After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg, Session 4

I'm catching up...well, almost! Here's Session 3, at any rate.

Estelle lost the race, too. Which allowed Jaroslaw to explain to Elias, he's showing prudentia in not risking a peasant horse throwing him off and allowing another peasant the glory of winning against his betters.

The next day, Elias woke up Vuk with home remedies and we arranged for him to travel on a cart. 

After separating from the trader, we encountered a road that's been cut off by mudslide. Worse, Jaroslaw knew it was produced by an explosion. He's got a combat style including black powder rifles.

So we had to decide, to the ferry or up the trail of mud...

Then Jaro prayed to the Highest Lord for guidance. I'm not sure how well I interpreted it, it was a Bible quote (and I played him as a Int 9, so not too bright), but he decided to go for the ferry.

We dealt with a small storm, and then reached a place, where obviously the defenders of a cart were fighting off a robber knight. We didn't fancy doing the right thing, but it was the right thing...and besides, as Jaro pointed out, if we let them be overcome, the robbers could still go after us. But if we joined now, we'd have numerical advantage at least initially.

Thus, when Marzena declared she is going to help, Jaroslaw really couldn't stay behind!

The robbers sent a demilancer, a crossbow rider and two guys in brigandine to check us. Jaroslaw stated his full name and city, and demanded to know what's going on...holding his crossbow. The demilancer made three mistakes then...

He told him it's a matter that concerns his betters.

He told him to drop his crossbow and go back, not even allowing unobstructed passage.

And then, when Jaroslaw objected that he goes on the public road, he hasn't dropped weapons in front of Ottomans and he shall be damned before he does so on this road... he wasn't ready for Jaroslaw shooting as soon as he saw him dropping his point to charge.

The bodkin bolt got inside his leg not even being slowed by the armour and it was on. 

A few javelins were stopped by Jaroslaw's armour. Vuk stunned the leg of another robber's horse with his sling. The demilancer got entangled in a net, which foiled his charge. It didn't unhorse him, but it was a drag on his ability to attack!

And a thrown hatchet got the crossbow rider bleeding from his arm.

Meanwhile, their charges got interrupted or voided. Shots flew away or hit the foliage. Vuk did indeed manage to void a mounted sabre charge, though, quite an impressive and unlikely feat.

And after Jaroslaw delivered another wound to the same leg, which nearly stunned his enemy and made him cry in pain, and Marzena unhorsed him, they broke and ran.

Jaroslaw looked at the the fallen man.

"My betters, sir, aren't on this road, except maybe protecting that cart. Do you surrender?"

And that's how my PC in Mythras: Road to Monsterberg now has a horse. One he won in combat, too!

Meanwhile the protectors of the cart lost a man, but killed the other demilancer with shot and arrow, and the robbers finally broke and retreated. 

Jaroslaw rode to the richly dressed people around the cart - the richest guy had killed the demilancer himself - and spoke thusly:

"It was a honour and a pleasure to meet you, gentlemen. May I know your honourable names?"

The Adventures of Fu: Chasing Demons, Looking For A Good Fight

We had a new Art of Wuxia session this Monday night. It was shortish, roughly 20-1, but then I fell asleep. (The advantages of living in the same house as your GM).

So we played with Fu, my second character: the Beggar brotherhood warrior-mystic who loves fighting. He is usually moving around with Yanzi (Darting Swallow, a girl from the Beggar Clan who might have taken a liking for him), and Chen, his frenemy and one-time rival.

We were working for a Rich Benefactor (Scribe Yu, a former court poet), as beggars often do, and chasing someone who was summoning demons in the city. Said demons had tried to kill Scribe Yu, thus him contacting the Beggar Brotherhood - thus, us - to look into it was totally understandable!

After all, we sell information...

We had already determined they were trying to get an old book, also related to demons, which our benefactor and his friends had in his disposal.

(Nobody listened to Fu's suggestions to burn the damn thing...)

However, they smuggled it out of the place where it was (via a magic  spell that wasn't known in the setting so far - the Wolf is the only guy who has it), and then we had all the servants leave as well. After that, we put a trap.

We beggars were lookouts, but they still equipped us with blessed weapons (Fu got a 3-section staff) and firecrackers. We just had to fire the firecrackers after we saw demons going towards the house (where they believed the book to be).

The fact that Fu, being a mystic, can see demons, was really handy...

Of course, they had also instructed us to leave immediately after. Keep in mind, our benefactors include the #4 in the whole of Wulin, Little Minnow...as well as his two sworn brothers!

So we had good reasons to assume they'd be able to deal with the demons.

But 2 out of 3 beggar warriors wanted to fight demons! That included Fu, of course... I mean, one of the others is my ex-rival (we've been getting along)! I can't let him get the better of me, now can I? What if he thinks he's got the upper hand in our rivalry?!?

Besides, a good fight isn't something to miss!

However, Little Minnow himself stopped me. Like, he reached and grabbed me by the collar. Than we saw his sworn brother putting an ward against demons around the house.

And here's when I couldn't stomach the injustice, so I asked them:

"But why are you only preventing me? Why is he allowed to fight demons?"

"Don't tell me another one got in?!?"

"Of course he did! Are we warriors or not?!?"

Clearly, we had a case of different priorities here...

So one of them ("the wizard", as I'd nicknamed him) got in, and I was ordered to remain behind with the other two, and prevent anything from tangle with the wards.
Well, technically, that's how Fu understood it. 

What they had actually said was literally "if a demon tries to tangle, call for Little Minnow or the Scribe Yu, and keep away!"

...so of course, when I saw a demon, I shouted for them - and then promptly bashed the thing in the face with my 3-section staff!

First strike, critical success roll! I cracked its porcelain mask on its shadowy face (the thing looks like a person made of smoke...which made my sweeps not as useful as I'd have liked) and it started keeping a hand on it to prevent it from falling apart.
I kept trying to smash it in the fingers, but didn't manage to. I did hit the head, though.

It was an epic fight! Blessed 3-section staff vs demonic claws with necrotic poison on them, and the demon's attempt to dominate my will with its hypnotic gaze!

It never succeeded in either, until someone threw my rival out of the window. So I had to redouble my efforts, afraid that he might steal my kill!

The demon managed to crack some ribs, if that counts. But it didn't count for Fu! In my book, fighting means you can get hit. If you're afraid of leopards, don't go in the jungle!

So we kept fighting, until Little Minnow appeared. But then the demonic pussy tried to run.

"Stay here and fight like a man!", Fu exclaimed. He acted quickly, and tried to get a strike in...but then he missed sorely, and fell to the ground.

(I rolled maximum Inititative, and then promptly critfailed my attack roll...yes, dice are rolled in the open).

Next move, I threw my blessed 3-section staff to try and trip the thing...forgetting it can fly. It jumped over it, not stopping to run.

So I gave chase!

"Don't kill it! We need it to talk!", the older xia (who were further away) exclaimed.

In the end, the "only sensible beggar warrior" - the one who had actually left, Yanzi - hit it with blessed flying needles. Not only that, she pinned its mask - its only tangible part - to the wall. That's when Fu got it, and attacked with heavy strikes and elbows!

No, I had not stopped for the 3-section staff.

That's also when it finally managed to hit me with a claw and not a palm. So now I was poisoned...

But the far more experienced xia took it out, rolled it over and literally stuck it inside a golden ball. That's how this fight ended... 

Oh, and they gave me antidote immediately. I guess seasoned xia prepare for the enemies they know they'd meet?

Fu was dejected at not being able to take it out, and asked Little Minnow whether he should count it as winning.

"You would have won, so it counts! But you didn't kill it, so you can't count it as a kill!", was the verdict.

Fu still thought it wasn't quite fair.

"No, I didn't take it out, so it really shouldn't count! If I'd knocked it out, it would, but since Uncle rolled it, I can only claim fighting against it and not dying. But Most Senior Uncle, I want to fight another one when you have another! It was great fun!"

After that, we got to a banquet in the Golden Lotus whorehouse The Wizard owns (amusingly, he was flirting heavily with a blind elder of the Beggar Brotherhood, while she was berating him about exposing us to danger), and then to a sauna.

Admittedly, Fu knew it wasn't his place in either, but since senior people invited him, how could he refuse?

He kept well clear from the working girls, though. He figured good food is plenty of payment for the likes of him, he shouldn't expect anything more...nor did he want it. If they wanted to pay him extra, they should pay the Beggar Brotherhood instead!

They took me to another fight the next day. Capturing the wizard, however, was elementary in comparison! We waited for him in the backstreets behind his residence, the respected uncles went to raise some hue and cry in front of the front door. Luckily, he tried to run past Fu, so I hit him in the ribs with a 3-section staff.

Then I let them interrogate him, and went to help some another group of friendly xia. They were running another errand for the Little Minnow's group of elders, so I went to help the guy I liked best - a pitfighter.

Fu's reasoning: "Where this guy is, a fight is nearby!"

Alas, didn't quite work out like this. He was doing boring investigation stuff - searching for some guy with an octopus tattoo on his head/face - but lacked skill despite the fact they'd given him lots of money to pay. I talked to a bartender, paid for info, then followed the lead to another whorehouse, where they told us that not one, but four guys like these had arrived.

We reported back, took portraits of said guys from the police precinct, and started showing them to the beggars!

And that's when I fell asleep, so the session ended!

*Jing Wu-yang, nicknamed "The Wolf Wizard" or "Mr Wizard" in our campaign.

My characters in Art of Wuxia

I am playing in an on-and-off Art of Wuxia campaign. The feature is that I have a stable of PCs, which inhabit different parts of the setting.

Let me introduce them...

1) Wang, a classical wandering scholar-warrior, who has some rather unexpected approaches to dealing with enemies stronger than him. OK, that last part is more due to me adapting to the GM's style, which means there's many NPCs you can't really match, akin to Elders in V:tM...

2) Fu, a Beggar Brotherhood Warrior-Mystic...in training. He's still learning, but he's kicking major asses already. Well, it helps that the Beggar's Staff is one of the best styles out there!

He's the least sociable of the three, and amusingly most prone to a fight.

3) Hoi, a Lin Kuei-type kung-fu master who uses magic and fists to...serve the presumable Big Bad Evil Guy of the setting, the White Dragon.

So far, his contributions to the security of the White Dragon's Realm was suggesting (with due paperwork) that the bodies of people sent to attack the Master's interests should be impaled as normal, but afterwards their bodies should be animated and sent to greet visitors to the city and tell them the story of their betrayals and due punishment.

So if you visit an evil wizard's city in this GM's game, and get greeted by the animated body of a former ninja who insists on telling you how he came to kill the Evil Wizard, and got captured, impaled and reanimated, you can thank my guy for that!

As I said, it's interesting. What's even better is that #3's involvement in the game is happening before the timeline of #1 & #2 and I've already realized that I've bought (and delivered to the city) the sister of an NPC that is allied to my #2. BTW, #1 wanted to find that same NPC, but never managed to.

After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg, Mythras edition - session 3

I am trying to be more regular! Here's the second session, too!

Jaroslav wined and dined with the Vogt of Teschen, meeting an itinerant fencing instructor from Moravia, as well as a travelling Polish merchant headed for the Bohemian border to do some risky trading.

We actually conversed nicely, and Jaroslav fenced and wrestled briefly with the instructor. He did well, as a veteran - but the instructor proved his mettle, and showed to everyone why he's teaching the likes of Jaroslav!

Meanwhile, the rest of the party carried out their heist. They managed it well - Elias the merchant first cased the bakery under false pretenses of being a journeyman from another guild, then scored some shitty improvised lockpicks for the footpad from the jeweler's guild where he was staying.

En route to the bakery on a cloudy night, Elias the merchant and Marzena the footpad arrived without incident. Vuk and Estelle stumbled upon two guards leading a drunk to the fools' cage, and decided to try to talk their way out of their predicament. That didn't go so well, and though Vuk somehow managed to escape, Estelle ended up in the fools' cage too.

Nevertheless, Marzena managed to pick and sneak her way through the bakery while Vuk and Elias kept the coast clear. 

Elias also made friends with a stray midden dog while waiting. Marzena found a sack of sawdust in a hidden compartment, then while Vuk caused a scene outside to draw out the baker's apprentice from his room, Marzena heaved the sack of sawdust out the window and all over the roof of the bakery's covered porch, leaving no doubt as to where it came from.

Vuk then drew attention to the scene from the street, making sure it couldn't be covered up, before everyone hightailed it out of there.

The next day, Jaroslav arranged to travel together with his new Polish friend partway to Ratibor, while the rest of the party got paid for their work.

With that done, everyone (including Elias's new mutt), set off to Ratibor alongside a merchant caravan.

Stopping at Freistadt for the wedding, Vuk and Estelle performed some slapstick routines for money while Elias and Marzena met Sir Vaclav of Novi Ves' squires again (see Session 2, link at the start of this post!), who put in a good word for them with the bauer and allowed one of them to race without having to pay an entry fee. Just as well, because the first two races in the qualifiers were a loss.

Meanwhile, Vuk wagered two pfennigs on being able to outdrink the village drunkard and managed to beat him by 5 seconds, before joining him in a drunken coma.

As the session ended, Estelle was preparing to pay her way into the race too, seeking a chance at fame despite not being the greatest rider.

We left there.

After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg - Mythras edition, session 2

The first session is here.

Now, just one thing I need to share: normally, when you read an AAR/APs (After Action Report/Actual Play), you are reading in the tone of the PC I'm playing, if I'm a player. When I'm the GM, you're reading what the NPCs saw.

It's point-of-view-centric, though Asen himself only gets a voice when I'm talking explicitly about the players.

However, this AAR is breaking with the normal. Why? Well, because I wasn't on this session. So you're reading what Jaroslaw never saw, but I was told by other players. So, mostly their words, not mine...my comments are in italic.

Also, correcting some names' spelling.

Last time in Monsterberg, we found out what happens when the travelling knight leaves his fellows unsupervised for 4 hours in Teschen.

While Jaroslaw and Kristan were off to meet Teschen's Vogt, the less privileged in the party (i.e. everyone else... :D ) had a threefold mission: 

1. Shake off the stresses of the road with drink and bath [i.e., recover some Tenacity]

2. Gather some information on the local affairs

3. Find a way to score some gear or spare cash.

The Teschen market was pretty busy. Estelle the bard was so focused on the people and dreaming up ways to profit from them (promoting businesses as a crier/musician? exploiting rivalries between traders?) that she ended up tripping into a donkey's trough and making an ass of herself. Had to get a bath to be presentable again.

Someone else was already at the baths, though - namely, Vuk and Elias. Vuk was getting the stink of his rancid clothing scrubbed from him and his beard cut at Elias' insistence, for double the regular price.

At least they let the stinky foreigner in, I guess?

Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding between the Serb and a boy Elias had asked to stay behind and confirm that Vuk had indeed cleaned up before he would be allowed to leave. The language barrier played a big part in this misunderstanding, but Vuk and the boy got the same wrong impression of each other and the Serb ended up banned from the bathhouse. At least he was clean now!

As his players put it, he's used to Ottoman baths, so the boy asking to scrub his back was...ahem, not welcome.

Meanwhile, at the market square, Marzena had stumbled upon two squires to one Sir Vaclav of Nova Ves, hawking armor from a wagon. All the pieces had grand stories accompanying them, but they were mostly just second-hand junk that was obviously looted from whoever had been on the receiving end of this Sir Vaclav's business. 

Marzena tried to ingratiate herself to the squires by giving them some street-smart tips on how to sell more goods. They were actually pretty horrible tips that should have made the squires' job much harder, but somehow the squires made them work (by means of a very lucky crit). 

As sales started taking off, Teschen's arms merchants who had until now been very unamused were properly pissed off at someone breaking their monopoly. A bunch of craftsmen and apprentices came up and were about to start trouble with the squires and Marzena when Elias was passing by and managed to defuse the situation.

For their help, both Elias and Marzena got a few free pieces of gear on the down low - some bulky jack chain for one of Marzena's arms, and a garish (and kind of thin) gambeson for Elias that could be given to Vuk in place of his fouled gear.

No more Mr. Stinky!

Anyway, everyone spent some more time picking up rumors wherever they could (e.g., Elias visited the office of the local jewelers' guild since he was in that trade himself).

Eventually made their way to the big German tavern. Had a few drinks.
Got interrupted by a drunk journeyman from Tarnowitz who had overheard the party's introductions at the gates earlier in the day. He abused Elias for being a good-for-nothing northern pansy who was ruining Silesia by dragging in the scum of the Balkans back with him. Elias was pretty good at ignoring the provocations.

Marzena, on the other hand, tried to prove she wasn't pretending to be a noble by presenting her rondel with Zawisza's crest. The man from Tarnowitz asked her which knight has had his grave robbed by her knave father for her to have something like that, which was the final straw. There was a duel in front of the tavern after that.

Marzena scored a flawless win against the man, delivering several nasty smacks to his head before people started crying "peace".

After that scene, the party got called over to a table by a well-spoken man called Gerat. A searcher from the baker's guild, he had seen what they're about and figured they were rough/disposable enough to help him prove that one of Teschen's bakers was adultering his bread with sawdust.

All they needed to do was a little breaking and entering during the night, since the baker had the protection of the head of the baker's guild...

My own personal contribution: AFAICT, the city of Teschen is called Cieszyn in Czech, and here is its coat of arms.

I like its motto, too, which is "Amore et non dolore" ("By love and not by pain").

 

And that's where we picked up the next session.

Kind of short, but again, I wasn't there - and in fact, Jaroslaw never learned about this in-character.

After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg - Mythras edition

Long time no see, dear readers! But it was a smaller pause than my previous one, right?

I've been playing and running games, but not posting much. But now I want to tell you about the game I joined recently. It's happening online due to us being in two different countries, so we're using Foundry.

First, are you familiar with the Road to Monsterberg campaign?

If yes, skip ahead. If not...you really should go and acquaint yourself. 

 For those hesitating, it's a campaign set in historical, 15th century Silesia (Poland). And I kinda doubt anyone who dislikes historical games reads this blog...

So here's a link to the adventure (first of three parts).

However, the game we're playing uses the Mythras rules* (by The Design Mechanism) . We have the corebook and that Book of Schemes is allowed as a supplement, and the GM has done a whole lot of work to convert it.

It's really funny how this started. I was on the Discord of Peter Von Danzig/Codex Martialis.

A user on the server turned out to be Bulgarian as well. So I invited him to a Bulgarian Discord.

Turned out, he was already planning to run Road to Monsterberg for Mythras, and online. He just wasn't sure whether he'd be able to find the players.

...about 24 hours later he had a full group and had to turn some people down. We actually have a waiting list!

So with no further ado, here are the PCs.

Jaroslaw, my PC, Czech gentry, staunch Catholic and knight. Has an arms-bearer.

Elias, a Burgher who want to get gentrified (and is actually a woman in disguise), trader.

Vuk, former Serbian outlaw, even more former Ottoman slave. Might or might not be a secret pagan.

Marzena, a Serbian warrior woman who's been fighting the Ottomans before. She gets a pass for being a wild one.

Esthel, Frenchwoman, wandering entertainer. 

***

We started the game with being admitted to the city. Which ain't automatic.

I looked at the guards and didn't even need to remind the Ref that I've got an Ehren of 77 (divide by two for the number in the original system, but it's in the low numbers for a noble, despite me being gentry). My armsbearer goes with me (I have his name written on my character sheet, under "equipment"!), and I guaranteed about Vuk as well. 

He's got Ehren in the single-digit numbers or low, low 10s. Again, this is a d% system... Ehren can be rolled, or assist your rolls.

But hey, since Vuk used to kill Ottomans, he's doing God's work, as far as Jaroslaw is concerned. Yes, despite being a schismatic!

Jaroslaw loves the Catholic faith with all his heart. He's also got NO lore skills related to it, so he's a bit unclear on specifics, and usually refers to the closest priest when needing details.

Actually, most of the party hates Ottomans, as in having the passion "Hate: Ottomans". Hey, we were fighting them...

Then the German wannabe-gentry/wannabe-man, who is affiliated with the Hanza, guaranteed for the two women, and we were in. I also got an invite from the local rulers, forgot the name. 

This is going to come in handy, as I can't attend next session due to work.

The entertainer got us the first memorable moment of the session by claiming she's making a travelling show, and Vuk is the bear (he wears a bear skin as cloak). We just used social standing power we've got to smooth it over...as in, they thought that's outrageous, but didn't want to argue with a knight's travelling companion.

And then they asked us "how was the road", and we went straight for a simulation of the 4 weeks we'd needed to get from Belgrad to the Polish town.

***

First week, we met 10-12 Ottomans on horses. We turned around through the forest.

GM: "everyone roll Stealth".

Me, looking at my 23% Stealth: "OK, I'm going to fail you all...oh wait, I got a 3, that's a crit".

So the knight actually helped the others sneak, as per the rules...having to explain it, I stated that I'm leading the horses with a secure hand to prevent them from making noise.

We avoided a fight, here.

Second week, we're in Buda and we went on to train a bit, teaching each other Polish (and the trader was teaching the French gal some writing). 

Afterwards, we played out a tournament between the PCs to get used to the combat system.

Jaroslaw won, quite expectedly. But it took quite a while (OOC, not IC). The group is getting used to a system that's new to them OOC. 

Next week (or was that the 2nd week, with the tournament later?), our obstacle were Hungarian peasants-cum-brigands. None of us speaks Hungarian.

They're asking us for 6 pfennings a head, we were able to work out.

That's not really that much, but trouble is...we don't actually have that kind of money. I've got 14, and I'm the richest in the party. 

(Well, I've kept enough money for my armsbearer's food and lodging, so I'm actually carrying more, but OOC, we just removed them and agreed Kristian is covered).

We detected that they're hungry, and offered them travelling rations for a couple days. Seeing as how Jaroslaw is on his horse, looks down on them (literally and figuratively) and has just removed his battleaxe's coverings, they wisely decide to take the offer.

Yes, he's using an axe. He's old school that way. 

Also, fun fact, he can use a gun, a crossbow (he has one) and a sword...all worse than he uses spear, axe, or grappling. In the Mythras system, he has those as different Combat Styles: Knightly Arts & Kutna Hora Citizen Training. Gun, crossbow and sword are all in the latter group. The GM said a single style can have up to 3  weapons and a shield.

As I put it, those are for shooting at people that approach Kutna Hora's walls, or defending myself in the street, or after they manage to close up. The rest is what he does on his horse.

Either way, then we had to deal with a storm. We sped up and mostly avoided getting tired. Most avoided getting depressed, too.

Not so Vuk. He's been more and more in the edge, and he's holeric. So at some point the other Serbian, the warrior woman, sees him praying. And she recognizes the words - he's praying to Dazhbog! 

(Did I mention he has only passing knowledge of Polish and Czech, due to "related, but not close" language? He does, and we are playing this out. Yes, he's learning as fast as he can). 

The player of Marzena, however, is a young woman in her 20ies. Which explains what happens, if you ask me...

So Marzena just goes next to him, pushes him in the ribs, and asks "how come you're praying to Dazhbog, man?" (or something to that effect)...

And he very nearly jumped her with fists. Very good roleplaying from the player.

(OOC, he's 46, probably twice her age or nearly so - the generational gap is obvious, and part of it is NOT assuming that you can say anything WITHOUT getting punched in the mouth).

I try to calm them down with authority...and fail the Influence check badly. The trader, however, snaps "his" whip, which startles us all, and allows Esthel an opening to get in and talk him down.

...Which was a good thing, because had he started it after being ordered not to...well, you can guess how Jaroslaw would have reacted. He knew that, and knew Jaroslaw expects obedience.

Yes, I play it to the hilt, and then twist, as they say. No, I don't play J as a modern human. I mean, what's the point? I play one of those everyday.

Amusingly, Vuk's player is more than fine with that. Some of the others are getting a kind of culture shock, however, most of their experience being with D&D...

Importantly, no horses broke feet, and then I made sure to inquire about the humans as well (yes, those are Jaroslaw's priorities, as I'm playing him). Then we spent the night under some trees, and the entertainer...entertained us with song and tale.

Vuk was keeping a bit aside, though. At some point, I went to him, put an arm on his shoulder, and told him "I want no more such performances").

"Ain't gonna happen again, jupan". (Jaroslaw is a milec, but he knows what a jupan means, and he accepts the word without commenting as a close equivalent).

"Good. No more talk about it, then".

And I went back to the others.

Hey, my Polish actually isn't much better than his. I actually got a +5 from the lessons, but that only raised it to 28%: I'm barely past the level of "separate words and very simple phrases", and into "speaking accented with very simple phrases".
Jaroslaw has much, much better command of Czech (of course, native language gets +40 bonus...) and Deutsh (48, close to passing the 50-mark).

On the final week, we got my horses confiscated, for the Polish Crown and against the Ottomans.

The GM wanted to hit me with a big Tenacity loss there, but I pointed out that Jaroslaw is more than willing to lose horses to help the anti-Ottoman fight. So I got to augment Willpower check with his Passion, and only lost a couple points.

So, Jaroslaw took the documents ascertaining that he has to receive 4 horses (2 warhorses and 2 coursers, good-natured...well, as good-natured as warhorses go) from the Polish Crown, or an equivalent amount of money.

***

And then we are back to where we started the session: we had just arrived in the city. Jaroslaw is going to spend the following days without the party, talking to the local rulers.

GM: "You've got any plans?"

Me: "Have they got a marriageable daughter, and what does she look like?"

And that's where we ended it.

 

 

*BTW, Codex Martialis/Stara Szkola is a great system and I'd have been fine playing it with the original system. But it's no secret I like Mythras, and I'm glad that we're using it, because this way the guys I'm playing with are learning the system better.

Who knows, they might start their own campaigns as well, some day?