that she might continue to enjoy the
pleasures of being a great lady. This is shameful for both, and God will answer
them for their evil appetites.

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 Among the great, a noblewoman’s duties are more burdensome than those
of a ceorl’s wife. The daughters of great lords are expected to be peace-weavers
among men, to be wed to old enemies or new friends that they may strengthen
old bonds or ease old hates. A lord’s wife must manage the great symbel-feasts
and speak sweet and persuasive words to those her husband would enlist.
It is not the custom for women to do men’s work, or men to toil at a
woman’s task. Yet some women yearn to pick up the spear or go forth into
battle, and have the strength and prowess to do so. These are unhappy souls
who get no joy from the good things appointed to their sex, who are deter-
mined to die as wretchedly as men die and kill as miserably as men kill. Most
think them more than a little mad, and they are oft said to be the waelcyrige
who are seers of victory and appointers of the slain. We of the Church do not
welcome this. It is bad enough that men kill. Must mothers seek spear-glory
as well? Better those women who must have glory should seek it in God, and
become the holy nuns and venerated abbesses that even kings fear to offend.
A man and his wife share their belongings, though a wife always retains
her bride-price to be used exclusively as she so wishes. If her husband dies,
all that is his goes to her, and if a wife dies, her bride-price returns to her
kinsmen. When the last parent dies, all the movable property is apportioned
among the children, and all the land is parceled off to them as custom, good
use, and their parents’ wishes would have it.
Kindred are the stout staff that sustains every man and woman in
England. When crops fail, when sickness strikes, when wergild is owed or
enemies threaten violence, a man appeals to his kindred for help and will get
it so far as his brethren can aid him. It is dangerous, then, to leave a region
where your brethren live and go to dwell far away, where you may have no
kindred close enough to help. If you do this then be wise and wed someone
there who may bind you into their own kinship, or be such a good friend to
them that they desire your well-being. For adventurers who wander over all
England their lot is more perilous still, for any family they have will be distant.
A strong kindred, with many good marriages and clever peace-weavers
and sweet-voiced friends in counsel, is a blessing to all who are part of it.
To betray a kinsman is unthinkable to all but the most damnable men and
women, though I tremble to think how often the king-helm has passed to new
wearers after awful kinstrife. The ceorls are better in this, God be thanked,
and a humble farmer would seldom think to do such terrible things as a king’s
brother might contemplate.

149
 The ways of

150
MINSTERINTRO slot

151
 Minsters are holy communities of monks, or sometimes both
monks and nuns. The are ruled by an abbot, or by an abbess if nuns are pres-
ent there. Lay folk are not permitted to live within
a minster’s walls, but many come and go from these
places on pilgrimages, or to seek blessings from the What
monks, or to give gifts, or to seek favor with them All
by doing tasks they require. Men
Minsters have stone buildings, and a wall, and Should
several churches and chapels, and dormitories, and Know
workshops for artisan-monks, and a host of things
unknown outside of their walls. Even the kings of
England sleep in wooden halls beneath thatched
roofs, but in minsters there are stone buildings
wrought by cunning craftsmen.
Adventurers seek minsters to earn an abbot’s friendship. An abbot
commonly has much wealth at his command, from all the tithes and scots
owed by the ceorls around the minster, and from land owned by the minster
and worked by its monks. He may dispose of this wealth as he wishes, pro-
vided it is in accordance with God’s will. A band of adventurers who aids the
abbot may expect rich rewards and the friendship of a powerful cleric. More-
over, any man may honorably help an abbot without incurring the enmity
of a secular lord, who may grudge adventurers who help their earthly rivals.
Minsters provide holy miracles. It may be that a hero has suffered a
terrible Scar or a dire curse or some other woe that earthly help cannot heal.
If they have befriended an abbot, they may hope to get the benefit of his
holy aid, either personally, if he is a Saint blessed with miracles of healing,
or through his connection with those monastics who are so graced. Saints
blessed with healing powers are few, but almost every minster of respectable
size will have a few with such powers, regularly engaged in healing petition-
ers and curing pilgrims.
It will be expected that the adventurers show the sincerity of their need,
however. No true Saint would ever trade healing for mere gifts, and so bless
a rich man’s purse before a poor man’s empty hands. Yet if a rich man comes
to him and is unwilling to put any of his treasures toward God’s work, then
clearly he cares more for his silver than his soul. Those who have no wealth
may show their sincerity through labor for the minster. For a ceorl, this may
be field work. For an adventurer, this may be more a daring deed.

152
 Minsters are where all clerics live. Whether monk or nun or priest or
bishop, all clerics live in association with a minster. Monks and nuns are not
allowed to leave it without permission of the abbot, who might send them
forth for some particular duty or to go to the aid of some other abbot. Priests
go out to give Mass to the ceorls, give last rites to the dying, and to hear the
confessions of their sins. Some preach as well, if they have that gift and if the
bishop thinks it fitting. Yet at the end of the day the priest returns to the min-
ster, and few are the churches outside a minster’s walls.
Minsters own land in many places, and so it often is that monks cannot
work the fields there and return to the minster every night. These farms are
called granges, and may be well-appointed with dormitories and a chapel for
the monks that they may have a place to pray. These granges are often far from
the minster’s walls, and may face perils that require strong hands to put down.
Minsters guard against Hell and unsealed Arxes. Demons and other
powers of Hell fear the holy might of a minster, and the sound of sacred bells
and sacred words can drive them far away. Wherever there is black sorcery
or damnable power, there also should be a minster to defy Satan and all his
lieutenants. While any upright Christian may call upon Christ for aid against
infernal powers, the holy lives and pious hearts of the Saints are most mighty
in repelling the powers of darkness. Even so, there are times when mortal men
who love Hell may seek to attack a minster and slay the monks within, and
then strong warriors for Christ must rise up to repel them, for monks are not
meant to contest with enemies of the flesh.
Aside from demonic powers, minsters are oft placed outside the ruined
cities of the Wealh, for within them are many of the cursed cysts called Arxes.
These sealed hollows beneath the skin of the world were bound shut by Roman
Artifexes in times of old as refuges against the reaving of our fathers. Yet with
no one to rescue the inmates within, they grow curdled and twisted on old,
sour magic and damnable energies, and are oftimes made less than men. The
seals that shut the Arxes must wither away in time, and so these desolate places
are often cursed with monstrous abominations and works of foul sorcery. The
minster’s monks stand guard against such things, with their prayers to drive
back the Hellish abominations and the strong right arms of their friends to
smite more carnal foes.
For these reasons minsters are of great importance to adventurers. There
is almost always some work there in need of hard hands to attain it, and many
are the gifts and helps that can be had there and nowhere else.

153
 Our Church is the strong fortress of the English people, and our min-
sters the towers that guard her mighty walls. Though we be Angles, or Sax-
ons, or Jutes, or others, we are yet Christians, and
the Church binds us together where the swords of
the tribes would cut us apart. I cannot expect every The
reader of this book to be a follower of the right faith, Essentials
and so I explain its most important truths here, so of the
that the gamesmen of Tang or the players of Persia Christian
may know what an English hero believes. Faith
There is but one God, the maker of heaven and
earth, and all other gods are lies or devils. God is
in three personae, the Father, the Son who is Jesus
Christ, and the Holy Spirit. These are not three dif-
ferent beings, but three faces and roles of the same
eternal Creator, just as a man may be a father to one man, a son to another,
and a husband to his wife. We may pray to saints who have died to intercede
for us with God, but these saints have only such power to aid as God sees fit
to grant them, and they are worthy only of honor such as pious men get and
not the worship that is for God alone.
God has heavenly angels to serve Him, but at the beginning of all things
some portion of these angels defied Him and were cast down into the flames
of Hell. There, their leader Satan yet vainly seeks to despoil and ruin all of
God’s creation. God permits him his hour of freedom, but at the end of time
he and all who follow him will be thrown down and burn for all eternity. All
who serve false gods or do wicked deeds serve the devil’s purpose in truth,
and the devil is the one who aids them.
God created man and woman and placed them in Eden, which was a
garden of perfect happiness. Yet the first woman disobeyed God and persuaded
the first man to do the same, by which pain and suffering and evil entered
into creation. We of the human race are thus wicked by nature, unable to do
good, always doing evil and seeking to harm God and our fellows both. We
deserve only death and Hell, and by our own efforts we will never get any-
thing else. Only with God’s help can we do good. The Briton Pelagius said
otherwise, but that is the way of the Wealh, to make tangles of straight paths
and darkness of the true light.
God mourns our sins and desires our eternal life, and so during the
rule of Emperor Tiberius, God sent to men his Son, Jesus Christ. He was born

154
of the virgin Mary in the land of the Jews, and he was both wholly God and
wholly man. He taught the blessed apostles and the multitude of believers,
and for his teachings he was crucified and put to death by the malice of the
Jews and the hand of the Roman sorcerer and procurator Pontius Pilate. Yet it
was necessary that Christ die so that we may be absolved of our sins and make
recompense for the evil that we have done. God is just, and our sins demanded
wergild, and so God Himself paid it for us out of His own holy blood.
Three days after Christ was laid in the tomb, he appeared alive to the
believers, and showed them that God’s word was true and Death was con-
quered, that all who died in Christ would live again. Before ascending into
Heaven he charged the apostles with spreading the true faith to every corner
of the earth, and making believers of all men. So they have done, for I know
that even the wave-swept Irish are great scholars of Christ now, and I have
heard that Christian shrines are raised even in the far lands of the Tang.
Now all Christians must obey the teachings of Christ. If they do so to
their best ability, and truly repent and grieve over their sins, then they will be
permitted to enjoy life eternal with Christ upon the day of judgment. Those
who scorn the laws of God and do not sorrow over their sins will be judged
and cast down into Hell, there to burn forever with their lord Satan, the devil.
For a common believer in Christ, it is necessary that they do not murder,
do not steal, do not lie, do not fornicate, do not covet another’s goods, do
not toil on the sabbath day, and do not honor false gods. They must pray to
God alone, give to the Church the tithes and scots to which they are law-
fully obliged, and believe what they are taught by the priests. They must be
generous to the needy, merciful to the penitent, and brave before the threats
of Satan. Let them treat all men with love and kindness, yet allow no evil to
come in under color of soft lenience. This is what a Christian man must do
if he is to gain heaven. A monk or nun must do more besides.
If he fails in any of these things, and he must fail at times because he is
only a sinful man, he must heartily repent of his evil, confess his failing to
his priest or to his fellow if no priest can be found, and then do penance for
his crime to show his true contrition. If he makes such amends as he can for
his wrong, and does all he ought to repent of it, then God shall put it out of
his mind on the day of judgment. Yet even a penitent man must suffer the
penalties of this world for his sins, so that weak men should not be tempted
to do evil, thinking they may wail of it afterwards and be spared the pains of
earthly punishment.

155
 Some men and women are set apart from the common people, for
they are meant for the service of God. These clergy are deserving of honor and
respect, for they are servants of the Most High and
have given over the joys of the present world for the
far sweeter delights of the world to come. Forms
Clergy are subject to certain laws of the Church. of
They may not take wives or husbands, or lie with Christian
others, or bear or beget offspring. They may not Clergy
shed the blood of other men or take human life.
They must obey their superiors in the Church in all
ways acceptable to God. They may not be kings or
ealdormen or other secular lords. And lastly, they
may not partake of the secular pleasures of hunt-
ing, or feasting to excess, or other frivolous things
unbecoming to their dignity.
In some lands clergy must wear special clothes as well, though in England
a cleric wears the same dress as other men, splendid or simple as his wealth
allows, and the top of a clergyman’s crown is kept shaven. Some Wealh and
Irish clergy still cling to the old Celtic tonsure, where the hair is cut differently,
but such practice has been forbidden by the English Church for years now.
Only men may be monks or priests or bishops, for that is the law of the
Church and the holy scriptures. Women who yearn to serve God wholly may
become nuns and dwell in a double monastery apart from the world. Where
there are nuns, there must be an abbess, so the holiest among them are placed
in charge of such minsters. Nuns do not act as priests and monks do, but they
are no less holy for that, and good Christians fear to offend them.
Of all the servants of the Church, the greatest is the holy father, the
bishop of Rome, whom men call the pope. By his great wisdom he guides the
Church and, with the counsel of the bishops, determines those things that a
good Christian should believe and do. Beneath the pope are the other bishops,
who are priests and monks of much experience and wisdom elevated to the
role. The bishops are placed in charge of the many domains of Christendom,
each called a diocese. The pope appoints the bishop for each diocese, though
he may graciously consent to consider those worthy candidates suggested by
the secular lord who rules in that place.
Some among these bishops are honored as archbishops, supervisors over
the other dioceses of a province. In England, there is only the Archbishop of

156
Canterbury, the holy Berhtwald, who was abbot at Reculver minster and who
journeyed to Rome to receive his pallium of office from the holy father’s own
hands. All the bishops of England are subject to the decisions of Archbishop
Berhtwald, though he is a judicious man and does not direct in small causes.
The Wealh kings despise Berhtwald as an Englishman and heed only their
bishop of St. David’s minster, who is loyal only to Rome.
Each bishop is a shepherd over his diocese, and beneath him are the
abbots and abbesses of the minsters in his episcopal see. Yet the bishop does
not choose these men and women. Instead, each minster is the property of a
family or a king or a bishop, and each minster has rules by which a member
of that kindred or a candidate acceptable to them is made abbot or abbess.
Sometimes it is a particular heir who is to have it, and other times a monk of
the minster who is suitably holy may be chosen by the owning kindred, so
long as whoever is to receive it is or becomes a monk or a nun.
Beneath the abbot or abbess are the priests, monks, and nuns of the min-
ster. The priesthood is a special grace granted to certain men, those who must
give the holy sacraments of Mass to their brethren and the lay folk. The bishop
has discretion over which monks are to be granted the priesthood, but the
abbot decides who shall be allowed to become a monk there. Humble men
with strong backs and sincere desire to serve God are permitted entry as low
monks, to labor in the fields and folds. Those of high birth or great capac-
ity are enlisted as choir monks, to pray, labor skillfully, and teach. Both are
equally loved by God, yet different in their customary duties.
Nuns are most often of noble blood and come with a rich dowry for
Christ, for nuns cannot labor to feed themselves as monks can. The minster
must have land and gifts to support its nuns, though it is true that many weave
marvelously skillful cloth and fashion fine garments from it. Strong backs are
needed for the toil of field and farm, so it is that monks are always found at
a minster if there are nuns. Yet even so, an abbess is always chosen to be mis-
tress over both, for an abbot cannot well manage women.
All clergy are expected to dwell within a minster’s walls. Nuns and monks
never leave, save by special need or when sent forth by the abbot. Priests go
out to give Mass in the villages and teach the common people of God’s will for
them. The bishop too dwells within a minster, though he journeys throughout
his diocese, and is expected to visit every settlement in it at least once each
year so he may confirm the baptized and correct the errors of the people. Alas,
not all bishops are so diligent as they should be.

157
 I say in all honesty that the clergy of England are mostly worthy men,
honest in their faith and earnest in their desire to serve God. They fail from
time to time, falling prey to greed, or lust, or fear
of secular wrath, but the ceorls expect the clergy to
behave well, and the clergy seldom disappoint them. English
They are not without blemish, however, and the Clergy
greatest of their flaws is a favoring of the habits of and
the world. There are clergy who keep wives or con- the Lords
cubines, going out from the minster to bed them
of nights in their homes. It is a scandal that the
common folk too seldom object to this, and that
they overlook it oftimes if the cleric is good in other
ways and keeps his mare as if she were his wife. There
are other clergy who feast too well, or who hunt as
an ealdorman would, or who would rule their minsters and their ceorls as if
they were a king. These clerics love the world’s ways too well.
Nuns have sins particular to their own condition. Seldom do they fall prey
to lust, and the miserable scandal at Coldingham minster not long ago was
a shock to all. This is because they cannot leave the minster so easily as men
do, and so they have fewer occasions to fall. Yet their vice is quarreling and
contention. Not content to rend the peace and harmony of the minster, they
conspire against the enemies of their families and would use the minster’s name
to afflict their foes in this world. A good abbess permits no such scheming,
When a cleric does evil, either a secular crime or a rebellion against his
Church superiors, he must be judged by the Church. He may be stripped of
his possessions if he has any, or confined to a place, or deprived of privileges
and dignities, or sent to do hard labors for God, depending on the nature and
gravity of his crime. In the worst cases, he may be stripped of his place in the
clergy and exiled from the minster, to wander friendless and outlawed. Men
fear to kill a cleric, even a wretched one, and so it is better to drive them out.
The Church is strong in England, but the kings together are stronger.
This is just, for the Church is of the kingdom of Heaven and not of earth.
Bishops direct their diocese and abbots are masters of their minsters, but both
must have a care for the king and the lords. There are three reasons this is so.
Primus, the bishop is most likely a kinsman to the king, or to another
king, or to some noble kindred. The greatest clergy in England are commonly
relatives of the greatest nobility, and so they have no desire to anger their kins-

158
man. Even a little minster’s abbot is most likely a son to some ealdorman or
a nephew of some king. There is a sameness of heart among them, and they
are given to see things the same way.
Secundus, the nobles are the font of land and gifts by which a minster
grows. All that a minster gets, it gets from the hand of the secular lords. The
grants of land cannot even be made without the king permitting the land to
be made bookland in the first place, that it may be given forever to the min-
ster. If the bishop desires a new minster to be founded, he must endow it out
of his own personal property or persuade some noble to give what is needed.
A cleric who makes himself obnoxious to the lords will get nothing.
Tertius, the nobles have steel. Only a most vicious and depraved lord
would dare to send warriors against the walls of a minster, yet it is precisely
such a lord who is most likely to annoy and vex a bishop. To God’s grief, it
is not unknown that men should slay the clergy of a minster and plunder its
riches, or that they should molest the clerics under threat of steel. Both bish-
ops and abbots always remember that in the end, the king bears a sword and
they do not. They govern their words accordingly.
And yet the bishops and the abbots are not without their own defenses,
and they have means by which they may repel lordly abuses.
Primus, they may rebuke the king and declare his conduct unlawful and
unjust. This gives license for his enemies to rise against him, and men who
might support him against such rebels will stay their hands and look away.
Many are the great ealdormen who would like to be king, and many are the
kingly neighbors seeking an honorable excuse for war.
Secundus, the bishop may excommunicate particularly heinous men, or
even whole kingdoms if the crime is grave enough. Those under excommuni-
cation may receive no Mass, no unction, and no Christian burial. No man may
share fire or water or word with them. They are beasts and foes of all mankind,
and their possessions and kingdoms are no longer theirs by right. This is a ter-
rible rebuke reserved only for such crimes as all men see as horrid, and a bishop
will not do this unless all hope of peaceful resolution is lost. Only by abject
repentance and recompense may a man be released from excommunication.
Tertius, and most powerfully, the clergy may pray to God for deliverance
from their suffering. Many are the miracles that God gives His servants in an
hour of need, and no king’s steel or dreadful wrath can turn aside the anger
of the Lord. If God sees fit to scourge a king in this life instead of the next,
then he shall be punished sorely indeed.

159
Minsters are strongholds of the Church, built for the habitation
of priests, monks, and nuns and as a place where they may pray and work.
They are spread throughout both England and the
Wealh lands, even if the Christians of the Wealh
honor the bishop of St. David’s minster as their chief Of The
rather than the Archbishop of Canterbury. There are Minsters
hundreds of minsters throughout the land, great and
small, and few are the regions where one can jour-
ney half a day and not meet a minster along the way.
Minsters are built not merely as monuments to
the faith, but as places of work and prayer. Sacred
services are conducted night and day in the churches,
and pilgrims are received who seek the blessings of
the monks, the sight of their holy relics, and the
delight of gazing on such remarkable things as can be seen nowhere else in
Britain. There is hardly a building raised by English hands in Britain that is
not of wood; only at minsters are stonemasons employed, oftentimes brought
from the Frankish lands over the sea to lend their arts.
And as monks must pray, so also must they work. The “choir monks” of
the minster are those learned and dignified in their wisdom. They pray the
sacred hours, copy pious manuscripts, offer healing to sick petitioners, and
perform other tasks proper to men of knowledge. The “low monks”, while
consecrated to a holy life as well, are not burdened with duties beyond their
knowledge or skill. They labor in the fields, and tend the herds, and do such
humble labor as is needful in the minster. God loves both kinds of monk
equally well, though it is for the monks of the choir to direct the monas-
tery’s affairs.
The work done at minsters is more than mere sowing and reaping. Min-
sters require fine goods, of glass, and iron, and silver, and gold when gold can
be had. They must have sacred vessels for the altar, splendid weaving for vest-
ments, rich pins and brooches and crosses and all the other marvelous works
that show even simple eyes a hint of the glory of God and the magnificence
of His Church. And because minsters must have these things, monks must
make them. They cannot be acquired from common ceorls, and foreign mer-
chants demand dear prices to bring them, so the minsters draw artisans and
fine crafters to them, and encourage their monks to learn delicate arts that
common men have no spare wealth to need.
 Minsters are places of peace. Even men who might be mortal foes may
meet together at a minster without expectation of violence, and pilgrims may
come to pray who would not be welcome elsewhere in the region. To shed
blood at a minster is a grave sin, and to attack the minster and its monks itself
a heinous crime against God… though alas, to God’s grief, it is not a thing
unknown to happen.

Minsters are made when someone grants land to a holy-hearted

man or saintly woman, asking them to be abbot or abbess over a new min-
ster. Anyone may endow a minster, but they must be very
rich to afford to give away so much land as is needed to
Founding A
begin the work. Most often they are the gifts of kings or Minster
ealdormen, and a hundred hides of land is considered a good and kingly gift
to start a minster.
Minsters must be founded with bookland, that is, land especially
exempted by the king. When a lord dies, all the common folkland that the
king gave him goes back into the king’s hand. So it is that the lord cannot
permanently give land to anyone unless the king consents that it be made
bookland. Sometimes a king will generously make a gift of bookland to a great
friend, but more often he will only consent when it is to be gifted to a minster.
Minsters are often founded by other minsters, with land given to one used
to endow the other. These daughter-minsters forever afterwards owe fealty and
obedience to their mother houses, and so also do their daughters in turn. The
holy Bishop Wilfrid in this way endowed many minsters under his rule, enlist-
ing thousands of monks, until it was said that his was a kingdom of minsters.
Bishops commonly use the founding of a minster to stretch their influ-
ence, planting them in far kingdoms or distant episcopal sees. Such minsters
may be respectful to the local bishop, but their true obedience is always to
their founder’s see. Even if he later ceases to be a bishop, or is moved to a dif-
ferent diocese, his minsters will remain his own, for he made them.
This is a thing to be carefully understood; a minster is property. It belongs
to the man or kindred that endowed it. It is the founder who chooses the first
abbot, and the founder who decides how future abbots are to be chosen. The
bishop or the monks may object to a wholly unsuitable choice, but the min-
ster does not belong to them, and they may not control it. Almost always,
future abbots are chosen from the kinsmen of the founder or from men obe-
dient to their wishes.
 Now I admit that there is a bad founding of minsters as well. There are
times when a lord desires to enjoy the produce of his lands without taxes or
duties to kings, or when he wants peace and idle ease, or when he wishes to
have glory and esteem. Then he gives land for a minster and makes himself
abbot, or a pliant man abbot, and then rules it as if it were a household and
not a minster. He sets up his wife as an abbess over nuns, but he lies with her
at night and gives her children. His monks he gathers from fugitives, servants,
and cast-off clerics, that any man who would give him a tonsured head and
obedience should be his monk. He spends lavishly to make his minster look
splendid and rich, and sometimes he will even take pains that everything be
done just as it is in a true minster, but his heart is not for God, but only for
his own satisfaction.
These rotten minsters are not common, but they grow more so with
each year. Men see the glory of a minster and the riches it brings, and so they
found them for their own ends. They say they serve God with them, and
some even believe it, but they are not true abbots and their minsters are not
true houses of God. Yet the bishop cannot prevent this from being so, for
it is not his minster to rule, and only if the abbot is a scandal to others can
shame move him much.

Minsters are best built on a hill near water, oftimes with the south
and east sloping down to a river or the sea. Or else they are built on a penin-
sula, like the great minster at Lindisfarne, or a jutting
The Structure
spur of earth easily kept apart from the world. If they
of a Minster
are built in Roman ruins, they are put in the corner of
the city wall or Roman fort, such that two of the minster walls may be the old
masonry and only two new ones must be raised from the salvage and spoil.
Every minster is built around two stone churches, a larger one in honor
of an apostle or saint, and a smaller one dedicated to the Holy Virgin or to
Jesus Christ. They are built in an east-west line, a little off from the center of
the minster. More churches will be built in time as the minster grows richer,
but these two are counted the least that proper dignity requires.
These churches are always of stone, and their windows should be of glass,
whether white or colored. On its altar should be an altar-cloth of gold, and
a chalice of gold and jewels, and everything done as richly as possible for the
glory of God. Simple men must see with their earthly eyes the splendor of
Christ, for they have not the spiritual eyes to see the deeper things. Only a

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very holy man may have heart to praise God with simple things. Most are
emboldened better by bright treasures.
Each minster also has a wall of some kind, be it stone, or earthworks,
or wooden posts. It describes a square, or rectangle, or sometimes a circle,
commonly about 150 to 300 yards across. The land within is of the minster
proper, and strangers are not welcome there without a monkish escort or the
special leave of the abbot.
Within this walled space the other buildings of the minster are built,
always of stone where that can be done. There are dormitories for the monks,
and mausoleums, and chapels to this saint or that saint, and monuments
such as the great stone crosses that rich nobles like to build for their houses.
There are workshops for the artisan-monks and storehouses for the wealth of
the minster.
Outside the walled space are often places for visitors and pilgrims to rest,
when they are not being admitted into the minster to pray at the churches,
revere the relics, and honor the graves of the saints. In prosperous or old
minsters, these buildings are often joined by other houses of ceorls and min-
ster-servants, making a little settlement outside the minster gate.
A decently prosperous minster will have perhaps a hundred monks. The
great minster of Jarrow in which I am honored to serve has three hundred
of its own, and another three hundred across the way in its sister-minster of
Wearmouth. All of these monks labor, either in prayer, in tilling the minster’s
fields, or in doing such work as learned men might do. What we do not get
from our own labor, we get from the food-rent owed us by those who dwell
on our land.

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 Minsters and Adventurers
Many a game is best begun at a minster, for it is a good place for bold
heroes to meet and find tasks worthy of their courage. There are more people
at a minster than at most settlements, and there are better services, more cun-
ning craftsmen, and greater riches to be won from service there. The heroes
may be pilgrims to the minster, or merely bold men seeking to be of good
service to a godly abbot.
Unproven adventurers will be dealt with by the gatekeeper of the min-
ster, or some other monk charged with dealing with common pilgrims. Such
a man is always one wise to the ways of adventurers, and not to be tricked or
cozened lightly. If there is work for warriors, he will give it out, and he will
reward those who do it well and in a way acceptable to God. Such unproven
adventurers will dwell outside the walls, in the guest house or in a camp of
their own making. They will get no more than a meal or two from the min-
ster until they have proven their value.
Adventurers of good name or proven use will be admitted into the min-
ster and permitted to speak with the abbot himself. More delicate tasks will be
given to such men, ones requiring discretion and wisdom as well as courage.
They will be permitted to barter with the artisans of the minster, exchanging
gifts, and with time and good evidence of their faithfulness they may even be
permitted to dwell within the walls.
It is not permitted for an abbot to have a household, and so an abbot
will never take warriors into direct service. Only monks and priests and other
clerics may become pledged to a minster. Yet warriors of proven use will be
friends to an abbot, and may rely upon him as friends do. It is a good thing
to be an abbot’s friend; his word will open the doors of many friendly min-
sters and his wish may earn a warrior an audience with a king. A hero must
remember to keep the friendship well, however, and when gifts are given, the
abbot’s minster must not be forgotten.

164
 Creating a Minster
There will be times you need a minster for a particular place, or you may
wish to have one stored up for later when you quickly need a stronghold of
the Church. To make you a minster for your own game, do the things I have
written here.
Primus, name the minster. Most are named for their place or location,
like Hexham minster or Selsey minster, or else are named for their founder
or patron saint. Thus, Haedda who built a minster to St. Chad but recently
may have it called Haeddaminster or Chadminster.
Secundus, roll or choose two minster tags from the list that follows. These
tags describe certain qualities of the minster, such as a reputation for great
learning or a recent disaster. After each tag is listed four examples each of
possible abbots, troubles it may be suffering, potential strengths and graces
of the minster, and current goals it may hold. Take the two tags and blend
them together, such that an abbot who is an “indolent voluptuary” from one
tag and a “close royal relative” is the king’s youngest brother, rich and accus-
tomed to satisfying all his appetites and none of his duties. Do the same with
a trouble, a grace, and a goal. In all the steps that follow, use these tags to
shape and select from the results that come.
Tertius, roll to determine the minster’s age, size, prosperity, and popula-
tion. Old minsters have finer buildings and richer treasures of relics. If they are
prosperous, they must have retained their old land grants and earned more by
gifts. If they are poor and few in monks, then likely they have lost much land
to folly, fines for crimes, or the chance of cruel conquest and war. Younger
minsters are not so well-built, but they still have the first fire of enthusiasm
that comes from their holy founder and their monks are not yet stifled by
the weight of arid habit. A great Saint-founder may still live among them.
Quartus, roll to see what special services can be had from the minster’s
artisans. It is not seemly for monks to trade in weapons of war, but many other
rich goods can be acquired from minsters through gifts of matching worth.
It is for a senior monk in charge of such things to decide whether or not an
exchange is permissible. And even if the monks themselves may not trade
weapons or harness, those who linger outside its walls may be more willing.
Quintus, give names and particulars to the abbot who rules the minster,
the gatekeeper who is most likely to first meet the heroes, and two monks
or nuns within the minster. The tables in this section give them complaints,

165
 desires, and traits that the heroes may profit by, or find work in helping them
satisfy their wishes.
Sextus, lastly, write down for yourself a note about what the minster will
desire from the heroes, and what they will offer for their desire. It may desire
more than this one thing, or its members may desire contradictory things,
but this one matter will give you something to throw to the heroes quickly
when you need it. You may go to the trouble of fleshing it out into a whole
adventure if you wish, but it is often better to wait on such work until you
expect it will be needed.

166
167
 A minster is oft the heart of a new-made band’s adventuring, the se-
cure base from which they venture forth to do mighty deeds and achieve great
ends. If the place is to be anything more than a name
on a map and a few particulars diced out by the GM,
however, it needs more of interest to be added to it. Minster
Minster tags permit the GM to blend together a mix Tags
of things to engage a bold band’s interest.
Each tag entry that follows describes one par-
ticular trait the minster might possess. After the
description, there are listed examples of appropriate
abbots to rule the minster, woes that might compli-
cate its doings, graces that give it strength to manage
its troubles, and goals its abbot might seek to attain
for it.
d20 Minster Tag To use these tags, roll twice on the
1 Aberrant Discipline adjacent table, rerolling duplicates. Then
2 Artful Production take two tag entries and blend them.
3 Autonmous Impunity Thus, a minster with Curative Powers and
4 Bulwark Against Evil Learned Monks might blend an “Utterly
5 Curative Powers
unworldly saint-abbot” with “Abbot is a
famous scholar” to get a minster where
6 Damaged Structures
an abbot of mighty holiness and famous
7 Decaying Glory
learning is helplessly unworldly.
8 Deprived of Land The same is done with Woe, Grace,
9 Double Monastery and Goal entries to blend together a
10 Favored by Lords specific trouble the monastery faces, a
11 Heretical Beliefs particular strength it has, and a greater
12 Impoverished Minster ambition it seeks. These facts may then
13 Incompetent Abbot be used as grist for adventures, particular
benefits the heroes might win by gaining
14 Learned Monks
the abbot’s friendship, and greater pur-
15 Litigious Temper
poses that the abbot might seek heroes
16 Martial Monastics to pursue on his behalf.
17 Oppressive Masters While a GM can always pick and
18 Pilgrimage Center choose, even the most unlikely pairings
19 Rotten Minster can sometimes spark new ideas. Do not
20 Terrible Reputation shun strange mixings out of hand, but
give them a little thought at least.

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Aberrant Discipline
The minster does not follow the rule of St. Benedict in its life, but instead has
peculiar, perhaps-improper customs that it clings to despite all rebukes. Its monks
and nuns do not live as monks and nuns do elsewhere, and either relax what
should not be relaxed, or demand more than should be demanded of the monks.
Abbot Eccentric saint with his own ideas, Charismatic “reformer”, Indolent
voluptuary, Gravely-flawed saint
Woes Undisciplined monks are committing crimes, The bishop is furious
with them, Their ways are infecting other minsters and upsetting
abbots, People no longer give gifts to such a dubious minster
Graces The monks use their resources with ruthless pragmatism, They’ve
impressed an important abbot with their non-standard holiness,
They’re being supported by a secret heretic or pagan, A lord is
finding them a politically cooperative ally
Goals Spread their new practice to other minsters, Enhance their wealth
and pleasures, Destroy their most vocal critic, Found a new minster
with their customs

Artful Production
The minster has an uncommon number of rare craftsmen, working in gold, glass,
stone, and perhaps even silk. Things can be fashioned here that can be made in few
other places in England. The minster may receive many requests for the services
of its monks, often from other minsters in need of their works, or from kings who
desire rich things to give their loyal followers.
Abbot Abbot enamored with beautiful art, Foreigner who brought the
artists, Artisan-abbot of a traditional line, Canny trader beneath
abbot’s robes
Woes Thieves seek to plunder the riches, Lords are coercing gifts of rare
goods, A crucial ingredient is difficult to obtain, The art is being
made with unholy aid
Graces The gifts the monks can give are very precious, The monks are
needed by an important lord, The monks have a storehouse of great
treasures, The monks have many allies influenced by gifts
Goals Recover a stolen treasure, Erect a wondrous work, Persuade a great
craftsman to join, Spread their skills to another minster

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 Autonomous Impunity
The minster is so strong and its king so weak or averse to interference that the
abbot may do as he wills with no concern for the king. Everyone knows that the
king’s law will extend only so far as the abbot permits it to. Perhaps they may have
some secret leash on the king, or have forced his compliance by other means.
Abbot Close royal relative being kept out of the way, Abbot with an
awesome reputation, Ruthless political kingmaker with much
blackmail, Critical supporter of the king
Woes The minster is claiming more than its due, The minster is protecting
a notorious criminal, The minster persecutes a specific enemy lord,
The minster is ignoring its duties
Graces It has access to a strong force of warriors, Local lords don’t even try
to fight it, It has an impregnable physical location, It’s allied with a
powerful neighboring king
Goals Expand its sphere of control, Compel the king to obey its will,
Punish a lord who trespassed on its autonomy, Dissuade a
meddlesome bishop

Bulwark Against Evil

Some dread evil is being bottled up by the minster. Perhaps it acts as a seal on
an Arx, or is a guard-post against monstrous incursions from a Roman ruin, or
monitors a region infested by infernal forces or pagans. The monks themselves
are forbidden to shed human blood, so if the foe is a mortal man they will need
warrior defenders to aid God’s holy work.
Abbot Grizzled once-warrior abbot, Ascetic saint obsessed with containing
the evil, Exhausted and despairing veteran of endless struggle, Secret
pawn of the evil who seeks to aid it
Woes The evil is seeping through the minster’s guard, The evil is twisting
the minster itself, Allies are neglecting their duty to help the minster,
The evil has suddenly become much stronger
Graces The monks are fiercely holy in their duties, The minster has martial
allies close to hand, The minster has a sacred relic to aid them, The
minster is owed many ancient pacts of aid
Goals Extinguish the evil once and for all, Further entrench the defenses,
Discover the current plans of the evil, Destroy a collaborator with
the evil

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Curative Powers
Every true minster has among its numbers a Saint able to utter a modest prayer
of healing or two, but this one is famed for the strength of its curative blessings.
Holy springs, sacred relics, blessed ground, or an exceptionally holy abbot might
be responsible for this renown. Numerous pilgrims are sure to be found seeking its
special graces.
Abbot Utterly unworldly saint-abbot, Pragmatic manager of a sacred
resource, Scholarly healer-abbot, Shameless trader in holy miracles
Woes The curative powers are fading, An important lord was not healed,
Another minster is trying to take control of the healing source,
Pilgrims are being prevented from coming somehow
Graces The curative powers maintain the monks in fierce good health, The
local lords owe the minster many healing favors, Pilgrims have given
the minster rich gifts, Many wise healers labor for the minster
Goals Protect and encourage pilgrims, Heal a gravely-ill important lord,
Glorify the healing source with new construction, Defend the
healing source from accusations of paganism

Damaged Structures
Some critical part of the minster has been physically damaged; church, saint’s
tomb, holy monument, or some other edifice that does not admit of easy repair.
The damage is substantial and may have been caused by men, divine rebuke, or
infernal meddling.
Abbot Wicked abbot abhorred by God, Abbot exhausted by vain repair
efforts, Fumbling replacement for abbot who died in the event,
Abbot squeezing all resources for repair
Woes The damage is worsening, The repairers are secretly incompetent,
The devil is interfering with repairs, Until a secret sin is uncovered
and punished the damage always reappears
Graces Pilgrims are bringing aid to repair it, The damage has uncovered
a treasure, A sympathetic king has given a gift of land, A foreign
artisan is interested in helping
Goals Persuade a critical artisan to aid the minster, Get vital repair
materials, Punish the one who caused the damage, Rebuild it bigger
and better

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 Decaying Glory
The minster was once far richer, more famed, and more holy than it is now.
Remnants of the glory remain, but the place speaks of loss, decay, and apathy.
Abbot Drunken sot of an abbot, Zealous reformer of discipline, Hidebound
manager of slow devolution, Overmatched heir to too great a
challenge
Woes Mere decay is turning into active evil and sinfulness, The outside
world still expects the minster to do its great duties, The minster’s
glory was based on a dark secret that is coming due, The minster’s
land is being peeled off by jackal-lords
Graces It still has a trove of mighty relics, Old agreements grant it great
theoretical liberties, A few monks are still fiercely loyal to the old
glory, It still has ties with important noble houses
Goals Get more sufficiently-holy monks to join, Destroy the force that
caused the decay, Recover a lost relic crucial to the minster’s glory,
Fulfill a great duty that taxes its capacity

Deprived of Land
Some lord or circumstance has deprived the minster of lands rightfully owed to it.
Perhaps a terrible beast has driven its ceorls from their homes, or a ruthless lord has
revoked a grant, or a king has found the abbot guilty of a grave crime. The minster
may also have leased its lands for up to three lifetimes to another man’s sire who
now refuses to give up his grandfather’s fields.
Abbot Cowardly abbot who dares not protest, Reprobate who’s earned his
punishment, Political enemy of the culprit, Fool who traded away
the land
Woes The monks go hungry for lack of the land, The ceorls are angry at
losing the minster’s lordship, The minster’s obligations go unfulfilled
now, The land held some crucial holy place or site
Graces The monks are tightly unified by the loss, A new prospect for land
has been found, An under-exploited resource is being opened up,
The minster calls down curses on the thief
Goals Punish the thieving culprit, Obtain new land to replace the old, Get
a king to force the land’s return, Persuade the bishop to anathemize
the culprit

172
Double Monastery
This monastery includes both nuns and monks, rather than the strict male
membership of other minsters. Such double monasteries are always run by
abbesses. Discipline is strict, separation is customary, and scandals are few… but
they are not unknown.
Abbess Abbess is an excess princess, Abbess is famed for her holiness, Abbess
is a widowed noblewoman, Abbess is ungodly but cunning
Woes There is a secret scandal with visitors or monks, A new noble nun is
being intolerable to the sisters, The minster needs to be enlarged for
more nuns, The minster needs more monks to do heavy labor
Graces The nuns have noble kinswomen throughout England, The abbess is
a figure of awe, The minster weaves wondrous textiles, The minster
has many gifts from the families of nuns
Goals Drive back a martial threat to the minster, Quell rumors of
ungodliness in the minster, Found a daughter-minster to take up
excess nuns, Convince a widowed queen to join

Favored by Lords
The minster has special favor in the eyes of the king or of the local ealdorman,
either due to long family ties with its abbots, special service offered in the past, or
possession of crucially-important land. Whatever the abbot does will be viewed
kindly by the lords.
Abbot Abbot of royal blood, Abbot is a retired war-companion of the lord,
Abbot is a machiavellian political schemer, Abbot is a puppet of the
lord
Woes The bishop is jealous of the abbot’s influence on the lord, The
minster is hated by the lord’s enemies, The abbot is impoverishing
the minster with his aid to his patron, The minster is resented by
other monks for getting all the best gifts
Graces The lord gladly does the abbot’s bidding in many things, The minster
is rich with the lord’s gifts, The minster has many monks and ceorls
in its service, The minster knows all the secret affairs of the nobility
Goals Advance their patron’s interests, Quash a rival minster that threatens
to win over their patron, Construct a magnificent edifice honoring
their patron’s saintly ancestor, Bury a truth that would turn their
patron against them

173
MINSTERTAG illo

Heretical Beliefs
The minster is influenced by heretical ideas. If the beliefs are blatantly pagan
or infernal, they must keep them hidden from others and carefully screen
new members. If the beliefs are heretical in a way that only other clerics can
understand, then they may yet have secular support despite enmity from the
Church and learned men.
Abbot Secret pagan or infernalist abbot, Saintly abbot who maintains
unacceptable beliefs, Abbot nurturing the remnants of a defeated
heresy, Abbot bewitched by a persuasive heretic monk
Woes The monks are turning their evil upon each other, A greater heretic
is seeking to compel their alliance with him, They are widely scorned
and rebuked by learned men, God has cursed them with misfortune
Graces The minster has access to dark sorceries, Local secret heretics support
the minster, Pagan forces are supporting the conflict, The heresy has
secret or open lordly support
Goals Spread the heresy to the lords, Destroy a bishop preaching against
it, Plant heretical monks in other minsters, Coerce a bishop into
supporting it

174
Impoverished Minster
Alas, the minster lacks the land it needs to keep its monks properly, or some
calamity has ruined their farms or plundered their wealth. The monks neglect their
holy duties simply to get enough to eat. In this land, poverty is not so much a
matter of lacking gold as it is a lack of necessary food, clothing, and shelter.
Abbot Spendthrift abbot, Abbot who cares only for feeding his monks,
Abbot who has made unrighteous bargains to get needed food,
Abbot who seeks to get a different and more profitable minster
Woes Some monks extort bread by threats or force, The minster has many
dependents it dares not cut off, The minster must complete some
hard task to win the gift of land it needs, The minster’s ceorls work
badly because of some conflict
Graces The only monks left are those grimly faithful to the minster, The
minster has made unconventional allies in an attempt to get food,
The minster has a precious treasure it cannot part with, The minster
has the sympathies of the bishop
Goals Convince a lord to give a gift of land, Recover unused land from
the beasts or marauders who hold it, Acquire a treasure that can get
them more land, Persuade someone to give a regular tithe of food

Incompetent Abbot
The abbot or abbess is a fool. They may be a holy fool, too saintly to be removed
no matter how incapable they are of running a minster, or they may be a common
fool, put in their position due to blood, familial ownership of the minster, or as a
favor they were owed by its owner. They cannot be removed without trouble, but
they bring much suffering to the monks.
Abbot Abbot who has gone slightly mad, Abbot obsessed with impractical
piety, Abbot who demands every whim be obeyed, Abbot who is
trying hard but simply unequal to the task
Woes The abbot has enraged an important lord, The monks are in semi-
open revolt against the abbot, A new policy of the abbot will beggar
the minster, A faction is trying to force the abbot out despite the
chaos it would cause
Graces The abbot has many allies among the great, The abbot has
great talents in some respects, A stupid choice of the abbot has
miraculously worked out very well, There are no conceivable
replacements to be found for the abbot
Goals Push through an ill-thought project, Purge the minster of the abbot’s
foes, Persuade a bishop to help cement the abbot’s rule, Fix the woes
caused by a grave mistake the abbot made

175
 Learned Monks
The monks of the minster are exceptionally well-educated, and it’s possible that
they even measure up to the very high standards of the Britons or the Irish. They
doubtless possess the answers to many puzzling mysteries and can give sage advice
to those who seek their wisdom.
Abbot Abbot is a famous scholar, Abbot is Irish or Briton and brought
the tradition with him, Abbot is a charismatic collector of scholars,
Abbot trucks with dark powers for secret lore
Woes The monks seek dangerous knowledge, A precious book they have
has been stolen, Their best scholar is semi-heretical, They are more
concerned with mundane wisdom than godly truth
Graces Their scholars know many practical and useful truths, People
implicitly believe what the minster tells them, They have ties to
many scholars in other minsters, They have troves of foreign lore
Goals Acquire a priceless book that is now in perilous hands, Convince
another minster’s best scholar to join them, Seek out artifacts and
records from a dangerous place, Build a magnificent library of almost
a hundred books

Litigious Temper
The minster is constantly bringing cases before the king and the ealdormen,
pushing their rights to the very utmost to browbeat and coerce others into granting
them land, rights, or revenues. Some are purely avaricious, while others are
convinced that they litigate for God.
Abbot Abbot is a grasping legalist, Abbot is convinced the minster’s profit
and God’s will are synonymous, Abbot is a wastrel who constantly
needs more wealth, Abbot is naturally quarrelsome
Woes Their wealthy neighbors hate them and their suits, The king is
growing angry with the constant suits, They’ve enraged a litigant
who wouldn’t be above violence, They risk losing a very critical
counter-suit
Graces They’ve bribed many allies with the wealth they took from others,
They have superb negotiators and legal minds, The common folk
favor them for their light exactions, They have the solid support of
the bishop
Goals Acquire a piece of land held by a great lord, Reclaim land they legally
won but is de-facto held by an armed foe, Acquire documentary
proof of a claim, Persuade a king by extra-legal means

176
Martial Monastics
Clergy are categorically forbidden from fighting human beings, but this minster
has ready access to military forces unbecoming their nature. It may be that many
of the monks are insufficiently-peaceful former warriors, or the ceorls on their land
may be unusually warlike and obedient, or they have a local lord’s military forces at
their disposal.
Abbot Abbot is a former martial hero, Abbot is kinsman to a warband
leader, Abbot is a military genius, Abbot is a naturally savage bully
Woes The bishop is infuriated by their martial habits, They have a bad
reputation with the local lords, They’ve gotten in a fight too big for
them, They’ve killed someone important with many kinsmen
Graces Their warriors are made fearless by faith, Their warriors are deniable
assets, They have a large store of weapons and shields, The minster is
extremely well-fortified
Goals Break an enemy warband that dares to fight them, Convince the
bishop that they’re not responsible for a fight, Persuade a third party
to fight on their behalf, Find rewards for warriors who expect gifts
for their help

Oppressive Masters
The monks of the minster are cruel and demanding toward their ceorls, and the
soul-scots and tithes they exact are harsh. They demand more than custom expects
and grant less than tradition would require of their charity.
Abbot Abbot is a greedy miser, Abbot needs the money for a great
work, Abbot scorns ceorls as mere human cattle, Abbot is fiscally
incompetent
Woes The ceorls are building up to a tax revolt, Some monks are
embezzling wealth for a third party, The king is concerned with the
unrest being caused, An outside party is taking advantage of the
unrest
Graces The minster is very wealthy, The minster is ruthlessly efficient in
its oppression, The ceorls are beaten down and resigned, The king
approves of the extra gifts he gets from them
Goals Suppress a rebel leader among the ceorls, Recover a stolen tithe
shipment, Strengthen ties with the secular lords of the land, Show
the bishop that the ceorls are merely greedy complainers

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 Pilgrimage Center
All minsters attract their share of pilgrims to pray at their churches, revere their
relics, and receive the blessings of the monks, but this minster is an especially
strong draw. It has some famous relic, or a place of holy miracles, or a famed
history to it.
Abbot Abbot is a skilled promoter, Abbot is of a family that has always
guarded the site, Abbot is a faker who simulates marvels, Abbot
wishes fewer interruptions in the minster’s orderly life
Woes The monks grow indolent and careless on the wealth of pilgrim gifts,
Some trouble is pinching off access to the minster for pilgrims, A
rival minster seeks to take control of the site, The holy relic or some
precious gift has been stolen
Graces Many pilgrims bring rich gifts with them, Lords feel obligated to
the minster for past miracles they received, The minster is very large
and well-built, Local lords guard the minster against interference or
trouble
Goals Acquire a new relic for the site, Alleviate some threat to the relic
or the holy ground, Persuade a rich lord to come on a pilgrimage,
Guard the pilgrims from some new threat

Rotten Minster
This minster is “rotten”, having been founded as little more than a tax dodge by
some noble who promptly named himself or a lackey as abbot and now enjoys all
the land’s fruits for himself. Some monks there may be genuine, but many are no
more than house-servants in tonsures.
Abbot Abbot is a selfish lord, Abbot is a mere puppet, Abbot is well-
meaning but totally unclerical, Abbot has newly inherited the
minster and is trying to reform it
Woes The bishop is disgusted with the lack of clerical discipline, The king
is angry about the transparent tax evasion, The “monks” don’t know
the first thing about their role, The ceorls are unimpressed by their
supposed duties to the minster
Graces The minster is unencumbered by clerical limits in its activities, The
abbot has many secular allies and kinsmen, The minster is very rich,
The minster is actually the lord’s personal household
Goals Persuade the bishop that their clerical discipline is acceptable,
Get the king’s permission to add more land to the minster, Find
a replacement abbot who can whip the place into shape, Build a
splendid monument to the owner’s enjoyment

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Terrible Reputation
The minster is shamed and disgraced in the eyes of others, either for a recent
scandal or a widespread present suspicion. Few give gifts to it, the ceorls accept
its ministrations reluctantly, and the bishop is always eager to have eyes on its
discipline, though he may yet be torn between reforming it and disbanding it.
Abbot Abbot is an open degenerate, Abbot struggles fiercely to redeem the
minster, Abbot merely pretends to reform, Abbot is newly-appointed
and hard-pressed
Woes The sin or evil habit is threatening to rise again, The bishop wants to
disband the minster but cannot yet do it, Monks refuse to join such
a place, Dark practices persist at the minster
Graces The minster profited greatly from its past evil, A powerful lord is
allied with it as he thinks it a pliant tool, A rich reformer seeks to
help the minster correct itself, Evil powers help the minster
Goals Spread their dark ways to other minsters, Convince or stifle the
bishop, Build some great edifice to redeem the minster, Make
recompense to the lord or land it grievously harmed

179
 To create a proper minster, a GM need but follow the instructions
given here. Take in hand a die of every kind, rolling them as the tables below
indicate, and you will have a sketch of a minster suit-
able for use in your campaign.
As with every tool in this book, it is a GM’s Minster
right to choose rather than let the dice decide. Even Creation
so, do not neglect the value of surprise that lies in an Tables
unlikely-sounding roll. Perhaps there is some subtle
reason for it to be as it is, some complication that will
add interest to the place. When you get a seemingly
nonsensical roll, take a moment to consider how
it might be made reasonable before you cast it off.
First, begin by rolling to discover the age of the
minster, and how long ago it was founded. Especially
youthful minsters might yet have the founder still among the living.

d4 Age of the Minster

1 It was founded in the past few years; -1 on the population and size rolls
2 It was founded a generation ago, and its founder passed only recently
3 It was founded a century ago and is well-famed in the area
It was founded in the sixth century, among the first and oldest of minsters;
4
+1 on the population and size rolls

Next, determine the number of monks who dwell within the minster.
Roll 1d6 for this, modified by the age or youth of the minster as needed, and
consult the table below. A minster with fewer than a hundred monks is con-
sidered to be a small minster. Most of the monks will be laborers in the fields
and granges of the minster, with perhaps a quarter as choir monks.

d6 Population of the Minster

1- Only the abbot and a dozen hardy monks dwell there. -2 on the size roll
2 The abbot has a few dozen monks in service. -1 on the size roll
3 Sixty or seventy monks labor here, modest in number but strong in faith
4 More than a hundred monks pray within its walls, a respectable showing
5 Two hundred monks labor here, an impressive minster. +1 on the size roll
6+ Three or four hundred man this great fortress of God. +2 on the size roll

180
 Now reveal the physical size of the minster, and how richly-appointed it
is in buildings and churches. A populous but poorly-equipped minster might
have its monks packed tightly together in rough wooden halls, while a grand
minster with but a handful of monks may have them laboring fiercely merely
to hold off the woes of weather and decay.
The bigger the minster, the more special services it can provide. Each roll
indicates how many such special graces might be found there.

d8 Minster Size and Buildings

Nothing built in stone, only ruins or new foundations are to be had here.
1-
No special services are available at the minster.
2 A ditch, a stone church, and a few wooden buildings. No services.
3 An earthen berm for a wall, two churches, and a dormitory. One service.
A berm, the churches and dormitory in stone, and a few wood buildings.
4
One service available.
A low stone wall, a third or fourth small church as well as other buildings.
5
Two services available.
It has a sturdy stone wall, several churches, a half-dozen other stone
6
buildings, and one or two monuments or mausolea. Two services.
It has a sturdy stone wall, more than a dozen stone structures within, and
7
even some structures outside the wall are stone. Three services.
It is almost like a Roman city in miniature, with a score of stone buildings,
8+
many fine monuments, and works outside the wall. Four services.

Yet while a minster may be populous and large, is it prosperous? Even a

great minster may be brought low by God’s displeasure or men’s folly.

d10 The Prosperity of the Minster

The minster can hardly keep its own monks fed, and all is tattered. One
1-2
fewer service.
The minster is poor, its tables lightly-laden and its monks clad poorly
3-4
against the cold.
5-6 The minster has sufficient wealth, without ostentation but without lack.
The minster is prosperous even by Church standards, with fine clothing
7-8
and rich adornment on the buildings.
The minister is rich and all can see it. Everything is grandly done. One
9-10
more service.

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MINSTERGEN illo

Now determine which particular special services may be had at the min-
ster, and what skills the monks claim that ordinary men do not know. If the
heroes need special work done, they would do well to befriend the abbot. If
the same service is rolled twice, reroll, or decide that it is especially fine.

d12 Special Minster Services

1 Goldsmithing and the working of precious metals into ornaments
2 Jewel-polishing and the setting of precious stones into adornments
3 Glassblowing, skilled in making windows, mirrors, and fine vessels
4 Winemaking, able to produce the rare and precious vintage
5 Weaving, a particular skill of nuns, along with fine embroidery
6 Bookmaking, scribing and the magnificent illumination of holy texts
7 Architecture, gifted in masonry and building splendid structures
8 Blacksmithing, able to forge war-harness discreetly for good friends
9 Horse-rearing, with herds of fine horses to sell and trade
10 Scholarship, teaching, and the answering of difficult questions
11 Sculpture and painting, making statues, carvings, and adornments
12 Trading, being able to make contact with Frankish merchants

182
 Next, roll upon the table below to discover the most recent event of
matter at the minster. You may change this as time goes by and the heroes
come and go, but it provides a matter that might engage them on their first
visit. Do not hesitate to weave it into the minster tags you have already rolled;
perhaps it is a consequence of some trait you have decided.
Lastly, choose for yourself a good name for this minster. The simplest
name is that of the founder, such as Ealdwulfminster or Hrothgarminster. So
also it may be named by the nearest place, such as Selseyminster or Yorkmin-
ster. Given the lazy tongues of men, these may be cut down in time, to make
Ealdminster, Hrothminster, Selminster, or the like. And lastly, the minster
may be near no habited place, and so suffer no confusion if it should have its
own name, like my own Lindisfarne. That done, your minster is complete.

d20 Recent Events

1 A building is in dire need of difficult, costly repairs
2 A disturbing omen recently happened
3 A great criminal has just sought sanctuary there
4 A high-born monk or nun just recently joined
5 A minster project is missing a crucial resource
6 A monk has been accused of a grave crime
7 A monk is causing trouble with the brethren
8 A new relic has just been installed in the minster
9 A sickness is spreading there or nearby
10 An impressive miracle was wrought recently
11 Food-rent is late and stores are low
12 It has an important noble or king as a guest
13 It recently received a very fine gift
14 It's in a law dispute with a neighboring lord
15 It's just annoyed the bishop with some action
16 Its location has just become militarily important
17 Outlaws or its enemies recently dared to raid it
18 The abbot is sick and unable to rule properly
19 The abbot is trying to reform or change the discipline
20 The ceorls on its land have been upset by a thing it did

183
 If the heroes are to deal with a minster, then they must deal also with
its monks. These tables I give to you, that you might more easily fashion the
monastics who are to give heroes their tasks and to
listen to their earnest beseechings.
Monastics come to the minster by two roads. Monk
Some are pledged young by their parents. It may be Creation
that the child plainly has the marks of godly wit and Tables
devotion, or the parents may have wealth to share
with the minster in exchange for giving their child a
place in it. If the child is a boy, he may be accepted
even without gifts or graces, for he has a strong back
that will serve God better than his head.
Aside from those given young, many monks and
nuns come to the minster after a long life of secu-
lar labor. Even rulers are often known to put aside the king-helm to seek the
peace of God, and no less are wearied warriors and bereaved widows inclined
to it. So first discern whether the monk is to be young or old.

d4 Age of the Monastic

1 Young, barely out of his or her novitiate
2 A monk of mature adult years and experience
3 Aged and well-versed in minster life
4 Roll again; they're of that age, but have just joined the monastery

If the monk was given to the minster as a boy, roll below to see who his
father might have been. If he came to it in maturity, use the table to see what
his own past life has been.

d6 The Background of a Monk

1 A ceorl's son, originally meant to tend the farms and fields
2 A gesith's son who turned away from battle and blood
3 A noble's son, unneeded by the family for other roles
4 A priest's son, technically illegitimate, but too capable to turn away
5 A slave's son, first accepted simply as a humble low monk laborer
6 An orphan, taken in by the minster

184
 A nun does not come to the minster as a monk does. Even a poor monk
can at least feed himself with the hard labor of field and herds, but few are the
women strong enough to drag a harrow or hew out a hall. A nun may labor
usefully at the loom or the hall-garden, but she must have monks to do the
harder tasks. So it is that nuns are accepted only with gifts to support them,
and so most are of wealthy kindred or noble blood. The table below may sug-
gest a past for these holy women, one they may not have wholly renounced.

d6 The Background of a Nun

1 A gesith's daughter, sent to safety in the minster
2 A high noble's daughter, being groomed as a future abbess
3 A noble's daughter, unnecessary to her kin
4 A rich ceorl's daughter, able to afford her minster-dowry
5 A rich widow, seeking peace in the minster
6 A foundling orphan, taken in by the minster

Whether monk or nun, all must work within the minster, for God hates
sloth. A learned choir monk may be charged with assisting the Mass, singing
psalms, copying books, illuminating manuscripts, maintaining the minster’s
accounts, or other work suitable for the learned. A lay monk may toil in the
fields each day, or hammer iron, or clean and mend the minster’s belongings, or
do other such tasks of honest simplicity. The table below may be used for this.
It is right and necessary that labor be apportioned so, between the high
and the low, so that the world may have peace and order. Yet a high place in
this world means little in the next, and God loves kings no better than thralls.

d8 The Chief Labor of the Monastic

1 Artisan work in the workshops, or weaving for nuns
2 Labor in the fields, or tending poultry and gardening for nuns
3 Oversight of the brethren. Monks only ever rule monks, nuns rule both.
4 Prayer in the chapels, being one of the choir monks dedicated to it
5 Repairing minster property and maintaining it in good condition
6 Servant to a more important monk or nun, doing menial labor for them
7 Tending the minster books and treasures, perhaps a scribe or illuminator
8 Toiling in kitchen and sickroom and tending to bodily needs

185
 Now that you know how old the monastic is, and how they came to the
minster, and what their chief labor is there, discern what special grace they
have that helps them do their work or carry out their desires. It may be the
heroes will have need of this special grace in some affair of their own.

d10 The Special Grace or Strength of the Monastic

1 A favorite of the abbot or abbess, who thinks they can do no wrong
2 Cunning as a serpent and twice as persuasive, easily snaring their brethren
3 Fiercely and exceptionally holy, such that the others fear their displeasure
4 Has blackmail on other monks, and those monks may already know it
5 Has significant personal property that they may use as they see fit
6 Their family is nearby and helpful to whatever purposes they have
7 They know discreet ways to steal minster wealth undetected
8 They know everything that's going on, open and hidden both
9 The other monastics all like him or her very much, and will help as able
10 They are mighty of body and fearsomely intimidating to their brethren

As a monastic has a strength, so too do they have a desire. They may seek
to get the heroes to help them carry it out, or be angry with them for thwart-
ing it in some way. If the heroes want the monastic’s help in a matter, they
may need to first give aid of their own.

d12 The Monastic’s Dearest Desire

1 Avenge an insult delivered by a brother or sister against them
2 Become a holy hermit in the wilds, untroubled by human cares
3 They desires to perform great ascetic marvels of suffering and faith
4 They dream of becoming abbot of a minster, perhaps this very one
5 They needs wealth to repay a debt, pledge, or a wergild they owe
6 They seeks to serve a famously holy saint, winning his favor
7 They want to be made a priest, if a monk, or made an abbess, if a nun
8 They wish to be an excellent monk or nun and admired by their brethren
9 They wish to make amends for a recent grave sin or mistake
10 They wish to show that a brother they despise is unfit to be a monk
11 They want to advance their family’s interests and strike against rivals
12 They yearn for the pleasures of the flesh, whether lustful or gluttonous

186
 Lastly, touch up this monastic with a trait from the table below, or one
you conceive of your own. This should be something obvious on short acquain-
tance, vivid and memorable, so that the heroes may more easily remember
your monastic and distinguish him or her from their brethren. Give to the
monastic a name, and your work is done.
As a general rule, it is not needful to assign statistics to monks and nuns,
or worry about their prowess in combat. Only a rare few monks will be Saints
with holy miracles to give, usually no more than a few at any one minster. The
rest will be simple men and women of God, no mighter in war than any ceorl
and in any case pledged to shun the shedding of human blood.
Even so, many are the minsters with numerous weary warriors who have
taken tonsures. It may be the gatekeeper is a simple ceorl’s son, or it may be
he has killed thirty men before seeking God. Wise strangers test him not.

d20 Particular Traits of the Monastic

1 Acts with total contempt for his comfort and scorn for personal pain
2 Aggressively simple and dull-colored clothing, unlike worldly monks
3 Always having vague, "prophetic" dreams he shares
4 Always muttering prayers under his breath
5 Bottomlessly cynical air about him, whether bitter, resigned, or amiable
6 Cheerfully confident of God's kindness regardless of events
7 Completely fearless due to conviction of heavenly security
8 Constantly hinting about the virtues of gifts to the minster
9 Constantly touching the crucifix he wears
10 Crippled in a limb from sickness or old wounds
11 Full of questions about outside affairs
12 Has to keep reminding himself to act like a monk
13 Has visibly keen eye about pretty or handsome sorts
14 Nun's head is shaven or the monk's tonsure is growing in
15 Old battle-scars are visible
16 Plainly dislikes talking to secular people
17 Praises God almost convulsively over everything
18 Seems to always rather be back at his work
19 Stinks with ascetic lack of bathing
20 Very thin from stern fasting practices

187
188
189
 Arxborn
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

Wretched half-men and hateful monsters alike, the Arxborn are heir to those
luckless refugees who fled into the Arxes built by the Artificers of Rome. Over
long ages the strange laws of those half-worlds warped them and their prog-
eny, leaving them mad, misshapen, or worse. Some Arxborn cannot even be
named men any more, being bestial abominations with no human thought re-
maining to them. Even those who retain human shapes are oftimes ill-formed
and commonly mad with strange delusions.
Those that retain a little reason ape the Rome of their ancestors, granting
themselves Roman titles as magistrates, generals, and even emperors betimes.
They rule over wretched citizens who make mimicry of a fallen age, issuing
forth from the Arx to kill and rob all they encounter, whether English or Wealh
or those of another Arx, for they think the whole world is English. Some-
times they use their savage kindred as war-beasts or mounts. Some groups fear
to leave their Arx even after the seals fail, dreading the world outside. A few
might not even be wholly consumed by their bitterness toward the English
and be capable of reasoned parley.
Arxborn desire to kill the English, to steal new food, new slaves, and
other things that they cannot get within their Arx, and to reclaim their ances-
tral cities and the lands thereabout. Some among the man-like Arxborn may
retain Artificer secrets, and powers of Forging. The bestial among them may
have gifts of Might or Ruin. They often possess Roman treasures of fine craft-
work, cherishing them as tokens of authority.

190
 Beast
Bear Wolf Boar
Hit Dice:
Armor Class:
Saves:
Skills:
Move:
Morale:
Attacks:
England yet has great packs of gray wolves, and the occasional hunger-mad
bear, or a long-tusked boar who fears not our spears. These creatures shun men
in groups and will rarely trouble them, yet a lone traveler must fear wolfpacks,
and any beast may become murderous if it is sick, hungry, or bewitched. Fell
and uncanny forest-spirits like to use them as warriors.
Beasts desire food and the protection of their territory. Those that are not
wholly mundane may have powers of Might or Wilderness. Rarely do they
have any treasures, though their pelts may be worth something, and bears and
boars are both good to eat.

Burgrune
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:
The burgrunes are spirits in the shape of comely women, dwelling atop
hills or other high places and possessed of terrible sorcerous powers. They
yearn for mastery and rule over their wild domain, and make courts of beasts
and poor wretches who have trespassed. Some fools make bargains with a
burgrune, offering her tribute and queen-honor in exchange for her aid, yet
such gifts only sharpen her hungers. In time, she will demand more than her
petitioner can offer and punish his failure with some terrible fate.
Burgrunes desire the reverence of subjects, the unfettered mastery of the
lands around their rune-carved halls, and the suffering of their subjects as
proof of devotion. Often they possess gifts of Beguiling, Cursing, Wisdom,
and Wilderness. They scorn battle unless driven to it, leaving their subjects
to defend them.

191
 Demon
Lesser Greater Lordly
Hit Dice:
Armor Class:
Saves:
Skills:
Move:
Morale:
Attacks:
It is the custom of common ceorls to call every uncanny thing a demon, but
that is not so. Only those who were once angels of God can presently be de-
mons, having been cast down at the dawn of the world for their treachery
toward their lord and their vile oathbreaking. All demons dwell by nature in
Hell but some rise up to middle-earth through the beckoning of sorcerers,
the evil deeds of men, or the unknowable plan of God.
Yet though they rise from Hell, Hell remains in their hearts, and they
suffer forever the torments of the damned. Their hates consume them, and
their envies and lusts and longings, and the good things of this world are unen-
durable rebukes to them. The bestial and stupid among them destroy these
things directly, while the cunning and mighty despoil them in subtler ways.
Yet simple or subtle, they hate, and hate moves their every act.
Demons are found in myriad shapes, yet may be divided into three mea-
sures of power: lesser, greater, or lordly. All demons are hideous and frightening
in their true form, yet those with powers of Deceit or Beguiling may oftimes
adopt a fair seeming for a time.
Demons desire the damnation of mortals and the defilement of all good
and godly things in the world. To make a mortal commit some grave sin
is better than to kill him outright, but the more savage demons will satisfy
rage before subtlety. Demons of bestial aspect often have gifts of Might or
Ruin. Those that blandish and corrupt favor gifts of Beguiling, Forging, and
Deceit. Those that seek to encourage pagans and lead heretics have powers of
Beguiling, Might, and Wisdom. And in all cases, a demon may have powers
unexpected in nature, provided they suit its role in the world. Demons seldom
carry treasures of their own, but will gather the belongings of their victims so
as to use them for fresh evils.

192
Draca
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

The draca, called dragon by some, is a terrible fiery worm and a loathsome
creature of Hell. Even so, scholars dispute with each other over whether it is
a demon itself or merely a thing molded and defiled by damnable arts. Some
say that dragons were men once, misers who laid down upon their bed of gold
and could not bear to let death take them from it. Others say that they are
devils of greed who pile up treasures to inflame the lusts of men and lead them
to die in seeking to claim it. All agree that dragons heap up great mounds of
gold and know the place and particulars of every last ring of it.
Dracas dwell in waste places, or places that become wastes soon enough
under their baleful eye. They fear to rob minsters or other places where holy
saints may be there to oppose them, but they will eagerly slay wayfarers and
destroy villages for the few trinkets they may take. They dig into the earth
with their great claws of iron, and draw out hidden things from long-forgot-
ten caches, and bring forth treasures forgotten by men that they might have
riches to hoard. Some fools seek to make bargains with dracas, offering rich
treasures in exchange for their aid or their dark cunning. If their help will bring
loss and suffering to another, the draca may choose to accept such offers, or
they may merely devour the reckless petitioner.
Dracas desire to obtain treasures, devour men, rob others of their most
precious things, and tempt greedy fools to die in seeking their gold. Most
dracas have the fiery breath of Ruin to scourge their foes, and many have
poison for blood that splashes those that wound them, or great wings to take
to the air, or awful powers of destruction in their fangs and claws. Yet they
also see many things that others do not, and oftimes have an awful and insin-
uating voice. Powers of Ruin, Might, and Wisdom are common to them, and
they may also show gifts of Cursing or Beguiling.

193
 Dru
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

Galdormen may wield ungodly arts, but they swear in honest belief that none
of them are of Hell. They claim that their ways are mere hidden secrets placed
by God in the world for the wise to enjoy, and that Satan has nothing of their
work. Monks dispute this, but most count Galdormen merely foolish rather
than wicked. It is not so with the hated dru.
A dru is a Hell-sorcerer, one who gladly works the devil’s will in exchange
for his secrets and his powers. He may use galdorcraft in his work, but much
of his might comes from the unclean pacts he makes with Hell and his service
to damnable powers. Many dru think themselves priests of old pagan gods,
or claim to follow teachers that other men call heretics, but all their powers
come from Hell in the end, and all their lords are devils.
Dru desire to serve their masters, scourge all true Christians, extend their
unclean faiths, and obtain further magical powers. Dru have the arts of a Gal-
dorman of a level equal to half their hit dice, rounded up, and know whatever
spells the GM pleases. Yet their chiefest powers are the magics given them by
Satan, arts which are often very unlike those of a Galdorman. Abilities from
any of the categories might be chosen to reflect these dark gifts, with Cursing,
Beguiling, and Wilderness particularly favored for their arts.

Dweorg
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:
A dweorg, called “dwarf ” by some, is a creature like a man misshapen, like a
cripple or one plagued with old sickness. They oftimes have a stunted look,
and bear tumors and swellings, and yet they are stronger than men and know
no weariness. They dwell in deep and hidden places, where they craft beau-
tiful things of wood and cloth and sometimes metal. They have no wives
and lust greatly for the women of men, though they seem to have no sons or
daughters either. They live forever, and none know from whence they come.

194
 Dweorgs like to bargain with men who seek their help and their fine trea-
sures, often asking for hard things to give or shameful favors. If everything
is given as promised, no matter how terrible the bargain, then the dweorg is
pleased. Yet if the smallest part of the trade is left unfulfilled they become full
of rage and will visit horrible punishments on the one they think has cheated
them. They are known for their mastery of plagues and keep a hundred sick-
nesses on their tongues to unleash on those who anger them. So it is that
men sometimes seek them out for cures as well, though these they are much
more miserly in granting. They serve lords they do not talk of, and sometimes
a dweorg will spread disease and suffering for no reason they will explain.
Dweorgs desire women, and to bargain away the dearest possessions of
men, and to serve their dark masters with the infliction of plagues. They have
powers of Forging, Health, and Wisdom as common things, yet the wonders
they shape may grant them other graces.

Earthwight
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:
No man understands the things called earthwights. They are like men and
beasts, yet shaped of stone, earth, wood, or other unliving matter, wrought
like Pictish carvings and yet walking like living things. They are guardians of
places, whether old entish ruins or empty glades that seem to have no special
virtue. A trespasser who enters into the place an earthwight guards will be
slain by it, or pursued until he flees far away. They act as if with the wisdom
of men, yet they do not speak, nor do they communicate in any other way.
Some men have learned secret signs or utterings in entish tongues that make
an earthwight peaceful toward them, and a few claim to have mastered these
creatures with such hidden lore.
Earthwights desire to kill all intruders who trespass into their appointed
domain. Their unliving forms are so obdurate that only weapons that might
reasonably harm their substance can do them any hurt; an axe for a wooden
earthwight, or a hammer for a stone one, or the like. A magical weapon of any
kind can injure them, however. Aside from this power, they commonly have
gifts of Might, and sometimes one will be found imbued with some terrible
gift of Ruin to aid its warding.

195
 Eidolon
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

Whereas the earthwights are creatures of natural substances, eidolons are

forged of metal or cloth or sometimes the living flesh of condemned slaves,
crafted by Roman arts and by the Roman Artifexes of old. They are most
commonly fashioned in the shape of men, to be most useful, yet those in
the shape of lions, wolves, bears, or other fearsome beasts are not unknown.
They are found most often in Arxes, old relics of masters now long dust. They
understand the Latin tongue, though their wisdom varies greatly. Most have
the minds of very stupid men, able to reason only in simple ways. A few have
greater cunning, however, and some handful are as wise as their makers, bear-
ing the imprint of living minds now dead for ten generations.
Eidolons were all built for particular purposes, whether guardianship,
craft-help, companionship, or counsel. It is in their nature to continue this
purpose even after their master is gone, and stupid ones will persist in it even
when it is plainly useless. Wiser ones will yet maintain their end unless given
potent reason to do otherwise, or cleverly argued into thinking that some
other course is really the best way to achieve their purpose.
Eidolons desire to fulfill the purpose for which they are made and to serve
their master or those who have authority over them. The common kinds that
are made often have no special powers at all, but those who do have them
commonly take them from Might. Ones enchanted for different purposes
may have different gifts imbued into them by their creators.
Ent
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:
Great were the ents of old, both in stature and in skill. An entish man is half
again as tall as an Englishman, finely-formed and handsome, yet melancholy
with the sorrow of a race whose hour has passed. They are clad in magnificent
harness and bear wondrous fine weapons of their crafting, yet their houses are
all in distant places of mountains and hills and they do not welcome strangers.
Entwives are few, and children are not known among them. Their ruined halls

196
and fastnesses are found scattered throughout the land, yet these are cursed
places ripe with plagues and monstrous things, lairs of eotens and worse.
They are not friends to men, but their great hatred is for the dweorgs, whose
plagues ruined their race and brought it to this fading hour. Ents live alone,
or in small households, and it is a brave man who dares parley with them.
Ents desire to slay dweorgs, to recover the sentimental relics that moulder
in their abandoned ruins, and to remain untroubled by the outside world.
They are broad-shouldered and often have gifts of Might, and their great skill
as builders and wrights is shown in Forging arts.

Eoten
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:
Hateful giants infested with sorcery, the eotens are a breed of ill-formed
ents made mad by bitterness and resentment. Where their cousins are resigned
to their race’s doom, the eotens refuse to admit that their rule of this land
ever fell. They dwell in the abandoned ruins of their people, miming lordship
and playing at dominion, forcing strangers to serve their strange whims and
wielding ancient entish arts against their foes. All eotens are sick with a dwarf-
plague that disturbs their solid form, causing them to shift from one shape
to another. Sometimes these are small changes of seeming, but an eoten can
adopt any shape larger than a dog and smaller than a wagon when it chooses
to do so, provided it holds the same shape no more than a day at a time.
Eotens are always quarreling with each other, and seldom are more than
a few found in any one place. They may force men into obedience for a time,
but they are such cruel and hateful masters that only monstrous beasts and
Arxborn are mad enough to serve them long. Such is their skill and long-kept
lore that they may often foresee what will befall them or provide answers to
questions unkenned by men.
Eotens desire to undo the ancient fall of their people, to devour or enslave
all they encounter, and to be surrounded by riches and splendor befitting
their rule. Aside from their shapeshifting, they may have powers of Might,
Wisdom, and Deceit.

197
 Fifel
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

Ogrish and vile, the fifel is a hulking man-thing that favors fens and watery
wastes, hiding amid the rushes and lurking beneath the boughs of black trees.
They are fashioned from oathbreakers and kinslayers and other damnable men,
cursed like their cousins the werwulfs. An evil man who flees to the fens and
wilds to escape his sins may be found there by those deeds, and grow tall and
swollen with evil. He will live forever there amid the cold mud and loneli-
ness, devouring men because he can think of no other thing to do with them,
forever forsaken from all happy companionship and warm hearth. Such is a
fifel’s suffering until it is slain and goes down to Hell for ever.
Fifels wish to devour men, to despoil all human joys, and to torment
those who dare be happy. Their powers may be found among those of Might,
Sea, and Cursing.
Gast
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:
When a proud and ambitious man dies unshriven and unrepentant, raging
at being cheated of his fair portion of fame and glory, he may rise again as a
wretched gast. These creatures are fashioned of darkness and cold, no more
than an airy shadow of the man they once were. They seek out the dead who
perished priestless and unblessed, dragging their restless spirits up as orcs
to serve them. They force them to inhabit once more their rotting corpses,
making of them a court and a warband to reclaim what death has taken from
them.
Gasts desire to claim lordship or kingship or some other place they think
was stolen from them, and to raise more corpses to serve them, and to slay
men so as to make slaves of their carcasses. They may raise as many orc thralls
in a day as they have hit dice, though mighty dead may be made orc warriors
instead. Gasts cannot be harmed by non-magical weapons that have ever shed
the blood of men. Aside from these powers, gasts are known to have arts of
Deceit, Beguiling, Ruin, and Cursing.

198
Haeg
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

She-spirits of fury and martial wrath, the dreaded haegs are harbingers of war
and ruin. They bear the shape of comely women bearing bloody weapons, and
will seek out warbands, groups of brigands, or other bands of armed men.
Most mistake them for spearmaidens, or waelcyrige at most, few realizing that
that haeg is nothing born of woman.
A haeg will bring war-blessings to the group she is with, adding 1 hit die
to all members and improving their hit rolls by half her own hit dice, rounded
up. Yet every time the group or its members engages in battle, its members
must make a Mental save or be goaded one step further toward habits of blind
violence and eager murder. A member who fails three saving throws loses all
human mercy and will seek to kill all who are not fellow warriors of the band.
Such war-mad slaves must obey the haeg’s every command, and her delight is
in useless battles and senseless killing. Only by forsaking the band and leaving
its company can a man avert this doom, and once they are wholly enthralled
by the haeg only her death can free him, or perhaps the arts of a Galdorman
or blessings of a Saint.
Haegs desire battles between bands of warriors, the death of men by the
spear and sword, and the slaughter of the weak and helpless. They have arts
of Might, Wisdom, and Beguiling among them, and no man who bears a
weapon can surprise them in ambush.

199
 Helrune
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

The dru are detestable sorcerers, but they are at least mortal men. A helrune is
a witch-spirit born of infernal realms, one that has come up to middle-earth
in the shape of a comely woman. She wields dark sorceries to oppress and
torment Christian folk, leading them into damnation and slaying those who
dare oppose her. Yet she is not satisfied with ordinary curses and blights, but
commands the spirits of the dead to serve her awful ends.
Helrunes oftimes have a guard of glamored and bewitched men about
them to fight on their behalf, or slaves forced to obedience by terror of her
anger. Helrunes prefer to incite men by fear or greed or lust rather than bind
them by sorcery. She keeps free-willed sinners far from the consolation of
minsters and confessors, that they may never beg God’s pardon for their fail-
ings but must die and be damned in their sins. These damned souls she then
raises up to serve her for all eternity as orcs or spectral objects of torment.
When she dies they will plunge down into Hell with her.
Helrunes desire to damn Christians, to torment those who will not follow
her dark lord, and to impart foul knowledge to dru and other sorcerers. They
have the magical arts of a Galdorman of their hit dice, but have many other
infernal powers as well, often taken from Cursing, Beguiling, Wisdom, Wil-
derness, or Health.

Illmade
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:
The Illmade are those creatures spawned from the uncanny laws of an Arx,
strange beasts born of ancient Roman sorcery and curdled magic. Many of
them are stranger than any cynocephalus or mermaid, existing in such vio-
lence to God’s will that they cannot survive outside of an Arx, but wither and
perish in mere days when forced to leave it. They commonly have the shape
of beasts, often admixed in uncanny ways, or bear faces like men with bodies
of unseemly form.

200
 Most Illmade have only the minds of beasts, and they are perils to be slain
before they devour those they encounter. Others have an almost human reason,
and may perhaps be mistaken for terribly-altered Arxborn. Most Illmade are
singular in kind, though brave explorers have reported similar creatures in
widely-scattered Arxes, either the product of the same Artifex’s eldritch archi-
tecture or born of the same unearthly flux.
Illmade commonly desire to devour men, to behave in ways like that of
their constituent beasts, and to protect the lairs that nourish them with sor-
cerous force. They usually possess gifts of Might, but other powers may be
possessed based on the nature of the beast, such as Sea, Wilderness, or Ruin.

Man
Ceorl Gesith Hero King
Hit Dice:
Armor Class:
Saves:
Skills:
Move:
Morale:
Attacks:
What is there to be said of men? All readers know both the miserable
wickedness of the human heart and the great good and holiness that it may
attain with labor and God’s grace. The entries for Men in the tables that
follow provide common degrees of prowess for varying kinds of humans, and
may be used when the GM needs to know the strength of those people who
opposed the heroes.
Men do not commonly have magical powers, nor do they have the par-
ticular gifts of a PC hero. Remarkable NPCs may have powers alike to a
Galdorman or Saint of a character level equal to their hit dice, but it is rarely
profitable or proper to draw them up as if they were PCs. Rival heroes of
exceptional prowess may have special gifts of their own, however, and wield
them accordingly.

201
 Merewife
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

Cold and hungry in the depths of the fen, the merewife is a spirit of water
and hunger. On land, she takes the guise of a well-favored maid with a voice
as sweet as summer and the girdle-keys of a married woman. Once within the
fen or the stream, however, she shows her true guise, standing half again as
tall as a man, mantled in rushes and river-mud, with terrible grasping claws
and a many-fanged mouth.
A merewife lures lustful men to the rivers and damp fens, intending to
couple with them but always falling prey to her own terrible hunger before
the sin is consummated. Maidens she will ignore, but married women and
mothers she can smell, and will seek to murder out of spite and jealousy. She
also seeks children who carelessly play by watery places, snatching them up
to carry them back to her lair amid the reeds, to play at motherhood with the
terrified children until her cruelties and carelessnesses must kill them.
Merewives desire to eat men, to steal children, and to slay wedded women
and mothers. Their dark powers are drawn from Might, Beguiling, and Sea.
Nicor
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:
Most men think nicors are sea-serpents who seek to devour swimmers, but
in truth the name is apt for a whole legion of terrible sea-things, manlike and
bestial both. It is because of nicors that only brave men dare sail the waters
about England, and it is nicors who are most often culpable for the deaths of
those who dare deep lakes and dark rivers. They have many shapes, whether
that of fish-scaled men, or serpents as long as a hall, or eels with legs and
hungry lamprey mouths. They share a great hatred of all who breathe air and
walk on solid ground. Those with legs will sometimes venture a little way out
of the water to murder and spoil the works of men.
Nicors seek to eat men, to destroy ships and all structures touching water,
and to torment fishermen and sailors. The vast ones have powers of Might and
Ruin, but all have powers of the Sea, and the bestial have those of Wilderness.

202
Orc
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

Orcs are wretched and miserable creatures, being human corpses animated by
the spirit of a damned soul. Whether through a helrune’s beckoning, a gast’s
dark command, or the cruel pleasure of Satan, a soul is brought up from Hell
to be imprisoned within a rotting carcass fashioned by the devil. Such is the
torment of Hell that this prison is an improvement upon their lot, yet it only
fills them with hatred and resentment toward the living, who yet have hope
of Heaven when they have only the surety of eternal fire.
Orc thralls have no reason left to them, their minds having been broken
by the agonies of the damned. They stand silent, or perform some act over
and over, attacking only when living creatures are noticed, or in obeying the
commands of their stronger brethren. Orc warriors retain something of their
living identity and awareness, and will hideously mimic the habits of living
men and women in a vain desire to recapture something of life. They will
feast and drink and raid and do more horrible things still, and God help those
who fall alive into their power. Worst and most terrible are the orc lords, who
have been given gifts of Hell to torment the living and have the cruel cun-
ning of great warriors.
Orcs desire to drown the memory of Hell by playing at living deeds, to
serve the power that brought them forth, and to devour, torment, and punish
the living for having not yet fallen to their own miserable lot. Orc thralls have
no powers that an animate corpse has not, and seldom do orc warriors have
special gifts, but orc lords are often armed with powers of Might, Ruin, and
Cursing by their damned masters.

203
 Pukkel
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

Vile little men with twisted bodies and twisted hearts, the pukkel is a goblin
of the forest and wilds. They are seldom found alone, but go with little bands
of their own kind, prowling the weald in search of careless shepherdesses and
incautious wayfarers. The women they catch they abuse, while the men they
kill and devour. Forest bandits, pagans, and other damnable souls may some-
times bargain with pukkels for their help, trading prisoners to them for their
aid. No man has ever seen a pukkelwife or a pukkel child, but only the wiz-
ened and hateful little men.
Pukkels desire to rob and devour men, to avoid or placate foes that may
slay many of them, and to abuse women. Most pukkels have no special powers
or abilities, but the oldest and wickedest among them may have magical arts
of Wilderness, Wisdom, or tricksome Beguiling.

204
Shuck
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

A fearsome hound of Hell, a shuck has the look of a dog as tall as a man at
his shoulder, with fangs full long as a man’s thumb and eyes shining brighter
than hearth-flame. It is sent up from Hell by the devil to goad on a sinful
man, the better to ensure that he does not repent his evil and seek the shelter
of the Church. The shuck always appears first to the evildoer in some lonely
place, speaking in a voice like a man to tell the wicked sinner that he belongs
to the devil now, and may live only so long as he pleases his lord.
Thereafer the wretched fellow must ever be doing fresh shames, or the
shuck will come to him and drag his blackened soul down to Hell. If he ever
dares journey toward minster or church, so too will the shuck seek to slay him
before he can find shelter behind holy walls. Whenever the shuck is ill-pleased
by his indolence, the beast will slay his kinsmen or destroy his belongings or
torment him in some way. It knows everything its victim knows and is cun-
ning as a man in its acts. Such is the wicked cleverness of the shuck that it will
never make plain to others just who the man it hunts truly is, but will slay
others and cause such misery that none can tell who the damned soul among
them might be. The shuck will vanish if its prey is slain and sent down to
Hell, so there are times that frightened villagers may make murderers of each
other trying to drive off a shuck that torments them by robbing it of its prey.
So too can a shuck be dispelled if its victim heartily repents of his sins and
makes confession to a priest, yet the shuck will know at the instant if he begins
to do such a thing, and will kill the priest or the sinner if it is not fended off.
A shuck desires to cause damnation, murder, and anguish among men.
It always knows the thoughts of its chosen prey and may appear thirty feet
away from its victim whenever it wishes, so long they do not stand on conse-
crated ground. It cannot be hurt by unenchanted weapons. Aside from these
powers, it has arts of Might, Ruin, Cursing, and Wilderness.

205
 Thyrs
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

The entish race has among it not only the mad lords of the eotens, but also the
bitter anchorites who are called thyrses. They dwell in fens and waste places,
far from men, and they bear shapes that are larger and more beautiful than
any mortal might bear, or seemings so hideous that a demon would dread to
behold them. They are all full of sorcery and curses, able to work wonders
with their dark knowledge even as their mighty limbs crush those who would
defy them. Some hate the world which has forgotten their rule, while others
despise men as weaklings and fools, and a few are so wearied with the waning
of days that they will even parley with men for the sake of new amusement.
Even these brooding giants are notorious in their hungers, however, and nei-
ther handsome man nor comely maid is safe in their dark halls.
Thyrses desire to swell in sorcerous power, to avenge themselves on the
world for having forgotten them, and to slake their terrible thirst for plea-
sures. They have a common supply of sorceries equal to that of a Galdorman
of their level, and two or three other great marvels they know readily how to
do. Beyond that, they often have powers of Might, Wisdom, Cursing, and
Forging.

206
Werwulf
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

Some men have too much of the wolf in them, their hearts awakened to evil
urges and their thews strengthened by the devil. A werwulf is one such man,
one both cursed wearg and wicked warrior, two-legged yet jawed for jealous
slaughter. Some can take the form of wolves, while others swell up into bes-
tial shapes when the fury is upon them, and some can be told from other men
only by the frenzied joy they take in the blood of their foes. They are terrible
warriors who walk always alone, unable to bear the sight of other men for
very long. They feel no warmth around the hall-fire and they taste no sweet-
ness in mead.

A man may become a werwulf in several ways, and only a Saint’s bless-
ing and a true desire to make amends will save him from the devil’s grasp.
Some are made werwulf by a habit of killing, so soaked in the blood of men
that they sicken without it, always eager to kill and oftimes eat their own
brothers. Others are cursed by the devil’s servants, witched into wickedness
and wretched with their fate, unable to fight it save that God and good cour-
age be found for them. Some few are fool enough to ask it as a boon of Hell,
gaining a gift of murder in exchange for their obedience to some black name.
Werwulfs desire to kill, despoil, and torment, and can bear to share
human company only so long as it gets them their desires. A werwulf cannot
be harmed by wrought weapons, save that they are enchanted. Most can trans-
form into wolfish shapes when they wish, and all have powers from among
those of Might and Wilderness.

207
 Wraith
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

Fell shadows of men, feared and detested, a wraith is a shade of a Hellbound

king of old. The devil permits their spirit to linger in the upper world, tor-
mented by the knowledge of their inescapable damnation and fearing to do
anything that might hasten Satan’s hand to drag them down to Hell. Their
terror and despair clings to them like a shroud, until it grows so thick that
men can see them with mortal eyes. They are dressed like the great kings of
old, of the time of Rome and before Rome still when the Briton kings were
lords upon this land, yet they have a thin and maddened look to them and
glow with a deathly light. They often have a guard of orcs about them to
serve them and remind them of all the horrors that yet await their soul below.
Wraiths are found most often in hidden halls beneath the old grave-bar-
rows of the Britons, raised in the days before Rome, or under the mausoleums
of Roman rulers. There their orc servant-tormentors carve strange passages
and cold houses in the earth, to mock their lord and entice foolish adven-
turers inward. At times a wraith will ride at night with his guards on spectral
steeds, ravaging all he encounters and doing such things as he thinks Hell
would savor, but he must return to his barrow before dawn for the touch of
sunlight must destroy him. Because a wraith cannot bear the sunlight he will
seldom be found far from his barrow.
Wraiths desire to please the devil and to find distraction from their ter-
rors. They cannot be harmed by unenchanted weapons, and their touch steals
strength and courage from those they caress. A victim so reduced to zero hit
points by their touch will fall into anguished nightmares until their sleeping
body perishes or they consent to serve Hell as a new orc in the wraith’s guard.
Even the strongest soul must perish in a month’s time from these nightmares,
if not rescued and healed by the light of the sun. Wraiths have powers of Ruin,
Wisdom, and Beguiling.

208
Wuduwose
HD: AC: Saves:
Skills: Move: Morale:
Attacks:

A wuduwose is a bestial forest spirit in the shape of a man or woman, clad only
in their hair and bearing crude weapons of stick and stone. They are pagan
and lawless, knowing no decency, and satisfy all the hungers of men with no
thought for righteousness. Some think that the wuduwoses are nothing more
than holy hermits driven mad by the devil, or outlaws so long from human
hands that they forget all but the forest, but others say the wuduwoses have
devilish gifts to help them slake their hungers. They are always found alone,
for they quarrel easily with each other. Men can bargain with them if they
bring much meat or mead or women for them to enjoy, though they cannot
be trusted to keep their vows or help their friends. They have no patience
with subtle requests.
Wuduwoses desire to satisfy their lewd and gluttonous hungers, to hunt
wild game, and to roam free in the forest. Some wuduwoses have no powers
beyond human measure, but others have gifts of Wilderness, Might, or bitter
Cursing.

209
 Ylfe
Goblin Beast Warrior Lord
Hit Dice:
Armor Class:
Saves:
Skills:
Move:
Morale:
Attacks:
Called elves by some, the ylfe are a strange race of many disparate kinds,
from little goblins and crawling beasts to great and terrible elf-lords mantled
like the Roman kings of old. It is said by some that ylfes are all fashioned of
those angels who neither obeyed God’s will at the dawn of the world nor chose
to march against him with Satan. Forbidden from Heaven, yet not wholly
deserving of Hell, they were cast into a middle space to dwell there forever.
The truth of this I cannot say. They lair chiefly in their strange home, but
sometimes they come forth to trouble the lands of men with their fell hunts
and cruel games.
Ylfes dwell in Faerie, which is a land both close and far from England,
like the lining of a cloak is close to the outer embroidery it bears. A man may
slip into Faerie unknowing by taking the wrong path, or passing beneath a
twisted tree-limb, or entering into a cave that was not there before. Once
within Faerie, he is in the power of the ylfes, and he never will get free unless
he is clever and brave and can persuade the ylfes to permit him to return.
This he can seldom do unless he can trick them, for the ylfe have neither
love nor pity in their hearts, but make games of men’s lives until they perish
or fall mad. They will set their prisoners to impossible tasks, or bid them do
impossible deeds, and take pleasure in the desperation of their efforts. Yet if
the deed be done all the same then the ylfes will keep their word and give all
that they have promised for success. A ylfe will never break a bargain, for to
do so makes them the slave of the one they foreswore, and they must serve
him helplessly until he dies. Let men take care, for the same law applies in
return to those who make bargains with ylfes.
Ylfes desire to be amused, to enact grand tales of horror and splendor, and
to make entertaining bargains with men. Their implements are all of bronze,

210
or enchanted glass, or other strange things, for the touch of common iron
burns them as if it were hot from the forge. Iron weapons ignore all enchant-
ments that they may have to protect them and do double their usual damage.
Enchanted iron weapons do not have this benefit, for to seek to kill a ylfe with
an enchanted weapon is to desire to drown a fish in the sea. Ylfes commonly
have powers of Beguiling, Deceit, Forging, and Wisdom, though any ylfe may
have powers suitable to its seeming and role in Faerie.

211
212
213
 Beguiling

Roll Power
1 Tell a creature a lie which they must believe until it is conclusively
disproven (M)
2 Appear so fair and bewitching that none can harm them in a scene until
they strike a blow or do harm (M)
3 Request a favor of someone which they must do unless it causes them
Shame or physical harm (M)
4 It is so entrancing that the first physical blow every foe aims at in in a
scene always misses
5 Fulfills a deed or favor requested by someone, whereupon they must
do its next bidding to the best of their ability or it will know it. Such
ingrates cannot save against its powers or avoid its attacks for a year and a
day afterwards.
6 Do an act, and regardless of the circumstantial evidence only heroes or
NPCs with more hit dice than it can possibly believe that it did it unless
they were personal witnesses to the act
7 Bestow joy and ravishing pleasure upon a target in its company. While
this has no mechanical consequence, few can bear to give up such
happiness
8 Sing so as a Main Action as to transfix any who hear it, leaving them
incapable of anything but self-defense so long as it sings (M)
9 Touch a target, requiring a hit roll if they are resisting, and bind their will
utterly to its service until it releases them or it is slain (M)
10 Any foe that levies a physical attack against it automatically suffers its hit
dice in damage in the form of regret at opposing such enchanting grace
or unutterable majesty, inflicted before the attack is rolled
11 No one can bear to strike it with fist or weapon until it has successfully
attacked or used a magical power against them
12 It need merely silently will a visible target to think or desire a thing, and
they must immediately think accordingly until it releases them (M)

214
 Cursing
Curses can be laid on any visible target as a Main Action. Powerful crea-
tures may also be able to lay a curse using a target’s blood, hair, or important
personal possessions. The existence of a curse is not obvious unless the effects
themselves are plainly supernatural. Unless otherwise noted, a creature’s curses
will last until it is killed or chooses to lift the curse. Some may instead specify a
particular difficult-but-not-strictly-impossible condition that will lift the curse;

Roll Power
1 The target has terrible war-luck, suffering -4 on all hit rolls. (M)
2 The target is diseased with a foul illness causing -2 to hit and -2 to all skill
checks. They can make a Physical save each day; on a success, the disease
passes 1d4 days later.
3 The target is enfeebled, their maximum hit points halved for one day per
hit die of the creature. (P)
4 The target is plagued with terrible luck in one specific act or activity. The
next time they attempt the relevant action, it's an automatic failure. (M)
5 The target suffers the loss of some valuable item, weapon, or harness as it
is broken, stolen, burnt, or ruined that instant. (E)
6 The target's wounds suppurate and weep. They can be stabilized and
brought up to one hit point, but they cannot heal damage otherwise until
the curse is lifted. (P)
7 The target's crops or livestock wither and perish over the next week. A
particular herd or field loses 1d4 * 10% of its produce, plus 10% per two
full hit dice of the creature. (M)
8 The target becomes repulsive and detestable to their neighbors and
strangers, suffering a -2 on all Charisma skill checks and a -2 penalty to
all reaction rolls when they are present. (M)
9 The target is struck down by horrible diseases or afflictions that will not
kill them any time soon but will utterly incapacitate them with miserable
torment. (P)
10 If the target ever performs a particular act or type of act, some horrible
calamity of the creature's choosing will befall them, up to and including
death. (M)
11 The target will forever fail at a particular type of activity, whether it is
combat, rulership, seeking the love of a woman, or the like. (M)
12 The target will die before the next new moon. Only one such target can
be affected at a time.

215
 Deceit

Roll Power
1 The creature can turn invisible, appearing only just before it attacks or
performs some vigorous physical act. Invisible creatures are immune to
ranged attacks and apply a -4 penalty to all melee blows against them,
assuming the attacker is in the right general area to fight them
2 The creature can adopt the seeming of a human being, including the face,
voice, and clothing of any known to them. It changes back when slain
3 Once per scene, the creature can take something and no one present will
notice the theft or claiming. They get a Mental save against this blindness
if they have equal or greater hit dice than the creature
4 The creature can pass through doors and open portals silently, whether
or not they are locked. If there are guards at the portal, they must make a
Mental save to notice the creature or its passing
5 The creature's trail or tracks are impossible to detect without magic
6 The creature can make any object look and seem like any other object,
often using this gift to make trash seem precious
7 The creature can conjure a false image with sight, sound, and scent at any
point within sight. These images have no substance but act and appear
just as the real thing.
8 The creature can cause hallucinations in a target, making them see and
hear whatever they wish. (M)
9 The creature's lies are inevitably believed by all who hear them unless
they have equal or greater hit dice than the creature. PCs get a Mental
save to resist this.
10 The creature can assume any shape no larger than an oak tree nor smaller
than an acorn. It retains its usual statistics in these forms, and may always
move at its normal rate even if the object is usually immobile.
11 The first time it is reduced to zero hit points each day, it reveals that the
slain creature was only a false image, and it is really elsewhere within 30
feet with half its maximum hit points
12 Once per scene as an Instant action the creature can undo the effects of
the entire prior round, for it was all a delusion created by the creature.
It gets a free round of action when it does so, for it acted while everyone
else was in the grip of its deceit.

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 Forging
A being of craft and delving, the creature has the power to craft or extract
something, whether a specific type of thing or structure or anything appro-
priate to its nature, and “objects” noted in the powers below refer to such
things. It doubtless has fashioned whatever it can for its own use, but might
also trade its favors to other monstrous foes, or even to strangers who are will-
ing to aid it in turn.

Roll Power
1 As a Main Action, ruin an object it can see. An Evasion save can preserve
held or worn objects
2 It can make any single object in a night appropriate to its nature, whether
harness or a hall
3 The things it makes are almost unbreakable by mortal means. Armor it
makes grants a +2 AC bonus, but not shields
4 It can tell exactly who made an object and how it has been used in the
past year, as if it had watched it being used
5 It can make treasures out of mud, wood, and common things, fabricating
a shilling's worth per hit die per day
6 It can dig in earth and natural stone with ease, creating a tunnel eight feet
high, wide, and deep with each Main Action
7 It can make appropriate objects out of nothing, requiring no raw
materials for their crafting
8 It can see and hear through any object it has made with a Main Action of
concentration on the particular thing
9 Whatever it makes is magnificent. All weapons and armor are treated as
+1 magical objects and everything grants at least 1 point of Splendor to
its bearer
10 It works astonishingly quickly, and in a day can do the work of twenty
men for every hit die it has
11 No object formed or shaped by human hands can harm it
12 Objects it has made obey it utterly, even moving under their own power.
Treat most objects as common men for attack and damage purposes if
they assault someone

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 Health
Diseases inflict varying penalties. Usually, a minor sickness inflicts -2 to
hit and -1 on skill checks, while a major one inflicts -4 to hit and -2 on checks.
Similar woes might be used in place of these. If afflicted with a minor sickness,
the victim can make a Physical save each night to throw it off, recovering a
week after the save is made. Major sicknesses allow a Physical save once per
week, recovering a month after the save is made. An Int/Heal skill check can
be attempted once per week for either at a difficulty of 8 for minor and 10

Roll Power
1 It can cure a disease in a man or beast if the petitioner performs a favor
for it
2 All near it must make a Physical save once per scene or instantly be struck
by a minor sickness, if it so wills
3 It can induce weeping sores as a minor sickness, making it impossible for
the target to recover hit points until it is cured
4 Old scars throb while it is near, inflicting a -1 penalty on hit and saving
throws for every Scar a visible foe has
5 It can take away all the symptoms of a disease, making a target feel fine.
The sickness remains in abeyance until the creature allows it free rein
again
6 It can infect an object or place such that anyone who handles it or goes
there must make a Physical save or suffer a minor sickness, or a major
one if this is taken as a major power
7 It can bless a creature with tremendous vigor, such that it is immune to
disease and heals one HP every ten minutes. This blessing lasts for one
day per hit die of the creature
8 It can bless or curse a single field or herd so that nine of ten parts die by
the season's end, or it doubles in size or yield in the same time
9 It can strike a visible creature with any illness it wishes, causing any
results from mild inconvenience to instant death. (P)
10 Sick creatures must obey its commands or suffer excruciating pain, taking
-4 to hit and -2 on all skill checks. (P) to defy it for a scene.
11 It can cure any sicknesss, whether by glance, potion, charm, or unholy
petition.
12 It can smite whole villages or fields with major sickness, killing a tenth of
them each week, or doing less fatal harm if they so wish

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 Might
Creatures with a major Might power are impervious to non-magical
weapons, albeit not to bare-handed strikes or grapples.

Roll Power
1 It is immune to non-magical weapons, though unarmed strikes can still
harm it
2 It is strong as a bear, rolling damage twice and taking the better result
3 It strikes with terrible keenness, gaining +4 on all hit rolls
4 Its swiftness is terrible, always winning initiative in combat and doubling
its movement rate
5 It is frenzied by pain; whenever it takes hit point damage, its next attack
roll is always successful
6 It is tremendously hardy; it rolls its hit dice with 1d4+4 instead of 1d8
7 Its hide sheds blows, granting it a +4 bonus to its armor class
8 It has an unquenchable vitality, regenerating half its hit dice in hit points
at the end of each round, rounded up, until it is slain
9 It has titanic strength, doubling the damage it rolls and lifting, breaking,
or throwing anything it can fit its arms around
10 Its blows are inexorable, missing only on a natural 1
11 It is terrifying to behold, forcing all NPCs to make a Morale check at a -2
penalty upon seeing it and afflicting PCs and those who resist with a -2
penalty on all hit rolls against it
12 It can only be reduced to zero hit points by some special tool, means, or
blessed object

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 Ruin
Powers of Ruin might be flaming breath, a blasting curse, a ball of sear-
ing flame, or some other power that directly smites a foe, usually exercised
as a Main Action. Where “ruin” is noted below, simply replace it with some
effect, substance, or power appropriate to the creature. Creatures are immune
to damage from their own forms of ruin.

Roll Power
1 Its weapons or blows are infused with ruin, adding its hit dice to all
damage rolls.
2 It can hurl bolts of ruin as a normal ranged attack out to 300 feet, doing
its normal weapon damage plus its hit dice.
3 Once per scene, it can summon up a wall of ruin up to ten feet long per
hit die. Those who cross the wall suffer 1d6 damage per two hit dice of
the creature. (P) save for half.
4 It can destroy visible structures and unattended objects with ruin,
consuming up to a 10 foot cube of such things per Main Action
5 It bleeds ruin when harmed, injuring melee foes who hit it for 1d6
damage plus its hit dice.
6 It can create a pool of ruin within 100 feet, 2 feet in radius per hit die.
Creatures that end their turn in the pool or move into one suffer 1d6
damage per two hit dice of the creature. (P) save for half.
7 It can cause impending eruptions of ruin at points within 100 feet, being
2 feet in radius per hit die. The eruption detonates at the start of its next
round, inflicting 1d6 damage per hit die of the creature. (P) save for half.
8 Constant batterings of ruin around it inflict 1d4 hit points of damage on
all foes within 30 feet at the end of each of its rounds
9 Once per scene, cast a wave of ruin in a cone 10 feet long per hit die and
as wide at the far end, doing 1d6 damage per hit die. Evasion save for
half damage.
10 Once per scene, cause a burst of ruin within 300 feet with a radius of
three feet per hit die. It does 1d6 damage per hit die. (E) save for half.
11 Wreath their person in ruin as an On Turn action, doing 1d6 damage
plus half their hit dice, rounded up, to any foe in melee range. Damage is
applied at the end of the creature's round.
12 As a Main Action, smite a visible foe with ruin, inflicting 1d6 damage per
two hit dice, rounded up. (P) save for half damage.

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 Sea
Powers of Ruin might be flaming breath, a blasting curse, a ball of sear-
ing flame, or some other power that directly smites a foe, usually exercised
as a Main Action. Where “ruin” is noted below, simply replace it with some
effect, substance, or power appropriate to the creature. Creatures are immune
to damage from their own forms of ruin.

Roll Power
1 It's invisible while at least partially submerged, becoming immune to
ranged attacks and forcing a -4 penalty on melee blows against it.
2 It can flow through even the tiniest holes without slowing its movement.
3 It can make water flow in any direction, up to a man-deep stream's
worth.
4 It gets a bonus Move action while at least partially submerged.
5 Piercing and cleaving weapons do only half damage to it, rounded down.
6 As a Move action, it can teleport up to its movement distance while in
ankle-deep water.
7 It can find and bring forth any submerged object within a quarter-mile.
8 It can gaze into water to see anything reflected by water within a
quarter-mile.
9 It automatically hits any foe who's in at least ankle-deep water.
10 It cannot be harmed as long as it's at least half-submerged.
11 It can drown an adjacent foe as a Main Action, doing 1d6 damage per hit
die with a Physical save to halve it.
12 Foes within visible range are slowed as if trudging through fen-pools,
halving their movement rate.

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 Wilderness

Roll Power
1 It cannot be tracked by mundane means.
2 It can call forth a bear or 1d6 wolves to serve it.
3 Weapons made at least partly of wood twist to avoid it, forcing a -4
penalty on attack rolls.
4 It can pass through even the thickest brush or boggiest ground
unhindered and without trace.
5 It poisons those it strikes, forcing a Physical save to avoid taking 1d6
damage per hit die of the creature.
6 It can curse all visible foes with confusion, causing them to be unable to
find their way in the wilds for 2d6 days. (M)
7 It can entangle a visible foe. The target cannot move from their place
until they make a Str/Exert skill check against difficulty 10 as a Main
Action. (P)
8 It's invisible in the wilderness until it takes a Main Action, after which it
is visible for the rest of the scene.
9 Within a particular grove or wild location, it cannot suffer damage.
10 All the wild animals within the surrounding wilds are its servants and
spies.
11 It has some supernaturally monstrous beast as a loyal slave, and can share
its senses.
12 As a Main Action, it can disappear and reappear anywhere within its wild
domain.

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 Wisdom

Roll Power
1 It always wins initiative, foreseeing any peril.
2 Once per scene, it gets a bonus Main Action as it knows exactly what to
do.
3 It can spy upon a place within two miles per hit die via scrying rituals.
4 It always knows the exact location of a thing or person it seeks.
5 Once per day, it can give supernaturally perceptive advice as to how to
accomplish some purpose.
6 It always knows exactly what any visible person truly desires and truly
fears.
7 It knows the darkest, most shameful secrets of any person it sees.
8 Once per scene, replay the turn it just took as it foresees the undesirable
outcome.
9 It always recognizes lies or deceit, whether spoken or written.
10 Once per day, it can answer any question, if the truth is known by some
living human.
11 Anything the gamesmen say or write at the table, it knows by its arts.
Plans made by implication and gesture elude it.
12 Once per petitioner, it can prophesy an answer to a question that will
inevitably come to pass, if perhaps in metaphorical ways.

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