Roles in Stories

This section describes a number of ways in which grogs can be involved more in stories. It is divided into sections that describe the duties a grog might be asked to perform for his masters. Each section has story elements rather than story seeds; these are fragments of stories, rather than seeds in their own right. By focusing on some of the minor day-to-day hazards and annoyances posed to the grogs on an expedition, you can highlight some of the issues of the Middle Ages, and provide a richer roleplaying experience. However, be careful not to detract too greatly from the point of the expedition, and don't get sidetracked by these issues if you are building tension in your storyline.

Size

Duty watches are described in Chapter 2. There are eight watches

MATERIAL	WEIGHT	Number
	OF 1 FT 3	OF FT 3 *
Beer or wine	64 lb	6
Dirt	94 lb	270
Gemstone	235 lb	6/10000**
Gold	1180 lb	1/10***
Iron	490 lb	1
Fresh leaves
or vegetation	20 lbs	27
Olive oil	57 lb	62
Silver	655 lb	1/10***
Stone	155 lb	27
Water	62 lb	622
Wheat	50 lb	27
Wood	37 lb	27

* in Target: Individual

** 1728 Individuals in a cubic foot

*** 10 Individuals in a cubic foot

For humans and animals, the Size characteristic is a good indicator of weight. A +1 increase in Size doubles the weight, +2 points of Size is a fivefold increase in weight, and +3 points of Size is a tenfold increase. The inverse is true when reducing points of Size.

-4	5 – 10 lb
-3	10 – 22 lb
-2	22 – 46 lb
-1	46 – 100 lb
0	100 – 215 lb
+ 1	215 – 465 lb
+2	465 – 1000 lb
+3	1000 – 2150 lb
+4	2150 – 4600 lb

WEIGHT

in a day, each lasting three hours. Each duty watch is usually shared between one or two men, and they spend one watch on duty, followed by three watches off duty or free. When on expedition, there is no distinction between day patrol and night patrol; when not on duty, grogs are expected to sleep if it is nighttime, or be off duty during the daytime.

The usual pattern of the day is that the troop is on the road by the beginning of the forenoon watch, although occasionally the magus orders an early start, which means the camp is roused at the start of the morntide watch, and leaves soon thereafter. A group travels for about nine hours; at the end of the foredusk watch, the dux usually orders a stop, although if a town, inn, or village is within reach, they may push on for a couple more hours. Grogs are expected to bunk down before the nighttide watch.

The dux is in charge of determining watch rotations and sentry duty. Sentries are usually only placed when an expeditionary party is stationary; when on the road, all grogs are

expected to be in a constant state of alertness. However, if traveling on horseback or with wagons, the usual watch rotation can be maintained; soldiers quickly learn to nap whenever they can, and can even do so while in the saddle.

The dux or his optio keeps track of the passing of the watches nevertheless, so it is clear whose turn it is to take sentry duty when the group stops for the night. Dodging sentry duty is a popular pastime among grogs, and they come up with inventive reasons why they should be exempt, or why it is not their turn.

Providing protection from the various natural and supernatural hazards of Mythic Europe is the stock in trade of a covenant's grogs. By their very nature, magi tend to get themselves into dangerous situations, whether it is from raiding a griffin's nest, being beset by goblins in a haunted forest, or from a mob of peasants armed with pitchforks and torches. Guards usually use the Defenders maneuver in combat (ArM5, page 173, or else the optional rule for Defenders as Interceptor in Lords of Men, page 122) until their masters are safe from harm, after which time they can switch to more offensive maneuvers.

However, guard duty need not be as simple as acting as a meat shield in combat. Magi tend to be less physically able than most grogs, and not

It may seem like a cliché, but nighttime is the best time to spring an ambush on a group of characters. The attackers hope that most of their opponents will be asleep, and that the sentries can be bypassed or taken by surprise. Distracting a bored sentry with seemingly innocuous sounds or sights presents an opportunity for the grog to make Personality Trait rolls (see later) does he err on the side of caution and wake the magi despite the potential punishment that will follow, or does he allow his curiosity to get the better of him? Sentry duty in faerie auras can be particularly distracting; satyrs might entice him

into a drinking match, or nymphs might try to seduce him. Or perhaps it was all a dream...

Sentry duty can be especially important when dealing with intelligent and magical opponents. If a wizard knows he has interlopers in his woods, he can eavesdrop on their conversations and learn the names of the magi. Once the troop has moved on, he then has simply to search the campsite (or the latrine) for an Arcane Connection, and he has a pretty hefty Penetration Total against that magus. Alert sentries tend to discourage this behavior by chasing off those who might lurk at the fringes of a campsite.

A broken landscape, with slabs of rock crushed and flung into weird angles by geology or mystical forces, is perhaps the biggest impediment to movement, and one where grogs really come into their own. Crossing such a landscape requires a great deal of skill: leaping chasms, climbing rock faces, and dodging falling rock. Fatigue rolls need to be made at regular intervals. This might be fine for soldiers who have Athletics around 3 or so, but less able characters need a lot of help.

Underwater adventures are another example of where grogs can come into their own. Improvising spells that allow free movement under water is even harder than those to help one climb or balance, and so if the only way in to the Cave of Wonders is an underwater entrance, the magus will have to rely on his grogs to get him safely inside.

Combat situations can be made more challenging if combined with environmental hazards. As well as increasing the number of botch dice, hazards such as narrow cliffside paths, steam geysers, swamps, crevasses, and so forth can require characters to make rolls (usually Dexterity + Athletics) each round to avoid whatever dangers they pose.

all are capable of using magic to compensate for their lack. Consequentially, relatively easy tasks — jumping over pits, climbing trees, fording rivers, and even riding horses — tend to pose more of a challenge to them. It is the grogs' duty to bring their masters home alive, and this includes preventing them from falling down cliffs, drowning, or being crushed under an avalanche.

Grogs must therefore often come up with novel solutions to compensate for their masters' physical ineptitude. It is the principal reason why rope takes up a substantial weight in the grog pack (see earlier), because it can be used in a number of ways. Rope makes climbing easier (and more importantly, falling less likely), and can also be used to prevent characters from being swept away when crossing swiftly flowing rivers.

When on an expedition, grogs and their masters may need to spend many or most of their nights sleeping under the stars. This may be because the magi wish to avoid the attention of towns, or because they have been unable to secure a place to stay, thanks to The Gift. It may be simply that the expeditions take them deep into the wilderness.

The following is typical of what grogs eat when away from home. Most of the ingredients are brought with them or gathered from the wild. Any leftovers are eaten for lunch on the next day.

Bacon: Smoked and dried, often very fatty. Used in stews.

Baked Eggs: Eggs from domestic fowl or hedgerow birds; pierced and baked in embers.

Camp Stew: Dried meat boiled in ale with leeks and whatever vegetables have been brought or found. Thickened with flour or stale bread.

Chiches: Dried chickpeas roasted in the embers, then stewed.

Eels: Caught overnight in a submerged bag with the mouth propped open; eaten smoked for breakfast.

Girdle Bread: Flour and water mixed into dough, cooked on hot rocks or twisted around a skewer.

Gruel: Oats and water as a thin porridge. Only eaten when supplies are low; the oats are usually those brought for the horses.

Hedgehog: Thickly encased in clay and baked in the embers; the spines remain in the clay ball when opened.

Pease Pudding: Dried peas cooked until thick. Often eaten cold next day.

Stewed Fruit: Berries and hard fruit are hardly ever eaten raw.

Waufres: Flour, eggs, and cheese, mixed together and fried as cakes. For a rare treat, drizzled with honey.

Wortes: All manner of green vegetables, herbs, and leeks.

vided by nature. The grogs usually sleep uncovered, unless the weather is inappropriate, in which case a tent is erected to house them all.

While some grogs are seeing to the tents, others are preparing a fire: gathering tinder, firewood, and curb stones. Suitable branches to support a cook-pot are trimmed, and water is usually put on to boil. All grogs take a turn at cooking, and most can produce a basic meal. Characters with the Survival Ability know which plants yield nutritious food, and gather wild vegetables, herbs, nuts, and fruit throughout the day to eat during the evening meal. Characters with the Hunt Ability might obtain fresh meat, but to avoid being caught for poaching, they usually just set snares for birds or small game.

If the camp is to persist longer than a single night, grogs are set to digging latrine pits, and constructing tripod frames to support washing bowls, spits, and other camp furniture.

Magi are much less likely to be aware of local geography, roads, and settlements than their grogs. As a consequence, the planning of journeys is often left to grogs; the magus simply announces where he wants to be and when, and the grogs do the rest of the work. Long distance travel typically focuses around itineraries, or an ordered lists of towns to visit. At each town, local knowledge is called upon to find the correct roads to the next town on the itinerary. It is important to learn the crossing points of rivers, the presence of decent roads, and the locations of settlements for overnight stops and resupplying with food in each locale; the itinerary might be annotated with such features, if the journey is expected to be repeated. Maps are generally too large and valuable to take on the road, and are generally only useful for planning the itinerary.

Grogs are relatively experienced at setting up camps, but doing so in bad conditions in a hurry could lead to all sorts of errors. Perhaps the main grog tent is put on top of a badger sett, and they do not appreciate the company. The fire pit might attract salamanders from the logs, or the rushes used on the floor of the magus's tent could be infested with ants.

Gathering food can present hazards as well. Soldiers rarely pass up the opportunity to gather honey, but there is no accepted way of gathering this sugary treat safely. This could be a comical interlude, or develop into something more dangerous if the bees decide to attack in force. Traveling in unfamiliar habitat could be dangerous; a poisonous plant could resemble an edible foodstuff found closer to the covenant, or the herbs could be tainted by the supernatural aura they have grown in.

A group of armed individuals in woodland might attract attention from nobles or their representatives, who assume the group are poachers (of course, this could easily be true).

The Area Lore Ability is used for all sorts of navigation rolls, and is essential for both planning routes and correctly following them. City & Guild, pages 82–83, provide some Ease Factors for locating significant landmarks such as inns, hospices, roads, fords, bridges, and so forth. A character planning a new journey of more than a week can reduce the travel time by 10% if she succeeds in an Intelligence + Area Lore roll of Ease Factor 12.

Grogs are often used as messengers for the magi. They may be sent as couriers to other covenants if the matter is urgent and a redcap is not due for a while. They may be sent ahead of a troop to inform their destination of their imminent arrival, or to arrange accommodation in a foreign town. Grogs might also be sent back home: to impart vital information to the covenant, to ask for reinforcements, or to carry wounded comrades out of harm's way.

The table that follows indicates the best speeds (in miles per day) achievable with different modes of transport. Note that these are the best speeds: poor roads, severe weather, and frequent stops can substantially reduce these times. Furthermore, these are average best speed, since the presence of an inn or hospice might encourage characters to stop early for the day, or push on for a couple of hours more. Characters on foot, on horseback, or traveling by coach can fatigue themselves to travel further in a day; the horses are also fatigued by the same amount as their riders. Groups travel as fast as the slowest individual in the group.

If speed is of the essence, a character can push himself even more. A character on foot can cover a number of miles in a day equal to 15 + (2 x Athletics) on good roads. If he is traveling cross country or through wilderness, subtract 5 to 10 miles per day. This figure assumes that the character is minimally encumbered, and costs the character two Long-Term Fatigue levels, one lost halfway through the day and the other at dusk. As long as he gets a good meal and a night's sleep, he can do the same on the next day. However, there is a limit to how long a character can keep up this pace; after a number of days equal to his Athletics Ability, the character only regains one Fatigue level each night

	Travel Fatigue
MODE OF TRANSPORT	TYPICAL DISTANCE W/O LONG TERM FATIGUE	TYPICAL DISTANCE W/LONG TERM FATIGUE
Foot	15	20
Horse	30	40
Cart or Wagon	15	n/a
Coach	18	24
River Vessel*	15	n/a
Small Sailing Ship**	50	n/a
Galley (sails and oars)	80**	n/a

* Add the speed of the river if heading downstream

** Over 24 hours of travel

of sleep, so every subsequent day he accrues an extra Fatigue level. If the character is encumbered, subtract the Encumbrance from his Athletics Ability before calculating distance traveled.

On horseback, a character can cover a number of miles in a day equal to 30 + (2 x Ride) on good roads, subtracting 10 to 20 miles per day for cross-country or wilderness. The character and the horse suffer from Fatigue loss as described earlier. If the horse is encumbered, subtract its Encumbrance from the character's Ride Ability (see Equipment, earlier, for the Encumbrance of horses). If a character lacks the Ride Ability then he is limited to 20 miles per day, and always loses one Long-Term Fatigue level. If the character is able to change horses he can travel faster; each change of horse in a day allows the character to travel an additional (2 x Ride) miles that day. However, there must be a minimal amount of time between changeovers — these speeds assume that the horses are ready and waiting for riders. If the grog has to locate and purchase a suitable horse, he can probably achieve a maximum of one change per day; if they are ready and waiting at the appropriate locations he can manage up to three changes. Skilled couriers on horseback have sometimes managed to travel 90 miles in a day, by pushing their horses to breaking point and having a steady supply of fresh horses.

Boats and ships can be powered by sails or by oars. Sailed vessels operate in coastal waters and across seas, whereas rowing vessels can also navigate rivers and lakes. Sailed vessels typically operate all day and all night. If traveling downstream, a rowboat adds the speed of the current to its total speed, which is typically three miles an hour. Rowers can usually manage to row for 10 hours each day, but if going downstream, the boat can also float at the speed of the river when not being rowed, as long as someone steers it.

MILES PER DAY (FOOT): 15 + (2 x Athletics) on good roads

MILES PER DAY (HORSEBACK): 30 + (2 x Ride) on good roads

FOR EACH CHANGE OF HORSE: + (2 x Ride) miles per day

FATIGUE COST: 2 Long-Term Fatigue levels

Tension can arise between grogs and magi over planning a route. For example, the grogs might desire to travel south by way of an inn famous for its ale (or its women...); however, the magi may ask for the quickest route, which would place them at the tavern at lunchtime. There is no way that the magi will want to stop for the night with half the day still available for traveling. How long can the grogs delay the group with mishaps — a false start down the wrong road, a thrown shoe on one of the horses, a loose axle pin on the cart — so that they reach the inn conveniently close to the end of the day? And will the magi even notice?

Likewise, a local grog might plan a route which avoids the vicinity of the haunted lake without explaining why. If the magi demand that the group goes the shortest route, they might suffer rebellion or even desertion, such horrors does the lake hold in the minds of the men.

Soldiers are often superstitious, and might desire to make a side trip to visit a local shrine, or pay respects at the place where a former grog is buried.

Sending grogs out to carry messages is a great way of initiating a grog-only story (see Chapter 3), or it may simply be a single event in a larger story. Messenger stories are better if small groups of grogs can be sent out rather than a single individual. Messenger stories often involve an element of speed. If the magi discover that their covenant or an ally is under immediate threat, then it might be a dash to warn them. A character injured on a mission might be in urgent need of a chirurgeon, but the best one in the region might be several days away. In such situations, even the simplest of obstacles — a cart with a broken wheel, a fallen tree, a washed-out bridge — can add to the dramatic tension of the situation.

One of the biggest obstacles that magi face is their difficulty in communicating with non-magi. The Gift surrounds them like a cloud, causing everything they say to be taken in the worst possible light. Their very presence engenders mistrust, which is only compounded by the innate suspicion that is often felt toward strangers. As a consequence, grogs can find themselves at the forefront of negotiations with mundanes on behalf of their masters. Of course, this is a role often taken on by competent companion characters as well.

Bribery is an excellent way to loosen the tongue of a recalcitrant peasant; this can be overt (jingling a pouch of coins in front of the peasant's face) or more subtle (offering to buy him a few jars of ale, or buying some of his craft, no matter how awful it might be). When providing a bribe, one should keep in mind that only townsfolk have any great use for coinage — in much of rural Mythic Europe, barter is the main form of commerce. This being said, there is a subtle art in offering the right amount of bribe. If one offers too little, the local will be offended. If one offers too much, the local might become doubly suspicious, or even mark the character as a rube or future mugging victim. As a guide, a day laborer earns about one Mythic Penny per day, and needs the equivalent of a Mythic Pound every year to feed himself and his family. A professional earns two to five times as much, depending on trade and ability. However, most mundanes in Mythic Europe live within their means, and savings are a foreign concept associated with avaricious behavior. A bribe equivalent to a day's pay grants a Minor equipment bonus (see earlier), whereas a bribe equivalent to a week's pay grants a Major equipment bonus.

The local populace often has information that is needed for the successful completion of a mission. The troop could spend weeks scouring the hills in search of the lair of a dragon and still not find it, while a few words with a yokel could provide them with the information they need in minutes. Locals are often suspicious of strangers; this is particularly true in rural areas where most individuals never leave the village they were born in, and less true in cities, where new folk come in every day. An average Communication + Folk Ken roll is usually sufficient to get an individual to talk, but increase the Ease Factor by the local's Suspicious Personality Trait.

Grogs are often required to make purchases for their master, since The Gift results in vendors hiking their prices as soon as the magus approaches their shop or booth. Purchases made with currency can normally only be made in a town or city; some example prices can be found on page 144 of City & Guild.

The Bargain Ability can be used to negotiate a good price for expensive or bulk items. Not all items can be bargained for; vendors of food very rarely reduce their prices unless a lot of food is bought at once, for example. Bargaining usually takes place with artisans, where the true value of their goods is strongly associated with the skill of its maker or the rarity of the item. First, determine the actual value of the goods; this is usually twice the cost to the seller, but in cities or crises, inflation might drive the price even higher. The buyer can attempt to determine the value by making a Perception + Bargain roll, with an Ease Factor of 9. If the goods are particularly common, or the buyer has a Craft or Profession Ability related to the goods to be purchased, subtract 3 from the Ease Factor. If the goods are especially rare or unusual, then add 3 or more.

Next, make a Communication + Bargain roll for the buyer, and one for the seller. The seller's roll should be made in secret; if it is greater than that of the grog, then the seller is not prepared reduce the price to less than the value. Otherwise, the seller will settle for 10% less than the value for every 3 points or fraction that the grog's roll exceeded the seller's. Regardless of how good the buyer's Bargain roll is, the sale price is never less than half of the initial value.

Now that the storyguide knows how much the seller will accept, she can either assume that this is the price secured by the grog, or else roleplay the negotiation with the player. When negotiating, the seller is likely to initially ask for a price higher than the actual value of the goods. The seller will eventually go as low as the calculated price, but the grog doesn't know how low this is, and may settle at a higher price instead. He may make a Perception + Folk Ken roll to try to detect when the seller is getting close to a price he is prepared to accept; this is opposed to the seller's Presence + Guile roll.

APPRAISE VALUE OF THE GOODS: Perception + Bargain + simple die; Ease Factor 9 (usually)

BARGAIN ROLL:

Communication + Bargain + simple die for the buyer and seller

LOWEST FINAL PRICE:

Value of goods – 10% per 3 points (or fraction) that the buyer's Bargain roll exceeds the seller's (minimum limit: 50% of value)

GAIN BARGAINING ADVANTAGE: Perception + Folk Ken + simple die of buyer versus Presence + Guile + simple die of seller

A perennial problem with extended travel is the lack of fresh provender. A village is an excellent opportunity to restock with long-life ingredients, and also to buy fresh produce that will last the next few days of travel. Eggs, vegetables (particularly leeks and onions), bread, butter, and grain are the most commonly purchased goods; meat is less readily available, but a village might be persuaded to part with its precious supplies of bacon and fresh meat for the right price. Villagers are more reluctant to sell produce in the winter and spring, when food is at a premium, and more likely to do so in the autumn.

Be aware that there is a limit to the amount of excess food that a village has. They likely have obligations to provide fresh produce for their lord, and so must reserve the greater part of their harvest for him. They have little use for coin in the short term, since neither they nor their lord can eat money. Towns are a better prospect for resupplying; here, there is a food service industry specifically tailored to the production of food for sale. With respect to prices, in a town, a loaf of bread costs about half a Mythic Penny, a chicken can be bought for about a Mythic Penny, as can a pound of cheese, two dozen eggs, ten salted herring, or a gallon of best ale. Broadly speaking, it costs a Mythic Penny to feed a grog for a day, if you are buying rather than growing his food.

While inns and church-run hospices are found between major cities and along trade routes (see City & Guild, page 81), more isolated regions are devoid of such institutions, and travelers have to rely on the hospitality of peasants. At the very least, basic Christian charity usually allows a group of travelers to seek shelter in a barn, grainstore, or chapel, and a few pennies might buy them a hot meal.

Slightly more comfortable is accommodation in the byre; a shelf is placed above the livestock so that people can benefit from the heat given off by the animals. During the winter, the whole village might sleep in the communal byre above the village's plow-oxen. However, with magi around, the byre is rarely a sensible option; The Gift spooks animals as much as it does humans, and sharing a shed with a magus and several oxen is not a recipe for a quiet night.

The best accommodation on offer in a village is to share a bed with a householder and his wife; depending on the number of children, they have there may be room for one or two extras.

To arrange a place to stay, make a Communication + Folk Ken roll, using the Ease Factors in the following table. If the peasants have had the opportunity to talk with the magi, then the social penalty of The Gift applies to this roll even if it is being made by a grog. Bribes modify this roll in the normal fashion.

ACCOMMODATION	EASE FACTOR
Barn	3
Byre	6
Shared Bed	9

It is not uncommon for magi to join a covenant in a region where they do not speak the vernacular language. This may be as simple as having difficulty with the local dialect, or as complete as no understanding at all. Magi rarely find time in their busy schedules to learn new languages — anyone important can speak Latin anyway, and grogs can always

be used to translate. Many grogs learn a smattering of Latin, and some become quite fluent. Given their opportunities for travel, they may also pick up foreign languages as well, and covenants occasionally employ a grog who is good with languages specifically for this purpose.

A character with a Language Ability of 2 or less needs to make Communication + Language rolls to get his point across, and an Intelligence + Language roll to understand what is said back. The Ease Factor varies according to the level of complexity of the subject matter, but a 6 is normally sufficient. Characters with Language Abilities of 3 or more need not make these rolls for everyday conversation, but may need to for more complex concepts. If the two speakers have more than one language in common, they can reduce the Ease Factor of communication and understanding by three, since they can substitute words in the other languages where they don't know the word in the main language.

Unless she is fluent (Language Ability 5 or better), use of a character's social Abilities is limited by her Language score. So a maga issuing orders in French (where her Ability is 3) cannot make full use of her Leadership 4 Ability, and must act as if she had a Leadership of 3. However, she could freely communicate her instructions to her grog captain, who, as a native French speaker, can issue her orders with no penalty using his own Leadership Ability.

As one travels further from home, one encounters changes in language which might make conversing difficult. A native speaker knows his own language at a score of 5, and may have a specialty in his own dialect, for an overall score of 6. He can sometimes communicate with a speaker of a different language, depending on how closely related the two languages are:

Using grogs as the interface between the magi and the rest of the world is an excellent way to get grogs involved in stories. A grog with no social Abilities is often better than a magus with some social Abilities and The Gift; even if their effective scores are the same, the magus' very presence makes people uncomfortable and suspicious.

If grogs are responsible for all social interactions, only the grogs are aware of the content of those conversations. This has several roleplaying applications. If the magi habitually leave grogs to deal with mundanes, you might want to make a clear separation between player and character knowledge. If a grog is ordered to ask a peasant what he knows about the ruined castle, then take the player to one side and deliver the peasant's rambling account of the legend. That player now has to relate the legend to the others, as if he were the grog reporting back. Any mistakes should not be corrected, but the player can ask for his grog to make easy Intelligence rolls to fill in details like names.

If a grog is given a pouch of money and asked to purchase something, he may take advantage of the general unworldliness of magi, and take a "commission" or "finder's fee." A particularly audacious manner of doing this is under the magus' very nose, if he does not speak the language. Let the grog's Personality Traits guide this sort of behavior.

SITUATION: Same language, different dialect PENALTY: –1 penalty to both speakers

SITUATION: Closely related languages PENALTY: –2 penalty to both speakers

SITUATION: Distantly-related languages PENALTY: –3 penalty to both speakers

For example, a speaker of French (Norman) can talk with a native of Paris who speaks French (Orleanais), with a –1 penalty. He can talk with a native of Provence with a –2 penalty, since French and Occitan (the language of Provence) are closely related. He can even communicate basic information with speakers of Castilian, at a –3 penalty.