The Maiden Saga: Role Playing Game (8 page)

Note that the bonus is maintain for the duration of the conflict. This reflects the potential for damage of heavy armament. Once a ship has been sunk the crew are assumed to be out of the picture, although PCs are allowed to swim ashore or to another vessel. If the crew of one ship boards another, or if a ship is stormed from the land, normal combat rules apply. Once a fortress has been breached half the complement, including any PCs involved can continue the conflict under battle rules.

Bombardment conflict is worked out by rolling the six dice and counting sixes, as usual. Sixes cannot be made. The GM and players may choose to award a higher value of points per six for the sake of expediency.

 

 

Assassination

 

None of the eight peoples openly condones murder, at least not of themselves, but in Hai, Makea, Oretes and Vendjome assassination is accepted as a political tool*. Any PC from those four cultures, also strangers, may take on an assassination mission as long as their Guile exceeds their Pride. For the other four peoples the PCs Guile must be at least double the value of their Pride.

Having accepted the mission, you must reach your target by the normal means of play, travelling through the countryside, not allowing yourself to be seduced, defrauded or sold into slavery, evading guards and so forth. On reaching your target you must choose between the two forceful Additional Attributes, Power and Craft, as you are, in effect, persuading your victim to be dead. You then roll against the target, with your Game Points in Power or Craft against their Game Points in Constitution, building sixes if you have the right Primary Drive. If the target manages to roll four of a kind they have escaped. Otherwise if they run out of Game Points in Constitution before you run out in Power or Craft they are considered to have expired. Now you need to get away in order to collect your blood money.

 

* Subjecting an assassin to a lengthy, humiliating and above all public death is also accepted as a political tool by all eight peoples, but that is a matter for the GM.

 

 

“Naithal shrugged, spoke briefly to his companions and then turned back to the girls.

‘Surrender yourselves!' he called out. ‘It is for our mutual good that we pursue you. We mean to take you to Ap-Ythan and sell you for the Vendjome trade. We will receive a high price for such young and beautiful Aeg girls as yourselves, while you will be sold in Vendjome.'

Aisla pushed the axe haft through her circled fingers in an insulting gesture.

‘Life will be easy,' Naithal went on, cupping his hands around his mouth for amplification. ‘Doubtless you will be purchased by some old and wealthy merchant who can rise to you only once a month! Even by the emperor himself, who has a thousand concubines and is said to prefer boys. You will be able to sit eating sweetmeats and gossiping together in the seraglio!'

‘Gutter filth! I'd sooner die!' Sulitea screamed back.

‘Come, come, no need for tantrums!' Naithal yelled. ‘It is a fine life for girls, one many would envy. Think, nothing to do but powder your cunts!'”
Captive

 

Combat is all very well, but seldom profitable. Kill and rob a merchant and you will have gained his stock and whatever personal possessions he happened to be carrying. Kidnap him and you have not only gained all that but should be able to extract a ransom, while his survival ensures that he continues to trade and so will be available for future reference. That at least is the general attitude. In practise the Aeg have never really got the hang of it, robbery and pillage being so much more fun, while at the other end of the scale the Aprinians consider the practise immoral. In Mund it is considered dishonourable unless the captive is taken in fair combat, an attitude shared by the Hai unless it is inconvenient. The Vendjomois can seldom be bothered, as only rarely is it possible to extract a ransom greater than the individual's value as a slave, especially after overheads have been taken into consideration.

This last factor affects the thinking of the remaining peoples. The Oreteans consider themselves too civilised and are too subtle to act openly, preferring to enslave people through their elaborate judicial system, the exception being prisoners taken in battle, who may be exchanged, enslaved or ransomed according to circumstances. The Makeans and the Ythan are the true artists, both acting in order to maximise their profit, although the former prefer brute force and the later the use of potions and soporifics.

In terms of the game an attempt to capture somebody can be simple or complex, but will always lead to a force conflict, either in Power or Craft. The conflict is then played out to combat rules, except in that participants can only exercise their option to run if they throw a triple and the loss of Game Points in Constitution counts against Guile rather than Pride.

Techniques and equipment vary from place to place. Threat is always an option but gives your opponent the option of moving to full combat, in which case your bonus is lost. If you are threatened and give in you avoid the risk of losing Game Points in Constitution, but this costs 1 Glory Point. If you make a fight of it you risk damage but retain your Glory Points.

Most peoples use nets, both for capture and restraint, although the Makeans use the bolas with great skill. Elixirs and soporifics are in widespread use but it is only in Hai and Ythan that they represent the method of choice. The Mund use great iron hooks in conjuntion with nets, but Aeg prefer the application of a club to the back of the head, as opposed to an axe.

The following table takes into account both potency and skill of administration -

Weapons bonuses also apply during a Power conflict, but not a Craft conflict. If you run out of Game Points in the chosen Additional Attribute or your loss of Constitution exceeds your Guile you have been captured. (See Example 2.)

 

Once captured, it is assumed you lie quiet for a period, allowing you to refresh your Game Points before you attempt to escape.

 

 

“Talithea was still holding the telescope, as if expecting further opponents, and her face was set in a manic grin.

‘So,' she announced, ‘now we take weapons, return to the great hall, slay the Emperor, go down in a welter of blood the tale of which will ring down the centuries and meet again in the feast hall of heroines!'

‘No, no,' Elethrine objected, wondering once more about the Princess's sanity, ‘we escape and return to Mund.'”
Maiden

 

From the mountains of northern Mund to the jungles of Makea is standard, unvarying practise to strip a captive naked. Furthermore, while cunningly concealed lock picks might give your captors a nasty surprise, you are not going to be able to keep them. Nevertheless, there may be a way out. Perhaps the cunning application of leverage will allow your somewhat rusty shackles to be pulled from the wall, or it may be that you can persuade your guard that you know the secret of a great treasure, which you are willing to share in return for your freedom?

In any case, you are either up against a living opponent, in which case the normal game rules apply, or an inanimate object, in which case you chance of success is based on your Power and Craft, Dexterity and Intelligence. You can be defeated by a castle wall, a lock or even a maze, just as surely as you can be defeated by a human antagonist or a ravening beast, so the rules work the same way. When faced with an obstacle the PV must use either Power or Craft, to which they add Dexterity
and
Intelligence.

Before your attempt you are entitled to a single roll of the six dice. This represents your search for useful equipment, and any character with more than 10 Game Points in Intelligence can build sixes. The results are as follows -

If you have met one of your captors you must deal with them, then proceed as planned unless recaptured or dead. The GM rolls first and the conflict progresses according to the usual rules. Aeg can build sixes in Power, Ythan in Craft.

Once you've made a search roll you must either attempt to tackle the obstacle or sacrifice 1 Glory Point in order to back down.

Whatever you are up against has a resistance value, which is halved if you have found the right object. Some resistance values are given in the following table, which the GM can use to calculate others -