Dungeons & Drapers Player's Handbook (Beta 2.9)

Contents
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 2

CHAPTER TWO: CHARACTER CREATION .. 5
CHAPTER THREE: VIOLENCE 17
CHAPTER FOUR: RESTING AND HEALING .. 19
CHAPTER FIVE: TRICKS . 20
CHAPTER SIX: MAGIC .. 25
CHAPTER SEVEN: EXPERIENCE & LEVELS .. 31
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE BLADED VALE 32
Appendix I: Beginners Spellbook 38
Apeendix II: Character Sheet & Sample Characters.. 71
Appendix III: What Wizards & Warriors Want . 75
Appendix IV: Sample Livelihoods ... 81
S Dungeons & Drapers: The Players Handbook (Beta 3.6) R
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Getting Started
Tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs) combine
improvisational theater, collaborative
storytelling, and puzzle and strategy games.
Mostly its just talking. You dont really need a
table with a top. You could just use a picnic
blanket.
If youre completely new to RPGs, find someone
to teach you, or watch videos of other people
playing. E.g. Vin Diesel, Teddy Ray, Satine
Phoenix, Chris Perkins. Or two episodes of
Community. When youve got a general idea,
obtain brightly colored polyhedral dice. Obtain
flat surfaces. Obtain paper and pencil, and print
out some character sheets. Obtain friends
and/or willing victims. By general acclaim, raise
one of your number to the office of gamemaster
(GM).
Task Resolution
D&D uses the roll a d20 to beat a target
number mechanic that is common to lots of
RPGs. Whenever your character attempts a task
where theres a risk of failure, the GM will
decide on a target number, and ask you to make
an ability score check (e.g., Make a Dexterity
check). Thats your cue to:
Some Important Terms

GM: The GM is the author, storyteller, judge,
manager, moderator, and educator. The GM
prepares and describes the world, controls the
action of NPCs, and shapes the overall story.
1. Roll a d20.
2. A natural-born 1 fails automatically, in
the worst possible way (a critical failure). A
natural-born 20 succeeds automatically,
in the best possible way (a critical success).
3. If you roll 2-19, add the appropriate
ability score (e.g. Dexterity, Personality).
4. If you have a skill that helps you with the
task (e.g. Acrobatics, Deception) add 2.
5. Or if you have a skill that is only partly
relevant, the GM may let you add just 1.
6. If total is greater than or equal to the
target number, you succeed!
PC: Player character. An imaginary person. For

instance, a blacksmith who moonlights as a
knight. Everybody except the GM has a PC who
they portray. The next chapter describes how
you will create your PC, recording their
strengths, weaknesses, and other qualities on
your character sheet.
NPC: Non-player character. Portrayed by the
GM.
GM guidelines for choosing target numbers:

5=very easy, 10=easy, 15=hard, 20=very hard,
25=epic. Also see Advantage & Disadvantage,
overleaf.
1d6, 2d6 etc.: Standard notation telling you

which dice to roll. The d stands for die or dice.
1d6 means one six-sided die. 2d6 means two sixsided dice. 1d8+3 means roll one eight-sided die,
and add three to the result.
Advantage & Disadvantage
Character Classes & Races
Occasionally you will have advantage or

disadvantage on a roll. Having advantage means
you can roll twice and choose the best result.
Having disadvantage means you must roll twice
and choose the worst result.
Youll choose your character class from five

options: Apothecary, Blacksmith, Chandler,
Friar, and Tailor. Your character race can
usually be chosen from Normborn, Birdborn,
Feyborn, and Snailborn. Unlike many RPGs,
D&D doesnt give you bonuses and penalties
based on your race. Your choice of
customization pack gives you bonuses and
penalties instead.
Some Important Scores

You have six ability scores (Strength,
Dexterity, Constitution, Knowledge,
Awareness, Personality). They may be positive
or negative (a score of 0 means average). You
also have hit points (HP) which are your
health bar (at -10, you usually die); armor class
(AC) which determines how well you evade
enemy attacks; speed which determines how
many feet you can usually move per round;
mana which you can spend to cast spells or
perform special tricks; experience points (XP)
which you earn by defeating enemies and
accomplishing story goals; and your level,
which starts at 1 and goes up when you get
enough XP. Youll also have skills, special
abilities, languages, equipment, treasure, etc.
Hit Points & Mana

Your HP fall when you get injured and get
replenished when you get healed. Your HP can
never exceed your current Maximum HP.
When your HP fall to 0, you fall unconscious.
When your HP fall to -10, you die. Certain
Apothecary spells may keep you alive or alive
and conscious.
Your mana falls when you cast spells or use
special tricks, and gets replenished when you
rest.
The Bladed Vale
D&D may be set in the Bladed Vale, also
known also as The Kingdom, The Queendom,
and by innumerable other names. It is said that
the Bladed Vale exists in many many versions,
each one pent up inside a coin.
Chapter Eight tells of this marvellous realm,
but the TL;DR version is: when you adventure
in the Bladed Vale, you must do it in secret.
Dungeoncrawling, questing and so on is
forbidden by an ancient charter known as the
Queens Peace (see page 78). Bundles, weapons,
items, and spells marked are often forbidden
entirely, and will at least raise suspicion.
There are adventurers who are licensed
Warriors, Mages, and so on. But youre not one
of them. So if you get caught slaying a dragon,
you better have a good explanation, buster.
CHAPTER TWO: CHARACTER CREATION

Step 1: Roll for Bonuses
Roll 1d6 and subtract 3 (you may get a negative number), and record the result on some scrap paper.
Repeat this five more times. Then assign these six numbers among the six abilities listed below. These
arent your final scores just yet.
Strength (Str):
Athletic ability, muscles, brawn, skill with
melee weapons.
Knowledge (Kno):
Education, reasoning, information recall,
analytical skill, general mental acuity, and
spellcasting for Chandlers.
Dexterity (Dex):
Agility, quick reflexes, balance, poise,
stealthiness, skill with ranged weapons.
Awareness (Awa):
Perception, vigilance, intuition, insight, and
spellcasting for Friars.
Constitution (Con):
Endurance, stamina, resilience, stamina.
Affects healing speed, magic resistance, and
how effectively you use heavy armor.
Personality (Per):
Charisma, empathy, determination, willpower,
spellcasting for Apothecaries. Sometimes useful
in Chandler / Friar spellcasting as well.
Quick start option.

Instead of doing the rolling and subtraction, you may distribute these six scores: +1, +1, 0, 0, -1, -1.
Step 2: Customization Pack

Choose one of the following customization packs, and modify your ability scores appropriately.
Pack N: +1 Str, +1 Con, +1 Kno. (Youll also get +2 HP).
Pack S: +1 Str, +2 Con, +1 Awa. (Youll also get -5 speed, +3 HP).
Pack B: +1 Dex, +3 Awa, -2 Kno. (Youll also get +1 HP).
Pack F: +2 Dex, +1 Per.
Pack W: +2 Str, +2 Con, -1 Per. (Youll also get +3 HP).
Pack G: +3 Str, +1 Con, -1 Awa, -1 Kno, -1 Per. (Youll also get +5 speed, +2 HP).
Pack P: +2 Kno, +2 Per, -1 Dex.
You have now determined your characters Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Knowledge, Awareness,
and Personality scores. Grab yourself a blank character sheet (supplied at the back of this book), and
write in your scores!
Step 3: Choose Your Character Class & Skills

3. Chandler
For many years private adventuring has been

outlawed in the Bladed Vale. The only Clerics,
Warriors, Mages, Druids, and Rogues that youll
meet are those employed by the Queen. Sure,
everyone still goes around with pointy weapons.
Everyone still pores over ancient grimoires filled
with arcane war-wonders. But all that is strictly
for recreational purposes, plus self-defense
against banditry and horrors. So you dont get to
be a big famous hero, sorry! Having said that, in
the Bladed Vale, certain professions have certain
reputations. When someone tells you that they
belong to one of these five professions, watch
out for a twinkle in their eye. Id like to say
more. Im just not sure I can trust you yet.
Your starting HP are 7 + your Constitution. You

get 1d6 extra HP per level. Choose four skills
from Alertness, Animal Handling, Arcana,
Chandlery, Discernment, Engineering, History,
Finance, Investigation, Medicine, Nature,
Rhetoric, Religion, and Will. You may spend
mana to cast Chandler Spells. You start off with
at least 70 leprecoins. Your default speed is 25. If
you want to diversify into making mustard,
saxifrage, vinegar, and soap, as well as candles,
you can call yourself a Smearmonger instead.
4. Friar
get 1d6 extra HP per level. Choose three skills
from Animal Handling, Arcana, Discernment,
Empathy, History, Investigation, Medicine,
Nature, Religion, Rhetoric, Riding, Seafaring,
Stealth, Survival, and Will. You may spend
mana to cast Friar Spells. You start off with at
least 60 leprecoins. Your default speed is 25.
1. Apothecary
You automatically get the Medicine skill. Your
starting HP are 7 + your Constitution. You get
1d6 extra HP per level. Choose two more skills
from Alertness, Discernment, Empathy,
History, Intimidation, Nature, Rhetoric,
Religion, and Will. You may spend mana to cast
Apothecary Spells. You start off with at least 60
leprecoins. Your default speed is 25.
5. Tailor
get 1d8 extra HP per level. Choose five skills
from Acrobatics, Alertness, Animal Handling,
Arcana, Athletics, Clothworking, Deception,
Discernment, Empathy, Engineering, Finance,
Intimidation, Investigation, Performance,
Rhetoric, Riding, Seafaring, Sleight of Hand,
Stealth, and Will. You may spend mana to do
Tailor Tricks. You start off with at least 80
leprecoins. Your default speed is 30. If you want
to specialize in cloth rather than clothing, you
can call yourself a Draper instead. Hence:
Dungeons & Drapers.
2. Blacksmith
Your starting HP are 14 + your Constitution.
You get 1d8 extra HP per level. Choose three
skills from Acrobatics, Alertness, Animal
Handling, Athletics, Discernment, Engineering,
History, Intimidation, Medicine,
Metalworking, Riding, Survival, and Will. You
may spend mana to do Blacksmith Tricks. You
start off with at least 70 leprecoins. Your default
speed is 30. If you want to specialize in horseshoes, you can call yourself a Farrier instead.
Hmm, that sounds like a cross between
Fighter and Warrior.
Hint. Theres less chance of getting your cover

blown when you have the skill appropriate to
your profession: Medicine, Metalworking,
Chandlery, Religion, or Clothworking.
6
Descriptions of Skills
If you are making an ability check and you have a relevant skill, add +2 to your roll. If a skill is slightly
relevant, you may add +1. Some skills overlap (e.g. Acrobatics and Athletics, Animal Handling and
Riding), but you can never get more than a +2 bonus.
Acrobatics. (Dexterity). Jumping, tumbling, climbing, outrageous combat feats.
Alertness. (Awareness). You are always vigilant. Its difficult to sneak up on you.
Animal Handling. (Personality). Soothing animals, taming animals. Respectful encounters with nonhumans.
Arcana. (Knowledge). Knowledge of magic, including folk remedies to cancel magic spells.
Athletics. (Strength). Climbing, jumping, wrestling, swimming.
Chandlery (Knowledge). You know a lot about the boiling of fat and the shedding of light.
Clothworking (Knowledge). Youre good at making, altering and repairing clothing.
Deception. (Personality). Lying, trickery, disguise. Youre good at it. Or are you? Yes. Or are you?
Discernment. (Awareness). Youre good at telling when someone is lying or hiding something.
Empathy. (Personality). Emotional intelligence, responsiveness, compassion, flirting, forming bonds
Engineering. (Knowledge). Knowledge of devices and constructions. Picking locks.
Finance. (Knowledge). Knowledge of money, trade, and banking, and some economics and mathematics.
History. (Knowledge). You know much of the sorrowful and bloody history of the Bladed Vale.
Intimidation. (Personality). Youre good at scaring people into doing things.
Investigation. (Awareness). When you study a scene, you tend to notice things that are hidden.
Medicine. (Knowledge). Diagnosing conditions, performing first aid, knowledge of antidotes.
Metalworking. (Knowledge). You can forge wrought metal, and have aptitude as an armorer and farrier.
Nature. (Knowledge). Knowledge of animals, plants, landscapes, weather, and ecosystems.
Performance. (Personality). Storytelling, singing, dancing, musical instruments, acting, disguise,
flirting.
Riding. (Dexterity). Everybody can ride a horse, but you can ride almost anything.
Rhetoric. (Personality). Oratory, persuasion, verbal reasoning and analysis, debating.
Seafaring. (Knowledge). Sailing, navigating, swimming, some knowledge of ship manufacture and repair.
Sleight of Hand. (Dexterity). Picking peoples pockets, picking locks, juggling, hand-eye co-ordination.
Stealth. (Dexterity). Camouflage, sneaking around, sneaking up on people. Not sneezing inopportunely.
Survival. (Knowledge). Making shelter in the wild, hunting, laying snares, tracking, traversing terrain.
Will (Personality). You can resist intimidation or magical mind control.
The GM decides how relevant a skill is. The ability in parentheses is the ability that is usually associated
with that skill. Instead of saying, Make a Dexterity check and add your Acrobatics bonus, the GM
may say Make an Acrobatics check for short. Occasionally a skill may be added to a different score.
Step 4: Choose Your Race

Choose your race: Normborn, Snailborn, Birdborn, or Feyborn. Optional races (at GMs discretion):
Wound Dwarf, Golem, Puppetborn. Your race does not influence your ability scores. However, it does
influence the way some people will perceive you. You may encounter different biases, but these are the
most prevalent ones:
Birdborn are stereotypically agile and almost mystically perceptive, but usually badly educated and a
bit stupid. They speak Heesaha Shimbiraha and they speak Common, but not very well.
Golems are stereotypically extremely strong, durable and fast, but lack insight, education and
charisma. They speak Common and Glume.
Feyborn are stereotypically very agile and have terribly exotic, enchanting personalities. They all
speak many languages including Common, Elfjayzk, and Sylvan.
Puppetborn are stereotypically smart, hard-working and alert, but are clumsy and tend to get
tangled in their strings. They usually speak Common, Nukukeele, and various other languages.
Snailborn are stereotypically strong, healthy, and aware, but a little slow to get around. They speak
Common and Canzona Lumaca.
Wound Dwarves are stereotypically strong and hale, but hard-hearted, grumpy and disagreeable.
They speak Common and Krvarenje Jezik.
In the past, only Normborn were considered human. Nowadays there are seven races are usually
considered human. Human is still a controversial word in the Bladed Vale. You can find out more about
these seven races in Chapter Eight.
Step 5: Choose Two Special Abilities

Assassin. Gain the Stealth skill automatically. Get +2
to your attack roll (but not your damage roll) when
using a knife or blowpipe.
Resilience. You have advantage on all Constitution

based ability checks. Start with +2 extra HP.
Scholar. You have advantage on all Knowledge based
ability checks. You speak one extra language of your
choice.
Axes and Hammers. Get +2 to your attack roll (but not

your damage roll) when using a mallet, handaxe,
warhammer, greataxe, or halberd.
Sniper. Your effective range increases by 40 feet when

using blowgun, sling, shortbow, longbow, light
crossbow, or heavy crossbow. If you are a Blacksmith
or Tailor, you may choose to prepare the Trick Shot
trick at any level.
Bard. You can sing or play one instrument expertly,

and many instruments moderately well. You get the
Performance and Rhetoric skills automatically. Also
choose either History or two additional languages.
Bewitchments. Chandlers only. You may prepare spells
from the Bewitchments Expansion Pack.
Sorcerer. Get two bonus points of mana.

Swashbuckler. Tailors only. Every time you pepare
your tricks, you may choose one trick from the
Blacksmith list.
Brave and Nimble. You gain the Acrobatics and Will

skills automatically. You may move through the space
of any creature that is significantly larger than you.
You can attempt to hide when you are obscured by any
creature that is significantly larger than you.
Swords and Bows. Add +2 to your attack roll (but not

your damage roll) when using a shortsword,
longsword, shortbow, or longbow.
Childhood Charm. Choose one 1st level Friar,

Chandler, or Apothecary spell. This spell always
counts as prepared. It doesnt use up one of your spell /
trick preparation slots.
Swiftness. Your movement speed is increased by +10.

Tank. Blacksmiths only. You start with 16 HP, not 14
HP. Every time you level up, you get 5 HP, not 1d8.
No speed penalty when wearing full plate.
Darkvision. By some genetic kink, you can see within

60 feet as if you were in bright light.
Thrown Weapons. Your effective range increases by

40 feet when using any thrown weapon (e.g. handaxe).
Ecocritic. Friars only. You may prepare spells from

the Ecocritic Expansion Pack.
Tumbler. Gain Acrobatics automatically. You have

advantage on all Acrobatics and Athletics based checks.
Indominitable Will. You gain the Discernment and

Will skills automatically. You have advantage on
Personality checks against intimidation, mind control,
or any magic that would put you to sleep.
Wakefulness. By sleeping just four hours, you get the

same benefits others get in eight. If someone tries to
sneak up on you while you are sleeping, you may
always make an Awareness check with advantage to see
if you wake up. You have advantage on Personality
checks against magic that would put you to sleep.
Languages. You speak and read three languages very

well, and you know bits and pieces of another five
languages.
Warlock. Chandlers and Friars only. When you take a

short rest (about an hour) you may regain some mana.
Chandlers regain mana equal to Knowledge, and Friars
regain mana equal to Awareness. After youve
regenerated in this way once, you need to take a proper
long rest (eight hours) before you can use it again.
Luck. Whenever you roll a 1 on a 1d20, you may reroll

the die once.
Martial Arts. Get +2 to your attack roll and damage
roll when using no weapon or improvised weapon, or
sai, staff, or nunchaku. Gain +2 AC when unarmored.
You may fall up to 20 feet without taking any damage.
Wilderness Walker. You get the Survival skill

automatically. In woodland areas, your movement
speed is increased by +5. Anywhere out of doors, you
may attempt to hide even in very light cover (foliage,
snow, heavy rain).
Magus. Chandlers only. You may keep two extra spells

prepared. Also choose one extra language:
Curtainlander, Glossolalia, Draconic, Infernal,
Splayed.
Step 6: Hit Points and Speed
Character Creation: A Nice Crunchy Example

Purky thinks she wants to probably play a
Feyborn Blacksmith named Ronan
Farwanderer. She rolls 6d6 and gets 1, 6, 3, 6,
5, 4. Sweet. Purky subtracts 3 from each number,
to give her -2, +3, 0, +3, +2, +1, and assigns them
as follows: Str +3, Dex +3, Con 0, Awa +1,
Kno -2, Per +1. So far so good. Purky picks
Customization Pack G and adjusts her
characters ability scores accordingly: Str +6,
Dex +3, Con +1, Awa 0, Kno -3, Per 0. Looks like
her character never had much formal education.
Purky starts to imagine Ronan as a restless
spirit, who always skipped class to go roaming
the great forests in search of danger and
adventure and magic herbs to smoke.
You figure out your max HP like this:
Basic Apothecary max HP: 7 + Con

Basic Blacksmith max HP: 14 + Con
Basic Chandler max HP: 7 + Con
Basic Friar max HP: 9 + Con
Basic Tailor max HP: 9 + Con
Customization Pack N, gain +2 max HP
Customization Pack S, gain +3 max HP
Customization Pack B, gain +1 max HP
Customization Pack W, gain +3 max HP
Customization Pack G, gain +2 max HP
Resilence special ability, gain +2 max HP
You start in perfect health, so your initial HP

are the same as your maximum HP (e.g. 10/10).
She chooses the Blacksmith class and picks the

Alertness, Animal Handling, and Nature skills.
She just hopes the Worshipful Company of
Auditors and Assurors never ask to see Ronan
work his iron forge. She chooses the Feyborn
race. She also gets to choose two Special
Abilities, and she picks Swiftness and Wilderness
Walker (which also gives her the Survival skill
automatically). Ronans maximum HP are 17
(14+2+Con). She puts 17/17 HP on her character
sheet. Ronans speed is 35 feet per round (305+10 from the Swiftness Special Ability) or 45
feet in woodland areas (from the Wilderness
Walker Special Ability). She chooses Common
as Ronans main language and Elfjayzk as his
secondary language. She gets 70 leprecoins and
buys the Moonlighters Kit, leather armor, a
shortsword, and a sling. Ronans AC is 15
(12+Dex), and he does a whopping 1d6+7 damage
with his shortsword (+6 from Str and +1 for
wielding two-handed), and 1d4+3 damage with
his sling (+3 from Dex), which has an effective
range of 40 feet. She also notes that her
Dex+Awa is 3, since this determines who goes
first in a combat. What a badass. Finally, she
draws a picture, creates a back story, and invents
a personality, based on Ronan as a Sagittarius.
And you figure out your speed like this:

Basic Apothecary speed: 25
Basic Blacksmith speed: 30
Basic Chandler speed: 25
Basic Friar speed: 25
Basic Tailor speed: 30
Customization Pack S, gain +5 speed
Customization Pack G, lose -5 speed
If you chose the Swiftness Special
Ability, gain +10 speed
If you wear plate armor, lose -5 speed
10
Step 7: Choose Languages
Step 8: Go Shopping
By default everyone is fluent in one language,

and knows enough to get by in a second
language. You may get extra languages if you
choose the Languages, Bard, Magus, or Scholar
special abilities: you know those languages
reasonably well.
The currency of the Bladed Vale is called

leprecoins. First, determine how many of them
you have to spend.
Apothecary / Friar: at least 60 leprecoins
Blacksmith / Chandler: at least 70
leprecoins
Tailor: at least 80 leprecoins
Some languages include: Abyssal, Araraede,

As Muck, Common, Curtainlander, Deep
Speech, Draconic, Elfjayzk, Fauntaal, Glume,
Glossolalia, Hix, Heesaha Shimbiraha, Infernal,
Krvarenje Jezik, Mermer, Nukukeele, Ooble,
Primordial, Splayed, Sylvan, Volgeluide.
You also get 10 extra leprecoins for each one of

these skills you have: Deception, History,
Intimidation, Religion, Rhetoric, Seafaring.
You get a further 20 leprecoins if you have the
Finance skill.
Hint. Next well get you equipped. Tools of the

trade, such as stethescopes and scalpels, holy
symbols and books, blacksmiths hammers and
anvils, chandlery kits, or scissors, needles and
thread, may impress the Worshipful Company
of Auditors and Assurors, when they drop by for
an inspection.
You automatically start with a set of clothing of

your choosing, and a backpack, water flask, and
money pouch or rough equivalents. Lucky you!
Buy some of the things listed overleaf and
record them on your character sheet, along with
any leprecoins you may have left over.
Uhrmval. Esksru xs tsak-tsak Infernal?
11
When you create your character, you may choose one or more of the following bundles. Adventuring gear in the
Bladed Vale is expensive, and these bargains are only available during character creation, so snap them up now!
Beginners Bundle
Cost
Includes
Moonlighters kit
10 coins
Seafarers kit
10 coins
Scholars kit
15 coins
Bards kit
20 coins
Artificers kit
25 coins
Medics kit
25 coins
Priests kit
30 coins
Natural philosophers kit
35 coins
Miners kit
35 coins
Footpads kit
35 coins
Hunters kit
75 coins
Assassins kit
75 coins
Two blankets, flint and tinder, hooded lantern with three

pints of oil, fishing line and fish hook, mess kit
Two blankets, compass, fishing line and hook, fishing net,
hemp rope (45 feet), mess kit
Two quills and a vial of ink, ten sheets of parchment, one
small reference book on a topic of your choosing
Knife, small mirror, sewing needle and thread, pair of dice,
one small musical instrument of your choice
Mallet, chisel, chalk, 3' folding rod, whetstone, small pouch
of miscellaneous bolts, screws, & valves
Scalpel, small mirror, sewing needle and thread, bandages,
splints, rudimentary stethoscope, dried arnica, belladonna,
birch leaf, ginger, & witchhazel
One flask of holy water, holy amulet or holy book, dried
belladonna, garlic, & wolfsbane
Quill and vial of ink, five sheets of parchment, forensic
powders, magnifying glass, butterfly net, empty flask
Small pickaxe, small shovel, miners helmet, hooded lantern
with three pints of oil
Small crowbar, lockpicks, silk rope (30 feet) with grappling
hook, dozen caltrops, lampblack (2 uses)
Knife, shortbow, quiver with thirty arrows, six spare
bowstrings, silk rope (30 feet), two torches, whetstone, dried
belladonna, wolfsbane, mess kit
Knife, blowpipe with twenty darts, silk rope (30 feet) with
grappling hook, lockpicks
You can also equip your character from the following armor, weapons, ammunition, and items. Some of this stuff
you wont be able to afford yet, but these are pretty typical prices for any large town in the Bladed Vale, so maybe
you can get them later on.
If the price is a range not a single number, decide how much you want to pay and make a note of it. The more you
pay, the higher quality. If youd like something a bit different from whats listed, haggle with your GM. Or if
youd like an expanded equipment list, ask your GM about using gear from the Basic Fantasy Project. 1 GP = 2
leprecoin sounds about the right exchange rate. Also see Politics & Economics.
Armor
Padded armor
Leather armor
Light chain
Scale mail
Ring mail
Heavy chain
Splint mail
Plate mail
Shield
Cost
Armor Class
10 coins
25 coins
40 coins
55 coins
70 coins
150 coins
500 coins
1500 coins
15 coins
11 + Dex
12 + Dex
13 + Dex
14 + Dex
15 + Dex
16 + Con
17 + Con
18 + Con
+2
12
Stealth &
Acrobatics
Disadvantage
Disadvantage
Disadvantage
Disadvantage
Disadvantage
Speed
-5
Weapon
Cost
Damage
Cudgel
Crowbar
Club
Sickle
Knife
Sai
Scalpel or quill knife
Mallet or blacksmiths hammer
Small pickaxe
Cat claws (requires +1 Dex)
Handaxe
Mace
Staff
Whip
Spear
Flail
Rapier
Shortsword
Javelin
Maul
Morningstar
Nunchaku
Longsword
Pike
Warhammer (requires +2 Str)
Halberd (requires +2 Str)
Lance
Trident
Glaive
Claymore (requires +3 Str)
Greataxe (requires +3 Str)
Blowpipe
Sling
Shortbow (requires +1 Dex)
Light crossbow
Longbow (requires +1 Dex)
Heavy crossbow
1 coin
5 coins
7 coins
7 coins
10 coins
10 coins
10 coins
10 coins
10 coins
10 coins
15 coins
15 coins
15 coins
20 coins
20 coins
30 coins
30 coins
30 coins
40 coins
40 coins
60 coins
100 coins
60 coins
250 coins
300 coins
400 coins
500 coins
500 coins
600 coins
700 coins
800 coins
50 coins
5 coins
50 coins
50 coins
200 coins
500 coins
1d4
1d4
1d4
1d4
1d4
1d4
1d4
1d4
1d4
1d6
1d4
1d6
1d6
1d4
1d6
1d6
1d6
1d6
1d6
1d8
1d8
1d8
1d8
1d10
1d10
1d12
1d12
1d8
1d10
1d12
1d10
1
1d4
1d6
1d6
1d8
1d8
Ammunition
Cost
Damage
Notes
Pebble for sling

Arrow
Crossbow Bolt
Dart
Free
1 coin
1 coin
1 coin
1d4
1d6/1d8
1d6/1d8
1
Usually inexhaustible supply

1d6 from shortbow, 1d8 from longbow
1d6 from light crossbow, 1d8 from heavy
Often poison-tipped to increase damage
13
Notes
+1 damage when wielded two-handed
Use Dex bonus instead of Str
Melee or thrown (-4 attack if over 20 feet)
+1 AC when wielding one in each hand
Use Dex bonus instead of Str
Two-handed
Two-handed
Two-handed
Choose to use Dex or Str bonus
Two-handed
Two-handed
Two-handed, 10 foot reach
Two-handed
If wielder is unmounted, treat as pike
Two-handed
-4 attack if over 30 feet range
Item
Cost
Abacus
Aspergillum
Anvil
Bag or sack, cloth or leather
Bandages and splints
Barding, heavy
Barding, light
Bear trap
Bedroll
Bellows
Blanket
Bowstrings (3)
Bucket
Caltrops (each)
Candles (6)
Censer, brass
Chalk (per piece)
Chandlery kit
Childs toy
Chisel
Climbing tools
Clothing, special
Crowl, trained
Deck of cards
Dice
Dog, guard
Dog, hunting
Donkey
Dried belladonna (per dose)
Dried garlic (per dose)
Dried wolfsbane (per dose)
Fishhook and line
Flint and tinder
Forensic powders (3 uses)
Glass cutter
Go set or Chess set
Grappling hook
Holy symbol
Horse or pony, riding
Horse or pony, war
Hunters horn
Incense (1 stick)
Jugglers kit
Jar or bottle, glass
Lampblack (per use)
Lantern oil (per pint)
Lantern, bullseye
Lantern, hooded
Lembas (1 little loaf)
20 coins
20 coins
5 coins
1-25 coins
1 coin
1000-1600 coins
200-400 coins
25 coins
5 coins
2 coins
2 coin
1 coin
1 coin
3 coins
1 coin
2 coins
2 coins
3-12 coins
1-40 coins
5 coins
40 coins
5-500 coins
600-700 coins
2 coins
1-20 coins each
50-100 coins
35-100 coins
20-30 coins
5 coins
5 coins
20 coin
3 coins
5 coins
40 coins
25 coins
5-50 coins
40 coins
5-25 coins
75-100 coins
200-250 coins
8-30 coins
1 coin
15 coins
1 coin
10 coins
5 coins
10 coins
10 coins
25 coins
Notes
For sprinkling holy water (not included)
Specify a goldsmith, a farrier or a blacksmith anvil
The larger and more durable, the pricier
Lots and lots and lots of bandages and splints
Armor for your mount. +6 AC bonus
Armor for your mount. +2 to +4 AC bonus
Hinged, springwork jaws attached to a spiked chain
2 coins just for a simple cozy little blanket? Really?

Holds about 5 gallons
Sharp little metal thorns, scattered to deter pursuit
Burn for 1 hour each, lighting about a 10 foot radius
Perforated pot on a chain, for burning incense
White or colored
Wicks, molds, dyes, scents, some tallow and/or beeswax
The more intricate the toy, the pricier
That seems a bit expensive for a chisel
High grip gloves, palm spikes, & crampons
Artisan, peasant, scholar, entertainer, courtier, etc.
Half crow, half owl. Includes glove, creance, leash, etc.
Tarot or playing
If you want special loaded dice, cost is 11-30 coins each
If you just want a belly to scratch, go for a cheap one
Ditto
Treat your donkey well. Your donkey is like your soul
A sprig may cure lycanthropy, but inflicts 1d6 damage
Disliked by vampires, supposedly
Disliked by lycanthropes, supposedly
Thats outrageous
Help you determine the nature of materials
If used in a fight, treat it as a scalpel
Price depends how posh you want your pieces
Daylight robbery
These have come down in price recently
Balls, light clubs, blunt knives, rings, torches

Hides glinting weaponry and armor
Each pint burns for about 5 hours
Sheds light in a cone of about 80 foot length
Sheds light in about a 45 foot radius
Restores 1 HP, but only once per day. Lasts ages & ages
14
Lens
Lockpicks
Lodestone
Magnifying glass
Measuring tape, silk
Mess kit
Mirror, small
Mizu gumo
Musical instrument (bagpipes)
Musical instrument (flute)
Musical instrument (kalimba)
Musical instrument (lute)
Nageteppo (choose day or night)
Needle & thread
Net, fishing or butterfly
Oil, rustproofing
Parchment (3 sheets)
Poison for darts (weak)
Poison for darts (strong)
Prayer book
Pickaxe, small
Prism
Quills (2) and vial of ink
Quill knife
Quiver or bolt case (spare)
Rations (long-life)
Rations (standard)
Riding equipment
Rod, folding
Rope, hemp (per 10 feet)
Rope, silk (per 10 feet)
Satchel or backpack
Scissors
Scales
Shovel, small
Slate
Spyglass
Stethescope
Stretcher
Tent
Torch
Utility belt
Water flask
Whetstone
Whistle, signalling
Wig or false beard
Wineskin
Wolf, riding
35 coins
25 coins
3 coins
100 coins
20 coins
2 coins
10 coins
200 coins
15-900 coins
25-900 coins
10-900 coins
15-900 coins
100 coins each
1 coin
3 coins
20 coins
2 coins
30 coins
300 coins
5-100 coins
15 coins
20 coins
5 coins
8 coins
10 coins
10 coins
1 coin
40-80 coins
30 coins
2 coins
5 coins
5-25 coins
5 coins
5 coins
3-5 coins
10 coins
600 coins
10 coins
2 coins
20 coins/person
1 coin
20 coins
3-5 coins
2 coins
10-15 coins
10-30 coins
5 coins
300-400 coins
Magnifies up to x2, useful for starting fires

Useful in picking locks or disarming traps
Small magnetic mineral
Magnifies to about x4 size, useful for starting fires
Costs about 20 coins per 10 feet
Chopsticks, spork, blunt knife, tin cup, trencher
Seems expensive. But you want to look your best
Inflateable bladder shoes for marshlands / rice paddies
An egg containing a cloud of smoke (day) or a flash (night)
Enough to last about six months of regular use

Alternatively, origami paper costs 1 coin per sheet
Vial can dose 30 missiles. Inflict 1d4 extra damage
Vial can dose 30 missiles. Inflict 1d6 extra damage
You can buy plain ones or you can buy fancy ones
1d4 damage if used as a weapon (two-handed only)
Holds 30 missiles. You get one free with your bow

Enough for a day. Goes off after about a month
Enough for a day. Goes off after about a week
Saddle, bit, bridle, feedbag, horseshoes, saddlebags, etc.
3 feet when extended, in hinged 4 inch segments
The larger and more durable, the pricier

Treat as scalpel if used as a weapon
Two brass trays balanced on a fulcrum
Portable slate. May be carved with grid to assist mapping
Aka telescope
8 metal tube with a conical chestpiece
Up to 10 person tents. Pavilion tents cost 350 coins
Burns for 1 hour, lighting about a 30 foot radius
Stupidly expensive. Maybe you should just get a bag or sack
Why do water flasks cost so much?
For sharpening knives
Thats ridiculous
Look better than your best
Holds about half a gallon
Scratch my belly but also, ride me into battle
15
Step 9: fill in any remaining stats
Step 10:get to know the real you
Write down any numbers you think youll need

during play, so you dont have to spend time
looking them up. Check out the sample
character sheets at the back for guidance.
But theres more to you than stats, isnt there?

On the back of your character sheet, make up
some details about who your character really is.
Like a dating profile, only more so. Dont be
afraid to overshare.
For instance, look at the equipment list, and

make a note of how much damage your weapon
normally does, and whether you add your
Strength or Dexterity to your attack and
damage rolls with that weapon. Unless it says
otherwise, all melee weapons rely on Strength
and all ranged weapons rely on Dexterity.
Decide how old you are between 15 and 21 is

good for Level 1. Then think about your
personality, temperament, appearance,
childhood, background, family, friends, rivals,
nemeses, culture, religion, moral beliefs, moral
tendencies, hopes, fears, desires, passions,
bonds, humors, kinks, weaknesses,
eccentricities, neurodiversities, fun facts.
Also make a note of your Armor Class (AC). If

youre not wearing any armor, your AC is 10 +
your Dex (or 12 + your Dex if you have the
Martial Arts special ability). Otherwise, your
AC is given by this table:
Armor
Armor Class
Padded armor
11 + Dex
Leather armor
12 + Dex
Light chain
13 + Dex
Scale mail
14 + Dex
Ring mail
15 + Dex
Heavy chain
16 + Con
Splint mail
17 + Con
Plate mail
18 + Con
Shield
extra +2
Dual wielding sais
extra +1
In the Bladed Vale, only adventurers who

belong to the Queens Five Agencies practise
their heroics out in the open. Youre not one of
them. What made you choose this life of
secretive adventure? Got a problem with
authority? Are you a republican, opposed to the
monarchy on principle? Did you get rejected
from the Agencies? Or maybe youve been
expelled? Too greedy to pay the Queen her cut?
Or some other reason? Make up a little
backstory. Dont worry if its not immediately
relevant to the story the GM is shaping. It can
always get woven in at a later stage.
E.g. if youre wearing ring mail, carrying a

shield, and have Dex -1, your AC is 16 (15-1+2).
Ring mail, heavy chain, splint mail, and plate
mail give you disadvantage when you are
making Stealth or Acrobatics checks, so maybe
make a note of that too.
You may want to note what your Dex+Awa is,
since this determines who goes first in combat.
16
CHAPTER THREE: VIOLENCE

Combat Rounds
Okay, now that youve brought your character
to life, lets talk about killing! Everything that
follows is an abstraction: combat actually
unfolds as a big chaotic mess.
Combat is divided into rounds. Each round lasts
about six seconds. Everybody involved in the
combat gets to take one turn per round. When
everyone has taken a turn, a new round begins.
Common Major Actions
Who Goes First?

Whoever has the highest Dexterity + Awareness
usually goes first. Next highest goes second, and
so on.
Attack: See below.
If scores are tied, then the GM just decides who

goes first.
If one side has ambushed the other, all the
ambushers get to go first.
Disengage: If you are right next to an enemy

(within about five feet), and you move away
without disengaging, they can attack you as a
bonus action.
Alternative Rule. Everyone rolls 1d20. The

order is determined by whoever rolls highest.
Double Move: Move a distance up to your

speed again.
Cast a Spell: Spend some mana to cast a spell

you have previously prepared.
Hide: If you have something to hide behind,

make a successful Dexterity / Stealth check to
conceal yourself.
Movement
During your turn, you can move up to your
speed (e.g. 30 feet) on normal terrain, and take
one major action. Sometimes you may also take
a bonus action and/or minor actions.
Delayed Action: State a trigger condition and an

action. E.g., When Lucy takes any damage, Im
going to cast Burst. If the trigger condition
doesnt occur this round, you will have wasted
an action.
If you are moving across very difficult terrain,

or climbing, crawling, or swimming (assuming
youre competent), you move at half speed.
Something Complex: E.g. operating a

contraption, activating a magical item,
performing several minor actions in a row.
Optional: Using a Grid

If you want to represent combat visually on a
grid, each space represents five feet of
movement. So if you have speed 30, you can
move six spaces per round. You could use a
Chess board or graph paper, or hex paper for
slightly more realism.
Use a Trick: Spend mana to use a trick you have

prepared.
17
Bonus Actions
Attacking
Sometimes you can do a bonus action. But you

can never do more than one bonus action per
round.
1. Attacking is similar to any task resolution.

Roll a d20.
2. If its a 1, you automatically miss. If its a
20, you automatically hit (a critical hit).
3. If its 2 to 19, add the appropriate ability
score.
This is usually Strength for melee
weapons like swords, or Dexterity for
long ranged weapons like bows.
Some special weapons (e.g. whip,
morningstar) let you choose Strength
or Dexterity.
If youre using the Dual Wield bonus
action, only add this score if its
negative.
4. If you have a special ability that helps you
in combat (e.g. Axes and Hammers) add
the amount it tells you.
5. If your total meets or exceeds the targets
AC, youve struck a blow. Yeah you did!
6. Different weapons do different amounts
of base damage. E.g. mace does 1d6, pike
does 1d10.
7. If this was a critical hit, you can roll for
damage twice and add the results together.
8. Add either Strength or Dexterity (the
same one you used before) to get your
total damage. Your enemy loses that
number of HP.
Attack of Opportunity: If an enemy tries to

move through your space, or an enemy that is
right next to you moves away without
disengaging, you can attack them as a bonus
action, even though its not your turn.
Dual Wield: If you have a weapon in either
hand, right after youve attacked with your
main weapon. you can use your bonus action to
attack with your secondary weapon. It is a bit
different from a normal attack: you only apply
your ability score (Strength or Dexterity) to
your attack and damage rolls if that number is
negative.
Quick Spell: Cast a spell which contains Casting
Speed: bonus action in its description.
Quick Trick: Use a trick which contains Trick
Speed: bonus action in its description.
Minor Actions
You can perform brief interactions with your
environment without it counting as a major
action or a bonus action. For instance: drawing a
sword, gulping down a potion, opening a door,
picking something off the ground, handing
something to another PC, yelling a questionable
catchphrase.
Situational Modifiers
When youre firing at an enemy outside your
weapons effective range, you suffer a -4 penalty
to your attack roll. The GM will use their
judgment to impose other situational bonuses
and penalties to attack rolls and ability checks.
For instance, it often makes a difference when
someone is ambushed, bewitched, blinded,
confused, crawling, deafened, entangled,
exhausted, frightened, hidden behind cover,
incapacitated, invisible, pinned, paralyzed,
petrified, poisoned, sleeping, or stunned.
Lots of minor actions combined may count as a

bonus action or as a major action, at the GMs
discretion.
18
CHAPTER FOUR: RESTING AND HEALING

Long Rest
How Often?
Usually about eight to ten hours. At least eight

hours must be spent sleeping. There is no point
trying to get by as an adventurer on six hours
sleep. Seriously, thats going to take its toll
eventually. You need to look after yourself.
The GM should use their judgment. Generally,

short rests must be separated by some kind of
strenuous activity, or by at least four hours. You
can usually take no more than three effective
short rests between long rests.
When youre not sleeping, youll be eating and

drinking, keeping watch, meditating, doing yoga
and mindfulness exercises, studying, training,
chatting, reconnecting, getting some head
space, polishing, fletching, making plans, etc.
Bad Night?
Lets say you get eight hours, more or less, but
interrupted in the middle by twenty minutes of
brutal bloody battle. If you can afford to have a
lie-in for another four hours, then that still
counts as a normal long rest. But if youre
forced to make an early start, and set off at the
crack of dawn, the GM may decide to give you
some of the benefits of a long rest, but with a few
penalties. For instance:
If you have an Apothecary and/or someone

with the Medicine skill in your party, you
regain all your HP.
If you dont, regain your level + your
Constitution in HP.
Regain all your mana.
If you are a spellcaster, you may change the
spells you have prepared.
If you are a Blacksmith or a Tailor, you
may change the tricks you have prepared.
If you have an Apothecary and/or someone

with the Medicine skill in your party, you
regain half your max HP. For instance, if
you were down to 10/16 HP, you regain 8
HP, which take you up to your max 16/16
HP.
If you dont have an Apothecary and/or
someone with the Medicine skill, regain
your level + your Constitution in HP.
Regain half your max mana. E.g. if you were
down to 1/5, you regain 3 points (5 divided
by 2, rounded up), taking you to 4/5.
If you are a spellcaster, you may change the
spells you have prepared.
If you are a Blacksmith or a Tailor, you
may change the tricks you have prepared.
However if you have the Wakefulness
special ability, you get all the normal
benefits of a long rest.
Short Rest
Take about an hour of you time.
Regain your level + your Constitution in
HP.
If you have the Warlock special ability,
regain mana equal to your Awareness (for
Friars) or Knowledge (for Chandlers).
19
CHAPTER FIVE: TRICKS

Preparing Tricks
Using Tricks
Tricks are special moves that the Blacksmith

and Tailor classes may use. They work similarly
to spells.
You may only use tricks which you have

prepared. Each time you use a trick, it uses up
some of your mana. The mana cost of each trick
is listed in the tricks description.
The maximum number of tricks you can

prepare is equal to your level.
Some tricks cost zero mana, which means you

can use them as often as you like, so long as you
have them prepared.
You can prepare any trick that is equal to or less

than your level. For instance, a level 3 Tailor can
prepare tricks of level 1, 2, or 3.
Other tricks let you decide how much mana to

spend.
You may prepare any number of tricks, up to

your maximum, whenever you have a long rest.
You may have to unprepare some tricks to
make room for others.
Whenever you have a long uninterrupted rest,

you get all your mana back.
For tricks which let you add mana to an ability
check, you must decide how much mana to
spend before you roll the die.
Example
Falalalandal is a 5th level Tailor. He can prepare
up to 5 tricks of level 5 or below. He has 5 points
of mana. He chooses Find & Disable Traps,
Ambidextrous, Sense Danger, Climb Walls, and
Deadly Dagger. Somewhat to his dismay, he
finds himself embroiled in courtly intrigues.
While sneaking around the High Counsellors
office, he decides to search for traps, using his
Find & Disable Traps trick to add 2 points to
his Investigation roll. He finds nothing, so he
goes ahead and opens the High Counsellors
desk. Oops, it was alarmed after all, and
Falalalandal finds himself fighting for his life
against a summoned Ash Ogre. Yikes. He fights
two-handed with rapier and knife, so he spends 1
point of mana to use Ambidextrous to improve
his chances of a second hit. He hits! He hits!
And spends his last 2 mana points on the Deadly
Dagger trick, adding 2 to his damage.
Unfortunately, the ash ogre eats him anyway.
Thats what happens when you dont respect
other peoples stuff. If he had survived, he could
have got all 5 points of mana back the next time
he took a long rest (about eight to ten hours).
Some tricks appear both on the Blacksmith list

and the Tailor list, with the only difference
being the level they become available.
20
TAILOR TRICKS
Level 1
Level 4
Assist Attack: Give one of your allies advantage

on their attack roll. You must be standing next
to the enemy whom your ally is attacking. Mana
Cost: 1. Trick Speed: bonus action.
Climb Walls: Add as much mana as you want to

your roll on a Dexterity / Acrobatics / Athletics
check for any kind of climbing task. Mana Cost:
variable. Trick Speed: instant.
Find & Disable Traps: Add as much mana as

you want to your roll on an Awareness /
Investigation check to find secret traps or
hidden doors. Or add as much mana as you want
to your roll on a Dexterity / Sleight of Hand
check to disable a trap you have found. Mana
Cost: variable. Trick Speed: it usually takes
about a round to search a 5-foot-by-5-foot area.
Attempting to disable a basic trap takes a round;
more complicated traps take longer.
Deadly Dagger: Add as much mana as you like

to the damage roll for an attack with a knife,
scalpel, or sickle. Mana Cost: variable. Trick
Speed: instant.
Lightning Reflexes: When determining who
goes first in a fight, you may add as much mana
as you like to your combined Dexterity and
Awareness. Mana Cost: variable. Trick Speed:
instant.
Level 5
Level 2
Hide in Shadows: Add as much mana as you

want to your roll on a Dexterity / Stealth check
to conceal yourself. Mana Cost: variable. Trick
Speed: hiding is a major action.
Ambidextrous: Your bonus Dual Wield attack

functions just like a normal attack. In other
words, you can add your relevant Strength or
Dexterity score to the attack roll and the
damage roll, and you also get the benefit of any
special abilities you may have (such as Assassin,
Axes & Hammers, Swords & Bows, or Thrown
Weapons). Mana Cost: 1. Trick Speed: instant.
Re-engage: Use this trick to re-engage an

enemy who has disengaged you, and take an
opportunity of attack on them. You can do this
even as they are moving away, feeling confident
that theyre safe from you. How annoying for
them. Mana Cost: 2. Trick Speed: bonus action.
Pick Locks: Add as much mana as you want to

your roll on a Dexterity / Sleight of Hand check
to pick a lock. Mana Cost: variable. Trick Speed:
it usually takes about one round to attempt to
pick a lock, although more complicated locks
may take longer.
Trick Shot: Add as much mana as you want to

your attack roll on any unusual and spectacular
range attack, e.g. shooting a rope from which a
chandelier is hanging. Mana Cost: variable.
Trick Speed: instant.
Level 3:
Level 6
Sense Danger: If you spring any kind of trap,

add as much mana as you want to your
Dexterity check. Mana Cost: variable. Trick
Speed: instant.
Spoopy Dodge: Once you have been struck by

an enemy, use this trick to halve the damage
inflicted. Mana Cost: 3. Trick Speed: instant.
21
Level 6
Level 10
Inspiration: Inspire courage in up to two
frightened allies who are within 30 feet. This
cancels the effects of the Blacksmiths
Gruesome Fatality and Fearsome Presence
tricks. Mana Cost: 1. Trick Speed: major action.
Sneaky Action: Use your bonus action to

disengage, hide, or move up to half your speed.
Mana Cost: 1. Trick Speed: bonus action.
Level 7
Disarm: If you succeed in a Dexterity check
against 14+your opponents Dexterity, your
opponents weapon goes flying from their grasp.
Succeed by 5 or more, and you can catch it or
make it land where you want. Mana Cost: 0.
Trick Speed: major action.
Level 11
Song of Soothing: During a short or long rest,
spend 1 point of mana to attempt a soothing
song. Make a Personality / Performance check,
target number 17. If you succeed, you may
convert as much mana as you like into lovely
fresh HP for your listeners. For instance, you
may spend 5 mana to raise one listeners HP by
2 and another listeners HP by 3. Mana Cost:
1+variable. Trick Speed: once per rest.
Level 8
Countercharm: You may add as much mana as
you like to any Knowledge / Arcana check to see
if you have heard of the ceremony to disable a
spell. More information in The Spellcasters
Handbook. Mana Cost: variable. Trick Speed:
instant.
Level 12
Holy Glitch Warrior: Add 1 to your attack and
damage rolls against any undead creature except
ghosts. Also add 1 to your attack and damage
rolls against goats. This odd ability is due to
some glitch in the fabric of reality in the Bladed
Vale. Prayers to the Absent Goddess to have it
fixed have, as usual, gone unanswered. Mana
Level 9
Charmer: Spend up to 3 mana points to add up
to 3 points to any Personality / Empathy /
Persuasion / Performance / Rhetoric ability
check that involves winning trust or making
delightful conversation. If you have the
Performance skill, you may spend up to 5 points
of mana. Mana Cost: variable (1-5). Trick Speed:
instant (though you might get chatting for
hours).
Level 13
Engine Tactics: See Blacksmith Tricks.
Level 14
Detective: Add as much mana as you want to

any Awareness / Discernment roll when trying
to figure out if somebody is hiding something.
Mana Cost: variable. Trick Speed: instant.
Giantslayer: See Blacksmith Tricks.
Rapid Dash: Move an extra 5 feet. Mana

Track Quarry: See Blacksmith Tricks.
Wyrmslayer: See Blacksmith Tricks.

Level 15
Wild Empathy: See Blacksmith Tricks.
22
BLACKSMITH TRICKS
Level 1
Level 4
Rage: You have advantage on all Strength

checks, but disadvantage on all Knowledge and
Awareness checks. All your attacks do 3 extra
points of damage. Your rage lasts for five rounds.
Mana Cost: 1. Trick Speed: bonus action.
Disarm: If you succeed in a Dexterity check

against 14+your opponents Dexterity, your
opponents weapon goes flying from their grasp.
Succeed by 5 or more, and you can catch it.
Mana Cost: 0. Trick Speed: major action.
Reckless Attack: You gain advantage on an

attack using a melee weapon, but all attacks
against you also have advantage till the next
round. Mana Cost: 0. Trick Speed: instant.
Drive: Beat a Strength check vs. 15+your foes

Dexterity to bear down on them, pushing them
backward as you move forward them for up to 15
feet. You may use any remaining movement that
turn in the normal way. Mana Cost: 1. Trick
Speed: bonus action.
Sense Danger: If you spring any kind of trap,

add as much mana as you want to your Dexterity
check. Mana Cost: variable. Trick Speed: instant.
Level 5
Level 2
Deadly Bludgeon: Add as much mana as you like

to your damage roll when attacking with a
cudgel, club, mallet, mace, maul, or warhammer.
Mana Cost: variable. Trick Speed: bonus action.
Steely Defence: For each point of mana you

spend, you can temporarily raise your AC by 1.
This effect lasts until the next time its your
turn. Mana Cost: variable. Trick Speed: bonus
action.
Devastating Critical: Use this trick when you

score a critical hit, to roll four times the usual
amount of dice, instead of just twice the usual
amount. Mana Cost: 1. Trick Speed: instant.
Swift Disengage: You can disengage as a bonus

action, instead of as a major action. Mana Cost:
1. Trick Speed: bonus action.
Might: Add as much mana as you want to any

Strength based ability check. Mana Cost:
variable. Trick Speed: bonus action.
Level 3
Berserker Frenzy: You have advantage on all
Strength checks, but disadvantage on all
Knowledge and Awareness checks. All your
attacks do 5 extra points of damage. You are
immune to magical or mundane attempts to
intimidate you. Your berserker frenzy lasts for
five rounds. Mana Cost: 3. Trick Speed: bonus
action.
Level 6
Extra Attack: Use this trick to attack twice with
the same weapon on one turn. Mana Cost: 1.
Trick Speed: attacking twice uses up a major
action. (So if you are dual wielding, you can still
use your bonus action to attack a third time).
Intercept: Divert one attack against an ally right

next to you onto yourself instead. Mana Cost: 1.
Trick Speed: bonus action.
Juggernaut: Speed doubles this round. Attacks of

opportunity against you suffer disadvantage.
Track Quarry: Add as much mana as you want to

any Awareness / Investigation / Survival check
when tracking someone or something. Mana
Cost: variable. Trick Speed: instant.
Wild Empathy: When dealing with animals, add

as much mana as you want to any Personality /
Animal Handling based ability check. Mana
Cost: variable. Trick Speed: instant.
23
Level 7
Level 9
Giantslayer: Add 1 to your attack and damage

rolls against any humungoid humanoid. Mana
Hordeslayer: Use this trick to melee attack up to

five times in one turn. Each attack must be on a
different enemy. You cant move between attacks.
Trick Speed: uses up both your major action and
your bonus action. Mana Cost: 2.
Fortress: Pep up the AC of those standing right

next to you. For each point of mana you spend,
temporarily raise one allys AC by 1. You can
distribute this across multiple allies, e.g. spend 3
points of mana to raise one allys AC by 1 and
another allys AC by 2. The effect lasts until the
next time its your turn. Mana Cost: variable.
Trick Speed: bonus action.
Lance of Subjective Righteousness: Spend as

much mana as you want, and add twice that
amount to your damage roll when you you make
a mounted charge and strike with a lance. Trick
Speed: instant. Mana Cost: variable.
Rain Down: In one round, fire one extra arrow
per point of mana spent. First attack roll is +0,
second -1, third -2, etc. Trick Speed: major
action and bonus action. Mana Cost: variable.
Level 8
Healing Factor: If your HP fall below 8, use this
trick as a bonus action to restore 1d4 HP. Mana
Wyrmslayer: Add 1 to your attack and damage

rolls against any dragon or dinosaur. Mana Cost:
0. Trick Speed: bonus action.
Shattering Smite: Use this trick when you strike

an enemy who wears metal armor and/or using a
shield. If you succeed in a Strength check vs.
10+your opponents Strength, reduce their AC
by 1d6. Mana Cost: 1. Trick Speed: instant.
Level 10
Engine Tactics: Add as much mana as you want
to any Awareness, Knowledge, or Dexterity
based ability check that relates to the use of siege
equipment such as catapults, siege towers,
battering rams, giant golems, etc. Mana Cost:
variable. Trick Speed: instant.
Gruesome Fatality: Use this trick the moment

you strike a death-blow. The enemy nearest the
enemy you have just slain must make a
Personality check (target number: 8 + your
Personality bonus, +2 if you have the
Intimidation skill). If they fail, they become
frightened of you until your next turn. This
means they have disadvantage on all ability
checks and attack rolls, and will try to avoid you
if possible. They may decide to run away. I
would. Mana Cost: 1. Trick Speed: bonus action.
Fearsome Presence: Choose one creature within

30 feet of you. They must have a clear view of
you. If they fail a Personality check (target
number: 8 + your Personality bonus, +2 if you
have the Intimidation skill), they become
frightened of you until your next turn (see
Gruesome Fatality trick for further effects).
Rapid Dash: Move an extra 5 feet. Trick Speed:

bonus action. Mana Cost: 1.
Primal Stamina: Add as much mana as you want

to any Constitution based ability check. Mana
Cost: variable. Trick Speed: bonus action.
Retaliate: Once per round, when attacked by an

enemy who is right next to you, use this trick to
counterattack. This does not count as a major or
a bonus action. Mana Cost: 4. Trick Speed:
minor action (i.e. practically instant).
Level 13
Ambidextrous: See Tailor Tricks.
Climb Walls: See Tailor Tricks.
Trick Shot: See Tailor Tricks.
Hide in Shadows: See Tailor Tricks.
24
CHAPTER SIX: MAGIC
If youve chosen the Warlock special ability, you

also get some mana back when you have a short
rest. You regain mana equal to your Awareness
(for Friars) or Knowledge (for Chandlers).
Preparing Spells
Spells work similarly to tricks.
Example
If you are an Apothecary, Chandler, or Friar,

you may prepare any number of spells, up to
your maximum, whenever you have a long rest.
You may have to unprepare some spells to
make room for others. The maximum number
of spells you can prepare depends on your class:
Noo is a 3rd level Chandler with Knowledge +2.

She can have up to five spells prepared, and has
five points of mana with which to cast them.
Before she goes on her adventure, she prepares
these five spells: Magic Hand (0), Minor War
Wonder (2), Descent of Alice (1), Big Beard (1),
and Fireball (3). She is sneaking into enemy
territory, so she really wishes she could prepare
Invisibility (3), but she is only level 3 and that
spell is level 5.
Apothecary: Level + Personality

Chandler: Level + Knowledge
Friar: Level + Awareness
If you have the Magus special ability,
you can prepare two extra spells
Obviously you can prepare any spell that is equal

to or less than your level. A 3rd Level Chandler
can prepare spells of level 1, 2, or 3. Any other
rule would be madness.
On her first morning of adventuring, Noo

battles some dinosaur-riding ghosts. She casts
Minor War Wonder twice, using up four points
of mana. Now she only has one point of mana
left. She has a short rest and regains some HP,
but no mana. Later Noo has other problems to
deal with, but she mostly relies on the Magic
Hand spell, since that spell costs zero mana to
cast. She casts it three times. In a tight spot on a
disintegrating rope bridge, she casts Big Beard,
using up her last mana. Until she gets some
more mana, the only thing she can cast is Magic
Hand.
Casting Spells
The details of each spell can be found in The
Spellcasters Handbook.
You may only cast spells which you have
prepared. Each time you cast a spell, it uses up
some of your mana. The mana cost of each spell
is listed in the spells description. The cost also
appears in parentheses in the spell lists.
Noo has a long, uninterrupted rest and regains

all five points of mana. During her long rest, she
also decides to unprepare Fireball and prepare
Troll Twin instead.
Some spells cost zero mana, which means you

can cast them as often as you like, so long as you
have them prepared.
Whenever you have a long uninterrupted rest,
you get all your mana back.
25
CHANDLER SPELLS (standard)

You can have a number of spells prepared equal to your level + your Knowledge. Your maximum mana
is also equal to your level + your Knowledge. Details of these spells may be found in The Spellcasters
Handbook. Spells labelled are especially likely to draw the ire of Her Majestys Agency of Wizardry.
1st Level
4th Level
7th Level
Light (0)
Call Identifiend (1)
Busker Patch (3)
Magic Hand (0)
Concealed Carry (2)
Locker (3)
Minor War Wonder (2)
Falling Statue (3)
Major War Wonder (4)
Upcandle (1)
!pollag, pollaG (3)
Nest Hat (3)
Shadow Kinesis (1)
Trade Threads (2)
2nd Level
Tighten Knight (1)
Battle Rainbow (1)
Undwindling Dweomer (2)
Change Text (1)
Bug Truck (2)

Face of Samantha (1)
Create Bell (1)
5th Level
King Cutie (0)
Animate Architecture (1)
Descent of Alice (1)
Burner Brownie (2)
Rabbit from Hat (1)
Hourglass Trick (2)
Small Deer (1)
9th Level
Invisibility (3)
Tatter (1)
Impterpretor (1)
Uncandle (1)
Infernal Petition (2)
Gnarlgate (2)
Heart Bow (3)
Travel Tentacle (3)
Dispel Magic (5)
11th Level
Become Smoke (5)
Razor Face (3)

3rd Level
Wings (3)
13th Level
Big Beard (1)

Dress (1)
Fireball (3)
Homecomers Oath (4)

6th Level
Hope and Memory (4)
Cloud Office (3)
Infernal Ballot (1)
Eye (1)
Spin Sycamore (1)
Fairy Paths (3)
Arcane Gate (4)

15th Level
Troll Twin (2)
Fancy Legs (2)
Antimagic Sphere (5)
Widen Window (1)
Find Features (2)
Change Rule (25)
Uplift (3)
Wield Warriors (2)
Wyrd Weave (6)
26
Miraculous Massacre (5)

Dead Cop (5)
Demolition (5)
CHANDLER SPELLS (Bewitchment Expansion Pack)

If you have the Bewitchment special ability, you may prepare spells from this list as well as the standard
Chandler list. Details of these spells may be found in The Spellcasters Handbook.
1st Level
5th Level
Craft Cruft (0)
Anyway (1)
Draw Aggro (1)

7th Level
It Is A Thing (0)
Delirium (3)
2nd Level
9th Level
Smudge (1)
Sons Insanity (3)

3rd Level
Forget Doxy (1)
11th Level
Injunction (2)
Forget Kin (3)

15th Level
Hymen and the Misters of the Universe (3)
Womb Visit (5)
27
FRIAR SPELLS (standard)

You can have a number of spells prepared equal to your level + your Awareness. Your maximum mana is
also equal to your level + your Awareness. Details of these spells may be found in The Spellcasters
Handbook. Spells labelled are especially likely to draw the ire of Her Majestys Parks & Conjuration
Agency.
1st Level
Bless (1)
4th Level
9th Level
Hacking Hands (3)
Mending (0)
Turn Undead (2)
Paladins Nostril (0)
Sneezecat (1)
Hoof Haven (4)

Speak with Dead (4)
Tree Door (5)
Snuff (0)
Ward (5)
5th Level
2nd Level
Bane (1)
Protection from Poison (2)

Summon Steed (3)
Beast Shape (2)

Buff (2)
Boss (2)
Crafters Charm (5)

Wind (5)
7th Level
Brazen Blade (2)
3rd Level
11th Level
13th Level
Chibi Form (3)
Blink (3)
Free Motion (3)
Birdborn (4)
Homecomers Oath (3)

Sleep (3)
14th Level
Unlock Snailshell (3)
Sort of Wake the Dead (3)
15th Level
Dead Thief (10)
28
FRIAR SPELLS (Ecocritic Expansion Pack)

If you have the Ecocritic special ability, you may prepare spells from this list as well. Details of these
spells may be found in The Spellcasters Handbook. Spells labelled are especially likely to draw the ire of
Her Majestys Parks & Conjurations Agency.
1st Level
5th Level
Beast Messenger (1)
Block of Reality (2)
Blossom (0)
Sea Tree (2)
Conjure Arrows (1)
Wild Sex (1)
Fairy Fructify (1)
Wolf Truck (2)
Predict Weather (0)

Fountain (1)
7th Level
Speak with Plants (3)
3rd Level
Treadmill Turf (3)
Blossom Beastly (3)

Cricket Hop (2)
11th Level
Frogtongue (2)
Control Weather (5)
Ignite (0)
Speak with Beasts (2)
Tower Tree (2)
Tusks (2)
29
APOTHECARY SPELLS
You can have a number of spells prepared equal to your level + your Personality. Your maximum mana
is also equal to your level + your Personality. Details of these spells may be found in The Spellcasters
Handbook. Spells labelled are especially likely to draw the ire of Her Majestys Agency of Physick.
1st Level
4th Level
7th Level
Burst (1)
Adapt Fork (1)
Adapt Mana Surge (2)
Tube (1)
Adapt One-Way Drip (4)
Flying Mouth (2)
Double Tube (2)
Multi-Adapt (3)
Lateral Tube (2)
Network (3)
2nd Level
Adapt Elongate (1)
Multi-Burst (2)
Bind the Spirit (1)
9th Level
Detatch (1)
5th Level
Send Dream (4)
Leaping Mouth (1)
Adapt Secure (1)
Stone to Flesh (4)
Adapt Send Help (1)
Toxic Burst (4)
Healing Hole (1)
Restoration (4)
Adapt Corporeal (1)
Inanimate Anchor (1)
Fairy Mouth (4)
Adapt Necro (1)
Protection from Poison (2)
Adapt One-Way (1)
Ray of Calm (2)
3rd Level
Diagnosis (3)
11th Level
Adapt Big Mouth (4)
Fletchettes (1*)
6th Level
Adapt Bewilder (4)
Floating Tube (1)
Advanced Tube (2)
Cure Blindness (5)
Healing Tentacle (1)
Adapt Roving (2)
Lock Life Force (2)
Cure Deafness (5)
13th Level
Possess Tube (3)
Great Shoulder (2)
Adapt Beast Hitch (4)
Shockwave (2)
Martyrs Medicine (3)
Squandering Siphon (3)
Undead Familiar (6)
15th Level
Dead Court (10)
30
CHAPTER SEVEN: EXPERIENCE AND LEVELS

Leveling Up: Whats In It For Me?
XP
Level
300
900
2,700
If youre a Chandler, your maximum mana is

always equal to your level + Knowledge.
6,500
14,000
If youre a Friar, your maximum mana is always

equal to your level + Awareness.
23,000
34,000
48,000
64,000
10
85,000
11
100,000
12
120,000
13
140,000
14
165,000
15
195,000
16
225,000
17
265,000
18
305,000
19
355,000
20
Blacksmith and Tailor maximum HP rise by

1d8 per level. Chandler, Friar and Apothecary
maximum HP rise by 1d6 per level.
If youre a Blacksmith or a Tailor, your
maximum mana is always equal to your level.
If youre an Apothecary, your maximum mana

is always equal to your level + Personality.
Higher levels also allow you to prepare higher
level spells (for Chandlers, Friars and
Apothecaries) or tricks (for Blacksmiths and
Tailors).
At Level 5
Gain one additional skill. You may choose from
the full list (pg. 7).
To make gaining this skill more realistic, you
may want to choose what skill it will be in
advance. Then you can spend some time from
Levels 1-4 researching, training, practising etc.
At Level 10
Gain +1 to one ability score of your choosing,
or gain +5 speed.
At Level 15
Gain +1 to one ability score of your choosing,
or gain +5 max HP.
At Level 20
Gain +1 to one ability score of your choosing.
31
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE BLADED VALE

The Seven Human Races
The Golems
Inside the golem sits another smaller golem, giving
the outer golem its instructions in lieu of an
enchanted scroll. Inside that golem sits an ever
smaller golem, and so on, perhaps ad infinitum. The
word onion is a kind of racist abuse, though some
golems have reclaimed the term.
The Normborn
The Normborn look just like me and you.
The Birdborn
The Birdborn somewhat resemble the Normborn.
There may be a certain featheriness to their hair. But
the main physical difference is a kind of living tattoo.
This appears as a pair of wing-tips on the feet of a
newborn Birdborn, and very gradually rises up the
body throughout the Birdborns life, usually reaching
the pelvis around puberty. On adult Birdborn, this
image of a bird lives on the stomach and chest.
The Puppetborn
Most Puppetborn stand about four feet tall. They are
marionettes, intricately made, some painted and
some varnished, with many, many moveable parts.
Their vitality comes from a fine haze of strings
which descends from the sky. But their motion is still
their own motion. They are conscious beings: there
exist more than two hundred known types of wood
and over a thousand distinctive thread-types in the
Puppetborn head, and over a hundred trillion
lovingly hand-carved and threaded synaptic
connections. And although the puppeteers are not
known (some say its the Flying Cities, others the
Leviathanfolk, nobody really knows) there is no
reason to question their skill. The droplets of wooden
blood roll to and fro through the wooden heart in
perfect synchrony with the dancing legs and spinning
arms, likewise each sandalwood or pearwood synapse
must surely be tugged by its thread on time.
The second difference is only visible in death: the

Birdborns soul escapes through the mouth. It is the
bird. The bird flies off.
The Feyborn
Typically slender and willowy, with pointed ears.
They vary in height a little more than the
Normborn: its not unusual to see a Feyborn stand
three foot tall or seven foot tall. They may have any
color of skin. Some Feyborn have skins like
millefleur tapestries, and a few may make the tapestry
of their skin move and change merely by
concentrating on it.
Puppetborn do not necessarily have access issues when

it comes to interiors, corners, underground spaces
etc.: all manner of clever mechanisms come winching
down from the sky, wheeled javelins flung joltingly
forward to establish an endless cat's cradle of wires
wherever the Puppetborn ventures. If the worst
comes to the worst, little puppeteered scissors come
fluttering from the sky, snipping old strings and
tying on fresh ones. They do like if possible to leave
by the same way they came in.
Some Feyborn have a tendency to sprout flowers

where they are wounded, much after the fashion of
the clotting blood and knitting flesh of the
Normborn.
32
The Snailborn
Playing Other Races
The Snailborn resemble the Normborn quite closely.

They have creamy beige skin: buff, sand, sandy,
oatmeal, wheaten, biscuit, coffee, coffee-coloured,
caf au lait, camel, kasha, ecru, taupe, stone, stonecoloured, mushroom, putty, greige, with a slight
transluscent iridescence to it, and no hair save that
on their heads and (occasionally) chins. They are
easily recognized by their four wee kawai tentacles,
two at the chin and two at the brow. They also have a
speckled camber of shell embedded in their lower
back, which can be developed through exercise into a
full spiral, usually a little larger than the Snailborn's
head. That is, that's how big the shell is on the outside.
There are rumors
The Bladed Vale is just bursting with humanish

races, such as kipping candles, dobbies, korreds,
dunnies, korigans, harionago, orcs, boggy-boes,
sleepingfolk, Megs-with-the-wads, whatwomen,
dudlings, boguests, faeryfolk, hobhoulards, centaurs,
dryads, dragonborn, treants, sprets, robinets, chaffrosies, bleakmen, bugaboos, sodding steeples, Pegpowlers, hampsterfolk, bygorns, Gyl-burnt-tales,
skullfolk, Jack-in-the-Wads, carebears, calcars,
giraffegeffen, waffs, weegies, unicornathaumers,
talking beasts, hell-wains, trows, follets, doubles,
plastic mallies, avarions, gytrashes, boggarts, puckles,
hob-headlesses, goblins, gargoyles, trogoldytes,
fetches, tints, ahools, nymphs, maenads, werebears,
bomen, nickies, nephelai, nisses, mulelves, trolls,
duttyknees, Jinny-burnt-tails, flay-boggarts, silkies,
suckingsallies, scar-bugs, starborn, bugbears,
bernborn, dwarfiks, driders, lubberkins, melch-dicks,
bearfain, birdfain, cowes, wokebae, hihi, tieflings,
Tom-pokers, freiths, sizeshifters, angelborn, cutties,
fays, bubblybellies, shadrid, nethermen, tantarrabobs,
anubyr, Tam-thimble-thins, kui, talking apes, zintar,
oni, redcaps, khajitt, roberts, lamia, boggleboes,
friars lanthorns, brainborn, mannikins, miffies,
rephaites, lizardfolk, gnolls, goregons, yebogogos,
hob-thrushes, hobgoblins, moomin, nuckalavee,
tiggers, tutgots, tuckers, thurses, mindflayers,
wirrikows, kelpies, kazin, alholdes, rompos,
rokurokubi, karura, mum-pokers, vampires,
nicknevins, buggies, nacks-necks, buckies,
griffingeffen, patches, half-giants, spurns, cauld-lads,
hudskins, hobbits, imps, dwarves, gnomes, and even
elves.
The Wound Dwarves

The unmissable fact about the Wound Dwarf is that,
what for a normborn counts as a gash or slash or
yawning hole of missing body in desperate need of an
Apothecary, for a Wound Dwarf is just a healthily
functioning aspect of their anatomy. The Wound
Dwarf is just "slightly inside-out." There are arteries
and veins and muscle open to the air, and even little
sparks and arcs of blood jumping from meatus to
meatus. The truth is, whatever your species, your
body is like a big crowded jostling party where
everyone is very important and has a lot of people
they need to meet, but for the Wound Dwarf, there
are just a lot of balconies for the partygoers to come
and get some fresh air. So if you're not used to it, it
might look like a Wound Dwarf is just leaking and
collapsing. But look more closely, it's all an intricate
harmony, like the play of light and water in a
firework and musical fountain extravaganza. Another
odd fact is that, when a Wound Dwarf actually is
wounded it looks like from a normborn-centric
perspective healing, because the Wound Dwarf
body responds to trauma by knitting back together
till it can restore equilibrium. A sharp sword tip run
across a Wound Dwarf's belly will zip it shut, and a
healing hex will split it back into its customary scarlet
blossom.
Unlike many fantasy RPGs, D&D does not use

racial ability modifiers. Race in D&D is more
significant to storytelling than it is to mechanics. If
you would like to borrow a race from another setting,
or make one up yourself, go for it.
If you feel your character needs special powers to
fully express your vision, ask the GM if you can
create a new Special Ability, which will be available to
all PCs of all races.
33
Expansion of Human Status
Other territories include the Queens Land, and

disputed zones with de facto independence from the
Queen including the High Waste, the Flying Cities,
and the Free Republic of Brackley. There is much to
explore not only below but above the surface of the
land: the Invisible Sky Mines; several ancient Flying
Cities; the Ice Ladder and the Moon Dungeon,
where the Empty Throne was recently discovered.
Being human in the Bladed Vale confers certain

legal rights. Human gentry may not be arbitrarily
imprisoned, nor taxed beyond what is required by the
Prosperous Game. A commoner doesnt get much a
Justice of the Queens Peace is obliged to hear your
petition at a Court of Assize, that kind of thing.
Many people who are not legally human would like to
be. There are active campaigns advocating the
recognition of the Faunfolk, the Splayedfolk, the
Talking Beasts, the Drow, the Santaborn, and
various others.
Politics & Economics

Most of the Bladed Vale is organized feudally, with
layers of lords and vassals, with peasants at the
bottom of the pecking order. Agencies and Guilds
wield great power. The Agencies are technically
branches of government, but operate with great
independence. There are five: Her Majestys Agency
of War, Her Majestys Agency of Wizardry, Her
Majestys Agency of Physick, Her Majestys Agency
of Roguery, & Her Majestys Parks & Conjuration
Agency. They undertake all the official questing and
dungeoncrawling in the realm, enforce the
anti-adventuring laws, and collect bribes for turning
a blind eye to unofficial adventuring.
Large and prosperous guilds include the Chandlers
Guild, the Tailors & Drapers Guild, the Blacksmith
& Farriers Guild, the Greatmoot of Poets, the Great
Guild of Merchant Adventurers, the Worshipful
Company of Assurors & Assessors, the Worshipful
Company of Deniable Assets, the Worshipful
Company of Wheelwrights, the Shipwrights Guild,
the Goldsmiths Guild, and the Guild of Curriers,
Felt-Makers & Armorers. These guilds tend to have
a guildhouse in every major town in the Bladed Vale.
Some of them have lively traditions of clandestine,
unofficial questing and adventuring. There are also
hundreds of other smaller guilds, many of whom
operate in a limited region only.
Geography
There are twelve Provinces in the Bladed Vale: the
Duchy of High Kian, the Barony of Thabazimbi Isle,
the Prince-Bishopric of Winter River, the Lordship
of the Archipelago, the County of Pencarrow, the
Lordship of Ballywort Vrystaat, the March of
Brackley, the Duchy of Hoveldrif, the Duchy of
Polokwane, the Lordship of Lowered Nalediplek, the
Lordship of La Roche-en-Lige, and the
Landgraviate of Sint Rickardsdijk.
The reason some gear is so expensive (30 coins for a

folding rod?) is that there are heavy taxes on many
items popular with adventurers. This policy is to
discourage unofficial dungeoncrawling and questing.
Some items are even banned and must be bought on
the black market. For the same reason, there is some
resentment toward adventurers, especially from
sailors, merchants, couriers, hunters, trappers,
shepherds, and people who just like camping.
34
The Prosperous Game
Half the tax, the Tribute, goes to the Crown.
The Bladed Vale is a hereditary monarchy. But it is

not quite an absolutist monarchy. It has a certain
very important tradition that determines tax and
spending. This is how it works.
The rest of the tax, the Boon, is divided among the

Provinces, in proportion as their Champions proved
their worth in that years Game.
First Place: three-tenths of the Boon
2nd: one-tenth of the Boon
3rd: one-tenth of the Boon
4th: one-twentieth of the Boon
7th: one-twenty-fifth of the Boon
10th: one-thirty-third of the Boon
14th: one-fiftieth of the Boon
18th: one-one-hundredth of the Boon
21th: nothing
22th: nothing
23th: nothing
Last Place: any coin remaining when the winners have taken
their prizes (a little less than one-one-hundredth of the Boon)
Every summer there is a Gathering and a Prosperous

Game.
During the Gathering, each Province sends all tax
revenues, along with two young Champions, no older
than eighteen. Each Province has its own traditions
about how to select Champions.
In the heart of the Bladed Vale there rises a solitary
peak, forested and snow-capped, known as the
Bonlaw. The Queens City spreads below it, and the
monarchs castle, the Protean Fastness, is built into
the Bonlaws lower reaches. For most of the year the
Bonlaw is forbidden to all but the Queen and her
retinue.
But during the Prosperous Game, twenty-four young
Champions fight to the bitter deaths on its slopes. All
but one (or in some rare years two) must perish. Then
coin which has trickled to the Queens City may
burst out once more across the Bladed Vale.
Most political theory in the Bladed Vale consists of

treatises suggesting slight tweaks to the fractions
which make up this list, and ferocious rebuttals
arguing that the peace, prosperity, strength and glory
of the Kingdom wholly depends on keeping the list
exactly as it is.
The current Queen, like most past monarchs, frowns
on more radical forms of political speculation. She
nevertheless enjoys keeping abreast of developments
via her Five Agencies and her freelancers in the
Worshipful Company of Deniable Assets, formerly
known as the Guild of Spies and Assassins.
More about the Queen, her Five Agencies, the
Guilds, and the Prosperous Game will appear in The
Gamemasters Handbook.
35
hot passage for the bloud, no hoard long withstands

its activities.
Heres excerpt from one classic treatise whose

author, Grumgrennedy of Jale Cot, was executed for
sarcasm while you were but a babe-in-arms:
Yet ours is also a prudent government, for that it

inclineth the ruler of each Province to manage his
spending with aforethought, and to preserve such
leprecoin and grain and sundry as necessary against a
lean outcome in the Game, and maintain also
pragmatic relations with his neighbours. No noble
can forget, nor do his people permit him to forget,
that by a low placing in the Game, the share of the
Boon next year may be but little.
Ours is a just government, for that it removeth

much from the arbitrary will of the Monarch, who
though she beareth the person of the
Commonwealth, beareth also her natural person,
and would fain beggar this Province or that
Province, the better to enrich a flatterer or favorite.
Ours is a shrewd government, for that as the Game
defendeth the prosperity of each Province from a
tyranny in the Monarchs will, so doth it defend the
prosperity of each subject of the Commonwealth
from the tyranny of that subjects own want of will.
Viz. tax being paid in such amounts as are imposed
by each Game, and not by each whim of the Crown,
these distributions being impartial and publick,
diverse temptations and distempers are eased, and
the Provinces thereby seldom quarrel for the
Crowns favour, except it be in ignorance of their
duties, and because the mad, and the tyrannous, and
the ambitious, do not much make cause with each
other against the Crown, so the madness, and
tyranny, and villainy of the Vale may be found much
constrained thereby.
But lastly, and above all these considerations, ours

is a secure and a peaceful government. Every
Province beareth its Champions love, and the people
of every Province unite by that love. Thus is the
Prosperous Game like to a vent for every warlike
passion. Every grudge may take flesh and be
resolved as the ash of flesh within the
circumscripture of the Bonlaw, such as would by
some more primitive system of government grow
and spill over into lawlessness, disorder, and Civil
War.
It is against such conveniences that one must set
the blood of a child bright upon the Bonlaw snow.
None but a fool will judge that ours is the best kind
of government man is apt to devise.
Ours is thirdly a wise and righteous government,

for that no other law but the Game may so
conveniently combine spur to industry with spur to
virtue. Verily may the Province furnish the Vale with
witty inventors, and cunning craftsmen, and bold
merchants, but all its wealth will be lost, except
among its youth there be found steadfastness of
heart, strength of arms, and grim courage disposed
to heroic feats. Thus the Game putteth a Guard
against corruption, that doth not nap.
Using Magic
Experienced roleplayers may find a lot that is
familiar in D&D. Some of the more distinctive
material will be contained in The Spellcasters
Handbook, which is forthcoming some day. You can
track the progress here. In the meanwhile, here are
many of the low-level spells. If youd like to playtest,
you could play a party of only Blacksmiths & Tailors,
and perhaps a Friar. Or feel free to write your own
spells, or adapt them from an existing RPG such as
Dungeons & Dragons (in which case, give each spell a
mana cost of about half the spells level), or check out
the Runed Age magic system.
Ours is an effectual government, for that its yearly

heat preventeth those cold congealation, who are
called misers, from stopping the veins of the
Commonwealth, which clogged for want of money
would otherwise seize and lie as one dead. The
Game is like a heart in strong endeavour, to force a
36
Appendix I: Beginners Spellbook

1st level Apothecary magic
Just like other spellcasters, you may have a
number of spells prepared equal to your level plus
your Personality. Your maximum mana is also
equal to your level plus your Personality.
The life force gathers into a pulsating crystalline

sac called a Nest. A Burst spell pops open the
Nest, releasing its life force, and healing the
creature it is attached to.
But healing magic is the highest of magics. What

power could be greater than power over death?
So it should not be unexpected that this art is
many times more complex than that of the
Chandler or Friar, mere hedge wizards compared
with the Apothecary.
Life Force
The life force that travels along the Tubes is
measured in dice pools. Lets say you take 2d6
damage, rolling a 3 and a 4. First deduct 7 HP as
usual. Then shoot the two d6s down the Tube.
Keep the 3 and the 4 face-up for now. Only the
dice matter, not any bonuses or penalties: so if
you suffered 2d6+2 damage, you still just send
two d6s down the Tube.
If you are playing Dungeons & Drapers with an

Apothecary in the party, youll probably need lots
of dice. Its also best to use figurines, plus a
board, grid paper, hex paper, or a diorama, to
keep track of where everyone is and who is
tethered to whom. You might also want to use
thread or string to represent Tubes.
Life force moves at 25 feet per round. So if you

take damage when tethered to a creature who is
25 feet away or less, you can place the dice next to
that creature immediately.
Tubes and Bursts
Nests
Healing magic takes time to master, but it

mainly relies on two simple building blocks.
These are a spell called Tube, and a spell called
Burst. Both are 1st level spells.
A Nest ebbs and flows, so youll have to try to

prick it at just the right moment. At the start of
every round, re-roll all the dice in every Nest.
The result is the amount the creature will be
healed by if someone casts Burst on the Nest
during this round.
Tube opens a mystical channel between two

creatures. Life force can flow through the Tube
in either direction. The basic version of the spell
creates a Tube between the Apothecary and some
other creature. Higher level Apothecaries can
weave more complex networks of Tubes.
Theres more. Nests that are left too long go

toxic and start to leak. Whenever your roll a 1 on
a Nest die, deduct 1 HP from the creature it is
attached to, and remove that die from the board.
When someone attached to to a Tube takes

damage, their life force surge down the Tube.
When this life force reaches the far end, it
attaches itself to the creature at the other end.
No creature can have more than one Nest

attached to them. Nests act like drops of water,
joining when they touch. When more life force
pours into an existing Nest, the Nest swells
larger.
37
Burst
Level: 1
Base Cost: 0 mana
Casting Time: Major Action
Duration: Instantaneous
Range: 50 feet
This spell forces one Nest of your choice to erupt. The creature who is attached to it gets healed. They
gain HP equal to the total points showing on the dice when the Burst is cast. The dice are then removed
from the board.
Tube
Level: 1
Base Cost: 1 mana
Duration: Up to one hour
Range: 25 feet
A semi-transluscent Tube shoots from your body to the body of one creature within 25 feet, friend or
foe. The Tube usually sprouts from one of your eight pulses: temple, throat, heart, elbow, wrist, crotch,
knee, ankle, and leeches into a similar spot on the other creatures body. The Tube is incorporeal: it
cannot be cut with a blade, and it will not entangle those who pass through it. You can both move about
freely while tethered, but if you move more than 25 feet apart, the Tube will break, and any Nests will
simply dissolve into the air. Higher level spells allow you to create longer Tubes.
So long as you are tethered, any damage you take will cause your life force to squirt down the Tube
toward the creature at the other end, and vice-versa. For instance, if you take 3d8+3 damage, you will
send 3d8 down the Tube. If you have several Tubes tethered to you, you can choose which one the life
force moves into. Life force flows through a Tube at 25 feet per round.
When life force reaches the end of a tube, it accumulates into a Nest. At first, it will be equal to the
damage that generated it (just the dice, that is, without any plusses or minuses). But once a Nest has
formed, it ebbs and flows randomly. The dice in each Nest get re-rolled at the start of every round.
Remember that a Nest left too long can go foul, and harm instead of heal. Whenever you roll a 1 on a
Nest die, the attached creature suffers 1 point of damage, and the die is removed from the board.
The usual strategy of a 1st level Apothecary is to tether themselves to the partys Blacksmith, and
charge into battle. Things get more intricate at higher levels.
38
2nd level Apothecary magic

Adapt Elongate
Level: 2
Base Cost: 1 mana
Casting Time: Bonus Action
Range: 50 feet (see below)
Increase the strength and suppleness of one Tube, so that it can stretch up to 200 feet. (Without this
augmentation, a Tube cant stretch more than 25 feet without falling to bits, along with its Nests).
The range of 50 feet refers to any part of the Tube. Once the eldritch stretchiness reagent enters the
Tube, it runs shimmering up and down its entire length.
Dispellation:
If a Chandler casts a Dispel Magic on a Tube which has been Adapted, it reverts to a normal Tube. If a
Chandler casts a Dispel Magic on a normal Tube, and beats a Knowledge check vs. target number 17, the
Tube vanishes.
39
Bind the Spirit

Level: 2
Base Cost: at least 1 mana
Duration: 10 rounds per mana
Range: 50 feet
Whomsoever has been bound together by this enchantment will not die and will remain conscious for its
duration.
However, although life and wakefulness are tied to the flesh, the flesh itself gets no healing. In other
words, Bind the Spirit will buy the target some time . . . but they might want to get that negative HP
total looked at properly before the spell runs out.
Whereas others may skip the throes of agony in favour of a quick nap, the lucky beneficiary of Bind the
Spirit gets to stay wide awake and feel every last tingle. There are some other drawbacks to being
artificially glued to life. They are perfectly welcome to fight on, exsanguinated, clumsily wielding their
weapons with nubs of shattered bone, progressively entangled in their own intestines, their muscles
flapping pointlessly, torn free of tendons. But:
HP
-6 to -10
-10 to -15
-16 to -20
-21 to -25
-26 or less
-2 to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. -1 to Awareness.

(The wounds of Feyborn and Wound Dwarves look a little different, but the effects are the same.)
Upgrades and Variations:
The duration is easily extended. For every gash of mana you spend, the spell lasts 10 rounds.
Dispellation:
Bind the Spirit cannot be dispelled.
Additional Notes:
Also known as Apothecarys Bucket List, Arsefirst into Light, Field Marshals Friend, Delay the
Inevitable, and Torturers Tincture. A controversial enchantment, but entirely legal.
40
Detatch
Level: 2
Base Cost: 1
Duration: instantaneous
Range: 50 feet
This spell unhooks one end of a Tube from the creature or object attached to it. If there is a Nest at that
end, the Nest also drifts apart from the creature.
The detached creature can then move away without the Tube or Nest trailing after it. If the detatched
Nest is Burst, its life force simply spills out and evaporates, without healing anybody. Likewise if the
Nest springs a toxic leak, the relevant die is removed, but nobody takes any damage.
Dispellation:
Detatch cannot be dispelled or warded against. The loose end of the Tube can be reattached, however, by
means of a Leaping Mouth spell.
41
Leaping Mouth
Level: 2
Base Cost: 1
Duration: instantaneous
Range: 50 feet (see below)
Cast this spell on one end of a Tube. That end of the Tube sucks onto a new target within 15 feet of it.
If a Nest has already gathered, it remains with the original creature.
However, there is one exception: if that end of the Tube has already been detached using a Detatch spell,
then any Nest leaps along with the mouth of the Tube, and sucks onto the new target.
Dispellation:
Leaping Mouth cannot be dispelled or warded against.
42
1st level Chandler magic

Light
Level: 1
Base Cost: 0
Duration: 1 hour
Your hands shed a bright light in a 20 foot radius, bleeding to a dim penumbra of 20 feet thereafter.
At any time you are glowing, you may spend an additional 1 mana to transfer this radiance into any
thing you can touch, or into the air itself. It is a little like getting gum from your fingertips, so it
will take you a major action.
Shaped Light. You may spend an additional 1 mana to bend the light more completely to your will.
Once this is done you may, for instance, focus it in a bright cone of 40 feet, with a thin penumbra.
Or you may modulate its color and intensity.
Dispellation:
So long as you are in the presence of the light, you may cancel it with a thought. If you are struck, or
distracted, or must cast another spell, the light will briefly dip and then resume. If you are knocked
unconscious, the light will go out.
There is a simple ceremony, that asks no special talent for magic, which will dispel an eldritch light. The
ceremony lasts one minute, and takes the form of a dance that two must do. But the steps are not wellknown in the Bladed Vale.
You may make a Knowledge / Arcana check vs. target number 20 to see if you can recall the steps to the
dance. If you can, you may teach them to others.
43
Magic Hand
Level: 1
Base Cost: 0
Duration: 10 rounds
Range: 25 feet
A hand appears. Perhaps it hangs pendant in the air, or perhaps it bursts from the soil like a star-nosed
mole. Each round you may move this hand up to 25 feet. By using a major action, you may also
puppeteer it as you desire: it will turn a key for you, clutch a wrist for you, pour a stream of powder from
a vial, or slither into a pouch of leprecoins.
The hand cannot move more than 25 feet from you. It can lift about 10 pounds of weight, though the
standard version of the spell is unable to wield weapons. Should you use your magic hand to harass an
enemy by slapping, choking and scratching, they must beat a Dexterity check versus 15 + your
Knowledge (or 17 + your Knowledge if you have the Sleight of Hand skill). If they fail, they suffer 1 HP
damage, and their AC is reduced by 1 until it is next your turn.
The hand looks like your hand. But not just your hand now: your hand as it was, and your hand as it will
be. Its age flickers and shifts: one moment it is your hand as a chubby child, the next it is your hand as a
wizened wizard. Sometimes it is the right hand, sometimes the left. Sometimes it is gloved. Some
scholars hold that the hands gestures are not exactly original, but rather borrowed from gestures you
have made or will make. As a child you clutched the handle of the milk pail, and now that same clutch
clutches the trapdoor to the trolls lair. As a young wizard you moved your fingers through your lovers
hair, and now those long-lost caresses ease the dagger from your rivals belt.
When you are not focused on puppeteering the hand, it may sometimes involuntarily mirror some of
your gestures anyway.
At no cost, you may adjust the transparency of the hand, making it opaque or ghostly or invisible.
Witch Wield: Spend 2 more fingers of mana, and the hand may pick up and wield a small weapon
such as a knife, scalpel, sickle, or handaxe. It attacks using your Dexterity. The upgraded hand looks
less like a hand, and more like a dense, strobing cluster of fingers.
Dispellation:
You may cancel the mage hand with a thought. The 9th level spell Dispel Magic will cause it to vanish.
There is also salve, that asks no special talent for magic to cook up, which will protect an object or a
body from direct interference by a magic hand. The salve takes an hour to prepare, and lasts about a day.
The ingredients are not rare, but the recipe is not well-known in the Bladed Vale. If you can beat a
Knowledge / Arcana check vs. target number 21, then you do know it.
44
Minor War Wonder

Level: 1
Base Cost: 2
Range: 25 feet
Your fingers glow and howl. You feel a moment of uncertainty and dread. You release a squirming,
flaming eldritch abomination in the general direction of one hapless victim.
Minor War Wonder is a somewhat unstable and unpredictable invocation. To determine its exact form
and effect, roll 2d20, choose one die to be your A result and one die to be your B result, and consult
the table on the next page. Each die determines two columns.
Example:
Noo rolls a 14 and 6. Depending which dice she designates A and B, she can produce one of these two
effects:
A small wobbly chandler of sparks & tentacles smashes into your foe, reducing their speed to
next round (14, 6, 14, 6)
A plume of flowing lard & muscle sails into your foe, dealing 5 damage (6, 14, 6, 14)
The 7th level spell Major War Wonder operates in a similar way.
The GM may occasionally decide to slightly increase or decrease the damage inflicted, based on the
description and the nature of your foe. For instance, a dryad or a treant might take extra damage when
struck by a turtle of sparks and lava, since they are even less fond of turtles of sparks and lava than you or
me.
Dispellation:
The detritus left by the Minor War Wonder usually fades within about thirty seconds of its own accord.
Dispel Magic will get rid of it immediately. There may be certain other ceremonies which would hasten
their exit, but if there are, they must be known to only a very few. If you can beat a Knowledge / Arcana
check vs. target number 24, then perhaps you know what such ceremonies require.
45
A roll
B roll
A roll
B roll
A dart
of quicksilver
& ice
whizzes past your foe, just missing

them
A homunculus
of squirming limbs
& eyes
whizzes past your foe, just missing

them
A jellyfish
of chitin plates
& sucking holes
grazes past your foe, doing 1 damage,

and flies for another 10 feet
A frisbee
of champing teeth
& hatching eggs
pummels into your foe, doing 3

damage
A star
of squirming limbs
& mouthparts
pummels into your foe, doing 3

damage
A plume
of sparks
& muscle
smashes into your foe, reducing their

speed by one half next round
A jet
of bone-smashing
radishes
& bone
smashes into your foe, reducing their

speed to just 5 feet next round
A swift newt
of lucent smoke
& flanges
collides with your foe, driving them

backward 5 feet
A spinning top
of steaming
swamp muck
& frass
collides with your foe, driving them

backward 20 feet
10
A writhing nest
10
of hooves
10
& hooked darts
10
hurtles into your foe, dealing 4 damage
11
A tiny owl
11
of thick indigo
smoke
11
& sap
11
hurtles into your foe, dealing 4 damage
12
A grinning face
12
of scalding
ambergris
12
& mandibles
12
slides into your foe, dealing 4 damage

& driving them backward 5 feet
13
A winged crab
13
of runny sugar
13
& silverware
13
slides into your foe, dealing 4 damage

& driving them backward 20 feet
14
A small wobbly
chandler
14
of flowing lard
14
& tentacles
14
sails into your foe, dealing 5 damage
15
A turtle
15
of crystalline
shurikens
15
& lava
15
sails into your foe, dealing 5 damage
16
A curtain
16
of serpentine saws
16
& sarcastic pollen
16
flies into your foe, dealing 4 damage,

& limiting their speed by next round
17
A beetling wave
17
of yellow thorns
17
& clotted lancets
17
flies into your foe, dealing 4 damage,

& limiting their speed by next round
18
An expanding
sphere
18
of compressed cud
18
& acid antlers
18
envelopes your foe, dealing 6 damage,

+2 damage to all standing within 5 feet
19
A roiling cloud
19
of molten lead
19
& bubbling suet
19
envelopes your foe, dealing 8 damage,

+2 damage to all standing within 5 feet
20
A bolus
20
of jumbled
chickenwire
20
& spiral thunderbolts
20
courses into your foe, dealing the

damage showing on the A die
46
Upcandle
Level: 1
Base Cost: 1
Duration: Up to six hours of growth
Range: 25 feet
Place this spell upon a lit candle of wax or tallow. It no longer burns away. Now it burns taller.
If cast upon a guttering stump of candle, it will gradually grow to about its original height. If cast upon
a fresh-lit candle, the candle will grow to about twice the height it begins at. Then the spell ends and the
candle will burn down normally.
While the candle grows taller, its flame becomes curiously strong. The light it casts is no brighter, but
wind and rain and snow cannot put it out. Thrust the flame into water, or cover it up with a snuffer, and
it dwindles down to a smoulder. But as soon as it tastes the air again, the wick will re-ignite.
A taper candle grows about an inch an hour.
By spending 1 extra lumen of mana, you may instruct the candle to snuff itself out when the candle
reachest its maximum height.
Dispellation:
Anyone with breath may cancel the spell simply by blowing out the candle-flame. The flame can also be
put out with red wine or blood, or the 9th level spell Dispel Magic. Or you may end the spell with a
thought.
47
2nd level Chandler magic

Battle Rainbow
Level: 2
Base Cost: 1
Range: 90 feet
Arc this braid of colored energies into a creature that irks you. Make a Knowledge / Arcana check against
your targets AC. If you succeed, inflict 3d8 damage. If you fail, inflict none.
If you try to cast this rainbow against a creature who is right next to you (within about 5 feet), you have
disadvantage on your Knowledge / Arcana check.
Prismatic Dazzle. Instead of rolling 3d8, roll 3d6 for damage. Your foe is also blinded by your
Battle Rainbow for 1d6 rounds.
Carebear Spare. If you score a hit, after you have rolled for damage, you may choose to reduce that
damage by any amount you desire. For instance, if you roll 3d8 and get 12 in total, you can choose
to do 0, 1, 2, 3, or right up to the full 12 points of damage. Your target will sense that it could have
been worse.
Tentacolors. You may divide your rainbow into up to seven colors to zoom toward different targets
simultaneously. Each color inflicts 1 HP of damage. You must make a separate Knowledge / Arcana
check against your targets AC for each strand, and a strand may consist of one or more colors. E.g.,
you could send a strand of four colors against one foe and a strand of three colors against another,
making two checks. Or you could even send seven strands of one color each against a single foe,
making seven checks, since to roll dice is a duty and a delight.
Elemental Bow. By spending an extra lumen of mana, you may imbue your battle rainbow with one
of seven properties. The corresponding artery of color will glow incandescently: slashing and
stabbing (red), burning and scorching (orange), sizzling and shocking (yellow), drowning and
crushing (gold), crystallizing and freezing (blue), choking and poisoning (indigo), shaking and
shattering (violet). The DM will decide what effect if any this has on your target.
Dispellation: The Battle Rainbow comes and goes too quickly to dispel, and there are no known charms
against it.
Additional Notes: There are rumors of still more variations, including a walkable bridge version, and a
crane-and-demolition-ball version, where the demolition-ball is a pot of gold swinging from a strand of
indigo. And of course there are more than seven visible colors in the Bladed Vale. Octarine, jale, ulfire,
smaudre, rawn, sanguire: researchers at Her Majestys Agency of Wizardry are no doubt hard at work
48
Change Text
Level: 2
Base Cost: 1
Duration: Permanent
Range: Touch
By means of this enchantment, all the words of a book will change. The book will usually be in the same
language as before. It will seldom become a book anyone has ever read, though perhaps they have read
ones like it, or heard of it, although they may be mixing it up with another. As with any book, the
contents may be true and false, sensible or insensible, useful or futile, comforting or cruel, interesting or
boring, too soon or too late.
By spending 1 extra drop of mana, you may try to influence the mode, form, spirit, and genre of the
new book. For instance, you might wish for poetry or for prose, or for a play or a prosimetrum; you
might wish for a religious work or a secular one; for a work whose main purpose is to entertain or
one whose main purpose is to instruct; for a work whose meaning is plain or a work that is veiled in
allegory; for a work that offers hope or a work that dashes false hopes; for a book collecting
emblems, or jests, or flowers of wit and style, or true tales of murderers and their downfalls; for a
work with a happy ending or one that tells a tragical tale; for a history, a romance, a hagiography, a
hymnal, a biography, a bestiary, a mirror for princes, an almanac, a commonplace, a conduct book,
a cookbook or some other book entirely. You may not get quite what you wish for, and you may not
know whether or not you have got what you wished for.
By spending 1 extra drop of mana, you may change the language of the book. You may only change
it to a language that you speak at least a little of, although it may contain words you dont know in
that language.
By spending 1 extra drop of mana, you may choose the title of the new book.
By spending 5 extra drops of mana, you may weave some paragraphs of your own design, more-orless, into the new text. This version of the spell takes much longer, about an hour in all. To
everybody else, you will seem to be merely sitting there, absorbed in your book. But from your
perspective you really will be absorbed into your book. You will enter a fairyland based on the stories
or information contained in the old book and the new. You will have your opportunity to write
some of the text through your speeches and deeds in this fairyland.
49
Change Text (continued)

Dispellation:
The 9th level spell Dispel Magic will unwrite was has been written and rewrite what was previously
written. However, if Change Text has been cast many times on the same book, the Dispel Magic spell
will only cause it to go back one step. To get it all the way back to its original state, you will have to cast
Dispel Magic many times. Rather like leafing back through the pages of a book, except here each page is
a book. There is a way to restore the text to what it was without using any special spells, but it is difficult
to do. You must read the entire book out loud, all the while pretending its new words are just a way of
saying what its old words once said. When you reach the final page, make a Personality check (Arcana,
Performance or Rhetoric gain you +2, or Deception, Discernment, Empathy or Will gain you +1)
against target number 23. You may try as many times as you like.
50
Create Bell
Level: 2
Base Cost: 1
Duration: Permanent
Range: 25 feet
A bell appears. It appears where you want it to. It does not peal of its own accord. You will have to swing
it, if you want it to peal. It is just a bell. It is usually of a high-copper bronze alloy. It stays forever, or at
least until one day it cracks, or is beaten down to make some other thing. It may be small, like a bell
around a lambs throat. This little ones may appear with a ribbon, already tied to something if you wish.
Or you could make the bell a little larger, like a handbell with a handle, weighing perhaps two pounds at
most. The bell does not look new. Sometimes it may bear inscriptions, but they are not in a language
that anyone knows.
To create larger and heavier bells, you may spend more mana. The effect additional mana has, and the
maximum amount you may add, is determined by your own level. Whereas the lighter bells may be
conjured anywhere within range, these big bells must be conjured on the ground, or somewhere where
they are supported. In other words, you cant drop them on people.
Your level
Maximum mana you can add
Weight per extra point of mana
10 pounds
25 pounds
50 pounds
11
100 pounds
13
500 pounds
15
10
tonne
17
20
1 tonne
19
20
2 tonnes
Dispellation:
As far as anybody knows, the bells cannot be got rid of. So do not cast this spell unless you want there to
be a bell.
51
Rabbit from a Hat

Level: 2
Base Cost: 1
Duration: Special, see below
Range: Touch
You take a rabbit from out of a hat. He is a longhaired, half-lop rabbit whom the Wizards call Wagner,
though his nickname among the Chandlers is Dog. He will suffer to be petted a little, but he also has
pride. He is gregarious but sometimes a little grumpy. He may charge you or nip you if you dont treat
him with respect.
Dog will remain until some other spellcaster in the Bladed Vale summons him away. His availability
fluctuates with the time of day, but he will usually stick around for a few minutes. Dog is a mortal rabbit
and he is getting on in years. Eventually another rabbit will take his place.
Should Dog happen expire on your watch, the magicians who loved him best will come looking for you.
Upgrades and Variations: None.
Dispellations: A casting of Dispel Magic will cause Dog to return to the hat from whence he came.
52
Descent of Alice
Level: 2
Base Cost: See description
Duration: Up to 10 rounds
Range: 50 feet
To be cast on those toppling from mountain ledges, castle battlements, into oubliettes, wells, and so
forth. Those caught up by this enchantment will drift gently downward, at a speed of about 50 feet per
round, perhaps a little faster if they flap and kick just right. The spell ends when their feet touch down.
You should probably let them know, or they may just keep jumping off things.
You may create one Alice for every piece of mana you burn up, up to a maximum of your level.
You may of course cast this on yourself. Hint: hours of fun.
The spell works on inanimate objects too, although it is optimized for living things. If you are
trying to do something fancy like slow the descent of a catapult boulder, you will have to succeed in
a Knowledge / Arcana check against difficulty 19.
Descent of Soyuz. By expending 4 points of mana per creature or object, you can extend the effect
for up to an hour, enough to drift downward for about seven miles.
Dispellation:
A Dispel Magic will set things plummeting at their usual rate. You may cancel this spell with a thought.
The spell requires a modicum of concentration nothing serious, about the equivalent of remembering
in the back of your head to pick something up from the apothecary on the way home so if you are
knocked unconscious or experience some terrible, consciousness-altering enchantment, you must make
a Personality / Will check against target number 18, or the spell will come to a premature end. If you
succeed in the check, you can sustain the enchantment even in your dreams or your bewilderments. If
you fail, they and/or you fall.
Additional Notes:
Without the benefit of the spell, most creatures take 1d4 damage for every 10 feet they fall, modified at
GMs discretion according to what they land on, in, or all over.
53
King Cutie
Level: 2
Base Cost: 0
Duration: Unpredictable
Range: 50 feet
Cast this spell on someone whom you want to name King Cutie. Now they are called that. The name
King Cutie does not displace any of their existing names. It joins the other names like a new leaf on a
stem, or perhaps, like a single flower on a stem of leaves. The other names make room for it. The person
may not even know that they are called King Cutie. You will know though, because you cast this spell.
They are usually King Cutie for about a day, then it fades. A few of them are called King Cutie forever.
Anyone observing the spell who succeeds in a Knowledge / Arcana check against difficulty 18 knows
whos just been named King Cutie. If an Identifiend is summoned, they will recognize who is King
Cutie and who isnt. Various oracles and deep-seeing beings such as sylphs will also be able to confirm
the truth of it. And of course people may say, You look like a King Cutie to me, but then again, people
always say things like that.
Spellcasters have struggled for centuries, in vain, to make this magic work with any other name
than King Cutie.
Dispellation:
A Dispel Magic spell will unname King Cutie, unless King Cutie is their only name, in which case the
spell will have no effect. You may cancel the spell with a thought. There is also a simple unnaming
ritual, requiring comfrey and mandrake root, and the enthusiastic consent of King Cutie. It takes about
ten rounds. If you succeed in a Knowledge / Arcana check against difficulty 17 you know of this ritual.
Additional Notes:
In some worlds, a belief is true or false because it coheres well or badly with other beliefs. In some
worlds, a belief is true or false because it is suitable or unsuitable for particular uses or processes. In some
worlds, all beliefs are a little true and a little false. In some worlds, no belief is true or false. Not so in the
Bladed Vale. In the Bladed Vale, beliefs are true or false because something makes them true or false.
This something might be called a fact or a state of affairs. This spell adjusts one of those.
A prominent scholar of magic and theology, Wormgrass Travelcheer, has recently argued that this spell
proves that the Absent Goddess has not entirely abandoned the Bladed Vale. For what may make any
mortal thought true or false, but some corresponding thought in the mind of the Goddess? In certain
circles, hullabaloo and hubbub.
54
Small Deer
Level: 2
Base Cost: 1
Duration: 5 rounds
Range: 50 feet
There appears a vast running herd of tiny deer, each animal no bigger than the letters on this page.
When closely packed, the herd takes up a space of about 5 by 5 feet.
You may direct the gist of their gallop with a bonus action, but if you wish to micro-manage the
majestic animicules sending some hither and others thither, for instance it will cost you a major
action. You can conjure the herd anywhere within 50 feet of yourself. They can run about 25 feet per
round, but they wont stray farther than 50 feet from their conjurer.
The deer know how to insinuate themselves beneath things. The velvety shadow is capable of carrying
off a full-grown person. Each round the deer are are under them they must beat a Dexterity / Acrobatics
check vs. target 15 or tumble over. If they can keep to their feet, they may glide away, or else use their
movement to run counter to the tinny thunder of the hooves, as though on a treadmill.
Alternatively, you may direct your small deer to carry you. But even you will have to beat a Dexterity /
Acrobatics check vs. target 10 to stay upright. (Athletics, Riding, and Seafaring are somewhat
appropriate skills here, so if you have one or more of them you may take +1 to your roll).
Usually they are of a species of deer called libralces, crowned with long-beamed, small-palmed
antlers, good for wedging under the shoes of your foes. But you may summon up almost any kind of
deer you wish. Antifer, fallow, broad-fronted moose, muntjac, net-fronted elk, red brocket, roe,
sambar, you name it.
Trifling Antelopes. For one extra tine of mana, you may summon small antelopes instead: dik-dik,
gazelles, springbok, wildebeest, or what-have-you.
Dispellation:
Cast Dispel Magic on the small deer and they will disappear. Or you may send them away with a
thought. If you are struck, or distracted, or must cast another spell, the deer may scatter and wander a
little. If you are knocked unconscious, the deer will look after themselves until their 5 rounds are up.
Additional Notes:
Wherever they come from and wherever they go, these deer are accustomed to being small. They are at
home in forests of blades of grass. They know the spider and the wasp for their natural predators.
55
Tatter
Level: 2
Base Cost: 1
Duration: Permanent
Range: 25 feet
Hems and cuffs darken and fray, seams weaken, thread spurts from buttons like blossoms from sepals,
some buttons fall off altogether, and little holes and rips appear.
Shred into Rags. This variation does far greater damage to a suit of clothes, but it cannot be used so
long as someone stands in them. They must have been worn at least once, however, even if it was
only by a statue or a doll. The spell knows the difference between true clothing and other uses of
cloth, such as curtains or sails.
Dispellation:
The Chandler spell Dispel Magic or the Frior spell Mending will return the clothes to their former
state. Or skill and patience with a thread and needle will do the trick, more-or-less.
56
Uncandle
Level: 2
Base Cost: 1
Duration: 25 rounds
Range: 25 feet
To be cast upon a lit candle. For the duration of
the spell, the candle sheds not light but
darkness. The thickest darkness fills a space of
about 5 feet by 5 feet and a soft gloom extends
perhaps another 5 feet. No ordinary light sun,
moon, star, lantern flame can dissipate this
darkness. Those with the Darkvision special
ability, however, may still look into it.
None are known. Some like to enchant one
candle with both Uncandle and Upcandle, to
make its darkness all the more durable.
Dispellation:
If the candle is put out, the dark goes out. The
flame can be found quite easily by its heat. Or
you may cancel this spell with a thought.
57
1st level Friar magic

Bless
Level: 1
Base Cost: 1 per creatue
Duration: Up to 100 rounds (see Dispellation)
Range: 25 feet
For the duration of the enchantment, all those affected may add 1d4 to all their attack rolls. This charm
bestows warlike activity with an ease, fluidity, and good fortune more becoming of peacetime. Dagger
tips scritching across the plated mail will stumble into chinks. Little tricks of weight and momentum
will escort the arrow to the eye, help the mallet to smash the pinkie finger sideways. We are blessed
indeed.
You may enchant as many creatures as you like, so long as you burn enough mana.
Dispellation:
To sustain this spell, you must keep a snatch of an old soldiers song stuck in your head. There are two
which are often used, though others may work as well:
Your houses they pull down to fright poor folk in town,
But the gentry must come down & the poor shall wear the crown
Or:
now let us fight, brave boys, & die,
To save our Queen and our progeny
If you cast any spell that requires more than 1 point of mana, or you are knocked unconscious, the tune
is knocked loose, and the enchantment vanishes. If you take damage, make a Constitution / Will check
against target number 12, or the tune is knocked loose, and the enchantment vanishes. If you make a
lengthy speech, of more than about a round, you must make a Constitution / Will check against target
number 12, or the tune is neglected, and the enchantment vanishes. If someone strikes up a different
song within earshot, you must make a Constitution / Will check against target number 10 + the
musician or singers Personality / Performance or the tune is garbled, and the enchantment vanishes.
You may end the enchantment at any time simply by thinking of a different song. The 9th level
Chandler spell Dispel Magic will also remove this blessing from a creature.
58
Mending
Level: 1
Base Cost: 0
Duration: Permanent
Range: Touch
Cast this upon an object to fix its many minor breaks, tiny tears, frayings, crookednesses, wobbles and
loosenesses, and patches of rust. A badly broken thing may require many castings before it becomes
whole.
Join. A sword, chain, or key that has been broken may be welded fast again.
Fill. If the spell is concentrated on one break, tear, or gap, it can fix a space of up to 1 foot by 1 foot,
even if most of the original material is not present.
Exaptation & Upcycling. See Additional Notes.
Dispellation:
The spell itself cannot be undone. But nothing made of matter is mended forever.
Additional Notes:
Some Tailors take this spell as their Childhood Charm (see Players Handbook under Choose Two
Special Abilities).
Exaptation & Upcycling. How does the spell know a broken thing from a mended one? Swords are
beaten into plowshares, pruninghooks beaten into spears. A new shoe cuts your ankle, and must be
broken and worn before it can be worn. In your carrel, your grimoire may not lie flat unless the spine is a
little broken. In your vegetable patch, you mix broken ceramics with clods and pebbles to regulate
drainage. In your tavern, when you smash your wine bottle into a jagged shank, you are crafting a
necessary tool of the drunken brawling trade. When you tell your ragged broom-head to fix itself to its
true function, why should it prefer its time sweeping dust to its time flowering the sorghum in the field?
Then there are eggs, which usually taste better broken.
A spell of Mending draws upon both the casters desires and the objects memory of itself. But because a
Friars desire is ever cunning, and because the Bladed Vale is very old, so that most things have been
many other things at one time or another, the spell may sometimes be bent and shaped a little. An object
may perhaps be mended into a shape that it never quite bore before. Explain to your GM what your
scheme is, and they will tell you if it is possible, and the extra mana it will cost.
59
Paladins Nostril
Level: 1
Base Cost: 0
Range: 25 feet (5 feet to sense Bless or Bane)
For the duration of the sorcery, you will be able to sense the presence and location of any undead,
demonic, fairy, or elemental creature within 25 feet of you. You will be able to discern if someone is not
in the shape that they normally take, although you wont know what their true shape is. You will also
be able to sense if some thing has been magically consecrated or cursed. If you are right next to someone
(within 5 feet), you will also be able to sniff if they have a Bless or Bane on them.
Angel Snout: Flare 2 points of mana. This variation is just the same, except that its range is
extended to 75 feet (25 feet to sense Bless or Bane), and the nostrum described below cannot conceal
a creature from it.
Dispellation:
To sustain this spell, you must keep concentrating on a particular point near the tip of your nose. This
point is sometimes called the Third Nostril, and exists partly in the normal four dimensions, and
partly in higher dimensions. If you cast any spell that requires more than 1 point of mana, or you are
knocked unconscious, your focus is lost, and the enchantment vanishes. If you take damage, make a
Constitution / Will check against target number 12, or your focus is lost, and the enchantment vanishes.
The spell Dispel Magic will also bung your nostril.
There is also a well-known nostrum that will usually defeat your nostril. Take barley-water, strained
through a piece of fine linen, and drop into it a mixture, beaten thoroughly in a mortar, of cinnamon,
nutmegs, ginger, zedoary, galangals, and white pepper, of each an ounce, as well as three lemon-peels,
pared thin, a pinch of pith of dwarf-elder, a handful of juniper-berries perfectly ripe, and pinches of
fennel-seeds, flowers of sweet basil, St. John's wort, and rosemary. Whoever has drunk this within a day
masks their scent from your Paladins Nostril, unless you have at least three of these four skills:
Chandlery, Discernment, Medicine, Religion. The nostrum offers no concealment to objects, however.
Additional Notes:
If someone has recently committed acts of unspeakable evil, you may occasionally be able to sense a
certain something coming off them. But this aspect is unreliable and not well-understood. Perhaps evil
is all relative, at least within the dominion of this spell. Even when it comes to raising an army of
skeletons to sweep the land, there are usually two sides to the story.
60
Snuff
Level: 2
Base Cost: 0
Duration: Permanent
Range: 50 feet
This spell will put out any little flame, such as a candle-flame, or even perhaps a small camp-fire.
Dry Dampen. Costs at least 1 mana. Placed upon tinder or kindling, this will prevent it from
catching. The spell affects about as much material as you can hold in the palm of one hand. It lasts
for a number of rounds equal to the mana you choose to expend.
Darken & Dim. Costs 1 mana. This will extinguish an instance of the 1st level Chandler spell
Light.
Dispellation:
It is rumoured that there are certain types of candles and tinder and kindling that burn even against the
command of this spell. If you beat a Knowledge / Arcana check vs. 20, then you know the names of some
of the materials. But knowing their names does little good, since they are very rare in the Bladed Vale.
61
2nd level Friar magic

Bane
Level: 1
Base Cost: 1 per creatue
Range: 25 feet
Each creature targeted by this hex must make a Personality check vs. 12 (or 8 for undead creatures).
Should they succeed, they feel nothing more than a moments dread, like a cloud moving across the
suns face. Should they fail, a foul butteriness comes into their fingers. Till the curse is lifted, they must
subtract 1d4 from every attack roll.
If cast on a creature who has been Blessed (see above) it cancels that spell but has no other effect.
Some spellcasters bandage a thorn or a caltrop into their flesh when placing this curse. This extra
flourish counts as a bonus action. This makes the Bane a little harder to dispel (see below).
Jinx. You must spend 2 mana per creature, and speak at least six words in tandem with your victim
or victims. Till the curse is lifted, they must subtract 1d6 from every attack roll and Dexterity
check.
Dispellation:
To keep your curse, you must keep your victims in sight, and you must keep some part of your flesh
pinched. You might simply bite your lip, or the inside of your cheek. Keeping your nail dug into
your thumb is just as effective.
If you are knocked unconscious, the hex lifts from all creatures immediately. If two successive
rounds pass when you do not see a creature, for whatever reason, the hex lifts from that creature.
Unless you have bound something sharp into your flesh, whenever you cast any spell that requires
more than 1 point of mana, the hex lifts; also, if you take damage, you must make a Constitution /
Will check vs. 12, else the hex lifts.
You may conclude the curse at will.
Dispel Magic lifts the curse.
Additional Information:
The Crown jealously guards this conjuration. Legally, you should be an accredited ranger or druid of
Her Majestys Parks & Conjuration Agency to cast it. It has many other titles and nick-names: toktok, Ben, Blight, Governors Gloves, Pea Duro, Mchawi, Minor Malediction,
Minor War Wyrding, Tokoloshy Coshy; one struck by Bane is said to be bent or befuddled or bowsy
or clear or chopped in the meat or dropped in the eye.
62
Beast Shape
Level: 2
Base Cost: at least 2
Duration: 1 hour
Range: Self
You may take the form some natural creature for up to an hour. It must be a beast you have
encountered at some time in your life. The mana cost depends on the form that you assume:
Cost:
Aye-aye, chicken, ferret, fossa, fox, ghost crab, goat, gray wolf, hedgehog, jerboa, lar gibbon,
lizard, okapi, okapig, oligokyphus, pink fairy armadillo, pony, pygmy hippo, raccoon dog, rabbit,
rat, sheep, sloth, softshelled turtle, squirrelk, slow loris, tapir, tufted deer, vintana, yeti crab
4 Axolotl, beaver, boar, bull, cronopio, elk, fruitafossor, giant wolf, giraffe, glass frog, horse, hyena,
maned wolf, naked mole rat, oligokyphus, otter, pipa, proboscis monkey, repenomamus, saiga
antelope, star-nosed mole, steropodon, tomato frog, tree frog, tree shrew, zebra
8 Anchiornis, aquilops, babirusa, bald urakari, black bear, camel, crocodile, dugong, duckbilled
platypussycat, gerenuk, goblin shark, gorilla, grasshoppeacock, keukegen, lamprey eel, muscaliet,
redlipped batfish, othnelia, polar bear, spider crab, streaked tenrec, sunda colugo, tritylodon
10 Asp, barnacle goose, barrakudu, bat, condormouse, coot, crabbit, crane, crow, crowl, cruziohyla
calcarifer, diademodon, dimetrodon, eagle, elefinch, falconey, glaucus atlanticus, honey badger,
llamallard, lyrebird, nightingale, parrot, peacocktopus, shoebill, swan, swift, tarsier, vulture
12 Albatross, archaeopteryx, askeptosaurus, barracurlew, bittern, blackbird, blink hog, condor,
dolphin, enteledon, kangaroo, hippo, hooded seal, horned lizard, leopard, lion, lynx, liopleurodon,
narwhal, okapigeon, pistol shrimp, phorusrhacid, pulmonoscorpius, saber-toothed tiger
14 Ant-eater, caribouboon, cheetah, cone snail, estemmenosuchus, elephant, hummingbird
hawkmoth, ibex, gigantopithecus, gryphon, manta ray, manticormorant, ninja slug, owlbear,
panther, peliclam, rhino, siphonophore, stonefish, tanystropheus, trilobite, sea pig, wookie, yale
16 Basket star, bee, christmastree worm, cuttlefish, dragon millipede, dwarf gryphon, flea, hornet,
ladybird, mantis shrimp, microw, mudskipper, myrmarachne plataleoides, netcasting spider,
pelican eel, promachoteuthis sulcus, saddleback caterpillar, whip spider, wyvern, titanoboa
18 Bullet ant, centaur, pegasus, velociraptor
20 Archelon, azhdarchid, black swallower, bombadier beetle, darkmantle, displacer beast, fangtooth
fish, flabby whalefish, gelatinous cube, giant bee, humpback angelfish, kosmoceratops,
lanternfish, olm, phoneutria fera, spark angelmouth, stegosaurus, therizinosaurus, triceratops
22 Acidophile, beholder, coral, duckbilled platypus, enenra, flumph, frog-in-two-bodies, giant racing
snail, gryphoenix, hairy frog, manticore, mermaid, octopussycat, phoenix, rust monster, rotifer,
sea cucumber, sea sponge, slime bacteria, thermophile, uma-no-ashi, unicorn, waterbear
63
Beast Shape (continued)

While you are in your beast form, you retain your own sense of identity. But you have all the physical
capacities of the animal you have become. You gain the Strength, Dexterity and Constitution of your
beast form. Your Awareness becomes the average of your human Awareness and the beasts Awareness,
rounded up. You retain your human Knowledge and Personality ability scores.
You normally cant cast spells, unless you use the Beast of the Boardroom variation (1 extra mana).
You also gain the Hit Points of your beast form. Keep track of these separately from your normal Hit
Points. If you are reduced to zero or below, instead of falling unconscious or dying, you simply resume
your human form (see Dispellation.)
When your hour is up, if you have sufficient mana, you may spend it to remain in your beast form. If
you do so, the HP of your beast form will be restored to maximum.
Whatever you were wearing or carrying when you transformed becomes merged with your beastly body.
However, very bulky items may be left behind. The smaller the form you are assuming, the more chance
that it will be unable to accommodate some piece of equipment. So while swords and shields will easily
become the bones of elephants, if you choose to awaken as a cone snail, you may find you do so in the
toe of your own boot.
Dwarf Form: For 2 extra dwindles of mana, you may assume a much smaller version of the beast
form, usually down to about half the natural size. For example: dwarf polar bear, dwarf owlbear.
Dire Form: For twice the mana cost, you may assume a much larger version of the beast form. For
example: giant zebra, giant nightingale, giant eagle, giant duckbilled platypussycat, giant glass frog.
Beast of Burden: Spend 1 extra gape of mana, and you will be able to disgorge at will whatever
equipment, clothing and weaponry you were carrying when you changed. This is possible even if the
gear is larger than you are: a tree shrew yawning out a lantern, or an otter hocking up a clattering
suit of full plate. Once it is coughed up, however, it cannot be merged again with your beast form.
Beast of Boardroom: Spend just 1 extra jibberjabber of mana, and you may keep your powers of
speech and spellcasting.
Clothed: Spend 3 threads of mana, and you can transform your clothing into a similar set of
clothing, adapted for your new body. For example: crowl in wee robes, lamprey eel in jesters
motley, trilobite in ballgown.
Armored: Turn your armor into animal armor (called barding). Padded, leather, or light chainmail
armor turns into light barding (+2 AC); scale, ring, or heavy chainmail turns into medium barding
(+4 AC); splint mail or plate mail turns into heavy barding (+6 AC). The cost for a horse or pony is 1
mana per point of AC. For other animals it is usually 2 or 3 mana per point of AC. For most
animals, barding can be removed with assistance. The barding keeps its form, but will change back
whenever you change back to your human form. For a few animals, the armor is merged into the
bone structure and cannot be removed.
64

Dispellation:
If your beast form is ever reduced to
0 HP, you resume human form
immediately.
You also sustain any overspill
damage. For instance, lets say you
had 10 HP as a human, and
transformed into an crowl with 6
HP. Later you took 9 damage: you
would lose your 6 crowl HP as well
as 3 of your human HP. You would
revert to human form with 7 HP
left.
If Dispel Magic is cast on you, you
must beat a Constitution / Will
check vs. 13, using your human
Constitution, else resume your
human form.
There are no other rituals which can
force you take a human form.
Additional notes:
The GM will use common sense in
modifying ability scores according to
tasks (e.g. thumbs help with some
things).
It is not clear why some beast forms are so much more expensive than others. Perhaps certain animal
morphologies are unionized and others are not? But you would think then wolves would be expensive? Pack
animals?
It is said that, for those Friars who frequently take a particular form, there is a chance it may become
permanent.
A small sample menagerie is given overleaf: crocodile, crowl, elephant, gryphon, giant wolf, gray wolf, horse,
pony, and tufted deer.
65

Crocodile (8 mana)
(also called cokadrill, ingwenya, lagarto, dire lizard, mamba, timsa, grandfather, &c.)
Hit Points: 20
Armor Class: 20
Speed: 20 (or 25 swimming)
Damage: 1d10 (+2) (biting)
Strength: +2
Dexterity: -2
Constitution: +2
Awareness: +1 *
You gain the Stealth skill if you dont already have it.
You can hold your breath underwater for up to 100 rounds.
Gator Grip: Whenever you make a successful biting attack, you can choose to grip your foe. They
must beat a Strength check vs. 12 to escape, and can attempt to escape once per round. While you
are gripping your foe in your jaws, you cannot attack, but you can do an automatic 1d4 damage per
round. Your foes speed is zero until they escape, but if theyre smaller than you, you can drag them
around, although your speed is reduced by 5 feet per turn (running or swimming).
Barding: For 4 extra mana, you may transform your leather, padded, or light chainmail armor into
barding (+2 AC). Your swimming speed is reduced to 15. The armor is merged with you & cannot
be removed.
Accelerated Growth: For 4 extra mana, you can begin to gradually grow. Every ten minutes (100
rounds) your current and max HP increase by 5. Every twenty minutes, your Strength and
Constitution increase by 2, and your speed increases by 5.
Crowl (10 mana)
(also called black owl, cowl, crow-owl, culula, &c.)
Hit Points: 6
Armor Class: 15
Speed: 45 (flying)
Damage: 1d4 (-1) (clawing & pecking)
Strength: -1
Dexterity: +2
Constitution: +0
Awareness: +5 *
You gain the Stealth skill if you dont already have it.
You gain advantage on Awareness / Investigation checks when scouting from the air.
You gain advantage on Personality / Will checks against intimidation, mind control, or any magic
that would put you to sleep.
You have Darkvision to 60 feet.
Beakcraft: If you carry a small twig with a leaf on it or a piece of jewellry in your beak, you may cast
Friar spells as normal, even if you dont have the power of speech.
Gift of the Caw: If you cast the normal version of Beast Shape, but later decide you have something
to say, you may spend 1 point of mana to switch to the Beast of the Boardroom version, and regain
your powers of speech and spellcasting. (Normally you would have to spend the extra point when
you first cast Beast Shape).
Astral Peck. If you are right next to a Nest of life force created by an Apothecary (see Apothecary
Magic), and you can beat a Dexterity check vs. 10, you can peck it open, so that the life force inside
it dissipates without healing anybody.
66

Elephant (14 mana)
(also called the olyfaunt, ebur, elpendban, alebhonth, slon, &c.)
Hit Points: 70
Armor Class: 12
Speed: 30 feet
Damage: 2d8 (+6) (tusks)
Strength: +6
Dexterity: +0
Constitution: +2
Awareness: +0 *
Charge (Major Action): if you get a run up of at least 15 feet and then make a successful attack roll,
you do 3d10 damage. If your enemy is smaller than you, they must beat a Dexterity check vs. 10 or
get knocked over, requiring a major action to get up.
Trample (Bonus Action): whenever you are near a creature who is lying prone, you may attempt an
additional attack to trample them for 2d8 (+6) damage.
Trunkcraft: if you carry a simple wand of ash, black walnut, cherry, cypress, rowan, or yew wood,
you may cast Friar spells as normal, even if you dont have the power of speech.
Barding: You may transform any human armor into barding at a cost of 2 mana per point of AC
(see Upgrades & Variations).
Giant Wolf (4 mana)
(also called great wolf, dire wolf, riding wolf, &c.)
Hit Points: 14
Armor Class: 14
Speed: 55 feet
Damage: 1d10 (+3) biting
Strength: +3
Dexterity: +3
Constitution: +3
Awareness: +3 *
Advantage on all Dexterity / Stealth checks.

Advantage on all Awareness / Survival checks for tracking quarry.
You may carry one human rider.
barding (+2 AC). Your running speed is reduced to 50. You cant take it off without help.
Gray Wolf (2 mana)

(also called timber wolf, forest wolf, canis lupus, yena, ulfr, loba, louve, ul'k, vilkas, lng, &c.)
Hit Points: 10
Armor Class: 14
Speed: 45 feet
Damage: 1d6 (+2) biting
Strength: +2
Dexterity: +4
Constitution: +2
Awareness: +3 *
Advantage on all Dexterity / Stealth checks.

Advantage on all Awareness / Survival checks for tracking quarry.
67
Gryphon (14 mana)

(Also known as Aguileon, Gripen, Epimacus, Lumasi, Lion-Eagle, Opinicus, Simoorgh, Maam, Sir)
Hit Points: 58
Armor Class: 15
Speed: 25 feet (60 feet flying)
Damage: 1d6 (+2) biting and 2d6 claws (+2) (dual attack)
Strength: +2
Dexterity: +2
Constitution: +5
Awareness: +3 *
You gain the Intimidation skill if you dont already have it.
Advantage on Awareness / Investigation tasks when scouting from the air.
Advantage on Awareness / Alertness tasks whenever you are explicitly keeping watch, standing
guard, etc.
You may carry a human rider, or two at a stretch.
You can screech short, basic words, even without the Beast of the Boardroom upgrade. (With the
upgrade, you can speak fluently and cast spells as normal).
If you swoop down on a target, make a successful claws attack and beat a Strength check (target
number 10 + enemys Dexterity + their armor bonus), then you can seize them in your claws and fly
off with them. You can rise about 30 feet per round (a bit slower if theyre really heavy, or youre
already carrying someone on your back). Every round, if you want to hold onto your prey but they
spend a major action struggling to escape your clutches, then you need to make a Dexterity check
(target number 10 + enemys Strength).
barding (+2 AC). Your speed is reduced to 20 feet (55 feet flying). You cant take it off without help.
Thundercaw: Spend 3 umlauts of mana to breathe thunder. The bolt has a range of 100 feet. If you
make a successful attack, do 4d8 damage to the target and 1d8 damage to anyone adjacent. If you
miss, still do 1d8 damage to your target and 1d8 damage to anyone adjacent.
Split Soul: A dazzling light, and an abominable noise that gradually disentangles into a screech and
a roar. Spend 4 mana, and you may become two beasts: a lion and a dire eagle. Your soul is divided
in two. If one of your bodies is slain, it immediately returns to human form, but with only half a
soul. The other half of your soul is trapped inside the beast. You become each others familiars.
68
Horse (4 mana)
(Also called eoh, equus, brumby, courser, cob, jenny, pack-horse, paard, cheval, ihhashi, m, &c.)
Hit Points: 16
Armor Class: 10
Speed: 40 feet
Damage: 1d10 kicking & trampling
Strength: +4
Dexterity: +0
Constitution: +2
Awareness: +0 *
You may carry up to two human riders.

You may transform any human armor into barding (see Upgrades & Variations), at a cost of 1
mana per point of AC.
Pony (2 mana)
(also called your best friend)
Hit Points: 14
Armor Class: 10
Speed: 40 feet
Damage: 1d8 kicking & trampling
Strength: +3
Dexterity: +1
Constitution: +1
Awareness: +0 *
Whenever your friends are in any danger, you have advantage on all Personality / Will checks.
You may carry one human rider, or two at a stretch.
You may transform any human armor into barding (see Upgrades & Variations), at a cost of 1
mana per point of AC.
Rainbow Helper: Whenever you are giving a ride to a Chandler, you may use a bonus action to
assist them if they cast Battle Rainbow. They receive a +2 bonus on their Knowledge / Arcana check
against their targets AC.
Metamorphosis: After youve turned into a pony, you may spend 9 mana to turn into a dire pony, 13
mana to turn into a pony pegasus, or 17 points to turn into a pony unicorn. But these
transformations are very temporary: after a number of rounds equal to 15 + your Personality, you
revert to normal pony form. Please make sure youre not flying around when you turn back.
Tufted Deer (2 mana)
(also called jin y l, ahoo-bareh, longtoothed deer, bloud dychati, dheusom, fawnwolf)
Hit Points: 6
Armor Class: 15
Speed: 50 feet
Damage: 1d8 kicking, trampling, biting & goring
Strength: -1
Dexterity: +2
Constitution: -1
Awareness: +4 *
Advantage on Awareness / Alertness checks.

Fanged and omnivorous.
* Awareness: add this number to your human Awareness and divide by 2, rounding up.
69
70
Buff
Level: 2
Base Cost: 2
Duration: Up to 1 hour
Range: Touch
Choose one ability score. The creature you touch gains advantage when making checks on that ability
score.
Speed of the Puma. Spend 3 points of mana instead of 2. The creature you touch gains advantage on
Dexterity checks and +5 speed. They can also fall up to 20 feet without taking any damage.
Brave Star Bundle. Spend 10 points of mana. The creature you touch gains advantage on all ability
score checks, +5 speed, and can fall up to 20 feet without taking any damage. You must use two
major actions in a row to cast this variation. Legally, only accredited rangers and druids of Her
Majestys Agency of Parks & Conjuration may attempt this variation.
Dispellation:
Dispel Magic will remove the enchantment. If you are knocked unconscious, or cast any spell requiring
more than 1 point of mana, the effect vanishes.
The enchantment can also be let out, if the beneficiary is cut by any blade over which certain rhymes
have been chanted. These rhymes ask no magical art, but they take about a minute to chant (10 rounds),
and must be chanted after the Buff has been cast. They are somewhat known in the Bladed Vale. If you
can beat a Knowledge / Arcana check vs. 17, then you can remember them well enough.
71
3rd level Friar magic

Boss
Level: 3
Base Cost: 2
Duration: Permanent
Range: 50 feet
You may direct a one-word command to a creature within range, followed by a short insulting epithet.
For instance: Think, pig! or Grovel, fool! or Approach, pustule! If the target fail a Personality
check vs. 15, they must carry out your command on their next turn.
Ideally the creature should be able to understand your language. If it does not understand your language,
it may sometimes still perform what it thinks you are commanding.
Upgrades & Variations:
Break. Use the command, Disobey, slave! If the target fails their Personality check vs. 15, they
become seriously befuddled. Every round until the effect wears off, they must roll 1d20 to
determine their action:
1: The creature moves in a roughly northerly direction.
2: The creature moves in a roughly north-easterly direction.
3: The creature moves in a roughly easterly direction.
4: The creature moves in a roughly south-easterly direction.
5: The creature moves in a roughly southerly direction.
6: The creature moves in a roughly south-westerly direction.
7: The creature moves in a roughly westerly direction.
8: The creature moves in a roughly north-westerly direction.
9-10: The creature sits down and/or spins around and/or weeps and/or eats and/or drinks and/or sings
and/or uses something and/or picks something up and/or drops something.
11-14: The creature attacks somebody at random.
15-16: The creature has a moment of lucidity and may act as they will.
17-20: The effect wears off for good.
72
Boss (continued)
Dispellation:
It is possible to construct a sort of little poppet or fetish doll which, worn about the neck, offers some
protection against this enchantment. If you beat a Knowledge / Arcana check vs. 20, then you know how
to make one. The doll must be made in the likeness of the person to be protected, and must either be put
on a loop made of their hair, or be dressed in an item of clothing dyed with their blood.
If the person who wears the doll does not have the Will skill, they get a +2 bonus on their
Personality check.
If they do have the Will skill, they get a +1 bonus (in addition to their normal +2).
Each doll only works once. As soon as the protected person succeeds in resisting the spell, the doll will
jerk on its string and perform the action instead of the person. It will obey so frenetically that it will tear
itself to shreds.
Additional Notes:
Boss is strictly forbidden to non-Agency spellcasters.
What counts as one word varies from language to language. Curtainlander, Draconic, Heesaha
Shimbiraha, and Mermer are all especially suitable for complex one-word commands.
The targets habits, equipment, inclinations, and overall context, will influence how they interpret the
command. Most targets interpret commands in a way that protects themselves from direct harm. If you
command somebody on the edge of a precipe, Jump! they will usually hop backward to safety.
Some instructions are more ambiguous than others. Relax, toad! Relocate, rogue! Guess, jolt-head!
Dare, wretch! Disapprove, sootiken! Trace, villain! Unpack, louse! Follow, pissant! Play, pigeon-egg!
March, boar-pig! Lie, you bleeding baby! Separate, you sponge! Tempt, you impurity! Pour, drudge!
Snore, blot! Laugh, you necrosis! Burn, you deformity! Shave, fart! Tumble, vermin! Swivel, dog!
Afford, scut! Dance, tangle-arse! Stitch, you scullion! Confess, you taint! Rub, moldwarp! Work, nob!
Hop, clown! Surprise, sick-stain! Kneel, malkin! Smoke, poshface! Peel, ratsbane! Bow, nobhead! Cheer,
footlicker! Earn, hedge-pig! Witness, spermatazoan! Memorize, you mumble-news! Shrug, varlet!
Push, you vomit! Encourage, bladder! Hanker, pignut! Dally, shit-cheek! Reinterpret, you flounce!
Quake, you sputum! Emancipate, eggshell! Invite, abomination! Mimic, ninny! Listen, lout! Gather,
puttock! Drag, sick-pool! Join, snipe! Reveal, wanker! Impress, rabbit-sucker! Mix, slop-bucket! Woo,
varlet! Connect, remnant! Cough, clotpole! Forgo, animalicule! Focus, apple-john! Analyze, coxcomb!
Untie, flirt-gill! Start, strumpet! Complain, shit-stain! Throw, whipster! Shrivel, miscreant! Flee,
slime! Boast, oaf! Drop, you flap-dragon! Help, pignut! Cavort, innocent! Deserve, horn-beast! Pack,
barnacle! Accumulate, baggage! Burrow, numskull! Hide, burp! Drink, bowel! Cease, maggot! Regret,
you prolapse! Carve, clack-dish! Jump, piss-prophet! Wander, dung! Twist, puritan! Sniff, maniken!
Exercise, sack of balls! Bathe, dullard! Disagree, clod! Calculate, goose! Climb, sootiken! Point, arse!
Scratch, douche! Measure, buffoon! Suspect, dirtbag! Pedal, worm!
73
4th level Friar magic

Hacking Hands
Level: 4
Base Cost: 3
Duration: 10 rounds
Range: Self (hands reach 15 feet)
Your hands elongate into a hacking, sawing, grinding, slashing, zipping, stabbing steel clockwork
manifold of blades, hammers, rasps, saws, forks, wires, needles, spines, cogwheels, spurs, cages, worm
drives and slewing drives, racks and pinions, and suchlike mechanical devices. The hacking hands are in
constant, noisy motion, and occasionally throw off sparks of light.
Until the spell ends, you are dual-wielding two vast nasty weapons, each with a reach of 15 feet. You may
add Strength, Dexterity, or Awareness (whichever is highest) to both attack rolls (not youre your major
action). Each seething tangle of enchanted metal inflicts damage of 1d8 + your ability modifier. You
may attack in two different directions at once.
Any objects you may have been holding when you conduct this enchantment will be incorporated into
the inner workings of your hacking hands. When the spell is cancelled or wears off, you will find yourself
holding them again.
Tender Batons: Spend 1 extra cog of mana, and your hacking hands will upgrade into a deluxe
version that can perform simple actions, without necessarily destroying everything you touch.
Except possibly emotionally, but thats on you.
Tinkertoes: Spend 1 extra gear of mana, and you can transform your legs instead of your hands. You
may shrink or elongate these churning metal stilts at will, adding up to 15 feet to your height. If you
try to walk you will find yourself very ungainly, and your movement reduced to 10 feet per round.
Dispellation:
Dispel Magic will remove the enchantment. If you are knocked unconscious, or cast any spell requiring
more than 1 point of mana, your hands will shrink back to normal.
You may also cancel the spell with a thought.
Additional Notes:
Hacking Hands is forbidden to non-Agency spellcasters.
One of the peculiar features of hacking hands is that when they are first constructed, there are almost
always one or two small parts a nut or bolt or screw, or more often something completely
unidentifiable left over, lying in the grass. These little items do not disappear when the hacking hands
disappear.
74
Turn Undead
Level: 4
Base Cost: 2
Range: 30 feet
By means of this spell, you may compel animate entities that once were living and now are not entities
such as skeletons, ghosts, ghouls and vampires to flee before you.
Every such creature must make a Personality / Will check vs. 14 or become turned. While they are
turned, they must spend all their movement trying to get away from you. They will only attack those
who bar their way.
If they take damage while they are turned, they may make another Personality Will check vs. 14 to shake
off the effect.
Danse Macabre: The Friar must expend one extra brewskie of mana. Every creature must make a
Personality / Will check vs. 14 or become turnt. While they are turnt, they must spend all their
movement dancing around. At the DMs discretion, they may simply enjoy themselves; or the
party may turn ugly and fights may break out.
Dead Inside: Who are the true zombies? For a heavy price, this spell may be made to affect all
creatures, whether or not they are traditionally thought of as undead. The Friar must expend two
extra wafers of mana, and permanently lose one point of Personality.
Dispellation:
You may cancel this spell with a thought.
The spell wears off after 10 rounds. If a turned or turnt creature takes damage, they may make another
Personality Will check vs. 14 to shake off the effect.
75
Sneezecat
Level: 4
Base Cost: 1
Range: About 2-3 feet
With a violent achoo you exude a cat.
The cat will float serenely in the air, tethered to the tip of your nose by its tail.
The cat keeps its own counsel. You cannot control nor command it. It is well-disposed to you, however.
You may moving it left or right, up or down, by the normal noddings and swayings of your neck, and it
will tolerate these manipulations with good humor.
You may be able to coax it to do things for you, especially if they are ordinary, cat-type things: swatting
at something bright or fast, lapping at milk, torturing a mouse or a pixie betwixt its paws.
The cat is most certainly really there, a living, warm, miaowing, purring, sniffing, curling, prowling
creature. But it does sometimes act a little as if it were somewhere else. If you were to pick up a cat and
glue it to your nose, the beast might become nonplussed. But these magic moggies are very relaxed
about the whole thing.
Old Friend: For 1 extra point of mana, the cat will not just be some random cat, but a cat of your
choosing. For instance, the same cat as last time. By using this variation many times, you may build
up something of a rapport with your sneezecat.
Big Sneeze: For 10 extra points of mana, you may sneeze a tiger.
Dispellation:
You may cancel this spell with a thought. The spell wears off after 25 rounds. The cat tenses, leaps, and
is gone. Dispel Magic will cause you to hurriedly snort up your cat.
Appendix II: Character Sheets, & Sample Characters

On the next page youll find your all-important character sheet, followed by two sample characters,
Sister Crocus of the Order of the Wooden Eye (a Snailborn Friar) and Falalalandal the Moderately
Musical (a Feyborn Tailor).
76
Name
Class
Armor & Shields

HP per level
Race
Level
Gender
Age
Armor Class (AC)

Abilities
Mana
Hit Points (HP)
strength
dexterity
constitution
awareness
knowledge
Max
Max
personality
Special Abilities
Experience Points (XP)
Skills (+2 to checks)
Equipment & Treasure
Tricks / Spells Prepared
Weapons
Speed (feet per round)

Languages & Miscellaneous Notes
Name
Class
Sister Crocus of the Order of the Wooden Eye

HP per level
Friar
Race
Snailborn
Gender
Age
Level
F
17
strength
+2
0
awareness
knowledge
+1
personality
Armor Class (AC)
Abilities
0
-1
+1
1d6
Armor & Shields

No armor: 10 AC
Dex: -1 AC
Martial Arts bonus: +2 AC
Mana
11
Hit Points (HP)
10
dexterity
constitution
Special Abilities
Martial Arts (+2 for unarmed / sai
/ nun / staff, +2 AC unarmored)
Max
Max
10

0
Wakefulness (long rest in 4 hours

+ adv. vs. sleep / sleep ambush)
Skills (+2 to checks)
Religion (usually Kno)
History (usually Kno)
Survival (usually Kno)

Bless (1)
Mending (0)
Paladins Nostril (0)

Robes, belt & boots
Monks sack
Water skin
Blankets (2)
Flint and tinder
Hooded lantern
Oil (3 pints)
Fishing line & fish hook
Quills (2)
Vial of ink
Sheets of parchment (10)
Ref book (Moon Dungeon)
Rope (10 meters)
Weapons
Staff (1d6) (Two-handed)
Strength (+0)
Martial Arts: +2 to attack & damage
Sling (1d4)
-4 to attack if over 40 feet range
Dex (-1 to attack and damage)
Sling ammo: 25 (cost: 0)
Notes
Speed: 25
Dex+Awa (for combat order): 1
Can fall 20 feet without taking damage
Last survivor from temple wiped out
by mindflayers. Dislikes mindflaying
Leprecoins: 5
Languages
Common (well)
Canzona Lumaca (a little)
Name
Falalalandal the Moderately Musical
Class
Tailor
Race
Feyborn
Gender
Age
18
Armor & Shields

HP per level
Level
strength
+2
dexterity
+0
constitution
+1
+0
awareness
knowledge
+1
personality
Special Abilities
Bard (gives Perf & Rhe & 2 bonus
languages)
Padded Armor (11+Dex)

Dex: +2
1
Armor Class (AC)
Abilities
+0
1d8
Mana
Hit Points (HP)
11
Max
1

0
Tumbler (gives Acrobatics with

adv on Acrobatics + Athletics)
Clothworking (Kno), Performance

(Per), Rhetoric (Per), Acrobatics
(Dex), Deception (Per),
Discernment (Awa),
Sleight of Hand (Dex),
Stealth (Dex)
Backpack, wine skin, silk purse

Frilly tunic, motley hose, tattered
cloak, sturdy steel-toed boots
Flint & tinder
Hooded lantern w/ oil (3 pints, 5
hours each, about 45 radius
light)
Fishing line & hook
Needle & thread
Small mirror
Lute
Assist Attack
(Give adv to one nearby ally.
Costs 1 mana, counts as bonus
action).
Max
11
Weapons
Knife (1d4 damage)
Close range or thrown
(-4 attack if over 20 feet)
Shortbow (1d6 damage)
-4 attack if over 60 feet
Skills
13
5 arrows
Speed
30 feet per round (i.e. 6 squares)
Languages & Notes
Elfjayzk (mother tongue)
Common (spoken quite well)
Fauntaal (spoken quite well)
Draconic (a bit)
EXPERT dulcimer player & plays
several other instruments like lute OK
0 leprecoins
Dex+Awa (for combat order): 3
Appendix III: What Wizards & Warriors Want

There are no hard-and-fast rules, but things marked are usually contraband and/or forbidden. They should
only be used by official heroes.
The PCs may also have the misfortune to encounter some of these official heroes. Of course, the PCs will
probably have a good explanation for why theyre up here, on the tenth storey of the Tower of the Lichlord,
covered in blood, magic, treasure and weapons. But just in case, the GM may secretly roll d20 for every mage,
ranger, rogue, bard etc. the PCs come across, to establish their feelings about unofficial adventuring.
1
Admiring. They consider unlicensed adventurers to be the true

adventurers, and only wish they had the guts to join them. They may be a
bit embarrassing and fannish.
2-3
Friendly. Deep down, they feel closer to unlicensed adventurers than they
do to the adventurers of their own Agency. They will gladly turn a blind
eye, and may be persuaded to team up.
4-5
Neutral. Theyre interested in adventuring, not interrogation. Theyd

prefer not to see anything illicit. If they find out anyway, they might stay
Neutral, or switch to Friendly or Opportunistic.
6-10
Opportunistic. It all depends. They may let unlicensed adventurers do the

dirty work of clearing out a dungeon, then turn up to claim the prizes.
They may demand bribes or favors.
11-13
Jobsworth. The law is the law, and if they catch the PCs in breach of it,
they will have to answer to the letter of the law. Except of course in
exceptional circumstances
14-15
Predatory. Always snooping around. They will milk any unlicensed

adventurers they catch for everything they can get. Think entrapment and
blackmail, with possible betrayal, ambush and arrest to follow.
16-18
Sadistic. They dont really care about gaining treasure or renown for
themselves. They just have it in for unlicensed adventurers, and love to see
them die horribly.
19
Zealous Sadist. As Sadist, except this person has a really long memory. If
they suspect someone is an unlicensed adventurer, theyre going to come
for them some day.
20
Zealous Jobsworth. Inspector Javert. They love the law and know how to
hold a grudge. If they suspect the PCs of unlicensed adventuring, theyll
chase them to the edge of the Bladed Vale.
On the next page are the stats for some moderately senior adventurers in Her Majestys Agency of Wizardry.
They are very keen to hear you explain just exactly what it is you think youre doing.
Zhong the Warlock (level 10)
Nensi the Sorcerer (level 10)
Attitude: Neutral.
Attitude: Neutral.
Treat like a Chandler. Speed 35.
Str +1, Con +0, Dex +1, Kno +3, Awa +0, Per +0
Str. 0, Con. 0, Dex. 0, Kno. +4, Awa. +1, Per -1.
HP: 26 (increases 1d6 per level)
AC: 17 (enchanted scale mail +1 Dex)
AC: 20 (mithril robes and shield)
Damage: 1d8+2 (longsword, two-handed, +1 Str)
Damage: 1d6 (staff)
Skills: Alertness, Arcana, Discernment, Stealth, Will
Skills: Arcana, Discernment, History, Medicine,

Rhetoric
Special Abilities: Swiftness, Warlock
Special Abilities: Sorcerer, Warlock
Mana: 13
Spells Prepared: Magic Hand (0), Battle Rainbow (1),
Fireball (3), Animate Architecture (1), Razor Face (3),
Wings (3), Eye (1), Find Features (2), Major War
Wonder (4), Bug Truck (2), Heart Bow (3), Travel
Tentacle (3), Dispel Magic (5)
Eithne the Mage (level 10)
Mana: 16
Spells Prepared: Light (0), Magic Hand (0), Minor
War Wonder (2), Create Bell (1), Descent of Alice (1),
Small Deer (1), Tatter (1), Big Beard (1), Widen
Window (1), Call Identifiend (1), Eye (1), Invisibility
(3), Locker (3), Major War Wonder (4), Travel
Tentacle (3), Dispel Magic (5)
Chidimma the Disenchanter (level 10)
Attitude: Opportunistic.
Attitude: Zealous Sadist.
Treat like a Tailor. Speed 40.
Str. 0, Con. 0, Dex. 0, Kno. +5, Awa. +1, Per -2.
Str +0, Con. 0, Dex +1, Kno +3, Awa +1, Per 0.
AC: 18 (enchanted scale mail and shield)
AC: 17 (enchanted scale mail +1 Dex)
Damage: 1d10 (pike, two-handed)
Damage: 1d8+1, 1d8 (morningstar, +1 Dex,

morningstar)
Skills: Arcana, Discernment, History, Nature,

Rhetoric
Special Abilities: Bewitchments, Magus
Mana: 15
Spells Prepared: Draw Aggro (1), Light (0), Magic
Hand (0), Smudge (1), Minor War Wonder (2),
Descent of Alice (1), Fireball (3), Call Identifiend (1),
Cloud Office (3), Eye (1), Invisibility (3), Major War
Wonder (4), Delirium (3), Nest Hat (3), Trade
Threads (2), Travel Tentacle (3), Dispel Magic (5)
Skills: Arcana, Deception, Discernment, History,

Perception, Performance, Intimidation,
Investigation, Will
Special Abilities: Childhood Charm, Scholar
Mana: 10
Tricks Prepared: Assist Attack (1), Find & Disable
Traps (variable), Ambidextrous (1), Pick Locks
(variable), Lightning Reflexes (variable), Sneaky
Action (1), Disarm (0), Charmer (variable), Detective
(variable), Countercharm (variable) + Childhood
Charm Snuff (0)
Penalties
Here we have some official sentencing guidelines.
Class A: Contraband confiscated, treasure forfeited, imprisoned for at least six months. Sometimes also: 50010,000 leprecoins, mutilation, slavery, 5-500 lashes, and/or other torture. The accused must appear in the
Court of Assize to be tried. Repeat offenders may face exile to the High Waste or execution, usually by
beheading, crucifixion or immolation. Occasionally penalties are also inflicted on the criminals family.
Class B: Contraband confiscated, treasure forfeited, imprisoned for at least two weeks. High-born subjects may
be sentenced to house arrest instead. Sometimes also: fines of 50-1,000 leprecoins, 5-100 lashes, and/or other
torture. The accused must appear in the Court of Assize to be tried.
Class C: Contraband confiscated, treasure forfeited. Sometimes also: fines of 10-500 leprecoins, 5-50 lashes,
and/or handcuffing for up to a month. Any licensed Agent may try, convict and pass sentence on the spot.
Class D: Confiscation of contraband, forfeiture of treasure. Sometimes also: fines of 5-100 leprecoins, and/or 510 lashes. Any licensed Agent may try, convict and pass sentence on the spot.
Bribes & Favors
Let me let you in on a little secret. It is usually possible to come to some kind of arrangement. The law is not
very well written and not very widely understood. It leaves plenty of room for confusion, interpretation,
negotiation, and corruption. E.g. some heroes may be happy to confiscate contraband, with the understanding
that they wont turn it in at the Agency, but rather keep it for themselves. For more serious offenses, heroes
may accept a bribe in leprecoins, or the equivalent value in loot. Some rough bribery guidelines:
Class A offenses:
Class B offenses:
Class C offenses:
Class D offenses:
Opportunistic
500-5,000 coins
25-500 coins
5-250 coins
5-50 coins
Jobsworth
5,000-15,000 coins
500-5,000 coins
100-750 coins
50-500 coins
Predatory
750-5,000 at first, & back for more
50-500 at first, & back for more
Or the hero may have a job for the PCs to do, or be willing to let them off with a warning for now.
Exemptions
Self-defense exemptions. Adventurous acts are permitted for the purpose of self-defense.
Clarificatory Amendment. Subjects must not push their luck. Subjects who have not taken reasonable precautions to avoid perilous
and heroic situations are unlikely to benefit from this exemption. No mercy for all you but it started it! murderhoboes either.
Professional exemptions. In rare cases, officers of the court may grant exemptions where the
adventurous activity contributes to the security and prosperity of Her Most Serene Majestys realm,
and in no way interferes with or trespasses upon the rightful work of Her Five Agencies.
Clarificatory Amendment I. No Agency license is required to work as a mercenary so long as the pay is 2 leprecoins per day or less.
Clarificatory Amendment II. Including any pay in kind, other than use of weapons and armor, and daily rations. Clarificatory
Amendment III. Normal basic barely edible rations like soup and bread. Not phoenix steak and white truffles with a black pearls
garnish or any rubbish like that.
The Queens Peace: Class A Prohibited Activities

Dragonslaying. No subject shall assault a dragon with intent to rob.
Clarificatory Amendment I. A dragon is defined as any legged snake over ten foot from snout to tail. Guile, wings, hoard, and firebreathing are of no matter for the purposes of this law.
Giantslaying. While within the icy mountainous realm of the giants, no subject shall assault a giant.
Clarificatory Amendment I. Inclusive of ogres, titans, and the like. Clarificatory Amendment II. Anyone over 10 foot tall, unless
there is a good excuse. Clarificatory Amendment III. 10 foot means 10 foot tall barefoot. Murder of jugglers-on-stilts &c. is not
covered by this law, despite what some people think. Clarificatory Amendment IV. Melting of ice does not prejudice application of
this law. Nor does smallness of mountains. Mountains are relative and a hilly area may still be an icy mountainous realm in the eyes
of the law. Amendment V. When considering slaying anyone tall on any uneven surface, probably best to seek official Agency advice,
or you may fetch up in a pickle.
Vampire Hunting. No subject shall intrude upon a vampires crypt with the intent of staking.
Clarificatory Amendment I. Crypt, or cave, vault, belfry, &c.: whatsoever den wherein the cunning vampire, who shuns the daylight,
chooses to slumber in secret till nightfall, whereupon it may slake its thirst with mortal blood. Clarificatory Amendment II: If you
stake a vampire, unless the vampire definitely did start it, and no mucking about, then the area in which said staking occurs will be
deemed temporarily to be the vampires crypt. Clarificatory Amendment III: Just because your cheese shop has been temporarily
deemed vampires crypt doesnt mean you dont have to pay your taxes that month on account of being a vampires crypt rather than
a cheese shop. Clarificatory Amendment IV: It is obviously not just cheese shops that must please use a bit of common sense when it
comes to this law.
Wizards Towers. It is forbidden to enter without permission the tower of a wizard.
Clarificatory Amendment I. Any structure of more than three storeys whose current proprietor or current tenant is a member of Her
Majestys Agency of Wizardry; or is an individual known to be a wizard, witch, warlock, &c. Clarificatory Amendment II. That is, to
practise dark arts. Clarificatory Amendment III. Things such as summoning and/or speaking with devils and/or the dead; entrapping
souls, scrying faraway lands by use of crystals, orbs, or mirrors; inventing animals; and/or conjuring magical flame. Clarificatory
Amendment IV. For the purpose of the law, faraway lands means anywhere outside the tower.
The Queens Peace: Class B Prohibited Activities
No subject shall raid any dungeon.
Clarificatory Amendment I. Its still a dungeon even if there are no prisoners. No subject shall break the seal and/or enter any
subterranean zone that may reasonably be expected to contain both great perils (including but not limited to monsters, ghosts, traps,
mechanical guards, curses, illusions, and long-buried unnameable evil) and great rewards (including but not limited to leprecoins,
treasure, magical items, ancient relics, and wondrous esoterica). Clarificatory Amendment II. Loyal subjects of the Bladed Vale, lets
stop pretending we dont know what a dungeoncrawl is, it will save everyone a lot of trouble in the end.
No subject shall, believing it to be an island, put ashore upon the back of a mighty sea monster.
It is strictly forbidden to be ambushed by goblins.
Mysterious carnivals must not be investigated.
Clarificatory Amendment. All loyal subjects are encouraged to attend mysterious carnivals and partake of their delights. The
partaking of delights does not constitute investigation. Just dont sneak round the back of the animal cages or anything like that. If
you overhear something, its probably nothing.
No subject shall attempt to rescue any person kidnapped or imprisoned by magical or unnatural means.
No subject shall unduly and unreasonably interfere with the business of cultists, including but not
limited to the summoning of long-buried unnameable evil.
No subject shall summon long-buried unnameable evil.
The disappearance of children from the village is not to be investigated.
In the event of a tragic death, strange wounds or markings are not to be spotted.
Strange and inexplicable tasks are not to be undertaken on behalf of employers who may not be all they
seem.
Pale and/or dusky, beautiful and/or sorrowful strangers must not be accompanied through fens or across
treacherous mountains.
Footprints leading away from freshly disinterred graves are not to be followed.
The Queens Peace: Class C Prohibited Activities
Any subject found in possession of magical rings, wands, swords, staffs, bows, harps, horns, ropes,
carpets, lamps, or pouches, must forfeit them to the Crown.
No subject may cast spells of heroism and adventure.
Clarificatory Amendment I. Heroism and adventure must be decided on a case-by-case basis. However spells such as Bane, Boss,
Brazen Blade, Fireball, and Major War Wonder are almost certainly prohibited in any circumstances. Subjects should apply for
written permission before gathering rare ingredients on behalf of wizards, witches, &c. Clarificatory Amendment II. Giving a spell or
berry or something a different name doesnt make it a different spell or berry. Clarificatory Amendment III. The spell now mostly
known as Governors Gloves is the same spell as the spell once known as Bane. Clarificatory Amendment IV. The spell mostly known
as Minor Malediction is the same spell as the spell once known as Governors Glove which is still the same spell once known as Bane.
Clarificatory Amendment V. Some spells that are right out include Minor Malediction, which is Bane; as well as Boss; Hacking
Hands; Summon Steed; Brazen Blade; Chibi Form; Free Motion; Sleep; Unlock Snailshell; Hoof Haven; Tree Door; Ward; Blink;
Fireball; Invisibility; Razor Face; Wings; Cloud Office; Eye; Fairy Paths; Wield Warriors; Locker; Major War Wonder; Bug Truck;
Face of Samantha; Heart Bow; Travel Tentacle; Dispel Magic; Become Smoke; Squandering Siphons; Adapt Fork; Adapt One-Way
Drip; Double Tube; Lateral Tube; Adapt Secure; and Healing Hole. Local variation in names and conjuration technique is no excuse
in the eyes of the law. We all know what a Fireball is thank you very much so lets not bother calling it Betsy the Batshits Burning
Blob of Fun or something. Clarificatory Amendment VI. Henceforth, a permanent rotating High Council of Forbidden
Enchantments is to be convened, consisting of an equal number of delegates from Her Majestys Agency of Wizardry, Her Majestys
Parks & Conjuration Agency, and Her Majestys Agency of Physick, to whom falls the honor and the duty of maintaining and
promulgating an up-to-date list of prohibited magical acts and ingredients, as well as, with due co-operation from all Five Agencies,
maintaining the obedience of the Queens subjects thereto.
The Queens Peace: Class D Prohibited Activities
Subjects must not re-unite the fragments of ancient artefacts.

Subjects must not reverse the magical transformation of a human into some monstrous creature.
Clarificatory Amendment I. For the purpose of this law, a frog counts as a monstrous creature. Clarificatory Amendment II. For the
purpose of this law, anything that is not a human is a monstrous creature, including statues, trees, rocks, etc.
Subjects must not solve the puzzles posed by elemental, fey, celestial, or diabolic doorkeepers.
Clarificatory Amendment I. For the purpose of this law, a bridge counts as a door. Clarificatory Amendment II. Some guidance from
Her Majestys Parks & Conjurations Agency. If you see a half man/lion/eagle, or man/lion/eagle in any proportion together
whatsoever, just don't bother and leave them alone. If you happen to hear a sphinx utter a riddle while you are nearby, just ignore it.
Under no circumstances respond to the sphinx, let alone attempt to solve the riddle. Clarificatory Amendment III. Eldritch and
brainteasing guardians of all kinds. Steer clear of them. Theyre probably there for a good reason anyway.
No riding around on dragons.

No subject shall seek to capture monsters whose very existence is disputed to add to the zoo of an insane
noble.
Clarificatory Amendment. For the purpose of this law, the owning of a monster zoo is sufficient grounds to be deemed both insane
and noble.
Subjects must leave slavers to it.

Subjects must leave necromancers to it.
Clarificatory Amendment. Do report skeleton armies to a member of your local Agency as these things can become tricky if theyre
not nipped in the bud.
Subjects must not undertake daring raids into the hearts of enemy army camps.
Ambassadors who are found dead have died of natural causes.
Strange sounds are just the wind.
Fairyland is out of bounds.
Clarificatory Amendment. Stay clear of swirling portals of light unless youre quite sure they lead you to a legitimate place, e.g. the
market to buy some carrots, not e.g. a plane made of crystal.
Vehicles and machines which have lain dormant for over one century must not be reactivated.
Any map drawn up over thirty years ago is contraband.
Standing up for the weak and downtrodden may constitute a prohibited activity. Subjects should apply
for written permission from an Agency before attempting any such activity.
The possession of full plate mail, without a reasonable explanation, will result in its immediate
forfeiture.
The possession of adventuring equipment such as folding rods and grappling hooks, or of loot such as
treasure chests or sacks of jewels, auragentum, silver, gold, and other precious metals, without a
reasonable explanation, will result in their immediate forfeiture. Long live her MOST SERENE
MAJESTY Queen Naledi, Defender of the Bladed Vale.
Appendix IV: Sample Livelihoods

Blacksmiths Trade
The PC is nearing the end of their apprenticeship with Alma of Fell Mills. Most mornings the PC sweeps the
two forges, breaks up the coaled logs into lumps of charcoal, and sets two fires burning there. They gather
yesterdays flakes of iron and sweep the floor. Soon Alma arrives and the two of them breakfast quietly on
congee and tea. Alma is not much one for talk, and when she does, it is with the thick dialect of the south.
The days work begins. The Blacksmiths tasks are diverse, but always infernally hot.
Against one wall is the bloomery furnace, a kind of short brick chimney, open at the top with pipes below. Iron
ore and extra charcoal is poured in and smelted into bloom iron, a porous mass of slag and metal. The PC has
learnt by now how to judge the right amount of charcoal to add to produce a viable bloom. The bloom is let
cool and then reheated, and banged with a hammer to drive the molten slag out, producing wrought iron.
Most of the smithys merchandise is of wrought iron. It is strong, malleable, and easily welded. Usually the PC
pumps madly on the bellows while Alma thrusts great globs of the stuff into the forge between tongs. She chops
off glowing morsels of iron with pincers and transfers them to one of the anvils, where they beaten, pinched,
bent, shaped, chiselled, and carved, into keys, hinges, locks, nails, rivets, pipes, rails, gates, nuts, bolts,
horseshoes, chains, straps for timber, sconces, pokers, farm tools, knives, arrowheads, decorative ironwork, and
the like.
Occasionally they smelt for longer to make cast iron instead, which contains more charcoal than wrought iron.
Cast iron can be melted to flow into a mold, though when it is cooled it is more brittle. Its not much use for
hammering on an anvil. Still, for pots and pans or a bit of railing, its plenty tough enough.
For armor and swords, wrought iron has too little soot in its soul, and cast iron has too much. What you need is
steel. Blacksmiths vary in their methods. Almas method for making platemail, for instance which the PC has
not quite mastered yet involves tucking a plate of wrought iron into a pot of crushed charcoal. The pot goes
into the forge and is kept at a red heat, whilst inside the pot, the plates surfaces harden to steel. The steel creeps
toward the center, and the trick is to remove it before it becomes steel through-and-through. A plate with a
little wrought iron at the core wont shatter so easily. Alma plunges it into hot water to cool it and, according to
one of her alchemical grimoires, to preserve the minute crystalline structure within. After she has quenched the
plate, Alma sometimes tempers it, first shaking it in vinegar, then reheating it a little, and letting it cool in air.
The PC doesnt really get why. Alma seldom produces an actual piece of armor. She sells steel plates to Lord
Smits armorer up at Moggercot Hall, who completes the process.
This is all a bit of a simplification, of course. Under Almas tutelage, the PC has learned that there are as many
kinds of iron as there are green things in the forest. And as in a forest, such forms are usually encountered
mixed together in a complex interdependent mass, diverse and altogether unique.
Alma is rather ancient now, but she is neither frail nor set in her ways. She has schemes to build a waterwheel to
power the bellows, and would like to experiment with a coke furnace. The trouble is, the smithy never seems to
be able to save enough capital to put Almas schemes into practise. Because Almas smithy is a potential source
of adventuring contraband, it receives frequent surprise visits from the Worshipful Company of Auditors and
Assurors. Alma abides by every regulation, and prides herself on her spotless record. The inspectors are on good
terms with her. They are less sure about that apprentice.
Chandlers Trade
Version #1
Lord Smits estate, Moggercot Hall, is situated on a rise to the north of village. The Chandler works in Lord
Smits chandlery, a small but well-ventilated room situated just off the kitchens in the main house (E10-F10).
The Chandler works in Lord Smits chandlery, a small but well-ventilated room situated just off the kitchens.
The kitchens supply the Chandler with fresh yakow fat, which the Chandler boils and strains. Straining the fat
refines the quality of light the candle will cast. Wicks made of twisted fibers are dipped into the melted fat,
allowed to cool, and then dipped once more, and allowed to cool, and then dipped once more, and so on, until
finally they are swollen into tallow candles. The trick is to remove the growing candle just as a fresh layer of fat
has gathered, but before the cool underlying fat starts to re-melt.
When burning, these tallow candles smoke black and stink of butchery. The Chandler and the Head Gardener,
Kimi, have joint responsibility for ten beehives (B6), situated at the southern edge of Lord Smits orchard (A1A7). For Lord Smit and his guests, only beeswax candles will do. Wax is gathered and left in the sun to bleach
white. The manufacture of beeswax candles is similar to that of tallow candles: wicks are repeatedly dipped into
pots of hot wax and allowed to cool. Beeswax candles burn steady, bright, and with little smoke.
In return for chandlery services, the Chandler receives board and meals, but no payment. However, on the
condition that the estate (including the Hunters Fastness, B3-C3) is kept well-lit at all times, the Chandler is
permitted to sell any surplus candles as well as soap, which is also made from fat at the village market.
When low on ingredients, the Chandler may appeal to the House Steward, Beckman, to buy in tallow, wax, or
wicks from the outside world. The Chandler is on fairly good terms with Beckman, and with the Gardener
Kimi. But the Chief Cook, Anja, has had it in for the Chandler from day one.
Candles must be trimmed regularly. Candles should be put out with a snuffer or the Snuff cantrip, rather than
blown out, to preserve the tip of the wick in good condition. The lighting, guarding, trimming, and snuffing of
candles, and the cleaning of sconces throughout Moggercott Hall is not, technically, the Chandlers
responsibility. Thats not to say that the Chandler wont get blamed for a dimly-lit or smoke-clogged corridor,
or indeed a flaming tapestry.
Lord Smit is often away, giving the Chandler a little leeway to pursue hobbies.
Version #2: Smearmonger
The Smearmonger lives in a small, cramped garrett above a haberdashery (L11). They rent it together with two
artesans, one whom they suspect is an adventurer, and one whom they suspect is a spy.
Most days the Smearmonger carries their equipment to the butchers yard (I13), where they pay for fat and use
of the space. The Smearmongers two main wares are tallow candles, and squishy blobs of soap made from
tallow, lye, and wood ash. The Smearmonger has also started making mustard: the mustard seed is washed,
dried, ground in a mortar, soaked in vinegar, strained, and boiled in a pot. Customers visit them as they work,
and once a week, they set up a special stall on the steps of the town hall (J11).
The Chandlers customers tend to be the poorer folk in the village. Across the bridge in the better part of town,
a rival Smearmonger, Kitagawa, has started selling firm soap balls that never seem to go rancid. She also sells a
variety of medicinal and magical ointments, vinegar, mustard and other condiments and sauces, and even
cheeses. The Smearmonger has already lost one or two customers to Kitagawa.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Fell Types are digitally reproduced by Igino Marini.

www.iginomarini.com. Images from various sources including
Leonhard Zublers Novum Instrumentum Geometricum (1607),
Frans Huyss grotesque designs in Pourtraicture ingenieuse de
plusieurs faons de masques, forts utile aulx painctres, orseures,
taillieurs de pierres, voirriers, & tailleurs dimages (1555),
Ambroise Pars Dix Livres de la Chirurgie (1564), Topsells
History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents (1658), Fortunio
Licetis De Monstris (1665), The Art and Mystery of Making
Wax and Tallow Candles, engraved for The Universal
Magazine (1749), the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, and the
engravings of Gustave Dore. The cover, and the satyr as well I
think, is by Jost Amman. The map in Chapter Eight is of Cork,
ha ha. The two maps in the appendices are slightly disfigured
details from the great speculative cartography of M Stephen
Joy. Perhaps I should add some artwork from M. Meredith
Williams. Inspirations / retroclone hosts include D&D, Basic
Fantasy, Sellsword, and Warrior, Rogue & Mage. Thank you
YouveMadeMeSignUp, kruliczak, Vaishineph, & Mr_Anvil for
feedback on Prohibited Activities. Thank you PrivateChicken
for the official sphinx guidance. This is a work in progress and
feedback / playtesting is appreciated. You can get me at
franciscrot@gmail.com or via www.sadpressgames.com or
jolindsaywalton.blogspot.com.

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Contents

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 2

S Dungeons & Drapers: The Players Handbook (Beta 3.6) R

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Some Important Terms

PC: Player character. An imaginary person. For

GM guidelines for choosing target numbers:

1d6, 2d6 etc.: Standard notation telling you

Advantage & Disadvantage

Character Classes & Races

Occasionally you will have advantage or

Youll choose your character class from five

Some Important Scores

Hit Points & Mana

CHAPTER TWO: CHARACTER CREATION

Quick start option.

Step 2: Customization Pack

Step 3: Choose Your Character Class & Skills

For many years private adventuring has been

Your starting HP are 7 + your Constitution. You

Hint. Theres less chance of getting your cover

Step 4: Choose Your Race

Step 5: Choose Two Special Abilities

Resilience. You have advantage on all Constitution

Axes and Hammers. Get +2 to your attack roll (but not

Sniper. Your effective range increases by 40 feet when

Bard. You can sing or play one instrument expertly,

Sorcerer. Get two bonus points of mana.

Brave and Nimble. You gain the Acrobatics and Will

Swords and Bows. Add +2 to your attack roll (but not

Childhood Charm. Choose one 1st level Friar,

Swiftness. Your movement speed is increased by +10.

Darkvision. By some genetic kink, you can see within

Thrown Weapons. Your effective range increases by

Ecocritic. Friars only. You may prepare spells from

Tumbler. Gain Acrobatics automatically. You have

Indominitable Will. You gain the Discernment and

Wakefulness. By sleeping just four hours, you get the

Languages. You speak and read three languages very

Warlock. Chandlers and Friars only. When you take a

Luck. Whenever you roll a 1 on a 1d20, you may reroll

Wilderness Walker. You get the Survival skill

Magus. Chandlers only. You may keep two extra spells

Step 6: Hit Points and Speed

Character Creation: A Nice Crunchy Example

You figure out your max HP like this:

Basic Apothecary max HP: 7 + Con

You start in perfect health, so your initial HP

She chooses the Blacksmith class and picks the

And you figure out your speed like this:

Step 7: Choose Languages

By default everyone is fluent in one language,

The currency of the Bladed Vale is called

Some languages include: Abyssal, Araraede,

You also get 10 extra leprecoins for each one of

Hint. Next well get you equipped. Tools of the

You automatically start with a set of clothing of

Uhrmval. Esksru xs tsak-tsak Infernal?

Natural philosophers kit

Dungeons & Drapers Player's Handbook (Beta 2.9)

Dungeons & Drapers Player's Handbook (Beta 2.9)

Dungeons & Drapers Player's Handbook (Beta 2.9)