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Introductor Boo


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INTRODUCTIONDragon Warriors is the classic antasy RPGyouve never heard o. Released in the UK as aseries o mass-market paperbacks in 1986, it was

a big hit and introduced many people to theirrst role-playing experience. But it was neverreleased in the USA or Canada, where it remainsa mystery. Until now, and this new edition. Dragon Warriors combines an epic old-school style o play with a slick, ast and intui-tive system o mechanics, and a backgroundthat combines historical realism with olklore,superstition, myth, and buckets o atmosphere.

The world o Legend works the way thatpeople in the Middle Ages believed it did.

Magic is real and those who use it are not to betrusted. The orests are home to monsters, andgoblins will turn the milk and lame your horsei you annoy them. The airy-olk will steal youor your children away to the Lands o Fae iyou dont take precautions. Ancient kings sleepunder the hills, waiting or the call to returnand ght again; Hell is a real place; and in themountains live giants and stranger things. Ando course, there are dragons.

The ull Dragon Warriors game presentsseven character-classes, 192 spells in our di-erent classes, over 110 monsters, and more than80 magic items. Theres complete rules coveringeverything rom hiring henchmen to madnessand disease. The world o Legend is feshed outin ull, and there are sections on medieval lawand justice, tournaments and jousts, travel byland and sea, an adventure that leads into thecampaign-bookSleeping Gods, and much more.

Tis Boo This sampler contains our chapters rom theDragon Warriors rulebook, creating a playableintroduction to the game and its world.

Weve presented you with the ull character-generation rules, two character classes, completecombat rules, background on part o the Lands

o Legend, and three monsters rom the Besti-ary, rounded out with art rom Jon Hodgson,Scott Purdy, Erik Wilson and Andy Hepworth.

What you see here is, with the exception othe adventure in chapter 6, taken straight romthe rulebook. Its not been re-edited, tidied upor mucked about. I you buy the game, this isreally what youll get.

Welcome to the world oDragon Warriors.

CONTENTSIntroduction & Contents 11. Character generation 22. The Warriors 8

3. Combat 124. The Lands o Legend 165. Creatures o Legend 216. Scenario: Under the Rocks 23

For more inormation on Dragon Warriors,including downloadable sample adventures andcharacter sheets, visit our website at http://www.magnumopuspress.com

Dragon Warriors books can be bought atall good games-stores, or downloaded in PDF

ormat rom DriveThruRPG.com

DRAGON WARRIORSINTRODUCTORY BOOK

Dragon Warriors designed by Dave Morris and Oliver

Johnson.Cover by Jon Hodgson.Artwork by Jon Hodgson, Scott Purdy and Andy Hep-worth. Maps and character sheet by Andy Law. Comicstrip by Erik Wilson. Adventure by James Wallis.

All text is copyright 1986, 2009 Dave Morris andOliver Johnson/Magnum Opus Press. All art and mapsare copyright 2008 the individual creators. All otherelements o design are copyright 2008 MagnumOpus Press. All rights reserved. Dragon Warriors is atrademark o Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson, used

under licence by Magnum Opus Press. Originally pub-lished in dierent ormat by Corgi Books, 1986-1987.

The authors have asserted their moral rights to beidentied as the creators o this work.

Published by Magnum Opus Press in associationwith Flaming Cobra.


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BEFORE YOU CAN begin your rst DragonWarriors game, each player must create a char-acter who will be his or her antasy alter-ego inthe Lands o Legend, the world o the game.

Only six-sided dice are needed or this.

ROlEplayINgStart by thinking a little about your characterspast lie. Maybe youve chosen to play an impov-erished noblewoman, perhaps? She shoulddemand some deerence rom the other player-characters, and moan bitterly i she has to bor-

row money rom them to support her doubtlessextravagant tastes. Or your character might be anex-soldier, just back rom the Crusades. Maybehe nds the unproessional approach o his el-low adventurers to be annoyingly amateurish.His conversation could be a string o militaryclichs and anecdotes. A roving Barbarian couldnd civilization hard to understand, and mightpreer to solve most problems using an axe. Ascholarly Sorcerer might go o on an expedi-tion just to collect ancient objets dart. Gold

and silver would mean nothing to him. He hasno interest in the tactics o adventuring, so hewould leave the warriors in the party to decideon any battle plans.

Consider also your attitude to the rest othe party. Without a doubt you will eventuallymeetor even playthe cowardly villain whocovets treasure so much that he runs o withthe loot while his comrades are battling themonster. Less amiliar is the brave adventurer

who will risk his own lie to delay a oe while hisriends retreat. Our own campaign includes thetale o Dagronelt the Harpist, who beriendedan NPC (a non-player character operated bythe GM) and then experienced a confict o loy-alties when the other player-characters oughtthe NPC in question.

You may also want to create a backgroundand a lie story or your character: where theyre

rom, what their amily is like, why they chosetheir proession, and any important experiencesthey may have had beore the game started.

There are three ways that you can work out

this inormation. First o all, you can simplychoose or yoursel: read the rest o this bookor the Dragon Warriors rulebook to get a clearidea o the world in which the Dragon Warri-ors game takes place, and decide how you wantyour character to t into it. (Subject to the GMsapproval. You cannot simply decide that yourcharacter is heir to a kingdom!)

Alternatively, you can create it randomly.There are tables to generate more detail aboutyour characters region o origin and other back-ground inormation in chapter 6 o the DragonWarriors rulebook. For GamesMasters, these arealso useul or creating non-player characters(NPCs) in a hurry.

I you want to get stuck into playing thegame straight away, then eel ree to skip thatchapter or the moment. There is no need todevelop an entire lie history at the start o yourrst game. You can always come back to it later.Oten a character will take on a persona o his

own ater you have played him a ew times, andyou and the GM can add events or details to hisbackground later on.

Ste OneThEChaRaCTERISTICSEach character is initially dened by his scores inve characteristics. These are Strength, Refexes,Intelligence, Psychic Talent and Looks. Thevalue o each characteristic is ound by rollingthree six-sided dice (3d6), and thereore rangesrom a minimum o 3 to a maximum o 18.

Strength is a measure o the characterstness and physical toughness.

chapter

CreatingaCharaCter


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His Refexes score indicates his dexterity,agility and speed o reactions.

Intelligence shows how clever the characteris (so a player who rolls low or this oughtto role-play as though he really is dim-witted).

Psychic Talent represents the charactersbasic ability to resist (and in some casesuse) magic.

The characters Looks score refects hisappearance and personal charm; this hasno bearing on his adventuring skills, butyou should certainly take it into accountwhen deciding how non-player characters(NPCs) would react to him.

The player rolls 3d6 or each o these ve char-acteristics, then, and records the scores in the

appropriate boxes on his character sheet. Thesescores will never changeexcept in rare cases,through illness or sorcery.

Each player will require a blank CharacterSheet, to keep track o their characters scores.A ull-size character sheet will be ound at theback o the book, and you may make as manyphotocopies o it as you need. Special note: The luck o the dice meansthat sometimes a player will create a character

with hopelessly bad scores, quite unsuited tolie as an adventurer. The player may discardthe character and roll up another. It is or you,as GamesMaster, to decide whether a characteris hopeless or not. As a guideline, we suggest

you allow a player to discard any character withmore than two characteristics below the average(9 to 12) range.

Ste TwoChOOSINg apROESSIONIn the Dragon Warriors game there are sevenProessions to which an adventurer may belong:Assassin, Knight, Barbarian, Elementalist, Sor-cerer, Mystic and Warlock. Players who havenever played an RPG beore may nd it easiestto play either a Knight or a Barbarian. Thesetwo classes dont need to concern themselves with magic or stealth, just cold steel, mightythews and valour.

In any case, Knights and Barbarians will beby ar the most common classes in most DragonWarriors games. Indeed, there is no particularneed to include the other classes at all or manyadventures, and some campaigns will play outin their entirety with only these two. Most par-

ties, though, will have a balance, with perhapsa majority o Knights and Barbarians and theoccasional Mystic, Sorcerer, Elementalist orWarlock. Assassins are scarce and are oten bet-ter tted to use in solo adventures (with only


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one player character and the GM) or campaignsin which everyone plays an Assassin!

Knights are the best all-around ghters inDragon Warriors. Though physically less robustthan Barbarians, they are able to wear heavyarmour without losing any o their combat

skills. Play a Knight i you want a character whostrives to be like King Arthur, or Lancelot, orGawain.

Barbarians are better in attack, but deen-sively less skilul than Knights. Their ghtingstyle is ast and mobile, and heavy armour ham-pers them. They are able to go berserk in com-bat, making their attacks still more erocious.Play a Barbarian i you want a character whocould be a Viking warrior, or a skilled brawler

rom the pages o antasy novels, like Conan orFahrd. Assassins are average in combat but excel insneak attacks, when they can target an unwaryopponent. They are by ar the most stealthycharacter class in the game, and gain a varietyo other abilities that might seem magical to theunwary. Play an Assassin i you want a characterwho could have come straight out o a martial-arts antasy movie like Crouching Tiger, HiddenDragon or Hero, or who emulates one o thegreat rogues o antasy literature like the GrayMouser.

Sorcerers are the most common and gen-eral magic-wielding character proessioniany o these rare individuals can be called com-mon. They are relatively ineective in mundanecombat but can blast their oes with magic. They have a more varied repertoire o spellsthan Elementalists and a little more raw magicalpower than Mystics. Play a Sorcerer i you want

a character resembling Merlin, or Gandal, orHarry Potter. Mystics use magic o a sort, but this is apersonal magic that comes rom the Mysticsmastery o his own mind rather than someexternal source. A Mystic is a good all-rounder,not quite so magically strong as a Sorcerer orElementalist, but reasonably capable in combatand with a ew other useul special abilities. Playa Mystic i you want to dazzle your oes with the

power o your characters mind alone.Elementalists are specialist magicians,using the power o the natural elements toachieve their aims. Each Elementalists magicis ocused around a particular element, chosenrom among Fire, Air, Earth, Water and Dark-ness. Like Sorcerers, they tend not to be veryskilled with conventional weapons such asswords and bows. Play an Elementalist i your

avourite characters are the shamans, witchesand druids o legend and antasy literature.

Finally, Warlocks combine magic withswordplay. They can wear armour and use theirspells to boost their combat abilities. They arentquite so versatile in combat as Knights or Bar-

barians, but can be devastating when armedwith their preerred weapons. Play a Warlock iyour avourite antasy hero is Elric, or just i youwant the best o both worlds!

The player decides now to which o theseProessions she wants her character to belong,and notes this at the top o her character sheet.

Ste TreehEalTh pOINTSHaving chosen his Proession, the player canroll his characters Health Points score. A char-acters Health Points (or HP) show how robusthe is. Whenever the character takes a woundin combat, the wound is expressed as a numberwhich comes o his HP score.

The character alls unconscious when hisHealth Point score reaches 0, and will die i itis ever reduced to 3 or less. Lost Health Pointscan be recuperated by resting ater the adven-tureas long as the character survives (seepages 68).

A Knight starts with 1d6 +7 Health Points(roll 1d6 and add 7).

A Barbarian starts with 1d6 +9 HealthPoints.

An Elementalist or Sorcerer starts with 1d6+4 Health Points.

For an Assassin, Mystic or Warlock, initialHealth Points are ound by rolling1d6 +5

A characters initial Health Points score increasesas he advances in rank (o which, more later).

Ste our

ThE COmBaTaCTORSThe player is now ready to determine her char-acters attack and defence scores. No urtherdice rolling is requiredyou have already madethe necessary rolls and choices. The basic scoresare:


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or Assassins: attack 13, defence 5or Barbarians: attack 14, defence 6or Elementalists: attack 11, defence 5or Knights: attack 13, defence 7or Mystics: attack 12, defence 6or Sorcerers: attack 11, defence 5or Warlocks: attack 12, defence 6

These are, in act, the scores or an average char-acter at the start o his career. I the player rolledabove or below the average range (912) on cer-tain o his characteristics at Step One, she mayhave to modiy her attack and defence scoresslightly as a resultsee the table below.

Ater making any adjustments, the playershould enter these attack and defence scoreson their character sheet. (In subsequent adven-

tures, as the character rises in rank, these scoreswill increase.)

The way in which attack and defence areused in the game is explained in chapter 3: othis book, The Rules o Combat.

Ste ivemagICal COmBaTaCTORSattack and defence, as we shall see, representthe characters ghting prowess. In the DragonWarriors world, where magic is a reality, it ol-

lows that these Combat Factors must have amagical analogue: magical attack and magi-caldefence.

The basic magical defence score is 3or Assassins, Knights, and Barbarians; 4 orMystics and Warlocks; and 5 or Elementalists

and Sorcerers. This base score is modied i thecharacters Intelligence and/or Psychic Talentall outside the average rangesee the Eectstable below.

Elementalists, Sorcerers, Mystics and War-locks have a magical attack score. (Assassins,Barbarians, and Knights do not need a magicalattack score as they cannot cast spells.) Thebasic magical attack score is 15 in the caseo Elementalists and Sorcerers, 14 in the case

o Mystics, and 13 in the case o Warlocks. Thisbasic score is modied i the characters Intel-ligence and/or Psychic Talent are outside theaverage range. As above, see below.

The rules or using magical deence andmagical attack are in Chapter 9: The Use oMagic.

Ste SixDODgINgSome attacks are not covered by the normalcombat rules o chapter 3. A character whotries to parry a dragons ery breath with only

Effects of High and Low Characteristic Scores

on Attack, Defence, etc.

Characteristic scoreCharacteristic 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18Strength attack attack No Eect + attack + attack

defence No Eect No Eect No Eect + defenceRefexes attack No Eect No Eect No Eect + attack

defence defence No Eect + defence + defence evasion evasion No Eect + evasion + evasion stealth No Eect No Eect No Eect + stealth

Intelligence attack No Eect No Eect No Eect + attack defence No Eect No Eect No Eect + defence magical No Eect No Eect No Eect + magical

attack attack

magical No Eect No Eect No Eect + magicaldefence defence

Psychic Talent magical magical No Eect + magical + magicaldefence defence defence defence

perception No Eect No Eect No Eect + perception Not applicable* Not applicable* No Eect + magical + magical

attack attack

*Characters with Psychic Talent o 8 or less cannot use magic.


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a sword is going to be ried! In such cases, thebest thing is to dodge out o the way. The scorethat shows how good the character is at dodgingis evasion.

The basic evasion score at 1st rank is 3 oran Elementalist, Mystic, Sorcerer, or Warlock, 4

or a Knight, and 5 or an Assassin or Barbarian.This is modied i the characters Refexes scoreis beyond averagesee the Eects table above.

Ste SevenSTEalTh aNDpERCEpTIONAny character (and monster, or that matter)may attempt to move around unnoticed, thoughassassins are the masters o this kind o task. The two character scores that allow the GMto determine the results o such activity arestealth and perception. These scores varyaccording to a characters Proession:

For Knights, Barbarians, Elementalists, Sorcerers,and Warlocks: stealth score is 13, perception

score is 5For Mystics, their enhanced psychic awareness

grants them higher scores: stealth score is 14,perception score is 6

For Assassins, their special training grantsthem excellent scores: stealth score is 18,perception score is 8

These scores assume a character with averagecharacteristic scores. A very high or low scorein Refexes aects stealth slightly, and Psychic

Talent aects perception. See the Eects tableon the previous page.

Ste EitINITIalEqUIpmENT

Each newly rolled character represents a youngadventurer who has yet to acquire much practicalexperience. However, the character does not justleap into existence at the instant the CharacterSheet is lled in. He or she has, even at lowly1st rank, rather more skill in their chosen eldthan the average man or womanthe result, wecan assume, o gruelling training throughout thecharacters youth.

Certain basic items o equipment have beenacquired by the character in the years leading upto their rst adventure. The starting equipmentis listed separately or each character class.

Other equipment, including missile weap-ons such as a bow and arrows, may be purchased

i the character has enough money. The equip-ment lists on page 134 o the rulebook shows theavailability and cost o most common items.

Ste NineRaNkAll characters begin the game at 1st rank. The

players should not imagine that this makes theircharacters total novices, however. A 1st-rankKnight or Barbarian is a respectably skilledghter. While not yet mighty heroes, they havebeen in a ew battles and know how to use their weapons. Likewise a 1st-rank Elementalist,Mystic, Sorcerer, or Warlock has learned moreabout the arcane arts than most people will everknow, and will be respected (or eared) by ordi-nary olk. A 1st-rank Assassin is probably a ullmember o one o the secretive brotherhoods oAssassins, qualied to kill or hire.

Each successul adventure gains experiencepoints or the character. When sucient havebeen accumulated, the character goes up to thenext rank. This is explained on pp129-130 ochapter 12 o the main rulebook.

Ste Ten

BaCkgROUNDNow you know what this character can do, itstime to nd out more about who they are andwhere they come rom. This optional process isdescribed in chapter 6 o the rulebook.

ChaRaCTER ShEET

This summary shows how a Character Sheetshould be lled out or a 1st-rank Knight, withappropriate modications or Strength, Intel-ligence, etc.

ExampleBob is creating a Dragon Warriors character orhimsel. He begins by rolling 3d6 or each character-istic, and comes up with:


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Strength 7a below-average score, but not exactly puny.Refexes 13he will be able to react quicker than many ohis opponents.Intelligence 18

extremely astute and sharp-witted.Psychic Talent 8less than average occult awareness.Looks 14handsome!

Bob decides to make the character a Knight, and callshimsel Sir Balin the Bloodthirsty. Rolling 1d6 +7or his Health Points, he scores 13the maximumor a Knight at 1st rank.

Ater making the appropriate adjustments rom his Strength, Reexes and Intelligence, Bob/Sir Balin fnds that he has an attack o 13 (theStrength and Intelligence modifers cancel out) anda defenceo 9 (helped here by his high Reexes andeven higher Intelligence).

Sir Balins keen Intelligence stands him ingood stead when he comes to calculate his magicaldefence; the bonus due to Intelligence cancels outthe penalty due to low Psychic Talent, leaving himwith the basicmagicaldefenceo 3. Because o hisReexes, he has an evasion score o 5. His stealthis 13 and his perception is 5.

Ater taking the initial equipment due to himas a Knight, Sir Balin spends some o his cash to

acquire a bow and six arrows. He would happilyleave it at that, but his GamesMaster points outthat he must have something to keep the arrows in!Grumbling, Sir Balin parts with 4 more orins ora quiver.


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To live B Te SwordIN THE LANDS o Legend, the world wherethe Dragon Warriors game is set, there are twomain classes o people who earn their living byuse o weapons: Knights and Barbarians.

Knights come rom more advanced cul-tures, the ones that have learned how to cratsophisticated armour and weapons rom renedmetals. Depending on where they originate theymay be bound by a chivalric code that prescribesto whom they owe loyalty and service, when andhow they can honourably kill an opponent, andso on. Some cultures have no such code or theirelite warriors, and some knights choose to aban-don the code and live outside it, masterless andwithout loyalty or honour.

Barbarians by contrast are rom less sophis-ticated cultures, though their erocity and theirskill are no less earsome or all that.

Though culturally dierent, Barbarians andKnights are quite similar in game terms. Both

are primarily combatants and have been trainedin the arts o warare and ghting. However, theKnight will take a skilled and tactical approachto battle, while the Barbarian relies on instinctsand the innate savagery o his attack to carry theday. A mounted knight is an unstoppable oppo-nent in an open eld, but in a woodland ambushor a dockside tavern brawl a barbarian wouldhave the advantage. A well-ormed adventuringparty will need the skills o both.

There are other proessions who are trainedin the use o combat: Assassins and Warlocks,or example, who are described in the DragonWarriors rulebook; gladiators; pirates and ban-dits; warriors o primitive tribes; specialists whouse dogs, hawks and stranger creatures as theirweapons; those who let themselves be possessedby their violent gods in battle; and more. Butthese are all subjects or another time.

kNIghTSKnights represent the civilised warrior aristoc-racy o countries like Albion, Ereworn, Chau-brette, Algandy and Kurland. Most player-character Knights will be landless, lordless wanderers, perhaps nominally o noble birth,but gaining respect through their deeds ratherthan their amily name. Some may be youngersons o more important, established houses, whoknow that they are never likely to inherit the

amily lands and so must instead seek adventurethrough errantry or crusading.

A ew so-called knights are in act well-equipped men-at-arms, perhaps veterans omercenary campaigns around the world, theirarmour no heirloom or custom-tted extrava-gance but a harness pieced together rom theloot o a dozen battleelds. Though manyKnights wish to live up to a chivalric ideal,the reality o a short, harsh, war-torn lie oten

makes cynics and realists o the best o them.

Seci abiities o knitLike all the Proessions, Knights have beentrained in some special abilities that raise themabove common soldiers and militia-members.

Some o these abilities are unique to Knights,while a ew are common to other Proessions. Whats more, there are a number o

advanced combat techniques that can only bepractised by a Knight o 8th rank or higher. Thecharacter may select any one o these skills eachtime he attains a new rank, beginning when hereaches the 8th rank.

Knights special abilities are as ollows:

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theWarriors


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Track Armour Expert Ride Warhorse Disarm Technique (rank 8 onwards) Expert Parry (rank 8 onwards) Main Gauche (rank 8 onwards)

Master Bowman (rank 8 onwards) Quick Draw (rank 8 onwards) Swordmaster (rank 8 onwards) Weaponskill (rank 8 onwards)

TrackKnights may attempt to track their opponentsor prey animals across country. This is explainedin more detail on p. 63 o the rulebook.

Armour Expert The Knight is the only character who canwear a suit o plate armour without any penal-ties to attack or defence. He never suersanyattack or defence penalties or wearingarmour.

Ride WarhorseAll characters can ride, but only Knights, Bar-barians and some Warlocks have had the longyears o special training required to ride a war-horse (rulebook, p. 245). Warhorses are larger,stronger and ar more spirited than ordinaryhorses, making them impossible to handle i oneis not born to the saddle.

Disarm TechniqueThe Knight is able to twist an opponents swordout o his hand by catching the blade in the spe-cially shaped guard o his own weapon. The skillcomes into eect when a sword-blow is aimed

at the Knight and the attacker scores a 20 or hisHit Roll (always a miss). The Knight then rolls3d6, and i he scores higher than his enemysrank (or rank-equivalent) then the sword iswrenched rom the latters hand and fung 1mto 6m away.

Expert ParryKnowledge o this skill gives the Knight greaterprociency in the use o a shield. For any blow

that would otherwise hit him, he rolls d10. Ona roll o 1 or 2 he catches the blow on his shield,negating it.

Main Gauche This skill enables the character to ght withtwo weapons simultaneouslya one-handedweapon such as a sword or axe in his right hand,and a dagger or a shortsword in his let. Obvi-

ously this precludes him rom using a shield. The secondary weapon may be used in eithero two ways, and the character must decide atthe start o every Combat Round which o theseoptions he is using that Round:

1. The secondary weapon may be used as aguard, giving +2 to the characters defence.(I the dagger/shortsword is magical, itsbonus is also added.)

2. The character can strike with both weaponsat once, making a separate Hit Roll oreach weapon. His defence is zero or thatRound. Both blows must be at the sameopponent. The opponents defence countsully against both blows, as defence onlyneeds to be split against multiple attackers,not against multiple blows by one attacker.

Master BowmanThe Master Bowman adds +1 to Armour BypassRolls or arrows (not quarrelsthe crossbow isnot covered by this skill). He is also able to looseo his arrows more quickly than an untrainedarcher; as well as shooting an arrow at his usualtime to act in the Combat Round, he has a 50%chance o being able to shoot a second at theend o that round.

Quick Draw This skill applies to daggers, shortswords andswords. Normally the drawing o a weaponis an action requiring one complete CombatRound, but a character with this skill can takehis weapon rom its scabbard and strike with itimmediately. (This is equivalent to the samuraiskill oiai jutsu.)

Swordmaster This skill is only eective when the Knightis using a sword (either one-handed or two-handed). He makes a critical hit (i.e. a blow thatrequires no Armour Bypass Roll) on a Hit Rollscore o 1 or 2. This is twice the regular chanceo a critical hit.

WeaponskillA separate Weaponskill governs the use o eachmle weapon, so this skill must be selected

more than once i the character desires specialmastery o several weapon types. When ghtingwith the weapon specic to his Weaponskill, thecharacter adds 1 to Armour Bypass Rolls.


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BaRBaRIaNSBarbarians may come rom Thuland, the East-ern Steppes, or one o a variety o other distantand inhospitable lands. They might be raiderssailing out o the north in their longboats, orhard-eyed desert nomads seeking vengeance,or savage hunters rom the unexplored landsar to the south. They will be regarded withsome wariness i they wander in more civilisedrealms, where they may be thought o as littlebetter than animals. In truth, the Barbarian mayhave a code o honour as complex as that oany Knight, though he might never explain itssubtleties to an outsider, or even articulate them

into words or his own benet.

Seci abiities o BrbrinLike Knights, Barbarians have a number o spe-cial abilities. These are:

Track Berserk Ride Warhorse Bloodrage (rank 8 onwards)

TrackBarbarians may attempt to track their oppo-nents or prey animals, across country. This isexplained on p. 63 o the rulebook.

Berserk

Barbarians have the special ability o going ber-serk in combat. The character is able to makemore powerul attacks at the cost o neglectinghis deence. He may temporarily add 1 pointto attack or each 3 points he subtracts romdefence or that Round.

Ride WarhorseAll player-characters can ride but only Knightsand Barbarians, along with a ew Warlocks, have

had the long years o special training required toride a warhorse. Warhorses are larger, stronger,and ar more spirited than ordinary horses,making them impossible to handle i one is notraised to ride them.

BloodrageA Bloodrage is an even more eective way thangoing berserk (see above) o calling upon the

reserves o stamina and erocity that reside inthe depths o the human soul.

A Barbarian o 8th rank or higher may gointo a Bloodrage during any combat in which hehas taken a wound. He begins to bellow and roarterrible war-oaths, oam drools rom his mouth,

and his eyes glaze with insensate ury. Any nor-mal mortal (that is, an unranked character notbelonging to an adventuring Proession) whomhe attacks is 80% likely to fee in terror, and evenhardy adventurers o the 1st and 2nd ranks havea 25% chance o immediate retreat.

Under Bloodrage, the Barbarian maynot use missile weapons. He will always seekclose combat with his oes, attacking with anenhanced attack score equal to his normal

attack plus his defence score. He loses allinterest in parrying, however, and his defencegoes temporarily to zero. (Thus Borak, whohas attack 22 and defence 14 under normalcircumstances, becomes a killing machine withattack 36 and defence 0 when in the throeso a Bloodrage.) Armour Bypass Rolls are notaected, but any blow that gets past the oppo-nents armour scores an extra 1 HP damage (amorning star inficts 6 points, etc.).

A Barbarian in Bloodrage eels no pain.Whereas a character normally alls unconsciouswhen wounds reduce his current Health Pointsscore to 0, the Barbarian continues to ght onuntil victorious or dead (i.e. at 3 HP). Also, hisbattle-craziness cannot be abated by mind-con-trolling spells. A spell such as Enslave has noeect on him while he is in the Bloodrage.

The snag with Bloodrage comes whenall enemies have either allen or fed the eldo battle. The Barbarian will then turn on any

other available target o his uryand this mayinclude his own companions! To shrug o theBloodrage and return to normal, the charactermust roll under his Intelligence score on 1d20.He attempts this roll at the start o every Com-bat Round, and i he ails then he must spendthe round pursuing or ghting the nearest pos-sible opponent. Once the Intelligence roll ismade, the Barbarian calms down and returns tonormal.

Brbrins nd arourBarbarians can wear any armour up to ull mailarmour without suering any combat penaltiesor doing so. They are unused to ghting inplate armour, however.


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THE RULES OF combat are the most un-damental element in any FRP game. A largeproportion o any adventure is likely to be takenup with battles against monsters and hostile

non-player characters. Make sure your playersunderstand the basic combat procedure beorestarting the rst adventureit will give them aramework on which to build their knowledgeo the rules as a whole, and save you rom takingtime out or explanation during the adventure.

In its simplest orm combat consists otwo characters ghting one another. For gamepurposes every ght is divided up into CombatRounds; each Combat Round represents sixseconds o game-time. The procedure o eachRound is the same or both characters involvedin the ght, the one with the higher Refexesgetting the rst blow:

1. The attacker rolls 1d20 to determinewhether he hits (the Hit Roll). I he ailsthen his go is over or the round and hisopponent gets to strike back.

2. I an attacker scores a hit, he rolls to seewhether the blow gets past his opponentsarmour (i any). This is the Armour BypassRoll. I it ails then the opponents armourdoes its job and he is not hurt by the blow.

3. A blow which gets through armour infictsa wound. The opponents Health Pointsare reduced by the damage rating o theweapon used (4 Health Points in the case oa sword, 5 HP or a battleaxe, etc.)

I the Combat Round ends with both combat-ants still able to ght (i.e. their current HealthPoints have not yet been reduced to 0), the next

Round begins and the procedure is ollowedthrough again.

Te hit RoTo see i he hits an opponent, a character simplysubtracts the opponents deence score rom hisown attack score. This gives the number that

he must roll equal to or less than on 1d20 inorder to score a hit. A roll o 20 is always a miss,regardless o the combatants relative Com-bat Factors. Conversely, a roll o 1 is always a

hitand, in act, always gets past armour. (Sucha roll is called a critical hit.)

Te arour Bss RoHaving scored a hit, a character rolls to see i hisblow can penetrate his opponents armour. Eachtype o protection has a given Armour Factor(usually abbreviated to AF).

Armour type Armour FactorNone 0Gambeson 1Padded Armour 2Mail Hauberk 3Mail Armour 4Plate Armour 5

The attacker must roll higher than his oppo-nents Armour Factor in order to penetrate thearmour. The type o die used or this Armour

Bypass Roll depends on the weapon with whichthe blow was struck.

WeonsWeapons vary in eectiveness in two ways: theirability to penetrate armour, and the damagethey infict or a successul hit. For convenience,the ollowing notation is used: Sword (d8, 4 points)

This means that a character attacking with asword uses an eight-sided die when makingan Armour Bypass Roll. I his blow gets pastarmour, his opponent will lose 4 Health Points.

movin into CobtBeore hitting an opponent, it is (obviously) nec-essary to be adjacent to them. A character may,

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therulesofCombat


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when it is his turn to act, move up to one-quar-ter o his normal movement and strike in thesame Round. Normal movement or a humanis 10 metres per Combat Round, so a characterwho is no more than 2 metres rom an enemyis able to close and strike as one action.

There is an exception to this rule. When acharacter has surprised his oe (see p. 61 o therulebook) he may move hal his normal move-ment and attack in the same Combat Round.

Example Angus and Fergus, uncompromising Barbarians,arrive at a door in a dungeon and kick it open todiscover two Orcs about to go on guard duty. OneOrc is only 2m rom the doorway. Angus closes and

strikes at him. The other Orc is standing by theweapon rack some 4m rom the door, and althoughFergus charges in he cannot strike him this round.

(I our Barbarians had surprised the Orcsbyrolling a 1 on 1d6; see p. 61 o the rulebooktheycould both have closed and attacked.)

It is very important to have some way o keep-ing track o where everyone is standing duringa ght. Figurines or labelled counters will beuseul.

StrentA character with a Strength score o 16, 17 or 18adds +1 to his Armour Bypass Rolls and to thedamage he inficts or a successul hit.

Occasionally, as a result o magic, a charac-ter may attain a Strength above 18. His ArmourBypass Rolls and weapon damage get a +2bonus.

SiedsA character using a shield rolls 1d6 or anyblow that is struck against him. On a roll o 1,he catches the blow on his shieldthe blow isnegated, even i it was a critical hit.

itin ore tn one

oonent We said earlier that a one-on-one ght wasthe simplest orm that combat could take. It isunlikely that a group o adventurers will encoun-ter an exactly equal number o monsters; mostcombats will actually involve someone (eithercharacter or monster) ghting more than oneopponent at the same time.

A character (or monster) can divide hisdeence between up to three attacks madeagainst him in a Combat Round. He mustannounce how much o his deence he is puttingagainst each blow beore the attacker makes hisHit Roll.

Wounds nd RecoverAs stated above, when a character is woundedhe loses Health Points. When the characterscurrent Health Points reach 0 he alls uncon-scious. I they are reduced to 3 he is dead (seep.121 o the main rulebook).

A character who alls unconscious rolls 1d6at the end o every minute (every 10 Combat

Rounds) o game-time. When he manages toroll a 1, he wakes up. (His Health Point score isrestored to 1, the minimum necessary or con-sciousness.)

There are two ways to recover lost HealthPoints: by magic or by recuperation. Magic isaster, but not widely available. The healingspells are detailed in chapter 10 o the rulebookand we will concern ourselves only with naturalrecuperation here. The character must wait our

days beore the natural healing process begins.He will then regain a number o Health Pointsequal to his rank each day, until he is back to hisnormal (unwounded) Health Points score.

Neither magical nor recuperative heal-ing will ever take a character above his normalHealth Points score. The only way to increasethis score is by advancing in rank.

Example In his frst adventure Sir Balin the Bloodthirsty

has several ferce battles. Eventually he is elled bya Zombie. He wakes up a short time later (with1 Health Point) to fnd that his companions havedeeated the Zombie. Since they are all heavilywounded by now, they head back to the nearest vil-lage to rest. Ater our days, and every day rom thenon, Sir Balin regains 1 Health Point. He is ullyrecovered when his Health Points score is back to 13;it will not increase beyond that until he advancesto 2nd rank.

missie CobtMissile weapons such as bows dier somewhatrom handheld weaponry. For one thing, mostcharacters cannot parry an arrow that is shot atthem! In order to score a hit on his opponent,an archer must simply roll equal to or less than


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his attack score on 1d20. It is like the Hit Rollin normal combat, except that the target charac-ters defence score makes no dierence.

Circumstances will modiy the d20 HitRoll, making the chance o hitting less likely.

Target is... Adjustment to die rollat short range no adjustmentat medium range +3at long range +7small or crouching +2moving slowly +2moving quickly +4in poor light +3 or more (GMs

discretion)

Example

Fully recovered ater his last adventure, Sir Balinsets o with his comrades-at-arms to explore aruined hill ort. As they approach the ruins, a Goblinis spotted some distance o. Doubtless it is slinkingaway to report their presence to others o its kind.

Balin quickly readies his bow. The Goblin is asmall target, moving slowly at medium range andin poor light (it is dusk). The total modifer is thus+10. Balin rolls the d20 and scores a 4, adjusted bythe modifer to a 14. Balin has an attack score o13, so the arrow just misses. Sniggering evilly, theGoblin disappears among the trees.

Cobt penties orWerin arourKnights are trained to ght in any armour. Theghting style o other Proessions is dierent,however, and may incur penalties to the charac-ters Combat Factors:

Barbarians or Warlocks: 2 rom attack anddefence i wearing plate armour

Assassins or Mystics: 2 rom attack anddefence or wearing mail armour; 4 or platearmour

Elementalists or Sorcerers: 1 rom attack anddefence or wearing a mail hauberk; 3 ormail armour; 4 or plate armour

Te Cobt RoundAll the important rules governing combat itselhave now been covered. However, the six-sec-ond Combat Round is not just the time taken tostrike a blow or shoot an arrow, but also coversthe time needed to perorm a number o otheractions as well.

Within a Combat Round, characters act indescending order o Refexes. When a charac-

ters (or monsters) turn comes, he perorms hisaction. In detail, the possible actions a charactermay take include:

- attack with a mle weapon (ater movingup to 2m i desiredsee above, Movinginto Combat)

- prepare and shoot an arrow- discharge a loaded crossbow- partially load a crossbow (the character

must spend 3 rounds doing this beore hecan shoot)

- draw a weapon- cast a spell- take out a scroll and unroll it- take out a potion and unstopper it- read a scroll- drink a potion- activate a magical device (amulet, etc.)

- make a normal move (10m or a human,12m or an el, etc.)

- run (20m or a human, 25m or an el, etc.)(a character who runs must either run, movenormally or do nothing in the ollowinground)

Characters who have the same Refexes actsimultaneously. When a characters turn comeshe may, i he chooses, deer his action until laterin the round. This gives him the chance to seewhat other characters are doing rst.

ExampleSir Hugo, accompanied by his employer Ulric, aSorcerer, are in the town o Clyster shopping orsome items. Ater a busy morning in the market,they seek rereshment in a small dockside tavern.Without realizing it they have strayed into one othe towns most notorious haunts or rufans androgues. Three wiry cutthroats begin to insult them,and in moments swords are drawn.

Hugo could act beore any o them, but hedecides to wait and see what Ulric (with a lowerReexes score) has planned. The Sorcerer casts aTransx spell which only one o the cutthroats man-ages to resist. I Hugo had struck sooner he mighthave wasted his blow in wounding one o the menwho now stands transfxed. As it is, he makes shortwork o dispatching the last cutthroat.

Evdin n ttcGM: Youre advancing down a musty corridor.Your torch gives o a smoky light, revealing largespiders that scuttle away as you pass. Strange carv-ings mark the walls. Suddenly you hear an ominousgrating noisea gigantic stone slab is descending toblock the corridor behind you.Player: I whirl and throw mysel through the gapbeore it can close.


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GM: You can try. The slabs descent has a speedo10. Whats yourevasion?

Certain ast-moving attacks or other threatscannot be prevented by using defence, butmight just be dodged by the use oevasion.

evasion is used in a wide variety o situ-ationsto leap through a closing gap, to side-step a Dragons breath o re, to dodge a allingchandelier... in any situation where the charac-ters survival depends on getting out o the way.

The attack that the character is trying tododge is given a speed rating. This might beanything rom 5 or a slowly toppling statue, upto 20 or the lancing energy-beam o a magicRing o Red Ruin. The characters evasion is

subtracted rom the attacks speed. I a roll o2d10 comes up less than or equal to the result,the attack has hit. I greater, the characterdodged.

Note that this is very like the Hit Roll incombat, except that the roll is made on 2d10instead o 1d20. A roll o 2 always means thatthe character has ailed to dodge, while a 20always means the attack has missed. In theexample above, the character had an evasionscore o 4. The GamesMaster rolled two ten-

sided dice. On a roll o 6 or less, the slab woulddescend too quickly, crushing him beore he hadscrambled beneath it. On a roll o 7 or more, theslab would miss.

Typical Attack Speeds

Description speed score ExampleEasily evaded 5 Toppling statue

6Very slow 7 Driting gas-cloud

8Slow 9 Hurled chair

10Average 11 Rolling boulder

12 Falling masonryFast 13 Trapdoor

14Very ast 15

16 A Dragons fameExtremely ast 17

18 Javelin1

Dazzling 1920 Energy-beam

It is very important to visualize the situationwhen a character has to evade an attack. Do not

1 It is thus difcult but not impossible to evade a jave-lini one sees it coming. Other missile weapons move artoo quickly or a character to stand any chance o dodgingthem.

simply make the roll without considering whatit represents. A character dangling on the end oa rope is treated as having evasion o zero whena magic ring is red at him, unless he says thathe is prepared to let go o the rope. A charactertrapped at the bottom o a deep well will cer-

tainly be hit by the reball that his enemy lobsdown at him. evasion scores only apply when itis physically possible to evade.

gettin out o Cobt The wise adventurer knows when to escaperom a ght. There are two ways o doing this;the rst is recommended, except or characters

in very good armour.

Retreat:When his turn comes to act, theretreating character, still deending normally,backs up one-quarter o his normal movement(i.e. 2m in the case o a human). The nextRound, i his opponent does not ollow up, thecharacter can turn and run.

Rout:This is a more desperate method. Thecharacter simply turns his back on his opponent.The opponent gets one ree strike at his back(zero defence) beore he can run o.

Sensible players will always be prepared toescape when things are going badly. No one canexpect to win every battleparticularly not inthe early days o inexperience.

Monsters may decide to give chase. It is theGamesMasters task to role-play the monstersand make this decision. You will probably take anumber o actors into account, such as:

How powerul are the monsters? How powerul are the feeing PCs How powerul do the monsters think the

feeing player-characters are? What do the monsters have to gain rom

chasing them?

The characters may discourage pursuit bythrowing down ood (to distract unintelligentcreatures) or treasure (in the case o more dis-cerning pursuers). Very intelligent and powerulmonsters will not be ooled by such tacticswhy should they stop and pick up baubles whenthey can catch the characters and get all theirtreasure?

Lastly, remember that the monsters alsohave the option o running away. Some (Orcsare a case in point) virtually make a habit o it.


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A myth is a pure and absolute imagination; a legendhas a basis o act, but amplifes, abridges or modifesthat basis at pleasure. Rawlinson

Te lie o te lnd THE WORLD OFDragon Warriors has aname: Legend. It is a place o warring noblesand mysterious wizardsa place or adventures.But there is a real lie behind the adventuringscenes. The country o Ellesland is describedhere in more detail than the rest o the world,and is the ocus o many o the published adven-

tures or the game. But you should not eel con-strained by that!The GamesMaster should remember one

thing in particular. Players may read these chap-ters about the game-world, but their characterswill not know very much about the world unlessyou, as GM, tell them. A character who kneweverything about Legend would have a veryhigh level o general education. I players makeuse o inormation that they (as characters) donot have access to, then the GM should change

a ew key details here and there so as to givethem a surprise. A nasty surprise.

It is the prerogative o each individualGamesMaster to give his/her campaign itsne tuningthe distinct favour that makes itunique. Dierent groups have dierent styles.Some may choose to role-play dauntless Cru-saders marching south with the banner o theTrue Faith, charging into battle against thepagan horde. Others will preer to take the part

o Taashim warriors, deending civilizationagainst the crude indels rom the north.Some will choose to ocus on the broad

canvas o Legendtrading and politickingtheir way to power in the courts o kings, get-ting involved in assassination and skulduggeryin Ferromaine, or siding with various actionsin the power struggles o the Tamorian Senate.Those with a taste or low-key adventures can

take a small section o Legend and develop itwith meticulous care.

For others with more exotic tastes there arealways the areas we have included o-map: the

theocracy o Batubatan, with its gold temple-towers scraping the very foor o Heaven; themajestic land o Minj, awhirl with coloured silksand the clash o cymbals; Khitai, the empire thathas endured throughout Time, where a ponder-ous bureaucracy involves itsel in ever-greaterrenements o etiquette and philosophy; orwar-torn Yamato, where the haiken swordmas-ters ollow their ethic o honour even i it leadsthem to ritual suicide.

Or, i you preer, take a dierent timeperiod. Set your campaign in the days o theSelentine Empire, or in the heyday o AncientKaikuhuruor move orward to the Age oDiscovery, when ships open up a new worldbeyond the western ocean. In this uture timethe old class divisions are crumbling as mer-chants buy noble titles, and old aristocrats sinkinto the peasantry. Musket and rapier havetaken the place o bow and broadsword. Pos-sibly sorcerers will not be the rare and solitary

olk that they are in medieval legend. There mayeven be a Magicians Guild!

What I am saying is that GamesMasterscan make their own campaign. You do not needto be constrained by what is set out in this book(change any bits you dislike, in act) but there isplenty o detail here i you do not have the timeto make up your own. However, players shouldrespect their GamesMasters decision; the cam-paign is his, and he must have the nal say. I

you disagree with what he says, you can alwaysquit the campaignor start your own!

CornubriEllesland (pronounced EL-ess-land) comprisesve nations: Albion, Cornumbria, Thuland,Glissom and Ereworn. It is in Cornumbria and

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Ellesland is a small part o the Lands o Legend, adivided island that the rest o the world regards asslightly primitive and a bit rightening. The largesto its fve kingdoms is Albion, where the king is aweakling and the barons pursue old grudges againsteach other. Superstitions and old wives tales areusually true, the power o the ey is strong, ancient

creatures o olklore lurk in the orests, and lordlessknights, returned rom the Crusades without theglory or riches they were promised, roam the land insearch o adventure, or prey.

The frst three adventures or Dragon War-riors (Sleeping Gods, The Elven Crystals andThe Prince o Darkness) are all set in Ellesland.


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in Ereworn that the original natives o Elleslandstill predominate. At one time they ruled romshore to shore, but their erce armies were bro-ken by the legions o Selentium in ancient times,and the people became citizens o the Empire.Later, when the legions departed to protect the

core o the Selentine Empire (by then underthreat rom constant barbarian incursions out othe western plains), the Elleslanders were preyto attacks rom the mainland. Finally they weredriven back to Cornumbria by the invaders.

Authority in Cornumbria is centred onthe loty hill-orts where the chietains andtheir grim thanes overlook the moors and val-leys o their land. The High King is elected atthe meeting o all the chietains, and it is also

not impossible or such an assembly to strip theHigh King o his rank (though this has hap-pened only rarely).

Cornumbria was brought into the TrueFaith in the latter days o Selentium and hasremained so since then. Perhaps harking backto their ancestral tradition o a wild, solitarypriesthood, Cornumbrian priests have optedor a monastic Church with no central author-ity. The monks live in the most inaccessible anduncomortable placesnot just abbeys on chilly,windswept sea clis, but even in caves and onbarren islands. They are amous or their learn-ing and their works o art. (The illuminatedmanuscript known as The Book o Dathnan, owhich there are ve copies, is widely consideredthe grand masterwork o limnery.) However, themonastic Church o Cornumbria is eectivelyautonomous rom the Selentine Church, and orthat reason is regarded with suspicion by priestso the neighbouring countries.2

abion The ancestors o the current inhabitants oAlbion were reavers rom the mainlandmainlyrom the region now called Chaubrette. Theywere originally heathens with the same grizzled warrior-gods as the Thulanders, but the TrueFaith now predominates. Trade routes extendar to the south and west, providing the lords

o southern Albion with a rich source o taxes.With their coers ull, they are ree to indulgetheir incessant squabbles.

This is a eudal society. Land is held by lordsrom the king. Originally this meant that therewas a pyramidal pecking order: the king rulingover his vassals, the dukes and earls, many o

2 Though the occasional accusations o black magic oreven devil worship are surely unounded.

whom have vassal lords o their own. Most lordshave castles where their retinue o knights andmen-at-arms reside with them. Some knightshave lands o their own and they, as well as someo the minor nobles, oversee their estates rommanor houses. The peasants are the oundation

o the eudal society. They work the land o themanor, which may be only one o many in thelords e.

That is the system in theory. In practice,like most eudal societies, it is somewhat upsetby the rise o the merchant class. Merchantsbecome wealthy without themselves producing wealth, but just by buying, transporting andselling the goods and produce o others. Spe-cialized crats also develop so that, whereas in

a small village a amily must build their ownhouse, make their own clothes, etc., in a town itis possible to pay someone else to do this. Even-tually the cratsmen organize into guilds andinsistthat you use guild members to build yourhouse, and so on. The towns achieve autonomyrom the local lord, receiving their charter directrom the king. The citizens o Port Clyster, orexample, are reemennot the vassals o BaronAldred, nor o any other lord. Technically, a sercan obtain his reedom by escaping to a townsuch as Clyster and remaining there or a yearand a day.

Tradition and mutual obligation are strongorces in Albionic society. The peasants workhard or their lord, but they are also under hisprotection. The knights who ght and even diein the lords name also thrive by his benecence.The king bestows the land, but in return he cancall on his lords in time o war.

Albions king, Hadric, has his court in the

city o Ongus. Hadric is a weak king and a poorjudge o character. This mix means that he hassurrounded himsel with ruthlessly sel-servingadvisers. Untold damage has been wrought inthe last ten years o Hadrics misrule: the landso loyal vassals have been stripped away, unwor-thy men have been ennobled, and peasants havesuered under a yoke o hard taxation. In thenorth, old oes like Aldred, Baron o Gorburn,and Earl Montombre care little or the kings

law. They have their own grudges to pursue.The towns o Albion tend to be quite small.Apart rom the larger ports and market towns,most have grown up around a lords castleaplace where the citizens can be sure o protec-tion in times o trouble! Others may co-existwith a strongly ortied abbey. Conned withinsecure walls, a towns population is unlikely tonumber more than a thousand. In all the coun-


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try, only about a dozen cities have populationsin the tens o thousands. The overwhelmingmajority o the people live in manors consistingo perhaps twenty cottages.

TundThe country north o Albion is a high, craggyplace split by deep river valleys and cold bluelakes. The peoplesettlers rom across theMergeld Sea, both rom the Mercanian Coastand rom the outer Thulan islands to thenorthare barbaric and erce, oten at war with their neighbours. Lords sit out the win-ter in smoky mead-halls, surrounded by theirhousecarls, waiting or the summer months o

reaving. Wandering priests brave hostility andharsh weather in order to bring the True Faithto the people. In this they are hampered by thesame rugged geography that prevents any realcentralization o power.3 Some o the lords havebeen converted, but even they show no inclina-tion to completely reject the old gods o theirancestorsWotan, Tor, Loge and the others.The merchants here are also minstrels, welcometo barter their wares i they can regale the hall-

heroes with stirring tales. The sers who till theland have no rights. To their lords they are olittle more importance than animals.

ErewornIn the ar north, the infuence o law is scarcelyelt at all. Brigands and masterless knights roamunchecked about the oothills o the PaganMountains. The racial stock is mostly native

Elleslander, with an admixture o Mercanian andAlgandian blood.4 The gods worshipped hereare the strange primeval deities that the Druidscalled uponLahmada, Kernanu, Morkaan;shadowy entities o the orest and mountains.5

3 The court o the King o Thuland is located at Kator-heim. His rule is strong enough on the island itsel, but theThulan lords across the sea in Ellesland may really be con-sidered to rule over semi-autonomous duchies.4 Mercenaries rom the continent were employed byboth sides in the Black War ought between Cornumbria

and Ereworn some three hundred years ago. Ater hostilitiesdwindled down into the customary skirmishing, the mer-cenaries stayed on and gradually became absorbed into thenative population.5 Most o these gods were discredited in the conver-sion o Cornumbria by the time-honoured proselytizingtechnique o equating the gods o the old religion with thedevils o the new. As ar as the average Cornumbrian isconcerned, thereore, his northern neighbours are devil-worshippers. Generally this is a bit o a slurthe old gods

The True Faith is not recognized at all.The lords o Ereworn are either mad or

irredeemably steeped in evil. Some are both.Vendettas among themselves and wars against Thuland, Cornumbria and Albion orm the yearly round. The throne lies empty while

numerous claims to the succession are made.Assassination is the accepted means to advanceones cause, and an entire subculturethe Clano Harbingers, who live in solitary mountain villages and are roughly equivalent to Japansninjahas developed to cater to this need. Atpresent Duke Darian holds the old kings or-tress, Castle Ereworn, but he is too canny to puthis lie at risk by claiming the crown.

Merchant-adventurers seldom brave the

ports o Ereworn, or villains lurk as thick asshadows and ones lie may be lost as easily asones merchandise. Outside the towns, the coun-tryside is bleak and scattered with crude ortsand peasant hovels. Many villages are desertedbecause o the Black Death that has claimedmany o the people in recent years. At night thepeasants shutter their windows and cower by thereside while goblins dance on the rootops andthe Devil, they say, stalks the land with his twohoundsPestilence and Plague.

Deep within the Pagan Mountains, beyondthe bandits oothills, a number o proudDwarves dwell. Rarely seen by people, theseDwarves are vaguely aware o the problems oEreworn, and long ago withdrew rom all diplo-matic and mercantile contact with the humanso the kingdom.

gisso The social structure, customs and religion othis small country resemble those o Ereworn.You will nd a description o it in the adven-ture-bookThe Prince o Darkness.

Te Strnded IsesA ew words will suce or these orlorn islandswhich are located dead west o Ellesland in theHadran Sea. They are permanently covered by

a pall o mist, or they lie at a point where thewinds are still. We must rely on mariners talesor our knowledge o the islesas, or example,

are elemental and uncivilized, but not intrinsically a orceor evil. However, some o the crazier lords (e.g. Duke Dar-iensee the adventure-bookThe Elven Crystals) reverestill stranger gods. Balor and Rimax were demons even inthe Druids pantheon, and there can be no doubt that theyappeal to all that is vile in the human heart.


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in the logbook o Olo o Cornumbria, whoseship was becalmed there or ten days. Olo wrotethat the sea was like a pane o blue glass, themist like driting strands o silk. Some o his

crew claimed to see wild naked gures leap-ing among the clis by the shore, but there isevidence that they had by this time resorted todrinking salt water. Only adventurers wouldhave any reason to journey to this orsaken cor-ner o the world.

Te Nort-west minndThe people o Chaubrette, Algandy and Kur-

landthe three great kingdoms o the north- west peninsulaincline to the view that theElleslanders are simple ruans, with coarse ways that set them little above their barbaricneighbours. Occasional wars across the Glaive6over the years have caused much ill-eeling anddoubtless uelled this prejudice.

The royal amilies and nobilities o thesecountries are strongly linked by bloodand, inact, there are also ties with some o the lordso Albion.7 The last twenty years or so have

been relatively peaceul. The land is ertile,trade protable. Lie is comortable even orthe peasantry. The robber knights, who hadbeen marauding and trouble-making throughthe length and breadth o the land or centuries,

6 The channel separating Ellesland rom the mainland.7 As an example, Montombres wie Talia is a niece o the King o Algandy.

have been given an acceptable outlet or theirrapaciousness in the orm o the Crusades.8 TheAge o Chivalry is thus fowering, and war-like energies are channelled into such sport as

tourneys, jousts and steeplechases. The perectgentle knight o an elegant castle in, say, Chau-brette cuts a very dierent gure rom his roughElleslandic cousin, sitting in a draughty keep,clutching a wench in one hand and a brimmingmead-horn in the other.

From a geographic point o view, theselands are generally higher and more mountain-ous than Ellesland. Climate is similar, warmedby south-westerly ocean currents rom the trop-ics.9 These lands are more densely populated,and large tracts o orest have been cleared orarming.

8 The idea o the Crusade was ormed jointly by thePonti and King Vergang o Algandy. Nominally a HolyWar, it was more truthully a way o getting these trou-blesome knights out o civilized regions and putting them

somewhere that they could grab land to their hearts con-tent.9 Krarth and the Mercanian Coast do not receive thebeneft o these warm currents and are correspondinglycolder than Ellesland even though at much the same lati-tude. Krarth in particular is a at country subject to windso the polar ice. Temperatures drop to 30 Celsius or lowerin winter and rarely attain +15 in midsummer. Contrastthis with the mean annual range o 6 to +28 Celsius orAlbion.


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CaITShEEThe Caitshee, or Faerie Cat, lurks in cemeteries,

woods and ruined abbeys. It moves with greatstealth, and in darkness it will not be seen by anycharacter below 4th rank. The Caitshees usualhabit is to attach itsel to a party o adventurersand ollow them unseen. The eect o its pres-ence is to jinx any spells cast by members o theparty. There is a 50% chance that a Sorcerer willmiscast any spell he attempts, while or a Mysticthe chance o bungling a spell is 35%.

I detected, the Caitshee can be ought. In

darkness or poor light, characters o 3rd rankand below must deduct 4 rom attack and 8rom defence while ghting it. For higher-ranking characters, the penalty is 2 attackand 4 defence.

Only enchanted or solid silver weapons

chapter

CreaturesoflegenD

can strike a Caitshee; others will always miss.With much hissing, spitting and howling, it canleap up to 5m and attack in the same CombatRound. Its claws pass through normal armour as

though it were not there, and only when attack-ing a character in magical armour does it needto make an Armour Bypass Roll. The touch oits claws conveys a Weaken spell with a magi-calattack o 17. The creatures spell-jinxingability continues to apply throughout the battle;additionally, any damage-inficting spell thatis successully cast on it will do the minimumdamage possible (e.g. Firestorm would infictonly one 8 HP wound).

The character who deals the atal wound toa Caitshee takes a curse or his action. The eecto this curse may be delayed or 16 months. TheGM rolls d10 and reers to the table below:

d10 Curse Effect1 Any item o iron or steel the character tries

to use (including weapons and armour, unlessmagical) will rust to uselessness within a day.

2 The character suers a run o bad luck incombat rom time to time. There is a 20%chance this will apply in any given ght. His

enemys rst blow against him will be a criticalhit, while his own rst blow will go wide.

3 The character is particularly susceptible tomagic at night-time. From sunset to sunrise, hismagical deence is reduced by 3 points.

4 Any party the character is travelling with hastwice the usual chance o an encounter (seepp11-12) each day. Animals and monstersencountered in this way will concentrate theirattacks on the character i possible.

5 The character accidentally sprains an arm or leg.

I an arm, he temporarily loses 2 points romboth attack and deence. I a leg, he loses 1 romattack and deence, halves his evasion scoreand movement rate, and is unable to run. Thetorn ligaments and muscles can be reknitted byMiracle Cure, but i the curse is not lited thenthe injury will recur within a month. Naturalrecovery rom the sprain requires the characterto roll d12 at the end o each week; on a roll o12, he recovers normal use o the limb.


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6 There is a 35% chance on every adventure thatthe character will lose his most useul weaponor magic item.

7 No steed (except or a Destrier) will allow thecharacter to ride it.

8 The characters eyes become sensitive to light.He cannot go about during the day.

9 Whenever he sees a black cat, the character issubject to a 1d8 intensity Fright Attack (seeDW rulebook, p. 122). I this takes eect, hedies o heart ailure.

10 Any treasure the character touches becomesdebased. Gold is changed to silver, silverbecomes copper, copper becomes bronze (whichis worth one-tenth as much) and gems turn towood or glass.

The death-curse o a Caitshee can be lited by

the application o a 20-Magic Point spell oDispel Magic, or by touching a sacred relic.

The Caitshees stats are:attack 14, Claws (d8, 3 Armour Factor 0 (butand Weaken spell) see above)defence 21 Movement: 12m (25m)magical defence 16 evasion 10Health Points 1d101 stealth 26Rank-equivalent: 4th perception 18

ghOSTGhosts are spirits o the dead that have chosento linger on the earthly plane or some reason.Oten the reason is to give guidance to the liv-ing or to exact revenge on an enemyoten theGhosts murderer. Ghosts exude an aura o ter-ror, and when they encounter living beings thereis an automatic Fright Attack (see the DragonWarriors rulebook, p. 122) o 1d12 intensity.

Having survived a Fright Attack by a Ghost,a character becomes inured to that Ghost and isin no danger rom it in uture (though he maystill be scared to death by other Ghosts). Forthis reason, a Ghost will usually depart aterencountering a party o adventurers, unless ithas some message or them. Sometimes (20%chance) a Ghost will decide to haunt a party; itspresence will swamp out the danger sense o anyMystics, cause a clammy unease that will dou-ble the chance o the party being surprised, andbring bad luck in the orm o a temporary 1-point penalty to attack and defence or eachcharacter. Apart rom Exorcism, there is no wayto harm or drive o a Ghost.

1 The Cat shows no sign o how badly wounded it isuntil the mortal blow lands, whereupon it ades away likea shadow in sunlight.

gOBlINGoblins are malicious sprites renowned ortheir evil ways. They relish cruelty, and theirmagical mischie is blamed or many mishaps

experienced by travellers along desolate countrylanes. Their avourite time to attack is at dusk,and they will customarily begin with a sorcer-ous prank such as causing a horse to go lame,or making a bat fy in a characters ace so thathe alls rom the saddle. Once the party is indisarray, the Goblins will leap rom the bushesto attackhurling sharp fints rom their slingsor closing to stab with swords made o icicles.

Goblins are small, never more than a metre

tall, with disproportionately large heads. Theiraces are warty, sallow and hollow-cheeked, withlarge hooked noses and sunken eyes. They goabout in hooded jerkins which help them toblend into the shadowy corners where they pre-er to lurk. Although nimble and craty in battle,they are essentially o a craven nature.

A Goblin, captured and threatened, aban-doned when its ellows have fed, will resort toall manner o whingeing promises in return orits reedom. A promise wrung rom a Goblin

will be ollowed to the letter once the creature isree, but it will always seek to twist the wordingo such a bond or its own oul purposes.

attack 13, Shortsword Armour Factor 1(d8, 3) or Sling (d6, 3)defence 7 Movement: 12m (25m)magical defence 5 evasion 5Health Points 1d6 +4 stealth 21Rank-equivalent: 1st perception 13


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blinded it with a Dragonbreath spell. Now it hasound a new home in the space under the bridge.Here it spends its days listening or sheep orwild goats that have strayed into the ravine, oroccasional travellers on the road above. Whensomething passes over the bridge, the ogre can

hear them and sense the vibration o their stepsthrough the ancient stonework.

The only way to cross the bridge saely isto go one at a time, moving stealthily (Stealthcheckrulebook, p. 63), without speaking.Horses or other beasts o burden will not be ableto cross saely. Do not ask your players i theircharacters are taking special precautions; and ithey do not suggest it then assume they are not.Ater all, its just a bridge.

Establish in what order the adventurers arecrossing the bridge. The moment the rst char-acter who is not taking any precautions reachesthe midpoint o the span, two things happen.Firstly the black shape by the road explodes as amass o crows take fight, revealing the dismem-bered carcass o a horse that they were eedingon. Secondly, a huge hand appears over theparapet o the bridge and grabs or the leader!

Te OreThe ogre may be old, but that does not meanit is stupid, and it has ought humans beore. Itwill stay below the bridge, using the stoneworkas a shield, and making occasional grabs ormembers o the party rom alternate sides o thebridge. When it is completely under the bridge,it cannot be seen or targeted by anyone on thebridge or the road. I it comes under repeatedmissile or spell-re and cant work out where its

attacker is, it will run away, down the ravine andout o sight.

Its arm has an attack o 12. I it hits, itignores armour but its victim can make an eva-sion roll to evade its grasp, against a speed o 12.(I it gets surprise by rolling 1-2 on 1d6 then itsrst attack has a speed o 16). I it grabs a char-acter successully, it pulls them over the parapet.In the next round it whacks them against thestonework or (d8, 4) damagethey can attack

this turnand drops them in the stream (addi-tional 1d4 damage or the all).

I the arm takes 6 or more points o damagein one round, it will drop anyone it is holding.This may be a bad thing, as theyll take 1d4 all-ing damage as they drop into the ravine.

Ater it has ailed to grab twice, the ogrewill switch tactics. Instead o grabbing or char-acters on the bridge, it will try to bash them

into the stonework. I all the PCs retreat o thebridge, it will concentrate on attacking anyonewho is in the ravine with it.

I any PC wants to scramble down into theravine at any point, they will need to make aRefexes roll. Failure means they have stumbled

and allen. Its only a six-metre all (1d6 dam-age) and the water is shallow enough to standand move about easily, but once down they arestuck. The ravine walls have a climbing di-culty o 13anyone with a Refexes o 13 ormore can scale them, but i a PCs Refexes arelower they must roll under their ability on 1d20to succeed. I they go upstream ty metres thewalls are easier to scale (diculty 8).

Old Ogreattack 16 (12 or arm), Armour Factor: +1 orBash (d8 +2, 4) tough skindefence 10 Movement: 10m (15m)magical defence 8 evasion 2Health Points 17 stealth 6Rank-equivalent: 5th perception 5

Te abbot

Once the ogre has either fed or been killed, thePCs can investigate the site. Under the ogresarch lies its larder and treasure-hoard. Unor-tunately it only has 16 forins and a tatteredleather satchelempty. However, also downhere, hal in the water, is the unconscious bodyo the abbot: the ogre had learned that ood usu-ally doesnt start rotting until its killed, and haskept him alive.

The abbot is badly battered and one o hislegs is broken. Healing spells may bring him

back to the waking world (hes on -2 HP) buthe is too weak to move or even ride a horse, andthe pain rom his limb will cause him to lapse inand out o consciousness.

The PCs should remember that the mon-astery is closer than the village, and should beable to work out that the abbot is likely to getbetter care there. Ask them how they are goingto transport a badly wounded man several milesuphill, and give extra experience points or

inventive solutions.Once at the abbey, they will be invited to

stay the night. In the morning the abbot willthank them personally, and will git them threethings: a +1 mace given to the monastery by apilgrim; a Potion o Occult Acuity, and a let-ter o introduction bearing his seal. In a worldwhere the church is powerul, this may be morevaluable and useul than the mace!


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